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
A91806	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honorable Anne, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery who died March 22, 1675/6, and was interred April the 14th following at Appleby in Westmorland : with some remarks on the life of that eminent lady / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Carlile.	Rainbowe, Edward, 1608-1684.	1677 (1677)	Wing R142; ESTC R11144	35,773	69

Mind had served it fourscore and six Years and was useful in all the dispatches of her Will she had accustomed her Body to the Yoke she had train'd it up so well in all Vertuous Exercises by her admirable Temperance that she had it perfectly at her Command and wholly at the Discretion of her Soul A thing not very observable in this Age of the World amongst Men or Women The Body the will of the Flesh commonly governs the Man The Soul in most is drudge to the Body imploys its Wit and all its Faculties to serve the Interests and Needs of the Body To make Provision for the Flesh a Delicate and Luxurious Master So that truly if some Vertuoso's had not been convinced of an extraordinary and sublime Spirit in Man scarce intelligible by old Philosophy and some gripes of Conscience had not whispered that it is immortal capable of Eternal Bliss or Pain some of their Epicurean Wits would hardly have believed there is such a thing as a Soul in the Vulgar notion of Divines But if they could well dress had Salt to relish could feed and satisfie the Cravings of the Body they then did bene sapere were wise and happy enough as happy as Soul could wish Indeed when we observe what care some of this Sex nay of either Sex do take about their Body making it their whole days work first to adorn then to glut then to recreate their Body then to lay it asleep not allowing one of twenty-four hours to speak with or pray for their Soul much less to take it to task and imploy it in Religious and Vertuous Exercises the Meat and Drink as necessary to preserve Life in the Soul as those are in the Body I say this Carnality might make the Vulgar believe that although Preachers and some Women talk of Souls yet in truth there is no such thing This excellent Lady then who neglected or spent so little Time or Pains about her Body except it were to make it serviceable to her Soul which she adorned with her chief care and diligence may serve for a glass or Mirrour for others of that Quality or Sex to dress themselves by her Example So that although nature framed her but as the Subject of this Text a Woman yet she having a Body so well ordered as well as built a Soul endued by nature with such acute Faculties we need not doubt to give her the Adjunct which is given to the Woman here in the Text to call her Wise to say that in Her the World had found and has lost a wise a vertuous Woman For that 's it Vertue which only makes and denominates a Woman wise wise and vertuous are almost Terms reciprocal every wise woman is vertuous and all the virtuous are Wise It was a strange Question for King Solomon to ask Prov. 31. 10. having had seven hundred wives Who can find a vertuous woman And it was as strange that he should answer that Question when he was become a Preacher Eccles 7. 27. Behold this have I found saith the Preacher counting one by one to find out the account And what was the sum total when he had cast up his Account Why it is come to one and none one man among a thousand have I found but a woman a vertuous woman he means among all these have I not found and He had the full number of a thousand seven hundred Wives three hundred Concubines The meaning is that a truly Vertuous Woman was a rarity in his time even while King Solomon was a Preacher But I hope the World is better since better for his Preaching but especially for the Preaching of the Gospel and although the number of the wise and virtuous men and women be not so great as were to be desired yet God be thanked we want not Examples more plentiful in this looser Age of either Sex and here we have one Eminent before us a Woman who deserved the Title of Virtuous and therefore of Wise a wise and virtuous Woman Therefore to demonstrate this rarely ennobled Woman to have deserved this greatest mark of Honour to have been truly Wise I will not stray from my Text in the proof of it but set forth her Wisdom from the great Effect of Wisdom set down in this Text under the Allegory of Building her House taking the liberty which the Scheme of the Text allows to extend it to all which so copious a Figure comprehends but still having regard to the scope and chief intent of the Text That by building the House we may intend the deriving of blessings most noble most useful most necessary to her Family to her Allyes and to the Generation wherein she lived for which that and many other Generrtions may call her blessed I did put you in mind before of several Houses which the Allegory comprehends viz. the Artificial or material House the Oeconomical House the Family the Moral House whose materials are Virtues and the Spiritual House built by Grace In all these she hath made it to appear that she was a great Builder Now first that this wise Woman declared her wisdom in building her House in a literal sense the material House I can call you all to witness who have seen so many Houses of her famous Ancestors which Time had ruin'd War or sad Accidents demolished re-built by her raised out of their Rubbish or decays to their former greatness and beauty To have been a great Builder if wisdom and discretion were overseers of the Work was in all Ages accounted an Heroick thing sufficient to commend the Fame and praise of such Builders to all Posterity To build importing a design of a great mind studying to be beneficial to Posterity whom Builders commonly intend to accommodate and gratifie Thereby Princes and the greatest of Men have gained to themselves the greatest Renown Certainly none had greater Fame upon Earth than King Solomon nor was his name exalted higher for any thing which his Wisdom enabled him to perform than for his Building the Temple and his Houses Thus Trajan the best of the Emperours while they were Heathen was the greatest Builder the most renowned the best beloved 'T is made a signal blessing Isa 58. 12. To be a builder of the old waste places to raise up the Foundations of many generations to be called the repairer of the breaches the restorer of paths to dwell in But because I am recounting the praise of a Woman the first as I take it that is extolled for this in Story was a Woman the Babylonian Semiramis to whom for that and her famous Acts * Berosus a Prime Historian tells us that no Man could ever be compar'd And it was a Woman also who gave the Pattern to the greatest Princes how to build their Monuments with most Magnificence That Monument which She called after her Husband Mausolus his name had the honour to give the name to the noblest Monuments of Emperours and the greatest

delighted with the freedom than troubled with any shew of Censure She was I say so unwilling to be Censorious or to seem uneasie to any of those who as she thought did necessarily pay an obedience to Fashion and Custom which she knew was a kind of Tyrant and will Reign over the most while we live under the Moon That when a Neighbour a Lady whom she used as she commonly did all with great Familiarity expressing together with her their Joy in discourse of His Majesties most glorious and happy return to his Kingdom and Court at White-hall the Gallantry which at his entrance attended that place the Lady wished that she would once more go to London and the Court and glut her eyes with the sight of such happy Objects and after that give up her self to her Country retirement She suddenly and pleasantly replyed if I should go to those places now so full of Gallantry and Glory I ought to be used as they do ill-sighted or unruly Horses have Spectacles or Blinkers put before mine eyes lest I should see and censure what I cannot competently judge of be offended my self or give offence to others Her meaning was thought to be that she having taken leave of worldly glory as to her self now unfitted for it ought to give leave to others to whom such things of course and by the Places which they held did belong to enjoy their freedom without her Censure Her Conversation was indeed meek affable and gentle her Words according to the Circumstances of Persons in her presence pleasant or grave always season'd with salt savoury but never bitter I had the honour to be often admitted to her Discourse but never heard nor have been told by others that she was invective or censorious or did use to speak ill or censoriously of Persons or Actions but she was especially cautious in censuring Publick Persons or Actions in matter of State I was present when she was told of the certainty of the War with the Dutch and of the great preparations on all hands on which Subject she only said If their sins be greater than ours they would have the worst Constancy was so known a virtue in Her that it might vindicate the whole Sex from the contrary imputation She was observed to be very constant to all her determinations and would not easily vary from what she had once declared to be her mind She had that part of Prudence which some call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consultiveness deliberating and well-distinguishing what was fit what indifferent what was necessary She used as she said to chew the Chud ruminating of the next days business in her night wakings When she had once weighed the Circumstances and resolved she did not like to have any after considerations or be moved by them This made her constant to her resolutions even in lesser matters as the times of her removals from one of her houses to another She had six Houses as I have intimated in each of which she used at her prefixed times to keep her residence None can call this an unsettledness or humour of mutability it was not onely that she might the better hold up and keep in repair those Houses which commonly in the Owner's absence who is the Soul of the House turn to Carcasses ready to be dissolved fall to ruine and dust But she resolved by her presence to animate the Houses which she had built and the Places where she lived to dispence and disperse the influences of her Hospitality and Charity in all the Places where her Patrimony lay that many might be made Partakers of her comforts and kindness In her frequent removals both going and coming she strewed her Bounty all the way And for this end it was as may be charitably conjectured that she so often removed and that not only in the Winter season less fit for travelling but also that she chose to pass those uncouth and untrodden those mountainous and almost impassable ways that she might make the poor people and Labourers her Pioneers who were always well rewarded for their pains let the season be never so bad the places never so barren yet we may say it by way of allusion Psal 65. 11. She crowned the Season with her goodness and her paths dropped fatness even upon the pasture of the wilderness the barren mountains If she found not Mines in these Mountains I am sure the Poor found Money in good plenty whensoever she passed over them But that which I speak of this for an instance of her Constancy is a known Story in these parts When about three years since she had appointed to remove from Appleby to Brougham-Castle in January the day being very cold a frost and misty yet much company coming as they usually did to attend her removals she would needs hold her resolution and in her passage out of her house she diverted into the Chappel as at such times she commonly did and there at or near a window sent up her private Prayers and Ejaculations when immediately she fell into a Swoon and could not be recovered until she had been laid for some time upon a Bed near a great fire The Gentlemen and Neighbours who came to attend her used much perswasion that she would return to her Chamber and not travel on so sharp and cold a day but she having before fixed on that day and so much company being come purposely to wait on her she would go and although assoon as she came to her Horse-litter she swooned again and was carried into a Chamber as before yet assoon as that Fit was over she went and was no sooner come to her Journeys end nine miles but a swooning seized on her again from which being soon recovered when some of her servants and others represented to her with repining her undertaking such a Journey fore-told by divers to be so extremely hazardous to her Life she replied she knew she must die and it was the same thing to Her to die in the way as in her House in her Litter as in her Bed declaring a courage no less than the great Roman General Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam She would not acknowledge any necessity why she should Live but believed it necessary to keep firm to her Resolution She did indeed discover by this not only a Moral constancy but a Christian Courage against the fear of death from whence might also be well supposed a Soul ready and prepared to meet Death any where knowing what the Apostle had taught her 2 Cor. 5. 1. That if her earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved she should have a Building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens That Death was but a removal from one house to another from a worse house to a better an earthly house to an heavenly flitting from an House built by Nature a Tabernacle earthly and dissoluble to an House a firm Mansion prepared by Christ

some holy Ejaculations The Psalms for the day of the Moneth were never omitted to be read by her self or when under some indisposition read to her by her Attendants She much delighted in that holy Book it was her Companion and when persons or their affections cannot so well be known by themselves they may be guessed at by their Companions No greater Testimony of a Soul having her Conversation in Heaven then by being conversant in that Heavenly Book which as holy Athanasius hath well demonstrated is fitted for all persons suited for all occasions To receive comfort express sorrow to cast down or lift up the Soul with joy to praise God to expostulate with him to strengthen Faith to nourish Hope to stir up Holy affection to allay Passion to teach Patience to await Gods leisure So that indeed we may apply to this one parcel of Scripture what St. Paul makes the scope of the inspired Books that it is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God and not only so but that every Godly man or woman may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work It is scarce possible for any to be bad that frequently reads and meditates on this Book with desire to be good He that reads and digests shall be transformed into the image of it be acted by the spirit which breaths in it No doubt the Compilers of our Liturgy had all this in their eye when they made the reading a part of the Psalms of David so great a portion of the Morning and Evening Service Besides this which she did commonly read her self she usually heard a large portion of Scripture read every day as much as one of the Gospels read every week So that let her Body be fed never so sparingly her Soul was nourished with sound words the words of Faith which must needs give her a growth in Grace and make a sincere heart She took a particular delight in one Chapter which she used to repeat every Lord's day in the year and never failed to do it it was the eighth of the Romans which she had by heart in the best sense had laid it up in her heart and truly she could hardly find a better Cordial in any one Chapter in all the Holy Scriptures Which how comfortable how pertinent how useful it may be to any Christian in any Condition who desires with Meditation and Reflection to peruse it it may be sufficient to refer them to the serious reading of it and I doubt not but they will approve this Ladie 's Wisdom and Piety in her choice and frequent application of it to her self and she did so when Death look'd her in the face repeating it the first day when her Sickness which proved mortal seized on her As this might excite many Graces Faith Hope so especially what is the proper effect of those while we are on earth Patience and on Earth only these three Plants grow Faith Hope Patience though they send their fruit to Heaven yet their Root is only on Earth Faith is perfected by Vision Hope consummated by Fruition and at Heaven's gates the Patience of the Saints leaves them no more sufferings pain or grief all tears are wiped from their eyes at the first glimpse of the Beatifical Vision But I say in that selected Chapter Rom 8. the greatest Emphasis in it is to teach Patience either in inward afflictions of the Soul or outward pressures on the Body securing the Soul against the fear of damnation though under sinful infirmities and susteining the Body and outward man though under the Cross and greatest afflictions assuring that where Patience hath endured to the utmost when Patience shall have perfected its work it shall have its reward a Crown at the last I might inlarge by particular instances of her Patience in bearing and even Taking up submissively the Crosses which she met withall as it cannot be imagined but one who lived so long in a perverse and crooked generation must meet with many crosses in several kinds both in regard of Publick revolutions and Private cross-accidents Indeed she saw and felt great varieties and mixture of better and worse in both She spun out almost the measure of one whole Age and the Age wherein she lived might give her experience of the greatest misery and also felicity in the late revolutions in these three Nations that any one Age had ever seen Wherein the greatest Students and Searchers into the Methods of Providence could never extricate or clear the doubts which first arose from seeing these Nations from the top of earthly and heavenly blessings thrown into the abyss of misery and hellish slavery and then again by a powerful but gentle hand of Providence restored and raised up to its former prosperity and glory Herein this Lady as many less aged Had something like the fate of Noah saw the times before the Flood which Sin brought down weather'd out with Patience the time under the Floods of War and Misery Faith and Providence building her an Ark she lived to see the deluge of Blood and War dried up God in his never to be forgotten Mercy clearing the Skies and making the Sun and Starrs shine upon us again Those were times to exercise her Patience in a joynt-stock with others under publick Sufferings But she had and it may be seen that she well remembred then many private trials of her Patience not only those which in Common Providence happen to all mankind especially to the long lived who must needs see the Funerals of Parents and hear of the Deaths Misfortunes or Miscarriages of Husbands Children and Friends in all these there might be work for Patience although I acknowledg that true Christian-Patience looks upon such as Corrections and Chastisements and that they are more often the Indulgences of a Father then the severity of a Judge Corrections not Judgments And it is one of the safest ways for any to assure himself that he is the Child of God when he can willingly submit to his stroak as to the Correction of a Father Amongst the tryals of this kind I was able to observe one great work of Patience wrought out by this pious Lady When the astonishing news was brought her about three years since from the Isle of Garnsey of the strange and disasterous death of one of her dear Grand-Children with a Lady of great Piety and Honour and divers others by a terrible blast by Gunpowder the relation of which amazed the Court and all that heard of it although she first received the news with a sorrow supprest by a silence and wonder yet after when she heard that the Noble Lord her Grand-son who had also Lord Hatton been blown up out of his Chamber and by a wonderful Providence being thrown upon an high Wall that he and two of her Grand-children escaped without any harm she discovered a patient Submission to the Will of God in many