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
A29118	Elijah's nunc dimittis, or, The authors own funerall sermons in his meditations upon I Kings 19:4 ... / by Thomas Bradley ...	Bradley, Thomas, 1597-1670.	1669 (1669)	Wing B4132; ESTC R7187	60,180	133

hollowness of them What is it that sustains the Clouds in the Aire infinitely greater and more weighty then they so as they fly to and fro but as bottles in the Aire as Job speaks or like bladders full of winde that they fall not down in great dashes enough to make another Deluge but the hollowness of them That such a hollowness there is in them appears by the Lightning the Thunder and the Thunder-bolts and the spirituall vapour that proceeds out of them when they break of such force that it penetrates and burns and breaks and tears in peeces all that it lights upon And who can deny but it is agreeable to reason that there may be such a hollowness in the heart of the earth whereby it may by the power and providence of the Creator be susteined in the place which he hath appointed for it and also be a fit receptacle of evill spirits where they may be secured as in a Prison and reserved unto the Judgement of the great day In the Apostolicall Creed we profess to beleeve That Christ descended into Hell And St. Paul tells us He descended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lower parts of the Earth This cannot be understood of the descent of his body by his buriall that scarce went into the Earth at all but was layd in the Sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea had made for himselfe in his Garden which was above the ground or at least the most part of it if any part at all of it were under or within the ground it was not so low as that we may say of it It was in the lower parts of the Earth How then will you understand this Article of our Lords descent into Hell except you understand it of his Soule and of his Spirit And where will you finde this Hell more agreeable to Scripture and Reason then as I have described it and that by his Spirit he went to Preach to the spirits in prison there The third vast Prison wherein the evill Angells are secured unto the day of the generall Judgement is The Sea for there are Sea Spirits as well as Land Spirits or Aeriall Spirits When the Disciples being in a Ship saw Christ coming towards them walking upon the Sea the Text sayes They were troubled and thought they had seen a Spirit Mat. 14.26 whereby it appears That there were Spirts that did appear in the Sea as well as on the Land And in St. Mathew 8. we reade That the Devills being cast out of the man which they had possessed entred into an Heard of Swine and carried them headlong into the Sea by which it seems there was their abode And in Mark 5. which by many circumstances seem not to be the same story with this of St. Matthew we reade Of a whole legion of Devills entring into a Heard of no less then two thousand Swine and carrying them with great violence into the Sea these were Sea Spirits whose abode was in the Sea which is the third Prison wherein these evill Angells are secur'd and confin'd unto the Judgement of the great day and with them the souls of wicked men both to be brought in and judged at that general Assizes which though they be not till then cast into the Lake of everlasting burnings yet is their condition in the mean time woefull and miserable 'T is miserable to consider how wilfully they have forsaken their own mercy and what opportunity they have lost of preventing this their misery never to be recovered nor recalled 'T is miserable to lye in Prison in such a Prison and for such Crimes of which they know themselves they shall be found guilty at that day and condemn'd to suffer the vengeance of everlasting sire 'T is miserable to see Hell open before them and ready to receive them 'T is miserable in the mean time to lye under the wrath of the Almighty and under the torments of a wounded soule Yet neither are the torments of the souls of wicked men during this time of their separation from their bodies all aequall as neither shall they be after the generall Judgement as shall be shewed in the sequel of this Treatise but in the mean while having shewed you the state of the souls of wicked men It now rests that I should shew you What is the state of the souls of just men from the time of their separation from their bodies till the time of their re-union again with their bodies at the day of the Resurrection And in answering to this inquiry the Scripture gives us some light in foure expressions When the body returns to dust from whence 't was taken the spirit returns to God that gave it saith Soloman Eccles 12.7 The Angells receive it and carry it into Abraham's bosome saith St. Luke cap. 16.22 It is layd under the Altar saith St. John Rev. 6.9 It is carried into Paradise saith our Saviour to the penitent theese upon the Crosse Luke 23.43 All these are most comfortable and heavenly expressions setting forth the blessed and happy estate of the souls of the just which they enter into when they are delivered from the burden of the flesh the great impediment of their perfection yet they doe not all amount to this That upon their separation they pass into the highest Heaven and into the fruition of the immediate vision of God and that fulness of joy and glory that they shall enter into at the last day when it shall be said unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For we cannot imagine that these words are spoken onely in reference to the bodies then newly raysed out of their graves but to the whole man body and soule united together and so to the entire persons of them Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom For that of Solomon That the soule returns to God that gave it it is true that is It is taken up into the higher Heavens and is in neerer communion with God then it was before it is admitted neerer into his presence it is taken into his more immediate care to dispose of it in a place and state of bliss and felicity of joy and glory even presently upon the separation of it from the body For that of Saint Luke That the Angells received the soule of Lazarus the meaning is That he was gathered unto the rest of the faithfull of which Abraham is said to be the Father and carried to a place of rest intimated by Abraham's bosome Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est quietis aeternae Ambr. For that of St. John Rev. 6. Where he sees the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar the meaning is That they were in a place of security where no evill should touch them as in the third of the book of Wisedom The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no evill shall touch them v. 1. The Altar

was an Asylum a place of refuge and protection 1 Kings 2.28 The souls of these Martyrs were seen under the Altar to intimate their security their safety no evill might touch them As to that saying of our Lord to the penitent theefe upon the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I give these two answers First That Paradise is not so limited to the highest Heaven where the Throne of God is but that it may comprehend some other place adjacent to it where he might be in joy and felicity with Christ who as to his Divine Nature is every where the word signifieth A place of pleasure and such are the places assigned to be the receptacles of the souls of the just when they are separated from their bodies I answer secondly That for the souls of Enoch before the Law and of Elijah under the Law and of this penitent theefe under the Gospel I doe not deny but they might have speciall priviledge in the translation of them that the Lord in their examples might give good assurance to all beleevers and to all the just that ever have or shall live in any Age of the World whether before the Law under the Law or since the Law as well of their ascension and glorification as of their resurrection As to this penitent theefe in particular dying with him upon the Crosse that he might shew a specimen of the power of his death in saving justifying and glorifying penitent sinners though never so great offenders but then we must remember withall that these were peculiar priviledges of singular persons And Privilegia sunt paucorum the Civill Law will tell us That Priviledges are the portion but of few This doth not weaken the truth of my ascertion That the souls of just men dying doe not immediately upon the separation of them from the body pass into the highest Heaven nor to the highest glory nor to that fulness of joy which they shall enter into at the Resurrection when they shall be re-united to their bodies and so both together shall be taken into the everlasting habitations and shall stand in the presence of God and enjoy the beatificall Vision in whose light they shall see light when they shall see God face to face in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore This the Royall Prophet by his spirit of Prophesie foresaw long agoe and rejoyced under the hope of it Psal 17.15 I shall behold thy face in righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy Image When I awake that is in the morning of the Resurrection then I shall be satisfied with thine Image then and not till then shall I be fully satisfied with thine Image But then here ariseth another Question as there did of the souls of wicked men Where are the souls of the just in the mean while between the time of their separation from the body by death and the re-union of them with the body at the Resurrection Where are they What becomes of them In what state and condition have they their being What is their imployment What is their enjoyments To all these foure Quaeries I shall endeavour to give you some satisfaction as touching the Place the State the imployment and the enjoyments of souls separated And as to the first of these The place of the souls separation I shall not send you to the Elysan fields of the antient Poëts to seek them Nor to the Gardens nor Orchards of the Hesperides Nor to the Mahometan Paradises all these conceived and beleeved That the souls of vertuous and just men as soon as they were separated from the body did pass into some place of rest and joy wherein they were not deceived but for want of a more distinct knowledge of the Place where they had their being and their state in it they set it forth by comparing it to the being in those places which they conceived to be most happy pleasant and joyous But certainly that which is most agreeable to reason in this case and is no way repugnant to any Article of Faith nor to any discovery in Scripture made to the contrary is this That the souls of the just being separated from the bodies doe pass into those high Heavens which are above the Starry Firmament as the souls of wicked men doe pass into the Regions of the Aire below it For that there are Heavens above the Starry Firmament it cannot be denyed two we reade of before we come to the Empyrean Heavens where the Throne of God is and where the Lord of Hosts with all his holy Angells keeps his Court in Majesty and Glory The lower-most of these is called Caelum aqueum The watery Heaven from the clearness and the transparancy of it The other above that is called Caelum Crystallinum The Crystall Heaven from the purity and the pellucidity of it for still the higher the Heavens are and the neerer they approach to the Empyrean Heaven where the Throne of God is the more glorious are they and the more noble the Inhabitants of them Now between every of these Heavens there is a vast space of infinite capacity and it must needs be so by reason of the greatness of their circumference the least and lowest of them is of greater capacity and comprehension then all this space that is between the Earth and the Starry Firmament and the rest greater then it proportionably Now I would ask Of what use these vast and comprehensive Heavens are if this be not one to be the receptacle of the souls of the just when they are taken out of their bodies Natura nihil facit frustrà The God of Nature the Creator of all things hath made nothing in vain There is no part of the world which he hath made but he hath stor'd and stock't it with Inhabitants suitable to it The Earth he hath stor'd and stock't with Beasts and Cattell the Sea with Fishes the Ayre with Fowle and with Aeriall Inhabitants every of the Spheres above it with Starrs and Planets which by their light heare influence and motion divide the times and Governe this inferiour world The Starry Firmament that is spread out as a vaile between this inferiour and the superiour world between these lower and the higher Heavens it is peopled as it were with innumerable Golden Starrs of severall magnitudes specious to behold and pretious for their use and influence The Empyrean Heavens the highest of all the rest is stor'd and Inhabited with Angells and Arch-Angells Cherubims and Seraphims and the other Orders of those Heavenly Courtiers that stand in the presence of God waiting his pleasure and ready to execute his will and to fulfill his Word Thus the whole Universe is replenished with Inhabitants suitable to the places which the Great Creator and high disposer of all things hath appointed for them And doe these beautifull Heavens the Aqueall and Chrystalline Heavens so