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
A33961	Defensative armour, against four of Sathan's most fiery darts viz. temptations to atheistical and blasphemous impressions and thoughts, self-murther, despair, and presumption : wherein is discoursed the nature of these temptations, the several tempters to these sins, the arguments ordinarily used by the tempters in the inforcing of them, and some proper advice is offered to those who are exercised with them / by J.C. D.D. ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1680 (1680)	Wing C5312; ESTC R12985	145,095	356

any Incouragement to a departure from God in any thing much more in this Unbelief signifies a not agreement to the Propositions of the Word Revealing the Will of God Or a Distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises whether relating to special Providence or special Grace or Eternal Life Study therfore to be Rooted and Grounded in the Faith that you may firmly Believe these things 1. That there is a God whose Right it is to Rule and Govern us to Order us and our Affairs and Conditions and to dispose of us and who will one day Judg us and deal with us according to what we have done Whosoever it is that liveth not under this Conviction must needs think himself in his own Power and that he may do with himself what he pleaseth his Tongue is his own and he may speak his Hands are his own and he may do what he list and his Life is his own and he may deny himself in it and throw it away as he pleaseth for to whom should he be accountable for it O therefore set God always before your Eyes possess your selves that you are not your own but Persons under Authority and upon whom a Superiour Being hath a Superintendancy you will fay Are we dead Doggs that we should think any thing contrary to this Thus we think But the Truth is we profess an assent and agreement to many Propositions which are not so fastned upon our Hearts so rivetted in our Souls as they ought to be For it must be a mighty inordinate Act and contrary to the Dictate of all Reason for a Man to undertake the disposal of that over which he hath no Dominion and for the disposal of which he must be accountable unto a Superiour Indeed there is something of Atheism in every Sin but there must be abundance of Atheism in this Sin It is impossible that while a Man entertaineth Thoughts to destroy himself he should fixedly believe that he is not at his own disposal as to this Life but at the disposal of God and he such a God as is to be his Judge and whom will one day call him to Account as well for what he hath done with the Life which he gave him as with the Estate Parts c. which he gave him I would therefore never have a man think that he sufficiently believeth this first Principle of all Duty and Religion but be ever whetting it upon his Heart That God is and what a God he is 2. That every Man and Woman hath a Spiritual Part an Immortal Soul that can no more be extinguished with the Body then Eat or Drink or Sleep with it but goeth to an Eternal Existence when it is seperated from the Body Where the Body raised up from the dust shall one day meet it and be united to it and with it either suffer Eternal Torment or enjoy Eternal Happiness according to what it hath done in this Life Certainly no Rational Being no Man could possibly entertain a Thought to Kill himself if he were firmly perswaded That it is a thing impossible for him to determine his own Being We cannot desire nor attempt to go about what we are fully perswaded is an impossible atchievement A thing impossible to be obtained our Reason will not suffer our Mind to run upon or our Hearts to run out after things which we clearly apprehend are not possible in Nature Now admitting these Principles That Man is something more then Flesh and Blood animated That he hath a Spiritual Part that this it is Immortal and cannot Perish with the Body but when it parteth from the Body goeth into Eternal Mansions either in Happiness or in Misery That the Body after Death shall revive again in the Resurrection and there both the Soul and Body of every Man and Woman shall be again united and make one Person and shall both together enter an happy or miserable Eternity I say admitting this it is impossible for a Man to determine his Being all he can possibly do is to determine his Being in this World He can neither by such Act determine his Being nor yet his Misery he may determine indeed his Misery as to this Life but his Soul will then but enter into a state of Ten thousand times more Misery in another World and there will be a time after the revolution of a few years when his Body shall return to Ten thousand times more Misery than it ever felt in this World Now certainly no Person under any command or conduct of Reason can possibly be induced to attempt a thing impossible to deliver himself from any Evil Nor yet throw himself into an infinitly worse state to deliver himself from a present bad estate All the Entertainment therefore which such Temptations have in our Hearts must be advantaged from Unbelief of these great Principles which indeed are the Foundations and Principles of all Religion Labour therefore for as much as in you lies to Root your selves in the belief of these things that you may not have the least doubt or haesitation of in your Hearts with relation to them Live in the daily Meditation of them suffer not your Souls to call them in Question be acquainted with those Portions of Holy Writ where the Revelation of these things is clearest to you Take heed of Unbelief as to these things 3. A Third thing as to which the Soul should be fully perswaded that will avoid the dint of this Temptation is as to the Truth of the Holy Scriptures in the general so of those Portions of them in particular which reveals the Will of God as to the preservation of our own Lives and the Lives of others and the Wrath of God against such as commit Sins of this Nature Such as those Gen. 9. 6. Num. 35. 32. Thou shalt not Kill No Murtherer hath Eternal Life and all such as express the greatness of the Sin of Murther for it is but an easie Conclusion of Reason from these Principles If I ought not to Kill another I ought much less to Kill my self If I ought to preserve the Life of my Neighbour surely I ought to preserve my own Life If I ought to preserve my Chastity to preserve my Vessel in Honour surely I ought not to dash it in pieces If I ought not to maime or dismember my self surely I ought not to destroy my self The truth is no Soul can possibly be guilty of this Sin who either doth not in whole disbelieve the Scriptures or in whose Heart the disbelief of them doth not prevail to a very high degree at that time when he is prevailed with by any Temptation to do such a thing But there is also another Unbelief which must be predominant in the Soul at that time when it is prevailed upon by this Temptation and that is a Distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises either with relation to special Providence or special Grace or Eternal Life Those who

designing to give it trouble in order to a further end And this is enough to have spoken to this Question both concerning the want of a bait that should intice the Soul into this Net and the Arguments which the Tempter ordinarily useth with Such Souls CHAP. IV. Whether these Suggestions be the Souls guilt yea or no Two Conclusions laid down in the Case The Negative is asserted Five Arguments brought to prove that they are not the Souls guilt Two things which may stumble the Soul in this thing Some things offered for its relief under them both IT is yet a more valuable question Whether these Thoughts or Impressions be the Souls guilt yea or no This is the more considerable because if upon a due inquiry they prove not so this is the best Topick to relieve a Soul from I shall therefore a little inlarge my Discourse here I shall in the first place grant That all temptations of this nature had their foundation in Mans Guilt And as to particular Souls now existent in Bodies they may have had their advantages from their particular Actual Guilt I say first All Temptations of this Nature have their foundation in the Original Guilt of Humane Nature as in Adam all sinned Had not the Serpent first beguiled Eve in the State of Innocence we had not possibly been exposed to such Suggestions or at least not to such Impressions from them we might have had them but they had not bin so wounding to us The Infernal Plow-man might have plowed but he had not made such long Furrows by these Suggestions in our Souls he had but led this Plough upon a Rock and attempted us with them as vainly as he did our Saviour While our first Parents were in their Estate of Innocency the Devil assaulted them with a Temptation of this Nature Gen. 3. 1 2 3. He did not attempt to perswade the Woman That there was no God Our first Parents were too lately come out of their Creators hands to be perswaded That there was no Supreme Being precedent to them but he designed to beget in them blasphemous and most unworthy thoughts of God That he had deceived them and not told them the Truth when he said to them That in the day they did eat of the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil they should die and that by it he designed to deprive them of a very great part of their happiness which makes it evident that Man even in his most perfect State was capable of such Suggestions How far the posterity of Adam should have been troubled with this guest had Eve at first shut him out of doors we cannot tell Christ himself heard something of this Noise in the Wilderness Matth 4. But with this difference 1. That he had not a Power to embrace such Motions they could not be impressive upon him who was the Express Image of his Fathers Person and God Equal with his Father over all blessed for Ever nor could they any way torment him or be afflictive to him He had a perfect power to repel them without the least Affliction or Disturbance unto himself Adam had a Passive Capacity to receive these Fiery Darts to give credit to these Vile Suggestions and to sin by occasion of them and the Children of Adam have not onely a Passive Capacity to receive such Impressions but an Active Power and Capacity yea possibly more than so an Inclination and Propension to feed upon them to their defilement and possibly there are scare any Souls in the World which at one time or other have not been defiled with them either before or after Conversion though in very different degrees In some they have been more transient and volatile in others more fixed and permanent In some Souls they been entertained as Guests and as it were adopted into their Family to others they have been but as violent knocking 's and rappings at the doors or like the throwing in of Stones at the Windows which the Master of the House could not help Further yet as to particular Souls troubled with them they may for ought I know have bin occasioned by or advantaged from those Souls former guilt I say occasioned from it God by his Righteous Judgment suffering the Devil to stand at Peoples Right-hand in a just Punishment of them for their not studying to be Rooted and Grounded in the Faith for their Desultory Levity and Incertainty in the things of God or some other Sins They may be Advantaged from some former Guilt when Persons have formerly allowed themselves to read Prophane and Atheistical Books to listen unto and hear profane and Atheistical Discourses to Feed upon Atheistical Arguments c. But this is not the Question Secondly therefore I conclude That such Motions and Impressions or if you will so call them Thoughts as are received with Horrour and Trouble and Trembling and are not delighted in but rejected by the Soul I say Thoughts thus circumstanced let them have never so much Atheism and Blasphemy in them are not the Guilt of that Soul that feeleth the Load and Burthen of them Now this being so great if not the onely thing that can successfully be spoken for the Relief of Souls under them I shall endeavour to justify this Conclusion by some following Arguments 1. My first shall be from the Received Opinion of Divines That the very first Motions to Sins are not Sins Every man may observe in his Soul a threefold Motion towards a sinful Act 1. There is a Motion which is called Primo Primus the very first and indeed is not the Motion of the Soul but a Motion to the Soul a Forreign not a Domestick intrinsick Motion but from the Devil or the Men of the World The Second is attended with some inward Delight and Pleasure When there is not only a Motion made to the Soul to do something that is Evil but it causeth some Ticklings and Pleasure in the Soul Tho possibly the Soul as yet resolves not on it nor desireth the producing of it into Act yet it is pleased with it and the Motion is sweet to its Taste This is what Divines call Concupiscence what the Scripture calleth Lust and is doubtless Sinful and forbiden in the Tenth Commandement without which the Apostle saith he had not known it to be Sin Rom. 7. 7. The Third is That Motion by which the Soul moveth towards the Actual Commission of it resolving upon it contriving how to bring it about c. This is forbidden in every Commandement which according to our Saviours Interpretation of the Decalogue doth not only restrain and prohibit the overt Act but all the inward Motions of the Heart tendent and leading to such Act but the first is prohibited in no Command 2. Nor indeed is it reasonable for any to fancy that it should for it is not reasonable to imagine that God should forbid ●s Acts that are not our Acts. Motions of this Nature are not our