Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	life_n	see_v	16,095	5	3.5035	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37244	A work for none but angels & men that is to be able to look into and to know ourselves, or a book shewing what the soule is, subsisting and having its operations without the body ... : of the imagination or common sense, the phantasie, sensative memory, passions, motion of life, the local motion, intellectual power of the soul ... Thomas Jenner has lineas composuit.	Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626.; Jenner, Thomas, fl. 1631-1656.	1658 (1658)	Wing D410; ESTC R27853	22,709	36

the foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of man within him he makes the body of Earth and in it a beam of heavenly fire now in the wombe before the birth inspires in all men their soules and without a mother sends dayly millions into the world which neither from eternity nor at once in one time lay them up in the Sunne or Moone nor in some secret cloyster where they sleepe till they be awaked neither did he make at first a certain number infusing part in beasts and part in men and being unwilling to take further pain would make no more so that the widdow soul should be married to the next body that should be born and so by often changing mens souls should pass from beasts to men these are fond thoughts since there are far more born then dye then thousand soules should be abortive or others deaths should supply their soules but as nature Gods handmaid doth create bodies in time distinct and in due order so God gives soules the like successive date which himselfe formes in new bodies which himselfe makes of no materiall thing for unto Angels he hath given no power either to forme the shape or bring the stuffe from Air or Fire nor in this doth he use natures service for although she can bring bodyes from bodyes yet she could never traduce soules from soules as light springs from light and fire from fire as some learned fathers that were great lights of old did hold for say they how can we say that God made the soule and yet not make him the Author of her sinne for in her lies the corruption for Adams body did not sin but his soule and so brought the body to corruption So we would fain make him the Author of the wine if we knew whom to blame for her dreggs none were yet so grosse as to contend for this that soules may be traduced from bodyes between whose natures there is no proportion but many subtle wits have justified that soules may spiritually spring from soules which if the nature of the soul be tryed would even in nature prove as grosse for all things that are made are either of naught or of something that is already made of naught no Creature ever formed ought for that is proper for the Almighty if then the soule make another soule she must take it of some former stuffe or matter but there is no matter found in the soule then if her heavenly forme doe not agree with any matter in the World then must she needs be created of nothing and that is only proper to God alone again if soules doe beget soules 't is either by themselves or the bodies power if by themselves what hinders them but that they may engender soules every hour if by the body how can understanding and will joyne with the body in this act only since when they doe their other works they doe abstract them themselves from the body moreover if soules were begotten of soules they should move and change into each other but motion and changes brings at last corruption and then how should it be immortall If lastly soules did use generation then they should spread incorruptible seed and then what becomes of that which they doe loose when the acts of generation doe not speed but if the soule could cast spirituall seed yet she would not because she never dies mortall things desire to breed their like that so they might immortalize their kinde therefore the Angels who are call'd the sons of God neither marry nor are given in marriage their spirits and ours are of one substance and have one father the Lord of Heaven Who would at first that in each other thing earth and water living souls should breed but mans soul which he would make their king should immediately be produced from himselfe and doubtless when he took the Woman from the side of the man he alone inspierd the soul for t is not said he did devide mans soul but took flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and lastly God being made man for mans sake and like him in all save only in sin tooke his body from the wombe of the Virgin but all agree God formed his soule within him then is the soule from God so say the Pagans which saw by natures light her heavenly kinde naming her kin to God and Gods bright ray a Citizen of Heaven confind to the earth This cloud may be further cleerd by heavenly light for questionlesse God made her and made her good and ingrafted her in the body there to grow which though it be corrupted flesh and blood yet can it not bring corruption to the soule yet this soule at first made good by God and not corrupted by the evill of the body yet in the womb is accurst and sinfull ere she can judge by wit or chuse by will yet God is not the Author of her sinne though of her being and if we dare judge him in this he can condemn us and yet be cleere himselfe first God from eternity decreed what hath been is or shall be done and that every man in his turne should run his race of life and did purpose to make all soules that ever have been or shall be and that they should take there being in humane bodies or not to be at all was it then fit that such a weake event weaknesse it selfe the sin and fall of man should prevent his execution and councells fixed and decreed before the world began and that one penall law broke by Adam should make God breake his own eternall law and revoke the setled order of the world and change all formes of things which he foresaw could Eves weake hand extended to the Tree rent a sunder that Adamantive chain whose golden linkes of causes and effectes remain fixt to Gods own chare O could we see how cause doth spring from cause how they are mutually linckt and foulded and that on disagreeing stringe doth rather make then marr the harmony and at once view how death is brought by sin and how a better life doth arise by death how in one his justice is seen and his mercy in the other we would praise this his decree a wise and right but we measure time by first and last and see the sight of things successively when the Lord sees all at once and at an instant he sees all things in himselfe as in a glasse for from him and by him and through him are all things His sight is not discorsive by degrees but he seeing the whole seeth every single heart He looks on Adam as a roote or spring and on all his heires as Branches and streames and sees all men as one man though they dwell in sundry Nations and Cit●es and as root and branch makes but one Tree and the spring and streame make but one River so that if one be corrupted the other is corrupted also So when the

as if we could thereby merrit any thing at all at the hands of God for we can merrit no thing but there is nothing that God himselfe can bestow upon us in heaven better then the partisipation of his own life and nature this inward change of the soul this new creature is salvation it self and if we be not possessed of it in some measure here we have little reason how ever we may fondly flatter our selves to think it shall be done hereafter that is the first mistake that I shall take notice of that we are apt to conceive that salvation is an outward worke and may be wrought only by outward means 2. There is another mistake that is very neer a kin to that in matters of religion and that is when we seek for God we looke for God wholly abroad without our selves whereas the only way to finde God is to turn our selves inward and to looke for him in the bottome of our own soules for if we could be carried up beyond the spheares and pry into every corner of the starrs in heaven above certainly we should as little find God there as we did on earth if we could find God any where abroad without us this could not make us happy for then God would be really at a distance from us but our happinesse consists in such a reall communion with God as our Saviour discribes 17 Joh. 22. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as we are one I in them and they in me that all might be made perfect in one The heaven where God dwells in and where alone he is to be found is in a regenerate soul and he that will indeed find God and be united to him must not gaze and gad abroad and turn his eyes wholly outward but he must look to find him within Intimis animis for there he may at once both see him feele him taste him and be united to him God is never distant by place from us for in him we live and move and have our being but all our distance from him is only in the dispersion multiplicity destractions and scatterings of our hearts and in the dissimilitude and disproportions of our soules unto him and when these things are once removed then God appears to us who was never absent from us but only our eyes are now unvailed to see and behold him God is every where alike to him that can feele him he is only not present to him that cannot receive him as the sun shines not in a house where the curtains are drawn and the windowes stopt up This is the reason why many have so much adoe to finde God because they look for him as a corporall thing they still imploy their fansies and imaginations to finde him without and send them a roving gadding and wandering abroad after God and have such naturall and grosse conceits of heaven as if it were nothing but a Theatre a place of sights and shows and God himselfe were nothing but a more pompeous spectacle there to be gazed upon by these bodily eyes God I say is to be sought by a Christian within his own soule and the way to find him there is not by knowledge or study or speculation but by a leaving off all things even our own wit and knowledge and especially our lives and by abstracting of our selves from the love of the world and of our selves and dying to them and then out of this death will spring the true and heavenly light in which alone God is seen and known 3. There is yet another mistake that is very vulgar and common and that is that men are generally very apt to conceive that God doth not require any endeavours any activity of ours at all in the businesse of Religion and that God deales with us in matters of grace and spirituall things as meer stockes and stones and inanimal creatures and not in a way suitable to us as we are free and rationall This I conceive to be another mistake that damps and choakes mens endeavours of subduing and mortifying their lusts for by this means we lazily ly down under the burden of our sins and think we may cast the blame of our wickedness upon God himselfe he hath not given us strength he hath not given us power and ability this is a strong castle of sin in which men are apt to garison themselves against all the hearty exhortations and instructions which the Word of God and the messengers of God bring unto them whereas the Scripture every where calls upon us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling to make our calling and election sure to gird up the loyns of our minds to fight the good fight of faith and Christ himselfe tells us That he with his spirit stands at the doore and knocks if any man open and will hear his voyce I will come into him saith he and sup with him and he with me It is true indeed it is not in our power to make our selves new creatures to be regenerate and born again when we please but as our Saviour tells us the winde blowes where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof and canst not tell whence it comes nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit but yet let us not deceive our selves though this change in us be a new birth and we cannot make our selves the sons of God no more then we can make our selves the Sons of men we can indeed but Pati Deum lye down and suffer while he prints his own Image on our hearts while he forms himselfe in our soules yet notwithstanding let us not deceive our selves there is something for us to doe and that the Scripture every where calls upon us for and that is not to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof to put off the old man that is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts to mortifie and subdue this body of death that we carry about us for though we cannot make alive the new man in us when we please yet we may concurr to the killing and destroying of the old by refusing to satisfie the lusts cravings of it then by looking up to heaven imploring Gods assistance that he would come down upon us the second time breath into us the breath of supernaturall life we have therefore many gracious promises made to us in the Gospel on purpose to incourage us to faith in God that he will be always ready to prevent us with his goodnesse to remove the wretched infidelity of our hearts whereby our confidence in God is choaked all heavenly endeavours are dampt in us the whole Gospel was written to this end purpose to destroy this infidelity and assure us that we may come to God that he is a rewarder of those that seek him FINIS That the soul is created i●mediately by God Zach. 12.1 Erroneus opinions of the Creation of soules That the soul is not traduced from their parents Reasons drawn from nature Matthew 19. Reason drawn from divinity Smelling Feeling The Immagination or common sence The Phantasie The sensative memory The passions of sence Motion of life Locall motion The Intellectuall powers of the soul The Intellectuall memory An Acclamation That the soul is immortall and cannot dye Reason 1. Drawn from the desire of knowledge Reason 2. Drawn from the Motion of the Soule The Soul compared to a River Objection

power to see although her windowes be choked with mists and clouds the imperfections are not in the agent but instrument the soule hath one intelligence in all in infants and old men although too much moysture be in the brain of the one and too much drinesse in the other which makes them that they cannot attain the outward printes of things then the soul wanting work is idle and we call the one childishnesse and the other dotage yet the soule hath a quick and active wit if she had apt tooles to worke withall and stuffe for give her but Organs fit and objects fair give but the aged man the sence of the younge man and she will straight way shew then her wonted excellency and as an old harper although he hath all his Crochets in his Brain yet can he not expresse it when the gout is in his fingers then dotage is no weaknesse of the minde but of the sense for if that did wast we should find it in all old men but most of them even at their dying houre have a minde more quick and lively and use their understanding power better then in their youth and their dying speeches are admired But it may be further objected if all her Organs dye then hath the soule no powers to use and is extincte because she cannot reduce them to act and if her powers be dead then what is she for some power springes from every thing and actings proceed from them therefore kill her power and act and destroy her It s very true the death of the body is the destruction of the sences so that she cannot use those faculties although their root still rest in her substance but as the body when it lives by the wit and will can judge and chuse without the aid of the body so when the body can serve her no longer and her sences are extinct yet can she discourse in heavenly contemplation all alone of what she hath heard and learned and as a man that hath good horsemanship and can play well on a lute if thou take both horse and lute away yet he still retains his skill and can put that forth if they be returned unto him when the body revives they shall be able to fulfill all their wanted offices But it may be further objected How shall she employ her self seeing all her sences be gon she may keep and enjoy what she hath got but hath no means to understand or to get more then what doe those poor soules which get nothing or those that cannot keep what they have got like lives which let all out these soules must sleepe for want of exercise See how man argues against himselfe Why should we not have other means to know as children in the wombe live by the navil but being come forth are nourished otherwise children if they had use of their sences and could hear their mothers tell them that in a short time they should come from thence they then would fear their birth more then we fear our death and would cry out that if their navill strings were cut how should their lifes be preserved since no other conduit brings their food and if a man should reply unto those babes and tell them when they come into this fair world they shall see the Sun Moon and Stars Sea and earth and meet with ten thousand dainties which they shall take in with pleasure in their mouthes which shall be cordiall as well as sweet and their little limbs shall grow unto tall bodies they would thinke it a fable as we doe of the Story of the Golden age or as among us many sensuall spirits hold the world to come a feined stage yet those infants shall find it true So when the soule is born for death is nothing but the soules birth she shall see ten thousand things beyond her imagination and know them in an unknown manner them shall she see no more by spectacles nor hear no more by her double Spies her selfe in instant will all things explore for every thing is present to her and lyes before her But still it may be objected if the soules departed doe live why do they not return to bring us newes of the strange world wherein they see such wonders vain man we doe beleeve that men live under the Zenith of both the frozen poles although none come from thence to tell us So cannot we have the like faith of our soules the soule hath no more to doe here then we have to returne into our mothers womb what man did ever covet it although we all come from thence and that shewes the soule hath a good being that they never desire to come hither again doubtlesse such soules as mount up so high as to see their Creators face holds this in so base an account as that she looks down and scorns this wretched place As for such as are detruded to hell if they would come here yet they cannot but still there are some wicked ones as say that politick men have spread this lye of heaven and hell only to make men virtuous so then it seems morall virtues be good but they speake this for their private gain for that is the standing of Common-wealths wherein their private benefit is interrested but how can that be false that the Christian Jew Turke Persian Tarter Canibal hold to be true this doctrine entred not into the ear but is native in the breast if death should destroy man for whose sake all things was made then should he be more miserable then Dawes Trees and Rockes which last longer then he who is taken away at an instant but blessed be that great power that hath blessed man with longer life then heaven and earth and hath infused into man mortall powers not subject to the grave for although the soul seeme to bear about it her grave and almost buried alive in this world she needs not to fear the death of the body for when this shell is broke there comes forth a chicken for as there are three essentiall powers of the soule the quickning power and power of the Sence and also of reason there be also three kinds of life defined her in her due season to perfect them all The first life which is vegitive is that nursing power spent in the wombe where when she finds defects of nourishment she expells her body and growes too bigge for that place and comes into the world where all his sences are in perfection where he finds flowers to smell and fruits to tast sees sundry formes and hears varieties of sounds and when he hath past somtime upon this stage his reason begins to be awaked which although she springes when sences begin to fade by reason of age yet can she make here no perfect practice Then doth the aspiring soul leave the body which we call death but were it known to all what life our soules receive by this death they would rather call it a birth