Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	able_a	body_n	hell_n	5,281	5	8.2873	4	false

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

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

chiefly because of the kind agreement the mutual assistance and ministration of these several Interests to the nourishment and increase to the exercise and enjoyment of each other The Rich and Honourable have great Opportunities of Knowledge and Vertue above other men Their time is their own their minds are easie they may converse with the best Company and study the best Authors for the improvement of their Minds And they are always provided with the necessary Requisites the chief Instruments in the Practice and Exercise of Vertue For the Government of our Passions the Regulation of our Appetites and Affections under our Possessions and Enjoyments of the World Sen. Epist are the proper Subjects of our Vertue and Victory A poor Man's Sphere is narrow and confin'd his Religion is negative and his Vertue chiefly in his Will But the Rich may fulfill the whole Law redeem Captives relieve the Oppressed visit the Fatherless patronize the Poor bless the World Indeed there is scarce a Vertue Personal Political or Divine but requires the presence of Earthly Things as the necessary Instruments of its Practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hier. in Aur. Car. And hence Pythagoras himself commends a due regard of our Worldly Interest because it helps the Soul labouring after Vertue And thus to use the World for the interest of the Soul for the exercise and increase of Vertue is the best Method we can possibly consult for the most pure and pleasant Enjoyment of the World it self For Religion stops the Fountain of all the Allays and Evils of the World it rectifies our Judgment and restrains our Passions it acquaints us with our Imperfections and delivers us from importunate desires from Envy and Ambition from the anxious Fears of Chance and Death which flow from false Opinion and ever insinuate themselves where Vertue is not prepossess'd It is indeed the only Ballast of Prosperity And as it separates the Ills so it improves and meliorates whatsoever is good and pleasant in the World It restores us to our selves and gives us an absolute Dominion over what we possess It preserves a healthful Constitution and by a mixture of different Entertainments it prevents that loathing of Pleasures which arises from the constant presence of them It is a great improvement and addition of Honour it gives reality to Titles and makes inconstant Fame stable and eternal Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo Fama Marcelli micat inter omnes Julium sidus velut inter ignes Luna minores Hor. The practice of Vertue Epist says Seneca gives a lustre to a man and makes him shine as light Quantum Dii boni decoris quantum ponderis adderint What weight what beauty do they add When we meet him we shall start and fall back as at the presence of a God and silently pray that it may be safe to look upon him and with a trembling voice we shall be ready to say says he with Virgil Namque haud tibi vultus Mortalis nec vox hominem sonat The Voice the Countenance is more than Humane To conclude Let us remember that Christian self-denyal is but the reduction of our selves to our selves and a melioration of our present state That all forbidden Appetites are Artificial and Unnatural the Effects of Disease and the Symptoms of Death That there is no competition thanks be to God at the present between the safety of our Souls and the preservation of our Estates in the active literal sense no Doctrines of Perfection to confound and cheat us no narrow illiberal Pharisaical Opinions to fill us with scruple And as for the moral habitual resignation of the World it is every way our interest To be loose and free to use it as if we used it not to will what God wills and to be content with such a mixture of Good and Evil as infinite Wisdom shall determine to us is the only way to be happy But to devote our selves to the world to govern our lives carelesly to sin presumptuously to neglect our souls to forfeit our interest in the favour of God and incur the punishment of Hell is such a Calamity as can never be recompensed For what shall it profit a man to gain the World and lose his Soul Now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all honour praise and glory now and for ever Amen FINIS