Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	alive_a	body_n	dead_a	4,124	5	6.9287	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26788	A funeral-sermon for the reverend, holy and excellent divine, Mr. Richard Baxter who deceased Decemb. 8, 1691 : with an account of his life / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1107; ESTC R21548	38,382	145

same Almighty Power be carried through the Dominions of Satan in the sight of their Enemies tormented with the remembrance of their lost Happiness and Envy that humane Souls should partake of it to the Place of God's glorious Residence I shall also observe that as the Lord is a God of Power so he is a God of Order and uses subordinate Means for the accomplishment of his Will Our Saviour has reveal'd that the Angels transport the separate Souls of the Righteous to Heaven Those glorious Spirits who always behold the Face of God such is their exact Obedience to him and perfect Love to his Children that they disdain not to protect his little ones in this open State They rejoice at the Conversion of Sinners at their first entrance into the Way of Life and with tender watchfulness encompass them here never withdrawing their protecting Presence till they bring them to their celestial Country and resign their Charge to the Lord of Life How safe are the departed Saints when convey'd through Satan's Territories by the Royal Guard of Angels that excel in strength 2. Heavenly Felicity The receiving of holy Souls into God's Hands is introductive into his Presence which is both a Sanctuary to secure us from all Evil and a Store-house to furnish us with all that is good The Lord is a Sun and a Shield he is to intellectual Beings what the Sun is to sensitive communicates Light and Life and Joy to them In his Presence is fulness of Joy at his right Hand are Rivers of Pleasure for ever All that is evil and afflicting is abolish'd all that is desirable is conferr'd upon his Children A glimpse or reflected Ray of his reconciled and favourable Countenance even in this lower World infuses into the Hearts of his Children a Joy unspeakable and glorious a taste of the Divine Goodness here causes a disrelish of all the carnal Sweets the dreggy Delights which natural Men so greedily desire And if the faint Dawn be so reviving and comfortable what is the Brightness of the full Day None can understand the Happiness that results from the full and eternal sight of God's Face and the fruition of his Love but those who enjoy the Presence of God in perfection His Goodness is truly infinite the more the Saints above know it and enjoy it the more they esteem it and delight in it His compleat and communicative Love satisfies the immense Desires of that innumerable Company of blessed Spirits that are before his Throne there is no Envy no Avarice no Ambition in that Kingdom where God is all in all The Divine Presence is an ever-flowing Fountain of Felicity The continual reflection upon this makes Heaven to be Heaven to the Blessed their Security is as valuable as their Felicity they are above all danger of losing it Methinks the belief of this should cause us as it were with Wings of Fire with most ardent Desires to fly to the Bosom of God the alone Centre of our Souls where we shall rest for ever 3. The reception of the Soul into Heaven is a certain Pledg of the Resurrection of the Body and its re-union with the Soul in the State of Glory The Covenant of God was made with the entire Persons of Believers therefore under the Law the sacred Seal of it was in their Flesh. To be the God of Promise to them implies his being a blessed Rewarder to them Our Saviour silences the Sadduces who disbeliev'd the Resurrection from the tenour of God's Covenant I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob which Title he was pleased to retain after their Death Now God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living The immediate Inference from thence is that their Souls did actually live in Blessedness and that their Bodies tho dead to Nature were alive to God with respect to his Promise and Power If we consider that the Divine Law binds the outward Man as well as the inward and that during the time of our Work and Trial here our Service and Sufferings for the Glory of God are from the concurrence of the Soul and Body it will appear that the Promise of the Reward belongs to both and that the receiving of the Soul into Heaven is an earnest of our full Redemption even that of the Body 'T is true there is no visible Difference between the Bodies of the Saints and of the Wicked here they are sick with the same Diseases and die in the same manner As 't is with Trees in deep Winter when they are covered with Snow we cannot distinguish which are absolutely dead and destin'd to the Ax and Fire and which retain their Sap and will be fruitful and flourishing in the returning Year so the dead Bodies of the Godly and Ungodly to external appearance are alike But what a vast difference will be between them in the next World The Bodies of the Ungodly in conjunction with their Souls shall be cast into the Lake of Fire the Bodies of the Godly resumed by their Souls shall enjoy a full and flourishing Happiness for ever The Application 1. This may inform us of the contrary States into which dying Persons immediately pass The Children of God resign their Spirits to the Hands of their gracious Heavenly Father but Rebels and Strangers to God fall into the Hands of a revenging Judg. Could we see the attending Spirits that surround sick Persons in their last Hours what a wonderful Impression would it make upon us A Guard of glorious Angels convey the departed Saints to the Bosom of God's Love and the Kingdom of his Glory But when the Wicked die a Legion of Furies sieze upon their expected Prey and hurry them to the infernal Prison from whence there is no redemption How many Rebels and open Enemies to God are in the Pale of the Christian Church They will loudly repeat Our Father which art in Heaven notwithstanding the impudent and palpable Atheism of their Lives they live as if they were independent and not accountable to him who will judg the World without respect of Persons The more strict his Commands are the Contempt of them is more visible Our Saviour's Prohibition is peremptory I say unto you Swear not at all but how many make no more conscience of Swearing than they do of Speaking and pour forth Oaths of all fashions and sizes We are severely forbid all degrees of Impurity in the Look in Words or in Wish yet how many without reflection or remorse continue in the deepest Pollutions We are commanded to live soberly in this present World yet how many indulge their swinish Appetites and debase themselves even below the Beasts that perish And as the sensual Appetites are notoriously predominant in some so the angry Appetite is tyrannous in others Pride Wrath Revenge possess the Breasts of many How often for a slight or but reputed Injury they are so fir'd with Passion that their hot Blood cannot be satisfied without

to set it off than refined Gold wants Paint to add Lustre and Value to it I shall not speak of his Parentage and his first Years but I must not omit a Testimony I receiv'd concerning his early Piety His Father said with Tears of Joy to a Friend my Son Richard I hope was sanctified from the Womb for when he was a little Boy in Coats if he heard other Children in play speak profane Words he would reprove them to the Wonder of those that heard him He had not the Advantage of Academical Education but by the Divine Blessing upon his rare Dexterity and Diligence his Sacred Knowledge was in that Degree of Eminence as few in the University ever arrive to Not long after his Entrance into the Ministry the Civil War began and the Times rain'd Blood so long till the languishing State of the Kingdom was almost desperate and incurable How far he was concern'd as a Chaplain in the Parliament's Army he has publisht an Account and the reasons of it After the War he was fixt at Kederminster There his Ministry by the Divine Influence was of admirable Efficacy The Harvest answer'd the Seed that was sowed Before his coming the Place was like a Piece of dry and barren Earth onely Ignorance and Profaneness as Natives of the Soil were rise among them but by the Blessing of Heaven upon his Labour and Cultivating the Face of Paradise appear'd there in all the Fruits of Righteousness Many were translated from the state of polluted Nature to the state of Grace and many were advanc'd to higher degrees of Holiness The bad were chang'd to good and the good to better Conversion is the Excellent Work of Divine Grace the Efficacy of the Means is from the Supreme Mover But God usually makes those Ministers successfull in that Blessed Work whose principal Design and Delight is to glorifie him in the saving of Souls This was the reigning Affection in his Heart and he was extraordinarily qualified to obtain his End His Prayers were an Effusion of the most lively melting Expressions and his intimate ardent Affections to God from the abundance of his Heart his Lips spake His Soul took Wing for Heaven and rapt up the Souls of others with him Never did I see or hear a holy Minister address himself to God with more Reverence and Humility with respect to his glorious Greatness never with more Zeal and Fervency correspondent to the infinite Moment of his requests nor with more Filial Affiance in the Divine Mercy In his Sermons there was a rare Union of Arguments and Motives to convince the Mind and gain the Heart All the Fountains of Reason and Perswasion were open to his discerning Eye There was no resisting the Force of his Discourses without denying Reason and Divine Revelation He had a marvellous Felicity and Copiousness in speaking There was a noble Negligence in his Stile for his great Mind could not stoop to the affected Eloquence of Words he despis'd flashy Oratory but his Expressions were clear and powerful so convincing the Understanding so entring into the Soul so engaging the Affections that those were as deaf as Adders who were not charm'd by so wise a Charmer He was animated with the Holy Spirit and breath'd Celestial Fire to inspire Heat and Life into dead Sinners and to melt the obdurate in their frozen Tombs Methinks I still hear him speak those powerfull Words A Wretch that is condemn'd to dy to Morrow cannot forget it And yet poor Sinners that continually are uncertain to live an Hour and certain speedily to see the Majesty of the Lord to their unconceivable Joy or Terror as sure as they now live on Earth can forget these things for which they have their memory and which one would think should drown the matters of this World as the report of a Canon does a Whisper or as the Sun obscures the poorest Glo-worm O wonderfull stupidity of an unrenewed Soul O wonderfull folly and distractedness of the ungodly That ever Men can forget I say again that they can forget Eternal joy Eternal Woe and the Eternal God and the place of their Eternal unchangeable Abodes when they stand even at the door and there is but the thin Vail of Flesh between them and that amazing sight that Eternal gulph and they are daily dying and stepping in Besides his wonderfull diligence in Catechizing the particular Families under his Charge was exceeding usefull to plant Religion in them Personal instruction and application of Divine Truths has an excellent advantage and efficacy to insinuate and infuse Religion into the Minds and Hearts of Men and by the Conversion of Parents and Masters to reform whole Families that are under their immediate direction and government While he was at Kederminster he wrote and publisht that accomplisht Model of an Evangelical Minister styled Gildas Salvianus or the Reform'd Pastor In that book he clears beyond all cavil That the Duty of Ministers is not confin'd to their Study and the Pulpit but that they should make use of opportunities to instruct Families within their Care as 't is said by the Apostle that he had kept back nothing from his Hearers that was profitable but had taught them publickly and from house to house The Idea of a faithfull Minister delineated in that book was a Copy taken from the Life from his own zealous Example His unwearied industry to do good to his Flock was answer'd by Correspondent Love and Thankfulness He was an Angel in their Esteem He would often speak with great Complacence of their dear Affections and a little before his Death said He believ'd they were more Expressive of kindness to him than the Christian Converts were to the Apostle Paul by what appears in his Writings While he remain'd at Kederminster his Illustrious Worth was not shaded in a Corner but dispers'd its Beams and Influence round the Countrey By his Counsel and Excitation the Ministers in Worcestershire Episcopal Presbyterian and Congregational were united that by their Studies Labours and Advice the Doctrine and Practise of Religion the Truths and Holiness of the Gospel might be preserved in all the Churches committed to their Charge This Association was of excellent use the ends of Church-government were obtain'd by it and it was a leading Example to the Ministers of other Counties Mr. Baxter was not above his Brethren Ministers by a Superiour Title or any secular advantage but by his divine endowments and separate excellencies his extraordinary wisdom zeal and fidelity he was the Soul of that Happy Society He continued among his beloved people till the year 1660. then he came to London A while after the King's Restoration there were many Endeavours us'd in order to an Agreement between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Ministers For this end several of the Bishops elect and of the Ministers were call'd to attend the King at Worcester-House there was read to them a Declaration drawn up with great wisdom and moderation by the