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death_n die_v flesh_n live_v 4,655 5 5.5646 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A33907 The difference between the present and future state of our bodies considered in a sermon / by Jeremy Collier. Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. 1686 (1686) Wing C5251; ESTC R23724 13,546 37

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new capacity of suffering For the Apostle assures us if we live after the Flesh and make Provision to fulfil the Lusts thereof we shall die for to be carnally or sensually minded is death and that we cannot expect to live hereafter except we mortify the deeds of the Body Rom. 8. 6 13. Secondly We ought to be contented with the trouble the present infirmities of our Bodies may put us to God hath made our Bodies of a frail Constitution and liable to many inconveniencies that we might aspire after a higher and more confirmed happiness and not place it in the satisfaction of our sences which are so easily made unacceptable to us by diseases or quickly stupified and worn out with Age. Besides upon the account that our Bodies make us liable to pain and diseases we have thereby an occasion of exercising many virtues which otherwise we could not have If we were not liable to pain and uneasiness there could be no such thing as a contented Poverty and an humble Resignation to providence in affliction and distress the essence of these virtues would be lost in such impregnable circumstances For to be contented when a man neither feels nor fears any evil is not so much a commendation as a necessary action it being as impossible to be troubled when we have what we have a mind to as to be perfectly pleased when we have not I confess to be thus fortified against injury and want argues a great happiness of nature but a moral perfection it is not and consequently deserves admiration but not reward The Honour of our Christian warfare consists in the laboriousness and hazard of it and the strength of our virtue lies in the weakness of our condition and though we are made a little lower than the Angels yet with all respect be it spoken to those superiour Beings upon this account we seem to have some advantage of them for their station being above the reach of misfortune makes them incapable of suffering upon the score of Virtue and Religion We ought not therefore to complain because God hath made our Bodies liable to many inconveniencies here but to resist the temptations they expose us to with resolution to bear the pains and infirmities of them with submission and contentedness considering that in a discreet and Christian management of these things a great part of our obedience and future reward consists It is not long before we shall be dismist from this service and when death shall be swallowed up in Victory and this mortal shall put on immortality then it will be a pleasure to survey the difficulties of our past life and the very thoughts of our former troubles will be an addition to our happiness Haec olim meminisse juvabit And therefore Thirdly we ought not to be over-timerous lest we should impair the strength of our Constitution but lay it out freely upon Religious and Worthy Actions Health is not chiefly to be desired for the sensual pleasure it affords but because we are then in the best condition to serve God and to be useful to the society we live in Let it not therefore be our great aim to keep our Bodies in Reparation and ingloriously slumber out our time for fear of wearing them out too fast but according to our several Stations and Callings let us diligently employ them for our own real interest and that of others making them contribute to the improvement of Reason and the exercise of Virtue If they decay in such service they will fall with honour and rise with advantage The best way of consulting their future advancement is not to dote upon them now If we would have them flourish in immortal youth and beauty hereafter we must neither be too fond in indulging nor too curious in adorning of them We must not out of an effeminate niceness to preserve their agreeableness decline any proper austerities or opportunity of doing good In short if we expect these earthy Bodies should bear the Image of the Heavenly we must employ them generously and religiously suffer the inconveniencies of them with Patience and Christian Courage and please them with temperance and reservedness FINIS