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	sin_n	4,701	5	4.7025	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37996	The eternal and intrinsick reasons of good and evil a sermon preach'd at the commencement at Cambridge, on Sunday the 2d day of July, 1699 / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1699 (1699)	Wing E204; ESTC R15422	18,730	35

because they are ashamed to act those vile things in the Eyes of the World Vice is so ugly and deformed that they would not have it seen and when it is they blush and are confounded at their own evil doings Which is signify'd to us in that Expostulation Rom. 6. 21. What profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed This blushing argues an inward turpitude in vitious actions whereas Virtue which is Good in it self is daring and carries Confidence with it If there were not a real blemish and stain in unjust and lewd practises why should men be ashamed of them Why should they be put out of countenance and look like Malefactors Why should they fly to their Coverts and run into corners and fear a discovery There was an early Example of this in the first Sinners they retired and hid themselves Gen. 3. 8. On which an Antient and Pious Father of the Christian Church hath these remarkable words Why did Adam after he had sinned hide himself seeing at that time there was no written Law The Reason was because he had a natural inbred knowledge that he had done ill he being self-instructed in the knowledge of Virtue And thence arose in him that inward bashfulness and dejection of Soul after the commission of Sin and thence he fondly attempted to hide not only himself but his Crime from God And it is observable that Cain refus'd to discover his murdering of his Brother when God demanded of him where he was his surly reply was he knew not Gen. 4. 9. Which concealing of Vice argues the intrinsick Evil of it for why else is it mask'd with privacy and retirement and kept from the knowledge of others as much as it is possible yea even of those sometimes that can't hurt us This is an argument that Virtue is good and lovely and that the contrary is vile and detestable and that the mind of Man naturally approves of Moral Goodness and dislikes Vice and Immorality Further the Regrets and Remorses of Sinners for their acting contrary to the Divine Laws are certain Testimonies of this Truth Why do they call themselves to an account and arraign and pass Sentence upon themselves for what they have done Why are they uneasy and dissatisfy'd and find an unspeakable Trouble in their minds Is not this from Natural Conscience and those inbred impressions which are in the Soul of every Man Yes without doubt these cause them to rebuke and chastise themselves and that very severely when they offend against these inward dictates Thence come those Vexations and Torments which willful Transgressors feel in their breasts yea tho' their faults be kept secret and none knows them but themselves Notwithstanding this they are troubled and disquieted and as the Satyrist well remarks of such men Tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ But especially the more open and profligate Sinners have frequent experience of these inward Inquietudes Sweatings and Agonies which render them a Plague and Torment to themselves Cain complain'd that his iniquity for so the original word should be rendred was greater than he could bear Gen. 4. 13. That is the guilt of his heinous Sin became an insupportable burden to him So Iudas from the horror of his guilt sunk into despair And who sees not that the usual effects of great and flagitious enormities are Pain and Torture of mind Deliquiums of Soul and Body and the wasting and macerating of the flesh and spirits by continual restlesness and disturbance The ground of it is obvious for Sin is a violent distorting of the natural and primitive temper of Man and therefore it cannot but create extreme anguish and perturbation One reason why men are displeas'd with themselves after the commission of what is Immoral is because they find they have acted contrary to their Native Principle because they have done something that is unsuitable to the rational nature which they are endued with It appears hence that Sin is naturally Evil and that it is an affront to our Reasons and Understandings to transgress the Laws of Morality Thus a Man 's own mind establishes the Equity and Goodness of these Laws and convinces him that the Foundations of Moral Righteousness are sure and stable Moreover this may be made evident from the Fear of Punishment which haunts and possesses the minds of Evil men Thus Cain the first Murderer was afraid that every one that found him would slay him he had a perpetual dread of the fatal recompence which was the merit of his villany And Natural Conscience tells all other Sinners that they deserve Punishment they know the Iudgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death as the Apostle speaks and this knowledge unavoidably breeds Fear and Dread Some would needs persuade us that this Passion is rais'd by Politick Heads by Wise Rulers and Governours merely to aw their dastard Subjects but it is evident that this is a falsity because Princes and Rulers themselves are liable to these impressions nay we know they actually have been under the force and prevalency of such Principles Belshazar the Great Babylonian Monarch fell into fits of shaking and trembling when the Hand-writing on the Wall put him in mind of his Profaness and Debauchery and the just Deserts of both King Herod after the murder of Iohn Baptist was restless in his mind and had the terrible sight of that Holy Man continually represented to his fancy and he thought he was risen from the dead and was come to Torment him Tiberius the Emperour was not able to conceal the terrors and affrightments of his Conscience after all his unnatural Lusts and Cruelties Nero after all his prodigious villanies could not dissemble his horrors and his being haunted with Spirits and tormented with Furies and Flames Which plainly shews that this dread of mind is no Politick Invention no Feigned Passion and Representation no idle Phantom or Mormo but that it is a real thing and flows from the natural dictates of the Mind and not these from Fear as some would suggest Why should Men be affraid of the Divine Being if they deserv'd not his Displeasure And how can they deserve it unless they have done something amiss i. e. broken some Law which they were oblig'd to keep There must then be some obligation on Man from Nature to observe such and such Laws for I speak even of those who have thrown off all Obligations but this Their being conscious to themselves that they have not acted as they ought and that thereby they are become guilty creates this Timerousness and Dread in them and gives them an apprehension of the great Day of Doom In the next place I argue from that dislike and hatred which even Bad men themselves have of some Vices and from that great Esteem which they have of some Virtues Pride is universally disrelish'd and the very Persons who cherish it in themselves abhor it in others Nothing is

our human Nature is deprav'd our Faculties are corrupted and we have an inward proclivity to what is vicious so that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do any Good that can be acceptable to God yet there are remaining in us as we are Human Creatures and Rational Agents Natural Principles and Sentiments of Morality And therefore we may observe that One who is an unquestionable Asserter of the original depravity of Mankind is yet very positive in this that there is in the Souls of Men a Sense of Divinity and Religion and that even by a Natural Instinct and accordingly he spends a whole Chapter to prove the existence of this Inbred Principle in the Minds of all Men. And truly every Man alive that is attentive and unprejudiced may feel this in him as soon as he is arrived to the use of Reason for he can't exspect it should actually display it self till then or whenever he hath occasion given him to exercise his thoughts concerning Moral and Divine things To this the Great Apostle refers in Rom. 2. 14 15. when he tells us that the Gentiles who have not the Law i. e. the written Law do by nature i. e. by vertue of these radical notions of Moral Goodness in their minds the things contain'd in the Law they are push'd on to it by this Natural Principle within them Hence it is that tho' they have not the Law yet they are a Law unto themselves because they have this inward Law in their own minds which instructs them what to do as to the great duties of Natural Religion Therefore he adds that they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts namely in these Original Characters by God's own hand So that nothing could be said more plainly to Establish these inward Signatures and Impresses of Goodness on the Soul And they were Engraven there for Great and Excellent Purposes in the life of Man whence we may further evince that there are indeed such Inbred Principles and Notions There being so many waies of Delusion and Error in the World such a diversity of avocations from Religion and Goodness and the Worship of the Divine Being and such Charming Temptations every where to a vitious Life it was requisite there should be such Inward Directors as these in Mens breasts There being such Impediments to Truth and Goodness as Passion Prejudice Interest Pleasures and these continually operating upon us it was necessary there should be something within us to remind us of what is True and what is Good something within us that opposes it self to all the foresaid obstacles and hindrances There was a necessity that there should be a Divine Principle in our Souls which should be as it were a continual Fund to our Consciences alwaies to supply and furnish them with Virtuous dictates Amongst the most rude and barbarous People it is This that keeps up some kind of Notion of Honesty and Goodness Yea and among those that are Civiliz'd these would be in danger of being lost if there were not this Principle rooted in their minds All that is Just and Right would have been banish'd out of the World unless this prevalent Inmate had acted its part and kept us from being wholly bereft of them We had long since been absorpt of Atheism and Profaness if this had not powerfully secur'd us Were it not for this active Spark the Fire of Virtue would have been extinguish'd and it would have been impossible to preserve it in the midst of that Deluge of Vice which hath broken in upon us God took care therefore that there should be ingrafted in the heart of every Man learned or illiterate these Moral Impressions which I am speaking of which will not suffer Mankind to be wholy alienated from a sense of what is Good and Virtuous It may be attributed to this that notwithstanding the General Depravation and Corruption there is yet a Face of Religion in the World For it is an undoubted Truth that This buoys up Goodness when it is sinking this supports it when it is falling this keeps it alive when it is even exspiring So absolutely necessary was the implanting of these Notions in Mens minds from their very birth And then which is the thing I have been proving these Innate Principles of Good and Evil thus implanted in us are a certain and unquestionable eviction of the Intrinsick Excellency of Moral Religion and of all Virtuous and Just Actions which are but Transcripts and Exemplifications of those Original Conceptions placed by God in the minds of Men. 3. As the real and unchangeable nature of Moral Righteousness is proved from its conformity to the Supreme and Eternal Good and from the Images of Good which our minds are furnish'd with from our birth so it may be evidenc'd from the constant Behaviour and Practice of Mankind afterwards This I will make appear from these following particulars 1. From Mens excusing their sins 2. From their desiring Secrecy when they commit them 3. From the Regrets and Remorses which they feel afterwards 4. From the Fear of Punishment which haunts them 5. From that Dislike and Hatred which even Bad men themselves have of Vice First the Intrinsick Excellency of Vertue is manifested from mens Excusing their sins and vitious practises and devolving them upon others This was in the World as soon as Sin it self Adam would needs cast his Transgression and Guilt upon his Relative and she put it off to the Serpent This hath been the practice of sinners ever since tho' they know themselves to be really Criminal yet they endeavour to throw off their faults and they use all sorts of palliations and pretences to clear themselves and particularly they are wont to usurp the Names and Titles of Virtue to conceal their evil deeds ●ondly disguising these latter under a shew and resemblance of the former But whilst they do so they confess that Virtue is Excellent and Laudable otherwise they would not emulate the likeness of it and they acknowledge that Vice is in it self base and reproachful and that the rational nature of Man is averse to it else they would not excuse it and shift it off nay 't is certain they would own it if it were Good and praise worthy But they have natural convictions of the contrary which makes them strive to clear themselves of it and these evasions are a palpable proof that Vice is a thing opposite to the reasonable frame of their Souls and is of its own nature Evil and that there is a distinction between Just and Unjust Right and Wrong founded in the nature of things Again this also appears from men's desiring of Secrecy when they commit sins and after they have committed them For though one reason of their sculking and absconding is because they would not be defeated in what they undertake or be detected when it is performed yet this is another reason of their affecting of privacy namely