Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	action_n	body_n	life_n	5,700	5	4.7855	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09403	Hepieíkeia: or, a treatise of Christian equitie and moderation. Deliuered publikely in lectures by M. W. Perkins, and now published by the consent of his assignes in Cambridge by a preacher of the word	Perkins, William, 1558-1602.; Crashaw, William, 1572-1626.	1604 (1604)	STC 19699; ESTC S106090	38,157	104

couer our shame let vs remember that not Extremitie but Equitie becomes a christian and let euery man take heed of this as he would be knowne to be a Christian for the knowne badge of Christianitie is mercifullnes the more mercifull the better Christian. For he hath tasted deeper of Gods mercies to himselfe and therefore he is mercifull to his brother and the worse Christian the lesse mercifull for he neuer felt Gods mercies to himselfe therefore he cannot be mercifull to his brother Now to go to law for euery trifle or to steale lawe vpon thy brother or to sue him before thou offer him peace it argueth a hard hart and vnmerciful and farr from this dutie of forgiuing but to be loath to go to lawe and to put it of as long as may be and first to giue warning and to offer peace and not to doe it but in matters of weight it argueth a mercifull heart and such a one as is readie to forgiue and such a one in whome the spirit of God doth dwell And thus I hope I haue opened this dutie of forgiuing and forbearing in such sort as a Christian may see how to practise it with comfort to his conscience also without any great losse in this world or hurt to his estate And thus much for the foure seuerall duduties and degrees of Priuate Equitie Now hauing opened the nature kinds of Christian Equitie let vs proceede further in the text Let your Equitie saith the Apostle be knowne to all men The words import that it is our dutie not onely to knowe this vertue and the nature of it and to be able to talke of it but in all our affaires publike and priuate and in all our dealings with men so to put it in practise that men may see it and that it may be knowne to other men and that they may be able to auouch for vs that our dealing is vpright equall and indifferent ioyned with equitie and moderation and free from extremitie and oppression this is the meaning of that which we are here cōmanded by the Apostle And the reason why the Apostle vrgeth vs to make it known is because there is a priuie hypocrisie in our natures whereby we are giuen to make shew of more then is in vs. Against which vice we doe truely labour when we labour to make our vertues manifest and knowne to the world that so the tree may be knowne by his fruites he is a holy and religious man not who knoweth and can talke well but he whose religion and holinesse is knowne in the world and seene of men he is a mercifull man of whose mercie men doe taste So he is an equal vpright mā whose Equitie is felt found by thē who deale with him Let therefore our actions with men testifie the vertues of our heart that mē who liue with vs and deale with vs may be able to say for vs that we are possessed with those vertues for this is to be truly good not when a man can speake well or tell of his owne goodnes but when other men see it feele it and speake of it Hitherto of the meaning of the words Nowe that which was Pauls exhortation to the Philippians shall be mine to all true Christians Let your equitie be knowne to all men You haue learned what it is and howe it is to be practised it nowe remaines that we content not our selues with the bare knowledge but take notice of it as of a doctrine belonging to vs and put it in practise all our dealings publike and priuate yea and make it manifest to the consciences of all men good and bad so that euery man with whome we deale may taste and feele of our equitie and be able to testifie of vs that equitie beares rule in all our actions thus if we doe we are Christians not in name and profession onely but in deed and truth And to perswade vs all to this holy duty let vs vse some fewe reasons to inforce it and amongst all the reasons that might be brought there is none better then this here vsed in the text The Lord is at hand But before we come to speake of it let vs consider of one other which doth most naturally enforce this exhortation and it is this God sheweth most admirable Equitie and moderation towards vs therefore ought we to shew it one towards another It is the reason of the holy Ghost Be yee mercifull as your heauenly father is mercifull Wonderfull is the moderation that God sheweth to man it appears especially in foure things whereof two belong to all men and the other two concerne his Church The first Action of God wherein he sheweth great moderation towards all men is this A lawe was giuen to our first parents Eate not of this tree if you doe you die for it and that a double death both of body and soule But they ate and so brake the lawe and thereby did vndergoe the penaltie annexed by force and vertue whereof they should haue died presently the death both of bodie and soule and this had beene no Extremitie but Iustice for this was due vnto them by the Iustice of that lawe which was giuen them But nowe behold Gods Equitie and moderation of the Iustice of that lawe he strooke them not presently as the tenour of the lawe and their desert required neither with the first nor second death but deferres the full execution laying vpon them for the present a lesse punishment namely a subiection to the first death and a guiltinesse of the second that is of damnation Beholde a marueilous mitigation by the tenour of that law their bodies and soules should both haue presently died and beene cast into hell but God in mercie suspends and deferres the execution of it and onely strikes Adams body with mortalitie whereby he was subiect to the first death and his soule with guiltinesse whereby he was subiect to the second death by which mitigation it came to passe that as Adam by his repentance afterward quite escaped the second death so he tasted not of the first death till nine hundred yeares after If a prisoner counts it a mercifull fauour of the Prince or the Iudge when after his iudgement to die he is repriued but one yeare then what a mercifull mitigation was this in God to repriue our first parents for so many hundred yeares This was the first action of Gods mercie to man and this concernes all mankinde generally but especially Adam and Eve But the second doeth more neerely concerne all men So soone as man commits any sinne euen then is he guiltie of eternall damnation because he hath broken the law for the curse of the lawe is not onely a guiltinesse but a subiection to the wrath of god presently to be inflicted vpon the sinne committed without any intermission so that so oft as a man sinneth so oft doth he deserue to be plunged soule and body into hel without beeing

beate him with scorpions and bring him to nothing by my heauie hand but I will consider he is my child and but a man therefore will I lay vpon him no more then the nature of man is able to beare As God dealt with his sonne Salomon so this is Gods voice to all his sonnes vnto all my Church and Children will I vse such lenitie and moderation and in my chastising of them I will so abate the rigour of my Iustice that by my hand and rodde they shall not be pressed downe but rather raised vp in new obedience and learne thereby to feare and loue me more then before This should euery Christian man seriously consider of and thinke with himselfe how much this bindes a man to deale moderately with his brother when the Lord deales so moderately with him Thou sinnest God chastiseth thee most mildly and laieth not on thee the thousād part of these crosses which in Iustice he might doe Shall the Lord deale thus moderately with thee for thy many and so great sinnes and wilt thou deale so hardly with thy brother in his fewe and small offences against thee remember therefore in thy dealing with thy brother this dealing of God with thee and certainely thou canst not forget the one if thou hast tasted of the other Shew thy selfe therefore that thou hast beene partaker of Gods fauour and that thou hast felt in thy soule the sweetnesse of his mercies by beeing milde mercifull to thy brethren out of that great sea of mercies which God lets flowe ouer thee all thy life long let fall some droppes of mercie on thy brother and remembring how God deales with thee deale not thou with thy brother alwaies so hardly nor so straitly as thou maiest or he deserues Let these foure mercifull actions of god towards thee be foure strong bonds to tie thee to the obedience of this dutie to be milde and mercifull to thy brethren remembring euery day how moderately God deales with thee and howe farre from that extremitie which thou deseruest And to mooue vs hereunto let euery man be well assured that the more he hath tasted of Gods mercie the more shall men taste of his mercie and the more sinnes that a man hath forgiuen him at gods hands the more will he remit and forgiue in his brother and the more he feeles in his owne soule Gods loue and mercie to him and the more neere he is to God by his faith and repentance the more carefull will he be to deale gently with his brethren and the reasons hereof are these First God forgiueth not a man his faults but vpon condition that he shall forgiue his brother God is not mercifull to a man but vpon cōdition he shall be so to all men with whome he deales Secondly the mercie of God to vs in forgiuing our sinnes is not made knowne to the world by any meanes more then this when a man is not hard and extreame but equall and mercifull in his dealing with men Whereupon therefore it followeth that the further a man is from God and the lesse that he hath felt of Gods loue to him the lesse moderation will he performe to his brother Let euery man then be ashamed by these his extreame courses with his brethren to make it known to the world that he is an Impenitent sinner himselfe vnreconciled to God and his sinnes vnpardoned and let no man thinke he shall escape that censure if he be an vnmercifull man for certainely it is imprinted in mens dealings whether they be in Gods fauour and their sinnes are pardoned or no. Let therefore euery man when his owne crooked nature or the deuill makes him boyle against his brother in anger and vrgeth him to vse him hardly and extreamely consider with himselfe and say I liue vnder God I am more in Gods hand then this man in mine I haue offended God more then he me and if I had my desert I had now beene in hell for my sinnes but yet I liue and by his mercie I am spared and am here still But hath God spared me that I should pinch others hath he beene mercifull to me that I should be cruell to others surely therefore I will be mercifull and moderate to my brethren more then they deserue least God take his mercy from me and then what shall become of me but to be throwne suddainly into hell which I deserued long agoe nay I will by my equitie and moderation towards my brethren mooue the Lord to be still more mercifull to me without which his mercie I cannot liue one day in the world Hitherto of the Exhortation of the Apostle and of the great moderation of God to man Now followeth the Apostles reason The Lord is at hand These wordes beare two senses or meanings The first of the last iudgement the second of Gods presence The first is thus framed if the holy Ghost meant of the last iudgement Be you equall and moderate one towardes an other for God is readie in his great and generall iudgment to iudge all men and then happie is he that findes not Iustice but tasts of mercie and who shall tast of mercie then but he that shewed mercie in this world But if secondly the holy Ghost meant of Gods presence then is the argument framed thus God is present with euery man and at euery action to testifie and iudge of it and either to approoue it and reward it if it be vpright equall and mercifull or to correct and punish it if it be extreame and void of equitie therefore let your equitie be knovvne to all men Both senses are good but we will cleaue vnto the latter It is then all one as if the holy Ghost had said Vse equitie and moderation in your dealings and remember who is at your elbow stands by and lookes on readie to iudge you for it Surely there can be no better reason then this if it be setled in a mans heart for a theefe or a cut-purse if he saw the Iudge stād at his elbow and looked vpon him he would not doe euill he would stay his hand euen because he seeth that the Iudge seeth him who can presently hang him A strong reason with men and it keepes euen bad men from leud practises Consider therefore when the Iudge of Iudges the Lord of heauen and earth stands by and seeth and markes all thy actions whether they be towards thy brother as his is towards thee This ought to make the greatest man on earth feare how he deales cruelly or hardly with his brother But worldly men will not be perswaded of this but when they are laying their plots to deceiue their brother and when by iniustice and extremitie they pinch and wring him they thinke in their hearts God seeth them not nor doe they euer thinke of God but labour that God may be out of all their thoughts This is the cause of all sinne in the world for thence is it that mens hearts are hardned and that they care not how extremely they deale with men because they thinke God seeth them not nor wil cal them to account for it and doe with them as they haue done with their brother Hence comes all iniustice crueltie extremitie suits in law for trifles taking forfaitures of leases and of bonds and taking all aduantages Hence comes it that one man will not spare an other one day nor forgiue one fault nor passe by any infirmitie nor put vp the least iniurie nor yeelde one inch from his right but if his brother offend neuer so liule vpon neuer so apparent weaknes he shall heare of it on both sides as they say and if he deserue ill he shall haue his deserts to the full Thus hearts are hardened affections are immoderate bowells of compassion are shut vp loue and pitie are banished and in their roomes raigne crueltie and iniustice Moderation dwells in corners but extremitie is that which beares sway ouer all the world what is the cause of all this Surely first because men are vnsanctified and haue not repented of their sinnes so they feele not that God is moderate and mercifull to them Secondly they perswade not themselues that God seeth them therefore against this blasphemous thought the roote of all euill and cause of all sinne arme thy selfe with this reason of the Apostle and resolue of it that this is the eternall trueth of God and shall stand for euer The Lord is at hand and seeth and obserueth thee all thy doings Therefore as thou wilt escape his mightie and fearefull hand season thy doings and dealings with moderation and if thou hadst noō cscience nor no mercie in thee yet be mercifull remēbring who seeth thee and deale moderately and equally in the sight and presence of so moderate so milde and so mercifull a God so mercifull a rewarder of him that deales moderately and so powerfull a reuenger of him that deales hardly and extreamely with his brother Let vs then ende with the Apostle as we began Let your Equitie and Moderation be knowne to all men for God is at hand And thus much out of Gods word of Publike and Priuate Equitie wherein I haue not spoken all I might but giuen occasion to others to enter into further consideration thereof Trin-vni Deo gloria a Fulk in pr●● in T●st Rhe●● b Pius Grego●● Sixtus ● Paulus ●ius 4. Pius 5. Gregor Sixtus 5 Vrbanu● Gregor Innocen Clement 1. King 18 1. Sam. 5. 2 〈◊〉 4 19. 〈…〉 〈…〉 a Nund ver 603. b Catho reforma de mort de vita Prophet Calr in 〈…〉