Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	become_v	body_n	life_n	5,856	5	4.6957	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50326	A sermon preach'd before the honourable Company of Merchants trading to the Levant-Seas at St. Peter-Poor, Dec. 15. 1695 by Henry Maundrell ...	Maundrell, Henry, 1665-1701.	1696 (1696)	Wing M1356; ESTC R19829	14,143	34

be the meaning of these words here in my Text how can the Preacher's prohibition be justify'd How is it possible for any one to be too Zealous in the Practice of Religion or too studious to make himself Wise and Knowing in the Principles of it I answer That it is true indeed the Knowledge and Practice of Religion are things of Infinite and Eternal Importance to us and do therefore both require and deserve to be made the Subjects of our most vigorous Zeal and Application But it is no less true also that there are certain Excesses and Irregularities which men are prone to fall into even in these most weighty concernments upon account of which they may be censured as Over-wise and Over-righteous For 't is a Maxim well known and approved amongst the Moralists That Virtue consists in a Mean or Mediocrity between two extremes and the holy Scripture suggests to us the same instruction when it recommends to us amongst its other Precepts the Duty of Moderation as a kind of Regulation and Government to be appli'd to all the other Offices of Virtue and Religion which rule of Moderation holds good in reference even to these most precious Qualifications of Wisdom and Righteousness There is a certain Measure and Government to be observ'd in our practice of them without which our very Wisdom will become absurd and our Righteousness impious According to that just censure of the Poet Insani sapiens Nomen ferat Hor. lib. 1. Ep. 6. equus iniqui Ultra quàm satis est Virtutem si petat ipsam For the illustration of which Principle in Morals we may borrow a resemblance from Natural things Our food we know if moderately taken is the nourisher and sustainer of our Life but if used unseasonably excessively irregularly it turns to our Disease instead of our Refreshment Physick when skilfully appli'd relieves the pains of the languishing Patient and repairs the decays of his ruinous Tabernacle but when used without due Measure Art and Regimen it takes part with the Disease which it was design'd to cure and under the pretences of a Remedy proves to be a Poison The natural heat of the Body when it is temperate and even and actuates the Blood with a regular Circulation is Health and Vigor and Life But the same Heat when it becomes feaverish and raging destroys that Body which before it animated and the Patient dies with the Excess of his very Vital Flame Thus in like manner Righteousness and Wisdom are the Food of the hungry Soul the Physick of the Sick and the spiritual Heat and Life of the Mind But then also if in relation to those so necessary Perfections we exceed the bounds of Sobriety and Moderation that Food oppresses that Physick poysons that Heat inflames and enrages our Souls Without that necessary mixture of Moderation our Righteousness degenerates into a Furious Zeal Superstition and Bigotry and our Wisdom into Prophaneness Presumption and undue Curiosity Now to restrain us from all these and the like excesses is the principal part of the Wise-man's Prohibition in the former Verse of my Text Be not Righteous over-much neither make thy self over-wise The other Branch of the Prohibition is Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish Which Words are not to be so understood as if they forbad only the higher degrees of wickedness and yielded an indulgence to sins of a lesser size For there can be no instance of Vice so inconsiderable either in its Measure or its Quality as to find any toleration allow'd for it in the Law of God But the being over-much wicked relates to the duration of Sin and not to the degree of it and forbids a long persistency and hardness in Wickedness and not only the more heinous and exorbitant acts of Impiety This Exposition is sufficiently warranted by the Septuagint Translation of this place in which the Word here render'd Foolish is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and properly signifies Hard and Obstinate according to which Interpretation we may best understand the Words of the Wise-man when he bids not to be over-much wicked neither to be foolish From this account which has been given of the Text we may now perceive that it contains in it no such strange and unwarrantable meaning as we were apt in our first thoughts to imagine Since it appears that the Prohibition here brought against over-much Righteousness and Wisdom tends not to discourage us from applying our selves vigorously and faithfully to those great and important Endowments but only to restrain us from those Excesses and Irregularities which we are apt to run into in such applications Nor is the Precept against over-much Wickedness intended to insinuate any such favourable opinion of Vice as if the lower degrees of it were harmless and allowable but rather to deter men from a long obdurateness and obstinacy in sin I shall observe therefore in the Text a Caution given by the Wise-man against Three dangerous Excesses The two former incident to the Good and Religious man the Last to the Wicked and Irreligious The Good Man Solomon cautions 1st Not to let his Zeal for Religion be immoderate and furious Be not righteous over-much 2dly Not to let his Enquiries into the Mysteries of Religion be too curious and presumptuous Neither make thy self over-wise Both which Cautions He backs with this Consideration Why shouldst thou destroy thy self The Wicked Man He warns against a long and obdurate Persistency in Sin Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish Which warning He enforces by this Argument Why shouldst thou dye before thy time These Three Cautions I take to be the principal and most useful matters contained in the Text And to illustrate them very briefly and enforce them by the Arguments annex'd to them will be as much as I shall be able to dispatch in the Time that is allow'd for my following Discourse I begin with the first of these Cautions viz. Let not thy Zeal for Religion be Immoderate and Furious Which is the Counsel implied in these Words Be not Righteous over-much This is Advice very seasonable to all men and at all times it being an universal Error too often in some measure visible in every Society and Party of men to be transported into an Excessive Zeal for the Patronage and Promotion of their own Persuasions Whatever Religion men have been train'd up in 't is natural for them to be fond of it afterwards That fondness will as naturally incline them to wish well to it That kind Wish to a Zeal and Endeavour for its Increase and Propagation And it must be acknowledg'd that this Zeal so long as it contains it self within the bounds of Sobriety and Moderation is so far from being culpable that it is a Charitable and Generous Disposition And indeed Religion is so near a Concern and so engaging that 't is impossible for a man who really has any to be indifferent towards it or not affected for its Honour and