Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	alive_a	body_n	dead_a	4,124	5	6.9287	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57460	Divine meditations and contemplations upon severall heads of divinity by G.R. compiled for his owne private use, and published for the common good.	G. R.	1641 (1641)	Wing R17; ESTC R25600	72,461	276

anguish for Christs sake Saint Paul is a notable example unto us of this kind and if thus wee dye dayly as Christians wee shall never be afraid to dye as men wee shall be ever ready for death and so farre from shrinking backe that wee shall boldly meet it it shall be no losse but gaine unto us no end of life but the beginning of a better while wee fly death we runne into sinne headlong yet is there no death so bad Oh that wee could once truely learne to dye that we might live for ever Many are dead which thinke themselves alive Many to avoid a temporall death do lose those things without which life is nothing worth the parting of the soule from the body is no death but the parting of God from the soule if the body without breath be but a carcasse what is a Christian without grace but a painted tombe Our first birth is the death of that life which the infant drawes from his mother and the body is borne into the world for sense and growth by our second birth which is the death of the body the soule is borne into the kingdome of heaven to live a new life from the body for there it understands without phantasie or common sense it seeth without eyes heareth without eares maketh it selfe understood without speech And as the birth of the body into the world is a better life than that which the Infant had in his mothers wombe so must the birth of the soule into heaven be a better life than that of the body by how much the faculties of the soule are more excellent than the bodily senses In our mothers wombe we lived as plants in the world wee lived as men in heaven wee shall live as the Angels neither are soule and body parted so as they shall never meet againe for the body no doubt doth naturally long for the soule and the soule beareth a love to the body Therefore by a holy ordinance of the Lord they abide one anothers absence for a while that they may come together againe as man and wife with the greater comfort the body is gone downe into the grave to leave there his shame of mortality of weakenesse of corruption necessity without all which after the resurrection it shall returne to the soule and the soule trimmed and tricked up in glory like a fresh spouse shall receive the body into the same glory and both shall be received into God and dwell with him for ever Death then is called so onely as it doth appoare unto us and others which live here but in very deed and by the benefit of Christ the state of the dead is the very true life everlasting neither is the birth of the child a greater hope of life in the world than is this of the soule in the death of the body of the life both of body and soule to be glorisied in the kingdome of heaven Many think on death to be more vicious as Epicures Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye some will not thinke at all on death and they live neither the longer nor the better but are sure to die much the worse When wee thinke on death which are Christians it should make us live very justly and soberly because wee looke for a Kingdome after death where none enter but the righteous Oh my soule and body if wee must needs part how soone wee know not let us do it willingly to overcome necessity resistance is vaine obedience is profitable let us provide for that which else will prevent us let us make use of death as some do of money which else lyes dead let us die in the Lord to the Lord this is the best advantage Meditation 44. Last Judgement VVEe cannot avoide either judgment or death when sicknesse summous us to the one doth not our conscience to the other and in this life God hath his tryalls judgements executions so that men of times are forced to cry out Justus es Domine just a sunt judicia tua but because the wicked observe them not and God doth desire to appeare unto men rather as a mercifull father than a severe Judge therefore the Majesty the Authority the severity of his judgment is hid unto us so farre that wee are bound to beleeve that he will come to judge a thing which else we would never dream of Though then we see no examples of this judgement as yet neither can conceive the form therof yet do wee beleeve it and that there is a certaine time appointed for it they that looke not for it with joy shall abide it with sorrow that is that last and finall judgement wherein all causes shall be opened all persons censured all workes rewarded what hath hitherto beene suspended shall now be sentenced and never more altered Marke the preparation unto it the heavens shall passe away with noyse the elements shall melt with fervent heat the sea shall be dried up and the earth shall be burnt with all her workes then a summoning trumpet shall sound and awake up all those that sleepe in the silence of death and they together with the living shall be caught up then shall the Judge appeare visibly above in flaming fire compassed about with infinite thousands of Angels ready to do his will A strange judgement towards no doubt whether we respect the Judge or the parties which are to make their appearance or the sentence it selfe the wisdome of the Judge is such that hee cannot be deceived hee knoweth all causes without information things past are to him present and things to come hee made mans heart and findeth out every corner and turning thereof hee heares our words before wee speake them and knowes our thoughts before wee act them we do not will without his power though without his allowance nor worke without his privity though without his consent nay he knowes our purposes before wee are fully resolved and our thoughts before wee conceive them and our workes without producing any witnesse his justice is such that he cannot pervert judgment for favour or bribes his will is the rule of all righteousnesse and therefore hee can favour no cause but that which is right and if hee could be unrighteous what bribe might winne him which wanteth nothing his power is such that all must abide his decree here lyes no appeale no prohibition can be granted againstit no pardon obtained his jealousie shall take on harnesse and hee shall arme the creature to be avenged of his enemies hee shall put on righteousnesse for a breast-plate and take unfained judgement instead of an helmet equity shall be his shield and his fierce wrath as a sharpe sword and his troop are the whole compasse of the world Now what are the parties which are to appeare and abide tryall Adam and his posterity from the first man to the last that shall be borne here shall they be judged which have beene heretofore Judges

past have not refused to be Shepheards and they which at this day doe rule in the State have this as no meane title of their authority to be stiled Shepheards of the people yea God himselfe doth vouchsafe to expresse the Government which he taketh over his people under the title of Shepheard and Christ Jesus our Lord who died for mankind is called the great Shepheard of our Soules And indeed the charge over a flock or people are much like wee in England have a great desire to deale on Sheep and it is one of the chiefest commodities in the Countrey they are so profitable their Wool is in great request at home and with strangers their bodies are good for meat or medicine yea their very excrement have their use they are gentle of nature not dangerous to be handled as other beasts which are armed to defend or offend howbeit in this doth not the resemblance hold so well but if you respect the weaknesse and necessities of Sheep it may notably expresse the care the faithfullnesse the diligence which God useth in governing his people God is desirous to rule his servants as a flock of Sheep not for any great profit he can make of them neither is it intended of him which needs it not or lookt for there where it cannot be had for though their bodies were of excellent imployment by creation yet what are they of themselves since Adams Fall but cages of uncleane Birds nests of sinne grievously tainted with a sicknesse that in Sheep makes carcasse and Wool unprofitable It is alone then for our profit that hee will have us under government the Laws which he makes are not for his owne good which is infinite goodnesse in himselfe but for ours neither the courses which wee undertake under his direction for his happinesse who is eternall happinesse himselfe but for ours True it is that he addeth unto his Law authority to make us the rather yeeld unto that which is for our benefit and from his authority doth proceed reward or punishment that wee may know hee commandeth not in vaine Moreover the government of men as they best know which know State matters is the men themselves being so variable full of discontent and malice above all Creatures if wee will count them tame because of reason wee shall find them wild and savage by evill course and custome of life notwithstanding God doth make them so his owne whom he rules as his flock that none shall be able to pull them out of his hands he will not lose one of the least of them he leaveth the ninety and nine to seek out the wandring and lost Sheep and when he hath found him layeth him on his shoulders with joy and returning home maketh merry with his Neighbours for the Sheep that was lost but is found he knoweth his Sheep and is known of them he will lay downe his life for his Sheep and will not forsake them he bringeth them into the sweet pastures of his holy Word and refresheth them with the coole Waters of his Spirit he hath a rod and a staffe the rod keeps in his Sheep and the staffe keeps out the Wolfe by all which it commeth to passe that no flock is in such state as his they have a comely order in their going forth a provident provision of needfull things and sure safety all about them happy is he that can say The Lord is my Shepheard he that is not of this fold is of the Devils wast Christ hath many promises of good to be done unto his flock and for his flockes sake it is he cannot abide the Wolfe of which one is no good Neigbour and the other a deadly enemy to Sheep I count him the Wolfe which is the knowne adversary and the Goat is the loose Christian the adversary hath a bloudy mind and the loose Christian is offensive by an ill life Meditation 13. Dulnesse of Spirit THere is no disease more dangerous to a religious Soule then dulnesse or heavinesse of Spirit which makes the ground of the heart so cold that the seed of grace lyeth for a time as it were dead and hath no growth it makes the Christian either fearfull or slow to doe good and layeth him open to tentations it ariseth from the corruption of nature which is froward increaseth by diseases and discontentments and groweth to a head by particular doubts and uncertainties it hath strange Symptomes even in those which have beene well schooled and trained up in Christianity it suggesteth and would perswade them well-neare that it is all as well with the godlesse as the godly that he is in as good cause that sweareth as he that feareth an oath that an upright conscience is but a ceremonious scrupulosity formality and complement may serve as well that the world is not so unworthy a thing as lightly to be set by and the joyes of Heaven belong rather to Angels then men it is offended at hearing or reading Gods word prayers good workes holy meetings and hath some exception against them all it will perswade thee in particular that God doth not regard or so much as respect thy service and close with thee this at last if thy calling bee so worthy as thou wouldst make it yet art thou unworthy of thy calling unfit and so farre from speeding in it that it were better for thee to doe any other thing or just nothing I know not whereunto I may better compare this disease then to that which in women yong with child they call Longing when the stomach stopt with ill humours the appetite is altered and the Patient importunately desireth strange meats so in this cause naturall inbred corruptions striving against grace and abounding within doe alter the godly appetite making Gods servant loath his ordinary diet and exercises as being uncomfortable unsavory and to affect strange things contrary to the health of the Soule They which travell by Sea when they see it once calme and on a sudden to dance and shake and know no cause why looke for a tempest shortly after so this dulnesse or heavinesse which is so unquiet and out of order goeth many times before some greater sinne let it be considered whether such a kind of dulnesse came not on David before his adultery and numbring the people on the Disciples before they forsooke their master and specially on Peter before he denied his Lord. I put a difference betweene this heavinesse or dulnesse of spirit and that hardnesse of heart deadnesse or benumming which is proper to the wicked in cause for that proceeds from customes and habits in sinne from wilfull stubbernesse this from the reliques of corruption yet abiding in Gods children in degree that is without sense or feeling Like a lethargy this hath some resistance and like the fit of an Ague in event that doth make them worse and in the end overcome them this the godly doe overcome and after grow the better advised The meanes to avoid