Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00816	Compassion towards captives chiefly towards our brethren and country-men who are in miserable bondage in Barbarie. Vrged and pressed in three sermons on Heb. 13.3. Preached in Plymouth, in October 1636. By Charles Fitz-Geffry.	Fitz-Geffry, Charles, 1575?-1638.	1637 (1637)	STC 10937; ESTC S102148	49,481	72

compassion how much more Grace and that sundry waies As first by that argument that we are all members of one mysticall body and fellow-fellow-members one with another which hath beene formerly urged Of this body the Head is Christ who hath shewed this sympathy by his owne example which also hath beene evidenced already To which let this be added out of one of the ancients This forme of piety saith he Christ the mediatour betweene God and man hath shewed unto men who doubtlesse without dying might have saved us from Death if hee would But he rather chose to redeeme man by dying for man His love had not beene so great unto us unlesse he had taken upon him our woundes neither had he so effectually shewed the force of his charity if he had not for a time taken on himselfe that which hee came to take from us Hee found us mortall who made us able to continue immortall And hee who by his word so made us could have restored us by the same word without his Death But to shew how powerfull his compassion was towads us he became that for us which he would not have us continue to be Himselfe undertooke death for us that so he might for ever free us from Death Let the same minde be in us Christians towards our fellow members which was in our head Christ towards us otherwise wee cannot bee true Christians How can wee hope for salvation by him if we be not living members of his body If wee be living members then are wee feeling members As long as the member is in the body it is effected with the griefe of any part of the body But if it be either dead or cut off from the body let the body bee dismembred or cut into a thousand peeces it feeleth not so is every Christian who is not affected with the affliction of another Christian. Such doe shew themselves to be no better then rotten branches in the Vine and must exspect no better reward then the true Vine awardeth them Men doe gather such and doe cast them into the fire and they are burned Besides if we enter into a due consideration of the persons suffering how many things doe wee meet with which may moove an obdurate heart to pity them They are men should we see a man beating his horse his dog as our men are beaten by these circumcised dogs wee would pity the poore beast and crie out that the owner were a verier beast then that he beateth They are our country-men and unto many neare kinsemen Were they forraigners and strangers how could wee but relent at the relation of their miseries Can any true Christian heare or read without teares the relation of the Imperialists cruelty in Bohemia or in Magdenburge or Spanish Immanities among the West Indians Yet these were strangers farre remote from us and these last men of another world They are Christians and consequently our brethren Were they enemies wee could not wish them worse on earth then that which they endure Nay were they Turks a Christian would hardly see without griefe a Turke to suffer that of others which Christians doe of Turkes Can we then heare of those miseries which men our owne country-men our brethren doe endure and not consider them Consider and not compassionate them Compassionate and not straine our abilities to the uttermost to relieve them They are the living Temples of God Should wee suffer Gods Temples to be possessed by Infidels if we could free them Were our owne houses possessed by theeves what would we doe what would we not doe to cleare them What then should we not doe to redeeme the living Temples of the Holy Ghost In my thoughts whensoever we dine or sup in our houses that expostulation of the Lord with the secure Iewes should pluck us by the eares Is this a time O ye to sit in your sieled houses and the house of the Lord to lie wast Is this a time for us to feast it in our houses and to suffer the houses Temples of the holy one of Israel to be possessed by mischievous Mahumetans Then from our sorrowfull brethren reflect wee our thoughts upon our selves and in the scales of our owne estate weigh we the equity of the precept which will not a litle incite us to the performance of it Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them What more equitable You might have beene bound with them yea you might have beene bound and they free if God had so disposed You might have fallen into their bonds and they enjoyed your freedome And would not you then have desired of them what now is required of you towards them Well then you know what their and your Master commandeth Whatsoever you would that men should doe unto you the same doe unto them It might have beene your case it may bee your case you know what is past you know not what is to come Have we not reason to make their case our owne if we consider that it may be our owne It may be your own Nay is it not in some respects your owne already For Are you not in the body as in the end of this verse And what is the body but the prison of the soule Doth not every man living beare about him a walking prison Is not the soule in bonds while it is in the body And it may come to passe before the soule be freed out of this prison the body that the body also may be in bonds and endure captivity Why should any man thinke that any thing incident to man should not befall him seeing he is a man That which happeneth unto one may happen unto any one and soonest perhaps unto him who thinkes it impossible that it should happen unto him When Manasses was on his throne he litle dreamp't of a prison and that he should exchange the gold on his head for irons about his heeles yet so he did And so did King Zedechias and the richest of heathen kings Craesus So did some Emperours of Rome many Emperours of Constantinople one Emperour of the Turkes Should God ever cast us into such calamities we should be the better able to endure them in our selves if we had first felt them in others Then should we also conceive better hope that God would touch the hearts of others to compassionate us if hee have once touched ours to commiserate others But I will prevent falling into the hands of Turkes I trow I purpose not to adventure on the Seas or to come so nigh them as to be caught by them Grant it But thou maist fall fowle with Turkes at home Land-pyrats Vsurers Oppressours or into some other misery that shall enforce thee to crave commiseration as much as ours doe who are in Barbary And art thou sure if thou adventurest not thy selfe on Sea to be safe on land Though thou com'st not neare the Turkes may not they come

us that as he learned obedience by the things which he suffered so he might also learne compassion Not as if he knew not before how to be mercifull whose mercy is from everlasting to everlasting but that which he knew for ever by nature he would learne in time by experience If therefore he who was not miserable would be miserable that he might learne that which he knew before namely to be mercifull how much more oughtest thou O man I say not make thy selfe that which thou art not but consider that which thou art namely miserable thereby to learne that which otherwise thou knowest not to commiserate those who are miserable The Apostle presents us with a sound reason why there should be a Sympathy among Christians We are all members of one body and we doe finde in our natural body that If one member doe suffer all the members doe suffer with it A thorne pricketh the foote what so farre off from the head as the foote but though distant in situation they are neere in affection The heart being only in the foote the whole body is busied every member officiously offers to be a Chirurgeon or to seeke and send for one as if it selfe were wounded The head is whole the backe is sound the eyes eares hands are all safe the foote only is grieved yea the foote it selfe is well save in that very place where it is grieved How is it then that the paine of that one part extendeth to the whole By the compassion of charity which enclineth every member to succour one as if every one suffered in that one Observe the same in a prease of people The toe is troden on the tongue cries out why doe you tread on me 'T is not the tongue but the toe that 〈◊〉 Why then complaines the tongue thou treadest on me The compassion of unity saith the tongue causeth me to cry out thou treadest on me because thou treadest on my fellow-member If thus in the naturall body how much more in the mysticall Why should not the smarting of any one be the suffering of every one seing that the members are not more naturally compacted in the naturall body then the members of Christ are in the mysticall And doth not the rule of equity require this duty of us we are ready to reioyce with them that reioyce Is it not right then that we should mourne with them that mourne We do willingly participate with our brethren in their good why then should we not partake with them in their evills If one member be honoured all the members rejoice with it The whole body accounts it selfe adorned with the crowne on the head decked with the Diamond on the finger Is it not right then that if one member doe suffer all the members should suffer with it we are ready to feast with our brethren Why then should we refuse to fast with them If we will not pledge them in the cup of their sufferings why should we drinke with them the pleasant wine of their comforts And surely without this Sympathy there cannot be in us any true tovch of mercy and charity To put our selves in our brethrens case is the only course to make us feelingly to pity them charitably to relieve them Then shall the bowels of our mercy be enlarged towards them when we even feele our selves straitned in the same bonds with them So farre is there mercy in us towards others as we finde the truth of their miseries in our selves But they who have not this feeling can never truly conceive much lesse daily remember least of all charitably releeve others in their distresses Well saith a worthy one We can never be seriously touched with other mens evils as long as we conceive of them as other mens not as our owne The sound man knowes not what aileth the sicke but the sicke and the sicke the hungry and the hungry suffering together doe best know how to pity each other Polus a famous Actor among the Grecians as is recorded of him being to represent on the stage Electra mourning for the death of her brother Orestes and bearing in her hands his Vrne insteed thereof he brought forth the Vrne of his owne deceased Sonne that by the apprehension of his owne he might the more feelingly act anothers passion Doubtlesse deare Christians we shall never act to the life the Christian part of sorrowing for our perplexed brethren unlesse we looke on their thraldome as on our owne as if their lashes did fall upon our loynes as if our hands were galled with tugging their oares and our selves stinted to their hungry diet of bread and water Notwithstanding all this some there are who yet would seeme to be Christians of a Stoicall disposition without passion save in their owne sufferings without compassion of their brethrens Other mens sorrowes and sighes doe no more move them then the roaring of the clifs doe the Rocks and Oakes that are about them Like unto Galli● who cared not though the mad Greekes did beat sober Sosthenes before his face while the blowes fell not upon his owne bones Fabulous stories faigned Tragedies will sooner moove them then the true relation of their brethrens calamities Such was that Tyrant who could not refraine weeping when he heard a player acting a passionate part in a Tragedy but never relented at the many murthers committed by his command on his innocent subjects Learne we deare Christians by our Saviours both doctrine and example to be better affected towards our afflicted brethren Remember we them who are in bonds while we are at liberty those who are in danger while we are in safety those who are in mourning under any kinde of affliction while we are in joy and jollity Praised be God we sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree There is no leading into captivity no crying out in our streetes We are at leasure to reade the Gazette the Corante Gallobelgicus relations of combustions in every kingdome of Europe but finde nothing of any such in England We stand safe on the shore while we see others tossed in the sea not without an unpleasing pleasing prospect displeased to see others embroyled but pleased to finde our selves exempted Happy are the people that are in such a case but not happy if insensible of their brethrens unhappinesse God having made all calme about us hath left us only leasure to looke and lament the stormes of others How happy are we if we know and thankfully acknowledge our owne happinesse and with a Christian compassion remember our brethrens miseries The one cannot but make us thankfull unto God for our selves the other charitable unto others Are we Christians indeed and not in title only How can we but relent in the midst of our mirth when we remember our Christian brethren in France in the Palatinate Bohemia and all Germany especially our own ountry-men in Barbary in