Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	amen_n	jesus_n	lord_n	4,866	5	3.8029	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57372	A sermon preached at the Parish-Church of S. Magnus the Martyr, in the city of London, on Sunday, December 24, 1693 by Edward Roberts.	Roberts, Edward, b. 1653 or 4.	1694 (1694)	Wing R1577; ESTC R6134	14,837	34

Influence in His own immediate Service that he often withholds the Increase as no slight expression of his Anger to let men see the necessity of looking beyond Earthen Vessels and confess that the Excellency of Power is of Himself So that for the removal of these and other Impediments of Spiritual Growth Recourse must be had to the single Remedy in the Text We are to beseech God to speak to the Hearts of Men and to put an effectual check to the daring Impieties of the World to awaken the Many who sacrifice to their own Lusts and to Encourage the Few who are Devoted to his Fear Lifting up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees And He might have interposed His Power sooner but that He seems resolved to keep us in a depending Posture and to be owned as our sure Refuge in Extremities And in this the Obligations of our Church are most express and particular which regard the Circumstances of the Absent that He may be moved To bring into the way of Truth all such who have erred and are deceived and tho they may scatter dreadful Anathema's against us our dayly Prayer for them is That they may see their Errors and be saved Remembring always that there is but One Heaven and no possibility of coming thither but by Him who is the Way the Truth and the Life This is a Divine Charity to be extended to the most Pious Votaries who can never be raised above it but on the other side Men may sin themselves out of a Capacity of receiving any Advantage by it This is the Opinion of our Apostle 1 Ep. ch 5. 16. There is a sin unto death I do not say that that he should pray for it This is a Wickedness of a strange Taint like the Sin of Saul which is interdicted the Sanctuary beaten off from the Horns of the Altar and not to be mentioned in our Prayers But whatever be the Nature of that Sin we are sure it cannot dwell in those who maintain a visible Care of their own Salvation For you the Duty may be performed not only without offence but with Gracious Acceptance And this Holy Office may be executed at a Distance when we are no longer to converse with our Friends by publick Instructions and ought never to be omitted by my self For as the World goes and is like to go we must reckon it a piece of Civility to have our Legal Rights cheerfully paid that slender Maintenance of God's House which escaped the Sacrilege of former Ages and hitherto the Envy and Malignity of the present And consequently where the Recompence of our Sacred Employment is precarious the Obligation is heightened when our Pains are thought worthy of any Requital And some have express'd that unmerited Kindness and undissembled Friendship which for me not to own would be somewhat worse than common Ingratitude The Pulpit was erected to shut out all Flattery and empty Complements but still to continue the Chair of serious Truth and a grateful Behaviour is no where more becoming But I forbear and shall use the words of the Roman Orator longiorem or ationem res postulat natur a vestra breviorem The subject requires a longer but your Nature a shorter Acknowledgment Others must be-told of nothing but their Vertues but you more humbly disclaim all Merit and chuse rather to be told of your Sins and faithfully admonished in the waies of Life So that my best way to pay acceptable Thanks to this Congregation is to Magnify my Office and to Employ these last and softer Minutes of Speaking in calling upon you to mind the great Affairs of your Souls which is a certain means of enlarging your Fortunes For when all is done Religion is the most faithful Servant to our Worldly Interest which is respected by it though not as the chief Motive yet as a collateral Reward It is of the Pious Man that David speaks when he tells us that whatsoever he doth shall Prosper Psal 1. 3. And the observation holds with equal truth nay with greater strength with respect to Publick Bodies who cannot have a reasonable assurance of finding success in their undertakings but by recovering the Ancient Reputation of Truth and Virtue which are deprest wellnigh stiffled and lost in a thick Crowd of Errors and Immoralities God is expresly said in Scripture to have pleasure in the Prosperity of his Servants His Providence is still awake over them for Good But this is a Favour with no modesty to be expected whilst men persist in a wilful opposition to his Laws set loose from all obligations of Honour or Conscience so indifferent what Religion they take up or whether any at all He shall deliver the Island of the innocent and it is delivered by the pureness of hands Job 22. 30. And in this Case the Theatrical shews of Purity are not quite contemptible because the very Form of Godliness is not to be confronted and baffled by any thing besides the real Power of it The Mockeries of Superstition are less provoking than open Infidelity and a Religion upon Beads is not so bad as a downright insolent Contempt of Holy things This is the highest and most desperate Pitch of wickedness to which when great Numbers in any Nation have advanced with Impunity it must necessarily bring on its Fatal Period For this height of Sin is impregnated with misery nay actually travels with publick Desolation and God alone can strangle it in the Womb It being time for him to Work as the Psalmist expresseth it when men have made void his Law In Consideration therefore of your own Private Good and of the common Interest of your Country Stand in the old Paths inflexible to insnaring Doctrines and wicked Examples and let me intreat you once again to be Masters of so much Christian Thrist Method and good Order that the Exchange and Shop may not intrench upon the House of God That your temporal and Eternal Interests may be carried on without defrauding each other without undue competition with Religious smoothness and success Your decreasing in Wealth under Emergent circumstances is but a Misfortune but your not improving in Virtue will will be ever a Fault that being placed within the reach of human Industry assisted by the Grace of God And suffer me to say that there is no Dream so idle no Practice so ridiculous as that of seeking Happiness in a Vale of Tears and placing it in the Multitude of the things we possess For the greatest Banks of Wealth may be swallowed up in a Moment this glittering Idol like the River which brings it up to your very Doors Ebbs and Flows continually and is never at a certain point with the most Righteous Owner A thousand chances may but Time must destroy it Whereas the welfare of our Souls is not to be impaired by the Iniquity of Times or any external accident Virtue gathers strength increases by being shaken and is the more Prosperous under Trials The want of Corporal supplies indeed may run us upon lesser Evils and Inconveniences upon those of Faring the harder or Dying so much the sooner But to want the Spiritual to have the Soul covered with darkness sick of Passions and polluted with Sin is to stand exposed to an Eternity of real Miseries But our Case is better and there is no invincible necessity of our being miserable in either Respect Either Happiness singly considered is humbly confessed too valuable for the best men to expect as their right but both put together are not too Great for God to bestow who having created our Souls and Bodies with different Faculties and Desires directs a suitable provision for the Natural and Spiritual Life and is ever pleased with our earnest Labour and Devout contention for the Prosperity of both Of which God of his Infinite Mercy make us all partakers through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS