Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	adam_n	body_n	death_n	5,454	5	5.9970	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76092	Sick-bed thoughts, upon those words of the apostle in Phil. 1, 23 ... Part. I containing an answer to that great and solemn question, what that state and condition is, which a person must be found in, before he can have good and sufficient ground, not to be affraid, or unwilling to dye? / by J.B.	Batchiler, John, ca. 1615-1674.	1667 (1667)	Wing B1075; ESTC R42879	47,054	145

many ardent affections and pious ejaculations may pass from the heart to Heaven which the Devil may not know the reason of and of which alone God is witness This then is another excuse that Conscience makes for it self and 't is none of the least And yet 4. There is one more a very good one when all else is said that can be the Conscience flies to that in 1 Joh. 1.7 The blood of Christ cleanseth me from all sin So that let the Devil accuse as home and charge as deep as hee can yet here to be sure is a full answer for him an irrefragable one and such as he can never invalidate or take away the force of And in case Satan should be so impudent as to urge the matter farther and say that is true the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin but that belongs to none but a true Beleiver which you can never prove your self to be To this Conscience answers likewise and that roundly and smartly Thou lyest Devil and besides thou art no Judge in this case it comes not within thy cognisance what transactions are in my soul what mutual embraces betwixt Christ and me what acts of faith and love are in that secret place as I said before thou knowest not It doth not therefore follow it is not de non entibus de non apparentibus idem est judicium things that appear not to one that is ignorant are as if they were not Let that matter alone Devil for as cunning as thou art thou art no Judge in it it is enough that my God who alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knower of the heart Acts 15.8 knows that I love him and believe in him whether thou knowest it or not Thus now we see what a good Conscience is in both the parts of it both as 't is honestè bona pacatè bona as 't is a quiet Conscience and an excusing Conscience every way void of offence both towards God and towards men and where such a Conscience is is it not a sufficient fortification against the fear of Death What is it that can be a just ground of trouble to this man That which is the most disquieting thing of all namely his sin and the guilt of it that is removed Christ hath taken it off from him What is it can be matter of terrour to him at the great Tribunal which he must one day stand before No enemy will appear against him there for God is reconciled to him and hee that shall sit there as his Judge is no other than his Redeemer And if Conscience here even in this life whose internal motions are known to none but God himself upon which ground none else but he can impose a Law upon it and oblige it be at so much ease Surely 't is from the same God that he is going to who alone can comfort or afflict the person to all eternity hereafter whose conscience he alone also can comfort or afflict in time But I hasten to answer two impertant objections which seem much to contradict all that hath been said hitherto SECT 9. Two important objections answered against the preceeding doctrine and what hath been said upon it FIrst It may be some will say shall we think that all those that are afraid or unwilling to dye are to be looked upon as persons without such a quiet and excusing Conscience or as those which have not such inward testimonies of a good estate and that in all the particulars which have been mentioned Would not this be very uncharitable to pass such a censure Yea and very unwarrantable too and against plain evidence both of Scripture and Experience Of Scripture which positively affirms Heb. 2.15 that some and those precious ones too for 't is spoken of Saints through fear of death are all their life time subject to bondage And doth not experience farther prove it almost every day How many choice Servants of Christ have met with hard struggles when they come to dye Have been willing to live yet longer if it might bee Have they not had their dreads on them Yea their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pangs and bands in their death like a woman in travel Secondly On the other hand is it not a very ordinary thing to see wicked men live and dye in peace Men as vile as prophane and deboished as any the earth hath and yet their Consciences are quiet notwithstanding they have no disturbance at all from them nor as the Psalmist saies have they any bands in their death Psal 73.4 but seem to pass out of the world as innocent as Lambs and without any fear at all upon them These are two considerable Objections indeed and must be answered and to satisfaction too least the truth before delivered bee prejudiced and shaken by it I answer therefore to both in order and first to the first objection I say three things First by way of concession I grant it that many who have indeed such a quiet and excusing Conscience a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men as I have been speaking of do notwithstanding dye with fears upon them and seem to be taken out of the world by violence rather than freely to go out of it and this contrary to the very precepts even of an Heathen moralist For what saies Seneca in his 104th Epistle Vir fortis sapiens exire debet è vita non trahi a wise and a valiant man ought to go readily out of this life not to be drawn And again quid est obsecro cur timeat mortem homo What is there in death considered simply in it self that a man should fear cum illâ nihil sit mali nisi quod ante ipsam est timeri the greatest evil of it is to be afraid of it before it comes Thus he even a very Heathen Well but yet for all that such is the extraordinary timidity of some persons and good ones too such is their aptness to despond partly from the natural constitution and temper of their melancholy bodies and mindes partly from the molestation of the great enemy of mankinde through Divine permission the Devil that the work of natures dissolution comes off hard with them and is a much more difficult task to them than to some others And the truth is who that is a Son or Daughter of Adam let them be never so holy and never so fit for Heaven but more or less have something of a cohorrescency of death upon them Two such old friends and so intimate as the body and the soul are loath to part It is natural for every thing to desire and seek the preservation of it self and to oppose and be afraid of that which destroys it Hence 't is that Aristotle in the third Book of his Ethicks the fixth Chapter tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is most dreadful Thus also another Heathen Epicur Ad me nunc Apud

any breach of Gods holy and righteous Law any act that may satisfie his own evil heart be it never so foul either sees no hurt or will see none in it is willingly ignorant as the Apostle speaks in another case 2 Pet. 3.5 and to that end hates to be reformed cannot endure a soul-searching Ministry or a plain-dealing Friend that may convince him of the sinfulness of his heart and waies and so lies drowzing under a sleepy and kinde of dead Conscience or else if his Conscience doth stir at any time and begin either latrare or lacerare to barke and it may be to bite too what doth he do presently Doth he not do by this his barking and biting Conscience ready to fly in his face as a man that hath a fierce Mastiff-Dog tye him up or Muzzle him Thus he deals with his Conscience and that he may bee the less at leisure to hearken to or hear the brawlings of it is it not his common practise to go into some such company or engage in some such business or indulge himself in some such pleasure recreation or other sinful divertizement as may wholly take him off from giving any the least attendance or regard to it So long as he can keep his eyes open he is thus employed and when night comes what care doth he take either to ingorge or intoxicate himself so as he may sleep it out till day-light returns or at least that hour of it that gives him the advantage of his accustomed course of sinning with his wicked Companions day after day Thus he lives and wastes his precious time not caring or knowing how soon death may Arrest him and spoil his sport Fourthly and Lastly A regenerate person is a man Crucified to the World and the World to him He is no more moved or affected with the pleasures the delights and lying vanities of this world than a living man is pleased with the presence of a dead Wife lying by him and all the splendours grandeurs blandishments allurements and bewitchments of this world work no more upon him than upon a dead man that hath neither sense nor motion nor life in him But yet in the mean while though his heart be dead to this world world and all the fine toyes and trifles of it so as all the wealth riches gauderies and glories thereof be nothing to him yet he is so wise as to minde the things of the other world these as he highly prizeth and values them at their just rate so he earnestly seeks after them His whole business lies here namely by patient continuance in well-doing to seek for glory honour immortality eternal Life Rom. 2.7 and this being the trade hee drives every step he treads is towards Heaven and to a being made meet for the enjoyment of it Contrariwise an unregenerate person takes quite another course he is all for earth and for earthly things all for either the profits of the world if his heart be choaked with covetous cares and thoughts or for the pleasures of the world if he be a bruitish sensualist or for the honours dignities and high-places of the world if he be of a lofty and proud Spirit As for the injoyment of God or the saving of his soul they are matters too serious for him to minde mundus cum suis frivolis the frivolous World is his Idol and that he will adore though with the losse of Heaven it self and all the blisses thereof for ever which being so may we not conclude that every step he treads is towards Hell and that he is ripening apace for it Thus we see what a vast difference there is between a regenerate person and an unregenerate in their lives Let us see now what the difference is in their deaths The regenerate person 1. Hath no stings nor gaulings of Conscience his main worke is done when he comes to lye upon his dying-Bed It hath been his every daies work to set things right and to keep them so to the utmost of his endeavour betwixt God and him to get and grow up into an intire friendship with him and still to call himself to an account for every thing that might offend and with all speed to hasten to the blood of sprinkling to be washed and cleansed he would never be at rest so long as guilt remained upon his own heart or one frown in the face of God towards him But this the unregenerate person never did nor would ever by any means be perswaded to it self-Examination self-Reflexion and self-Judging were Duties which he was alwaies a stranger to these were works for an awakened and a tender Conscience which he never had nor desired to have and so now judicially is given up happily to a Conscience past feeling and that cannot be sensible of any thing 2. In case a regenerate and holy person should be under some little clouds for a while and through the malice of Satan by Divine permission be somewhat damped in his inward peace and comfort when hee is about his last work of dying yet as hath been said there is no just reason why it should be thus with him and 't is very rare that any good man or woman is long vexed thus but to be sure the storm ends at last and the rest of their passage is usually under a pleasant and fair gale God himself as I may so say sitting at the sterne and the holy Angels spreading the Sails And Oh then the calmness of their mindes the serenity of their peace the inward quiet of their souls how great is it How is not Death then at all dreadful but rather a welcome Messenger which they now look for and wonder that his Chariot wheels move no faster which blessed repose being now cast into after their buffetings and combates with Satan on a sudden they breathe forth their perfumed breath and so fall asleep in Jesus But alas How far otherwise is it with a wicked unregenerate man when he comes to this dying worke For if his Conscience be not so far seared blinded and left judicially insensible as was but even now mentioned but is let loose upon him and inabled by the God of Conscience to charge him and accuse him home If it calls all his sins to remembrance and sets them in order before him a work which sometimes God to shew his Power will assist this or that wicked mans Conscience in as himself speaks Psal 50.21 I say when once Conscience acts this part upon some obstinate and impenitent wretch and hath a commission so to do Oh then the roarings the yellings the howlings of such a Conscience How then doth death come with all its stings how doth Hell fire flash in his face with all its flames And how doth the Devil himself as 't were haunt and affright him with all his Feinds Oh now the horrors the terrors the soul-sinking over-whelming dreads that are upon him may not his Name bee now changed into magor-missabib

fear round about He that before seemed to have no such power faculty or principle of Conscience in him call it what you will no such vicegerency of the Divine Majesty for what is Conscience but Gods Vicegerent Behold now he findes it much otherwise he now experiments the truth of those words in Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the Belly and 't is not onely a shining but a burning Candle too that kindles wrath as wel as discovers sin and can you imagin it possible for such tormented ones as this poor miserable self-condemned man is not to be afraid to dye Doubtless they are afraid and afraid to such a degree as is not easie to be expressed and yet whilst they live in this manner is not their very life a burthen to them and a sore torment are not these the men of whom Epictetus speaks apud Stob. c. 120. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain wonderful sort of men that are weary of life and yet have no minde to dye or of whom Seneca speaks in his fourth Epist Inter mortis metum vitae tormenta miseri fluctuant vivere nolunt mori nesciunt that are miserably tossed betwixt the fear of Death and the torments of Life have no desire to live and yet know not how to dye And the same Seneca again Epist 101. Invenitur qui malit inter supplicia-tabescere perire membratim toties per stillicidia amittere animam quam semel exhalare Invenitur qui velit trahere animam tot tormenta tracturam Usque adeonè mori miserum est Est tanti habere animam ut agam Would one think that the man should be found upon earth that would rather waste away by degrees among grievous sufferings be content to rot in pieces one member after another and let his soul go out as 't were by drops rather than to send it out all together at one single groan That any man should bee found that would endure the lengthening out of his life under so many torments Is death so miserable a thing to be thus affrighted at it Yea and is life too of so great value as to be thus defired The like passage we finde in Cyprian also in his Book de Mortal concerning some in his age Pati non vultis exire timetis quid faciam vobis Ye are unwilling to live under your sufferings and yet ye are unwilling to dye what shall I do unto you Or how shall I comfort you Second Use for Exhortation TO good and bad to regenerate and unregenerate First to the unregenerate to whom would they could all hear it I would make it my most earnest request that they would do five things 1. Sit down and bethink themselves that they would go into their retirements though 't were but for one half hour in a day and seriously consider what their condition is how doleful dismal dangerous How angry God is with them and that continually and unappeasedly whilst they remain impenitent and unbelieving in this their unregenerate state That they would consider what vengeance hangs over their heads hourly and that if they live and dye Thus there can be no possible hope of good for them That if still they remain fearless and careless of God and will not hearken to his calls and counsels now in their life time when pangs of death come upon them and they then cry out for mercy miserably roaring in the very anguish of their soul God will be so far from hearing them who when time was would not hear him that he will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear comes Prov. 1 24.-33 2. That hereupon they would pitty themselves and be no longer cruel to their own precious souls that they would no more neglect their own salvation the great salvation offered them in the Gospel For how much sorer punishment than ordinary must not they look for who neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 3. That they would suffer the words of Exhortation instruction and counsel from plain-dealing friends and such as have a true pity for them whether they have any pity for themselves or not 4. That they would be prevailed with to break off from their evil company and fall in with the Lords precious people give attendance upon his holy Ordinances that of Preaching especially which is a converting Ordinance and where God is present with it will soon make a change upon the most perverse sinner in the world 5. That they will delay no longer but hasten to do this with all speed least the door of Mercy be shut upon them and the opportunity of Grace past before they are aware of it To the regenerate even all the true Saints and Servants of the high God My Exhortation to them is two-fold First more General then more Particularly to some of them My General Exhortation to all is unto three things 1. To pity all such as still abide in their unregenerate estate Though they hate you yet do you pity them yea and pray for them watch for all opportunity of doing good to their souls give them the example of an holy life and every way do your utmost if it be possible to pluck them as fire-brands out of the devouring flames 2. Blesse God for your own most rich and unspeakable Mercy that your selves are not in the same case with them That he hath made such a vast difference between you What are you naturally better than they Were not both hewed out of the same Rock And whence doth the difference rise Is it not altogether from free-Grace Yes verily altogether from free Grace Not by works of Righteousness which we had done saies the Apostle Titus 2.5 But through his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration Oh then be thankful For what greater thing than this can God himself do for you than he hath done in making such a change upon you 3. Walk worthy of all this Mercy and Goodness Let God have something from you answerable to his kindness and this his distinguishing love to you and from you of all others from whom he hath removed the fears of Death so that 't is no way dreadful to you but come when it will come it shall be welcome to you But as for such of you among the Lords People as happily may not bee quite gotten over these fears and yet may bee truely willing to bee with Christ and thereupon could even wish that you had once shot this Gulf of Death Let me speak to you more particularly and entreat you 1. That you would seriously consider how uncomely at least if not a kinde of inconsistent thing it is for those that pretend for Heaven and do in good earnest set their faces thither-ward to be afraid of Death Even an Heathen could say I mean Seneca Epist 24. Confirmandus est animus vel ad mortis vel ad vitae