Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	act_n	body_n	sin_n	3,765	5	4.9553	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27364	Abrahams interment, or, The good old-mans buriall in a good old age opened in a sermon at Bartholomews Exchange, July 24, 1655, at the funerall of the worshipfull John Lamotte, Esq., sometimes alderman of the city of London / by Fulk Bellers ... ; unto which is added a short narrative of his life and death.	Bellers, Fulk, b. 1605 or 6.; La Motte, John, 1570?-1655.	1656 (1656)	Wing B1826; ESTC R18215	32,052	49

the God of peace sanctifie you throughout to whom God speaks peace he is always a Sanctifier a purifier of the heart and life from sin Q. It may be some may say how may we get into such an estate that we may be sure to dye in peace S. If thy heart be toucht with what thou sayest 1 Presently fall upon the duty of repentance bewailing sins of Nature of Practice against the light of the Law and Gospel crying mightily for pardon this ushered in true peace to Davids Soul and brought him in ease in the setting of his bones and making him to rejoyce after their breaking So that heart-smitten Publican crys out Lord be merciful to me a sinner and then goes away in a justified condition Till Sin be removed by Repentance what peace can there be What peace so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many What peace so long as iniquities remain unrepented of So long as Wind remains shut up in the bowels of the earth that can get no vent an Earthquake daily is to be feared so here an Heart quake is to be expected until you have repented 2 Labour by faith to take hold of Jesus Christ whose Bloud alone is able to cleanse our Consciences from dead works i. e. from sin when wee look up to him with the eye of faith whom we have peirced and be in heaviness for him as a man is in heaviness for the death of his first born this brings peace Faith devolves all our guilt upon our Suerty Christ and then takes hold of his Meritorious Righteousness which becoming ours by application we are justified in Gods sight and thereby acquitted from sin 3 Walk up unto the Gospel the promise of peace is made alone to them that walk according to this rule not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit this brings peace Mark the perfect man and behold the upright in heart and life for the end of that man is peace 4 Keep a good Conscience this is as a continual Feast not only in Life but when Death stares thee in the face as we see in Hezekiah Remember O Lord now I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight And upon this account Paul was so careful to exercise himself in keeping a good Conscience free from offence both towards God and man A polluted corrupt Conscience will sting a man in the end as we see in Spyra and many Apostates whereas an undefiled Conscience will chear us in the worst of times 5 Dye daily to sin make it thy work every day to drag thy corruptions to the Cross of Jesus Christ never leaving till thou hast fastned them there and gotten them Crucified even thy beloved sins mortified within thee and dye daily unto the World get into Christ by whom the World may bee crucified unto thee and thou unto the World and carry thy self as a Crucified man in respect of it not heeding minding or regarding of it and if thou doest thus thou mayest expect an interest in this common Mercy among all Saints to dye in peace whether ever thou share in the later part of the Promise or no to be buried in a good old age Which leads me now to the second Branch in this Promise Thou shalt be buried in a good old age Whence we may take notice of this last observation Doct. That burial in a good old age is afforded unto some Saints by Gods special indulgence For the prosecution of this truth I shall labour to shew 1 What is meant by Burial 2 What by a good old Age. 3 How it may be made out that for a Saint to bee buried in a good old age is an evidence of Gods indulgence Q. 1. What is meant by Burial Sol. Burial speaks nothing but the covering of the dead body of man with earth or the interring of it Now touching Burial I have nothing to say for any thing that savours of the least of Superstition in it I neither look upon it if denied by cruel men as any badge of Gods Curse to Beleevers though sometimes he gives way to some such stupendious dispensations which was the ground of that sad complaint of old The dead bodies of thy Servants have they given to be meat unto the Fowls of the Heaven and the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them Men indeed have discovered much inhumanity this way especially Papists against Protestants by prohibiting their Burial or digging up their bones again as they did of Bucer Fagius c. such acts savour of wrath in men but none in God towards them that were in Covenant with him So neither do I construe it if afforded or permitted as any help to heaven because upon the dissolution of the body the Spirit returns to God that gave it the Soul is admitted immediatly into the embraces of God though the body be kept above ground divers daies together yet this I may say upon a Scripture account concerning Burial that the decent interment of the bodies of Saints when death hath divorced those old companions the Soul and Body speaks 1 Mercy in the Interrers which David acknowledged in burying the body the trunck of Saul though we know he was a bad man yet he so farre resented this act of the men of Bethshemesh that he sends unto them this Message and with it this benediction Blessed are yee of the Lord that have shewed this kindness to Saul and have buried him and he adds this prayer for them The Lord shew kindness and truth to you and passed this Promise unto them I also will requite this kindness because yee have done this thing 2 Justice in them that discharge this office when the Soul is returned to God that gave it it is a part of justice that the Body should return to the earth whence it was taken the Earth indeed is the common Mother of all who receives all that came from her as the Mother the Childe into her lap God I know laid this in justice upon man for sin at the first Thou shalt return to the earth for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return 3 It speaks hope that the interrers have of the happy Resurrection of those bodies which now they commit to the ground they having been Instruments of Righteousness Members of Christ and being still united to him shall certainly be raised by him unto glory and upon these accounts I deem the care of Saints to have been to see their friends decently interr'd as Isaac Abram Joseph his Father Jacob and those devout men that stoned Massacred Martyrd Body of that Proto-martyr Stephen as knowing

John La Motte Esq Cittizen of London borne j. May 1577 and Deceased July 13 1655. Abrahams Interment OR The good Old-mans Buriall in a good Old Age. Opened in a Sermon At Bartholomews Exchange July 24. 1655. at the Funerall of the Worshipfull John Lamotte Esq Sometimes Alderman of the City of London By FULK BELLERS M.A. Preacher of the Gospell Unto which is added a short Narrative of his Life and Death 2 KIN. 20.1 Set thy house in order for thou shall dye and not live JOB 21.22 Acquaint thy self now with God and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee LONDON Printed by R. I. for Tho. Newberry and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the three Golden Lyons in Corn-hill 1656. TO THE Right VVorshipfull the truely Religious THE Lady Hester Honywood AND To her most hopefull Nephew Mr. Maurice Abbot of the Inner Temple Daughter Grand-son Co-heires of John Lamotte Esq c. Much honoured THe sweetnesse of Communion with God whereby Saints taste and see how good the Lord is is more clearly discerned by their own personall experience than can be declared by any verball expressions This was the highest pitch of Adams happinesse during his estate of concreated integrity that hee was admitted to the enjoyment of this grand priviledge what is it then for any of his fallen Off-spring to be restored to this great exaltation And yet we know that Beleevers by faith in Christ are reinstated in this advancement and are many times inabled to say and that feelingly truly our fellowshp or our Communion is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the Heaven of Heavens to Saints Triumphant and Heaven here on this side Heaven to Saints Militant Expectants of Heaven hereafter Vnutterable is the Contentment that man finds sometimes in his Cordiall acquaintance with an Antient Fast and Religious Friend to whom he may freely and fully unbosome himself and from whom he may receive suitable and seasonable advice with all candor and faithfullnesse upon all occasions Now if words cannot to the life hold out that satisfaction that man findeth in his converse with man like unto himself is it any wonder if I am not able fully to display that heart-ravishing delight which the renewed soul meeteth withall whilest it nourisheth humble and holy Communion with God the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity It is agreed on by all that holy familiarity with him is full of spirituall solace though all my language be too short compleatly to describe before you how satisfactory and contentfull it is How sweet are those holy Parlies with God in praier and how pleasant their returns far pleasanter to a gracious than the returns of ships richly laden with rarest Commodities to a Carnall heart how delightfull are the droppings of the Sanctuary whereby the souls of Saints become as watered Gardens as so many Edens and whereby they come to hear of joy and gladnesse so that the bones which God at any time hath broken begin to rejoice How ensuring are the Incomes of the Spirit in that sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper wherein the truely penitent and beleeving Soul looking up to Christ by the Eye of Faith whom hee hath peirced and being in heavinesse for him c. receives the pledge of the Remission of his sins and of all other Covenant-Mercies which more exhilerates him with heart reviving joy then the sight of a Pardon doth a condemned Malefactor It was upon this account that the heart of David was filled with such Pantings as the Hart after the water-brooks to come and appear before God in soul-reviving Ordinances and that Marquesse of Vico Galeatius that eminent Confessor when offered Golden Mountains of Honours and Riches how resolutely did he reply their mony perish with them that think all the honours of Italy c. to be worth one hours Communion with God at Geneva a place wherein Religion flourished Now how abundant that worthy and experimentall Christian was to whom you owe your extraction as branches to their root in nourishing communion with God and how sweet hee found it both in his life and at his death I need not relate to you in speciall who were full well acquainted with the manner of his holy Conversation in his Life and of his comfortable departure at his end My sute to you is Honoured Lady Who have made such Eminent progresse in Grace Labor yet more and more to imitate your deceased Father in walking in all the waies of holiest Communion with God treading dayly in his steps of Soul resignation Faith Patience Charity Zeal and all other Christian graces whereof he left an exemplary Copy to you and your hopefull Issue to write after I need not suggest that it is constancy which is the Crowning grace Honoured Sir Though you have attained as yet to a little more than a fourth of the days that your Indulgent Grand-Father arrived at yet hee hath left you as a Coheir of his Estate so I hope of his graces also strive therefore that hee may in all his soul-adorning endowments live in you that as hee and many others looked upon you with a hopefull eye whilest hee lived so the world may see you more and more to answer all those blooming hopes now he is removed from you To conclude my humble addresse to you both is that you would be mindfull of all the holy Counsells and savory advertisements wherein he abounded towards you and among others those that he communicated to you frequently by his letters and forget not that Letter added unto his life whereby being dead he yet speaketh to you and then doubt not but there will bee a full return into your bosomes of all the prayers which he so fervently and frequently darted up to Heaven in your behalfs which is the perswasion Of your Worships much Obliged in the Lord. FULK BELLERS Decemb. 24. 1655. ABRAHAMS Interment OR The good Old mans Burial in a good old Age. GEN 15.15 And thou shalt go unto thy Fathers in peace and bee buried in a good old age SOlomon tells us It is better to go into the house of Mourning than to go to the house of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living the godly living will lay it to heart The Lord hath turned his own House into a House of Mourning unto us upon this sad account viz. the interment of him who as he was much esteemed of by the Citizens of this Renowned City in general so in special of this place whereof he hath been an ancient and worthy Parishioner and peculiarly by that great Congregation ●hereof he hath been a vigilant Elder near thirty years to●●ther one aged in grace as well as years unto whom ●his personal Promise to the Father of the Faithful was made good though not for the number of years that Abraham lived up unto yet for that time that Moses reckons up as

that the bodies of Saints sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory sown in weakness shall be raised in power And hence the Burial-place among the Greek Fathers is called the sleeping place or the Dormitory of Saints they only sleep and therefore they will awake again they still though in the dust are united unto Jesus Christ and shall be reunited with their Souls that ascending to Heaven they may be ever with the Lord. Q. 2. What is meant by a good old age S. 1. The Notion here rendred Old Age properly imports gray hairs and by a Metonymy of the Adjunct Old Age gray hairs being the ordinary discoverers of it for that observation of that Rabbine that gray hairs is more than old Age because as he saith a man at sixty is come to old Age and one at seventy to gray hairs after which a man becomes decrepit This is but his meer Phansie for how many even with us come to gray hairs before fifty years some before forty years of age But to wave this it is sufficient for us to know that in the Old Testament they are used as Synonimaes i. e. words signifying the same thing and that by old age we understand the winter of mans life the evening or Sun-set of his days the utmost period of his time on earth Other Ages have still another Age to succeed them as Childe hood is succeeded by Youth Youth by Man-hood Manhood by Old Age but old Age hath no other Successor but Death it being the last declension or degree of the longest life 2 By a good Old Age we mean not barely a great age though I confess old Age is an Embleme some way of Gods Eternity whence he is stiled the Ancient of days and therefore so described his raiment was as white as snow and the hair of his head as white as wool a Periphrasis of old age and besides old age hath been honoured by God in choosing men of age for weighty imployments as God chose Moses and Aaron when they were stricken in years to lead Israel out of Aegypt and when he would establish a standing Judicatory in Israel he would have seventy men of the Elders of Israel gathered unto him Moreover their Judges were old men that sate in the Gate to hear and determine the Causes of the people that were brought before them nay I acknowledge that old age is some way venerable in it self which was the ground of that Command Rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man those of Gadera built a Temple to old age because of the reverence and respect they bore unto it 2 Much less do we mean by a good old age the turning over of many years in a way of sin old age cannot be good where old men are naught sin being a reproach to any people or persons whether they be old or young to see men stricken with age and over-run with covetousness when all the Limbs of their bodies grow old only covetousness grows young which makes them afraid sometimes to use what God hath cast in upon them and the less of the way they have yet to travel the more they are a coveting provision for the way or to see an old man over-run with pettishness frowardness crosness that no man can speak to him no more than to Nabal or to see the fruits of the old man old corruptions to remain in strength a man abiding in old age an old Swearer an old Drunkard an old Cheater an old Athiest contemning the Word or Ministry c. In brief when a man remains an old weather-beaten sinner though his age be continued to a hundred years it can never be a good old age unto him for a sinner of an hundred years old shall be accursed 3 Nor yet do I mean that old age is therefore good because only attended with Corporal or outward good things such as are Health and Strength though I deny not to be lively in old age and to injoy a good measure of them to be a great blessing when a man is able to say with Caleb who professed I am this day fourscore and five years old and yet I am as strong this day as in the days that Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for war both to go out and to come in it is a great mercy but yet common with Christians and Pagans as with Masinissa in Tully Neither do I look upon old age as only good when attended with Riches and Honour though these make old age sometimes the more pleasant when Grace is present for the managing of them yea I acknowledge old age to be uncomfortable where a competency of Creature-comforts are wanting however if Grace be absent though Riches be present old age cannot be good 4 But old age is then good 1 When men are good in old age I do not look that any man is or can be good of himself for there is none good but God but men are then good when they are made good by the sanctifying Spirit of God or plainer thus Then old age is good when crowned with Grace the best of good things hear Solomons determination A gray head is a crown of glory if it be found in a way of righteousness When a man hath put off the Old Man and put on the New which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness when he hath the Image of God repaired in him which makes him renew his youth like the Eagle I shall not dispute the manner of it how the Eagle doth renew her youth whether it be by soaring aloft into the Element of Fire and there leaving her Feathers and casting her self speedily into the Sea whereby she grows young again yet there is this Morally in it when the Soul soars aloft to injoy communion with God who is as a consuming Fire out of Christ the Soul casts it self into the sea of Mercy into that Fountain opened for Sin and for uncleanness whereby it doth renew its Spiritual youth or whether it be by knocking off her beak the upper part of her bill by beating it against the Rock which Morally we may thus apply when the Soul findes corruption in it self it gets to the Rock Jesus Christ and there repenting and beleeving yea by the highest actings of Faith indeavouring to knock off its beak its inordinate desires to the World a Saint becomes clad with the Sun of Righteousness and presently the Moon is under his feet which makes him to use the world as though he used it not a renewed old man is as a renewed Eagle inabled to mount up in duties with wings as Eagles to run in the ways of Gods Commandements and yet is not weary of well-doing to walk and yet is not faint

in a word when the Soul of man is once bathed in that Fountain that is set open for the cure of Sin he comes out as Naaman out of Jordan when his flesh was restored as the flesh of a little Childe and hee became clean Man washed in this Fountain becomes a new Creature having a new nature i. e. a Divine Principle of good infused into him and this makes him good good at all times good in age especially 2 When men do good in old age as the Lord hath rejoyced over them to do them good so they make it their work even with joy to do all the good they may that makes them in age more holily fruitful than ever in youth I mean in all the fruits meet for repentance in all the fruits of the Spirit as in love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance with all the expressions of them wherewith they abound in old age in this trees planted by Christ in his Church differ from trees planted by men in their Gardens the former are alwaies most fruitful in age as the Psalmist avers such as are planted in the House of the Lord i. e. such are implanted into Christ they shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age viz. The fruits of Piety Purity Mercy being desirous cordially to Consecrate as their time and strength so their estates to God saying as David of thine own Lord have I given thee A good old man looks upon himself only as a Steward of all outward injoyments and as a Steward he will be careful to dispose of all according to his Masters minde he puts down his Imprimis for the maintenance of the Worship of God and his Items for the poor the sick the lame the blinde and in a word he doth endeavour to do good to all men but especially to those that are of the houshold of faith he doth desire to be rich in good works ready he is to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come that he may lay hold upon eternal life 1 Tim. 6.18 In a word he makes it his end to honour God with his substance and with the first fruits of his increase as knowing this to be the most thriving way 3 When a man grows up to be an old Disciple then old age is good when a man is grown old in the sincere profession of the Gospel as we read of Mnason dignified with this title because he had been a Disciple of long standing in the Church of God whether he were of the Seventy two first sent abroad by Christ or one that came in to Christ long before others an old Disciple he was and Spiritual seniority carries Spiritual dignity along with it and upon this account Paul gives preheminence to A●dronicus and Junia because they were in Christ before him an old Disciple as an old friend should be valued at a far higher rate than old gold 4 When a man is adorned with those Graces that are the ornaments of old age what though his face be withered or furrowed with wrinckles without yet the hid man of his heart is deckt with grace within especially with those reckoned up by Saint Paul as sobriety in Opinions in conversation in meat and drink which sometimes prove a snare to men in age as they did to Noah and Lot 2 Gravity consisting in a seemly modest yea venerable deportment in Gesture Speech Apparrel Countenance 3 Temperance which speaks the moderating of themselves in respect of their desires but above all with 4. Soundness in the 1. Faith not as Reeds blown up and down with every wind of Doctrin but built upon the Rock Jesus Christ they remain unmoveable yea when moved to renounce Christ or his Truth they reply with Policarpus This fourscore and six years have I served him and he never did me hurt and shall I now defie him c. 2 Soundness in Charity in love to God to Christ to his Church his Ministers his Members where he sees any thing of Jesus Christ. 3. Soundnes in patience willing to do or suffer any thing for Christ counting all things but loss or dung that so he may win him Phil. 3. To conclude when a man is gray in years and gray in all sanctifying Graces that beautifie old age old age is good then to him and for him 5 When a man is every day more and more built up in all the old experiences of Gods Love and goodness towards him as David I have been young and now am old yet never saw I the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread What though others of his intellectuals do decay with age yet he is careful to keep his memory for to bee a Store-house a Treasury of all Gods Mercies as we see in old Abraham what a Recognition do we read of Gods old loving kindnesses Gen. 24.7 The Lord which took mee from my Fathers house and from the land of my Kindred and which spake unto mee and sware unto mee saying unto thy seed will I give this land So in old Jacob what a mercy-admiring man was hee the God that fed mee all my life long to this day the Angel that redeemed mee from all evill c. as the Remembrance of old sins is loathsome to a gracious old man so of old mercies exceeding gratefull c. 6 When a man in his old age makes it his business to finish that work that God bath given him to do A man came not into the World to eat drink sleep take his ease or heap up Riches but God sent every man into the World upon some speciall account or other whether as a Magistrate a Minister or a private Christian among other ends as private persons God sent us into the World that wee should work out our Salvation with fear and trembling to make our calling and election sure i. e. sure to our selves when a man makes it his work to work the works of him that sent him while it is called to day because hee knows the night comes in which no man can work or walk when a man can say with Christ not long before his death I have finished the works thou gavest mee to do or with aged Paul The time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for mee a Crown of Righteousnesse when a man with David hath served God in his Generation then death becomes welcome Seventhly and lastly Old age is then good when a man makes it in old age his only work to make provision for death his passage to happy eternity as knowing with Peter shortly he must put off this Tabernacle of his he saith as Isaack behold I am old