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	spirit_n	4,810	5	5.3791	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56674	The hypocritical nation described in a sermon preached at St. Maries in Cambridge, upon a day of publick fasting : with an epistle prefixed by Mr. Samuel Jacombe.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.; Jacombe, Samuel, d. 1659.	1657 (1657)	Wing P815; ESTC R2023	38,656	56

of evil And a Christian saith hee fasts not only according to the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all evil actions but according to the perfection of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all wicked thoughts and imaginations These daies give him notice what hee is to do in every day of his life and the Gospel Fast is so strict that it will not let an evil thought or affection have its daily food though they never grow so strong as to beget any evil actions but substracts their nourishment and intends their mortification putting the soul upon cutting off all those luxuriances and worldly adherencies which no body observes 2 It must bee observed also to the learning our appetites to feed upon spiritual things upon God and all his holy truths When the soul is at liberty from its attendance upon the necessities of the body it should stirre up its own hunger and satisfie its self with its proper nutriment and labour so to taste and rellish its sweetnesse that ever after it may have a longing for it and observe set times for its own repast And so the bodies fast should bee the souls festival wherein it not only relieves and refreshes it self for that present but affects its palate also with such a delicious favour of Gods holy commands that they seem sweeter than the hony and the hony-comb and make the soul break for the longing that it hath unto those judgements at all times 3 When in respect of the time present it is a help to self-examination prayer and holy meditation by freeing the minde from clouds and obscure vapours and setting it at liberty from bodily mixtures and interposals that it may altogether attend upon its own businesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the forementioned Clemens in Eclog. Fasting voids and discharges the soul of that matter which clogs its spirits and makes it pure light and chearful together with the body in heavenly employments Wee cannot at the same time eat and drink and taste pleasant things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and bee conversant with things separate from all matter and that are within the knowledge only of the minde as a Philosopher could determine Porphyr lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore it may bee to very good purpose to abstain from our daily food that thereby our souls being lightened and exonerated of that dull heavy matter which oppresses them they may more freely and clearly minde their own proper objects which are perfectly spiritual When there is this universal intendment in our fasting it becomes of excellent use and singular advantage unto us but when wee understand no more by it than the Pharisees did who fasted indeed twice every week but were still full of covetousnesse rapine and excesse wee shall bee loathsome things with all this religion unto God For this is not the Fast which God hath chosen to pinch and use our bodies unkindly for a day 2 It is not weeping wailing and making lamentation added to our fasting though this bee done with a great deal of sadnesse and doleful complaints as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text gives us to understand Their Planctus used to bee with howling beating of their heads or knocking of their breasts and sometimes tearing of their hair with such like expressions of inward grief Now they ask the question vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall I weep God answers here in the Text to what purpose in your weeping yet when you make a pittiful moan a lamentable deal of do most bitter complaints beside your weeping it was nothing unto mee For that word in the third verse is altered here into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weeping is changed into mourning God grants more than they spoke of and saith when you fasted and wept with wailing and lamentation c. you did it not unto mee And there was as little in all the appendices of this weeping which here wee may conceive not to have been excluded viz. rending of the garments putting on of sackcloth strowing ashes on their heads lying upon the ground a thing in fashion among Heathens themselves as Plutarch tells us of the Athenian women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting in silence and hanging down their heads c. L de Isid Osir For alas the deep and hearty sorrow for sin the mourning of their souls after God the rending and tearing of their hearts the doffing off all the fine gay clothing wherein their souls secretly prided themselves the uncaseing and stripping of their souls of all their coverings wherein they hid and kept warm many beloved sins the laying close some grating considerations to their hearts the powring such shame and reproach upon themselves that they should never look God in the face with any confidence till they were peremptorily resolved against all impediments to bee better these things I say they were meer strangers unto And therefore the Prophet cries out Isa 58.4 5. Is this the Fast that I have chosen to bow down his heard as a Bulrush c Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable day to the Lord c. No rend your hearts and not your garments saith the Prophet Joel turn unto the Lord with fasting weeping and mourning Then tears are good when they are the companions of a relenting and a returning heart when they run out of a soul that is running towards God 1 Sam. 7.2 3. All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord and Samuel spake unto them saying if you return unto the Lord with all your heart then put away the strange Gods and prepare your heart to the Lord and serve him only and hee will deliver you i. e. If you bee in good earnest let us see something beside your weeping and lamentation and if these bee the outward expressions of the inward relenting of your hearts then put away all those displeasing things that have created you so much mischief and cost you now so many tears c. This people here in the Text might mourn and weep if it had but been to think of the great calamities that had befaln them the ruine of their City the burning of their Temple the captivity of their Nation the pouring out their blood like water and sundry doleful circumstances in all these which might make them wish with Jeremiah that their head was waters and their eyes fountains of tears that they might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of their people Jer. 9.1 But what is all this to a sense of sin and a groaning under the intollerable burden of their iniquity to what purpose are all these tears if inward anguish and grief for sin do not give them all their acrimony and smartnesse if they wash and cleanse not the soul from its filth and nastiness Or suppose there was some present sense of sin which expressed these briny tears alas they were but like a sudden dash of rain which is