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	soul_n	world_n	1,708	5	4.6899	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67164	A sermon preached at the parish church of Solihull in Warwickshire, December 21. 1690 On occasion of the death of Anne, the wife of the reverend and worshipful Henry Greswold; precentor of the Cathedral of Lichfield, &c. and rector of Solihull aforesaid. By John Wright Master of Arts.	Wright, John, 1665 or 6-1719.	1691 (1691)	Wing W3701; ESTC R221256	21,352	34

are loth to dye Nature shrinks at it Body and Soul are not willing to part Skin for skin saith Satan truly yea all that a man hath will he give for his life Men would naturally fain live Light is sweet saith the wise Man and a pleasant thing it is for the Eyes to behold the Sun but very unpleasant to have our Life go from us to return unto the Earth to be distolv'd 't is against the decency which human Nature delighteth in for us to fall into Corruption and the deformities of Death and the dishonours of a Grave and it is against the most natural and general instinct of Self-preservation Now if we enquire into the bottom of all this we shall find Men are chiefly afraid that Death puts an end to their Being or that the next Life will not please them But they need not fear since our Saviour hath discovered to us that there is another glorious World which our Souls shall pass into and a state of happiness above any thing we can conceive here which we shall enjoy without dying any more We are assured that when we leave this Tabernacle of Flesh we shall enter upon a more glorious Scene of things new and suprizing Wonders will present themselves to our view upon our first passage into it which are here concealed from us and We shall have building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens We should not therefore have our Thoughts always dwell amongst Tombs and of the condition of our Bodies for a while in the Grave but upon that blessed Country we are design'd for and the happy World to which we are going and this will make our leaving this Life easie to us when we must change it for Heaven and to be of St. Paul's mind after he had a glimpse of the heavenly glory desirous to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ which is far better And although we cannot form any Notions of the condition or happiness of the next Life For 't is above any thing we can think and Flesh and Blood cannot inherit it yet we may be well assured that God will provide such Pleasures as will be suitable for us in that state and shall make us happy for ever As for our Bodies they will be in the mean time without Sense and so not capable of any Enjoyments or Misery but God will take care of them and though they be sown in Corruption he will raise them in Incorruption tho' they be sown in dishonour they shall be rais'd in Glory 2. If we consider Death as it is our removing out of this Life Men are loth to leave it would be very willing to stay especially if their Condition be any thing comfortable in it here they meet with what an Earthly Nature chiefly desires and delights in what supplies all their Needs and pleasures all their Senses and are therefore well contented as they be do not desire to remove or to change Worlds unwilling to be taken from their beloved Enjoyments Estates Dwellings Business Family Recreations and to leave behind them all which their Nature takes pleasure and satisfaction in and therefore who can blame them that they are afraid of Death which takes them away from all their Comforts in this Life But alass these Men should consider that we are to be here but as Travellers or Inmates we are not to tarry it is not our abiding Place this is not our Inheritance but a transitory Scene which cannot last Our Bodies themselves do soon fall to decay and in a while to Dust and the whole world will at last break out into a universal Flame Therefore we should have a care that we do not set our Hearts too much upon it lest Lakes of Fire be prepared for us And this makes Afflictions sometimes necessary Yet if it should please God to send us none but that we had all the happiness which could be heaped upon us here we have no Cause to complain if we must change the transitory satisfactions of this World for the more noble and lasting Pleasures of the next And what disadvantage is it to be removed to a better Place and more happy Life As soon as ever the Soul has taken her flight from the Body and has left this Life she enters into a new and more glorious state than ever the Sun saw enlarges her Prospect and views and admires the Glories and Beauties of that happy Place and so rejoyces in the Pleasures of it that it were worse than death to return hither again 'T is said of the New Jerusalem that there shall be no curse in it nothing to imbitter that State but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his Servants shall serve him And they shall see his Face and there shall be no Night nor need of a Candle neither light of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it for the Glory of God lightens it where they shall reign for ever and ever And altho' we cannot tell now how these things will affect us to be sure no wicked Man can be happy in God's Presence for there is such an unlikeness and contrariety in impure and polluted Souls to the infinitely holy God that 't is impossible there should be any friendly Communication between them he is not a God saith the Psalmist who hath pleasure in wickedness neither can evil dwel with him and what communion saith the Apostle hath light with darkness But yet to a generous and Vertuous Mind what can be more delightful than to have our Understandings entertain'd with a clear sight of the first and best Being to admire his Wisdom and to behold his Glory to dwell immediately in his Presence and continually attend upon his Throne to be in special favour with our Blessed Lord in the place he hath prepared for us to enter into the perpetual Society and Friendship of the Holy Angels to whom we shall be made equal and the Spirits of just men made perfect many of our dear Relations and intimate Acquaintance whom probably we shall know again with all those brave and worthy Souls whom we have seen or heard of and all the Blessed Inhabitants of those most glorious Regions to converse with them freely without any folly or disguise or those Passions which spoil the Comfort and disturb the Peace of Mankind Nay when we enter into our Master's joy we shall have cause to say as the Queen of Sheba of the Glory of Solomon that not the half of it was ever told us And as Heaven is an exceeding so 't is an eternal weight of Glory as in God's presence there is fulness of joy so at his right hand there shall be pleasures for evermore Now since we cannot see God and live for who ever could see a Spirit since these Joys are too big for our poor Capacities too pure for Flesh and Blood too strong for

us how we can be able to discern and distinguish Spirits or converse with 'em whither it is we are to go since no Place as such can affect a Soul wherein the happiness of that State consists The knowledge of which things while all our Intelligence is to come by Sense cannot be conveyed to us Hence then were it wise in us to comply with all our Saviour's Directions for the fashioning of our Minds and to practise all those Graces and Vertues he requires of us as easily supposing that such Habits and Dispositions of Mind are necessary for us to rellish the Happiness of that state For there are many degrees and instances of Vertue required from us which are not necessary to nay scarce consistent with the happy and prosperous Condition of this World or our living in it For we are not to love it we are to live above it to stifle and suppress not only the extravagant and irregular but even the natural Appetites of the Body and to despise the Pleasures of it subduing the Flesh to the Spirit to enjoy this World with that great indifferency as if we enjoy'd it not to have our conversation in Heaven all our joys and affections our treasure and hearts there to love our Enemies and those who hate us and despitefully use us to forgive Injuries not to retaliate Evil for Evil but the contrary Which things we cannot think why our Saviour should require from us were it not that that Temper of Mind which these Vertues form in us is necessary to prepare us for the happiness of the other Life and so far as we abate of them so far shall we fall short of our Felicity in that State As for the Miseries of it we may well believe that they also are more than any thing we have seen or felt or can conceive They are represented by Lakes of fire and brimstone and though Fire cannot hurt a Soul yet if such Expressions be Metaphorical what will those sufferings be that are real Thus to dye is to enter into the strange Regions and new state of the other Life 3. 'T is our leaving these earthly Tabernacles behind us to return to dust our Bodies to sleep in the Earth tho' our Souls have taken their flight from it With reference to these was it said Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Yet 't is but for a time and though it be sown a natural Body it shall be rais'd a Spiritual for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption These earthly Bodies which we live in cannot subsist in that pure Light and glorious Region where God dwells and therefore to be fit to inherit Glory they must at the last day be spiritualiz'd free from all sublunary Passions to rellish none of the Pleasures of Flesh and Blood and the more they are refin'd here from Fleshly Appetites and Earthly Inclinations the more glorious will they rise again 1. This again should wean our Minds from all sensual Pleasures and worldly Affections For if we can like nothing but these things what shall we do when we come to leave 'em when they cannot be had For whatever clothing our Souls may have yet Flesh and Blood they shall not And altho' when our Bodies fall from us into Dust the particular Desires and slighter Inclinations of 'em may possibly depart from us as we see in long and tedious sicknesses and austerities Men care not much for bodily Pleasures Yet when the Soul is sensualiz'd as it is in old Sinners tho' the Body be decay'd and can esteem no other 't is uncapable of any happiness among Spirits or in a Body that is Spiritualiz'd and Glorified By how much therefore our Inclinations are sunk into Flesh and Sense by so much are we indispos'd for the happiness of the next Life which doth not consist in 'em and the more Spiritual our Nature is the more is it prepared for the Glories that shall be revealed 2. We should not hence pride our selves too much about our Bodies Either as to their Descent since our Pedigree is all alike Antient and no one knows what sort of Persons his Ancestors may have been however we know what we all in a short time must be Or as to their Beauty which if it be not overvalued but real soon whithereth away like Grass whereas Grace and Goodness gives the most pleasing Air to our very Aspect such as no Beauty Natural or Artificial can come near However 't is but a little while till we shall not know the difference betwixt the Dust of one Person and another Or as to their Apparel which besides that it often but indifferently sets off the Person the plainest Dress according to Peoples Quality being most becoming can be of no use in the other Life to cover a Man's Soul Or that we have an Estate to provide more largely for them than others have or can pamper them more Yet for all this they will fall into Dust and the sooner ordinarily for our too much Indulging Lastly we should believe according to the Scriptures that our Bodies shall spring up again more glorious at the Resurrection and in the mean time they are said in Scripture to be asleep The Soul must all the while be in an imperfect State without the Body and is not compleatly happy till they meet each other again to live in perpetual Harmony and Pleasures to which glorified Bodies will be highly Instrumental But if we make our Bodies the Servants of Sin and they carry to their Graves fleshly Lusts and sensual Affections they will rise to shame and everlasting contempt Thus we have heard what it is to dye In what sense we are to understand Death that we do not then cease to be And methinks when we see the Body of a worthy Friend or Relation lie before us pale and without Sense or Motion who but few Hours since may be was our Support and Comfort we cannot conceive that this must be all of the Person but that the Soul is alive somewhere tho' we did not see it go nor what Company did attend it nor what a State or Place it pass'd into 2. I proceed to the next thing The assuredness of Death to us all It is appointed for us Of this all Mankind is a Proof by the succession of Generations And our selves see that those who live the oldest yet Death follows them close at the Heels and at last gives them the fatal stroke There have been two indeed excepted since the beginning of the World but no more will till the end of it and then saith St. Paul We that are alive shall be changed Sin is the Cause of this for Death came into the world by it and in Adam all dye Had we been made Spirits at first we had had no Principles of Mortality in us and it had been hard to have depriv'd us of our