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
A64004	The art of salvation preached first at Saint Maries in Oxford, and now published by Thomas Tvvittee ...	Twittee, Thomas, b. 1596.	1643 (1643)	Wing T3426; ESTC R32884	17,921	26

the prime apostle tells us 2 Pet. 2.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do this you shall never fall I may adde if you do not you shall perish for ever our blessed Saviour justifieth this when being advertised by a worldly Martha of her many imployments to the end that he should either comm●nd her or command her sister to assist her answereth breifly thus Martha Martha thou art carefull for many things and one thing is necessary and Mary hath chosen that better part which shall never be taken from her Where our blessed Saviour tacitely reprehends her needlesse deligence and withall plainely applauds her sisters happy carefullnesse thou art troubled one thing is necessary and that hath thy sister chosen Salvation requireth our best care diligence because tending to the preservation and eternall welbeing of the soule the best part of man that Divinae aurae particula the inbreathing of God as the Poet calleth it as far beyond the body as immortall before mortality or Heaven the Earth they were wont to say saith S. Bernard Qui corpus curat bonum curat Castellum he that keepes his hody keeps a good Castle but I say sterquilinium vile he is busy only about a Dunghill but he that is solicitous for the welfare of his soul chooseth the better part is imployed about the best businesse and in doing this hath effected all though he neglect the whole world Lastly without this all other forecast is folly all gaine losse and therefore the Holy Ghost stileth him a plaine foole whose provilence extendeth no further then the things of this life Dost thou resolve on nothing but building of bigger barnes And because thy fields are laden with a plentifull Crop therefore chant that carelesse requiem to thy soule Ede bibe lude Eate drinke take thy pastime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art a foole for this night shall thy soule be required and then where is all thy plotting and plodding for the world Luke 12 20. without this happy diligence all other gaine is losse and therefore our blessed Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What shall it profit a man to gaine a world if he loose his soule Mat. 16 26. where you see the soule is pretious and invaluable the losse of it irrecoverable and a whole world nay not a million of worlds a sufficient recompence for one soule How then are the greater part of the world here to be taxed who thinke of that last of all nay least of all which doth require their prime care and greatest diligence how doth the Holy Ghost complaine of this Oh that they were wise Oh that they would thinke of their latter end and O si ad precepta mea Oh that thou hadst taken heed to my precepts then had thy peace beene as the river and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the sea Isay 48.18 And ideo captivus ductus est populus meus quia caruit scientia Therefore is my people g●●e into captivity because they have no knowledge they regard not the worke of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands but the harpe and the violl and wine are in their feasts but alas the dreadfull consequence for therefore hell hath enlarged her selfe and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoyceth among them shall descend into it And not to insist on generalities I speake in Saint Austens phrase Aures omnium pulso conscientias singulorum convenio I knocke at the doore of every mans conscience have we beene so carefull in this particular God hath not appointed us unto wrath but to attaine salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Thessal 5.9 But we live as if we were appointed onely for the service of Mammon and set upon this dunghill the earth onely to dig out our owne damnation I question not our desire salvation without doubt is every mans desire none so wretched that would not be saved Beatus vult homo esse etiam non sic vivendo ut possit esse Man would be happy though he trace those broad pathes that tend to the chambers of death but for our actions there 's the matter wherein I may truly say as holy David in that Psalme The wickednesse of the ungodly sheweth to his face that there is no feare of God before his eyes so our supiue negligence our carelesse oscitancy our extravagant intentions shew to our faces that we are not carefull for heaven nor sollicitous of Salvation The ambitious plots only for an addition of honour some more preferment The covetous sweats only to increase his substance and enlarge his Patrimony and for us all we can be content as the Psalmist saith Torise early and go to bedde late and to ●at the bread of carefulnesse for the things of this world in this we live in this we grow old in this we dye and then alasse for pitty the maine bufinesse is neglected heaven is not thought of Salvation is not finished Wherefore what distresse drove this perplexed party in the the text unto let I beseech you a religious discretion worke in every one of you and make you sollicitous for the welfare of your soules I read of Plato that when the Cyrenenses sent to him to prescribe them some forme of Government he replyed that they were too happy to yeild obedience unto any laws Oh let it not be true of any of you that your happinesse here will not permit you to thinke of being happy hereafter Consider that weighty reason of our blessed Saviour what will it profit a man though he gaine the whole world if he loose his owne soule What did it profit that rich man Luke 16. That he was clothed in purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day when no sooner dead but in hell in torments Nay it was the aggravation of his misery that he had once beene happy so what will it profit you that ye are descended generously clad costly fed choicely and enjoy all the pleasures and delights of the world when no sooner dead but that of S. Bernard proves true Carodatur esca vernibus anima praeda Daemonibus the body becomes a prey for devouring wormes the soule for tormenting Devills see a President in the 5 of Wisdome and there the gallants of those times unseasonably bewailing such folly Nos stulti c. We fooles erred from the way of truth and the light of Righteousnesse hath not shined unto us we have wearied our selves in in the wayes of destruction and gone through desolate places but as for the way of the Lord we have not known what hath pride profitted us and riches withall their vaunting brought us These things are past away even as an Arrow shot at a marke or as the trace of a Ship at Sea or as a guest that tarrieth but for a day Wherefore blessed beloved in the God of love Christ Jesus blessed for evermore when the eie that seeth me this day may see me no more and the eare that heareth me may heare me no more for ever when I that speake this to you may be dissolved to my originall dust Let not this my poore exhortation be as the beating of the Aire or passe unreguarded but in the fields in your houses at your tables in your closets on your bedds alwaies inturrupt all extravagant intentions with this I have a God to serve a soule to save What must I doe to be saved Consider further God willeth not your destruction he hath not appointed you to wrath he hath made himselfe knowne unto you he doth by me the unworthiest of his Messengers intreat you that you would be reconciled unto him whose voyce if you will this day heare you shall not perrish notwithstanding all your former provocations Oh then seeing God and man grace and nature heaven and earth concurre to do you good perish not through your owne obstinacy save your souls that you perish not in the condemnation of the world And when ye have obtained some comfortable assurance this way account your selves more happy then if you were Monarches of this whole universe for quanta faelicitas what unspeakable selicity is it to be saved Saul had a Kingdome and yet he did dispaire Esau was a Duke and yet a cast-away Judas had his Bishoprick and yet the sonne of perdition and quanta facilitas what facility in the obtaining of it For heaven is not now tyed to these impossible conditions doe this and live non reqnirit Deus sanguinem sed fidem sayeth S. Cyprian God now requireth not bloud but faith only beleeve and live for ever Oh then labour for faith follow faith fight that good fight of faith be faithfull unto death which is the end of your dayes and then you shall be sure to receive the end of your faith which is the salvation of your soules which God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe for the Son of his love Christ Jesus sake to whom with the all sanctifying spirit three Persons one eternall invisible indivisible Essence be ascribed all power praise might and Majesty dignity Dominion and thanksgiving from henceforth and forevermore Amen FINIS

who not onely restores the sight of the body but also imparts unto him that true inward illumination of the spirit and of a persecuting Rabbi doth baptize him into a professing Christian Saint Austen reports of himselfe in the 8. of his confessions and the 12. that by a voyce from heaven Tolle lege Tolle lege Take up and read Take up and read he was directed to that place in the 13. to the Romans and the last Not in chambering and wantonnesse not in rioting and drunkennesse not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make noe provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof and so he became a most illuminate Doctor of a most effeminate Youngster Justin Martyr witnesseth in his Apologie to Antoninus that when he saw the patient suffering of the innocent Christians how they rejoyced to bleed nay to dye for the Testimony of the Gospell it occasioned in him a change of Religion whence we had the opproved truth of that seeming Paradox Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae the bloud of the Martyrs was the seminary of the Church Euschins in the 4 of his Ecclesiasticall story at the 8. maketh mention of a certaine Courtier called Eustatius in the time of Trajane the Emperour who as he was hunting saw a Hart with a Red Crosse in his forehead and this engraven in Letters of Gold Quid me persequeris why doest thou persecute mee and so refusing to accompany the Emperour in his Idolatrous sacrifice to Iupiter immediately received the blessed Crowne of Martyrdome So that I say though the Word be now the ordinary means of mans conversion yet hath the Lord had divers sundry wayes in reclaiming men from Atheisme Idolatry and Superstition and directing them into the knowledge and use of the meanes some by dreames some by apparitions some by miracles some one way and some another some doe snatch the Kingdome of heaven as those whom our Saviour mentioneth Math 8. Regnum Coelorum c. The Kingdome of heaven suffereth violence c. and some againe are compelled by externall violence as those extravagant Loyterers Cogite intrare Compell them to come in Luke 14. some doe willingly imbrace the word of faith and some againe are brought even to despaire before they rellish the doctrine of happinesse and by the gates of hell come to the knowledge of the wayes to heaven as this perplexed Jaylour who but now with drawne sword was spilling his body but here with bended knees enquires how to save his soul Sirs What must I doe c. Observe we hence our first position which is this that perplexity of Conscience inward terrours yea almost dispairing feares are great and forcible means to drive men to God and make them solicitous of Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye have not received the spirit of bondage to feare any more but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.16 Where I note three acts or rather indeed three degres of operation of the spirit of God First it is a spirit of Bondage Secondly a spirit of adoption Thirdly a spirit of intercession teaching us to make request to God and to cry in the true language of Canaan Abba Father But first it is a spirit of feare and bondage working in us perplexed doubtings terrours of conscience yea almost dispairing feares before it give any comfort or assurance St. Chrisostome upon the 114 Psalm expresseth this truth by this familiar comparison as Mothers do use to fright their unruly children with Vizzards and Bugbears to make them fly to their lapp not willing to hurt the Infants but to make them sit the closer to them so God being a true lover of us desiring to joyn us fast to himselfe doth oft times permit us to be brought to such necessity and finding us playing so neare the pits brinke so neare the hole of the serpent he takes us as it were by the heels shewes us the very mouth of Hell makes us beleive that he will plunge us therein that so we may take heede how we wander and indeavour not only to approach and draw neare but constantly to adhere unto him as the Psalmist hath it hereupon the Fathers compare this servile feare to the ●eedle and true filiall feare to the thread as the needle makes way and passage for the thread so is this terrifying and perplexing feare the way to a filiall affiance and therefore what the Psalmist concludes of outward disgrace is true of inward distresse Imple facies corum ignominiâ quaerent nomen tuum Psalm 83. Make their faces ashamed and they will seeke thy name so say I. Fill their mindes with piercing and almost despairing perplexities open the mouth of the sleepie Conscience and awake the soule from her sinfull lethargie with one touch of this thy terrifying needle and then the effect will be Quaerent nomen tuum They will seeke thy name That distresse should open a doore to devotion is a conclusion both harsh and strange to repyning flesh and blood which ever desires to be at ease and in jollitie and to trace vias dealbatiores saeculi the milkie pathes of pleasures and preferments as St. Austin saith but unto the Christian it is a principle of sound truth who can acknowledge with Kingly David Bonum mihi quod humiliatus sum It is good for me that I have beene afflicted and before I was troubled I went astray but now I kept thy words Psal 119. It were easie to expatiate in a point so pregnant but I affect not prolixitie only an instance or two and then the arguments that serve for further confirmation And if you reflect but on the Text you shall se it apparent in this particular he that before was obdurate and settled upon the Lees of the Roman superstition whose heart or eares the Doctrine of the Gospell could not pierce but rejected it as a thing altogether unlawfull he being thus amazed and perplexed becomes truly compassionate unto the persecuted Apostles pious and solicitous of his owne Salvation hence judicious Calvin noteth hic apparet quam vtile sit hominibus dejici ut se Deo subjicere discant hence it appeares how profitable it is for men sometimes to be dejected and distressed that they may learne how to seeke unto God and also to be subject unto him and in the 7 to the Rom vers 24. We have an instance hereof in this our Apostle who being terrifyed with the sence and guilt of inseperable corruptions and amazed at the apparent impossibility of fulfilling the Law or doing the least good breakes out into this dolefull exclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death but hereby he cometh to lay hold on Christ for so it follows in the next words I thanke God by Jesus Christ our Lord and we our selves have knowne many by daily experience who in their