Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28164	Purgatory surveyed, or, A particular accompt of the happy and yet thrice unhappy state of the souls there also of the singular charity and wayes we have to relieve them : and of the devotion of all ages for the souls departed : with twelve excellent means to prevent purgatory and the resolution of many curious and important points.; De l'etat heureux et malheureux des âmes souffrantes du purgatoire. English. 1663	Binet, Etienne, 1569-1639.; Ashby, Richard, 1614-1680.	1663 (1663)	Wing B2915; ESTC R31274	138,491	416

of their sensual and beastly appetites But you must observe that all The power of grace above nature this happens while a soul is left to her selfe and her own natural forces for when the divine goodness is pleased to furnish her with plenty of his grace even in this world as wicked as it is this grace has such an ascendant over nature and breathes such spirit and vigour into a soul that she can wrestle with all difficulties and remove all obstacle● nay though the body be borne and sunke into the very center of misery yet can she still hold up her head and steer her course towards heaven Now will you clearly see how the souls can at the same instant swim in a paradise of delights and ●et be overwhelmed with the hellish torments of Purgatory cast your eyes upon the holy Martyrs of Gods Church and observe their behaviour They were torn mangled dismembred flead alive rackt broyled burnt and tell me was not this to live in a kind of Hell and yet in the very height of their torments their hearts and souls were ready to leape for joy you would have taken them to be already transported into heaven Hear them but speak for themselves O lovely Cross made St. Andrew beautiful by the precious body of Christ how long have I desired thee and with what care have I sought thee and now I have found thee receive me into thy armes and lift me up to my dear Redeemer O death how amiable art thou in my Eyes and how sweet is thy cruelty Your coales your flaming firebands and all St. Cec●ly the terrours of death are to me but as so many fragrant Roses and Lillies sent from Heaven Shower down upon me whole deluges St. Stephen of stones whil'st I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of his eternal father to behold the fidelity of his Champion Turne O St. Laurence turne the other side thou cruel Tyrant this is already broild and cookt fit for thy Palate O how well am I pleased to suffer this little Purgatory for the love of my Saviour Make hast O my Soul St. Agnes to cast thy selfe upon the nuptial bed of flames which thy dear Spouse has prepared for thee O St. Felicitus and the Mother of the Machabees that I had a thousand Children or a thousand lives to sacrifice them all to my God What a pleasure it is to suffer for so good a cause Welcome tyrants tygres St. Ignatius Lyons let all the torments that the Devils can invent come upon me so I may enjoy my Saviour I am the wheat of Christ O let me be ground with the Lyons teeth Now I begin indeed to be the disciple of Christ O the luckie stroak St. Paul of a Sword that no sooner cuts of my head but makes a breach for my Soul to enter into Heaven Let it be far from me to glory in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Let all evils band against me and let my body be never so overloaded with afflictions the joy of my heart will be sure to have the mastry and my soul will be still replenished with such heavenly consolations that no words nor even thoughts are able to express it You may imagine then that the Souls once unfettered from the body may together with their torments be capable of great comforts and divine favours and break forth into re●olute heroical and supercelestial acts The holy Ghost tels us that the body that Sap. 9. 15. is corrupted burthens the Soul and the earthly habitation presses downe the understanding So that a Soul by the infirmities of the body is violently kept from the free excercise of her functions whereas if the body were supple pliable and willing to follow the perswations of a resolute and generous Soul or the inspirations with which she is plentifully supplied from above what might we not be able to do even in this life Now that which is not done here but by very few who are lookt upon as so many miracles and prodigies of men is easily performed by those separate holy souls who are in the very porch of Heaven assured of their eternal salvation In fine will you have a most perfect exemplar and idea of this wonderful combination of ●oys and griefs in one simple person you may clearly see it in the most sacred person of our blessed Saviour who in the midst of his bitter passion and in the very height of his agony and extream dereliction when he not only seem'd to have been abandoned by his eternal Father but had even abandoned and forsaken himselfe by miraculously withholding the superiour part of his blessed Soul from relieving and assisting the inferiour yet even then had all the comforts of Heaven and saw God face to face and consequently was at the selfe same time most happy by the fruition of the beatifi●al vision and yet so oppressed with griefs that he cried out himself my soul is sorrowful unto death and againe O my God alas why hast thou thus forsaken me Conceive somthing like unto this of the Souls in Purgatory who are most miserably tormented and yet replenished with heavenly comforts §. 2. Two maine grounds of their comfort the double assurance they have of their salvation and impeccability THe better to unfold you this They are certain of ●heir salvation riddle I must tell you that possibly the most solid and powerful ground of their comfort is the assurance of their eternal salvation and that one day when it shall please God they shall have their part in the joyes of Paradise That which is the sorest affliction in this life unto the most refined Souls in the greatest torments is the fear of offending God and making an unhappy end for want of the gift of perseverance of which none can be assured without a particular revelation and so becoming the Devils martirs by purchasing one Hell with another For if an Angel should come down from Heaven and give this infallible assurance unto an aff●●cted person that undoubtedly he shall be saved as being one of the choyce number of the elect certainly his very heart would leap for joy nor would the severest usage with death it selfe and death represented in her most frightful and gastly attire seem cruel or irksome unto him but exceeding welcome and pleasant When almighty God was pleased once to reveal unto St. Francis his eternal predestination and to seal him as it were a deed of gift of Paradise this Seraphin incarnate was so transported with an extasie of joy and so ravished out of himselfe that for eight dayes together he did nothing but go up and down crying out Paradise Paradise O my soul thou shalt have Paradice and had so quite lost all memory of eating drinking sleeping suffering living dying and all things else as being inebriated with the sweet remembrance of that

be like God but S. Bern. ep ad fratres de monte die not to have the power to have any other will but Gods is to be what God is that is content and happy in whatsoever condition If God for some special reason would have a soul to be a million of years in Purgatory without fault and without hope of any further merit she would not much concern her self neither for the extremity of the pains nor for the length of the delay but would rest satisfied with a perfect resignation to Gods holy will Can there be any doubt of this when we find souls even in this miserable life so couragious and so conformable to the divine pleasure as to offer themselves to be buried in Hell fire so it might but add one single graine of encrease to Gods glory No this diformity or uniformity to the designes of Gods providence is so excessive great in these devout souls so vigorous and so puissant that it cannot be expressed or conceived in this our gross ignorant world The Ecclesiastical Euseb Niceph. Baron History assures us that many of the holy Marty●s whil'st they were in flames of fire melting of their lives by drops as I may so say were heard to profess with a smiling countenance an invincible heart that they took themselves to be at a nuptiall feast and to tread upon Roses So well were they pleased that God was so pleased and that his blessed will was performed in them nay more that nothing griev'd them but the shortness of their torments and the fleeting condition of their petty martyrdoms as they would call them Alas would they say were this to last to the worlds end how happy were we and how welcome were our flames by the light whereof one might clearly read the fidelity of our hearts and their conformity to the heart of the great God of Heaven This excessive conformity and To cooperate with Gods justice sidelity of these holy souls makes them willing to cooperate with the sweet rigours of Gods justice against their crimes Who loves God purely for himself loves all that belongs to make up his glory and since God shews himself as much God in the excercise of his justice as in the sweet influences of his boundles mercy a happy soul cannot chuse but take pleasure to cooperate with Gods justice in procuring his satisfaction even at the charge of her own sufferings and would most readily annihilate her self for the honour of her God If our hour be come said the valourous Judas Machabeas and if God have so disposed of us let us die my brethren and let us die bravely it must be as the Heavens have decreed and I will have it so though at the cost of a hundred thousand lives And holy Job Is it not reason said he that we should as well receive what we call evils at the hand of his justice as favors at the hand of his mercy That noble Roman that buried his Ponyard in his own Sisters breast whom he met foolishly bewailing the good fortune of the City of Rome had nothing to alledg for his justification but this What said he shall not Rome be Rome as well in the excercise of rigourous justice as in the maintenance of her greatness and demonstration of her absolute power Can I offer a more pleasing holocaust unto the Gods then to sacrifice my Sister when Romes justice requires it This Roman severity carries with it I know not what masculine generosity and this cruelty to a foolish Sister argues much piety to his dear Country In effect all the world cried up the fact which at first sight seemed too brutish barbarous and inhumane The holy souls that burne with ardent charity seeing it necessary that the divine justice should receive plenary satisfaction and that Gods interest is extraordinarlly concern'd that his justice should rule by course as well as his mercy goodness and charity these holy souls I say seeing all this have such a pleasure in their torments as cannot be comprehended in this miserable life which is so ful of self-love but by some few noble and generous souls that love God only for himself and that so purely as not to make any reckoning of their own concernes or suffrings §. 4. Another comfortable consideration drawn from the desire they have to make themselves worthy of the sight of God TAke another consideration Their desire to remove all obstacles ●f seeing God which wil much illustrate that which has been already said and reinforce the joy of the souls in spight of their tormenting pains You may believe that a soul having once taken leave of the body has such a passionate inclination to enjoy her end that is to see God and be united with God and finally to arrive unto that happiness for which she clearly sees she was created that it can hardly be expressed A bird newly stolen out of the Cage wherein she was detained captive flyes not away swifter the furious Course of a torrent that precipitates it self from the top of a mountaine roules not along with a greater impetuosity the enraged winds broke loose ou● of their close cavernes underground blow not with more violence then the desire of seeing God thrusts on a soul once freed from the thraldome of the body Now as they see in Purgatory that there is no other obstacle but the rust and filth of sin and the remainder of their former misdemeanours and that Purgatory fire is deputed by almighty God to purifie and refine them and so to make them worthy of his presence they are so far from grumbling or repining at this sweet rigour of Gods justice that on the contrary they take it for a great favour and an extraordinary piece of mercy of almighty God their most loving Father When they saw'd off the Leg of that great Philosopher he held it out with both his hands he encouraged the operatour and perhaps also took hold of the Saw himself to do the Surgeon that piece of service saying withall let u● thrust my friend let us thrust and let us not fear to cut off this rotten and useless bone the pain you give me will procure me a great deal of good and the sooner we have done the better Be not afraid then my dear enemy but strike in thy Saw boldly the crueller thou art for the time the sooner thou wilt put me out of pain And thus the Surgeon cut off his Leg with as little sense or feeling as if it had been the Leg of a statue or of a person that had no relation to him or was his mortal enemy And that Japonian Virgin who was to dye by fire could not hould from kissing the burning coales and crying out joyfully O lovely Hist Jap●n coales O delicious flames how much am I obliged to your sweet cruelty since you put me in a condition of enjoying within a few moments the only spouse of my Soule Oh

Age where the 15. Age. Conc. Flor. in decreto Fathers of the Council of Florence both Greeks and Latins with one consent declare the same faith and constant practise of the Church thus handed down to them from Age to Age since Christs and his Apostles time as we have seen viz. that the souls in Purgatory are not only relieved but translated into heaven by the Prayers Sacrifices Almes and other charitable workes which are offered up for them according to the custome of the Catholick Church Nor did their posterity degenerate or vary the least from this received doctrine untill Luthers time when the holy 16. Age. Trid. sess 25 Council of Trent thought fit againe to lay down the sound doctrine of the Church in opposition to all our late Sectaries And I wish all Catholicks were but as forward to lend their helping hands to lift souls out of Purgatory as they are to believe they have the power to do it and that we had not oftner more reason then the Roman Emperour to pronounce the day lost since we let so many dayes pass over our heads and so many faire occasions slip out of our hands without easing or releasing any souls out of Purgatory when we might do it with so much ease The Sixth Survey Of twelve excellent means to prevent Purgatory or to provide so for our selves as not to make any long stay there BEhold the most important point of all others the secret of secrets and the true knack of all state affair●s in this world They talke of certain water● which have so strange a power to dull the edge of fire that if one wash his hands with them he can receive no prejudice though he should thrust them afterwards into the fire or into boyling lead The preservatives I am here to treate of are of a higher nature they do not curbe the restless activity of this our sublunary fire which is bent only against dull bodies but they arme us against the raging fire of Purgatory which God has prepared to torment our very souls in the other world §. 1. The first perfect contrition ONe of the surest means to avoide Purgatory is to dye with teares in our eyes and St. Th. supp q. 5. a. 3. true contrition in our he●rts For Divines teach that our contrition may be so great ●s to wash away all those spots of sin which Purgatory ●●re was otherwise to have words off And therefore as I take it to be a gr●●t piece of folly to defer the exercise of so prec●ous ●n a●● unto the houre of our death so I esteem it one of the most solid devotions of all others to accustome our selves to it all our life time that by daily frequenting such acts we may at length get such a habite and facility in them as with Gods grace to have them at our call when we come to dye All must not look for the same priviledge which the good thief had at the last gaspe It was but little that he sayd but he spoke it with so cordial an accent that he deserved to heare those comfortable words of our blessed Saviour This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise and soon found them verified by a present fruition of the beatifical vision Almighty God is pleased sometimes to make so forceable an entry into the heart of man and to set it so desperately on fire with his divine love that there is no remedy but to dye between the armes of love and griefe and thrice happy are those souls that loose their lives in this divine encounter and dye in the amourous flames of ardent charity they are sure never to feel the murthering flames of Purgatory Such was the death of our blessed Lady St. John Evangelist and infinite others who have been straight carried into heaven out of this world upon the wings of love or contrition so that a heart that is well seasoned with contrition or steeped in a bath of salt tears is like the heart of Prince Germanicus which Tacit. Ann. being washed over with a certain precious liqour could not be consumed by the fire which turned all the rest of his body to ashes This is that they call a good Peccavi but it must be a good one indeed for it is not every ordinary and triviall kind of sorrow which can work such wonders Those that have been long used to actuate themselves in those generous acts of contrition may be full of confidence that the mercy of God will not faile them at the houre of their death and that their good Angels will be then ready when it most imports to inspire them with all the best motives of true contrition since they have gone all along with them still furnishing them with such good thoughts and with so much good success that their hearts have been a thousand times broken with a lively amorous and cordial contrition and repentance for their sins And certainly they that dye either in the fire of so ardent a love or in the water of so piercing a grief need not feare the fire of Purgatory for that fire says St. Bonaventure was not made for them So that methinks this charity may be fitly compared to the Seraphin at the gates of Paradise brandishing his flaming sword which Tertulian calls the por●er Romphae● janitrix Faradisi of Paradise grief is the edge love the fire wherewith it is inflamed and he that has this flaming sword has heaven gates at co●mand and goes strait thither when he leaves the world § 2. The Second to dye in Religion ANother safe way to escape Purgatory is to live and die in a good Religious order and at his death to renew and Ad fratres de monte dei à coella in coelum c. ratifie his Religious vowes To prove this I first call St. Bernard to witness who doubts not to assure us that there is a ready if not an uninterrupted passage into Heaven out of a Religious cell Next I appeal to those learned and holy Doctours who give it for a certain sign of Predestination to die in Religion because Christ has in a manner sworn in his holy Gospel to give a hundred fold and life everlasting Plat. de bon● stat Relig. to all those that shall leave Father Mother and other worldly concernments for his sake From whence it is that holy Church permits the superiours of divers Religious orders to make this solemne promise at the profession of their novicies for they have no sooner made their Vowes of Poverty c. But the superiour answers And I Child do promise thee Paradise and eternal life 3. Many Popes have granted a Sixt Greg. 13. Greg. 14. Plenary Indulgence in forme of a Jubily to all Religious persons that either by word of mouth or in their hearts call upon the sacred names of Jesus Maria at the hour of their death And what Religious person is there that does it not