Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	blood_n	body_n	soul_n	10,399	5	5.2639	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64234	A preservative against Deism shewing the great advantage of revelation above reason, in the two great points, pardon of sin, and a future state of happiness : with an appendix in answer to a letter of A. W. against revealed religion in the oracles of reason / by Nathanael Taylor.	Taylor, Nathanael, d. 1702.; A. W.	1698 (1698)	Wing T548; ESTC R8096	94,525	312

Mean if the End be obtained But to this I Reply This whole arguing proceeds on a wrong Supposition That the Reformation of the Offender is the only end of Punishment Whereas Satisfaction to the Law the Honour of the Government the Explation of the Crimes committed are at least as noble Ends and as necessary if not more so than that Without due care in this Matter the Divine Threatenings will appear to be like those Flaming Swords that sometimes hang in the Air vain Meteors and mere Vapours that have no real Edge and in the Judgment of many wise Men do not praesignify any future Calamities that shall certainly follow but only serve to affright weak and superstitious Minds How confidently soever some Men may talk yet they have the Common Sense of all Mankind lying against them Who will satisfy Divine Justice Who will make our Peace with the Offended Majesty of Heaven Has been a most puzzling Inquiry in all Ages The Heathens saw somewhat more was necessary than a bare Reformation of Manners to appease the Anger of their Gods and rather than depend upon that alone have thought it more Rational to take up with any thing even the most foolish and extravagant and brutish Contrivances of Purgations and Offerings of Humane Blood and Sacrifices Micah 6.7 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a Year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil Shall I give my First-born for my transgression the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul Yea the great Patriarch of Natural and bitter Enemy to Revealed Religion after all his Confidence That meer Repentance would expiate mens Offences was himself at a loss in this matter as appears by the following Passage * Et quidem quinque hos Articulos bonos Catholicosque esse unusquisque procul-dubio fatebitur ad Salutem tamen aeternam comparandam non sufficere perhibebunt nonnulli Caeterum qui ita locutus fuerit nae ille quidem audax nedum saevum temerariumque effatum meâ sententiâ protulerit quum nulli satis explorata sint judicia Divina quam etiam ob causam neque eas sufficere protinus dixerim attamen magis probabilis mihi videtur eorum opinio qui aequè pie ac leniter de Dei Judiciis statuunt dum homo quod in se est praestat Herbert de Religione Gentilium p. 217. These five Articles viz. 1. The Being of God 2. That he is to be Worshipp'd 3. That Virtue is the principal part of Divine Worship 4. That we ought to Repent of our Sins 5. That there are Rewards and Punishments in the present and future life every one without doubt will acknowledge to be Good and Catholick but some will pretend they are not sufficient to Eternal Salvation But he that shall so say is a bold man and in my opinion pronounces a cruel and rash Sentence Seeing the Judgments of God are not fully known for which Reason neither will I peremptorily say they are Sufficient c. Such is the Power of Truth that it will be reveng'd on its fiercest Adversaries and force them who contradict it to contradict themselves also 4. 'T is urged that God is our Common * Si justitiae Divinae haut factum satis ex Poenitentia dixissent fortè Sacerdotes acerbioremque quàm ex dolore interno exigi debere poenam contendissent hisce ita occurri tum temporis potuit Deum Summum esse Patrem communem adeoque in Filium Poenitentem haut graviter animadversurum Herbert de Relig. Gentil p. 199. Father and will not severely animadvert on his Penitent Child Or as another † Dr. Whichcot's Sermons p. 310. enforces it God hath stamp'd Impressions of Goodness and Kindness throughout the whole Creation Every thing maintains its own Off-spring and endeavours to bring it to good according to the several Natures of every kind and if it be capable it bears its Off-spring Affection Now whatever * Id. p. 312. Perfection is found in any Creature is in God Primarily Originally and Essentially We all commend the Merciful and Compassionate Disposition above the Cruel and Malicious And shall we attribute that to God which we condemn in any Creature But sure 't is not reasonable to insinuate that God is cruel and malicious for punishing Delinquents Especially considering what this Reverend Author saith in the very next Page viz. If God † Id. p. 313. do punish Sin he doth that which is Just And should I argue that because God is Originally Primarily and Essentially Just and therefore he will certainly punish Sinners if this be all they have to plead that they do Repent it would hold altogether as strongly as his arguing from his Goodness that he will forgive them barely upon their so doing We all commend Justice in Men and especially in a Magistrate and censure the lazy and fond Neglect of it And shall we attribute that to God which we condemn in the Creature Or shall there be any Excellency or Perfection in us which is wanting in him He that made the Eye shall not He see and he who formed the Ear shall not He hear Besides 't is as certain that God is our Common Ruler as that he is our Common Parent and 't is Matter of Fact that he do's inflict very severe Penalties on his Rebellious Subjects notwithstanding their Repentance 5. 'T is further urged That Men are by Nature * Homines naturâ suá fragiles peccatoque obnoxios esse Herbert de Relig. Gentil ubi supra frail Creatures and liable to Sin And that † Dr. Whichcot's Sermon p. 321. tho' the Act of a Creature may be aggravated in respect of the Person against whom it is committed yet in themselves our Sins are but Acts of Weakness and they are so in God's Account and Esteem c. And if there were as much Weakness in All of them as there is in this Objection a man might be hard put to it to make a Reply But are our Wilful and Heinous Provocations to be dwindled away and shrunk up into Sins of Infirmity If all our Sins are both in Themselves and in God's Account but Acts of Weakness I don't know why they should not be so in Ours too For we can't do better than to entertain such Sentiments as are agreeable to the Nature of Things and the Judgment of God himself But Good men have not been wont to take up with such Notions as these Saul urged for himself in the matter of the Amalekites That he did not reserve part of the Spoil from any evil Design but from a good Intention to have wherewithal to furnish out a Sacrifice to the Lord 1 Sam. 15.21 22 23. and tho' he was their King yet in this the People over-ruled him and it would have

immediately after our Death It seems to be too great a Leap for so very imperfect a Soul as every good Man's is in this Life to enter upon so great a Glory forthwith upon its being dislodg'd from the Body We see nothing like this in Nature all Creatures being wont from mean Beginnings gradually to creep on to the Height of their Perfection in a leasurely way by very slow and easy Steps And we have the more reason to think it should be so in the present Case because good Men in this World are not wont to improve very fast in the Divine Life but still they have many Imperfections adhering to them And one of the greatest Signs of their Growth is to be deeply sensible of the Remainders of Corruption which do still hang about them If the Scriptures be laid aside 't is hardly to be supposed that a Soul which has been so long in so muddy and defiled a Vessel can be drawn off from the Body so very clear as to carry no Dregs along with it but that it will need to pass through a great many Purgations before it be thoroughly refined And who can tell how severe and how long a Trial it must endure before it be qualified to receive and fitted to bear so great a Weight of Glory The wisest of the Heathens have thought that none but those who have been perfectly * Socrates in Platonis Phoedone p. 80 113 114. Plat. Gorgias p. 526. purged in this Life can go straightway to Heaven But as for others it would require a very considerable Time to cleanse them from that Dross that sticks to 'em before they can be prepared to enter into it They have fancied that several departed Souls did first wheel and roll about the Earth for † Tully's Somn. Scip. many Ages That some of 'em when deliver'd out of the Body are like poor ‖ Tusc Qu. l. 1. Prisoners who having lain in Irons for a long while can't presently feel their Legs and hardly know how to walk when their Shackles are off Plato was so Extravagant in his Conceits as to affirm that many of them could not recover their * In Phoedro p. 248 249. Wings in a less Space of Time than Ten Thousand Years But the Pinions of some Philosophical Spirits who were Lovers of Wisdom and beautiful Boys would grow considerably faster so that in the Compass of Three Thousand Years they would be capable of flying upwards Tho' as Eusebius * Praep. Evang. l. 13. c. 16. hath well observed we have nothing but his bare Word for all this and herein as well as in many other Points he did notoriously Contradict himself For at another time he makes Socrates tell us They who have committed great Sins but yet curable ones according to the Nature of their Crimes are cast into several Rivers of Fire where they lie for a † In Phoedone p. 113 114. Year according to the Tradition of their Poets and then come to a certain fenny marish place where they pray to those whom they have injured that they may come forth and be received into the Mansions of the Blessed And if their Prayers prevail with these Men they presently are drawn out but otherwise they must lie by it Hermagoras * In Macrob. in Somn. Scip. l. 2. c. 17. a Platonist tells us Guilty Souls are punish'd for infinite Ages before they are deliver'd out of Tartarus and then when they are sufficiently purged they return to Heaven And Virgil saith according to the Platonick Notion that some dirty Souls are hung up a drying † Aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad ventos aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igne c. Aeneid l. 6. v. 740. and bleaching in the Wind others which are very foul are rinsed and scoured in the Water but some must be cast into a scorching Fire before their Spots can be clean got out and they be fitted for a Walk in the Elysian Fields to cool and refresh themselves There is one Saying of Socrates that is very fit to be applied to all these Fooleries which Plato makes him deliver even at the end of that very place where he speaks more soberly of this Subject than any-where else as far as I have observed t is this It may be O * In Platonis Gorgiâ p. 527. Callicles these may seem to thee to be Old Wives Fables and thou wilt despise them And it would not be strange if they were despised provided that by all our Search we could any-where find what is better and truer This is not to be found any-where but by Divine Revelation whereby we know and are sure that as soon as ever Good Men die they cease from their Labours When they are absent from the Body they are present with the Lord. It is but departing and being with Christ Angels receive the dislodging holy Soul to convoy it into the Seat of the Blessed How far it is thither and how long an Angel may be in Wafting a holy Soul to that Place is uncertain tho' we may judge the time is but short This Day says Christ to the Penitent Thief when the Day was already far spent shalt thou be with me in Paradise And we find that the Angel Gabriel Dan. 9.21 who at the Beginning of Daniel's Prayer had a Divine Order to fly to him made so great a Dispatch as to be with him about the Time of the Evening-Oblation Now suppose that Prayer of Daniel's to begin early in the Morning for I will allow him to have been up very betimes at his Devotions especially on a solemn Fast as this seems to be yet from thence till Three in the Afternoon which was about the Time of the Evening-Oblation is but a very few Hours The Compass of Time is but very short before a holy Soul enters into the Heavenly Paradise after it has left the Body and it may be it usually arrives there long before the forsaken Carkase is lodged in the Grave without the trouble of any tedious Delays or the Hazard of any new Trial or the Severity of any further Discipline V. § V Mere Natural Light and Reason cannot Certify us what Persons shall enjoy all this Happiness If we were left to the wild Guesses of our own dim-sighted Reason we might well suppose that so great a Glory should be confined to a very few special Favourites and not lie open for All. Some shall be excluded And every Man that knows himself would have been apt to suspect Am not I one of that unhappy Number And especially these three Sorts of Persons would 1. Those that have been very great Sinners either as to the Heinousness of their Crimes or the Time of their continuing Impenitent under them The fabulous and idle Poets indeed have placed the Dog the Bear and the Dragon in the Heavens and succeeding Astronomers have left them in the