Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	call_v	reason_n	4,039	5	4.9623	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34527	Gods providence, a sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast, Decemb. 28, 1642, in S. Margarets Church at Westminster by Ed. Corbett ...	Corbet, Edward, d. 1658.	1642 (1642)	Wing C6241; ESTC R20147	26,491	35

things are naked and open unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do Nothing can escape his knowledge we are as it were divided and bowelled without our clothes without our skin in the sight of God But when we are lockt in our chambers the windowes shut the curtaine drawn over our heads when we are compassed about with stone walls who then shall see us Nemo te videt saith Saint Bernard non tamen nullus No man indeed can see thee but he seeth thee before whose tribunall thou must one day stand and give an account for every idle word Thy good Angells see thee and greeve at thy sinne the Divell seeth thee and rejoyceth at thy follie The stones in the wall see thee and are ready when God pleaseth to fall upon thee and to grinde thee to powder But Gods power doth not rest here his all seeing Eye is not terminated in words and actions He searcheth the raines he reads cleerly the book of our soule he heares our thoughts this House of our body walls of flesh cannot exclude the rayes of that Omnipotent Majestie David in the 94. Psa. 81. will call them fools who think otherwise he will give a reason for it in the 92. v. He that planted the eare shall not he heare or he that formed the eye shall not he see he that made the heart shall not he know the wayes and works thereof But Gods Eyes are purer yet and I have not expressed the least part of their brightnesse God understands our thoughts a far off Psal. 139.2 from all eternitie saith Lyranus uppon that place as soone as he had existence himself and he was never without existence he did know all the purposes the secret motions the deepest roote and grounde of all our cogitations But alas who can measure that which is infinite Our great God knoweth more yet and which may make us adore and admire and tremble beholds us in our proper and corrupt condition he discerns much filth and great staines in the fairest soule he seeth our carnall thoughts our worldly thoughts our presumptuous thoughts our suspitious thoughts our partiall thoughts our curious thoughts our vaine thoughts he seeth our wisest thoughts are foolishnesse and our best thoughts have enough to condemne us But O worme that I am ashes and nothing and worse then nothing why do I endeavour to fathome the depth of Gods knowledge to describe that light which looketh further and further and hath no end of looking further Whatsoever God seeth and he seeth whatsoever hath been and whatsoever is whatsoever will be or may be he seeth whatsoever is to be seene and whatsoever is not to be seene he rules and governs and commands he directs to his own glory and mans salvation Philosophy will teach us that Angels can discover bad thoughts by wicked actions and judge of the soul by the temper of the body But to see us from everlasting and to see us in our native fowlenesse and deformity to know our thoughts before they were and so long before they were to dispose of them to his own ends this is that altitudo of which Saint Paul speaks into which the further we descend the lower we may sink and the more we know the more we are ignorant O thou Christian then whosoever thou art having fought a good fight made conscience of thy ways and kept thy selfe straight in the middest of a crooked generation do not hang down thy head or remit one jot of thy zeale in goodnesse for the reproaches of Men or the unjust censures of all the world rather revive and quicken thy industry in every good cause inflame thy holy life and in despite of all the sharp arrowes of calumniation run joyfully in the race of Gods service raise thy languishing thoughts with David in the consideration of thy own sinceritie and innocence and single heart comfort thy self with the example of Christ who despised the shame for the joy which was set before him and satisfie thy soule with Jobs resolution behold now my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high When thou art going to any lewd Act profane company vaine pleasure remember the God of Israel looks upon thee If profit unhappily move thee to injustice oppression or any other service of the Divell if rotten lusts unconstant honour base ends lay siege unto thy soul and endanger thy spirituall safety call to mind the presence of the Almightie This one weapon of Divine Armory is powerful enough to confound a whole world of temptations and to conquer Hell it self For will any man cut a purse before the Iudges face and when he is sitting upon the Bench will any man commit adultery in the open streets Nothing hinders vice so much as nakednes if Seneca speak true the greatest part of sins are committed for want of witnesses How tender were the primitive Christians herein Who would not tell a lie to save their lives as Justin Martyr relates Saint Augustin proceeds further and will not admit a lie for the salvation of a mans soule But Job hath a straine above all and will not have a lie told for the glory of God that glory which is the greatest Good which is the end of all things which Moses preferr'd before his own everlasting happinesse O mercyfull Father how are we degenerated from those pious resolutions what Spirit hardens our hearts and devoures the conscience of these later generations which make lying a Profession and are constant in nothing else which maintaine the lawfulnesse thereof and confirme on truths with Oathes and Imprecations In Davids time the fool said in his heart there is no God he durst not speak it with his tongue But our Atheisme is raised to that height and boldnesse that we dare professe it in our words and Actions we dare brag of our uncleannes in contempt as it were of heaven and in scorn of the Almightie Adde to this the filthines of sinne which our Saviour tells us Math. 15. defiles the Man {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} makes him Common which by an Hebraisme is profane uncleane beastly Agreeable to which is that of Saint James lay aside all filthines and superfluitie of naughtines filthines in the abstract {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} naughtines which is an excrement a nastie thing as odious and detestable in the nostrills of the Almightie as our very excrements are to us Vpon which ground Devout Anselme professed that he would rather be in Hell and free from sinne then polluted with the filthines thereof possesse the Kingdome of Heaven Now if every sinne be of this blotting beastly condition if the Almightie beholds them in their vilest shape in their greatest deformitie what shall we think of those crying sinns of unfaithfulnesse blasphemy whoredom murther how do they difile us what beasts and black Divells do they make us what shall we think of

And the letter Thau upon the foreheads of his people shall preserve them Ezech. 9. God is not like the Children of Men who can do nothing without their Tooles he can work above meanes and he can work against meanes sometimes he disableth the greatest meanes and sometimes he useth no meanes at all 2. God can help the meanes He that can work without meanes can improve and advance the weakest meanes can raise and quicken every temper and dispose little occasions to great purposes Luther an obscure Fryer did shake the whole Kingdom of Hell and Antichrist by whom God gave Truth a resurrection a conquest over heresie The whole world against Athanasius and Athanasius against it half a hundred of yeares spent in doubtfull triall which of the two in the end would prevaile the side which had all or that part which had no Friend but God and Death And to come a little nearer home and it would be strange ingratitude in this place to forget that general deliverance which this whole land obtain'd by the doubtfull language of a few carelesse syllables And which is more to be admired when the vault was ready the powder laid the trayne made the match prepared the Executioners of all bloudy in resolution and in the rage of their Fury Then the hand of God made a scrip of Paper to frustrate all the work and to vanquish Rome and Hell it self we all know that Ezechias being sick unto death was cured with a bunch of Figgs which having a peculiar Nature to drie Vlcers in time would have Matured the Boyl but the suddaine cure was the hand of God if the Iron be blunt God puts more strength unto it If our gracious Creator will favour the building of the Temple no raine shall fall for ten yeares space in the day-time to hinder the workmen The woman in the Revel. the Spouse of Christ shall be holpen by the Earth the dullest of Elements the basest of the people· Naaman shall be healed by the common waters of Jordan the blinde-man cured by clay and spittle Physick fitter in common reason to have destroy'd the Eyes than to have restored the sight When God speaks terror 300. Men shall vanquish a mightie Hoast and emptie pitchers shall affright an Army as much as roring Cannons Nay a blast a rumor a Fancy shall overthrow the greatest power on earth The Moabites had a Fancy that they saw the bloud of their Enemies when they saw nothing but the sun shining in the water And yet this Fancy was their overthrow 2. King 3.22 So easy it is for God to raise strength out of weaknesse to pull down the pride of flesh and bloud and to make a shadow a trifle the Instrument of great Deliverance And therefore 1. Trust not in Meanes The way to have any thing taken from us and not blest is to trust in it and depend too much upon it The Prophet Ierem. is positive herein cursed be the Man who trusts in Man and who maketh flesh his Arme The reason followeth and which draweth his heart from God For when we make flesh our arme account it our support and strength and relie upon it for deliverance Our hearts are withdrawn and departed from the living God we Deifie the Creature and as much as in us lies we unGod that Creator The Lord himself in effect speaks as much in his discourse with Gedeon Iudg. 7. The people which are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands lest Israel make their vaunt against me and say my hand hath saved me Self-sufficiency and Creature-confidence is of a vaunting and rebellious Spirit It sets up it self and De-thrones the Almightie Woe to them saith Isay. in the 31. C. that go down into Egypt for help and trust in charets because they are many and in horses because they are strong And if you would know what this woe is the Prophet will acquaint you in the 3. V. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand the helper shall fall and he that is holpen shall fall and they shall all together faile Curses and woes follow them which rest in and lean to earthly things and the fruit of carnall confidence is destruction Out of God there is nothing but the Creature which is changeable emptie and insufficient which borrowes all the worth it hath and by very trusting in it proves uncomfortable How many Parents lose their children by setting their hearts too much upon them who miscarry oftner than Men of the greatest parts Let us not therefore cry up the hands of Zerubbabel nor the greatnesse of an Army nor the wisdom of a Parliament but let us exalt the power of the Almightie adore his Providence trust in his goodnesse let every Christian endeavour to joyne his soule close unto God and as it were to square it fit for him to bring his trust only to the God of trust and to set him in his own place the highest in the heart For the conjunction of the soule with God is the life thereof and while we be carefull to preserve that union the Gates of Hell cannot prevaile against us we stand impregnable But if the Divell come once betwixt God and our soules and it is his greatest study so to Do If the love of the creature and confidence therein make the least separation and unloose our hearts from their chiefest good then our rock and sure footing is gone we lie open to that roaring Lion and to those waters of iniquity which will quickly sink us in perdition Despaire Idolatrie Atheisme and the whole bodie of sin have free passage into our soules We cannot step from God but Sathan steps to us Every degree of departing from God is distrust and unbeliefe and what will not an unbelieving heart commit 2. Serve Gods Providence in the use of meanes So far as God affords us helpes and meanes we must not be wanting in our Dutie to actuat their power and to employ them to the best advantage we must go along with Providence and serve occasion and opportunities and be exactly carefull of all meanes although we must not trust in any God promised Josuah not to leave him nor forsake him yet he bids him be strong and of a good courage the Israelites must fight it out when God had given the Enemy into their hands Indeed sometimes he will have us only spectators of his Actions he will tell Jehosaphat and the people of Judah they shall not need to fight in the battel stand still move not and behold the salvation of the Lord towards you when he is pleased to shew a strange deliverance and to get honour in the confusion of his Enemies as he did on Pharaoh in the red Sea then there shall be no concurse of second causes he will fight himself and do his own work with his own hands but most commonly he requires the service of the Creatures