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	life_n	world_n	15,319	5	4.7768	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61998	A sermon at the funeral of the virtuous lady, and honoured, Ann, late wife of Thomas Yarburgh, Esq . Preached on Monday, the 10th day of July, 1682. By Matthew Sutcliffe.	Sutcliffe, Matthew, 1637 or 8-1707.	1682 (1682)	Wing S6205B; ESTC R222127	17,195	23

Sun-shine day troublesome and sorrowful life is a gloomy and tempestuous day But it seems a day is too long a term for it and therefore the Prophet calls it a moment Isa 26.20 Hide thy self for a little moment until the indignation be over-past So vain a thing is man And that our days are few will further appear if we consider those similitudes by which the holy Scriptures do sometimes set forth the vanity of this our mortal life Job 7 6 7 9. Holy Job compares it to a Weaver's Shuttle that runs swiftly through the Web to the Wind that passeth away speedily and returneth no more to a Cloud which vanisheth and is seen no more when the Sun whose influence drew it up suddenly dissipates it by its Rayes He complains also that his days were swifter than a post Job 9.25 26. they flee away they see no good He compares also the course of our life to an hungry Eagle who besides the velocity of her natural motion being incited by the eagerness of her Appetite flyeth hastily upon her Prey to a Ship sailing swiftly before the Wind which loosing from the Harbour with a prosperous Gale immediately leaves the land behind and is soon out of sight leaving no footsteps or impression behind it by which it can be discern'd that it hath been there And as it is with the passengers that sail in it whether they sit or walk or howsoever they change their actions yet do they still go on to their designed Haven So it is with us whether we eat or sleep or whatsoever we do we are still posting forward toward our end Moses compareth our life to the grass Psal 90 5 6. which in the morning flourisheth and groweth up in the evening is cut down and withereth To a Sleep which insensibly passeth away before we know what we were doing in it and to a dream of the night than which nothing is more vain or uncertain This is a true representation of the vanity of our life which like the shadow of a Dial is in perpetual motion tho its progression be by minute and imperceptible steps Our days vanish and flye away as a vapor or the morning dew and we our selves as the flower of the field soon wither away By all this we see how little the Spirit of God esteems of that whereof the sons of men esteem so much Our sin hath shortned our days and made them few and miserable The pleasures of life are worm-eaten and the glory of the flesh is but like Jonas's gourd which one day grows up and the next day is consumed by the worms If Solomon who had experimented all the pleasures this life could yield after tryal of them cryed out all is vanity and Job when he was divested of all his wealth looking back to his fore passed days was constrained to confess I have possessed months of vanity how can we look to find more comfort or felicity in this wretched life than those holy men have found before us If we seek our comfort in the perishing gain glory or pleasures of this life we shall be compelled to lament at last That we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing we have wearied our selves in vanity and it doth not profit us Since then our days are few let it be our care to spend them well and to make the best improvement of them Let us therefore pray with the Prophet Moses Psal 90.12 Lerd so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom And the consideration of the shortness and vanity of our life will teach us true wisdom in these respects In reference to the works or actions of our life it will teach us to be wisely diligent Wisdom is requisite to direct our choice of the best business for the employment of our time For the best use we can make of this short life is to provide in it for a better For when death comes upon the stage it sweeps away all and as to the good things of this life is an utter privation of them Then the soul must go forth of this world and of all her followers in life can only be attended with good or evil If she have done good in the body her reward is great and certain in heaven but if she be surprized in sin hell shall be her share hell the lake of Gods wrath the storehouse of eternal fire a bottomless Abyss of misery where there is no evil but must be expected nor good that can be hoped And as Wisdom so Diligence is no less required of us Since we have much work to do and but little time to do it in it behoves us to beware that we squander it not away in trifling or idleness Seeing our time is short Eccl. 9 10. we must double our diligence Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledg nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest If we trifle away our days in vanity he that is the ancient of Dayes will call us to a severe account for them We should therefore be covetous of no worldly thing but Time and that not for the duration of our pleasures but to work out the salvation of our souls There is no usury so allowable as this not that men should sell time to improve money but husband time to improve grace Otherwise a long time will bring but a long and a sad reckoning When God gives us time to do the business we came for it leaves us either without imputation of idleness or without excuse Our life wears away by living and is diminished by addition every day added to it is so much taken from it Each step sets us forward to our graves and we are nearer now than when we entred the Church dores Time goeth away by minutes therefore it is not perceived the shorter steps it taketh the more insensibly it passeth Therefore as it stealeth upon us let us welcome it with good industry and as it stealeth from us let us send it away with a good Testimony Thus though it quickly leaves us it shall not leave us worse than it found us In reference to the good things of this world Phil. 4.5 it calls upon us to use moderation Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand The consideration of the fewness of our days may justly teach us to moderate both our desires and pursuits after and our enjoyments of the things of this world For why shouldst thou set thine heart upon that which is not As God said to Baruch by his Prophet Jeremy Jer. 45.4 5. I will destroy this whole land and seekest thou great things for thy self So shall we design or promise to our selves great things in this life when life it self so suddenly flyeth away Or shall we set our affections on the things of this world when they cannot

Divine Virtues that were so illustriously resplendent in her whole Life may give us a great and convincing Argument to believe If we should run through all the several ranks of Virtues Intellectual Moral and Theological we should find her defectvie in none of them But that being too prolixa Theme for our narrow limits of time I shall crave your pardon and leave to mention briefly some few of those virtues that were most conspicuous in her tho without method or order and as they occur to my thoughts Her intellectual Virtues were known to all that knew or convers'd with her to be very great Nature had furnish'd her with a great quickness of Apprehension acuteness of Wit and Retentiveness of Memory Solidity of Judgment which she had improved by diligent Reading and Conversation whereby she had accomplish'd her self in an eminent manner with the knowledg of all things decent and praise-worthy in her sex and had acquired an ablity to discourse at least with any of her Sex in concerning most matters either of humane or Divine knowledg She conversed much with the Books of various kinds of Learning and employed much time in Reading But her cheif study was with those Noble Bereans whom St. Paul commends Acts 17.11 12. to search the Scripture daily because she knew these only contain the Words of eternal Life and therefore with Mary she chose the better part of Learning even the Doctrine and Knowledg of Jesus Christ In these sacred Books she sought that Knowledg which alone is able to make men wise unto Salvation which she preferred before all other Wisdom and by her serious and assiduous Study and Meditation in them she did adorn her Soul with the glorious Ornaments of rich and manifold Graces Amongst her personal Moral Virtues the Virtue this Gentlewoman did most study and exercise was Humility This indeed is the peculiar Grace of Christians most becoming our state both as Creatures and as Sinners the Parent and Nurse of other Graces that preserves us in the light of Faith and heat of Love that procures Modesty in Prosperity and Patience in adversity and is so lovely in the eyes of God that tho he resisteth the proud yet he gives grace to the humble It is the foundation of honour and glory for he that humbleth himself shall be exalted This Grace of Humility was most conspicuous through the whole course of her Conversation being most eminently apparent in the meekness and modesty of her behaviour in the gentleness and affability of her converse in the low thoughts she had of her self and her freedom from censoriousness of others in the plainness of her apparel and dress She was as the Apostle exhorts cloathed with humility and her chief ernaments were those of a meek and quiet Spirit which are in the sight of God of great price Her Temperance and Sobriety were great and exemplary no further indulging the body but to make it more serviceable to her mind She was far from excess even in lawful pleasures but strictly abstinent from all that are unlawful that stain and debase the Soul and alienate it from converse with God and mortifie its taste to spiritual delights Diligence was also a known Virtue in her her active mind filling up all the empty spaces of time with something useful or delightful to her self or others But besides all her personal moral Virtues her Piety toward God deserves our serious consideration Her Religion was grave and sober not mimical or superstitious free from Phanatical Whimsies and Enthusiasms on one hand and superstitious Dotages and Fopperies on the other not flourishing in the leaves of a gay but barren profession but bringing forth the fruits of Faith Patience Meekness Mortification Charity Devotion and holiness of Life She was a constant and diligent Attender upon the publick Worship of God and not less careful in the performance of her private Devotions giving her self with great assiduity and intention of mind to Reading Meditation and Prayer setting a part certain hours of every day for the exercise of those holy Duties in which she was regular and constant so long as her Memory and other Rationals remained intire And in short there shone in her such a happy Constellation of precious Virtues as sufficiently manifested it to have been her pious care and study to build up her self in all Grace and Holiness and to add to her faith virtue and to virtue knowledg and to knowledg temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and brotherly kindness and charity And tho it pleased God either for the Causes by us before mentioned or others best known to himself to suffer these Lights in the latter end of her life to be eclipsed and obscured by the thick fumes of a black Melancholly and the distempers of a troubled Spirit yet we who have often seen the Sun setting in a Cloud and yet arise in his wonted lustre do no less hope that these Graces shall rise with her a more bright and radiant in the morning of the Resurrection In fine her whole life was led according to the strict Rules of Piety and Virtue whereupon we may in Charity believe and on good grounds conclude that she hath fought a good fight she hath finished her course and kept the faith and is now gone to receive her reward the crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give to all that love his appearing Therefore leaving her to her quiet and happy rest let us return to our selves You have heard how few our days are and how full of trouble Let the consideration thereof awaken us to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and to give all diligence to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling that we may pass from this short and troublesome life to that everlasting one which no troubles can disturb or discompose no end shall ever determine Let us prepare for that happy state by sincere repentance and a holy life and send up our hearts to Heaven as an Earnest that we would have our Souls there Let our desires be above tho our bodies are below and being weary of the troublesome vanities of this world let us aspire and long after the blessed Seat of Rest wherein dwelleth Righteousness and her inseparable Companions Peace Joy Glory Happiness and eternal Life As there is no sin in Heaven so there are no sufferings no troubles there no sorrow can ever enter into those blessed Regions Thither the reedee●●d of the Lord shall come with everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away FINIS