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	consist_v	life_n	6,018	5	5.2250	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90296	A vision of vnchangeable free mercy, in sending the means of grace to undeserved sinners: wherein Gods uncontrollable eternall purpose, in sending, and continuing the gospel unto this nation, in the middest of oppositions and contingencies, is discovered: his distinguishing mercy, in this great work, exalted, asserted, against opposers, repiners: in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, April. 29. being the day of publike humiliation. Whereunto is annexed, a short defensative about church-government, (with a countrey essay for the practice of church-government there) toleration and petitions about these things. / By Iohn Owen, minister of the gospel at Coggeshall in Essex.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1646 (1646)	Wing O825; Thomason E334_15; Thomason E334_16; ESTC R200768	49,154	60

cum Christo quam regnare cum Caesare said Luther a dungeon with Christ is a Throne and a Throne without Christ a hell Nothing so ill but Christ will compensate the greatest evil in the world is sin and the greatest sin was the first and yet Gregory feared not to cry O felix culpa quae talem meruit redemptorem oh happy fault which found such a Redeemer All mercies without Christ are bitter and every cup is sweet that is seasoned but with a drop of his blood he truly is amor delitiae humani generis the love and delight of the sonnes of men without whom they must perish eternally for there is no other name given unto them whereby they may be saved Act. 4. He is the way men without him are Cains wanderers vagabonds He is the truth men without him are liars devils who was so of old He is the life without him men are dead dead in trespasses and sins He is the light without him men are in darknes and go they know not whither He is the vine those that are not graffed in him are withered branches prepared for the fire He is the rock men not built on him are carried away with a flood He is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the first and the last the Author and the ender the founder and the finisher of our salvation he that hath not him hath neither beginning of good nor shall have end of misery O blessed Jesus how much better were it not to be then to be without thee Never to be borne then not to die in thee A thousand hels come short of this eternally to want Jesus Christ as men do that want the Gospel 2. They want all holy Communion with God wherein the onely happines of the soul doth consist He is the life light joy and blessednes of the soul without him the soul in the body is but a dead soul in a living Sepulchre It is true there be many that say who will shew us any good but unles the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us we perish for evermore Thou hast made us for thy self ô Lord and our heart is unquiet untill it come to thee You who have tasted how gracious the Lord is who have had any converse and communion with him in the issues and goings forth of his grace those delights of his soul with the children of men would you live would not life it self with a confluence of all earthly endearements be a very hell without him Is it not the daily language of your hearts Whom have we in heaven but thee and in earth there is nothing in comparison of thee The soul of man is of a vast boundles comprehension so that if all created good were centred into one enjoyment and that bestowed upon one soul because it must needs be finite and limited as created it would give no solid contentment to his affections nor satisfaction to his desires In the presence and fruition of God alone there is joy for evermore at his right hand are rivers of pleasure the welsprings of life and blessednes Now if to be without communion with God in this life wherein the soul hath so many avocations from the contemplation of its own misery for earthly things are nothing else is so unsupportable a calamity ah what shall that poor soul do that must want him for eternity as all they must do who want the Gospel 3. They want all the Ordinances of God the joy of our hearts and comfort of our souls Oh the sweetnes of a Sabbath The heavenly raptures of prayer Oh the glorious communion of Saints which such men are deprived of if they knew the value of the hidden pearl and these things were to be purchased what would such poor souls not part with for them 4. They will at last want Heaven and salvation they shall never come to the presence of God in glory never inhabite a glorious mansion they shall never behold Jesus Christ but when they shall call for rocks and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from his presence they shall want light in utter darknes want life under the second death want refreshment in the middest of flames want healing under gnawing of conscience want grace continuing to blaspheme want glory in full misery and which is the sum of all this they shall want an end of all this for their worme dieth not neither is their fire quenched Thirdly Because being in all this want they know not that they want any thing and so never make out for any supply Laodicea knew much but yet because she knew not her wants she had almost as good have known nothing Gospellesse men know not that they are blinde and seek not for eye-salve they know not that they are dead and seek not for life What ever they call for not knowing their wants is but like a mans crying for more weight to presse him to death and therefore when the Lord comes to any with the Gospel he is found of them that sought him not and made manifest to them that asked not after him Rom. 10. 20. This is a seal upon their misery without Gods free-mercy like the stone laid upon the mouth of the cave by Joshua to keep in the five Kings untill they might be brought out to be hanged All that men do in the world is but seeking to supply their wants either their naturall wants that nature may be supplied or their sinfull wants that their lusts may be satisfied or their spirituall wants that their souls may be saved For the two first men without the Gospel lay out all their strength but of the last there is amongst them a deep silence Now this is all one as for men to cry out that their finger bleeds whilest a sword is run thorow their hearts and they perceive it not to desire a wart to be cured whilest they have a plague-sore upon them And hence perhaps it is that they are said to go to hell like sheep Psal. 49. 14. very quietly without dread as a bird hasting to the snare and not knowing that it is for his life Prov. 7. 23. and there ly down in utter disappointment and sorrow for evermore 4. Because all mercies are bitter judgements to men that want the Gospel all fuell for hell Aggravations of condemnation all cold drink to a man in a feaver pleasant at the entrance but increasing his torments in the close like the book in the Revelation sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly When God shall come to require his bread and wine his flax and oil peace and prosperity liberty and victories of Gospellesse men they will curse the day that ever they enjoyed them so unspirituall are many mens mindes and so unsavoury their judgements that they reckon mens happines by their possessions

from the rule as it was in the papacy errours owned by mixed associations Civill and Ecclesiasticall are for the most part incurable be they never so absurd and foolish of which the Lutheran ubiquities and consubstantiation are a tremendous example these things being presupposed Let no flesh glory in themselves but let every mouth be stopped for we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God Who hath made the possessors of the Gospel to diff●r from others Or what have they that they have not received 1 Cor. 4. 7. why are these things hidden from the great and wise of the world and revealed to babes and children but because O Father so it pleased thee Mat. 11. 26. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9. Ah Lord if the glory and pomp of the world might prevail with thee to send thy Gospel it would supply the room of the cursed Alchoran and spread it self in the Palaces of that strong Lion of the East who sets his Throne upon the necks of Kings But alas Jesus Christ is not there If wisedom learning pretended gravity counterfeit holinesse reall pollicy were of any value in thine eies to procure the word of life it would be as free and glorious at Rome as ever But alas Antichrist hath his Throne there Jesus Christ is not there If will-worship and humilities neglect of the body macerations superstitions beads and vainly repeated praiers had any efficacy before the Lord the Gospel perhaps might be in the cells of some Recluses and Monks But alas Jesus Christ is not there If morall vertues to an amazement exact civill honesty and justice that soul of humane society could have prevailed ought the heathen worthies in the daies of old had had the promises But alas Iesus Christ was farre away Now if all these be passed by to whom is the report of the Lord made known to whom is his arm revealed Why to an handfull of poor sinners amongst the Nations formerly counted feirce and barbarous And what shall we say to these things O {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} O the depth c. Let England consider with fear and trembling the dispensation that it is now under I say with fear and trembling for this Day is the Lords day wherein he will purge us or burne us according as we shall be found silver or drosse it is our Day wherein we must mend or end let us look to the rock from whence we were hewed and the hole of the pit from whence we were digged was not our Father an Amorite and our Mother an Hittite are we not the posterity of Idolatrous Progenitors of those who worshipped them who by nature were no god● How often also hath this Land forfeited the Gospel God having taken it twice away who is not forward to seize upon the forfeiture In the very morning of the Gospel the Sun of righteousnes shone upon this Land and they say the first Potentate on the Earth that owned it was in Britain but as it was here soon professed so it was here soon abused That part of this Isle which is called England being the first place I read of which was totally bereaved of the Gospel the sword of the then Pagan Saxons fattening the land with the blood of the Christian inhabitants and in the close wholly subverting the worship of God Long it was not ere this cloud was blown over and those men who had been instruments to root out others submitted their own necks to the yoke of the Lord and under exceeding variety in civill affairs enjoyed the word of grace untill by insensible degrees like summer unto winter or light unto darknes it gave place to Antichristian superstition and left the land in little lesse then a Paganish darknes drinking deep of the cup of abominations mingled for it by the Roman harlot And is there mercy yet in God to recover a Twice-lost over backsliding people might not the Lord have said unto us What shall I do unto thee oh Island How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim but his heart is turned within him his repentings are kindled together the dry bones shall live and the fleece shall be wet though all the earth be dry God will again water his garden once more purge his vineyard once more of his own accord he will take England upon liking though he had twice deservedly turned it out of his service So that coming as a refiners fire and as fullers soap to purify the sons of Levi to purge them as Gold and Silver to offer to the Lord an offering in righteousnes to reform his Churches England as soon as any hath the benefit and comfort thereof Nay the Reformation of England shall be more glorious then of any Nation in the world being carried on neither by might nor power but onely by the spirit of the Lord of Hosts But is this the utmost period of Englands sinning and Gods shewing mercy in continuing and restoring of the Gospel No truly we again in our daies have made forfeiture of the purity of his worship by an almost universall treacherous apostasy from which the free grace and good pleasure of God hath made a great progresse again towards a recovery There are two sorts of men that I finde exceedingly ready to extenuate and lessen the superstition and popish tyranny of the former daies into which we were falling First Such as were industriously instrumentall in it whose suffrages had been loud for the choice of a Captain to returne into Egypt Men tainted with the errours and loaded with the preferments of the times with all those who blindly adhere to that faction of men who as yet covertly drive on that designe To such as these all was nothing and to them it is no mercy to be delivered And the truth is It is a favour to the lambe and not the wolfe to have him taken out of his mouth but these men have interest by those things which have no ears against which there is no contending Secondly Such as are disturbed in their opticks or have gotten false glasses representing all things unto them in dubious colours which way soever they look they can see nothing but errours errours of all sizes sorts ●ects and sexes Errours and Heresies from the beginning to the end which hath deceived some men not of the worst and made them think that all before was nothing in comparison of the present confusion A great signe they felt it not or were not troubled at it as if men should come into a field and seeing some red weeds and cockle among the corne should instantly affirm there is no corne there but all weeds and that it were much better the hedges were down and the whole field laid open to the boar of the forest but the Harvest will one day shew the truth of

the boatmen look one way and rowe another cry Gospel and mean the other thing Lord Lord and advance our own ends that the Lord may not stir up the staffe of his anger and the rod of his indignation against us as an hypocriticall people Secondly Take heed of resting upon and trusting to the priviledge how ever excellent and glorious of the outward enjoyment of the Gospel When the Jews cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the time was at hand that they should be destroyed Look onely upon the grace that did bestow and the mercy that doth continue it God will have none of his blessings rob him of his glory and if we will rest at the Cisterne he will stop at the fountain Thirdly Let us all take heed of Barrennes under it for the earth that drinks in the rain that cometh upon it and beareth Thornes and Briers is rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6. 7 8. Now what fruits doth it require even those reckoned Gal. 5. 22 23. the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknes temperance Oh that we had not cause to grieve for a scarcity of these fruits and the abundant plenty of these works of the flesh recounted ver. 19 20 21. Oh that that wisedom which is an eminent fruit of the Gospel might flourish amongst us Jam. 3. 17. it is first pure then peaceable gētle easy to be entreated that we might have lesse writing and more praying lesse envy and more charity that all evil surmisings which are works of the flesh might have no toleration in our hearts but be banished for nonconformity to the golden rule of love and peace but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Come we now to the last proposition No men in the world want help like them that want the Gospel Or Of all distresses want of the Gospel cries loudest for relief Rachel wanted children and she cries Give me children or I die But that was but her impatience she might have lived and have had no children yea see the justice of God she dies so soon as ever she hath children Hagar wants water for Ishmael and she will go farre from him that she may not see him die an heavy distresse and yet if he had died it had been but an early paying of that debt which in a few years was to be satisfied But they that want the Gospel may truly cry Give us the Gospel or we die and that not temporally with Ishmael for want of water but eternally in flames of fire A man may want liberty and yet be happy as Joseph was a man may want peace and yet be happy as David was a man may want children and yet be blessed as Job was a man may want plenty and yet be full of comfort as Micaiah was but he that wants the Gospel wants every thing that should do him good A Throne without the Gospel is but the Devils dungeon Wealth without the Gospel is fuell for hell Advancement without the Gospel is but a going high to have the greater fall Abraham wanting a childe complains What will the Lord do for me seeing I go childelesse and this Eliezer of Damascus must be my heire much more may a man without the means of grace complain What shall be done unto me seeing I go Gospellesse and all that I have is but a short inheritance for this lump of clay my body When Elisha was minded to do something for the Shunammite who had so kindely entertained him he asks her whether he should speak for her to the King or the Captain of the host she replies she dwelt in the middest of her own people she needeth not those things but when he findes her to want a childe and tells her of that she is almost transported Ah how many poor souls are there who need not our word to the King or the Captain of the host but yet being Gospellesse if you could tell them of that would be even ravished with joy Think of Adam after his fall before the promise hiding himself from God and you have a perfect pourtraicture of a poor creature without the Gospel now this appeareth 1. From the description we have of the people that are in this state and condition without the Gospel they are a people that sit in darknes yea in the region and shaddow of death Matth. 4 16 17. they are even darknes it self Joh. 1. 7. within the dominion and dreadfull darknes of death darknes was one of Egypts plagues but yet that was a darknes of the body a darknes wherein men lived but this is a darknes of the soul a darknes of death for these men though they live yet are they dead they are fully described Ephes. 2. 12. without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Christles men and godles men and hopeles men and what greater distresse in the world yea they are called doggs and unclean beasts the wrath of God is upon them they are the people of his curse and indignation In the extream North one day and one night divide the year but with a people without the Gospel it is all night the sun of righteousnes shines not upon them it is night whilest they are here and they go to eternall night hereafter What the men of China concerning themselves and others that they have two eies the men of Europe one and all the world besides is blinde may be inverted too the Jews had one eye sufficient to guide them they who enjoy the Gospel have two eies but the men of China with the rest of the Nations that want it are stark blinde and reserved for the chains of everlasting darknes 2. By laying forth what the men that want the Gospel do want with it 1. They want Jesus Christ for he is revealed onely by the Gospel Austine refused to delight in Cicero's Hortensius because there was not in it the Name of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is all and in all and where he is wanting there can be no good Hunger cannot truly be satisfied without manna the bread of life which is Jesus Christ and what shall a hungry man do that hath no bread Thirst cannot be quenched without that water or living spring which is Jesus Christ and what shall a thirsty soul do without water A captive as we are all cannot be delivered without redemption which is Jesus Christ and what shall the prisoner do without his ransom Fools as we are all cannot be instructed without wisdom which is Jesus Christ without him we perish in our folly All building without him is on the sand which will surely fall All working without him is in the fire where it will be consumed All riches without him have wings and will away mallem ruere

not Wales cry and the North cry yea and the West cry Come and help us We are yet in a worse bondage then any by your means we have been delivered from if you leave us thus all your protection will but yeeld us a more free and joviall passage to the chambers of death Ah little do the inhabitants of Goshen know whil'st they are contending about the bounds of their pasture what darknesse there is in other places of the Land How their poor starved souls would be glad of the crums that fall from our tables ô that God would stir up the hearts 1. Of Ministers to cast off all by-respects and to flee to those places where in all probability the harvest would be great and the labourers are few or none at all I have read of an Heretick that swom over a great river in a frost to scatter his errours the old Iewish and now Popish Pharisees compasse Sea and Land to make proselytes The Merchants trade not into more Countreys then the Factours of Rome do to gain souls to his holinesse East and West farre and wide do these Locusts spread themselves not without hazard of their lives as well as losse of their souls to scatter their superstitions only the Preachers of the everlasting Gospel seem to have lost their zeal O that there were the same minde in us that was in Iesus Christ who counted it his meat and drinke to doe his fathers will in gaining souls 2. Of the Magistrates I mean of this Honourable Assembly to turn themselves every lawfull way for the help of poor Macedonians the truth is in this I could speak more then I intend for perhaps my zeal and some mens judgements would scarse make good harmony This only I shall say that if Iesus Christ might be preached though with some defects in some circumstances I should rejoice therein O that you would labour to let all the parts of the Kingdom taste of the sweetnes of your successes in carrying to them the Gospel of the Lord Jesus that the doctrine of Gospel might make way for the Discipline of the Gospel without which it will be a very skeleton When Manna fell in the wildernesse from the hand of the Lord every one had an equall share I would there were not now too great an inequality in the scattering of Manna when secondarily in the hand of men whereby some have all and others none some sheep daily picking the choise flowers of every pasture others wandring upon the barren mountains without guide or food I make no doubt but the best waies for the furtherance of this are known full well unto you and therefore have as little need to be petitioned in this as other things What then remains but that for this and all other necessary blessings we all set our hearts and hands to petition the Throne of grace Soli Deogloria A short defensative about CHVRCH GOVERNMENT Toleration and Petitions about these things Reader THis be it what it will thou hast no cause to thank or blame me for Had I been mine own it had not been thine My submission unto others judgements being the only cause of submitting this unto thy censure The substance of it is concerning things now adoing in some whereof I heretofore thought it my wisedom modestly haesitare or at least not with the most peremptorily to dictate to others my apprehensions as wiser men have done in weightier things And yet this not so much for want of perswasion in my own minde as out of opinion that we have already had too many needlesse and fruitlesse discourses about these matters Would we could agree to spare perishing paper and for my own part had not the opportunity of a few lines in the close of this sermon and the importunity of not a few friends urged I could have slighted all occasions and accusations provoking to publish those thoughts which I shall now impart the truth is in things concerning the Church I mean things purely externall of form order and the like so many waies have I been spoken that I often resolved to speak my self desiring rather to appear though conscious to my self of innumerable failings what indeed I am then what others incuriously suppose But yet the many I ever thought unworthy of an Apology and some of satisfaction Especially those who would make their own judgements a rule for themselves and others impatient that any should know what they do not or conceive otherwise then they of what they do in the mean time placing almost all religion in that which may be perhaps a hinderance of it and being so valued or rather overvalued is certainly the greatest Nay would they would make their judgements only so farre as they are convinced and are able to make out their conceptions to others and not also their impotent desires to be the rule that so they might condemn only that which complies not with their mindes and not all that also which they finde to thwart their aims and designes But so it must be Once more conformity is grown the touchstone and that not in practice but opinion amongst the greatest part of men however otherwise of different perswasions Dissent is the onely crime and where that is all that is culpable it shall be made all that is so From such as these who almost hath not suffered But towards such the best defence is silence Besides My judgement commands me to make no known quarrell my own But rather if it be possible and as much as in me lieth live peaceably with all men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I proclaim to none but men whose bowels are full of gall in this spring of humours lenitives for our own spirits may perhaps be as necessary as purges for others brains Further I desire to provoke none more stings then combs are got at 〈…〉 wasps even cold stones smitten together sparkle 〈…〉 the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood Neither do I conceive it wisedom in these quarrelsome daies to entrust more of a mans self with others then is very necessary The heart of man is deceitfull some that have smooth tongues have sharp teeth such can give titles on the one side and wounds on the other Any of these considerations would easily have prevailed with me stul●i●ia hac caruisse had not mine ears been filled presently after the preaching of the precedent sermon which sad complaints of some and false reports of others neither of the lowest ranke of men as though I had helped to open a gate for that which is now called a Troian horse though heretofore counted an engine likelier to batter the walls of Babylon then to betray the towers of Sion This urged some to be urgent with me for a word or two about Church Government according to the former suggestions undermined and a toleration of different perswasions as they said asserted Now truly to put the accusers to