Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	action_n	body_n	part_n	4,570	5	4.8992	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45315	Select thoughts, or, Choice helps for a pious spirit a century of divine breathings for a ravished soule, beholding the excellencies of her Lord Jesus / by J. Hall ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.; Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. Breathings of a devout soul.	1654 (1654)	Wing H413; ESTC R19204	93,604	402

the way through the golden gates of honor or down to the mines of wealth or to the flowry garden of pleasure but the way of true peace he knows not he no more knows the way to Heaven then if there were none The fool saith the Psalmist hath said in his heart there is no God Did not the wicked man say so he durst not wilfully sin in the face of so mighty and dreadful an avenger Lastly the fool is apt to part with his patrimony for some gay toys and how ready is the carnal heart to cast away the Favor of God the inheritance of Heaven the salvation of his soul for these vain earthly trifles Holy men are wont to pass with the world for Gods fools alas how little do these censurers know to pass a true judgment of wisdom and folly he that was rapt into the third Heaven tells us That the foolishness of God is wiser then men and the weakness of God stronger then men but this we are sure of that wicked men are the devils fools and that judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools XLVII There are some things which are laudable in man but cannot be incident into God as a bashful shamefastness and holy fear And there are some dispositions blame-worthy in men which are yet in a right sence holily ascribed unto God as unchangeableness and irrepentance Attributes and qualities receive their limitations according to the meet subjects to which they belong with this sure rule That whatsoever may import an infinite purity and perfection we have reason to ascribe to our Maker whatever may argue infirmitie misery corruption we have reason to take to our selves Neither is it otherwise in the condition of men One mans vertue is anothers vice so boldness in a woman bashfulness in an old man bounty in a poor man parsimony in the great are as foully unbeseeming as boldness in a Soldier bashfulness in a childe bounty in the rich parsimony in the poor are justly commendable It is not enough for us to know what is good in it self but what is proper for us else we may be blemished with that which is anothers honor XLVIII It is easie to observe that there are five degrees of the digestion of our spiritual food First it is received into the cell of the ear and there digested by a careful attention then it is conveyed into the brain and there concocted by due meditation from thence it is sent down into the heart and there digested by the affections and from thence it is conveyed to the tongue in conference and holy confession and lastly it is thence transmitted to the hand and there receives perfect digestion in our action and performance And as the life and health of the body cannot be maintained except the material food pass through all the degrees of bodily concoction no more can the soul live and prosper in the want of any of these spiritual degrees of digestion And as where the food is perfectly concocted the body grows fat and vigorous so is it with the soul where the spiritual repast is thus kindly digested Were there not failings in all these degrees the souls of men would not be so meager and unthriving as they are Some there are that will not give so much as ear-room to the word of truth such are willing recusants others will admit it perhaps so far but there let it rest these are fashionable auditors some others can be content to let it enter into the brain and take up some place in their thoughts and memories these are speculative professors some but fewer others let it down into their hearts and there entertain it with secret liking but hide it in their bosomes not daring to make profession of it to the world these are close Nicodemians Others take it into their mouthes and busie their tongues in holy chat yet do nothing these are formal discoursers But alas how few are there whose hands speak louder then their tongues that conscionably hear meditate affect speak do the word of their Maker and Redeemer XLIX Men that are in the same condition speed not always alike Barabbas was a theif murderer seditionary and deserved hanging no less then the two theeves that were crucified with our Saviour yet he is dismissed and they executed And even of these two as our Saviour said of the two women grinding at the mill one was taken the other refused one went before Peter to paradise the other went before Judas into hell The providence and election of a God may make a difference we have no reason in the same crime to presume upon a contrary issue If that gracious hand shall exempt us from the common judgment of our consorts in evil we have cause 〈◊〉 less his mercy but if his just hand shall sweep us away in the company of our wicked consociates we have reason to thank none but our selves for our sufferings L. How sweet a thing is revenge to us naturally even the very infant rejoyces to see him beaten that hath angerd him and is ready with his little hand to give that sroke to the by-stander which he would have with more force returned to the offender and how many have we known in mortal quarrels cheerfully bleeding out their last drop when they have seen their enemy gasping and dying before them This alone shews how much there is remaining in our bosome of the sting of that old Serpent who was a murderer from the beginning delighting in death and enjoying our torment whereas on the contrary true grace is merciful ready to forgive apt to return good for evil to pray for our persecutors Nothing doth more clearly evince what spirit we are of then our disposition in wrongs received The carnal heart breathes nothing but revenge and is straight wringing the sword out of the hands of him that hath said Vengeance is mine The regenerate soul contrarily gives place to wrath and puts on the bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of minde meekness long suffering forbearing forgiving and will not be overcome with evil but overcomes evil with good We have so much of God as we can remit injuries so much of Satan as we would revenge them LI. It is worth observing how nature hath taught all living creatures to be their own physitians The same power that gave them a being hath led them to the means of their own preservation No Indian is so savage but that he knows the use of his Tobacco and Contra-yerva yea even the brute creatures are bred with this skill The Dog when he is stomack-sick can go right to his proper Grass the Cat to her Nep the Goat to his Hemlock the Weasel to Rue the Hart to Dittany the sick Lyon can cure himself with an Ape the Monkey with a Spider the Bear with an Ant-heap the Panther with mans dung and the Stork is said to have taught man the

Select Thoughts OR CHOICE HELPS FOR A Pious Spirit A Century of Divine Breathings for a Ravished Soule beholding the Excellencies of her Lord Jesus By J HALL B. N. N B London Printed for Nath Brooke at the Angel in Cornhill 1654. TO THE Christian Reader Grace and Peace IT pleased the Alwise and holy GOD who orders all events to his own glory to make use of my late Secession for the producing of divers not I hope unprofitable Tractates wherein I much rejoyce that my declined Age even in that retiredness might be in any measure serviceable to his Church Now I send these Select Notions after their Fellows of which I wish you may finde cause to say with the Wedding-guests at Cana Thou hast reserved the best wine till now The intent of this Labor is to put some good Thoughts Reader into thy minde which would not otherwise perhaps have tendered themselves to thee such as I hope may not a little further thee on thy journey to Heaven And if in my Laboring thitherward I shall through Gods mercy be a means of forwarding any soul but some steps up that steep way how happy am I To which purpose I know no means more effectual then those Meditations which conduce to the animation and vigor of Christian practise Such I have propounded to my Self as most behooveful and necessary especially for this Age into which we are faln an Age of more brain then heart and that hath almost lost Piety in the chase of some litigious Truths And surely had I known how better to have placed my hours I should gladly have changed my task But I must needs say I have found this imployment so useful and proper as that I have looked upon those Polemical Discourses which have been forced from me as no better then meer Excursions I wis it will be long enough ere we shall wrangle our selves into Heaven It must be true contrition pure consciences holy affections heavenly dispositions hearty devotions sound Regeneration Faith working by Love an humble walking with GOD that shall help us thither and whatsoever may tend to the advancing of any of these gracious Works in us is worthy to be dear and precious Such passages Reader if thou shalt according to my hopes meet with here bless GOD with me and improve them to the best advantage of thy Soul Thus shall our gain be mutual and our account happy in the day of the Lord Jesus In whom farewel From Higham neer Norwich Febr. 7. 1647. Select Thoughts One Century I. IF miracles be ceased yet marvails will never cease There is no creature in the world wherein we may not see enough to wonder at for there is no worm of the earth no spire of grass no leaf no twig wherein we may not see the footsteps of a Deity The best visible Creature is man now what man is he that can make but an hair or a straw much less any sensitive creature so as no less then an infinite power is seen in every object that presents it self to our eyes if therefore we look onely upon the outsides of these bodily substances and do not see God in every thing we are no better then brutish making use meerly of our sence without the least improvement of our faith or our reason Contrary then to the opinion of those men who hold that a wise man should admire nothing I say that a man truely wise and good should admire every thing or rather that infiniteness of wisdom and omnipotence which shews it self in every visible object Lord what a beast am I that I have suffered mine eyes to be taken up with shapes and colours and quantities and have not lookt deeper at thee with awful adoration and wonder in every parcel of thy great Creation Henceforth let me see nothing but thee and look at all visible things but as the meer shadows of a glorious omnipotence II. Our affections are then onely safe and right when they are deduced from God and have their rise from Heaven then onely can I take comfort of my love when I can love my wife my childe my friend my self my pleasures and whatsoever contentments in God thus I may be sure not to offend either in the object or measure no man can in God love whom he should not nor immoderately love whom he should this holy respect doth both direct and limit him and shuts up his delights in the conscience of a lawful fruition the like must be said of our joy and fear and grief and what ever other affection for we cannot derive our joy from God if we place it upon any sinful thing or if we exceed in the measure of things allowed we cannot fetch our fear from Heaven if it be cowardly and desperate nor our grief if it be meerly worldly and heartless And if our affections do begin from above they will surely end there closing up in that God who is the Author and orderer of them and such as our affections are such will be the whole disposition of the soul and the whole carriage of our actions These are the feet of the soul and which way the feet walk the whole man goes happy is the man that can be so far the master of himself as to entertain no affections but such as he takes upon the rebound from Heaven III. Whence is this delicate scent in this Rose and Violet It is not from the root that smells of nothing not from the stalk that is as senceless as the root not from the earth whence it grows which contributes no more to these flowers then to the grass that grows by them not from the leaf not from the bud before it be disclosed which yields no more fragrance then the leaf or stalk or root yet here I now finde it neither is it here by any miraculous way but in an ordinary course of nature for all Violets and Roses of this kinde yield the same redolence it cannot be but that it was potentially in that root and stem from which the flowers proceed and there placed and thence drawn by that Almighty power which hath given these admirable vertues to several plants and educes them in his due seasons to these excellent perfections It is the same hand that works spiritually in his elect out of the soyl of the renewed heart watered with the dew of Heaven and warmed with the beams of his Spirit God can and in his own season doth bring forth those sweet odors of Grace and holy dispositions which are most pleasing to himself and if those excellencies be so closely lodged in their bosoms that they do not discover themselves at all times it should be no more strange to us then that this Rose and Violet are not to be found but in their own moneths it is enough that the same vertue is still in the root though the flower be vanished IIII. A man that looks at all things through the consideration of eternity makes no

sight of our God whiles we have Christ put on upon us What ever therefore become of the outward man let it be my care that my soul be vested with my Lord Jesus so shall I be sure to be safe rich amiable here and hereafter glorious It was part of our Saviours charge upon the mount Take no care what to put on but it must be the main care of our lives how to put on Christ upon our souls This is the prime stole wherewith the father of the Prodigal graceth his returned son the heaven of heavens is not worth such another when I have once got this on my back I shall say though in a contrary sense with the Spouse in the Canticles I have put on my coat how shall I put it off I have washed my feet how shall I defile them XIIII With how devout passion doth the Psalmist call to all the works of the Almighty to praise him as well supposing that every creature even those that have no tongues to speak for themselves yet have a tongue to praise their Maker The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledg There is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard neither is the very earth defective in this duty Every plant sayes look on me and acknowledg the life colour form smell fruit force that I have from the power of my Creator every worm and flie sayes look on me and give God the praise of my living sense and motion every bird sayes hear me and praise that God who hath given me these various feathers and taught me these several notes every beast whiles he bellows bleats brays barks roars sayes It is God that hath given me this shape this sound yea the very mute fishes are in their very silence vocal in magnifying the infinite wisdom and power of him that made them and placed them in those watery habitations Let every thing that hath breath saith the Psalmist praise the Lord. Yea the very winds whistle and the sea roars out the praise of the Almighty who both raises and allays them at pleasure what a shame were it for man to whom alone God hath given an understanding heart a nimble tongue and articulate language wherein he can express his rational thoughts to be wanting to this so universal devotion and to be as insensible of the great works of God as the ground that he treads upon If others shall be thus unthankfully dumb Yet praise thou the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name whiles I live will I praise the Lord I will sing praises to my God whilest I have any being But alas Lord thou knowest I cannot so much as will to praise thee without thee do thou fill my heart with holy desires and my mouth with songs of thanksgiving XV. It may seem a strange errand upon which our Saviour tells us he came into the world I am come to send fire on the earth When the two fervent Disciples would have had fire sent down from Heaven upon but a Samaritan Village our Saviour rebuked them and told them they knew not of what spirit they were yet here he makes it his own business to send fire on the earth Alas may we think we have fire too much already how happy were it rather if the fire which is kindled in the world were well quenched and what is the main drift of the Prince of darkness but fire If not to send fire down from Heaven upon the inhabitants of the earth yet to send the inhabitants of the earth down to the fire of hell As then we finde divers kindes of material fire Celestial Elementary Domestique Artificial Natural so there is no less variety of spiritual fires It was in fiery cloven tongues wherein the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in their Pentecost and even this fire did our Saviour come to send down on the earth Thy word was in mee as fire saith the Prophet and did not our harts burn within us said the two Disciples in their walk to Emaus whiles he talked with us This fire he also came to send Heavenly Love and holy Zeal are fire Many waters cannot quench love My zeal hath consumed me saith the Psalmist and these fires our Saviour came to send into the hearts of men holy thoughts are no other then the beams of celestial fire My heart was hot within me whiles I was musing the fire burned and these we know he sends He maketh his Angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire These he sends forth to the earth to minister for them that shall be heirs of of salvation Besides these afflictions and persecutions are fire We have passed through fire and water Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal which is to try you as if some strange thing had happened to you and even these are of his sending The Lord hath kindled a fire in Zion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof There is no evil in the city but the Lord hath done it The Lord hath done that which he had devised he hath thrown down and not pitied But this expression of our Saviour goes yet deeper and alludes to the effect of Separation which follows upon the fire of our tryal When the lump of Oar is put into the furnace the fire tryes the pure mettal from the dross and makes an actual division of the one from the other so doth Christ by his Word and Spirit even he that is the Prince and God of Peace comes to set division in the world Surely there are holy quarrels worthy of his engagement for as the flesh lusteth and warreth against the spirit so the spirit fighteth against the flesh and this duel may well beseem God for the Author and the Son of God for the setter of it these second blows make an happy fray Nothing is more properly compared then discord to fire this Christ the first thing he does sets in every heart there is all quietness secure ease and self-contentment in the soul till Christ come there How should it be other when Satan sways all without resistance but when once Christ offers to enter there are straight civil wars in the soul betwixt the old man and the new and it fares with the heart as with an house divided in it self wherein the husband and the wife are at variance nothing is to be heard but unquiet janglings open brawlings secret opposition the houshold takes part and professes a mutual vexation This Spiritual self-division where ever it is though it be troublesom yet it is cordial it puts the soul into the state of Rebecca●s womb which barren yielded no pain but when an Esau and Jacob were conceived and strugling within yielded for the time no ease