Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	death_n	sin_n	wage_n	4,853	5	11.4614	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32746	A conference of faith written in Latin by Sebastianus Castellio ; now translated into English.; De fide. English	Castellion, Sébastien, 1515-1563.	1679 (1679)	Wing C3731; ESTC R11201	20,516	79

believe him and believing come into the rest of Canaan But they came not all thither though that was the mind of God for some of them hardened their hearts Which I would it were not so in Christ We see it is so and that it may not be so the Author of the Epistle to the Heb. admonisheth citing that of the Psalm To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as your Fathers viz. hardned their hearts Therefore to return to our purpose whereas those things are by them so studiously selected to believe which God is to do and those refused which belong to the Duty of man I pray what a thing is this The beneficence and grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared How gladly is this received But that which follows teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world how few do embrace this Most men believe this is so performed by Christ that it is unnecessary for us to perform it Again Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute sin This all men easily believe But that which is subjoined and in whose Spirit there is no guile this they believe is not possible to be attained Again there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus This is pronounced with full mouth for 't is a most sweet sentence But that who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit is bitter and believed by very few Briefly men easily believe we shall mow with joy but if you say we most sow in tears this part they cast upon Christ Hence it is that false Prophets because they preach pleasing things and either feign pleasing promises of God or apply them to such to whom they do not belong easily find credit When the true Prophets because they urge the threats of God and teach the truth severely have place among the fewest as Esay exclaims Lord who hath believed our speech These things being so it is manifest Ludovic that men are hindred from believing the truth by the love of themselves But if selflove were quitted they would believe nothing so easily as Truth being naturally enclined to truth and owning it presently as our ally if there be no impediment Wherefore 't is necessary Ludovic if you are willing truly to believe truth that is God you must lay aside self love or rather conceive the hatred of your self Lud. O Federic you perswade me thus but 't is no small matter to hate one self nor do I see the way to atain unto it nor know whether I can do it so much do I love my self Fed. I know Ludovic it is a very difficult matter and above humane strength but here we ought to remember what the Lord said of Sarah when she could not believe she should be great with Child is any thing to hard for the Lord What is impossible to man is possible to God and under his conduct nothing is to be dispaired of Lud. I beseech you therefore shew me the way whereby I may attain unto it Fed. I will do so if God please Lend me your ear If I had a servant most pleasant kind and officious and one who provided dainties for my pallate but mixed with poyson to take away my life and you knew it Ludovic who love me what would you do Lud. Verily I would with all speed and diligence advice you to take heed of tasting those dainties or loving that servant for he would secretly take away your life Fed. What if I should say I am delighted with the obsequiousness of my servant and the daintiness of the dish Lud. I would admonish you not to value so much the present pleasure as to loose your life for it Fed. What if your friend were in love with a flattering and painted harlot one infected with the French disease and you knew it what would you do Lud. I would tell him of the disease and as much as I am able dehort him from her company Fed. What if he said I am delighted with her Lud. I would answer Fishes also are delighted with the bait But 't is a folly to buy so little pleasure with so great pain or rather with death Fed. What if he say I cannot chuse but desire the pleasure Lud. I would admonish him that if he cannot as yet quench his lust he would at least resist it and not obey it Fed. What if he obeyed it Lud. Then truly I should think him more foolish then the bruits and worthy of any Evil. For Fishes Wolves Foxes Kites though very hungry yet if they either see or suspect a hook a snare a trap they abstain from the prey Fed. You say well Ludovic Thus then Every mans flesh is as it were a harlot and that painted which allures and delights him with her enticements and flatteries drives him to sin and detains him in sin and at last casts him headlong into the death of his soul Now man ignorant of the poyson embraceth pleasures and gives himself to them Then there comes upon him his friend truth minding him that the wages of sin is death and demonstrates the flesh which the man took for his friend to be his capital enemy Wherefore if you desire to be saved you must believe that you have no enemy so pern cious as your self that is your flesh which hitherto because pleasing you have favoured and obeyed you must henceforth because noxious and deadly hate and resist Now if you cannot presently drive away the enticements of it as indeed you cannot for they cleave fast truth says to you as of old to Moses Go into Egypt for thou canst I will be with thy mouth I wili enable thee to do what thou canst not So truth speaks now to you Ludovic do what you are able God will make thee do more then thou art able For example Thou sittest at a full Table and hast eaten enough to renew thy strength and to satisfie thy hunger Then comes in some dish more delicate made to provoke the appetite Here thy flesh instantly riseth up and suggesteth to thee such a thought It is a delicate mess if thou eat of it it will be pleasant But the Spirit opposes the Flesh and thus admonisheth Take heed Ludovic of indulging thy pleasure there is poyson in it For first it calleth off thy mind from God then which evil no evil can be greater for whereas no man can serve two Masters thou canst not serve God and pleasure because pleasure oppresseth the soul and draws it down to the Earth and separates it from God Next intemperance hurts the body so that if thou hadst no soul thou oughtest even for thy bodies sake to abstain from immoderate eating I do not now require thee not to be tempted with the allurements of the Flesh but not to obey them But if you deny your self to have power not to obey them you shall easily be

refused Suppose a man did give you one Floren to abstain from such a dish would you not abstain And will you not abstain for the truth Do not you shew truth is of less value with you then a peace of mony or suppose one threatned you with a blow on the face unless you forbear Sure you would forbear See God threatens to strike thy soul and dost thou not abstain Dost thou not herein more highly esteem thy soul then thy body I say the same of the rest Thou wouldst fornicate but because a Child is present thou dost not see God is present and thou dost it Surely thou hast not so must regard to the presence of God as of a little Child But if thou abstainest for fear of humane punishment and not of Divine doest thou not prefer men above God Thou art angry with one and wouldst beat him but darest not for fear of the magistrate why doth not the fear of God keep thee in awe If thou dost esteem God as much as men why does the fear of God less prevail with thee then the fear of men Thou dost calumniate another God sees thy calumny and dost it thou If men did see thou wouldst not do it Run through all things Ludovic whosoever does more for the love or fear of men or of any other thing then of God he doth more believe in men then in God Lud. O my Federic my conscience witnesseth to me that the things you say are right and true and thence ariseth sorrow in my heart Fed. What when we conferred about predestination or free will did you feel any such sadness Lud. None at all Fed. I believe you Ludovic for science brings no sadness but rather gladness being that which leaves the old man unhurt For although you know all mysteries yet may you still serve the Devil Now when we treat of renouncing ones self the Flesh is sensible she must perish and she doth as harlots use to do when they are forsaken of young men they torment them with desire and by all meanes endeavor to retain them So that harlot the Flesh which hath bewitched all men with the cup of her impurity so often as she perceiveth a man willing to depart from her vexeth him with desire and leaveth nothing unassayed whereby she may hold him fast Hence ariseth grief as great as the love of the Flesh was So likewise if you must leave your country such as your love to your country was such will be your sorrow Sin is our country for in sin hath our mother conceived us which without sorrow cannot be renounced This sorrow is that cross of which he speaketh If any one will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me And if any man come unto me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And he that beareth not his Cross and followeth me cannot be my Disciple That you may understand what the hatred of ones self is and what Cross it brings weigh it with the hatred of another If you Ludovic should have one in deadly hatred how would you be affected toward him or what would you do to him Lud. Truly I would heartily wish him all evil envy him all good grieve at his prosperity rejoyce at his adversity If one should tell me any ill news of him I should be glad and receive the Messenger curteously use him kindly and reward him Farther I would love and do good to my enemies enemies and I would hate and do ill to my enemies friends All the words and deeds of my enemy I would watch and carp and by all possible wayes and means yea often with my own harm would I hurt him Lastly I would kill him if I could not with an ordinary but most cruel death and blot out his memory from the Earth Fed. Now Ludovic turn this hatred upon your self For you are your own capital enemy and ought to bear a capital hatred against your self not against others who are not able to kill thee that is thy soul Wherefore you must wish to your self that is to your Flesh all evil even death it self and envy all good to it You must grieve at the welfare and rejoyce at the evil thereof If any one bring you ill news of the Flesh you must rejoyce in the Spirit and reward the messenger Further you must devise and act all things against your self which men use to do against such as they hate with an irreconcilable hatred and never rest till the Flesh be destroyed And because no man ever hated his own Flesh as S. Paul saith you must with all care make a divorce and put it from you that it may be no longer yours the Spirit being taken in the place which hath no more agreement with the Flesh than fire with water Lud. O my Federic let me confess the Truth you have seemed to me to speak stones Fed. I believe it Ludovic and it must needs be so But be of good cheer and now begin to love me in the Spirit because I am an enemy to your Flesh For this is for your good nor can you be safe while your Flesh is living Wherefore Ludovic take care as you tender your salvation to hate your self and renounce your Flesh And I will shew you an example of this renouncing If one deliver himself up to you to be your servant he renounceth himself that is his own liberty and will so that henceforth he serves not his own but your will and pleasure Often when he wouid sleep he must watch at his masters command he must stay within when he would go abroad work when he would play In a word he so looseth his own freedome that if he be asked what he is about to do or what is his will he answers what pleases the Master in whose power he is So it is with us Ludovic if we be Christ's who hath bought us with a great price we are not in our own power or at our own pleasure but Christ's Therefore we ought not to do what we please but what pleaseth him And justly For if he being the way the truth and the life submitted his will to the will of his Father so that he said not my will but thine be done what is it fit for us to do who are full of errors and mistakes Wherefore when you are ready to be angry without a cause restrain your anger at the command of Christ When you would indulge and give your self to pleasure you must abstain and bear grief If you would be revenged you must forgive if you would do evil to any one do him good You must weep when you would laugh fast when you would feast bear disgrace when you desire honor poverty when riches Lastly you must so depart from your own will that if you be asked what you would you may answer nothing