Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	11,671	5	5.9298	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48491	A sermon preached before the King, at His Majesties free-chappel of Windsor, June 13, 1680 by John Lambe ...	Lambe, John, 1648 or 9-1708.	1680 (1680)	Wing L220; ESTC R18056	13,850	35

can possibly be under And anticipates the flatteries of the greatest Fortune By gaining the World then paticular Persons are to understand such portions of these interests as are proper to the place we fill or as we may reasonably propose to our selves under our circumstances and in our Stations Now that these enjoyments these advantages of natural Life are good in their own Nature and a real profit to the Possessors will appear if we consider these two things 1. The nature and original Reason of happiness What other Rules or directions have we to determine our Judgment of Good and Evil but the natural necessities sensations and desires of men According to the account of the best Philosophers Bonum est quod cuique convenit Arist Ith. Voluptas est principium boni Convenience Pleasure or the satisfaction of Appetites is the Principle of Good But the essential capacities of Humane Nature are Sensitive and Annimal as well as Religious and Intellectual The Divine Principle of Religion Reflection and Understanding is lodg'd in an Earthly body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr in vitu Pyth. and sent into a World surrounded with the proper satisfactions of every desire and endowed with Organs of the quickest sense To determine therefore the happiness of such a Being so mixt and composed of a corporal and angelick nature by the perfections only of his Soul without provision for the pleasures of the natural Life is an imperfect unphilosophical account For in whomsoever the Appetites of the body are stifled or exterminated there is disease and an unnatural mutilation and in whom they remain ungratified there must be dolour and uneasiness 'T is true the improvements of the Mind and a good Conscience are an abundant satisfaction for the want of temporal Enjoyments as we shall discourse anon but we speak not now comparatively but of things as they are in their own Natures and yet even a compensation is a satisfaction for something that is wanting and implies either a fault or an imperfection There must be therefore a strict Philosophick Good in the things of the World consider'd simply in as much as they contribute to the pleasure of our being and are the proper satisfactions of essential desires 2. Neither is this all but as the world hath a proper good in its own Nature so are we obliged to esteem and value it by the Law of God It was God that made the Spirits so subtile the Nerves so sensible the several amabilities in the Object and the inclination in the Faculty not to betray us into Evil but to delight us with the dominion he hath given us of the world Such Pleasures and Enjoyments therefore as proceed from these desires as these desires proceed from God and Nature Reason without Revelation would instruct us to be good and innocent But if we consider the testimony which God himself hath given of them the question will be without dispute Who after a strict review of his six days work pronounced of the whole Creation that it was very good Gen. 1. and who out of his especial favour to his own Image put the man whom he had formed into the Garden of Paradise and who lastly allures us to Obedience by the promise of these temporal rewards Gen. 2. Both the negation of every natural Evil and the position of every natural Good of Riches and Honour of Safety Preferment 1 Sam. 2.30 Ps 21.5.22.4.10.3 Success and Reputation are all promised by God as Blessings and Rewards Isa 32.17 And in the Gospel of our Saviour though the clear Revelation of eternal Life is such an invincible motive as to which nothing can be added yet as a collateral encouragement to those Mat. 6.33 who shall seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof in the first place all things else are promised to be added to them This says Plutarch is the foundation of devotion trust and confidence in God that we believe he Governs the world Plut. de Superst and that prosperity is of him Wherefore then since the things of the world agree with the Philosophy of good in general and are design'd by the wisdom of God to entertain our sensitive inferiour faculties and are promised by his goodness as blessings and rewards we cannot but conclude that the Possessions of the world are a substantial good in their own Natures though of inferiour place and kind But the Objections drawn from such passages of our Saviour as insinuate the danger of Riches and prescribe the strictest Self-denyal the most entire resignation of our sensual Appetites appear so plausible at the first sight that we must not wholly pass them over Yet the answer will be short and easie because our Saviour himself hath taught us by his own interpretation to put constructions upon all such Precepts and Positions For when himself had declared Mark 10.24 That it is easier for a Cammel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He presently explains himself by those who trust in Riches 〈◊〉 26. Which shews that the Precepts and Passages of this nature are not intended to be understood literally but in a sense As sometimes in Comparison Lay not up for your selves treasure on Earth Take no thought for to morrow Mat. 6. Sometimes with respect to emergent Circumstances as when the Apostles encouraged the Disciples to sell their Possessions for the relief of the persecuted Brethren Sometimes personally sometimes habitually If thou wilt be perfect sell all that thou hast and give to the poor and whosoever will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Be ready in mind and heart to relinquish all whensoever it shall be necessary And that thus the Apostles understood our Saviour is evident from that of S. Peter Luk. 18. Who glories of himself and the other Apostles that they had performed these duties we have left all and followed thee and yet S. Peter kept his House at Capernaum and the Apostles retained the Propriety and Possession of their Ships and Houses To conclude this the noblest Science is to know ones self to keep the mean to preserve the vigour and gratifie the desires of all our Faculties Cato's best Emperour was he who should govern not destroy his Appetites Away then with all such superstitious Doctrines as prescribe us to live upon intuitive entertainments to hide our selves from the Sun Coll. Gran in vita R. P. Th. Sanchez or to dwell in a pleasant Garden but never touch a Flower Which indeed is so far from the perfection of a Christian or the design of my Text that it is the disease of the mind sullen morose distrustful impotent But on the other hand to esteem the world above its appointed value or to consider it as our Chief Good is the most pernicious Folly the greatest Calamity which can befall us

which leads me in the second place 2. To consider and describe the Nature the Capacities and Interests of the Soul which the Text prefers to our care and choise rather before and whatsoever becomes of the Profits of the World And we shall easily acknowledge that we cannot comprehend the essence of the Soul or the manner of it's operation volition and understanding it is inconsistent with the disadvantages of our present state But by the acts effects and inward sensations of the mind we certainly know that it is neither Air nor Fire nor Blood nor moving Numbers but as it is defin'd by Porphyrie Se●t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Being immaterial self-moving and immortal a Principle of an independent intellectual life of Understanding Judgment Reflection Conscience Goodness Providence acting as God freely and for the sake of Ends. And the Objects about which these Faculties are exercised and with which they are entertain'd are the excellencies of the Divine Nature to study and contemplate the Divine Perfections by which as by a Rule to judge and govern our estimate of things the works of Creation and Providence the Government the Wisdom and the Histories of the World to improve our minds with useful knowledge divers Relations to God and to one another for the exercise of Devotion Wisdom Providence Love and goodness This is the Nature these are the Capacities the Acts and Exercises of the Souls From whence we collect that the highest interest or the perfection of the Soul considered in its natural capacities consists in the strength and vigour of these sensations and desires Simpl. in Epict. in the habitual exercise of the faculties with their proper objects in understanding clearly in judging discreetly in loving universally in governing our lives wisely in subduing our passions in preserving the dominion of our Reason It follows therefore that to lose the Soul according to this Original simple sense is to vitiate or destroy these Moral Appetites and by a constant conversation with sensual Objects to be wholly govern'd to understand to judge esteem and love according to them And methinks the naked representation of this loss is of it self sufficient to convince us that the World with all it's Profits can be no Price for so inestimable a Jewel as the safety no satisfaction for so great a calamity as the loss of the Soul For if we consider a a man without Knowledge without Wisdom without Goodness there is nothing left whatsoever his circumstances in the World may be to commend him to others or reconcile him to himself If his Passions are tame he is the pity and contempt if they rage the regret and detestation of Mankind He is a diseased imperfect Creature the ignoble parts are swell'd to an unnatural fullness whilst the noble are wasted and shrivell'd into nothing He hath lost the pleasures of a healthful Constitution the delicate entertainments the pure and unmixt delights which flow from all the Faculties in the exercise of their proper functions and is invested on the contrary with a dull Understanding an unsatisfied Will tumultuary vex'd and discomposed Affections But if this were all the loss such is the degeneracy of men how few would value it We shall farther therefore consider the interest of the Soul as it stands in the relation of a Subject to God our Law-giver who hath obliged our obedience to an Institution of Religion to a Rule of Life with Sanctions of future Bliss and Misery He then that despises Wisdom and Goodness may yet fear him who is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell This is the loss of the Soul emphatically and which our Saviour principally intends the displeasure of God the future punishment of our Disobedience and the loss of our Interest in the Rewards of Vertue in the Joys of Heaven And though the nature and affections the manner of the reception and conveyance of these Felicities are impossible in our present State to be understood distinctly as it is fabulously reported of the Ghost of S. Jerom that it appeared to S. Austin writing a Tract of the fullness of joy in Heaven and asked him if he could measure the Waters in his Fist or meet out the Heaven with a Span Yet this we know in general that it consists in the absence of all Evil tears shall be wiped away from all Faces Is 25.8 1 Cor. 15.54 no forbidden fruit shall be there to tempt us no adversaries to assault us no impetuous desires to molest us and in the affluence of all good Whatsoever is contained in Abraham's bosom Luk. 16. Jo. 14.2 Ps 16.11 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Cor. 2.9 in the house of our Father in fulness of Joy in eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive is the felicity of that blessed State Our understanding shall be perfected in a clear discovery of the most excellent glory and loveliness of God for we shall see him as he is 1 Jo. 3.2 We shall then discern the beauty of his Holiness the brightness of his Understanding and the largeness of his Love And because the Soul in all its capacities of life and action in judgment choice desire and love is absolutely govern'd by the understanding Therefore our knowledge our sense of the Divine Perfections Rom. 8.29 Phil. 1.21 shall of necessity transform us into the same Nature quicken us into the same life and invest us in the joy of our Lord in the same felicities with himself Our Wills shall be perfect with indefective holiness our Affections shall be unalterably fixed and ravished with the ever-fresh and inexhaustible Treasures of his Beauty In a word our souls shall be struck with such a powerful sense of his unspeakable glory his Image shall be so deeply impress'd upon our minds that our selves shall be changed into the likeness of his excellency and entertain'd with the pleasures of his life These are the glorious possibilities of the soul the very privation thereof or to be thrust from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power without the punishment of pain is more than enough to be contained in losing the Soul though a thousand worlds were to be set against it Yet even this is not all for the sanction condemns the disobedient to the punishment of pain as well as to the punishment of loss A guilty Conscience consummated with wretched horror and despair shall be his Portition He shall be cast into outer darkness Rev. 21.8 Mar. 9.43 Mat. 8.11 Rom. 2.9 Mat. 5.26 Luk. 13.28 where he shall be sure to find whatsoever is contained in the vengeance of an Omnipotent God who is a consuming fire And thus I have impartially stated both the Nature and the Value first of the world then of the Soul I proceed therefore as I propos'd in the last place 3. To compare these Interests together by the most infallible Rules and Tests of worth that from thence it