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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	dead_a	soul_n	spirit_n	13,984	5	5.8732	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66558	The vanity of mans present state proved and applyed in a sermon on Psalm 39.5. With divers sermons of the saints communion with God, and safety under his protection, in order to their future glory, on Psalm 73. 23, 24, 25, 26. By the late able and faithful minister of the Word John Wilson	Wilson, John, minister of the Word.; Golborne, J.	1676 (1676)	Wing W2905; ESTC R218560	137,734	239

is glorious Isa. 60. 13. I will make the place of my feet glorious Here to say nothing of Crowns Thrones Mansions the very Street is pure Gold Revel 21. 21. The twelve gates were twelve pearls every several gate was of one pearl and the street of the City was pure gold as it were transparent glass All these illustrious resemblances are but a shadow of the brightness and glory of Heaven To add no more How high is the account of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 9. As it is written eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him What could the Apostle have said more The eye hath hath seen great glory and magnificence the ear hath heard exquisite musick The heart may imagine a great deal more Rocks of pure Diamonds mountains of Gold a thousand Suns more glorious then it is yet neither can the eye ear or heart reach those glories that are prepared for them that wait for God 6. This glory is eternal and perpetual As for the glory of the world it s of a transitory nature What is the most glorious Potentate but grass 1 Pet. 1. 24. All flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away Man like grass flourisheth in the morning and is cut down before night Who hath not learned to say Sic transit gloria Mundi Thus the glory of the World passeth away What 's become of all the Triumphs and Jubilees that have been in the World How short was their continuance How quickly were they over and how soon forgotten 1 Cor. 7. 31. For the fashion of this world passeth away The world puts it self into this and that fashion but whatever fashion it puts it self into it s still in a state of fluctuation But now this glory is unchangeable it s not only lasting but everlasting 2 Cor. 4. 17. Some refer the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to eternal and then it is as if he should say Oh this weight of glory is transcendently transcendently eternal that is so eternal as never to have an end 1 Pet. 5. 10 The God of all grace hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus 3. How will God receive his servants to his glory after he hath guided them with his Counsel Answ. The Scripture sometimes represents this as done immediately by God himself Gen. 5. 24. God took Enoch That being an extraordinary case and perhaps he might proceed in an extraordinary manner and take him up to glory by his own immediate hand But the Scripture doth most frequently represent it to be done by the Ministry of Angels They minister to the faithful whilst they are here Heb. 1. 14. and they minister to them in their passage to glory 1 Some of them like a Guard do conduct and lead them thither 2 Kings 2. 11. A Chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven By this Chariot we are to understand Angels which appeared in the form of a Chariot and horsemen So Luk. 16. 22. The beggar dyed and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Oh the difference there is betwixt the esteem the world hath of Gods poor servants and the esteem that God hath of them The world looks on them as deserving no better company than the very dogs But God looks on them as not only worthy of the company but ministry of Angels Whilst Jehojakim and such like have the burial of an Ass are thrown into the earth without lamentation or honour God appoints his Angels to convey a poor despised Lazarus into Heaven 2. Others as Porters do admit and take them in open the gate wide that the poor servants of God may have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven Rev. 21. 12. Heavenly Jerusalem hath twelve gates and at the gates twelve Angels They stand not here like the Cher●bims of Paradise with a flaming sword to keep us out but with stretched out arms to take and welcome us in Oh the wonderful grace and love of God! For a King not only to suffer his poor subjects to come into his Palace but to imploy his Nobles both in leading them to it and letting them in Oh what Princely favour is it What condescention and favour is it in God to make his Angels their guard unto eternal life the place of happiness and ready at heaven gates to receive those great guests Gods little ones that are of small account in the world 4. When is it that God receives the faithful to glory Answ. He doth it partly at death then he takes their souls up to glory Herein the Papists Socinians and some Anabaptists do oppose us all useing the same Arguments and Answers but the Scripture is very clear Luke 23. 43. To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The soul neither sleeps nor calls at Purgatory but strait to Heaven 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens The Apostle groans to be cloathed with the heavenly house and to be uncloathed of the earthly so saith the spirit Revel 14. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth they rest from their labours But more compleatly and fully he do's it at the Resurrection when both soul and body being reunited he will take them both to glory Job 19. 25 26. I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Here is a plain account of the Resurrection of the dead the coming of Christ and beatificial vision of God So Isa. 33. 17. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the Land that is very far off This may have relation to Believers being with Christ to behold his glory 1 Thes. 4. 14. If we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him In the next place we shall give the reasons of the Doctrine Why will God take his people into his glory Reason 1. Is taken from his own good pleasure He may do what he will with his own Grace is his and Glory is his and he may dispose of it as he sees good He giveth his grace to whom and in what measure he pleaseth so may he dispose of glory Matt. 20. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own As to the persons he chooses calls and saves Who can say unto him what dost thou The Potter hath power over his clay to make one vessel to honour another to dishonor Now we are told what the pleasure of God is Luk. 12. 32. Fear not

other men are yet for a God I dare compare with the greatest of them all Wherein I am defective there is enough in him to make it out With this I will comfort my self as Asaph Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee SERMON VII Psalm 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever HAving done with the former verses we are now come to this wherein the Psalmist go's on in setting forth the excellency of God shewing of what great use and advantage he was to him in the time of his affliction and distress In the preceding words he expresseth it in a more general way and here he doth more particularly enlarge on Gods excellency in giving an account of special favours and kindnesses that he had testified towards him and given to him in his own person The words contain two parts 1. The Psalmist sets down his afflictions and disstress and these are expressed in two passages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My flesh faileth By flesh here as Muis and others note we are to understand the body which in Scripture is sometimes spoken of under that notion Prov. 5. 11. And thou mourn at the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Then for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred faileth It is variously read by some my flesh did fail me By others When it doth fail me by others Although and if it fail me But the difference is not very considerable His meaning is plainly this that his body was liable to fail him and that he made account it would so do though he had been of an active body a strong and healthful complexion strengthned by exercise and notable atchievements Yet his flesh would fail 2. To aggravate the affliction he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and my heart faileth By heart as Muis notes we are to understand the soul for as the heart is the principal part of the body so it is animae sedes Now this was a great aggravation of the Psalmists affliction and trouble that his soul failed him as well as the body When the body fails the soul may support it but when the soul failes what can a poor creature do Prov. 18. 4. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear If I have a languishing body but a vigorous soul the liveliness and cheerfulness of one will help to bear the infirmities of the other but if the body and soul both droop under affliction the man is brought to a sad pass 2. The Psalmist sets down the advantage or relief that God afforded him This he expresses likewise in two passages 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the strength of my heart or according to the Hebrew God is the rock of my heart But you 'l say why saith he nothing of Gods helping his body God sustains his soul and his soul sustains his body 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And my portion for ever As though he had said He is not only of use to me for the present but he will be so for ever I see such lines in his love to me as reach into eternity it self And this doth much refresh my drooping heart that he will deal well with me not only here but hereafter Time will soon be run out and gone All the business is how it will go with us for ever I have this to comfort me that God will be my portion for ever He will deal well with me to eternity let it be as long as it will I look and look into eternity and see no end of his love when my soul and body have failed me over and over again I have a rock in heaven as firm as my heart can wish In him will I repose my confidence and fix my hope for ever Doct. That the bodies and souls even of good men are apt to fail them in time of affliction and distress or the affliction and distress of good men is sometimes so great that their very bodies and souls are apt to fail them therein Sometimes the cup that God puts into their hands is so bitter that it makes their hands shake and their hearts fail Lesser afflictions they can bear up under but when the great billows of God and the waves pass over them then their souls are ready to faint How good a man was Asaph yet he cries out My flesh and my heart faileth This I shall handle a little more distinctly and 1. I shall shew that sometimes their bodies fail them and this is so familiar and evident that I need not spend many words about it God long ago issued forth this decree Gen. 3. 19. Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return This he hath been putting in execution throughout all generations ever since Now there are three waies whereby the bodies even of good men do fail them 1. By the the decay of their sences those active and pleasant Organs when evil daies come do fail to perform the services for which they were designed an instance whereof we have in Barzillai the Giliadite 2 Sam. 19. 35. I am fourscore years old this day Can thy servant tast what I eat or what I drink Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and thus it is with others First one thing fails then another First the eye grows dim then the ear grows deaf one sence fails after another till all of them be disabled from their proper work 2. By the decay of their strength When evill daies come then strength failes and leaves the body labouring under feebleness and weakness How strong a man was David such was his strength that he could draw in pieces a bow of steel Psal. 18. 34. So that a Bow of Steel is broken by mine armes And yet what complaints have we of the failing of his strength Psal. 38. 10. My heart panteth my strength faileth me as for thee light of mine eyes it is gone from me Before he could encounter with a Lion a Bear a Goliah But now he is weak Even the most vigorous and active when evil daies come like Sampson when his hair was cut find themselves bereaved of their former strength 3. By the decay of their health Besides the loss of our sences and strength we are subject to sickness and diseases which contribute much towards the discomfort of our lives How fearfull was good Hezekiah lest God would cut him off with pining sickness Isa. 38. 12. Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off withpining sickness And what a sickly time was it among the Corinthians when they had prophaned the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 30. For this cause many are weak and sickly amongst you and many sleep Oh what fainting hearts pale

THE VANITY OF Mans Present State PROVED and APPLYED IN A SERMON on Psalm 39. 5. With divers Sermons of the Saints Communion with God and Safety under his Protection in order to their future GLORY on Psalm 73. 23 24 25 26. By the late able and Faithful Minister of the Word JOHN WILSON LONDON Printed for Samuel Sprint at the Bell in Little-Britain 1676. TO THE HONOURABLE The Lady CATHARINE BOOTH MADAM THese Sermons to which you gave so free entertainment when they were preached under your ro●f which you made a Sanctuary do not doubt of your Countenance The first part being of mans state altogether vanity was by the reverend Authors own hand scarce finished before his distemper bad disabled him from service of this nature And albeit the latter part were by him destined to obscurity amongst his private papers yet by the assistance of special friends that compared his short notes with what was taken from his mouth I have answered the importunity of others that often pressed me to make them publick being very much perswaded that howbeit they want those enlargements and pollishings which they would not have wanted had he designed them for the Press I shall not in the least be injurious to his memory amongst those that were acquainted with his learned abilities and have the ingenuity to grant what allowance may be justly challenged where the author is not the putter forth of his own work and withall will understand the disadvantagious circumstances he lay under both in his studies and preaching His strong bodie and vivacious spirits being weakned and rendred languid by an inveterate distemper I presume Madam these discourses will have due esteem and value from you who have made Religion your most serious and close concern received the word with all readiness given eminent testimonie of the power of it in a mortified and holy conversation and especially prized old plain substantial truths which have put you in mind of your frailty and been furtherance to your faith love and holy obedience Whilst some either utter strangers to communion with God or worse malicious scorners have undervalued the Saints heaven upon earth and too many others leaving necessary and acknowledged doctrines in the study and practice of which the servants of Christ have lived holily and died happily and gaping after new-nothings strange notions not at all conducing to their improvement of an heavenly life have puffed up their fancies and thinned their souls I cannot forget with what pious zeal and Christian courage God hath spirited you that have adventured to be singular in the strictest profession and practice of piety and set you aloft high above all the little dangers and fears of sullying your quality by being thought over serious and too busie about soul-concerns well understanding that the noblest extraction cannot be embased but the meanest ennobled by holiness and that it is honour of a double die for which Ladies are more beholding to their virtues than titles or Escutcheons their devout lives than dead Ancestors With what a publick spirit hath God acted you to appear so worthily for his desired service Though well aware that it would cost you the indignation of the greater sort and the rude taunts of the profane rabble which have concerned you no more than to animate your godly resolution to be yet more vile in the discharge of a good conscience service of God in your place and according to your degree Nay your manner of life so blameless so exemplary your zeal for God and his truth are and shall be your lasting honour and embalm your name when the sect of the Libertines that live at so lewd a rate as if their immortal souls were designed only to give a freshness to their faces gracefulness to their carriage briskness to their spirits and in all to serve their vanity shall be sweetly fed upon by the worms and leave a memory more odious than their carcases But while I am doing Justice to your virtues least I should offend your humble modesty which deserves so much the more by how much it less affects mention of what is due to the world as well as you I shall add no more but my humble and earnest prayers to almighty God to sanctifie you wholly to preserve your whole spirit soul and body blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. TO THE READER It cannot but be highly proper that the sons of men should be acquainted with the nature of their present state that so they may see whether they are to acquiesce in it or seek after another which may afford more happiness and contentment Their endeavours after another state will doubtless be proportionable to their apprehensions and esteem of this If they take this to be good they will rest satisfied with it without seeking any farther but if otherwise they will look about them and enquire after another Those Israelites which think well of Egypt move but faintly towards Canaan And whiles Peter perswades himself he hath glory enough upon Mount Tabor he cares not for seeking for any more He will never care much for an heaven above who conceits he hath one below But then on the other hand he who takes this present state to be a state of vanity and sees he is like to pass away his dayes in sin and misery will if he be one that hath not lost the use of his reason cast about and endeavour to possess himself of a better state wherein he may be free from those evils which now he groans and sighs under Such a man will be ready to cry out and say O what shall I do What course shall I take Which way shall I deliver my self out of my present distress Oh that I had wings like a Dove that I might flie away and be at rest Oh for Elijahs Chariot and and horses to convey me up to glory Oh that I could climb up beyond the Stars and seat my self amongst those blessed Souls which are about the Throne of God! Then might I wipe away all tears from mine eyes and triumph over my present misery But whiles I am in the state wherein I am surrounded with ten prations sins afflictions what can be expected but that I should sit like Jerusalem with the tears upon my Cheeks and make them my meat and drink night and day What more than this can be expected from me save that I am to despise the World with all the flatteries thereof and exercise my self in a vigorous and restless pursuit of a state which will yield me that comfort which this is utterly uncapable of affording Such as this will be the language of a man who understood the nature of this present state And to work the Sons of men to such resentments of it and truly endeavours after a better state is the intent of this small discourse Wherein I have endeavoured to shew what a kind of state this is how it came to be so and

faces and dolefull complaints attend the sons of men They spend their daies in sorrow and after go to the grave 2. Sometimes their souls fail them There lies their chief strength yet Psal. 143. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My spirit faileth the same word with that in the Text. As their bodies have their infirmities so their souls have theirs by vertue whereof they are sometimes brought very low Now their souls fail them three waies 1. By sorrow Sometimes they are so affected with their afflictions that they are even overwhelmed with sorrow Psal. 40. 12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of mine head therefore mine heart faileth me Or my heart hath left and forsaken me that prae dolore as Uatablus notes so Cant. 5. 6. My soul failed when he spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima mea Egressa est My soul went out of me She fell into a sad delquium or fainting fit and what is the reason Why it was her sorrow upon the account of her former security As if she had said Oh how have I played the beast What noble importunate constant love have I neglected and abused Oh how shall I ever look my Lord in the face or restore my self into his favour 2. By fear They see there are dangers before them and therewith they are so aff●cted that their souls fail within them Thus as one of Jacobs sons opens his sack he finds his money in the mouth of the sack tells his brethren and their hearts failed them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their heart went out of them and they were afraid They knew not what this might work what might be the issue of things and fearing the worst their hearts over-ran them This effect of fear is expressed by the melting of the heart thus the hearts of the Canaanites melted with fear Josh. 5. 1. Your terror saith Rahab to the spies Josh. 2. 9. 10. is fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of the Land faint because of you vers 11. Our hearts did melt neither did there remain any more courage in any man in many other places Isa 13. 7. Nahum 2. 10. Ezek. 21. 7. Whether it be by grief as Psal. 119. 28. And so the heart melts in tears or fear which as it were causeth colliquation or melting 3. By distrust judging of the issue of things by causes they sometimes despair of deliverance and give up themselves for gone so 1 Sam. 22. 1. David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul His heart sinks through distrust and he thinks to take an unwarrantable course for his security Notwithstanding his brave and heroick mind at other times and upon other occasions which made him to attempt difficulties slight discouragements notwithstanding the experience of Gods goodness and the promises God had made him of the Kingdom yet his heart failing and his spirit being sunk down into a fit of despondency he thus saith in his heart and resolves on a course to the great offence of his friends triumph of his enemies and dishonour of true religion 3. Why God suffers it to be thus with people that their bodies and souls should fail 1. That he may shew them their frailty and weakness teach them humility and make them base and vile in their own eyes When a man finds both body and soul shrinking him and failing him he is ready to cry out Lord what a poor Creature am I What am I that I should glory in my self or behold my self with any complacency or delight When Jobs body and soul had failed him what opinion had he of himself or how did he stand affected towards himself Did he admire himself or was he inamoured of himself No Job 42. 6. Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes 2. That he may thereby excite them to look up to him and exercise dependance on him As long as we find a sufficiency in our selves we seldom have any great regard to God but when we see our selves unable to provide for our own welfare then we begin to look up to him And for this cause 1 Cor. 1. 9. He sends thorns into our beds that he should have little ease there he brings afflictions that threatens death that we may look up We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead When as to natural helps and hopes they are lost that they may look up and throw the arms of faith about him he deprives us of all stayes and refuges that we may exercise dependance on him and stay our selves upon our God 3. That he may thereby provoke us to look after a state wherein we may be free from these Deliquiums or failings both of body and soul which here we are liable to When a man meets with inconveniencies in his journey he begins to wish himself at home So when a good man is exercised with decay in his sences strength health on the one hand and with sorrow fear distrust on the other then he begins to grow weary of the world he thinks of God and heaven with great longing to be with God to be in heaven Then he cries out Oh what should I do here Where shall I have relief Oh that I were with my God! So Job 14. 13. desires that God would hide him in the grave that he would keep him secret until his wrath was past Not that he desired the grave it self or thought it pleasant to lye in putrefaction and rottenness but as an occasion of being conveied into a better state and place Use. Is it so that both body and soul of good men do fail them in affliction then it is useful by way of Information to shew us what a poor vain thing man is How unable is he to stand before his Makers displeasure In his prosperity how doth he vaunt himself How goodly is he in his own eyes and what confidence doth he put in his own abilities But when his maker takes him in hand what a trivial thing is he Job 4. 19. He is crushed before the moth that is sooner then a moth is crushed betwixt a mans fingers he is ground to powder if God lay his hand upon him or he is such a trivial thing that he is not able to stand in the presence of such a despicable creature as the moth this contemptible creature prevails upon him and conquers him 2. Use of Exhortation 1. Let us beware what stress we lay either upon body or soul. Alas what are they that we should confide in them If God do but lay his finger on them they droop and languish What is the bravest spirit in the world when God comes and takes him by the arm and leads him away to judgment What work did two or three words writ upon the wall