Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	bread_n	nourish_v	4,911	5	10.6386	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29626	The famine of the word threat[e]ned to Israel, and Gods call to weeping and to mourning being two sermons preached on the fast day, Novemb. 13, 1678, and on the fast day, April 11, 1679 / by James Brome ...	Brome, James, d. 1719.; Brome, James, d. 1719. Gods call to weeping and to mourning.	1679 (1679)	Wing B4856; ESTC R18967	48,082	74

had entrusted them and to divorce and separate them from their Priests and their Prophets who were the true and Orthodox Expounders of it All this is implied by the Famine of the Word And so the Judgment will appear indeed to be very dreadful and terrible upon these three accounts 1. Because all entercourse and communion was likely to be cut off betwixt God and them 2. Because by this means they would be reduced to a very deplorable condition in relation to their souls by being deprived of all such means as should be most beneficial and advantagious to them 3. Because this commonly being the last of Judgments for God to deprive them totally of his worship must needs be most fatal and pernicious to them 1. By this means all entercourse and communion was likely to be cut off betwixt God and them As it was the greatest of honours to the Jewish Nation that they were separated from the rest of the World as a People peculiar to God to whom he was pleased very frequently to make greater manifestations of his love and favour than to any other community of mankind throughout the face of the Earth so was it still a further enhansment of their glory that God was pleased to choose their Metropolis Jerusalem as his own City and in that to accept of a Temple where he took delight to be called upon and worshiped rather than elsewhere for at Salem was his Tabernacle Psal 76.2 and his dwelling place in Sion Psal 122.4 that Temple was his Mansion house and habitation whither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. But now when once their provocations were grown so high and their sins and iniquities were risen to that degree as to enforce him to abominate both them and their Temple and make him loath and reject both them and their Religion what farther hopes could they have of any favour or of any entercourse and communion betwixt God and them In vain was it for them to expect that God should any longer strive to endear them by any former familiar ways of kindness when he was resolved to abandon both them and their Worship and all their Incense and their Sacrifices became very loathsome and detestable in his sight For Religion being the Cement the Ligament the chief Bond of Union and Communion betwixt God and Man when that is once broken or dissolved farewel to Gods love to his favour and friendship no longer doth God regard any persons than they are kept close to him by the firm ties of Duty and Obedience And therefore in this respect a Judgment of this Nature to banish men from his Altars to deprive them of his Ordinances and not to suffer them any longer to tread within his Courts I say such a Judgment of Famine must needs appear very terrible because when God rejects men as his Worshippers he rejects them likewise for being his Favourites and no longer than they continue in his Church or in his service must they expect any communion or any friendship from him 2. Secondly this Judgment was the more dreadful because by this means Israel was like to be reduced to a very deplorable condition in relation to their souls by being deprived of all such means as should be most advantagious to them As the Jews were happy in all manner of blessings so were they in that great blessing which God was pleased to bestow upon them by sending them his Messengers early and late to instruct them These persons were sometimes called Seers and sometimes Prophets and sometimes Priests but all declared unto them the will of God and expounded to them the Law and the Testimony to these therefore the people had recourse in all doubts in all straits in all emergencies and by them all their scruples were solved and their ignorance dispelled and their duty plainly taught and reiterated to them But now by this Famine they were like to lose all these God was resolved to take away their Prophets from them to suffer their Rabbies and Doctors of the Law no longer to instruct them and then what do we think could follow but a Night of Ignorance and Error what could we expect from them when these lights were put out but that like their Neighbours round about them they should all be invelop'd with the dark mists of Superstition and Idolatry Mal. 2.7 though their Priests lips did preserve knowledge yet if they were not permitted to seek it at their mouths they must needs grow stupid and ignorant Titus 1.16 foolish and extravagant abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitless and unfashionable But this is not all for they were not only like to be deprived of those persons who expounded the Law but of the Law it self with all its Worship and Sacrifices and that still enhanseth further the grievousness of this Judgment not to have their Priests left amongst them was a great loss but to be deprived of Gods Word too was the greatest Judgment could light upon them for now their souls were like to perish for want of food Gods Word being nutriment to the Soul as Bread is to the Body and that being subtracted and taken away from them which should nourish them up unto eternal life the means ceasing the end could never be obtained and so by consequence the Soul was not onely like to starve here but to perish hereafter too and to lie down in woe and sorrow to all eternity A sad Judgment indeed that God should subtract from them all means whereby to render themselves happy that he should snatch them from their Priests rend them from his Altars and by taking the light of his Word from them likewise condemn them to a far greater than Egyptian darkness this still renders it more grievous and dreadful 3. But there is a third aggravation of it still behind That this is the last of Judgments which God usually makes use of when mens iniquities are ripe and ready for destruction to deprive them of his true Worship and to remove their Candlestick out of his sight He that can calculate in how many instances Humane Nature is passive may quickly make an estimate of Israels calamities which were so manifold and terrible that God Almighty might have seemed even to have emptied his Magazine of Judgments and to have discharged them all upon the Jewish race In all the History of former Ages and places there is no where to be met withall any Generation of Mankind with whom God had so many controversies and upon whom he did pour down his hottest fury and displeasure drest up in such various and dismal shapes as he did upon this stubborn and incorrigible people There was not any manner of Judgment but the Jews were acquainted with and our Prophet Amos reckons up a whole Catalogue of sufferings which succeeded one another

eye and a blubbered cheek a mournful heart and an afflicted spirit a mortified body and a penitent soul which I confess must be indispensably superadded to all the rest must needs become Sacrifices acceptable to God and will at any time no doubt be very available to avert all present danger to prevent all future punishment or at least to secure such safety and deliverance as may be most necessary and expedient in the dismal times of calamity 1. Such humiliation is very necessary to avert all present danger though the hand of vengeance be lifted up this can hinder the stroke though the sword of justice be drawn this can hold it back though the decree be issued forth this may prevent the execution for so saith Jeremiah Chap. xviii 7 8. At what instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil then I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them I cannot give you a better instance than in that of Nineveh God sends his Prophet to them to assure them that they had but forty days space allowed them either to repent in or to be destroyed Jonah iii. 3. upon this they being immediately struck with the guilt of their own sins and the terror of this judgment set a part a solemn day without any further delays for fasting and humiliation for they put on Sackcloth from the least to the greatest and caused their very beasts to fast as well as themselves that so as St. Gregory observes the bleating of the Sheep and lowing of the Cattel with such other doleful notes might move the hearts of men still to further sadness which is a great preparative to repentance and how did they speed upon this What success did their contrition and humiliation meet with even with the greatest their hearts could wish or desire for God altered his purposes forthwith concerning this people the Text saith Vers 9. He repented of the evil he said he would do unto them and did it not We are all alarum'd at the news of great dangers which hang over our heads and who is so obdurate and insensate amongst us as not to be affected with the horror of them I am apt to think that the yoke of Rome is as dreadful to us as ever that of Egypt was to the people of Israel nor did they more tremble at the name of the Aegyptian Task-masters than we do when we hear of the leagues and frauds the treacheries and conspiracies the seditions and insurrections the butcheries and massacres of the Popish Emissaries but will our fears prevent our dangers or our jealousies become a bar to our miseries Will a bare antipathy against them keep us out of their reach or a few weak sighs or insignificant groans blow away those storms that threaten both Church and State with inevitable destruction No the only certain way to be eased of our cares and have our fears abated is to gain God on our sides by a timely humiliation and then we need not fear what the malice of man can do unto us indeed we are too apt to rely upon a weak arm of flesh to confide in the strength and the policy in the counsel and advice in the consultation and resolutions of those who preside over us thus we feed our selves with fancies that if our Senators be but quick and sagacious in making a thorough discovery of these wicked incendiaries if our Magistrates be but speedy in the execution of the Laws against them if these Traitors be but brought to condign punishment for the present and severe Laws be enacted for the security of the King and the preservation of the State for future Generations all things yet will go well and we may hope still for glorious days of peace and tranquillity but then we do not consider that when those are dispatched we have Traitors still amongst us at our own homes within our own breasts I mean our Sins which if not executed likewise with no less rigour and severity will open still a door and let in others from abroad no less dreadful and pestilential than those are when we think our selves most secure and out of danger It was a smart answer which an English Commander gave a French Captain in Normandy who asking him when he thought their Forces which were called back for England by King Henry the sixth would return into those parts again replyed When their sins called for them Yea 't is they which are the inlets to all the evil in the world 't is they make a gap open the avenues for our Enemies to come upon us armed and never believe the Seminaries of Rome will desert this Nation till by unfeigned repentance we have obstructed their passage and God by reason of that shall think fit not to suffer them any longer to torment and persecute us Humble then you selves under the mighty hand of God 't is the best way to avert present danger 2. 'T is as expedient likewise to prevent all future punishment Repentance is not only an antidote against present evils but a most certain defensative against all future calamities we are very ready to believe that if this Plot could be but thoroughly fifted if the bottom of it could be dived into the chief Abettors of it discovered the Confederates laid open the Associates brought to light the whole Popish Faction would be so bafled and disappointed and their motion for the future watched with such vigilancy and caution that they could never be able to do us any more prejudice But put the case this were true suppose we could obviate all their designs countermine all their Plots be privy to all their Cabals and receive weekly Bills of Intelligence from all their Consults in Spain Italy France or Flanders suppose they should still be so infatuated in their Counsels divided in their interests and so weakened by their ill success as nothing could come to any maturity which they projected against us yet can we be so foolish to imagin that God hath no other workmen to make him Darts and Arrows than Papists or no other executioners of his vengeance but Jesuits Alas if our offences require it there are instruments enough befide to serve God in his purposes he can raise up wicked Agents within our own Kingdom to ruin and destroy us he can if he please make a Synedrial Classis of Geneva become as fatal to us as a Conclave at Rome and permit a trumpet of Sedition in order to our downfall to be blown as loud out of a Fanatick Conventicle as a Jesuits Cloyster he can crumble us into Factions and Divisions amongst our selves and make every Schismatical Sect amongst us become his rod and scourge to chastise our wickedness and folly nay he need not go so far for executioners to dispatch us for he can raise up

within our own bowels Ministers of his wrath as he served Antiochus and Herod to put a period to our lives and sins together and nothing but a serious and sincere Repentance though perhaps we do escape now can give us any assurance that we shall not fall for the future by one or other of those direful Assassinates 'T is observable in all the States and Kingdoms of the world as in Aegypt Babylon Jewry c. whom God enforced to drink the dreadful cup of his fury that their final impenitency was the cause of their destruction and they might perhaps yet have flourished and been in vogue in the world had not their sins intercepted the Divine Favour and hastened their ruin There is nothing can make a Nation firm and durable lasting and permanent settle it upon such foundations as that when the rain descends and the floods come and the winds blow they shall not be able to shake it but Repentance alone which will so fortifie and strengthen it that the gates of Hell shall not be able to prevail against it upon which account if we would for ever promote the universal happiness of out Nation prevent all future attempts and designs of its Enemies against it and establish it upon such solid and lasting foundations as no shocks of the most puissant assailants shall be able to demolish it let us answer Gods Call and fall to weeping and mourning 3. By which means I dare assure you that if we could not avert present danger nor prevent future punishment yet we may thirdly without all peradventure deliver our own souls yea this is the comfort that the truly penitent man receives though Gods judgment fly abroad to the terror of the wicked Psal lvii 1. though the storms and billows of affliction do arise yet either under the shadow of his wings will hide him 1 Cor. x. 13. until those calamities be overpast or else with the temptation make a way to escape that he may be able to bear it if the old Dragon cast out a flame of fire to destroy the Church if the Clouds of persecution fall in showers upon the penitent mans head yet behold Isa xliii 2. When he passeth through the water God will be with him and through the rivers they shall not overflow him when he walks through the fire he shall not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon him nay God hath decreed to set a mark upon his head that so he may escape the fury of the destroyer Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of her Ezek. ix 4.5 and to the others he said Go ye after him through the city and smite let not your eye spare neither have pity slay utterly both old and young both maids and little children and women but come not near any man upon whom is the mark You see then upon terms you may hope for safety in the gloomy days of Calamity if your returns be proportionable to Gods gracious calls if you exercise all the acts of true penance and contrition though your Nation should be consumed in the day of the Lords anger yet your repentance shall render you so grateful a Sacrifice to him as will cause him not only to accept your persons but to secure and protect them to be your shield and buckler your high tower and defence in the greatest extremities And now this being the design of Gods gracious call to Israel one would be apt to think that such endearing methods of kindness should have met with some suitable returns of duty that such cords of love should have drawn the Jews to a compliance with Gods desires and such Philtrum's of mercy charm'd them into good nature and a complaisant obedience nay one would believe it almost impossible for intelligent beings who had but any spark left of the sensitive part of humanity not to be armed against future danger upon such fair premonitions and be perswaded from thence to provide for their own safety and consult their own security much less to be guilty of such oscitancy and supineness such obduracy and perverseness as neither to be won by love nor awed by fear but to set up themselves in opposition to God their own ways in contradistinction to his and resolve that because God will have one thing they will be sure to act clear contrary to the Divine Pleasure and yet this was the case of the Jews in the Text which brings me to the second observable II. To consider their horrible Ingratitude towards God who as it were in defiance to his Almighty hand called to joy and gladness when God thought it most necessary to call to weeping and mourning to slaying sheep and killing oxen when God thought fasting and abstinence to be most proper for them nay to eating and drinking even downright luxury and profaneness when God expected by a mortified body and a penitent soul to have received the earnest from them of a thorough Reformation From which unworthy procedure of this people towards God there will three things again fall under consideration 1. The base Nature and disingenuous Temper of the Jews thus boldly to thwart God in all his gracious designs towards them 2. Their carnal Security which made them deaf to the loudest Calls and regardless of all such things which were of the greatest moment and concernment to them 3. Their prodigious Luxury and Voluptuousness which laid their consciences asleep and made them incredulous hard-hearted and remorseless unfit to relent at any thing which was threatned against them or to receive any Divine favour or kindness that was offered them 1. I shall consider the disingenuous Temper and base Nature of the Jews thus to thwart God Almighty in the most gracious designs and purposes concerning them 'T is the opinion of some Divines that one reason why God was pleased to make choice of the Jews as a peculiar people and select them from all the rest of the world beside was indeed out of meer pity and compassion towards them because he knew they were a sort of men of the most obstinate refractory and unmanageable temper beyond all other Nations throughout the Universe and therefore stood most in need of it and indeed had they not been of so untractable a disposition and of a mold quite differing from all the race of mankind beside 't is hardly supposeable that under such happy circumstances as God was pleased to place them they could ever have miscarried and become at last the off-scouring and the contempt of the world had not their own unparallel'd ingratitude opened a way for their ruin and their incorrigibelness under all means exposed them to such misfortunes and really though they appeared in the shapes of men yet that they seem'd to be devested of the common sentiments and principles of humanity will be too apparent to any one who considers that

would make ones heart ake to read the History of their Times when in the space of less than seven years there perished of the Jews at home and abroad both in their Civil and Foreign Wars as Lipsius hath computed the number no less than duodecies centena quadraginta millia twelve hundred and forty thousand men De Constantia lib. 2. cap. 21. to fulfil the tenor of those threatnings which had so frequently been issued out by their Prophets against that Nation And now since the mercies have been as great which God hath vouchsafed to us and our incorrigibleness as remarkable under the greatest of them what remains for us but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to devour all Gods adversaries What can we say for our selves that God should not suffer us to fall into their hands whom we most fear since we have trampled upon his goodness whom we have most reason to love It is but just with God to punish one sin by another and so fit us for destruction by the permission of it to change our indifferency in Religion into a blind Zeal and superstitious practice of it our open Prophaneness into professed Idolatry our contempt of Order and Discipline into rigorous Censures and a bloody Inquisition our despising of Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities into a Yoke of Tyranny and Romish Usurpations And I know not what can any way avert the one but our hearty and sincere resolutions to retract and utterly forsake the other and with prostrate bodies and contrite souls unanimously to implore the divine mercy in that excellent Form of Prayer which our Church affords us for this occasion GLORIOVS and gratious God whose judgments against obstinate offenders are most severe and terrible but thy mercies insinite to all that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto thee We sinful people of this Land do acknowledge before thee to thy glory and our own shame that never any Nation had more experience of thy goodness nor yet did ever any more unthankfully abuse it when thou gavest us great and long prosperity we fed our selves to the full waxed fat and kicked against thee when thou threwest us into horrid confusions from which we saw then little hopes of arising even in the time of that distress did we trespass yet more against thee when by miracles of mercy thou hadst turned our captivities we soon returned to folly to our vomit and to our wallowing in our former or greater filthiness Even while thou hast of late appeared for us by discovering the Plots and Contrivances of our implacable enemies of the Romish Faction we have been in the mean time by our sins sighting against Heaven and against thee And now we are no more worthy to be called either thy sons or thy servants whom neither thy fear hath driven nor thy goodness led to repentance In mercy awaken our drowsie consciences and subdue our hard hearts into deep contrition Pardon the many great offences of us thy servants and the crying sins of the whole Nation Remove the evils we now lie under Avert the judgments which we justly fear because we most justly deserve Discover more and more the snares of death and Popish treachery and let us never fall into the hands of those men whose mercies are cruel Vnite all our hearts in the profession of the true Religion which thine own right hand hath planted amongst us and in a holy conversation answerable therete Pour out thine abundant blessings upon our gracious King and his great Council the present Parliament Keep him as the apple of thine eye hide him under the shadow of thy wings Inform his Princes after thy will and teach his Senators wisdom And grant that all their counsels resolutions and endeavours may tend to and end in the glory of thy great Name the preservation of the Church and true Religion amongst us and the security peace and prosperity of these Kingdoms All which we humbly beg in the Name and through the Mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son our Saviour Amen FINIS