Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	life_n	live_v	spirit_n	13,616	5	5.5781	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91899	Safe conduct, or The saints guidance to glory. Opened in a sermon preached at Dunstans in the East London. November the second, MDCLIV. At the funerall of the vertuous and religious gentlewoman, Mris. Thomasin Barnardiston, late wife of Mr. Samuel Barnardiston, merchant. / By Ralph Robinson, pastor of Mary Wolnoth, Lumbardstreet, London.	Robinson, Ralph, 1614-1655.	1655 (1655)	Wing R1711; Thomason E823_7; ESTC R203376	61,656	101

to our under standing The Holy Ghost is the Churches Interpreter he gave the Scriptures and he can reveal unto us the sense and meaning of the Scriptures He is called the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation because it is his work to make known to the Church the Spiritual Eph. 1. 17. sense of that word which God hath given to be the rule both of faith and manners Our Saviour when he was about to leave the world tells his Disciples That he would give them his Spirit to bee a guide in his absence He shall lead you saith he into Joh. 16. 13 14. all truth Now how the Holy Ghost should perform this work is laid down in the next Verse He shall take of mine and shew it unto you he shall so powerfully press the Doctrin of the Gospel upon their spirits that they should understand it to be Christs Doctrin It is by the effectual perswasions of the Spirit that wee beleeve the Divine authority of the word Secondly The Spirit of God is able to incline 2 The Spirit bows the heart to obey the Word Ezek. 36. 27. and move the heart to yeeld obedience to the Counsel of the Word It is Gods promise in the Covenant of Grace to his people that he will put his Spirit within them and cause them to walk in his Statutes and that they shall keep his Judgements and do them Did the Spirit only shew the Beleever the rule according to which God would have him walk and not enable him to a ready and cheerful endeavour to conform to it he would fall short of eternal life for man by Nature doth not only want light to see his way but a heart to walk in the way when it is discovered It is a good prayer which David makes to this purpose Incline mine heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness Psal 119. 36. The Spirit of God sweetens the rule and renders it acceptable and grateful to the heart The heart of man needs not only Moral perswasion but the strength of effectual and determining Grace to engage it to obedience The heart is naturally imprisoned that it cannot move God-ward until it bee set at liberty the Holy Ghost therefore which God hath given to be a guide draws it and then it runs I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou shalt Psal 119. 32. enlarge my heart Heart-enlargement is as necessary for the Christian Travellor as Heart-inlightning Draw us saith the Church and we will run after thee The Spirit of God draws no man to Heaven against his Cant. 1. 4. will but yet he must and doth over-power the Will and make it willing Trahe quodammodo invitam ut facias voluntariam as Bernard glosseth upon that text Bernard in Loc. The renewed Soul findes too often an indisposition in it self to follow Christ and therefore doth still desire the attractive power of the Spirit Thirdly The Spirit of God is able to preserve the 3 The Spirit preserves from fainting Soul from tiring in the way and herein it excels all other guides No guide can give the Travellour strength when he is weary but the Spirit of God can and doth give fresh strength unto all those whom he guides The Prophet David having had experience of this in himself writes it down for the comfort of others He restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the Psal 23. 3. paths of righteousness for his names sake The Spirit of God hath a restorative vertue as well as an inlightning vertue Historians tell us that the rod of Myrtle in the hand of Travellours preserves them from weariness I know not how true that is but I am sure the Spirit of God in the heart of the Spiritual Travellor doth give him fresh strength when he is weary They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they Isa 40. 31. shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint The way of the Lord could not bee strength to the upright if the Spirit did not increase strength to such as walk in those ways The Holy Ghost is not only a Guide to the Beleever but his viaticum upon which he feeds till he come to the end of his Journey The Spirit of God doth by those continual influences which he gives out to the Saints in their Pilgrimage put new life into their hearts that they cannot tire till they come to take up their lodging in Heaven He anoints their heads with the fresh oyl of his Grace whereby they are enabled to go from one measure of strength to another till they appear before God in Sion It s said of the people of God that they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing Psa 92. 14. Other trees have a time of bearing and a time of barrennesse but the trees that are planted in Gods house are never past bearing whence is it that the people of God dye bearing fruit but from the continuall influences of the Spirit of Grace If it be demanded how the holy Ghost preserves the Saints from fainting I answer briefly First He carries the divine promises open before them in his hand those great and precious promises as the Apostle By revealing the promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. calls them hee claps warm upon their hearts every morning and how can those tire so as to fall down who have such sovereign plasters upon their souls The promises of God are such water of life as that they will make the hearts of dying men live when Jonathan was faint hee did but dip the end of his rod in the hony comb and his Eyes were inlightned 1 Sam. 14. 27. The Spirit of God causeth the fainting travellors to dip their rods every day in the hony-comb of some promise and by such Cordialls recovers their decayed strength Secondly Hee gives them some glymses of the By giving some tasts of glory glory of that heavenly Country whither they are going Though the full meal of glory bee reserved till the saints come to heaven yet they have some litle tasts of it in this life The Scripture makes mention of the first fruits of the Spirit what are these but the foretasts Rom. 8. ●3 of eternall life they are some drops of that new wine which beleevers shall drink with Christ in the Kingdome of God they are as little bunches of grapes sent down from the celestiall Canaan The Spirit of God doth as it were cause them to peep into heaven and the least glimmerings of glory are sufficient to make the lame man leap as an Hart. The Apostles though they met with much affliction in the way to heaven yet they tell us they fainted not what was it that upheld them wee look not at the things 2 Cor. 4. 18. which are seen but at the things which are not seen The Spirit sometimes carries the Saints up to the top of

Heresies of destruction as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 1. The Lord will by his counsel so guide all his Saints that they shall not live and dye in any of these Heresies As there are Devilish Works so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devilish Doctrins or doctrins of Devils as the Scripture calls them 2 Tim. 4. 1. God will by the conduct of his grace guide his Elect that they shall not embrace these Doctrins VVant of truth will shut men out of Heaven as well as want of grace Heresie is a fruit of the Flesh as well as Drunkenness or VVitchcraft Gal. 5. 19 20 Truth is a piece of Gods Image as well as Holiness The grace of faith unites us to God but the Doctrin of faith strengthens this union so farre as any swerves from the truth hee swerves from God If that which yee have heard from the beginning shall remain in you yee also shall continue in 1 Joh. 2. 24. the Son and in the Father Eximia laus sanae Doctrinae saith Calvin VVe may from this text learn what an excellent thing sound Doctrin is in it we finde whatsoever appertains to the true injoyment of God and by it we are united both to the Father and the Son That Man of Sin is become the Antichrist not only because of false worship which he maintains but also because of the Corruption of the faith Truth is a piece of the furniture and riches of the Soul as well as Holiness A gospel-Gospel-spirit is a Spirit of a sound minde as well as a spirit of faith and love 2 Tim. 1. 7. Diseases in the head are mortal as well as Diseases in the heart Now when God promiseth to guide his people hee hath respect to this he will ingrave the truth in their mindes he will lead them in the way of truth and if at any time they turn aside to the error of the wicked his grace and his power shall recover them Secondly God will guide his people in matters 2 In matters of practise of practise his Eye shall be upon them to conduct them in the paths of righteousnesse As hee will teach them what to beleeve so hee will direct them what to practise He shall keep the feet of his Saints so Hannah 1 Sam. 2. 9. in her song of thanksgiving This promise as it refers to new obedience comprizeth these four particulars First God will let them see what is sinne and 1 God will make them know his will what is duty hee will shew them his way and make his paths plain before their face When others are in the dark they shall have the light of God upon their Tabernacles The secret of the Lord saith David is with them that fear him and hee will shew them his Covenant Psa 25. 14. God will cause them to understand and know the meaning of his Law his statutes shall not be to them a riddle or a sealed book but they shall be so plain that hee that runs may read them God will interpret the holy Commandement that they shall be able in all things necessary to salvation to understand the sense and meaning of it this is that which God promiseth 1 Joh. 2. 27. the anointing which yee have received of him abideth in you and yee need not that any man teach you God will so inlighten their minds by his Spirit that when they read the word or hear it preached they shall be able to say this is the mind of God Secondly God will give them a heart and a will 2 God will give them an heart to obey to embrace his Commandements to reject sinne and close with duty When others find their hearts rebelling against the Law they shall find their hearts ready to comply and yeeld obedience universally to it David often praies that God would incline his heart to his testimonies This God doth for every Saint he doth sweetly and yet powerfully bow the soul to a free spontaneous and ready obedience so that it chuseth the way of Gods statutes and cleaves to his testimonies This is the meaning of that gracious promise I Ezek. 36. 26 27 will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and yee shall keep my judgements and do them God doth not only lay his Commandements before a Beleevers face but writes them in his heart and then Jer. 31. 33. the Soul resolves never to depart from the obedience of them Gods Commandements at least some of them are grievous to an unbeleever but to one whom God guides every Commandement is sweet and precious he reads no Commandement but hee entertains it with that prayer of the Psalmist O that my Psal 119. 5. ways were directed to keep thy statutes This prayer God answers to every Soul that is led by him hee heals the Gangren of the corrupt will by removing the sowrnes that is upon it and by his enlarging grace enables it willingly to run the way of his Commandements so that the Beleever can say I delight to do thy Will O God yea thy Law is within my heart God bores the Ear and the Soul is no longer rebellious God orders the steps of his Saints and causeth them to delight in his way Thirdly God doth recover them from all their 3 God raiseth them when they fall falls The best of Beleevers have a spice of the Spiritual Falling-sickness they stumble and fall This promise of Divine guidance gives security of timely resurrection from such lapses It is upon Record in Scripture for the comfort of Beleevers that though Psal 37. 24. they fall they shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth them with his hand When they sink into misery God will lift them up and when they slip into sin God will restore them He will put the bones into their places when they are disjoynted and when iniquities prevail over them he will purge them away David fell through the power of temptation but God restored him Peter sunk down through his heedlesness but God lifted him up again Noah and Lot were overtaken and ensnared but God cut the cords of the Net and set them both free As oft as Corruption casts the Saints down so often doth the grace of God set them on their feet again Beleevers have as many Spiritual resurrections as they have Spiritual deaths they have as many Spiritual awakenings as they have Spiritual sleeps Fourthly God will give them perseverance to 4 God gives them perseverance hold out to the end This promise of guidance implyes perseverance Gods guidance would be insufficient if it did not comprehend this grace It is promised to the righteous That they shall hold on their Job 17. 9. way and to them that have clean hands that they shall grow stronger and stronger God furnisheth beleevers with daily supplies of strength for their daily journyings He gives

may 3 Ca●ry your selves so that God may guide you have assurance of Gods guidance To this purpose there are divers Graces that I shall commend to you which are as so many holy dispositions that will give you security that Gods counsel shall be your guide First Take heed of looking with a pleasant countenance 1 Take heed of all sin on any sin God will with-draw both his Eye and his Hand from his own Children if he see their hearts hankering after any wickedness David saith of himself That if he regarded iniquity in his heart Psal 66. 18. God will not hear him If a Beleever regard iniquity in his heart God will not guide him When the people of Israel had grievously sinned against God he refuseth to go with them in that glorious manner hee had done before I will not go up in the midst of thee for thou Exod. 33. 3. art a stiff-necked people God will not bee a guide to Robbers nor a leader to Theeves Sin will drive God out of his own House and make him carry himself as a stranger to his own Children Be yee clean yee that Isa 52. 11 12 bear the vessels of the Lord for the Lord will go before you and the glory of Israel will be your rereward Gods presence with his people is an Argument why they should be holy and their holiness is to them a hopeful ground to beleeve that God will be present The holy God will not be a Convoy to his own people when he sees them walk in unholy ways Secondly Be humble in heart Proud men are 2 Be humble neither willing to be guided nor fit to be guided All promises of Divine direction are made to the lowly in heart The meek will he guide in judgement and the meek Psal 25. 9. will he teach his way Proud hearts are unmeet to bee guides to men and unworthy to be guided by God A proud heart is a thwarting and a scornful heart and a scornful heart will never bow to instruction All his Deut. 33. 3. Saints are in thy hand and they sate down at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words He that expects to have the guidance of Gods Hand must sit down at his feet Sitting at the feet is the posture of Humility and that is the Leatners posture A proud spirit is a resisting and a contradicting spirit and a contradicting spirit is not easily ductise Arrogancy of heart is compared to an Isa 48. 4. Iron Sinew it is not an easie matter to lead a man whose sinews are all of Iron Pride makes a man think himself fit to dictate to all and he that conceives himself able to give counsel will not easily incline to take counsel The Apostle tells us that God resisteth the proud Jam. 4. 6. they fight against God and God sets himself in array against them But he giveth grace to the humble he will give them quickning grace and supporting grace and guiding grace An obedient ear and a lowly heart shall never want the guidance of Divine grace Thirdly Depend on God for guidance A fiducial 3 Depend on God reliance on God doth exceedingly engage God I will set him on high because he hath known my name Psalm 91. 14. God loves to be trusted and to be depended upon An ingenuous man will not fail his friend when hee knows hee relies on him God never did never will cast off the care of those that do by faithful recumbency cast their care on him The Prophet David doth often plead with God for direction upon on this Argument In thee do I trust cause me to know Psal 143. 8. the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee A firm trusting in God shall bee recompenced with the wise guidance of God God will lift up the eye of his Care on that man that lifts up the eye of his Faith to him God takes it kindly when a Soul will commit it self to him Holy faith will engage both the heart and the hand of God for preservation and direction Fourthly Ask Gods advice in all your concernments 4 Do nothing without Gods advice He that desires to have God for his Counsellor must by Prayer go to him for counsel continually If we fondly lean to our own understanding God will leave us to our own understanding If we begin once to trust to the guidance of our own eyes God wil soon with draw his eye Hear what counsel Solomon gives to this purpose In all thy wayes acknowledge him and he Prov. 3 6 7. shall direct thy paths Be not wise in thine own eyes There are two things which deprive men of Gods direction The one is Trusting to their own wisdom the other is The neglect of asking wisdom from God Solomon labours to remove both these in this text He that is wise in his own eyes will never thank God for counsel if his matters succeed hee will sacrifice to his own prudence and not to God And hee that doth not by prayer seek for counsel will never much value counsel Abrahams Servant when he was to go totake a Wife for his Masters Son seeks to God for direction and God was intreated The prophane man that will not pray puts in a Caveat against himself but he that doth humbly sue to God hath a promise of audience If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God Jam. 1. 5. who giveth liberally to all men and upbraideth not and it shall be given him A Father can hardly deny to stretch out the hand to his Childe when he sees him on his knees begging Those that dare not adventure to take one step till they have consulted Heaven shall not go one step without Heavens direction Fifthly Endeavour to guide others in the way 5 Be a guide to others Job saith That he was eyes to the blinde and feet to the lame Job 29. 15. As he did cloath them that were naked with the fleece of his sheep so hee was careful to advise them that were ignorant by that knowledge God had given him God is well pleased to see his people in a regular way willing to be instructers to others God promiseth to water those that water others The liberal soul shall be made fat and Prov. 11. 25. he that watereth shall be watered also himself God will be a Sun to guide him that is willing to be a Star to guide others He that sets himself to reduce those that go astray may comfortably hope that God will preserve him from going astray Well To wind up all in one word Be intreated as you tender The Conclusion your own Souls and the honour of God to pray for this Divine guidance and to accept of it Pray that the unerring Word may be your rule and the infallible Spirit of God your guide in all your ways you are undone for ever if God do not

have all his Sons with him in his own Kingdom The glorious bosome of Abraham is ordained for the Sons of God and the Sons of God are ordained for it Heaven is entayled upon the Sons and Daughters of God and this Entayl can never be cut off This is sufficient to prove that which was asserted namely That those that are guided by the Counsel of God shall be received into glory Thirdly When shall the Saints enter into the actuall 3 When this glory is to be possessed possession of this glory For the resolving of this question I shall briefly lay down two Propositions which contain the whole state of the matter First The Souls of Gods Elect do immediatly upon 1 The Soul enters upon it at death their departure out of the body posses this happiness There were some of old in the Church who thought that the Souls of men did sleep with their Bodies and that they did not either enjoy happiness or suffer torment till the Resurrection Reverend Calv. Tractat. Theol. par 2. Calvin hath a learned Treatise which he calls Psychopannychia wherein he doth confute this absurd Opinion which it seems had infected many in those times the very mentioning of it is a sufficient Confutation Those that know any thing of Scripture or of the Spiritual Nature of the reasonable Soul of Man cannot but understand the vanity of this opinion If I could swallow down such a gross Opinion as that of Soul-sleeping is I should imagine those mens Souls were in a dead sleep who did first broach this Doctrin The Soul of Man is a Spirit and Spirits do neither eate nor sleep as Bodies do The reasonable Soul is a substance distinct from the Body and therefore doth not dye or sleep with the Body Our Saviour speaks of men that can kill the Body but hee tells his Disciples they could not kill the Soul If Mat. 10. 28 the Soul did sleep with the Body those that did kill the one would kill the other also The Apostle Paul Phil. 1. 23 desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ His Body was not presently to be with Christ He did beleeve that that should lodge in the dust for a time but his Soul he knew should ascend to Heaven when the Body did descend to the Grave Jesus Christ tells that Luk. 23. 43 penitent Thief that he should be with him that very day in Paradice The Body of our blessed Saviour went to the Grave and so also did the body of the Thief but both their Souls ascended immediatly to Heaven The Preacher speaking of the dissolution of Man by death tells us That the dust shall return to the Eccles 12. 7 earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it The Soul of Lazarus was taken into Heaven as soon as it was breathed out of the sheath of the body When the bodies of the Saints retire to the House of Sleepers as the Grave is called their Souls are immediately transported to Heaven the Land of the Living Secondly Both Soul and Body shall enjoy all this 2 The whole man shall enjoy it at the Day of Judgement glory at the Day of Judgement The Scripture speaks of a general Resurrection both of the just and unjust As there is an Autumn or Leaf-fall of Death so there will be a Spring-time of Resurrection Those two old Friends the Soul and Body which have been separated by death shall then meet again and then they shall partake together of the same condition The Saints compleat glory is adjourned to that day but then it shall be fully enjoyed When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall yee also appear with Col. 3. 4 him in glory In that day shall all Saints bee glorified together and every Saint wholly glorified The Apostle Paul tels us that Christs appearing to Judge the World is the day of the Elects general Coronation 2 Tim. 4. 8. The Crown is laid up amongst the other Regalia but at that day the Diadem shall be actually set upon the head of the Beleever and after that shall he wear it without weariness or fear of losing it to all eternity Having thus opened the Doctrin I come to the The Application Application which I shall dispatch in a few particulars First It strengthens our faith in that Article of 1 That there is an eternal life eternal life Though Atheists and Epicures scoff and deride the Doctrin of everlasting Life yet let the Saints of God beleeve it If in this life only we had 1 Cor. 15. 19. hope in Christ we were of all men most miserable but blessed be God there is another and a better being than can be expected in this World Every stripe inflicted upon the backs of Gods Saints every mournful tear that distilleth from their eyes every pensive thought arising in their hearts every temptation assaulting them every hours defection every moments hiding of Gods face in this life are to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks manifest tokens of a 2 Thes 1. 5. righteous Judgement to come and of a state of happiness to be possessed The present condition of the Saints should not be so afflicting if there were not an Afterward of everlasting blessedness to be enjoyed God would not suffer his holy ones to eate so many sowre Breakfasts on Earth if he had not prepared for them such a sweet Supper in Heaven Secondly It shews us that a holy life is of absolute 2 That holiness is necessary for the attaining of happiness necessity unto salvation There is no admittance unto glory but to those who are guided by the Counsel of Gods VVord and Spirit Mans holiness is not the Meritorious cause of salvation but it is the way which leads to salvation The way of holiness is that which brings the Soul to communion with the God of holiness No person shall have one foots breadth in Gods Tabernacle but he that is of cleanhands and a pure heart Psal 15. 1 2. There is no coming to the Non est via ad regnam sine primitiis regni c. Bern. Kingdom without the first fruits of the Kingdom No man shall reign with Christ in Heaven but hee that first reigns as a King over his own corruptions Sinners would be as weary of Heaven should they bee taken thither unrenewed as Saints would be of Hell Men do but deceive themselves who think to pass immediately from a state of Corruption into a state of Glory There is neither work nor company in Heaven fit for wicked men Without holiness no man Heb. 12. 14. shall see the Lord. He shall never sit down with Christ at Gods right hand of glory who hath not been guided by the right hand of his grace Thirdly Let the Saints meditate much on this 3 Medt●te on this glory Coelestial glory God hath revealed to the Elect this