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	day_n	know_v	3,798	5	3.7628	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60457	Two funeral sermons preached in St. Saviour's Church in Dartmouth Together with a preface, giving some account of the reasons, why they are now made publick. By Humfry Smith, M.A. and vicar there. Licens'd, Feb. 23. 1689/90. Z. Isham.	Smith, Humphry, b. 1654 or 5.	1690 (1690)	Wing S4087A; ESTC R220069	33,836	78

Soul is pierced by the Arrows of the Almighty What comfort has he then in thinking he is the Master of so many Acres or so many Bags that his Table is loaden with Delicacies and his House bedeck't with no common Art that he is a Person of Name and hath been the talk of the World 2. Consider this Life as it appears on the Day of Death Imagine that a Summons being sent you for a speedy Removal an Hour or two were all the time you could further expect in this World and then consider what thoughts you must needs have of this present Life as you thus lookt back upon it from the brink of Eternity Certainly Brethren tho' we are now apt to put so great a value upon it it will then appear a wretched impertinence when all the Treasures of the East and West will not bribe us to a Smile When Ceremony and Attendance become nauseous When there shall be no Taste in Meat o● Drink neither will the Ear hear the Voice of Singing Men or Singing Women When the Soul is preparing for its everlasting Flight and the Body to go down to that Earth out of which it was taken But that you may know how the World looks to a Person on the Day of his Death I will give you the Thoughts of two dying Men D●ing and Dead Mens Words by Dr. Lloyd ●ond 1673. both of our own Nation as we have them amongst other very good things in a late Collection One as great a States Man almost as ever was Sir John Mason Privy Councellor to four Princes whose Declaration on his Death bed was this I have seen the most Remarkable things in Foreign Parts been present for thirty Years together at most Transactions of State and have learnt this after so many Years Experience That Seriousness is the greatest Wisdom Temperance the best Physick and a good Conscience the best Estate And were I to live again I would change the Court for a Cloyster the bustles of State for an obscure Retirement and the whole Life I liv'd in the Palace for one Hours enjoyment of God in the Chappel All things else forsake me besides my God my Duty and my Prayer The other a Man of as much Reading as Mr. Selden any our latter Ages have afforded who when he came to die amongst all the Learning of the Sons of Men which he had survey'd amongst all the numerous Books and Manuscripts he had perus'd and was Master of could not meet with any thing that gave the satisfaction to his Soul which he found in these words of St. Paul The Tit. 2. 11 12. grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared ●o all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and ●odly in this present world 3. Consider too what this Life will appear ●t the Day of Judgment That is the time when ●ll Disguises shall utterly vanish and every thing ●e seen in its proper Colours Think therefore ●hat you now stood before the Tribunal of the ●ord Christ and there it were required of you to judge of that for your esteem and use and abuse of which you your selves shall then be judged In such Circumstances as these doubtless your Opinions of things would be very different from what they too commonly have been What will Greatness and Honour and Fame signifie when there shall be no respect of Persons when the obscure Slave will be upon the same Level with the Crowned Head when there shall be no distinction known but that of the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left Mat. 25. 33. What will the having been the Possessor of a great deal of Gold and Silver many Houses and much Land be then accounted of when the whole Frame of the World is cracking and dissolving the earth burning up and the elements melting 2 Pet. 3. 10. with fervent heat Finally What will the Memory of past Pleasures amount to the Deliciousness of this Fare o● the Sumptuousness of that Cloathing or the Sweetness of the other Enjoyment Yea how glad would many be if no such things had eve● been then when a strict account is to be given of every thing that hath been done in the flesh But 2 Cor. 5. 10. 2. If our Condition is so vain a thing then hence also let us be stir'd up to vigorous and hearty endeavours after a better Tho' our present Habitation or rather Place of our Pilgrimage be nothing else but Vanity yet there is a Country which we have heard of abounding with substantial things Those that have seen it and known it and came from it have made relations of what it is They have spoken much of the Joys and the Glories of it have told us that nothing there is Dark or Frail or Transitory but all things Pure Clear and Admirable of a Goodness more extensive than our very Desires Brighter than ten thousand Suns and as Lasting as Eternity yea they have assur'd us that the things of it are unspeakable beyond the power of Words or Description We have too sufficient ground to believe that this blessed Condition is not such as cannot belong to us but that we are capable of it and were even Originally design'd for it that as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks God created man to be immortal Wisd 2. 23. and made him to be an Image of his own eternity Yea more than all this Solemn Overtures have been made Messages have been sent to us We have been directed enabled invited perswaded with the greatest earnestness to come and to secure to our selves this blessed Habitation And Oh my Brethren shall we not now think it worthy of our thoughts and our care Shall we any of us neglect any longer to comply with those methods which Heaven hath found out for transplanting of us from Vanity and Trouble into Bliss and Immortality It is not indeed any light performance which will fit us for that better state not a little Outside Service or a little Lip-devotion no nor now and then a pious Warmth or a melting Temper not a listing our selves in this or that Party or being reckoned under such a Denomination The passage through the strait Gate is not so easie as these things But it is a faith that worketh by love a due conformity to all the Evangelical Proposals a working continually with fear and trembling a having our Minds above the World using it so as if we us'd it not In short a being Religious Sober Just and Charitable in our Conversation These are the Terms which the Angel of the Covenant requires and shall we stand at the difficulty of them since they lead to real and lasting Good Shall we be discourag'd in an undertaking that will advance us above the Vanity of this present Life add some solidity even to these fleeting things converting our perishing Riches into an Heavenly Treasure and at

miserabl● Life and that with relation both to the Bod● and the Soul 1. As for the Body they could see nothing in the dissolution of it but what is common to Brutes That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts All go unto one place all are of the Dust and all turn to Dust again so the Preacher seems to speak their Sentiments Chap. 3. verse Vid. Notat in vitam Dionysii per Petr. Halloix Dionys Oper. Tom. 2. p. 269. Grot. de verit Relig. l. 2. c. 7. 19 20. Some of the Greek Philosophers fell indeed upon the Opinion of a Resurrection but the Tenet we find had but slender entertainment for when St. Paul Preach'd at Athens it was treated as an impossibility But tho' the wiser Heathen for the most part could not hope for a return of the Body from the Grave they could however consider it there as silent and at rest they could perceive an end of all the Labours Pains and Grievances of it How often does a Man throughout the course of no long Life complain of Hunger and Thirst and Weariness How often is he scorched with burning Heats How often are his Sinews his Bowels pierc'd through with unsufferable Pains so that he roars like a distracted Person because of the violence of the torment Now Death puts an end to all these disorders Sighs and Complaints and Cries are not heard in the Pit The fatal thing comes as an Universal Remedy for all kinds of Diseases and Miseries and therefore the approach of it hath been sometimes desired with much impatience Wherefore says Job is light given to him that is in misery and life unto Job 3. 20. the bitter in soul Which long for death and it cometh not and dig for it more than for hid treasures which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave 2. Concerning the condition of the Soul after Death there has been much uncertainty in the Opinions of natural Men. Who knoweth saith the Preacher Chap. 3. verse 21. the spirit of a man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward Who by the Light of Reason can be certain for so some understand the place of any such difference Or according to others who is able to state the difference right declaring the things of each Some of the learned Heathen fancied that the Soul immediately as Vid. Ciceron Tuscul Quaest lib. 1. Plutarch de placitis Philos lib. 4. cap. 7. the Body becomes unfit for it vanisheth into the soft Air and the greater number who were convinc'd of its Immortality were yet full of doubt about its future Condition and Employment However amidst all this darkness they were able to discern somewhat more valuable than the present Slavery To be even nothing at all they thought was not to be miserable and whatsoever abode the Soul in case it survives is to have after Death it could not easily be believed more inconvenient than the Prison it now dwels in It was observ'd by Eliphaz that trouble is the Job 5. 7. Birthright of Man that it is as natural for him to undergo it as for the Sparks to fly upward The sense is somewhat different in the Septuagint Haud absimile est istud Comici apud Athenaeum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deipnosoph l. 6. p. 223. Haec S. Chrysostomus similia ferè Olympiodorus in Catena in Job but it occasions the following Paraphrase of an excellent Father Humane Nature says he is inferior to the Productions of the Earth and the Mountains which know no sorrow either in their beginnings or increase Yea the Birds are allow'd to make their Motions without pain and to gather their Meat without trouble but Man in all these things is very miserable And declarations of the same kind are often ●et with in the Books of the Gentiles Seneca considering the wretched Circumstances of humane Life wonder'd at Non videmus quam multa nos incommoda exagitant quam malè nobis conveniat hoc corpus Hoc evenire solet in alieno habitantibus Seneca Epist 120. ●he disproportion between the Inn and ●he Guest thence concluding that so Noble a Being could not be design'd ●or so vile an Habitation And Pliny writing the History of living Crea●ures Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 7. begins it with a complaint That Nature ●ath been more unkind to Man than to any ●ther Beings He is says he at first the ●eakest and always after the most sickly thing Other Animals are acquainted with necessary Arts without the trouble of Instruction but Man knows not any thing till he is taught unless it be how to cry To him alone among all living things belong Mourning and Luxury and Ambition and Covetousness and Superstition As the Life of nothing else is more frail so no other Appetites are more insatiable than his None are so apt to be terrified and confounded None more disposed to Rage and Fury Other living Creatures of the same kind live Peaceably together we see them joyn and oppose those that oppose them The fierceness of Lions is not engaged against Lions neither do Serpents bite one another but Men alas are the greatest Enemies to Men the Kind is perpetually at Wa● with it self and one seeks the Mischief and Ruine of the other Indeed he that duly considers the Thraldom of an Intellectual Being as it is now fetter'd i● this Prison of Earth made liable to so many Impressions discomposed and agitated by so many Passions and enslav'd to Corruption mus● needs conclude that Man is the only thing whic● something extraordinary hath befall'n that e●ther God who made him design'd him at firs● for greater Misery than the rest of the Creature● or else which is indeed the truth that he is tumbled down from his Original Perfection and become only the Ruines of what he was And now it was the view of such disorders and perplexities of Life which gave the chief occasion to those Heathens themselves to bestow so frequently their Commendations on Death O how ignorant says one of them are those People of what they suffer who do not magnifie Death as the best of things Some call'd it the O ignaros malorum suorum quibus non mors ut optimum naturae inventum laudatur Senec. de Consolat ad Marc. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aeschylus apud Plutarch Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 106. Multi extitêre qui non nasci optimum censerent aut quam ocyssimè aboleri ●li● Secundus Nat. Histor in Praefat. ad lib. 7. ad ea ut videtur respiciens quae dicta sunt de Sileno Alcidamo pluribus aliis à Cicerone Tuscul quaest lib. 1. Haec ubi res fortuna malè divisit exaequat omnia Haec est inquam quae effecit ut nasci non sit supplici●m quae efficit ut non concidam adversus minas casuum Seneca ubi supra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec de ●rausis populo