Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	body_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,137	5	9.8589	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26794	The great duty of resignation to the divine will in afflictions enforced from the example of our suffering Saviour / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1111; ESTC R22116	57,272	226

the best Men are not all Spirit but united to Flesh and when the Body is under strong pains the Soul suffers in its sufferings and while we are thus compounded the loss of those Comforts that support and sweeten the present Life must cause Grief 'T is easy to utter brave Expressions and lay down severe Precepts in contempt of Evils when they are at a distance but hard to sustain the Spirit under the actual feeling of them 't is one thing to discourse of a Battel and another to be engaged in the heat of it But supposing by a Philosophical Charm the Heart were so hardned as to be proof against the most piercing afflictions such a forced insensibility is not regular but proceeds from the extinction of Humanity and Piety and that will appear by considering Afflictions in a natural or moral respect First in a natural respect for so they are destructive or oppressive Evils and a pensive feeling of them is suitable to the Law of our Creation for the Humane Nature is framed with such Senses and Passions as according to God's intention should be affected suitably to the quality of their objects and if the Soul acts rationally 't is moved accordingly A Saint on Earth is not a Saint in Heaven raised above all Disasters and Troubles freed from all hurtful impressions from without and sorrowful impressions within but is liable to afflicting evils And it is becoming his Duty to have his passions pliable to his condition but without excess the Eyes must not be drown'd nor dry but tenderly affected Secondly Considered in a moral respect as they are sent from the high and just Providence of God it is absolutely necessary there should be an humble resentment of his Displeasure This is a consequent of the former for if our affections are seared up that we do not feel the stroke how shall we regard the hand that smites us If we are not sensible of Affliction we are secure in our Sins Natural Sorrow is introductive of Godly Sorrow There are two extreams to be avoided by the afflicted according to the direction of Solomon in the person of Wisdom and repeated by the Apostle My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Some are discouraged and over-born by Afflictions as insupportable others are stubborn and careless and never lay them to heart they never look upward to the original efficient Cause an Offended God nor inward to the impulsive deserving Cause their Sins but esteem them fortuitous Events that happen in this mutable state without a design to correct and reform Sinners or to proceed from a blind necessity things of course or meerly regard the second Causes and Instruments of their Troubles accordingly when they meet with Calamities all their care is by a perverse shift to seek for relief onely in Temporal Comforts without serious applying themselves to God whose end in sending Troubles is to reclaim us from Sin to Holiness from Earth to Heavens from the Creatures to himself This secret Atheism like a benumming Opium stupifies the Conscience and the insensibility of God's hand inflicting Evils is as different from Christian Patience and Constancy as a mortal Lethargy is from the quiet soft Sleep of Health Nothing kindles his Anger more than neglecting it 't is equally provoking with the despising of his Love It is a symptom of a wretched state of Soul if there proceed no sighs and groans no signs of grief from the sense of God's displeasure it is a sad evidence there is no Spiritual Life Indolence under the effects of God's Anger is like the stilness of the Dead Sea whose Calm is a Curse The Jews tho intitled the People of God are deeply charg'd for this prodigious Madness O Lord thou hast struck them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return Jer. 5. 3. We have whole Quarries of such obdurate Wretches amongst us this impenitent disregard of God's hand is a dreadful presage of future and more heavy Judgments Who ever hardned himself against the Lord and prospered Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy are we stronger than he The most refractory Sinner he can compel to acknowledg with bitter lamentations his Wickedness and weakness how unable he is to contend with his Judge But supposing a respite from Punishment here there is an Hell prepared for stubborn Sinners where is Weeping and Wailing for ever Whom the Rods do not awaken the Scorpions shall Secondly I shall now proceed to explicate what is included in the resignment of our selves to God in times of Affliction This will be made evident by considering the leading powers and faculties which Grace sanctifies and works in according to their natural subordination The Understanding approves the severest dispensations of Providence to be good that is for reasons though sometimes unsearchable yet always righteous and for gracious ends to the Saints When Hezekiah heard the heavy Prophecy that all his Treasures should be carried to Babylon and his Royal Progeny should become Slaves there he said to Isaiah Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken His sanctified Mind acknowledged it to be a just Correction of his vain Pride and quietly submitted to it And as there is a satisfaction of Mind in the rectitude so in the graciousness of his Proceedings The misapprehension and mis-belief of God's design in afflicting causeth Impatience and Murmuring but when the Mind is convinced that he afflicts us for our Benefit that Bodily Diseases are Medicinal Advantages the remedies of the Soul that the losses of Earthly Comforts prepare us for Divine Enjoyments that the way which is sowed with Thorns and watered with Tears leads to Heaven the Heart is compliant with the sharpest methods of Providence But these things will be more fully opened under the several heads of Arguments to enforce the Duty This Resignment principally consists in the consent and subjection of the Will to the Orders of Heaven The Will is an imperious Faculty naturally impatient of opposition to its Desires and we pay the highest honour to God in the lowest submission of our Wills to his Appointments 'T is true the Will cannot make a direct choice of Evil nor love Afflictions but the Holy Spirit by a powerful Operation so disposeth it as to renounce its own inclinations when discordant with the Will of God And the more humble ready and entire the Submission is the more difficult and harsh the denial of our natural desire is the more supernatural Grace shines and is acceptable It is the perfection of Holiness to do what God loves and to love what God does There is a rare example of this in David's carriage when under his greatest Affliction 't was in his flight from his Son Absalom who endeavoured to deprive him of