Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	bless_a	body_n	death_n	4,130	5	5.0999	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29247	Apostolick charity, its nature and excellence consider'd in a discourse upon Dan. 12. 3, preached at St. Pauls, Decemb. 19, 1697 at the ordination of some Protestant missionaries to be sent into the plantations : to which is prefixt, A general view of the English colonies in America, with respect to religion : in order to shew what provision is wanting for the propagation of Christianity in those parts / by Thomas Bray, D. D.	Bray, Thomas, 1658-1730.	1698 (1698)	Wing B4285; ESTC R6508	16,290	44

Belief of God in his Nature and Attributes and a firm practical Belief of Christ the only Begotten Son of God as the great Mediator betwixt God and Man who to that End having took upon him our Nature was Invested with the threefold Office of a Prophet to Instruct us in the way to be Reconciled to God of a Priest to satisfie his Justice for all our past Offences and of a King to Conduct and Govern us and finally to Reward us for all our Services This also is Life eternal or another part of that Righteousness for which we shall be Rewarded with Life Eternal Thus to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John xvii 3. A third is to Obey God's Holy Will and Commandments and to walk in the same all the Days of our Life that is having abandon'd the Service of Satan and yielded our selves up to the Faith of Christ the Completion of our Righteousness will be this to live the remaining part of our Lives to the Honour of God by paying him a faithful Obedience to all his most Just and Righteous Commands And Blessed are they who do his Commandments for they only shall have right to the Tree of Life Rev. xxii 14. Thus in short you see the state of that Righteousness upon the account of which we shall be justify'd and sav'd And now it will be easie to understand what it is to Turn many to Righteousness And in the highest and most exalted sence of the Phrase it is to Reduce whole Provinces under the Obedience of God It is to rescue that unhappy part of Mankind which have for so many Ages past labour'd under the Tyranny of Satan it is to reduce them to the just and happy Government of their rightful Lord and Master Jesus Christ It is to Instruct those Dark Corners of the Earth in which the Light of the Gospel has not yet shone or but very dimly It is to enlighten them with a full and bright Knowledge of their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier And it is lastly to render them obsequious Servants to a just and holy God whose Service is perfect freedom It is I say to divest them of that Inhumanity Savageness and Brutality whereby they are Beasts of Prey to each other and to stamp upon their Souls that lovely Image of God consisting in Knowledge Faith Love and Purity whereby they will become Angels nay God's one to another This is to Turn many to Righteousness in the highest Sence of the Phrase But in a Lower yet a very Noble Sence it is to be any ways Instrumental in the Instruction and Conversion of any Considerable number of Souls in any part of the World as well within the Christian Pale as elsewhere Within the Christian Pale I say where God knows there is still that Ignorance Profaneness and Immorality which loudly call for more Labourers into the Vineyard to carry on to Perfection the Information and Conversion of Christians And in both these Senses Secondly Who they are who have heretofore whose Duty yet it is and who may still be said to Turn many to Righteousness is the second thing I propos'd to shew you And here we are to consider that as the Apostacy of Mankind from God began soon after the Creation so God had his Ministers from the very beginning contesting with the Powers of Darkness and with all possible Application rescuing Mankind out of the Snares of the Devil as Abel Seth Enos and Noah before the Flood which last for his eminent and painful tho' unsuccessful Services in this great Work was call'd the Preacher of Righteousness 2 Pet. ii 5. Nor did either the Occasion for the like Preachers of Righteousness cease even after the dreadful Destruction by an universal Deluge nor was God afterwards wanting to his own Honour or the Good of Mankind in sending his Prophets and Priests to be Preachers of Righteousness to a wicked World It was but very few Centuries after the Flood that the whole Earth was again Revolted from God and overspread with Wickedness and it was not without a constant Succession of Priests and Prophets as well as of Mercies and Destructions that the Divine Providence did secure one only Nation the Jews in their Allegiance to him And yet even these his peculiar People This Holy Nation in process of Time had so corrupted themselves that their very Righteousness was as filthy Rags Isai lxiv. 6. And both their Principles and Morals were so far debas'd and the most demure and precise amongst them the Scribes and Pharisees so defective in both that our Saviour told his Disciples Except their Righteousness should exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. v. 20. And now when the Defection of Mankind from God was become so Universal that it was time for him either utterly to root out from the face of the Earth all the Inhabitants of it or he had no other way but by some Miracle of Mercy to Reform it Then did the Divine Goodness which always enclines him to the most Merciful part choose to send an Ambassador Extraordinary to propose Terms of Reconciliation and to invite Mankind home to God And accordingly God who at sundry Times and in divers Manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets did in these last Days or in the last great Age of the World speak unto us by his Son whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the World Heb. i. 1 2. And here how without Wonder and Astonishment can we behold with what prodigious Zeal Application and Industry the Blessed Jesus set upon the great Work of Reforming Mankind It was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of him that sent him and accordingly he continually went about doing Good both to the Bodies and Souls of Men. To their Bodies by Healing them of all those manifold and mighty Distempers that had then invaded them To their Souls by Curing them of those most fatal Maladies of all their Sins to rid them of which was so much the main and principal Design of his coming into the World that from hence he was denominated a Saviour to it And they shall call his Name Jesus for he shall heal his People from their Sins But the Original cause of all their Miseries both Bodily and Spiritual proceeding from the mischievous Enmity of Satan he did with the utmost diligence pursue that Rebel driving him out of the Bodies and Souls of Men both which he had so universally Usurp'd and did at that time so cruelly Tyrannize over And that he might at length be utterly dispossess'd of all his Dominion and that no Corner of the Earth might be left him to exercise his Tyranny upon when the Blessed Jesus was leaving the World himself in pursuance of that Power which was given unto him in Heaven and on Earth he Commission'd his Apostles

Milstone were hanged about his Neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matt. xviii 6 7. And a most emphatical Threatning this is to all those wicked Instruments of Uunrighteousness abroad in the World who make it their Business and seem to be intent upon this very thing It is sad enough to have one self done or acted wickedly But whosoever shall not only break tho' it be one of the least Commandments but shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. v. 19. that is none at all He shall be cast out of it and punish'd as one of those who are the greatest Enemies to it There is in the Words a vast deal more to be understood than is express'd as is usual both in the Sacred Writings and in profane Authors so that the Case of those Men is most dreadfully and desperately bad who by profane atheistical and lewd Discourse or whatever other evil Communications do corrupt good Principles and Manners But above all others it is a dreadful thing to consider what will be the Doom of those Men who by wicked Books such as both Atheists Deists Socinians and Antinomians do now to the Reproach of our Church and Nation daily publish amongst us It is dreadful I say to consider what will befall such in the End What Evil of this Nature is done only by Discourse is but transciently bad and may ruine the Souls only of some few of their unfortunate Companions But the wicked Principles which are propagated by Books are lasting Mischiefs from whence as from a Pandora's Box fly out those Plagues and Mortal Diseases that can never be recall'd and will spread Destruction and Ruine amongst the Souls of Men to the World's End And indeed it is hard to say what Measures of Repentance may be sufficient for these Men. The Repentance they must come to or be everlastingly and immeasurably Undone must be such as comes not under the ordinary Definitions given that great Condition of our Salvation It is not a private Grief and Sorrow nor barely an Amendment for the future will be sufficient to reconcile such to God But as the Dishonours done to the Great Creator by their means are never likely to end but with the World so the Reparations to be made for these kind of Affronts and Injuries to Christ's Kingdom must be by a Recantation as publick and lasting as the Nature of the Offence is And the exacting of such a Repentance as this I must needs recommend to you my Brethren who are entring to day into the Ministry when-ever you are called to the Sick Bed of any notorious Atheist or Deist whatsoever And this was the Resolution of a very eminent Bishop of our Church in the Case of one of a considerable figure amongst them after he had written his Book de Veritate You are the Stewards of the Mysteries of God so that you cannot with Fidelity to your Great Master dispence the Sacrament of Reconciliation to those who have erected lasting Batteries against his Kingdom till they themselves by a like publick Recantation shall have pull'd them down with their own hands So that you see the very Repentance of those who shall Turn many to Unrighteousness is a hard and fearful Discipline And what then How much beyond the common Measures will the Punishment of those amongst them be who shall remain Impenitent And indeed it is but reasonable to believe that the Case will be vastly different betwixt those who have only in their own Persons transgrest the Laws of God and such who make a Party and fight the Devil's Battels against Him These Men must be supposed to be first at perfect Enmity with Him and their whole Nature must be envenom'd against Him and therefore it cannot be expected but that the Fury of his Wrath and the very Dregs of his Anger will be poured out against such And now if of all other Sinners those will be the most exquisitely punish'd who shall any ways corrupt and deprave the Principles and Manners of Mankind then by parity of Reason of all the Righteous Servants of God those will be exalted to the highest degrees of Glory who shall be most industrious in the Instruction and Conversion of Men or shall lay the Foundation of Christian Knowledge or Contribute toward the Promoting of it For this we need no other Testimony than that remarkable place of St. James v. 20. Know that he which converteth a Sinner from the Error of his Ways shall save a Soul from Death and shall cover a Multitude of Sins These Words speak such a Regard to the Charitable Endeavours of those who do any ways promote or do Labour in the Instruction and Conversion of Sinners that through the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ by which only it is that God becomes propitious to our best Performances this kind of Charity will be had in no mean Consideration when God shall take Cognizance of our Sins and Failures And if the Converting of one Sinner shall be so consider'd what Glories will await those who Turn many to Righteousness I cannot possibly express them in any higher Words than those of my Text in which alone there is a force and lustre like to the Rewards themselves which they bespeak And proportionably as the Assistances given to Turn many to Righteousness shall be most extensive and lasting in the same measure we must suppose the degrees of Glory will be alotted to such Piety And therefore since next to what the Apostles did by their personal Labours and inspir'd Writings to Convert Mankind to God scarcely any thing can be thought of a more direct and immediate Tendency to the same Glorious and Blessed End than to lay up those Magazines of Christian Knowledge on the Confines of Satan's Kingdom out of which the Ministers of God's Word may be constantly supply'd both with the Food of Souls and with that Spiritual Armour wherewith they may carry on the War with Success so as at length to drive that Arch-Rebel out of those vast Territories he now possesses It will therefore follow that those pious Persons will most effectually consult their future Happiness and provide best for an Exalted Glory who shall expend most in fixing Libraries of necessary and useful Books in Divinity in order to the Instruction both of Minister and People Such indeed cannot be said by so doing to hazard their Persons in the Converting of Mankind and so may not be entitled thereby to the Reward of Martyrs and Confessors But however they may be much more instrumental in Turning many to Righteousness even than those who actually labour in the Work it self because that in effect it will be they who shall Preach Catechize and Instruct those Parts of the World as well in future as in the present Age. It is they will be the Fountain we shall be only the Conduit-Pipes through which the Waters of Life will be convey'd to the