Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	act_n	body_n	sin_n	3,765	5	4.9553	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86299	The parable of the tares expounded & applyed, in ten sermons preached before his late Majesty King Charles the second monarch of Great Britain. / By Peter Heylin, D.D. To which are added three other sermons of the same author.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1659 (1659)	Wing H1729; Thomason E987_1	253,775	424

Scripture sustained the person of the Church Et cum ci dicitur ad omnes dicitur pasce oves meas And therefore when our Saviour said unto him feed my Sheep he said the same in him unto all the rest So then the rest of the Apostles have as much interest in this weighty charge as St. P●ter had they being all equally invested pari consortio potestatis honoris with an equall measure both of power and honour as Cyprian and generally all the Fathers tell us The next enquiry will be this whether that all the Ministers of our Saviours Gospel be equally intrusted with a power of feeding and may all equally take upon themselves the name of Pastors Some would fain have it so indeed for seeing that the word of God is the food of the soul non video cur Pastor non dicatur qui pabulum hoc subministrat we see no cause say they that those who preach the Word of God should not be honoured also with the name of Pastors And Pastors let them be if the name will please them though ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning for anciently the Prelates only had the name of Pastors St. Austin knew no other Pastors in the Church of God then the Apostles and the Bishops in the 47. Tract on John Our learned Andrews is resolute upon the point neminem veterum sic locutum that the Antients never otherwise understood the word And Binius in his notes upon the Councils excepts against a fragment of the Council of Rhemes as being not of that Antiquity which is there pretended quod titulum Pastoris tribuat Par●cho because the name of Pastor is communicated to the Parish●Priest contrary to the usage of those elder times But Pastors let them be in Gods name if the name will please them so they usurp not on the power Pastors as Pasco is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to feed but not to govern For whereas there are divers acts of the Pastoral charge as viz. to beat down the body of sin to warn the unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak to infuse balm into the sick and wounded soul and with all care and industry to call the sinner to repentance all these do equally belong to those who are invested by the Church with holy Orders The Parish-Presbyter would very ill be called a Rector did we not grant him this authority And for the power corrective let him take that too so farre as he may do it with the sword of the spirit Et virga oris sui and with the rod of his mouth as the Prophet calls it But for the power of correction by the Rod of D●scipline or the staffe of punishment or by the censures of the Church that pertains only to the Prelate the superior Pastor and it concerneth him highly that he use it well For many times it hapneth that the stragling sheep will not be brought into the Fold by fair perswasions or by the Ministery of the Word What then Ad diligentiam Pastoralem pertinet it then belongs unto the Pastor Flagellorum terroribus vel etiam doloribus revocare to fetch him back again by the stripes of D●scipline by the coercions of the Church Which power were it committed to the hands of each several Minister would doubtless prove the greatest tyranny that ever the poor Church of Christ did suffer under This is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pertains solely to the Prelate as an act of Government Who therefore anciently was armed with his Crozier or Pastoral staffe and by the Law of England he may use it still that by the same he might reduce the stragler and correct the stubborn and rouze up the affections of the sluggish person According to the good old verse Attrahe per primum medio rege punge per imum A perfect Embleme of his duty for howsoever that of Nazianzen be exceeding true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the good Shepherd should oftner use his Pipe then his Shepherds-staffe yet the Sheep become unruly and will not hear the Shepherds-pipe pipe he never so sweetly he must needs take his staffe in hand there 's no other remedy But I touch onely on these Controversies and so passe them by The third and last duty which pertains unto the Shepherd is that he guard his sheep and keep them safe from the devouring malice of the enemy In which regard it is the Custom of those Countries which are plagued with Wolves to lodge their sheep at night in defossis specubus in some strong Caverns under ground and free from violence In which regard the Poet Virgil doth advise his shepherd to provide himself of some fierce Mastives acres molossos as he calls them by whom the flock may be defended during his own necessary absence And finally in this regard the faithful Shepherd doth expose his person unto much peril many inconveniences and several assaults of enemies Thus Jacob tells us of himself that when he kept the sheep of Laban the drought consumed him by day and the Frost by night and that sleep departed from his eyes And in the Story of Gods Book we are told of David that when he kept his Fathers sheep and that a Bear and a Lion had surprized a Lamb he set himself against the fury of those ravenous Beasts and delivered the poor Lamb out of their pawes and in a single combat slew them both So is it with our Saviour Christ in the protection of his Church in the defence of those who are the sheep of his Pasture It was his glory as it was his comfort that of all those whom God had given him he had lost not one And 't was his comfort as it was his care that he had lodged them in a place of such strength and safety even in his strongest hold his holy Tabernacle against the which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail A place in which if we continue we need not fear the violence of Satan that roaring Lion who walks about the Fold continually seeking out whom he may devoure And it is well said that he walks about for get into the Fold he cannot and therefore doth he walk about it that so if any of the flock do forsake the Fold him he may make his prey and ravish him into his Den. T is true that Christ hath sent us out like sheep among the Wolves as himself hath told us But then it is as true withall that he hath furnished us with doggs and placed them round about his Church in each corner of it that by their fierceness and their watchfulness and continual barking they may keep farre aloof the common enemy by whom the straglers are endangered Vigilant enim latrant boni Canes pro Pastore pro Grege as St. Austin

have the hap or the seeming happiness to go down into the grave in peace yet God will finde them at the last and meet with these sowre grapes in his general vintage and tread them in the wine-presse of his indignation And to say truth there are as great and weighty reasons why some mens punishments should follow after them as that the rest should have a trial and essay of their future miseries by those which they endure in this present life for as St. Austin well observes should all mens sins be punished in this present life nihil ultimo judicio reservari putaretur it would occasion some to think that there were no necessity nor use of the generall judgement as on the other side if none nulla esse divina providentia crederetur others would be too apt to think that there were no God or at least rob him of his Providence and say with him in Davids Psalms Tush God doth not see it If therefore God permit the Tares to grow up together with the Wheat it is to shew his patience and longanimity in expectation of their conversion and amendment but that he brings them to the Harvest and moweth them down at last is to shew his justice And doubt we not but that the Lord in his just judgement will destroy those Tares which at this present threaten ruine to his blessed Field when they once be ripe and that we are sufficiently awakened out of that dull security which had seized upon us God dealing still with wicked and seditious men as heretofore with Haman Abs●lom Achitophel and such other instruments when they have served his turn then he hangs them up But I must tell you this withall that if we do exexpect an Harvest of Gods temporall judgements upon the heads of those that lay wast his Church we must first put away those customary unrepented sins which have drawn them down upon our selves Si vis me flere dolendum est primùm ipsi tibi If we desire that God be pittiful to us in freeing us from those which do play the Tyrants over our bodies and estates we must be pittiful to our selves in labouring to free our souls from a greater tyranny that of sin and Satan We must first repent us of the punishment that is due unto them But I see little hopes of so great a change or indeed any hopes at all either great or little except it be unto the worse in the corrupting of those meanes which should work our peace For tell me I beseech you is not our fasting grown so formall and our humiliation mixt with so much hypocrisie that we are sicker of repentance then before of sin Is not our common talk so overgrown with oaths and prodigious cursings as if we meant to bid defiance to the Host of Heaven and our devotions in Gods House so cold and careless as if we thought as poorly of the Lord himself as of the Preacher or the Prayers And can we look for blessings from the hands of God when we send curses to his eares or that the Lord should work a double miracle upon us whether we will or not one in removing from us a deserved punishment the other in forgiving unrepented sins Assuredly unless we make our peace with God and wrest deliverance from him by our prayers and penitence the Lord in his just anger will afflict us further and give us over for a prey unto those that hate us God is not bound to bring upon the wicked and seditious person the Heretick and Schismatical man the Harvest of his temporal judgements though sometimes he do it sometimes he lets them passe till the general Harvest and calls them not unto account untill he bring them at the last to the finall reckoning But whether it be first or last it pleaseth him to give the Tares a longer Sinite then his servants did desire he should and suffered them to grow in his holy Field when meanes and opportunity was offered for their extirpation What might incline him thereunto and how farre we are bound by this present Sinite are the next enquiries Expertâ morbi molestiâ evidentior fit jucunditas sanitatis No man can judge so well of health as they that have been long afflicted with a wounded body or visited with some grievous sickness nor set so high a price on the light of Heaven as he who hath been lodged in a dolefull Dungeon Now that which darkness is in the Aire or Firmament and wounds and sickness in the body the same are errors and corruptions in life and Doctrine or scandala qui faciunt iniquitatem as our Saviour tells us of these tares v. 38. in the Church of Christ darkness best sets off light wounds and sickness health and so doth error truth and corruption purity God therefore doth sometimes permit the ungodly man to have his habitation with the just and righteous that so the justice of the righteous might be made more eminent of which we shall say more anon in the Simul crescere And sometimes he permits his People to walk in darkness wander in the crooked lanes of deceit error that when they come into the light and to the saving wayes of truth they may imbrace the same with the greater fervour were it not for this reason and in this respect it is not probable that God who is the God of truth and the Father of lights would suffer any Heresie or erroneous Tenet to be sowen or rooted in his field but either would discover them on the first appearing or cause them to be rooted up on the first discovery at least he would have harkened to the Proposition to the vis imus colligimus of the former verse were it not that the light of truth would appear more brightly after it had been long eclipsed with the Clouds of error Et sic deterrima comparatione gloriam sibi compararet For contraries when they are looked upon together do appear most visibly Besides Oportet esse haereses there is a farther use of Heresies which brings them in with an Oportet as we read of in the 18. of St. Matthew necesse est ut veniant scandala Scandala saith St. Matthew haereses saith S. Paul but in both Texts the same saith the Learned Scholiast and both attended or brought in by the same necesse Not a necessity simpliciter dicta an absolute necessity that so it must be as if truth could not stand without them but an Oportet a necessity secundum quid it being expedient that so it should be because truth stands the better by them How many excellent tractates grave discourses learned and pious writings had these Ages wanted had not the Primitive Church been exercised with so many Heresies In what an ignorance had we lived in matters which concern the glorious Trinity the powers of Grace the influences of the holy Spirit had not the Arians and Pelagians

hath it The Wolf and other enemies of the flock know this well enough and indeed labour all they can to destroy these Mastives Which when they could not do by violence they treated with the sheep as the Fable hath it to deliver them up into their hands but mark what followed thereupon Oves presidio Canum destitutas laniant the doggs being gone they fell upon the sheep and worried them and brought them to a swift destruction Lastly He hath supplied his Church from time to time with faithful Pastors for the defence and custody thereof from the common enemy such as have evermore exposed their persons to apparent dangers their good names to the calumnies of malicious tongues their fortunes many times to apparent ruine all for the safety of the flock for the defence of Christs and the Churches cause Witness those many sufferings of the Apostles as St. Paul describes them reviled yet blessing persecuted yet still suffering defamed and yet intreating and in a word ut mundi purgamenta facti accounted as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things to this very day And more then so in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by their own Countreymen in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the Wilderness in perils by Sea in perils amongst false Brethren And to make up the total summe of their afflictions in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft The Devil knew how much the safety of the Flock depended on the care and vigilancy of the Shepherd and therefore he aims most at them Percutiam Pastorem dispergam gregem is the best Text in his Divinity This he hath practised in all times and ag●s upon the Prophets the Apostles Prelates Pastors the Shepherds of all ages many of all places some but upon none more visibly then our Saviour Christ who was not only il Pastor fido the faithful Shepherd whose eyes do neither sleep nor slumber that so his sheep might feed in safety on the Hills and Mountains but Pastor ille bonus the good Shepherd too even that good Shepherd of my Text. Not onely willing to expose his person to contempt a●d scorn as many of his followers since have done but also to lay down his● life to save his sheep which never any did in this world but he And so I come unto the eminent piety of our Saviour in the discharge of this imployment being not only ille Pastor that Shepherd but ille bonus Pastor that good Shepherd also my last particular and now in order to be handled Ego sum Pastor ille bonus I am the good Shepherd And first this goodness of the Lord though indivisible in it self hath been divided by the Schoolmen with good propriety both of words and meaning into two kindes or species The first they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Original the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplified Illa in Deo existens haec in creatur is expressa the first existing solely on the Lord our God the other copied out and manifested in his creatures That which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or original we may define to be an everlasting and unalterable quality in Almighty God qua modis omnibus summè bonus est whereby he is supremely and entirely good In which regard Plato hath said of God that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good only in and of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only saving good as others of the Heathen call'd him And he that knew him best our most gracious Saviour hath given this to us for a Maxime That there is none good but onely God So good that the most blessed Vision of the Almighty is the most excellent good the summum bonum which any of the Saints or Angels can aspire unto Philosophers may wrangle and dispute amongst themselves of mans chief felicity and may ascribe it if they please to pleasure or riches or as the wiser sort have done to the works of vertue But we that are the sheep of our Saviours Pasture look for this summum bonum only in the Lord our God and there we shall be sure to finde it The other kind of goodness call'd by the Schoolmen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exemplified is that which God hath mani●ested on his creatures and imparted to them This they divide again into general and special that being extended unto all his Creatures this more particularly restrained to his chosen servants This generall goodness clearly manifested in the Creation of the World quid enim aliud est Mundus quam Deus explicatus said the old Philosopher and in preserving of the same created cloathing the Lillies and feeding the young Ravens when they call upon him making his Sun to shine as well upon the sinner as the righteous person and in a word opening his hand and filling all things living with his plentiousness In which respect David most truly tells us of him repleta est terra bonitate Domini the Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. But that which most especially doth concern this business is his special goodness restrained unto his chosen servants to such as fear his name and observe his precepts The Lord is good to Israel saith the royal Psalmist his qui recto sunt corde even unto all such as are of a clean heart And the Book of Lamentations The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeks him This goodness is manifested declared in delivering them from evil the evil both of sin and punishment and in accumulating on them his most sacred blessings both of grace and glory For if an earthly Father as our Saviour urgeth though full of evil in himself knoweth how to provide good things for his natural Children how much more shall our Father which is in Heaven bestow good things on those whom he hath adopted This is enough to make us sensible of Gods goodness to us And yet the way by which this goodness is procured for us is far more admirable the Lord not sparing his own Sonne but delivering him up for us all that with him he might also freely give us all things as St. Paul instructs us This is indeed the highest point of heavenly goodness And very hard it is to say whether deserve more of our admiration either that God the Father should appoint it so or God the Sonne considered in our flesh should act the Tragedy I shall no longer wonder at the strange Command which God once layd upon our Father Abraham Abraham take now thy Sonne thine only Sonne Isaac whom thou lovest and offer him for a burnt Offering to the Lord thy God Here finde we God the Father really performing what he imposed on Abraham tentandi causa only for triall of his faith and his obedience Nor shall I much admire at the zeal