Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	eternal_a	ordain_v	6,204	5	8.9282	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A73382	The portraiture of the image of God in man In his three estates, of creation. Restauration. Glorification. Digested into two parts. The first containing, the image of God both in the body and soule of man, and immortality of both: with a description of the severall members of the body, and the two principall faculties of the soule, the understanding and the will; in which consisteth his knowledge, and liberty of his will. The second containing, the passions of man in the concupiscible and irascible part of the soule: his dominion ouer the creatures; also a description of his active and contemplative life; with his conjunct or married estate. Whereunto is annexed an explication of sundry naturall and morall observations for the clearing of divers Scriptures. All set downe by way of collation, and cleared by sundry distinctions, both out of the schoolemen, and moderne writers. The third edition, corrected and enlarged. By I. Weemse, of Lathocker in Scotland, preacher of Christs Gospel.	Weemes, John, 1579?-1636.	1636 (1636)	STC 25217.5; ESTC S123320	207,578	312

not to have willed it for as Thomas in his Booke contra gentiles saith Quaedam eveniunt ex necessitate suppositionis immutabilitatis eo modo quo provisa sunt sciz contingenter liberè ea quae Deus determinavit liberè contingenter eventura ea contingenter evenient necessariò quae determinavit necessanò That is some things fall out by necessitie of supposition and immutabilitie that same way whereby they are foreseene to wit contingently and freely but those things which God hath determinated to fall out contingently and freely they shall fall out contingently and those things that he hath determinate necessarily to come to passe shall of necessetie be Quest Seeing the purposes of God are but absolute why are his promises and threatnings set downe conditionally Answ He sets them downe conditionally to move sinners more earnestly to repent Ion. 3.5 Yet fortie dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed But hee keepes up the condition here to move the Ninivites the more earnestly to repentance and the event sheweth that this was Gods purpose not to destroy the Ninivites because they repented here by degrees he manifests his counsell unto them Example when a towne is beleaguered the Counsaile of warre ordaines that whosoever goes upon the walles shall die the death this is to terrifie souldiers that they goe not upon the wals the enemie make a sudden assault in the night a souldier runnes up upon the walles and repells the enemy whether shall this man die for it or not the Counsell of warre explaines themselves and that which they set out absolutely before they interpret it now this way our meaning was that no souldier should goe up upon the walles that hee might not give intelligence to the enemy but this souldier hath repelled the enemy therefore hee hath not violated our Law neither is he culpable of death See the example of Ionathan 1 Sam. 13. So when God saith fortie dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed keeping up the condition if they repented not when they repent he explaines his former sentence and shewes that it was not absolutely his meaning they should die but onely to terrifie them and to moove them to repentance The Iesuites when they subordinate the Will of man to the conditionall knowledge of God they leave mans will indifferent here to chuse or not to chuse and upon this freedome of mans will they ground the decree of God to predestinate this man and to reject that man But if this platforme hold then it will follow that when the will of this man imbraceth grace Voluntas neque est causa neque conditio predestinationis ut Iesuitae statuunt and the will of that refuseth it it must either be the cause of predestination or the condition but no Christian ever said that the will of man was the cause of predestination except the Pelagians and their followers if they make this act of the will the condition of mans election then they jumpe with the Arminians who measure the efficacie of grace from the event of the will which notwithstanding some of the Iesuits strongly denie Quest If the will be neither the cause nor condition of our predestination which is it then Ans It is but a meane for the fulfilling of mans predestination for a mans name is not written in the Booke of life because hee assents willingly to the promises of the Gospel and beleeves them but because his name is written in the booke of life therefore hee beleeves Act. 13.48 As many as were ordained unto eternall life beleeved If a King should discerne that none should be courtiers with him unlesse they were trained first up in the warres this trianing up in the warres is neither the cause not yet the condition which mooves the King to make choise of them it is a meane whereby they are received into the Court but no motive which mooved the King So Faith whereby a man is adopted to be the Sonne of God is neither the cause nor yet the condition which mooves God to elect Man but whom he electeth freely them he gives to beleeve If it be asked of Bellermine wherfore this man is saved and not that man hee will answere that there is no other cause but the good pleasure and will of God Secondly if it bee asked of him why he gives this man gratiam congruam or fitting grace and not that man hee will answer because his will is to save this man and not that man Thirdly if it be asked of him wherefore this man receives grace and not that man he will answere because grace is fitting for this man and not for that man hee calles this fitting grace not when the will is determinate by grace as wee hold Physica determinatione Triplex determinatio physica eventu moralis or Hyperphysica rather neither will he make it to depend ab eventu as the Arminians doe from the Will of man but hee findes out a middle betwixt these two placing it onely in morall perswasions and the efficacy of the willes determination to depend upon Gods grace for God saith hee foreseeth Duplex sensus divisus compositus that the will cannot refuse because hee hath fitted it so to the will at this time and in this place so that he cannot now absolutely reject the grace of God but conditionally and he saith in sensu diviso hee may reject the grace of God but not in sensu composito Example when I see a man writing he cannot but write and yet considering this act of writing by it selfe he writes freely so joyning Mans Will with Gods Decree a man cannot but Will and yet respecting the Will in it selfe he may Will grace or not Will it when it is offered to him because grace doth determinate his Will saith he here he wills infallibiliter sed non necessariò Dupliciter aliquis vult infallibiliter necessario But the Arminians hold that the conversion of man altogether depends from his Will and that there is no other cause why this man chuseth and that man refuseth grace but onely the will Fourthly if it be asked whether or no this man may resist the grace of God or not he will answer by the absolute freedome of his will hee may resist it by this it followeth that they will establish a reall act in the will which is neither subject to Gods providence nor predestination but if they acknowledged the consent of the will to be a meane for the fulfilling of predestination in this we would agree with them Secondly Triplex gratia sufficiens abundans efficax the Iesuites that they may pleade for free will make three sorts of grace sufficient abundant and effectuall grace and they make abundant grace a higher degree than sufficient grace as that grace which was offered to Corazin and Bethsaida Matth. 11. because they had a more effectuall calling than Tyre and Sidon they make that effectuall grace

judgements why doth the way of the wicked prosper and why goeth it well with them that doe wickedly To the which objection he answereth that he may defend the justice of God Gather them together as a flocke to the sacrifice whereby hee signifieth that after this life they shall smarte in the life to come howsoever they have escaped in this life So Christ in the parable Luk 16. bringeth in Abraham defending the justice of God against the rich glutton Matth. Reason 7 Chap. 22. Vers 32.33 God is the God of the living and not the God of the dead As Christs proves out of this place the resurrection of the body so hence is clearely proved the immortalitie of the Soule for when God makes a covenant with his owne it is a perpetuall covenant therefore it is called a covenant of salt to note the perpetuity of it Num. 18.19 If these with whom God makes his covenant existe not then the covenant must of necessity cease but the covenant of God indures for ever therefore these with whom he makes the covenant must live for ever God calling himselfe the God of the Patriarches after their death Exod. 3.6 then the soules must be immortall after the separation from the body It is said of Iosias although he was slaine in the battle Reason 8 yet Hee was gathered in peace to his fathers then hee must be gathered to the spirits of his fathers who enjoy peace for he was not gathered in peace in his body For hee was slaine 2 Chron. 35. it is said of Abraham onely that he was gathered to the body of Sarah Gen. 25.10 but of the rest simply it is said they were gathered to their fathers that is their Soules were bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 Which being well marked is a good argument for the soules immortality and that it was knowne under the old Testament by the fathers here are meant the spirits of the just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 The heathen most of them were perswaded of the immortalitie of the Soule Cicero cited out of Socrates Reason 9 Quest 1. Tusc that the Swanne was dedicated to Apollo because shee sang sweetly before her death like the children of God who sing sweetly before they dye being perswaded of this immortality die pleasantly singing their last most joyfull song And the Romans when their great men died and when their bodies were burnt to ashes they caused an Eagle flee and mount on high to signifie that the soule was immortall and perished not with the body Object If the soule be immortall how is it said to die Answ The soule of man hath a twofold life one absolute another relative The absolute or essentiall life of the soule is never loosed Duplex vita absoluta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu relativa for the essence of the soule is Metaphysicall having a beginning but no end having no corruption within it the second sort of life which the soule hath is relative having relation to God and getting grace from him this life may be lost for it is not of the essence of the soule this last sort of life in the soule which to us is relative to Christ is personall and cannot bee lost Some perhaps may thinke that this distinction may be more shortly expressed and more plainely by the life of nature and the life of grace but they are mistaken for both these sorts of lives as well essentiall as relative were naturall to Adam before his fall Our soules are immortall substances Consequence as the Chaldeans say in eodem cretere temperatas esse animas nostras cum coelestibus our soules are tempered in the same mortar with the heavenly spirits therefore wee should be their servants neither should wee measure our condition by our weake bodies but remember that we have spirits onely subject to him who is the Lord of our Spirits Revel 22.6 The soule is immortall A collation betwixt the first Adam and old Adam the Sadduces held that the Soule was mortall Act. 23.8 and they sayd Let us eate let us drinke to morrow we shall die and the Apostle 1 Cor. 18 23. hath it in the present tense morimur we die to note the beastlinesse of these wretches who thought they should be quite extinguished both in soule and body presently like beasts knockt on the head and if any man aske them why then study you to keepe the Commandements of God seeing yee beleeve not the immortality of the Soule they answered that it might goe well with them in this life but men now who professe the immortality of the soule yet study not to keepe Gods Commandements that it may goe well with them in the life to come Augustine professed if he were perswaded that the soule were mortall then of all sects hee would make choyse to bee an Epicurean CHAP. VIII Of the conjunction of the Soule with the Body THe Soule is joyned to the Body immediatly Prop. The forme is joyned to the matter without any middle but the Soule is the forme to the Body Illust 1 therefore the Soule is joyned to the Body without any middle The Soule is joyned to the body Consequence hence wee may gather that there are intellectuall Spirits or Angels which have no bodies for if two things be joyned together the one perfect the other more imperfect if the more imperfect be found alone much more is the more perfect wee see that there are bodies without spirits Duplex inseparabilitas logica physica therefore there must be spirits without bodies Secondly those things that are inseparable the one cannot bee found without the other Inseparabile logicum quod cogitatione potest separari tantum ut rifibil it as in homine Inseparabi●e physicum cum unum non dependeat ab alio necessario ut ● gredo in corvo but those things that are accidentally joyned together the one may bee found without the other as whitenesse and sweetenesse are but accidentally found in Sugar for whitenesse may be found where there is no sweetnes as in Snow so sweetnesse may be found where there is no whitenesse as in a Figge therefore sweetnesse and whitenesse are but accidentally joyned together in the Sugar so the body the Spirit are but accidentally joyned together therefore there are spirits that subsist by themselves without bodies Object But how is the Soule joyned accidentally to the body seeing the soule is the essentiall forme to the body which animates it Answ The soule as the soule is the essentiall forme to the body and so it is inseparable but the Soule as it is an intellectuall Spirit is accidentally joyned to the boby and may be separate from it Object But it might seeme that the Apostle puts the Spirit betwixt the soule and body as a middle to joyne them together therefore the soule and body are not joyned immediatly 1 Thess 5.23 He prayes that God would sanctifie them in their

formes which rule onely the body but doe not animate them as the Angels when they tooke bodies upon them Angelorum operationes in corporibus non fuerunt vitales Those things which the Angels did in the Bodies were not vitall They ruled the bodies but they informed them not and they onely moved the bodies Secondly there are some formes that informe things but doe not rule them as the formes of things without life Thirdly there are formes which informe and rule as the Soule of man in the body Object It is said that the Angels did eate and drinke Gen. 18. Therefore they have exercised these vitall functions in the body Answ Theodoret answers Metaphorice non propriè dicuntur edere Atistot 2. de anim They are said to eate by way of metaphor but not properly because of the manner of the true eating and the Philosopher saith that Vox est actus animati corporis The voyce is the act of the living creature but when a Lute giveth a sound it is but metaphorically a voyce saith hee So the eating of the Angels was but metaphorically a eating for they eate not to digest or to nourish their bodies In this that the Soule is joyned to the body as the forme Consequence wee may admire the mervailous worke of God for if David wondered at the mervailous fashioning of the body in his mothers wombe Psal 139. much more may wee admire the mervailous conjunction of the Soule with the body for we may observe that the highest of the lowest kind is joyned alwaies to the lowest of the highest kind as the lowest of living creatures which have life is the shell-fish as the Oyster differeth little from the life of the plant is comes nearer in order to the beast then the plant doth because it feeles therefore it is well said by one Tho. Aquin. contragent Sapientia Dei conjungit fines superiorum principijs inferiorum the wisedom of God hath conjoyned the ends of the superiour with the beginning of the inferiour as the shel-fish to bee the basest amongst the sensitive and more noble then the vegetative So the body of man is the most excellent and highest in degree of the inferiour creatures the soule againe of man is the lowest of intellectual Spirits marke thē how these two are joyned together Therfore fitly the soule of man hath beene compared by some to the horizon for as the horizon separates the upper parts of the world from the nether to our sight and yet the sphere is one so doth the soule separate the intellectuall substances from the earthly bodies and yet is one with them both And as Hercules was said to be Partim apud superos partim apud inferos so is the Soule partly with the Spirits above and partly with the bodies below The body joyned to the soule Prop. maketh the soule a compleate spirit The Angels without bodies are spiritus completi Illust but our soules without the bodies are incompleate spirits The Angels when they assumed bodies it was not to their perfection but for their ministery Non quibus juventur sed quibus invent Not that they were helped by these bodies but that they might helpe us They have a double action one of contemplation another of ministery for contemplation to behold the face of God continually Matth. 18.10 They tooke not bodies upon them but onely for the ministry to us but the soule of man is an incompleate Spirit without the bodie The soule was joyned to the body Prop. to goe upward to God and not to be depressed by the body When water and oyle are put together Illust the oyle being more aeriall goeth above and the water being heavie goeth under so the soule being more celestiall went upward and was not drawne by the body when man stood in innocency The Soule hath sundry operations in the body Prop. When it groweth Illust it is called anima when it contemplates Anima est simplex in essentis multiplex in potentia it is called a spirit when it seeth and heareth it is called sense when it is wise it is called animus when it discernes it is called reason when it remembers it is called memory when it assents lightly it is called opinion when she defineth a truth by certaine principles then it is called judgement God hath wisely placed the faculties of the Soule and the Body Prop. Hee hath placed the intellectuall facultie in the Braine Illust as highest the affections in the Heart the naturall part in the Liver and Stomacke hee hath placed the understanding in the Head as in the throane in the Heart as in the chamber but the rest of the inferior faculties hee hath placed below as it were in the Kitchen and as it were an unseemely thing for a Prince to be sitting in the Kitchen and never to minde matters of estate so it is a base thing for the soule to have minde of nothing but of eating and drinking and to choose Martha her part but never Maries Luke 10.42 Man before his fall lived the life of God A collation betwixt the innocent and old Adam but since the fall hee lives onely the naturall life and few live the life of grace There is so little life in the shell-fish that wee cannot tell whether they live the life of the plant or the sensitive life So the life of God is so weake in many men that we cannot tell whether it be the naturall life or the spirituall life which they live Zeuzes the Painter painted grapes so lively that hee deceived the birds and made them come fleeing to them Dedalus made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 images mooving by themselves hee made men beleeve that they were living but Pygmaleon made an image so lively that he fell in love with it himselfe So hypocrites which live onely the life of Nature they will so counterfeit the actions of the faithfull that they make men beleeve indeed that they live the life of God and some times they deceive themselves thinking that they are living when they indeede are dead the quickning power of the soule desires onely being and so it rests the sense would not onely bee but also bee well but the understanding aspires above all these to eternall blisse these three powers make three sorts of men for some like plants doe fill their veines onely some againe doe take their senses pleasure like beasts onely and some doe contemplate like Angels therefore the Poets in their fables doe faine that some were turned into flowers others into beasts and others into gods CHAP. IIII. Of the end of Mans Creation MAn was created to serve God A circle is more perfect than a line Prol. for a circle returnes backe to the point whence it began Illust 1 but a line is more imperfect Duplex est motus rectus circularis never returning to the place from whence it began Man and Angels returne backe to God who made them like a

bee served but to serve why may not then the Angels be sayd to be ministers to the elect Object It is a Maxime in Phylosophy that the end is more excellent than the meanes tending to the end but the safety of man is the end and the Angels are the meanes therefore it may seeme that man is more excellent than the Angels Answ The end considered as the end is alwayes more excellent than the meanes tending to the end but not absolutely touching the essence of the meanes for these things that are the meanes may be more excellent in themselves Example The incarnation of Christ is more excellent than the redemption of man in it selfe and yet it is institute for another end so the Sun Moon and starres were institute to give influence to the inferiour bodies herbes trees and plants and yet they are more excellent in themselves but consider them as meanes tending to that end they are inferiour to them The Angels neither love the wicked nor minister to them nor preserve them But here we must marke when we say they minister not to them this is to bee understood of their speciall and particular ministring they attend them not as they doe the elect it is true as God makes his Sunne to shine as well upon the unjust as the just Mat. 5.45 so the Angels may be ministers sometimes of outward things even to the wicked Whosoever stept downe first into the poole of Siloam Ioh. 5.8 was cured whether good or bad and the Angels brought downe Manna in the wildernesse Psal 78.25 to the bad Israelites as well as to the good but they have not a particular care of the wicked as they have of the elect of God they come not up and downe upon the Ladder Christ Ioh. 1.52 to minister to them as they doe to the elect CHAP. XIX Of Adams life before the fall whether it was contemplative or practicke Adam had beside the Image of God placed in him two royall prerogatives above any man that ever was the first was concerning his estate and condition of life whether it was in action or contemplation The second concerning his mariage celebrated by God himselfe in Paradise Of the first prerogative is intreated here Prop. Mans life before the fall was more contemplative than practicke As from the Sunne first proceed bright beames Illust which lighting upon transparent bodies they cast a brightnesse or splendor by their reflex and after their reflex they cast shadowes So from God that glorious Sunne there proceeded first wisedome which being reflexed upon the mind of Adam to cognosce and contemplate upon things this contemplation brought forth prudency and at last arts as the shadow of prudency This wisedome or contemplation was in cognoscibilibus in things to be knowne but prudency was in agibilibus in things to be done arts are in factibilibus in things to be done by the hands Quest Vita activa est prior in via generation is sed vita contemplativa est prior in via directionis It may bee asked which of these two lives is to be preferred before another it might seeme that prudeney is to bee preferred before wisdome for man is bound to love God above all and to helpe his neighbour these we get not by contemplation but by action Againe it may seeme that the contemplative life is the best life because in the active life there are many dangers and perils but not so in the contemplative Answ To cleare this point wee must marke these assertions following First when we compare these two wisedome and prudency together Duplex bonitas necessitatis excellentiae either we respect the necessity of them or the excellency of them If wee respect the necessity of them then no doubt prudency is most fit for ourestate now If wee marke the excellency of them then wee must use this distinction one thing is said to be better than another either absolutely or determinate to this or that particular as to have foure feet is good for a horse but not absolutely good Duplex bonitas absoluta determinata for it is not good for a man So to be a Philosopher is determinately good for man but not absolutely good for it is not good for a horse So wisedome and prudency conferred together wisedome absolutely is better than prudency but prudency in this case as we are now is better for us Thirdly Duplex cousideratio vitae humanae respectu mediorum fin is if wee consider the end of mans life then contemplation is better than action but if wee consider the meanes tending to the end then action is fitter for us than contemplation If wee consider the end it is more excellent than the meanes for all these practicall arts and operations which man doth are ordained as to their properend to the contemplation of the understanding and all the contemplation of the understanding is ordained for the metaphysickes and all the knowledge which we have of the metaphysicks in so farre as it precedes the knowledge which we have of God is ordained for the knowledge of God as the last end Ioh. 17. This is life eternall to know thee onely Matth. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God therefore the contemplative life being the last end must bee most perfect in it selfe for it standeth in need of fewer helpes than the practicke life doth Prop. These two sorts of lives are so necessary both for this life and for the life to come and are so straitly lincked that we must labour to joyne them together The active life without the contemplative life Illust is a most imperfect life like the fruit pulled from the tree so the contemplative life without the active is a most imperfect life but joyne them both together they make a perfect Argus having his eyes looking up and downe These two sorts of lives are well compared to the two great lights in heaven the Sun and Moone first as the Moone hath her light from the Sunne so hath prudency her light from wisedome Secondly as the Sunne rules the day and the Moone the night so wisedome rules our heavenly life and prudency our earthly life Thirdly as the moone is neerer to us than the Sunne so is prudency in this estate neerer to us than wisedome Prudency and wisedome Consequence 1 the active and contemplative life should be joyned together therefore these onagri or wilde asses the Hermites who give themselves onely to contemplation and withdraw themselves from the society of men never joyning action to their contemplation mistake altogether the end wherefore man was placed here When Elias was in the wildernesse the Angel came to him and said what dost thou here So the Lord will say one day to these unprofitable members that are in the Church and Common-wealth what do ye in the Wildernesse The Philosopher could say that hee was either a God or a beast that could live in the