Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	appear_v	body_n	life_n	3,755	5	4.6231	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A22193	The description of heaven. Or, A diuine and comfortable discourse of the nature of the eternall heaven the habitation of God, and all the Elect. Composed in Latine, by Cunradus Aslachus. And conuerted into English, by Raph Iennings.	Aslakssøn, Cort, 1564-1624.; Jennings, Ralph.	1623 (1623)	STC 860; ESTC S113648	21,359	92

imparteth his glory to the blessed Angels and men and demonstrateth himselfe to them face to face to be seene and enioyed of which thing wee spake more aboue in the third Chapter And after this manner the abode of the blessed is as largely patent as God himselfe But by his generall presence wherein hee is present to all creatures in heauen earth and doth gouerne and conserue them and after a peculiar manner wherein hee is alwayes present by his grace and spirit to his Church although militant in this world not onely in the heauen of the blessed doth he exist but without it yea euery where Peraduenture thou dislikest the distinction but it is produced out of the very Texts of the Scripture and not from mans braine for thus it speaketh God is in the Heauen of heauens and the Heauen of heauens are in the Lord. Heauen is my Th●one that is in the perfect ministration and manifestation of his glory But the Heauens of Heauens doe not containe thee that is after his generall presence wherein hee is present to all his creatures and peculiar wherein he is present to his Elect. This explication also the sequent sayings of Scripture doe confirme God dwelleth in the highest who neuerthelesse doth lowly behold the Heauens and the earth And in another place God hath established his Throne in the Heauens and yet his Kingdome is present to all Also the Lord is in the Heauens of ancient heauens whose excellency is ouer Israel and whose strength is in the higher clouds Thou are fear●full O God from thy Sanctua●●es The mightie God of Israel hee giueth strength and might to his people But why do we longer dispute of the nature of this eternall heauen Why doe we prosecute the absurd opinions of others concerning it let vs rather hasten to the illustrious felicitie of the blessed in this Heauen For as I actan de Institut diuin lib. 3. cap 37. saith What doth it profit a man to be so made that hee may looke with an vpright bo●v towards heauen and search heauenly things vnlesse he discerne God with an vpright mind and his meditation be conuersant in the hope of eternall life CHAP. VI. Of the happy condition and estate of the blessed in the Kingdom of heauen BVt to whom hath euer so great dexteritie of wit or copious perfection of tongue or Pen been imparted that was al●l● I will not say to decorate in words but to enuntiate that transcendent glory and felicitie of the blessed in the Celestiall Kingdome for easier it is to pronounce what is not then what is in that eternall life There is no death there is no mourning there is no wearinesse no infirmitie no hunger no thirst no heate no corruption no want no tribulation no sorrow Behold wee haue declared what is not there But wilt thou know what is there That which the eye hath not s●ene nor the care heard nor hath entred into mans heart what God hath prepared for those that loue him Yet the Scripture which alone chalketh the way to eternall life seemes to decipher the celestiall blessednesse in two things viz. in the priuation of euils wherewith in this mortall state wee are afflicted and in the plenary fruition of all good things by whose hand and steps being conducted wee will discusse a few things concerning them Alas what an Ocean of maladies doe ouerwhelme as well the Soule as the Body in this languishing life How great a fiercenesse of rigorous dolours doe with more then hostilit●● inuade her How great troups of fordid vices doe on euery side besiege her Who can resolue vs how great tyranny this miserable crazy infirme body of ours wheresoeuer it bee is alwayes obnoxious vnto To how many both by Sea and Land Battels Banishments destructions and dangers of deceyts is it exposed Lastly how sleeting and fallible is the miserable life of mortall men And as Seneca sayth Epist. 1● Some then begin to liue when they should giue ouer yea some desist to liue when they should begin And in what part of the earth are wee secured from the snares of death which is euery moment to be expected What this our life is replenished with so great euills that in comparison of it death it selfe may bee iudged a remedy and not a punishment for therefore hath God made it short that the tribulations which could not by prosperitie bee conquered nor taken away might bee mitigated by the breuitie of the time Alas this Life is an emulatour of cruell Death wherefore then wilt thou wish to thy selfe a happy Life Is not this madnesse No man will haue or endure a long euill Supper For tell mee what wilt thou haue an euill thing I thinke in all thy actions cogitations and desires thou wouldest haue nothing that is naught thou wilt not haue euill Land euill Corne no● an euill Garment and what madnesse is this that almost all men couet to enioy a long euill life But why doe I call it long If thou shouldest liue all that time from whence Adam was sent out of Paradise till this day surely thou shouldest see that thy life was not long Nay how long is the life of euery one man adde a few yeares lead long olde age What then Is not the houre earely Let vs therefore learne this one thing to contemne this life no man can well liue it vnlesse hee contemne it There can to no man happen a secure life who too much meditateth on the prolonging it When therefore when shall wee bee freed from those infinite molestations of this life Truely in this Pilgrimage of ours there is no freedome to bee expected but when wee shall bee reduced by CHRIST out of this exile into our naturall Countrey Then all seruitude wherewith wee are oppressed being taken away wee shall enioy Delight Libertie and Securitie neuer to be consummate But from whence is that God himselfe will wipe away euery teare from their eyes and Death shall no more appeare nor mourning nor lamentation because going before they are departed Apocalyp Chapter 21. verse 4. This life of men not onely by the alteration of age but also by the ruine of Soules for sinnes committed doeth enter by many Deathes So Life that is truely eternall is neyther the alteration of the bodie nor of the minde nor is there controuersie of cogitations nor diuersitie of opinion no perturbation hindering the stabilitie and tranquillitie of the mind Lastly it is the Kingdome of the liuing wherein there is no night no sleepe the Image of death no meate or drinke the sustenance of humane infirmitie no sicknesse no griefe no medicine or Suites or Marchandise no Artes no Money the beginning of euils the cause of dissentions the roote of hatred but the Kingdome of the liuing not of those that dye any more for sinne but the true life of those that liue in Christ Iesus our Lord. Oh true Life of all at all moments to bee wished Neyther shall wee there expect

first Parents were placed by God in which Garden being planted by God in the Country of Eden was a piece of ground lying neere to Babylonia Sturanitida or rather Edenitida not farre from Mesopotamia watred about with the Riuer Tigris and other fruitfull Brooks and heereupon is the name of paradise often vsed in relating the Heauen of the blessed as Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise But that you should not thinke that Christ speaks here of the earthly Paradise which long before was quite ruined for that most wofull fall of our first parents as Ierusalem and Sion were marke what Sain Paul sheweth you Hee was rapt vp into the third Heauen which hee after calleth Paradise whence may be gathered that the Heauen of the blessed and the heauenly Paradise were all one to him and in this sense it seemes to bee taken by that old King Zoroastres he hauing some insight into this Heauen where he saith Because the Soule being the bright fire of the Father and of an immortall subsistence and the mistresse of life seekes Paradise Thirdly this Heauen by a Metaphor is called Abrahams bosome for as children returning home from their Schoole-taxes at night are as it were closed in their fathers bosome so we also who in this life are the sonns of Abraham who is called the father of all beleeuers are gathered together into a most secure Hauen and as it were the bosome of Abraham that is to say into a place prouided for Abraham and his elect children expecting that ful glory of blessednes which will follow in the last day of Iudgement in which we shall be crowned in most absolute manner with all ioy glory and immortalitie after this lifes dissolution Moreouer it is sometime called the heauenly Ierusalem and the Citie of the liuing God and Sion the heauenly Canaan and by other names of this kinde conducing to the nature of this heauen of the blessed But hauing sufficiently sayd of the names I haste to the distinction and definition CHAP. IIII. The Definition of the highest Heauen and the Analysis thereof THE Heauen of the Blessed is the highest expansion the house of God and of blessed Angels and Men. All the numbers of this Definition are partly declared aboue the rest shall hereafter bee more at large explayned which that we may doe these sixe things are briefly to be handled in a Methodicall order 1. Whether there be any Heauen of the Blessed 2. Whether it were created or not 3. At what time it was created 4. Whether it bee Corporeall or Incorporeall 5. Where it is and in what place 6. What kinde of Heauen it is and how great First no man will doubt whether there be any Heauen of the blessed or not who hath been neuer so little conuersant in the holy Scriptures for there are so many testimonies thereof that no man without great stupiditie and senselesnesse can deny it of which kind these are plaine Psa 103.19 God hath prepared his Seat in the heauens and his Kingdome is aboue all kingdomes Psal 68.34 Hee sitteth in the Heauen of Heauens Psal 115.16 The Heauen of Heauens are the Lordes And Christ himselfe saith Iohn 14.2 In my fathers house are many mansions I goe to prouide you a place and where I shall prouide you a place I will returne and take you ●●i●h me that you may also be where ●am and that wee may carry our solues as free Denizens of heauen from whence wee expect our Sauiour Phil. 3.20 Hence then I re●●●●e those who being damna●●ly conceited deny this heauen 〈◊〉 the blessed If the heauen of ●●e blessed be the Seat House If God wherein hee dwelleth ●●d if it bee the place in which Christ God and Man doeth a●●de and if it bee the Mansion ●●●ce wherein we shall perpetu●lly dwell with Christ certainly it must necessarily follow to bee something but wee haue ●●ooned the Maior by alleadgements both of Scriptures and Authorities therefore also the ●●imor by infallible consequence must follow Secondly there is a very great controuersie amongst very profound Schollers whether this Heauen were created or not Some say it is a voyd or intricate place an emptie space euerlasting immeasurable spirituall and all ouer-spread with most radiant beames of the Deitie and that it is a certaine immense light shining foorth of God himselfe in which God was from euerlasting according to that saying 1. Tim. 6.15 God dwelleth in that light which cannot be approached Of the same minde was Augustine Stenchus the Bishop and some others as Zanchius relates in his first book and fourth Chapter De Operib Dei But on the contrary others and that more truly haue thought that this heauen was sometime made by God and they more correspond to the Scripture for whatsoeuer is in ●●lature vncreate it is needfull ●hat the same be infinite and immeasurable for euery creature 〈◊〉 of a finite constitution God ●●ely is vnmeasurable and infi●●te But who will call the hea●●n immense or infinite as God him selfe when the Scripture makes an eloquent diffe●●●ce betwixt God the maker of heauen and earth and his ●●●t or throne viz. the heauen ●●●after more fully in the ensu●●ng Chapter shall appeare Let them then confesse the Heauen 〈◊〉 be made by him and who is 〈◊〉 impudent that dare contrary 〈◊〉 the apparent truth of the Scriptures deny the whole hea●●n to be made by God when 〈◊〉 the Porch or prime entry in●●● the Bible he may finde Gene. 〈◊〉 In the beginning God created the Heauen and the Earth Heauen in that place euen in that tearme comprehending in it the whole expansion resident aboue the earth and in which the highest heauens is comprehended and must needs follow that also to be formed of God in the beginning yea and God also is nominated manifestly to be the former of this heauen It is said Hebr 11.9 10. By faith stayed Abraham as in a strange land in the land of promise hee stayed in the Tabernacles with Isaac and Iacob coheyres in the same promise for hee expected that sure founded Citie whose former and maker was God What Citie I pray you expected hee Was it not the heauenly Hierusalem the heauen of the blessed of the which the same Abraham afterwards intreats in Chap. 12.22 which ●one but the King of all Kings God himselfe hath founded ●●d builded most artificially It ●●hooueth thee then to confesse ●nd credit this Heauen celestiall ●ometime to be builded by God ●imselfe and him onely Thirdly it cannot easily bee ●ollected out of the holy Scrip●●res when this heauen was cre●ted but it is probable on the ●●●s t day together with the Star●●● Firmament since there is no ●●ntion of the creation thereof in the workes of the other dayes of which mind are ma●y both ancient and later W●i●ers Lactant. Lib. 2. diu inst ca. 1. ●irst of all God made heauen ●nd founded it on high because 〈◊〉 should bee the seate of God himselfe the