Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
earth_n body_n heaven_n soul_n 16,244 5 5.2792 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A89737 The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few whereof are much opposed and eclipsed in this perillous hour of the passion of the Gospel) are briefly discussed, cleared, and confirmed: as a further help, for the begeting, and establishing of the faith which is in Jesus. As also the state of the blessed, where; of the condition of their souls from the instant of their dissolution: and of their persons after their resurrection. By John Norton, teacher of the church at Ipswich in New England. Norton, John, 1606-1663. 1654 (1654) Wing N1320; Thomason E734_9; ESTC R206951 276,720 371

There are 3 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

it selfe Oneness is an affection immediatly flowing from the meer being of a thing whereby it is individed in it selfe and divided from all other beings or things Union is the conjunction of two ones or more into a third being for example sake Ens unum unio take a man consisting of Body and Soul the Soul first hath a being then this singular being and not another then it is united unto the body in a third being namely the person of a man the like is true of the body In Vocation we receive our being in Union is the manner of our being In Vocation we are made Beleevers in Union is considered the order between Christ and Beleevers In Vocation is the foundation of our union in Union is the relation built upon that foundation Inter illa quae convertuntur secundum essendi consequentiam illud est prius quod habet rationem subjecti Alsted Metaph. par 1. cap. 25. In Vocation is the spirit of grace infused in Union this infused spirit is made an in-dwelling spirit Without Union there can be no Communion This necessarily pre-supposeth that things cannot act one upon another that doe not reach one the other they cannot give and take one from another that doe not some way meet together yet here we must know that the contact or mutual touch of things is not alwayes Local when their substances or Bodies doe immediatly touch one another but often-times vertual only when notwithstanding they doe not immediately touch one the other yet they reach one the other in their efficacy Instances whereof we have many in Natural causes as the Loadstone and Iron separated in place yet act one upon another that by attracting this by following In Political matters persons though distant in place one from another yet exercise civil communion in the affairs of this life In Spiritual things as namely in the Sacrament the Body and Blood of Christ is united to the Elements vertually that is by vertue of Divine institution and promise not Locally to deny that were to deny the Sacrament to be a Sacrament to say the last were to affirm Ubiquity whether Transubstantiation with the Papists or Consubstantiation with the Lutherans So here the Person of Christ who in respect of his Body is in Heaven and the persons of his Militant members who in respect both of Souls and Bodies are upon the earth are united to and doe Spiritually touch one another I am the Vine yee are the Branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me yee can doe nothing Joh. 15.5 For the better discerning the order of the dependence of Communion upon Union The order of the dependence of Communion upon Union from whence it floweth we may consider in Union as is also to be done in other relations these foure particulars First The subject of the Relation the person of Christ and the person of the Beleever Secondly The foundation of it on Christs part the Divine institution absolutely considered on our part faith considered only as an infused saving quality in the Soul Thirdly A mutual reference on Christs part superadding a respect to Divine institution whereby according to the appointment of God he looks at the Beleever as his Member superadding also on the Beleevers part a respect unto faith whereby faith which in it selfe is but a quality hath now adhering to it an order to its object whence it looks at Christ as its head In relatis spectanda Subjectum Fundamentum Mutuus ordo Efficacia This mutual order between Christ and the Beleever is the relation it selfe Fourthly The efficacie of the relation The efficacie of a Relation springeth from its foundation the foundation then of this being firstly the absolute grace of God in election and thence flowing downe in the Promise according to the merit of Christ by the effectual operation of the Spirit Needs must the River of life be full ever-flowing Tametsi relatis est ens debilis entitatis tamen est magnae efficaciae and quickning that ariseth from and is mantained by such fountains the influence of the Occan into water-springs of the Sun and Heaven into inferior bodies is not to be compared thereunto Next to the increated Communion of the Trinity in the Divine Essence and the communicated influence from the Divine nature to the Man-hood is the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ unto the members of his mystical body And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of Life In thy light we shall see light Psal 36.8 9. As the union between Christ and the soul The excellency of this communion flowing from union so the communion flowing from this union is mystical a glimpse of whose excellency as it readily shineth forth in this place in respect of the subject object and nature thereof so cannot but be of precious and vigorous use to the serious and spiritual Reader as he passeth along The subject thereof is the Catholick Church or body of Christ The Mystical body of Christ is a spiritual Totum The my stical body of Christ what or Whole consisting of the Person of Christ and all the persons of the Elect effectually called both Angels and Men orderly united by the Spirit unto Christ as their Head and in him one unto another after the manner of the body of a man So as from him is supplied grace suitable to their seveveral relations therein for the effectual and perfect communion both of all the members with the Head and of themselves one with another unto the increasing it self with the increase of God The Militant part of the Mystical body of Christ consisting both of Jews and Gentiles make one new man Eph. 2.15 The Mystical body Triumphant is compared to one perfect man Eph. 4.13 Christus omnia ejus membra constituunt unam personam my sticam Tho. quaest disp de gr ch art 7. ad 11. Davenan Coloss 1.24 Christ and all his members are one Mystical Person This innumerable number as they are but one mystical body so they all have but one soul viz. The Spirit of Christ whence they are united in this life sincerely in the life to come perfectly In point of judgement Eph. 4.13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God c. In point of affection 1 Cor. 12.12 Of perfect communion Joh. 17.22 23. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Stay yet a little and look upon this spiritual and glorious body walk about Christ mystical go round about him tell the Members mark ye well the
there is no Blessednesse God is not God Heaven is not Heaven the Creature according to the best namely the Gospel-dispensation of God is capable of no more needs no more can have no more God in Christ doth no more for Man man needs no more from God Hereby the Soul enters into joy Mat. 25.21 23. which is the rest of the wil in its utmost and perfecting end In this Life joy enters into us the Soul here being larger than its joy in the Life to come we are said to enter into joy as into that whereby our Soul is exceeded and wherein as it were we are contained If in the state of faith the Soul is full of joy unspeakable and full of glory how much more shal it be full and running over in the state of fruition Faith is the best Rhetorick to walk so as whether present or absent we may be accepted of him is the best Elocution to admire is short of the cause a holy astonishment answereth not the object The Apostle telling us the good things laid up for the godly in this life exceed our thoughts 1 Cor. 2.9 we must needs grant that those much better things reserved for us in glory doe farre super-exceed our words The Soul separated Consid 3. The Soul separated upon the instant of its dissolution from the Body enjoyeth c. upon the instant of its dissolution from the Body enjoyeth Blessedness in the presence and sight of God and Christ before the eyes of the dead body are closed the Soul with open eyes beholds the face of Jesus Christ then viz. at death shal the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shal return to God who gave it Eccles 12.7 When Christ giveth up the Ghost he commendeth his Spirit into his Fathers hand Luk. 23.46 When the body of Stephen falleth asleep the Lord Jesus receiveth his Spirit Act. 7.59 This Christ saith and that with an asseveration to the Thief upon the Crosse Luk. 23 43. Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise If our earthly house of this Body be dissolved the Soul enters into a house not made with hands No sooner is the cloathing of Mortality put off but the cloathing which is from Heaven is put on Paul dissolved is with Christ Phil. 1.23 the Souls of those Martyrs and Confessors departing during the persecution of Antichrist who came out of great tribulation and have washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb are before the Throne of God serving him in his Temple Rev. 7.14 15. that is in his immediate presence For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it Rev. 21.22 The Servants of God may rest assured should Antichrist prevail against them unto death their death should afford them an immediate passage unto happinesse And I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from hence-forth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works d●● follow them Revel 14.13 Christ is in the presence of God Heb. 9.24 Sits upon the Throne with his Father Revel 3.21 The Souls of the Saints departed are with Christ Phil. 1.23 therefore the Souls of the Saints departed are in the presence of God The Angels behold the face of God Mat. 18.10 The Souls departed are with the Angels Revel 4.8 and 5.8 7.9 Heb. 12.22.23 and like the Angels Mat. 22.30 For if their Bodies at the Resurrection are expresly said to be as the Angels we may wel inferre the same concerning their spirits much more agreeing with the nature of Angels therefore the Saints departed see the face of God They that are in the third Heaven are in the presence of God the Saints departed are in the third Heaven they are in Paradise Luk 23.43 which is the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 4. therefore As the Souls of the wicked depart immediately to the place of Torment so the Souls of the Saints depart immediately to the place of Blessedness Lazarus Soul is as soon in Abrahams bosome Luk. 16.22 that is in the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 18.11 as Dives his Soul is in Hel. Luk. 16.23 For the fuller understanding hereof Bellar. de Beat. Sanct. lib. 1. c. 2. consider these four following Propositions Prop. 1 The Soul considered in it self is a subject capable of happiness It is a subject capable either of Blessedness or Misery the Promise or the Curse Heaven or Hel. It was a good answer of him that upon the proposal of the Question What the Soul was replied I know not Man since the Fall being lesse than himself understands not himself nor wil he fully til he be fully restored to himself in glory yet as a help to our apprehension we may conceive of it after this or the like manner The Soul is a Spiritual substance created after the Image of God indued with the faculties of Understanding Wil Memory and Affections with a power of reflex acting upon it self whereby it knoweth that it knoweth according to the Latitude of the whole revealed Wil and Works of God infused into the body as the form thereof and being separated there-from subsists by it self to be re-united thereunto at the Resurrection to abide as the form thereof for ever More briefly The Soul of the Saints is a Spiritual and Immortal substance created after the Image of God and renewed after the immortal Image of God in Christ The Soul is a Spirit not a Body consisting of matter Luk. 24.39 It is a real and very being as the body is only of a higher kind the Body is of the Earth the Soul is immediately from God It should not prejudice the being of the Soul because it is not visible to our eyes we may as wel question the being of God himself or of the Angels who are invisible or our own selves to be Men for from the Soul it principally is that we are Men or Women It is a substance not depending in respect of its being upon any other Fellow-creature as accidents doe whose being is by having their in-being in another Fellow-creature as their subject It s subsistence exceeds that of the Body the Soul can subsist without the Body but the Body continueth not a Body without the Soul Hence we read of separated Souls but not of separated Bodies The Soul is compared to a large vessel Rom. 9.22 23. as high as Heaven as deep as the earth Prov. 25.3 more capacious than the world Eccles 3.11 As the capacity of a vessel may be learned by the quantity it is able to contain so the understanding of the word of command which considered alone is exceeding broad Psal 119.90 Promise and Curse together with the works of God helps us to conceive of the largeness of the Soul Solomon in respect of his exceeding much understanding is said to have largeness of heart even as the
sand which is by the Sea shore 1 King 4.29 yet Solomons heart compared with Adams innocency or his own Soul now in glory was but a narrow heart Between Pauls Soul in the body and in glory there is as great a disproportion as between a childe and Solomon 1 Cor. 13.11 Prop. 2. The Soul separated dependeth not upon the Body in respect of its operations It dependeth not upon the body for the knowledge either of immaterial or material objects both being present to the Soul either by the essence of things themselves or by their intelligible species or by the Divine essence supplying all species Three things are required to the operation of the understanding 1. An intelligent faculty 2. Light to illustrate the understanding 3 The presence of the object with the understanding whatsoever is understood must be united with and touch the understanding which is done either by the eminent presence of things in the Divine Essence Zanch. de operibus Dei part 3. l. 2. c. 2 so the soul understands in glory or by the formal presence of the very things so the Angels understand themselves and so we as some conceive see the Light or by the similitude or image of the thing commonly called a Species so we understand intelligible objects in this Life The soul whilst it is in the body dependeth not upon any corporcal organ phantasie inward or outward sense as an instrument whereby it understands but as an instrument to represent the object to be understood which representative faculty of the phantasie being performed and that in a more eminent manner either by the Divine Essence it self supplying those Species or by way of infusion of them at or immediately upon the instant of its separation after the manner of the concreated Species of things in Angels or by occasional abstraction of them from objects The soul separated remaineth free to its operations without the use of the body Angels understand material and immaterial objects Angeli cognoscunt materialia per hoc quod sunt in iis per suas spocies intelligibiles The par 1. q. 57. art 1. Piscat praesatin Ezech. by the SPECIES or that which answereth the species of such objects without Corporeal organs In an extasie rapture or trance of which some reckon about five thirty in the Scripture which are spiritual Visions of the soul during that space retiring as it were out of the body or at the least not making any use of the body therein so far is the soul from not understanding at all or from not understanding so well as that it then understandeth best in this life Paul is taken into the third Heaven heareth unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter all which we must needs grant might be done without corporeal organs he himself telling us once and again That whether it was in the body or out of the body he could not tell 2 Cor. 12.2 3. Conimb de de anima l. 3. c. 8. q. 8. art 2. Tollet q. 21. Immaterial Objects may be understood by the soul in the body without corporeal organs or sensible species The soul in its separation from the body undergoeth a privative not a positive change It suffereth a change in respect of its information of the body and operations by the instruments of the body It informed the body before but not now It exerciseth the same operations now that it exercised before though not in the same manner then with but now without the body In the state of glory Tho. 2.2 qu. 175. art 4. Conim de anima l. 3. c. 8. qu. 8 art 3. the soul is free to contemplate materiall objects either in themselves by intelligible and sensible species according to the use of corporeal organs glorified or according to their representation in the Divine Essence As grace doth not destroy but help so glory doth not destroy but perfect nature The soul glorified and reunited to the body at its pleasure useth but dependeth not upon the phantasie for the understanding of material objects Prop. 3. The condition of the body in the state of death prejudiceth not the blessednesse of the soul The soul may be blessed though the body be dead We look too much upon the dead carkass and too little upon the living soul Christs body in the grave interrupts not the happinesse of his soul in Paradise As the body in the grave doth neither good nor evil so it feeleth neither good nor evil It is as if it were not Joseph is not Ger. 42.36 The bodies of the Saints at death cease for ever from sin and from all suffering that is felt there is neither sin nor tear in the grave And from suffering it self at the Resurrection The body is neither sensible of the want of the soul nor doth the soul feel any misse of the body The body is neither sensible of good or evill concerning it self nor concerning the soul the soul though it be not touched with any evill yet it is affected with good concerning the body whilst it looks at it as sown 1 Cor. 15.43 As at rest Isa 57.2 As fallen a sleep 1 Cor. 15.6 As in Covenant with Christ Matth. 22.32 all which phrases are proper to the bodies of the Saints The soul hath no grievance for the absence of the body yet it hath contentation in its Rest and a glad expectation of its future meeting Such is the condition of the body in the grave which yet we must so mind as not forgetting the soul in glory The body is at rest the soul is in blessednesse that the one is at rest hindreth not the blessednesse of the other the body is asleep but the soul putteth forth its perfect operations The body is asleep in the custody of Jesus 1 Cor. 15.18 The soul beholds the face of Jesus Jacobs sleeping body troubleth not his communion with Christ and his Angels Gen. 28. Pauls soul in the third heavens misseth not his body though as may be supposed for the time soul-lesse upon earth 2 Cor. 12.2 The condition of the soul dissolved in the Lord is as it were a blessed rapture lasting from our dissolution to our resurrection though the grave be a land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadow of death without any order where the Light is as darkness Job 10.22 yet is not that long-home of the body so dark and disorderly as the everlasting home of the soul is light and beautiful The godly soul prepared should be no more afraid of death in regard of the body than of its fall into a kindly sleep after weary labour and as glad of dissolution in respect of it self as of going to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 1.23 Prop. 4. The soul from the instant of its dissolution is freed from all imperfections of sin sorrow and infirmity God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Rev. 7.17 The spirits of just men