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_v	lord_n	psal_n	5,398	5	8.4230	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68105	The way to well-doing. Or A sermon of faith and good vvorkes Preached in the chappell of Buntingford, in the county of Hartford, at the beginning of their publike lecture. By Iohn Gore, rector of Wenden-lofts in Essex.	Gore, John, Rector of Wendenlofts, Essex.; Gore, John, Rector of Wendenlofts, Essex, Summer sermon. aut; Gore, John, Rector of Wendenlofts, Essex. Winter sermon. aut	1638 (1638)	STC 12087; ESTC S116024	20,619	38

intercession to God against Israel Good men in former times were wont to make intercession to God For the people not Against them Abraham prayed for the wicked Sodomites Ieremy prayed for the Idolatrous Israelites till God forbad him and gave him a countermand Pray no more for this people for I will not heare thee Ier. 11. 14. The Husbandman in the Parable entreates his Master for the unfruitfull tree that he would spare it and not cut it downe and doth Eliah differ from all the rest and bend his prayers against the people and pray for the vexation and undoing of his Country How could this stand with that good Religion and that good affection which so holy a man should beare towards the people of God Answer Three things there are in my weake judgement that may seeme to warrant and beare out Eliah in praying for a judgement 1. Authoritas Prophetica Prophets might doe more then ordinary persons and Eliah had the spirit of Prophesie and knew by revelation from God that such a judgement was a comming therefore he might the more warrantably and unoffensively frame his desires to Gods appointments and fit his prayers to Gods purposes Thus must we conceive of those bitter execrations and imprecations wherewith David did so often in the Psalmes curse and banne his enemies Let their Table be their snare let their children be vagabondes and begge their bread c. A man would thinke it could not stand with the piety and charity of a godly man to wish such wicked events such uncharitable wishes to proceed out of his mouth but onely that we know he was a Prophet of God and did it per afflatum divinum by the direction and inspiration of the Holy Ghost he knew by the spirit of Prophesie they were such as were accursed of God being Gods enemies as well as his and therefore might the more warrantably and safely doe it It is not for us to use Davids curses unlesse we had Davids spirit David and Eliah had that gift which the Apostle cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the discerning spirits they knew by instinct from heaven who were blessed and who were cursed of God It is not so with us God hath hid those secrets from our eyes and therefore it is our part and duty to pray in love and charity That God would have mercy upon all men But what use then are we to make of those curses in the Psalmes that are read so often to us Answer Thus we may doe we may apply them to the enemies of the Church that seeke the ruine of the true Religion and professe an open enmity to the Gospel and faith of Iesus Christ Who is God blessed for ever we may safely take our Saviours part and curse all those that are enemies to him So let all thy enemies perish O Lord Iud. 5. 31. But for our owne enemies that have done us some private wrong or bare us some secret grudge to curse them and ban them in this kinde as the usuall manner of some is it is both unwarrantable uncharitable and ungodly But the best and safest use that we can make of those curses is to appropriate and apply them to our selves to acknowledge and adjudge our selves worthy to undergoe all those deadly evils and that God may justly doe so and more than so unto us if hee should deale with us according to our sinnes by this meanes we shall save God a labour and our selves a paine For as on the contrary to blesse our selves is the way to make God curse us Deut. 29. 20. Hee that blesseth himselfe when hee heareth the words of these curses saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of my owne heart adding drunkennesse to thirst marke what followes The Lord will be revenged upon the soule of such a one his anger and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall light upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven This a man gets by blessing of himselfe whereas if thou wouldst be blest of God I doe not say that thou shouldst curse thy selfe farre be it from any servant of Christ so to doe but this I would advise thee to doe even with a sorrowfull and a sad heart to say Amen to all the curses in the Booke of God to acknowledge and confesse that thou hast justly deserved and that it is Gods onely mercy that thou hast escaped them So much for the first reason that may warrant Eliahs prayer the next may be this 2. Convenientia temporis the fitnesse and order of time when this was done it was done in the time of the Law which was used to such judgements they were then accustomed to more terrible wonders than are now sutable to the sweete and saving time of the Gospel observe the wonders that Moses wrought in Egypt what terrible what hurtfull what mischievous wonders they were he turned all their water into blood all their dust into Lice and spoyled all the fruits of the earth and undid the whole Land What a dreadfull wonder was that of Elisha 2 Reg. 2. when he cursed the children of Bethel that mocked him for his baldnesse One would have thought that a little discipline a little correction or sending to their Parents or Masters would have sufficed and beene a sufficient revenge for waggish unhappy boyes that did not know their duty to a man of God but hee lookes upon them with a direfull countenance and cursed and banned them in the name of the Lord and immediately two Shee-beares came out of the Wood and tare two and forty of them in pieces what a horrible what a terrible what a mischeivous wonder was this Of the same kind was that of Eliah 2 Reg. 1. When the Captaine came with authority to bid him come downe and come before the King he might have answered I cannot come or the Lord appointed me some other way to goe c. but the next word we heare is a word of Iudgement and Vengeance If I be a man of God let fire come downe from heaven and consume thee and thy company and so it did both them and the rest that came after on the same message Such wonders as these were usuall in the time of the Law But now looke to the Miracles and Wonders of our Saviour in the Gospell and you shall finde them to be of another nature all of goodnesse and mercy all mercifull all beneficiall all healing Miracles no way hurtfull or destructive of any mans life We read of many a mans life that he saved many that hee recalled and restored none that he destroyed no not one being so reviled as he was so persecuted so laid for so betrayed apprehended condemned and crucified yet what one man did our Saviour strike dead for all these haynous indignities Nay he was so farre from revenge that he prayed for their lives that sought

hold of his pure and precious soule set but that aside and our Saviour Christ was as Eliah is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man subject to the very same infirmities and passions of anger and feare and sorrow and sadnesse that wee are and happy was it for us that so he was for by this meanes he became as the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 17. A mercifull High-Priest one that knew how to tender and succour our infirmities because himselfe had a feeling of them in his owne nature This made him so tenderly affected towards the hungry multitude Mat. 15. because himselfe knew by his owne experience what an unsufferable misery hunger was This made him so compassionate towards the sorrowes of Mary and Martha Iohn 11. because himselfe was Vir dolorum a man acquainted with griefe and sorrow And such was his compassion toward Peter in that state of desertion wherein he lay Luke 22. because himselfe knew and felt in his owne soule what a woefull thing it was to be forsaken of God And this is the assurance which the Apostle gives us that wee shall obtaine mercy and grace from Iesus Christ to helpe and comfort us in time of neede Heb. 4. 16. because himselfe had a feeling of the same infirmities and was a man subject to the same passions that wee our selves are sinne onely excepted In a word then as there is no Rose since the Creation but hath his prickles as well as his sweete leaves so there is no man living since the fall of Adam except our Saviour forementioned who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man both but hath his passions as well as his perfections his infirmities as well as his graces As Cyril observes there is no Rocke of stone so hard but hath some crackes some clefts and seames in it whereat weedes spring out and grow so there is no mans heart so sanctified and filled with grace but hath some crackes some flawes in it whereat his sinnes and corruptions sprout and issue out to his no small regret and greife And as we see by experience that there is chaffe about every corne in the field and bitternesse in every branch of Wormewood and saltnesse in every drop of water in the Sea so is there infirmity and frailty corruption and passion in every man woman and child of what estate of what degree of what profession soever Eliah was a holy man a zealous man a man of God and yet a man subject to passions Let no man therefore be too forward or too severe in censuring and condemning the follies and frailties the weakenesses and passions of godly men or of the men of God such as Eliah was for alas they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the same passions that other men are Solomon tels us Pro. 27 19 That as in water face answereth to face so doth the heart of man to man A man that lookes into the water or into a glasse shall see a face there in all points answering to his owne the same spots the same warts the same wrinkles and blemishes that he sees in the face in the water they are all the very same in his owne face there is face answering to face so doth the heart of man to man the same evils the same corruptions lusts and sins that thou seest in another mans heart breaking out into his life the very selfe-same are in thy owne heart his heart to thine is but as a face answering to a face in the water Observe the Apostles demand 1 Cor. 4. 7. and apply it to thy selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who makes thee to differ from another man For by nature all are alike all equally devoid of spirituall grace and goodnesse and all equally prone to sinne and wickednesse how comes it to passe then that one man differs from another that one is holy blamelesse and undefiled in his way another licentious and loose and spotted with the world Answer It is not any thing in nature beleeve that for a truth but meerely that same Gratia discriminans as Divines call it that distinguishing Grace of God it is that which makes the difference betwixt one man and another Let no man therefore ascribe any thing to himselfe for his freedome from great offences but give God the glory of his grace which had made him to differ from the greatest sinner and if at any time thou seest another man breake out into passion or miscarry in his way by some ill temptation reprove him in Gods name and pray for him when thou hast done and withall reflect upon thy selfe and say as Plato did Num ego talis uspiam Am not I such a one Have not I beene or may not I be as vile and as vicious as hee Be not therefore too censorious nor too supercilious as the manner of some is but incline rather to thinke every man better than to thinke any man worse than thy selfe if thou seest thy brother overtaken in a fault doe then as the Apostle adviseth thee Gal. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restore him with the spirit of meckenesse or as the word signifieth bind him up gently and lovingly as a Chirurgian doth a bone that is out of joynt Considering thy selfe saith hee least thou also be tempted considering I say that thou art as he is and all men are as Eliah was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too like one another in that which is naught all subject to the same passions All as the Apostle saith shut up under sinne And I pray God of his goodnesse have mercy on us all Amen Againe the consideration of this if it be rightly conceived may serve for a comfort and a stay unto such tender consciences as have sinned of infirmity and like Moses in their haste have spoken unadvisedly with their lips not being able for the time to over-rule and bridle their passions It is some comfort to consider that the greatest Saints of God have sometimes beene of the same temper yea there is not a soule in heaven the soule of Iesus Christ onely excepted but hath beene sometimes subject to the very same passions And I said This is my infirmity saith the Psalmist Psal 77. 10. but I remember the yeares of the right hand of the most High i. I consider and call to minde that God in former times and in the dayes of old hath had compassion upon the same infirmities in other men and why should I misdoubt he being still the same compassionate God but that hee will have pitty and compassion upon the same infirmities in me But some man may say How shall I know and be assured that my sinnes are sinnes of infirmity such as God will winke at and not rather sinnes of presumption and iniquity such as his soule abhorres Answer A sinne of infirmity may be knowne two wayes 1. By the antecedent which goes before it and that is an honest resolution of a mans heart against sinne and evill