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	part_n	whole_a	26,351	5	6.3148	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60388	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster, on Wednesday the 5th of April, 1699 being a solemn day of fasting for imploring a blessing on His Majesty and all his dominions, and for averting those judgments we most justly deserve, and for the distressed Protestants abroad / by James Smalwood ...	Smalwood, James, d. 1719.	1699 (1699)	Wing S4009; ESTC R10065	13,377	29

they almost forced God contrary to his inclination to take the rod into his hand and when they would not lead then to drive them God was forc'd to turn those soft cords into whips and those bands of Love into shackels of Iron And yet when God comes to take this course with Man he still like a prudent Parent aims at nothing but his good and benefit by it if he puts a yoke upon our necks it is but to breing us to humity if he puts the bitt into our mouths it is but to check our career in sin if he afflicts us it is not because it is pleasant to him to deal harshly with us but because it is profitable and necessary for us so to be dealt with This the holy Scripture informs us to be the end of all the severe methods of Providence towards the Sons of Men this Moses tells us made God exercise the people of Israel with all the hardships could be inflicted on them for forty years in the Wilderness He led thee through that great and terrible Wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at the latter end Deut. 8. 15. So that the afflicting Providences of God are not only apt in their own nature to do us good but which is a great argument of his goodness God intends and aims at this end alone by them Indeed we often read in Scripture of God's Anger and Wrath and heavy displeasure and Fury and Indignation but it is always against Mens sins and not their persons and if his resentments are so great as to provoke him to inflict any Judgment yet still it is with a merciful design in the end If he has visited a Nation with any Plague or sore Disease it was only to let out its corruption if he has thrown us into the Furnace of affliction and tryed us so as by Fire it was that he might refine and purifie us from the dross of our Sins If he has embarass'd us in War and Battle it was only to let out so much hot blood that the whole body might be the more cool and temperate and healthful afterwards so that tho' it cannot be denied but that the Judgments of God are evil in themselves yet considering the intention of them they are no real objections against the mercy and goodness of God but rather Arguments for it My first Doctrinal conclusion appearing thus evident namely That the chief end and design which God aims at by sending his Judgments upon a People is to turn them from their Sins that so they may be saved what follows but that we make the right use of this Doctrine If Judgments which are in themselves very irksome and grievous to humane nature must be the remedies of sin why will we not live regularly and prevent them What corrupt humours are to the body that sin is to the soul its greatest Disease and Malignity now if we will contract ill humours and distempers if we will make our selves sick that is our own mismanagement and solly and no fault of the Physitian but if when we are sick the Physitian does recover us tho' it be by the most unpleasant and bitterest draughts we are most certainly beholden to him all Temporal and Worldly Judgments are properly medicinal and if we will but suffer them to have their kindly operation upon us they will work our cure and how grievous and distastful soever they may seem for the present they will prove mercies and blessings in the end for this reason Holy David reckons afflictions amongst the blessings of his Life It is good for me says he Psal 119. 72. that I have been afflicted And he gives the reason for it in the same Psalm Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learnt thy precepts But however altho' David did make the right use of his afflictions altho' he applied what God administred aright and it wrought its intended cure upon him yet still that Man must be allowed to have lived most cautiously who the least wants such sharp Physick He certainly must be judged to take a greater care of his health who by a Temperate diet and Regular way of living prevents sickness than he that suffers a malady to grow upon him and to corrupt the whole mass of his blood so that nothing at last but the most violent courses and the most painful applications can restore him to his former health And this brings me to my other doctrinal conclusion from the Text which this 2dly That the only way a Nation or a People has to avert God's Judgments is to forsake their sins The Christian Religion as it prescribes the best and most reasonable precepts of any Religion that ever was in the World for the peace and happiness of every private Man so likewise does it afford the most expedient rules for the safety and preservation of Publick Communities conversion from Sin and Repentance Mortification of our Lusts and Appetites by Watchings Fastings and Prayers and the humiliation of our Bodies in order to raise in our Souls good and devout thoughts are duties required from all of us by our Holy Religion and tho these duties may be said to tend most directly to the reformation and amendment of single persons yet because the whole consists of its parts the compounded Body of a Nation must find a benefit from the good which accrews to the several members of it and therefore it is King Soloman says that righteousness exalteth a nation The practice of Vertue and Piety begets a Reverence and Honour a Reputation and a worldly Glory to any people but on the contrary be a Country never so exalted by Dominion and Power and Wealth and all other temporal advantages and wanting at the same time in the moral accomplishments of Vertue and Justice and Piety that Country will by degrees grow base and contemptible and in the end be ruined for the same Wise man tells us sin is the reproach of any people and this will appear to be true from two causes First From the nature of the thing it self Secondly From the Judgments of God 1. From the nature of the thing it self Whatever Nation degenerates in its Manners must decay gradually in its Power and Strength and consequently is in a ready way to Ruin Sin of what kind soever is against the Interest of a People Lewdness and Intemperance and such like Vices debase Men's Courage and Spirit they breed Infirmities and Diseases which spoil the Strain of a Nation and then it becomes languid feeble and cowardly and at last must be the Scorn as well as the Triumph of its Enemies Irreligion Profaneness and Atheism quite unhinge a Government for where there is no Belief of a God there are no Hopes or Fears of future Rewards or Punishments And when you are once come to that what can hinder all manner of Wickedness from