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soul_n able_a body_n fear_v 9,113 5 7.8499 4 true
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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

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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