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	life_n	6,305	5	4.8360	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66430	The unreasonableness of infidelity a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, April 6, 1696, being the fourth of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2737; ESTC R38945	13,908	35

The Vnreasonableness of Infidelity A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields April 6. 1696. BEING THE Fourth of the LECTURE For this Present YEAR Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By JOHN WILLIAMS D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and Tho. Cockerill At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey MDCXCVI LUKE XVI 31. And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead FROM the 19th Verse of this Chapter to the end under the Parable of if I may so call it the Rich man and Lazarus there is a way proposed by which we may best judge of the wisdom and folly the happiness and misery of Mankind And it is as if our Saviour had said Suppose we a man as happy as the world can make him abounding in Prosperity Wealth Ease and Luxury that wanted nothing for his Vanity for he was in a condition honourable and splendid was cloathed in Purple and fiue Linen and Silk nothing for his Appetite for he fared sumptuously every day And when he died was buried with Ceremony and Pomp agreable to his Quality Suppose we on the other hand a person as miserable as this world can make him poor so as to beg full of Sores and Ulcers so as not able to help himself destitute of Friends so as to be cast at the Rich man's gate hunger-starved so as to need the very crumbs which fell from the other's table contemned so as not to be regarded though lying at the gate in the passage and view of all or if taken notice of yet so as not to be relieved naked so as not to have wherewith to cover his Body or to defend his sores from the cold and that found more pity among the dogs than men while alive for they came and licked his sores and when dead through want pain and anguish found as little charity to bury him Thus far we find them as unlike as can be in their present condition But now let us follow them beyond the Grave and see what becomes of them in the other world There we find the poor Lazarus that once pitiful contemptible necessitous wretched Creature that wanted what the dogs had here the crumbs of the Table taken care of at his death by the Holy Angels and carried by them into a place of safety and rest comfort and happiness where Abraham was and there preferr'd to a place of honour and kindness for he lay in Abraham's Bosom having no poverty nor sores nor contempt nor any of the evil things he received in his Life-time here This he had because of his afflictions that he endured and bore with admirable patience because of his steady dependance upon God and an humble submission to him in the most deplorable condition On the other hand the Rich man when he died went to Hell where he had none of the Ease and Luxury the Respect and Honour none of the good things he received in his life-time but was tormented in a flame wanting water there as much to cool his tongue and quench his insatiable thirst as Lazarus did before the crumbs which fell from his Table to satisfy his hunger There he was and there he was to abide for there was a great Gulph fixed that rendred him as uncapable of receiving relief in the other world as he was neglectful and unwilling to give it to such as needed in this This he had for his Pride and Unmercifulness for his Contempt of God and of others better than himself This he was too late sensible of as to himself he lift up his eyes but he was in torments he cried to his Father Abraham but he proves inexorable he calls for mercy but is minded of his former ingratitude to God and his uncharitableness to others and is put to silence with a Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things ver 25. When he could not prevail for himself he then turns his thoughts towards his Five brethren whom he left behind that were as careless and so likely at last to be as miserable as himself and intreats Abraham that Lazarus might be sent to testify unto them how it was with him and how it would also be with them unless they repented ver 27. To which Abraham replies ver 29. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But that doth not satisfy him and he urges further Nay Father Abraham but if one went from the dead they will repent ver 30. This he speaks from his own Experience who had Moses and the Prophets as well as they and yet he was as secure and careless as if he had never heard or knew what they Taught and therefore unless some other Expedient be thought of or some other means used they are like in the conclusion to be as miserable as himself and surely that if any would prevent it if one went from the dead But to this Abraham replies in the Text If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead that is if they give no Credit nor regard to what is contained in their Writings concerning a Future State of rewards and punishments they are incurable neither will they be persuaded to repent as it is ver 30. though one rise from the dead That there is a Future State of Happiness or Misery in which the Souls of men do live after a separation from their Bodies has been in all Ages universally received But yet was not so convincingly to be proved from the sole light of Reason but that a fuller evidence of it was very desirable For which there are but two ways Either that of Divine Revelation by persons Divinely Inspired Or by the return of one from the Dead who was before known to the Living And these are the ways taken here into consideration by our Saviour in the case before us Where there may be three sorts of persons concerned 1. Those that had not Moses and the Prophets and were wholly without a Revelation as was the case of the Heathens And how shall they believe who have not heard Rom. 10. 14. 2. Those that had Moses and the Prophets and yet were incredulous and did not believe what Moses and the Prophets relate concerning a Future State Such were the Sadducees who held there was no resurrection angel nor spirit existing out of a Body 3. Those that had Moses and the Prophets and did believe what was therein revealed concerning the Soul's Immortality and a Future Life but were not thereby persuaded to repent Such were the Pharisees who professed to believe what the Sadducees denied And of this sort were the Rich man here spoken of and his Five Brethren supposed to be Now toward the conviction of each of these it might

be supposed that if one rose from the dead the former would be persuaded to believe and the latter to repent Thus the Heathens reasoned who had no Revelation As that Excellent person Canus Julus that Seneca speaks of who just before his Execution said to his Friends Ye are inquisitive to know whether the Souls are Immortal I shall now know And he promised If he found it so that he would go about among his Friends and would inform themwhat was the state of departed Souls And the same Seneca when discoursing to Lucilius about the behaviour of Bassus Aufidius how dying he spake of Death as a Friend and what a confirmation this gave to the Doctrine of the Souls Immortality he adds But I suppose you would more firmly believe it if one should return to life again and should declare that he found no evil in death To this they gladly repaired as an evidence where they found it And therefore Plato produceth the instance of Erus Armenius that after he had been dead Twelve days revived and gave much such an account of the other State as we have in this Parable But 't is the case of Revelation we Christians are more immediately concerned in and which our Saviour here speaks to and prefers before the Testimony of one rising from the dead The way here proposed concerning the coming of one from the dead has somewhat of common Experience on its side For we see that notwithstanding the clear Revelation of another state in Scripture and the belief that men have of it yet generally they are but little affected with these Arguments though allowed to be of the greatest importance because they lie dead in a Book and are proposed to them by such as have no more personal Experience of these things than themselves having never been out of this world nor had any sight of or conversation with the other But now if a special Messenger should be sent from the other world a Lazarus who was known to them when alive and known by them to be dead one that had been an ocular witness of the things he spoke of and related and should tell them that as there is a state of Happiness for good men so a state of Misery for the wicked a state of Misery without ease respit or hope of deliverance and confirmed all by his appearance surely this would move them Surely no heart so hard but this must penetrate no mind so stup●d but this must awaken no Sinner so incorrigible but this must reclaim And it may be left to every one to judge Whether if there were such an Apparition that should come upon this terrible Errand any one could see and hear it with the same calmness and indifference as he hears a Sermon or reads a Chapter in the Bible upon this serious Argument So that the advantage seems to be much on the side of the Apparition and the Proposal here made agreeable to the Common sense of Mankind But how probable a course soever this seems to be yet our Saviour here determines on the contrary If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither c. Which Answer may be resolved into these Two parts 1. That the Arguments contained in the Scriptures are sufficient to persuade men to repent 2. When men disregard the Holy Scriptures the ordinary means of Salvation so as not to be persuaded to repent by the Arguments therein contained they will not be persuaded by means extraordinary and though for example one should rise from the dead The first of these viz. That the Arguments contained c. is supposed ver 29. when Abraham saith they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And this the other doth not deny Now the chief Arguments relating to this Subject are briefly touched upon in this Parable which are these 1. That the Souls of men are Immortal This is implied when the Rich man and Lazarus are said to be in Being after they were dead ver 22. 2. That the state into which the Souls of men are disposed after death is a state of recompence Abraham saith ver 25. He is comforted and thou art tormented 3. That that state of recompence is a state of unchangeable happiness to some and of endless misery to others ver 26. Between us and you there is a great gulph fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you to relieve you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence for relief 4. That men are disposed to happiness or misery there according to their behaviour in this world ver 25. saith Abraham Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented These are Considerations of such force and consequence that this miserable person desires not that Lazarus should be sent to argue upon them with his Five Brethren but to testify concerning their reality Arguments they are of such force that he that will not by these be persuaded to repent will never be persuaded by any other But though this be all granted to be true as it 's supposed yet in his opinion as the case would admit further evidence so it seemed to need it and therefore if this extraordinary course were taken of sending one from the dead they would in his opinion certainly repent who with the ordinary means continue impenitent This brings to the 2d General 2. When men disregard the ordinary means of Salvation and are not to be persuaded to repent by the Arguments revealed in holy Scripture they will not be persuaded by means extraordinary and though one should come from the dead to persuade them For the resolving of which point we are to consider what are the reasons why the ordinary means of Salvation such as the holy Scriptures are prove ineffectual which cannot be from the want of proper and forcible Arguments for whatever one from the dead can say to move or persuade is as plainly deliver'd in Scripture He cannot more expresly tell them that there is a God that the Souls of men are Immortal that there is a Heaven and a Hell than the Scripture doth And therefore if what is thus revealed and believed upon such Revelation should not prove as effectual as what is reported by a special Messenger from the dead it must be from some reasons which belong to the one and not to the other but that there is no ground for and therefore from whence can this proceed but from the excessive love to the things of this Life and the indulgence men give to themselves in the enjoyments of it Whence should this proceed but from the power of those Lusts and Vicious Habits they have contracted And where these and the like causes are a Messenger from the other world will make no stronger an impression nor will an impression thereby made be of any longer continuance than in the

other case But that he that will not be persuaded by Moses and the Prophets will not be persuaded though one come from the dead And this I shall make good 1. By parallel and sutable cases and instances 2 By a particular inquiry into the causes of impenitence which will hold in one case as well as the other 1. By parallel cases As 1. If means as extraordinary and more extraordinary than the coming of one from the dead have failed in this point and not persuaded men to repentance we have as little reason to expect nor can it reasonably be presumed that the coming of one from the dead should persuade and become effectual As for instance Let us consider the case of Pharaoh before whom such stupendious Miracles were wrought and upon whom such astonishing Judgments were inflicted as could not in reason be supposed resistible When the Waters Earth and Air Beasts Fishes and Fruits of the Earth Men and Children either felt or were made the instruments of Divine Vengeance Could it be thought that when the Waters were turned into Blood and Frogs covered the face of the Earth and the Dust of it was converted into Lice and the plague of Flies followed that of Lice and Murrain Flies and Boils the Murrain and Hail Boils and Locusts Hail and Darkness Locusts and the killing of the First-born the Darkness that he should yet be so obstinate as not to let the people of Israel go and when he did should follow them into the midst of the Sea Could disappointment vexation and revenge so far infatuate him that Miracle after Miracle Scourge upon Scourge could not persuade him nor the sense of so imminent a danger stop him in his carier but that he persisted in his first resolution and blinded thus with rage pursued it to his destruction Can it be supposed now that one from the dead could more have prevailed upon him than this Scene of Judgments Could it have come with so much terror Or if it should may not the Sinner be alike obstinate and infatuated May not the like passions and sensual affections or a habit of Sin keep a person from hearkening to or following the advice of one come from the dead Let us consider again how it was with the Israelites who had not only been Spectators of those Miracles and Judgments in Egypt but stood safe in the midst of them that were preserved directed and fed by a continued Series of Miracles and yet were not only upon every occasion tempting and provoking God by their distrust impatience and murmuring but were for returning into Egypt again Thus it was also with their Posterity in our Saviour's time who notwithstanding the plain fulfilling of their ancient Prophesies in him notwithstanding the Innocency of his Life the Purity Sanctity and Evidence of his Doctrine the Power of his Miracles changing the course of Nature as he pleased healing the Sick opening the Eyes of such as were born blind casting out Devils and raising the Dead Nay notwithstanding his Resurrection and the unquestionable confirmation of it yet continued obstinate and incredulous and what they could not deny would impute to Beelzebub Now what comparison is there between the coming of one from the dead and this case Or what reason is there to conceive that a wicked Jew should have been more effectually reclaimed from a Vicious course of Life and be made a penitent by the coming of one from the dead than the Jewish Infidel should be made a Convert by all those numerous Miracles and become a Christian And why may not the one be as well impenitent as the other an Infidel 2. It may be supposed in reason that what a person hears from another should in a matter of importance alike affect him in one case as in another And if he is not persuaded by the one there is no reason to expect he should be prevailed upon by the other Such indeed is the Testimony of one rising from the dead who must be acknowledged to be a very fit Evidence concerning the reality of a Future State and the condition of Separate Souls in it as he has been personally acquainted with it and had a part in it But such also is the Testimony of a trembling Sinner that after a vicious course of Life entring upon the confines of death and expecting every moment to be snatched away by that inexorable Enemy feels now the anguish no less than he formerly relished the pleasures of his Sin that cries out in the bitterness of his Soul That he is sensible but he fears too late of his former folly That he is now prey'd upon by a Thousand Vipers and feels a Hell in himself before he descends into it And in this Agony calls upon all about him and the once Sworn Companions in his Vices to take warning by him and no longer to entertain themselves with the charms of those noxious pleasures he is now burdened with the guilt of and would not for a world repeat if he was to live his Life over again Is not here a living and present Testimony And if one should come from the dead can he say more or can his Testimony be of greater force concerning the State he comes from than this of the awakened penitent if not despairing Sinner is concerning the Evil the Guilt and Terror of Sin And yet if this be not attended to or the force of it be soon carried off by a Glass of Wine and the charms of Company and Temptation or tract of Time Can it be supposed that the same Event may not happen to the other And will not the hardned and impenitent Sinner as much despise or as soon forget the admonitions of this ghostly Monitor as those of a dying desponding Friend 3. It may be expected that what a person sees himself should more affect him than what he hears only by the report of others And if what he sees though in a matter of necessity and importance makes little or no impression upon him how can it be supposed that what he hears only from another should affect him And this is the case For if one came from the dead to bear witness to the truth of a Future State of recompence and of the misery of impenitent Souls in it it 's only testimony and report and what can neither be of that certainty nor force as if the person to whom he comes upon this errand had himself been in that State But now there are those things which a person sees and which should in reason according to the nature of the things as much move him as the Testimony of one coming from the dead And of this kind is Death which we every day have in view and are no more secured against the very next moment than those that are already departed The plain consequence of which is this That 't is then our greatest wisdom so to order our selves and all our affairs that