Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	believe_v	body_n	faith_n	4,273	5	5.2454	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54873	A funeral sermon upon the sad occasion of the death of Mordecai Abbott, Esq. preach'd the 17th of March 1699-1700 by John Piggott.	Piggott, John, d. 1713.; Abbott, Mordecai, d. 1700?	1700 (1700)	Wing P2220A; ESTC R28440	25,005	96

7. of our Bodies return to God that gave 'em and are fix'd in a state of Happiness or Misery Had not the Apostle believ'd this we cannot imagine that he would have esteem'd Death to be gain to him or that he would have been in any strait to determine and fix his choice for present Death or longer Life for the latter would have been much more eligible if he had believ'd that his Soul at death would have been as insensible and unactive as his Body and no doubt but he would rather have desir'd to continue in this World where he had enjoy'd Communion with Christ and often seen him by a steddy eye of Faith than to be hurried out of it by Death and render'd utterly incapable of any enjoyment of his Redeemer till the Resurrection But 't is yet more evident from another Expression of our Apostle that he was very far from the Opinion or rather Dream of the Soul 's sleeping with the Body till the Resurrection His words are these We 2 Cor. 5. 8. are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. q. d. We have good courage and are well arm'd against the fears of Death being well assur'd that we shall have upon our Dissolution an immediate admittance into the Presence of our glorified Lord for the Apostle supposes not only that the Soul is capable of existing while separated from the Body and of exercising her Faculties and Powers in such a state but that so soon as she leaves the Body she shall enter into the presence of Christ and behold his Glory But I pass on and shall briefly represent the force of the Apostle's Arguments against immoderate Sorrow for the dead The first of which is taken from the nature of their Death who die in the Lord 't is describ'd by the soft Character of a Sleep which as you have heard refers only to the Body Now the death of the Righteous may be thus set forth on the following accounts 1. Because the Body is then eased of all its Pains and freed from all Fatigue and Toil to which it was expos'd while animated with the Soul And therefore as Death is compar'd to Sleep so the Grave is compar'd Isa 57. 2. to a Bed where the righteous are said to rest In this Life the best of Men are frequently made uneasy by acute Distempers and corroding Pains and Death is frequently sought for because Life is a burden You that have frequently visited the Chambers of the sick cannot surely have forgotten the sighs of those Prisoners who have groan'd upon Beds of Down as if every part of their Bodies had been violently extended on a Rack It would be endless to reckon up the vast number of Diseases that affect the Children of God in this World for being tainted with original Sin as well as the vilest of the People they may expect the same Distempers and tho they tarry here but a few days they are ordinarily full of trouble and if their Bodies are not often indispos'd yet thro the Malice of Enemies and the Miseries and Unkindnesses of their Friends they are frequently made to bow towards the Grave before they drop into it For indeed the best of our earthly Comforts have their hidden stings but they shall give us no more pain and uneasiness after we are fallen asleep in Job 3. 17 18. Jesus For in the Grave the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor 2. In Sleep no labour is expected from the Body so when Believers are overtaken with a mortal slumber Christ expects no Service from their Bodies While the Soul continues united to the Body we are oblig'd to yield the Members of the one as well as the Faculties of the other Rom. 6. 13. as Instruments of Righteousness unto God but in a state of separation there is expected neither Service nor Suffering from the Body So that while we continue on the Stage of this World the Advice of the wise Man is very proper Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do Eccles 9. 10. it with thy might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest All our vital and animal Operations shall cease when our Spirits return to God and our Bodies are reduc'd to Dust The one is fix'd in an unalterable state of Happiness or Misery and the other put into an incapacity for Action A middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell for departed Spirits is a groundless Imagination for it could not be said with truth that such as die in the Lord rest from Rev. 14. 13. their Labours if they were to pass into a refining Fire equally tormenting in degree but not in duration with that of Hell as those of the Roman Faction assert Therefore let us rather attend to the words of our Lord and follow Joh. 9. 4. his Example I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no Man can work 3. Death to the Righteous is disarm'd of its sting and being alter'd in its nature it may sutably be set forth by the notion of Sleep St. Paul tells us that 1 Cor. 15. 56. the sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death receives its destroying Power from Sin and Sin from the Law Sin being a Transgression of the Law which discovers its odious nature and denounces Damnation for it But Death approaches Believers without its sting Christ having yielded an indefective Obedience to the Law and suffer'd the penalty of it in the room and stead of Believers Hence says the Apostle There is therefore now no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. to them which are in Christ Jesus Christ hath redeem'd 'em from the Curse Gal. 3. 13. of the Law being made a Curse for ' em And the Apostle represents Believers as triumphing over Death in such terms as these O Death where is thy Sting O Grave 1 Cor. 15. 55 57. where is thy Victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Christ has remov'd the scandal of Death by dying and perfum'd the Grave by lying in it and passing through it 4. The Death of the Righteous is compar'd to a Sleep on the account of what shall follow thereupon for as men do awake after Sleep so they shall revive after Death as we are assur'd by a very remarkable Prophecy Hos 13. 14. and Promise I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Destruction repentance shall be hid from mine eyes In which words we must consider the Prophet as personating of Christ and uttering the Triumphs of a mighty Conqueror which contain a glorious Promise

Lord. The Eccles 3. 4. wise Man tells us that there is a time to mourn and a time to weep as well as for other things certainly it cannot be an unfit season to weep when God takes away our pious Friends that have been eminently useful and publick Blessings to a Nation And 't is observable how the Prophet complains of the gross Stupidity of the Jews who were insensible under the signs of the Divine Displeasure Isa 57. 1. The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart And we find also that 't is threatened as a Jer. 22. 18. Judgment when any die without being lamented yea 't is said to Job 27. 13 14 15. be the Portion of the wicked from God and the Heritage of the Oppressor that they are cut off and their Widows shall not weep So that upon the whole 't is very evident that St. Paul in my Text has no design in his Disswasive from immoderate Sorrow to recommend the Stoical Apathy for the Rules of the Christian Institution have no tendency to eradicate our Passions but to correct and govern ' em And here I cannot but remark that what has been said casts no favourable Aspect on the Doctrine of the Stoick Philosophers which teaches that Men are to stifle all natural Affections both of Joy and Sorrow that no outward Emoluments should move the Affection of Joy and that a Person should be as easy and as free from the passion of Grief in a violent Paroxism of the Gout or Stone as if he were in perfect health in the midst of the most ravishing Delights 'T is reported of Possidonius a Stoick Philosopher who passed a great part of his Life under very acute Diseases that being visited by Pompey at Rhodes he entertain'd him with a Philosophical Discourse and when his Pains were the most sharp and violent he chid 'em in such Language as this * Nil agis dolor quanquam sis molestus nunquam te esse confitebor malum In vain dost thou assault me Pain tho thou art troublesom thou shalt never force me to confess thou art evil Indeed could the pomp of words abate our painful Sensations there would be some shew of reason in this Philosopher's method but since the contrary is evident by universal Experience 't was an instance of great Pride and the most ridiculous Folly And 't is worth remarking that the greatest Masters in this Philosophy when they fell into sharp Adversity suddenly sunk into such deep Despair and Impatience that they laid violent hands upon themselves I need only name Cato and Brutus the most eminent among 'em who as one observes professing themselves to be wise in their Speculations became Fools in Practice and were confounded with all their Philosophy when they should have made use of it Which brings to my mind a Passage I have read of Seneca who was not a little inclin'd to the Stoick Philosophy who tells us that at the death of his dear Friend Annaeus Serenus he * Epist 63. Inter exempla eorum fui quos dolor vicit was found of the number of those whom Grief overcame Upon which one remarks That Nature was too strong for his Philosophy tho at other times none outbraves the Misfortunes of Life or the Terrors of Death at a higher rate as if they had not the least power to move his wise Man So that upon the whole we see the insufficiency of Philosophick Axioms to support a Mind overwhelm'd with Sorrow but that which Philosophy has vainly attempted Divine Revelation has fully compleated and finish'd as will be evident when I consider the Arguments St. Paul uses in the Text to disswade from mourning as those that have no hope But before I touch upon them I must be a little more particular in this other matter I have already told you what kind of Sorrow for the dead the Scripture indulges but that which is without hope you see our Text condemns Now our mourning may fall under this Character First When 't is excessive in the measure and degree Secondly In the length and continuance First When 't is excessive in the measure and degree as it may be deem'd 1. When our Sorrows are vented in impatient Murmurs and indecent Reflections upon the Conduct of Divine Providence as if when our Friends are taken from our Society God had done an unjust an unmerciful or an unwise Act. This is very criminal for hereby we affront him in his moral Perfections and seem to dispute with him about the Rights of his Godhead forgetting that he is our absolute Soveraign and has an original and unalienable Right in us and ours For as it was merely an Act of his choice to give us a Being all his subsequent Bounties can have no other Original than his own good pleasure And since he bestows his Favours upon us without our merit he may justly when he pleases recal 'em without our leave for his fundamental right in us and our Friends skreens him from the least shadow of Injustice when by Death he removes them from us So that if while we are mourning for our deceas'd Friends we permit our Passions to mutiny so as to utter any unbecoming Reflections on the Skilfulness of the Divine Hand 't is a strong evidence that our Sorrows are too excessive And this kind of Excess and Impatience seems to have overcome David when in the most mournful Accents and in an uncommon strain he laments the tragical end of his rebellious Son Absalom as the Text informs us The King was much mov'd and went 2 Sam. 18. 33. up to the Chamber over the Gate and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son But 2. We sorrow like those without hope when our Grief does so ruffle our Minds and enfeeble our Bodies as to render us uncapable to discharge the special Duties of our Relation and Place and to exercise those Graces which are eminently useful and very necessary to be called forth into act in a time of solemn mourning and deep sadness If the Mind be greatly pensive and thrown into a convulsive Agony and do long continue so sadness and disorder will appear in the Countenance for the Laws of Union betwixt Body and Soul are so strict that 't is impossible for the Faculties of the Mind to be indispos'd but the Organs of the Body will be sensible of it and suffer by it For as any injury done to the Body occasions painful Sensations in the Mind so a violent hurry of the Powers and Passions of the Soul will soon abate the strength of the Body which while it declines and languishes increases the disorder of the Spirit so that by an unaccountable Sympathy they become partners in each others Sorrows and mutually hinder the performance of holy Duties and the exercise of Faith Hope and Patience for