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	good_a	way_n	3,879	5	4.4534	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10265	Balm in Gilead to heal Sions wounds: or, A treatise wherein there is a clear discovery of the most prevailing sicknesses of New-England, both in the civill and ecclesiasticall state; as also sutable remedies for the cure of them: collected out of that spirituall directory, The word of God. / Delivered in a sermon preached before the Generall Court of the colony of New-Plimouth on the first day of June 1669. being the day of election there. By Thomas Walley ...	Walley, Thomas, 1616-1678.	1670 (1670)	Wing W555; ESTC W33773	18,025	40

to get the help of some able Christian in the work of Teaching the Children of the Congregation Thirdly A further word of Counsel is to all you Saints of the Most High that love Sion and are sensible of the sicknesses of it 1. Labour to get all your Parts Gifts sanctified that they may not puff you up and insnare you Some of you through the goodness of God and his rich grace have greater Attainments in the knowledge of the Mysteries of the Gospel then others be you more exemplary for Humbleness and Meekness then others One great reason why there are so many Sicknesses in the daughter of Sion is because the Gifts of Christians are no more sanctified when Gifts are not sanctified they occasion Pride the Mother of Contention so that those that should lead the people into Peace and Love lead them into Divisions and are Firebrands in the Houses of God 2. Endeavour to mortifie those Lusts that incline you to Contention for Contentions do not come so much from outward provocations as from inward corruptions Jam. 4. 1. All wars come from lusts if Pride Passion and Self-love were mortified there would be more peace and agreement but mens lusts are so dear to them they will rather adventure their own peace and the Churches then part with them 3. Labour for that Wisdome that is from above which is pure gentle peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits Jam. 3. 17. If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not ver 14. but be ashamed whatever your parts and gifts are Take our Saviours counsel Mark 9. 50. Have salt in your selves and peace one with another the salt of Wisdome tends to Peace and Unity 4. Be sure you love the publick good of Sion if the love of Sion doth reign in your hearts you will seek the welfare of it It was the true Mother that would not suffer the Childe to be divided Thou shouldest so love the peace of the Church that when a storm begins thou shouldest say If I am the man that cause this cast me out let the Church have her peace The Romans had a Temple dedicated Jovi depositorio the Senators went thither and laid down their mutual Contentions before they went to the Senate house and divers of the Heathen would lay aside their private Quarrels for the Common Good which doth shame some Christians in our dayes 5. Let those that agree in Fundamentals and have Union with the same Head walk together in love and peace this we are pressed to Phil. 3. 16. Why should there not be a hearty love between those that are of the same Faith Remember that the Peace-makers are blessed Peace and Vnion are humane Saviours to Countries and Churches Dulce nomen pacis Psal 133. But you must also remember this That your labour for Unity will be in vain if you are enemies to Order Keeping the Order God hath appointed is the way to Peace and Unity The Church is that one Body of Christ yet this Body is made up of distinct Members and every Member hath its own operation when every Member doth its own office the Body is most lovely yet where the foundation is gold silver and precious stones though there be some hay and stubble in the Superstructure there ought to be a Christian for bearance 6. Pray for the Health of Sion for the Peace of Jerusalem Psal 122. 6. If the Spirit of Prayer for Unity were poured out upon the people of God we should not be long without the blessing of Peace in the Churches Pray then that Means may be effectual for the recovery of the daughter of Sion from her Sicknesses that Gileads Balm and Gileads Physicians may do good Pray down Divisions Pray down Errour and Profaneness Pray that the daughter of Sion may not want Nursing-fathers that the Land of Liberty may not become the House of Bondage and this will be the way to have the God of Peace dwell among us As we carry it towards God so will God manifest himself unto us Let as cry as the Prophet Jerem. 17. 14. Heal us O Lord and we shall be h●aled A like Prayer we reade in Psal 60. 2. God hath promised that if we pray and humble our selves he will hear from heaven and heal the Land 2. Chron. 7. 14. and sometimes he doth heal a froward people when they are like to perish of their wounds Isa 57. 17 18. I have seen his wayes and I will heal him when we go about to heal by our own skill without God we heal but slightly Jer. 8. 11. I shall onely adde some Motives to press every one in his place and calling to labour to recover the health of the daughter of Sion Motive 1. If there be Sickness in the Church there will be little health in the Common-wealth In the Land of Judah when the building of the Temple was neglected the Worship of God defiled a decay in Religion it never went well with the Common-wealth Let us believe it that things amiss in the houses of God are the chief cause that it goes ill with the Country 2. Sicknesses in Churches endanger the damnation of the Souls of many they hinder Conversion harden many hearts bring the Wayes and Worships of God into contempt and these Evils are the fruit especially of Division among those that profess Godliness If Contentions reign in Churches either the world will never think well of Christ or never believe such Members of Churches are Christs Disciples John 13. 35. What account can be given at last for this that Christ and the true Religion are contemned by the world for the sake of the Professors of it It 's sad that in our dayes many Professors live as though there were no Canaanites nor Perizzites in the Land If ever you would have Christ and his Wayes well thought of labour after Vnity If you would have any more Converted by the Preaching of the Gospel labour after Vnity If you would enjoy your Church-Priviledges and your Civil Peace labour for Vnity If you would have God remove his frowns his afflicting hand from us labour after Vnity If ever you would be serviceable to Christ and one to another labour after Vnity The members of the Body do not give mutual nourishment except they be joyned each to other It is not enough that you keep up the Ordinances of God for his honour for the good of your Souls and for the good of the Souls of others except you remove the stumbling-blocks that that lye in the way of others your Contentions and Covetous Practises c. O you that are the Professors of Religion it seems to be in your hand to save or damn Souls your gracious Conversation might be a means to convert others and the contrary may be a means of damning others 3. Endeavouring to recover the health of the daughter of Sion will be as cross a work to the Devil as any you can do it will be a crossing of Satan in one of the greatest designs he hath on foot in the world he is alwayes either acting the part of a Lion or the part of a Serpent either persecuting by open Enemies or dividing dearest friends Those that have reconciling Spirits that are Peace makers counter-work Satan they oppose him in his great design 4. For your Encouragement know that the Lord doth in a special manner care for Sion He loves the Gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob Psal 87. 2. The Church is more dear to him then the Common-wealth As God he cares for the Common-wealth as a Father he cares for the Church yet Magistracy is Gods Ordinance for the help and preservation of the Churches And God in giving his Laws doth first command things concerning himself and his Worship The Church is supposed to be a poor Orphan and Kings and Queens and to be their Nursing fathers and Nursing-mothers Isa 49. 23. 5. It will be an Honour to you to be Instruments to heal the daughter of Sion God will take it kindly at your hands and honour you that thus honour him 1 Sam. 2. 30. Those that build the old wasle places that raise up the foundations of many generations such shall be called The repairers of the breaches Isa 58. 12. 6. Consider this the time may come that Churches Ordinances Communion with Saints may be more precious then the Gold of Ophir I shall close with this one Word which is to Exhort and Perswade you all to encourage and strengthen the Hearts and Hands of those that God hath in a special manner made Physicians do as the people did Nehem. 10. 29. They clave to their Brethren the Nobles c. Take heed of discouraging them but say to those that are your Rulers This matter of Healing the daughter of Sion belongs to you but we will be with you Ezra 10. 4. then it is well when all work together for God It is said 2 Chron. 30. 26. Hezekiah humbled himself and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem with him and wrath came not in his dayes If the Lord give us hearts to take these Counsels which he hath offered to us this day we shall be the more likely to go to our fathers in peace and leave a blessing behinde us for posterity FINIS THere is now going to the Press sundry excellent and divine Poems entituled Meat out of the Eater or Meditations concerning the Necessity End and Vsefulness of Afflictions unto Gods Children All tending to prepare them for and comfort them under the Cross By Michael Wigglesworth

Hence it comes to pass that a people perish or continue sick because they do not finde out the reason of their sickness for the sin of Achan things went ill with the Army of Israel Josh 7. and it was hid from Joshua and the people till God revealed it In Davids time the Famine continued long and the reason was not known till God discovered it to be for the sin of Saul in slaying the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21. As secret sin in the heart causes decays of grace so here Many times God in afflicting hath an aim at a particular sin and it 's hard to find out what the sin is Reas 2. Because sometimes the Disease is old and deeply rooted grown Malignant and Pestilential when a people are hardned and rooted in their evils they grow incureable Jer. 13. 23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Custom in sin hinders the cure of it it makes sin seem less then formerly it did it sears the Conscience makes persons secure Reas 3. Because of the opinion of the Patient Sometimes a sick people think they are well and have no need of any Physicians they are not sensible of their sickness hence Physicians are of no value with them and it is not Gods way to bless the best Means to those that flight them If a people con●emn Magistracy and Ministry though they are Gods Ordinances yet God is provoked to withhold his blessings from them so that they cannot prevent the ruine and destruction of a proud wilful and stubborn people that endeavour to exalt themselves above the Lord and his Appointments Reas 4. Because when Means are used to cure the Disease that is most visible some other Disease appears that is more dangerous and proves an Impediment to the Cure so that the sickness increases and becomes mortal When God would have healed Israel the iniquity of Ephraim appeared Hos 7. 1. Some think it refers to the time of Jehu's Reign who was anointed in Gilead the City of Chirurgions and was the Chirurgion of those Times but when he was busie in the work of the Lord destroying Baal and his Worships then the iniquity of the ten Tribes appeared which are called Ephraim and the wickedness of Samaria which was the Head of Ephraim But what wickedness and what iniquity did they discover Surely it was their love to the sin of Jeroboam their love to the Calves so that the work of Reformation was at a stand and Israel was not healed Many persons never discover the wickedness of their hearts till God gives them the Means of healing When God brings Means home to them their wounds and sores begin to smart and they are enraged more then ever and it may be such sins break forth as they themselves never thought were in their hearts Reas 5. Because those that are sick hearken to Mountebanks rather then to experienced and tryed Physicians The Jews in their sick estate had the false Prophets in high esteem but persecuted the true and this became the ruine of their Church and State they looked upon the Lords Prophets as the cause of all their troubles and hearkened to those that poisoned them in stead of healing them this was the temper of the people in Jeremiahs time Reas 6. Because sometimes God is so provoked that he will bless no Means to a people because of a peoples contempt of those Means God hath afforded them therefore all Means are without effect for their good that Word that was wont to be mighty and powe●ful becomes a dead word doth not quicken it becomes the savour of death to death 2 Cor. 2. 15. Reas 7. Sometimes those that are sick are not healed Because the Physicians themselves cannot agree about the Means for Cure one saith This is the Disease another That and one faith This must be the Cure another That Some think the D●sease not dangerous some think the way to cure it is to let the sick Patient do what he will and have what he will this is either gross ignorance or designed wickedness others think that the Disease can be cured by no other Means but violent Means for some are cruel Physicians Disagreement amongst those that should be Healers is a great hindrance of the health of the daughter of Sion VSE 1. This Doctrine discovers to us That we have cause to fear that our condition is but sad this day for our case looks like the case of this people that the Prophet speaks of We have Gileads Balm and Gileads Physicians and yet we are a sick people we have the Means of healing amongst us that Means that is proper and sutable and yet we continue a wounded and weak people What Means can a people have more for Cure then we have God is yet in our Sion we have healing Ordinances the Preaching of the Gospel the Seals of the Covenant of Grace Magistrates that would heal the Sicknesses of Sion and Ministers that mourn for the hurt of the daughter of Sion Surely this day New-England is sick the Country is a sickly Country the Country is full of healthful Bodies but sick Souls I shall name two or three of the Diseases that reign amongst us and do most mischief 1. The Lethargy a cold sleepy Disease there seems to be an insensibleness of sin and danger Faith is dead and Love is cold and Zeal is gone the wise and the foolish Virgins seem to be all asleep in a deep sleep of Security The power of godliness decayes the Trumpet sounds the Alarm is given yet the most sleep on O ye Christians that are not quite asleep do not you perceive that the love of the most of the Professors of Religion is grown cold to Christ to Truth to Ordinances to one another and that which renders our case the more sad is that neither the Word of God nor the Rod of God awakens us though we see that Satan is busie yet we are idle indeed when Saints do least good the Devil doth most hurt while they sleep he is awake It is to be feared that we shall be awakened in some dreadfull way by some sudden and expected Tempest of divine Wrath. A Laodicean frame of spirit is hateful to God Rev. 3. 15 16. 2. There is a Burning Feaver amongst us a Fire of Contention in Towns in Churches Fuell is laid upon this Fire daily What Town or what Church is there that is free from this Disease the work of Contention is followed as though it were the work of our day as though we had nothing else to do Many through the pride of their hearts are very unquiet and cannot be content in the places God hath set them in but strive for Mastery Dominion and Rule forgetting that counsel of the Apostle My brethren be not many Masters Jam. 3. 1. This comes from Pride and Self-love Proud Nature is discontented with the condition that God