Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	nature_n	soul_n	2,893	5	5.2542	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45310	The remedy of discontentment, or, A treatise of contentation in whatsoever condition fitted for sad and troubled times / by Jos. Hall ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1684 (1684)	Wing H405; ESTC R42064	37,772	178

a sure apprehension of both the unavoidable necessity and certain benefit of death A necessity grounded upon the just and eternal Decree of Heaven It is appointed to all men once to die and what a madness were it for a Man to think of an exemption from the common condition of mankind Mortality is as it were essential to our Nature neither could we have had our Souls but upon the terms of a re-delivery when they shall be called for If the Holiest Saints or the greatest Monarchs sped otherwise we might have some colour of repining Now grieve if thou wilt that thou art a Man grieve not that being Man thou must die Neither is the benefit inferiour to the necessity Lo here the remedy of all our cares the Physick for all our maladies the rescue from all our fears and dangers earnestly sued for by the painful dearly welcome to the distressed Yea lo here the Cherub that keeps the Gate of Paradise there is no entrance but under his hand In vain do we hope to pass to the Glory of Heaven any other way then through the Gates of Death The second is the Conscience of a well-led Life Guiltinefs will make any Man cowardly unable to look danger in the face much more Death whereas the innocent is bold as a Lion What a difference therefore there is betwixt a Martyr and a Malefactor this latter knows he hath done ill and therefore if he can take his Death but patiently it is well the former knows he hath done well and therfore takes his Death not patiently onely but chearfully But because no mortal Man can have so innocently led his Life but that he shall have passed many offences against his most Holy and Righteous God here must be Thirdly a final Peace firmly made betwixt God and the Soul Two Powerful Agents must mediate in it a Lively Faith and a serious Repentance for those Sins can never appear against us that are washed off with our tears and being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Now if we have made the Judge our Friend what can the Sergeant do The fourth is the Power and efficacy of Christs Death applyed to the Soul Wherefore dyed he but that we might Live Wherefore would he who is the Lord of Life die but to sanctifie season and sweeten death to us Who would go any other way then his Saviour went before him Who can fear that enemy whom his Redeemer hath Conquered for him Who can run away from that Serpent whose sting is pulled out Oh Death my Saviour hath been thy Death and therefore thou canst not be mine The fifth is the comfortable expectation and assurance of a certain resurrection and an immediate Glory I do but lay me down to my rest I shall sleep quietly and rise gloriously My Soul in the mean time no sooner leaves my body then it enjoys God It did lately through my bodily Eyes see my sad Friends that bad me farewel with their Tears now it hath the blisse-making Vision of God I am no sooner lanched forth then I am at the Haven where I would be Here is that which were able to make amends for a thousand Deaths a Glory Infinite Eternal Incomprehensible This Spiritual Ammunition shall sufficiently furnish the Soul for her encounter with her last Enemy so as she shall not only endure but long for this Combat and say with the chosen Vessel I desire to depart to be with Christ SECT XVIII The miseries and inconveniences of the continued conjunction of the Soul Body NOw for that long conversation causeth entireness and the parting of Old Friends and Partners such the Soul and Body are cannot but be grievous although there were no actual pain in the dissolution It will be requisite for us seriously to consider the state of this conjunction to enquire what good offices the one of them doth to the other in their continued union for which they should be so loth to part And here we shall find that those two however united to make up one Person yet as it fals out in Cross matches they are in continual domestique jars one with the other and entertain a secret familiar kind of Hostility betwixt themselves For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other One says well that if the Body should implead the Soul it might bring many foul impeachments against it and sue it for many great injuries done to that Earthly part And the Soul again hath no fewer quarrels against the Body Betwixt them both there are many brawles no Agreement Our Schools have reckoned up therefore eight main incommodities which the Soul hath cause to complain of in her conjunction with the Body whereof the first is the defilement of Original Sin wherewith the Soul is not tainted as it proceeds alone from the pure hands of its Creator but as it makes up a part of a Son of Adam who brought this guilt upon Humane nature so as now this composition which we call Man is corrupt Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean Saith Job The second is a proneness to Sin which but by the meeting of these partners had never been the Soul if single would have been innocent thus matched what Evil is it not apt to entertain An ill consort is enough to poyson the best disposition The difficulty of doing well is the third for how averse are we by this conjunction from any thing that is good This clog hinders us from walking roundly in the ways of God The good that I would do I do not saith the chosen Vessel The fourth is the dulness of our understanding and the dimness of our mental Eyes especially in the things pertaining unto God which now we are forced to behold through the vail of Flesh If therefore we mis-know the fault is in the mean through which we do imperfectly discover them The fifth is a perpetual impugnation and self-conflict either part labouring to oppose and vanquish the other This field is fought in every mans bosom without any possibility of peace or truce till the last moment of dissolution The sixth is the racking solicitude of cares which continually distract the Soul not Suffering it to rest at ease whiles it carries this Flesh about it The seventh is the multiplicity of passions which daily bluster within us and raise up continual Tempests in our Lives disquieting our Peace and threatning our Ruine The eight is the retardation of our Glory for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God we must lay down our load if we would enter into Heaven The seed cannot fructifie unless it Die. I cannot blame Nature if it could wish not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon But so hath the Eternal Wisdom Ordered that we should first lay down ere we can take up