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	death_n	separation_n	20,420	5	10.8447	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29709	A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favorable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing B4970; ESTC R11759	200,185	248

out of the hand of the terrible God engages himself to protect him against all the might malice of his most terrible enemies and though he should fall into their hands yet he would deliver him out of their hands Psalm 33. 3. They have consulted against thy hidden ones The Saints are 1. Hid in Gods decree 2. Hid in Christs wounds 3. Hid in the chambers of Divine providence 4. Hid in common dangers as Noah was hid in his Ark and as Lot was hid in Zoar Isa 26. 20. and as Daniel was hid in the Lyons den and as the three Children were hid in the fiery Furnace and as Jonah was hid in the Whales belly 5. Hid with Christ in God in Colos 3. 3. times of greatest trouble the Saints are hid under the hollow of Gods hand under the shadow of Gods wing Psalm 27. 5. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in Psal 91. 1 4. his Pavilion The Hebrew Succoh is written with a little Samech to shew say some that a little pavilion or cottage where God is shall be sufficient to save-guard the Saints in the day of adversity He shall hide me in his hut as a Shepherd doth his sheep in a stormy day In the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me I shall be as safe as if I were shut up in his holy Ark Tabernacle or Temple whither they use to flee for shelter to the horns of the Altar yea as if a man were hid in the most holy Place where none might enter but only the High-Priest once a year which is therefore called Gods secret place A Ezeck 7. 22. Shepherd should not be more careful to shelter his sheep in a Tent or Tabernacle from the heat of the Sun nor a King should not be more ready to protect a Favorite in his pavilion whence none durst venture to take him than God would be careful and ready to shroud and shelter his People from the rage madness and malice of their enemies How did God hide his Church in Aegypt Exod. 3. 2 3. the Bush was still burning and yet was not consumed and how did he hide seven thousand in Eliah's 1 Kings 19. 18. time that had not bowed their knees to Baal Though the Woman the Church be driven to flee into the wilderness Rev. 12. 6. yet there she is hid and there she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score dayes Let our Enemies do their worst they shall not hinder us of Divine protection no power nor policy can hinder our being preserved and secured by God in the greatest troubles deepest distresses and most deadly dangers that can attend us But Fourteenthly If God be with us who can be against us I answer None so as to deprive us of our union with Christ as to dissolve that blessed union that is between Joh. 15. 1 2 3 4 5. Christ and our souls When Men and Divels have done their worst our Mariage union with Christ holds good this union is indissoluble this union between Christ Believers is not capable of any separation they are so one that all the violence of the world nor all the power of darkness can never be able to make them two again Hence the Apostle's triumphant challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ If the question Rom. 8. 35. did not imply a strong Negation the Apostle himself doth give us a negation in words at length Neither death Verse 38 39. nor life nor Angels nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us c. Here you have a long Catalogue consisting of a large induction of various particulars But none of all these can dissolve the union between Christ and Believers None can untie that knot that is tied by the Spirit on Christs part and by Faith on ours Christ and Believers are so firmly joyned together that all the powers on earth and all the united strength of Hell shall never be able to put them asunder or to separate them one from another look as no distance of place can hinder this union so no force or violence from Devils or Men shall ever be able to dissolve this union and herein lies the peculiar transcendent blessedness of this union above all other unions they all may cease be broken and come to nothing every one of them is soluble The head may be separated from the members and the members from the head the Husband must be separated from the Wife and the Wife from the Husband the Parents must be separated from the Children and the Children from the Parents and bosom friends must be separated one from another The foundation and the house may be separated and the branches may be cut off from the vine yea the soul and body may be disunited by death but the mystical union stands fast for ever Christ and a gracious soul can Matth. 19. 6. never be separated God hath joyned them together and no mortal shall ever be able to put them asunder there is not only a continuation of it all our life but also in death it self Our very bodies sleeping in the dust are even then in union with Christ There are two abiding things in the Saints their unction and their union their unction abides But the anointing 1 John 2. 27. which ye have received of him abideth in you and their union abides for it follows and ye shall abide in him Christ earnestly prayes that we might be one as he John 17. 20 21 22 23. and his Father are one not essentially nor personally but spiritually so as no other Creature is united to Christ There can be no Divorce between Christ and Malach. 2. 19. the believing Soul Christ hates putting away Sin may for a time seemingly separate between Christ and the Believer but it can never finally separate between Christ and the Believer Look as it is impossible for the leaven that is in the dough to be separated from the dough after it is once mixed for it turneth the nature of the dough into it self so it is impossible for the Saints ever to be separated from Christ for Christ is in the Saints as Rom. 8. 10. Coloss 1. 27. 1 John 3. 21. John 17. 23. nearly and as really as the leaven is in the dough Christ and Believers are so incorporated as if Christ and they were one lump Our nature is now joyned to God by the indissolvible tye of the Hypostatical union in the second Person and we in our persons are joyned to God by the mystical indissolvible bond of the Spirit the third Person Our union with the Lord Jesus is so near so close and so glorious that it makes us one spirit with him In this blessed union the Saints are not only joyned to the graces and

doth manifest his favourable his signal his eminent presence with his People in their greatest troubles deepest distresses and most deadly dangers Feri Domine feri said Luther strike while thou pleasest Lord only to thy correction Add instruction ut quod noceat doceat by his teaching and instructing of them Psalm 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law This divine presence turns every lash into a happy lesson In this Psalm the holy Ghost useth six arguments to prove that a man is blest who is chastened First because he is instructed by being afflicted as here 2. Because the end why God layes affliction on his People is to give them rest from the dayes of adversity Verse 13. 3. Until the pit be digged for the wicked in the same Verse until the cold grave hold his body and hot hell hold his soul 4. Because God will support them under all their afflictions when God casteth his People into the Furnace of afflictions his everlasting armes shall be underneath them though God may cast down his People yet he will never cast off his People 5. Because there shall be a glorious restauration Ver. 15. Judgment shall return unto righteousness 6. Because all the upright in heart shall follow it in the same Verse viz. in their affections they are carried out after it earnestly desiring that dear day when God will unriddle his providences and clear up his proceedings with the sons of men Jerom writing to a sick friend hath this expression I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity I judge you to be miserable because you have not been miserable Demetrius saith nothing seems more unhappy to me than he to whom no adversity hath hapned Impunitas securitatis mater virtutum noverca Bern. Religionis virus tinea sanctitatis Freedom from punishment is the mother of security the stepmother of virtue the poyson of Religion the moth of holiness It was a speech of Gaspar Olevianus a German Divine in his sickness In this disease saith he I have learned how great God is and what the evil of sin is I never knew to purpose what God was ●efore nor what sin meant before Gods corrections are our Schola cru●is schola lucis Isa 26. 9. Prov. 3. 12 13. cap. 6 23. instructions his lashes our lessons his scourges our schoolmasters his chastisements our advertisements and to note this the Hebrews and Greeks both express chastening and teaching by one and the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 musar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the latter is the true end of the former according to that in the Proverb Smart makes wit and vexation gives understanding Job 36. 8. And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction Verse 9. Then be sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded Verse 10. He openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity Sanctified afflictions open mens ears to discipline and turn them from iniquity which is a piece of learning that a Christian can never pay too dear for Affliction is verus Scripturae commentarius An excellent comment upon the Scripture Afflictions make way for the word of the Lord to come to Affliction sanctisied is Lex practica a practical Law the heart Bernard had a brother of his who was a riotous and prophane Soldier Bernard gives him many good instructions and admonitions c. but his brother slighted them and made nothing of them Bernard comes to him and puts his hand to his side One day saith he God will make way to this heart of yours by some spear or launce and so it fell out for going into the wars he was wounded and then he remembers his brothers instructions and admonitions and then they got to his heart and lay upon it to some purpose Job 33. 16. Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction Oculos quos peccatum claudit poena aperit Greg. The eyes that sin shuts afflictions open The cross opens mens eyes as the ●asting of honey did Jonathan's By correction God seales up instruction God sets on the one by the other as when a Schoolmaster would have a lesson learned indeed he sets it on with a whipping As Gideon taught the Elders of the city and the men of Succoth with the thornes and briars of the wilderness so Judg. 8. 16. God teaches his People by affliction many a holy and happy lesson By afflictions troubles distresses and dangers the Lord teaches his People to look upon sin as the most loathsome thing in the world and to look upon holiness as the most lovely thing in the world Sin is never-so bitter and holiness is never so sweet as when our troubles are greatest and our dangers highest By afflictions the Lord teaches his People to sit loose from this world and to make sure the great things of that other world By affliction God shewes his People the vanity vexation emptiness weakness and nothingness of the Creatures and the choiceness preciousness and sweetness of communion with himself and of inte●est in himself Christ though he knew yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered that is he Heb. 5. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 N●cumenta documenta shewed obedience more than before Not as if Christ were to go to School to learn or as if by certain acts he were to fit himself for obedience he did not learn that which he knew not before but did that which he did not before he that was put upon the tryal of his obedience he came to know by experience what a hard matter it was thus to obey God By Gods favourable presence a man comes to learn many lessons in a time of adversity which he never learned in a day of prosperity for we are like idle boyes and bad scholars that learn best when the rod is over us Hezekiah was better Isa 39. 1 2 3 4. 5. upon his sick bed than when he was shewing of his treasures to the Ambassadours of the King of Babylon and David was a better man when he was in his wilderness Psalm 30. 6 7. condition than when he set upon his Royal throne the Jews are ever best when in the worst condition the Athenians would never mend tell they were in mourning When Munster lay sick and his friends asked him how he did and how he felt himself he pointed to his sores and uleers whereof he was full and said These are Gods gems and jewels wherewith he decketh his best friends and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world Here as that Martyr phrased it we are but learning our A. B. C. and our lesson is never past Christs Cross and our walking is still home by weeping cross Usually men are worst in a prosperous condition in

Rom. 8. 31. If God be for us who can be against us That is none but this is a more forcible denying Who can Doest thou Paul ask Who can I 'll tell thee The Devil can and Tyrants can and Informers can and Persecutors can and the whole World can but ridendus est furor inanis They are as nothing and can do nothing against us Wicked men may set themselves against the Saints but they shall not prevail against the Saints What if all the world should strive to hinder the Sun from rising or shining or the wind from blowing or the rain from falling or like those Pigmies which went with their arrows and bows to repress the flowing of the Sea Ludibrious acts and meer follies All that wicked men can do against the People of God will be but as throwing stones against the wind If God be with us who can be against us Me thinks these are words of great resolution as if he should say we have many enemies and powerfulenemies and daring enemies and malitious enemies and designing enemies and enraged enemies yet let the proudest of them shew their faces and lift up their banners I fear them not I regard them not Who can who dare be against ●● Let me give a little light into this precious Scripture If God be for us who can be against us that is none First None can be so against us as to hurt us or harm us therefore Aquinas well expounds that Quis contra Dan. 3. 25. 27. Cap. 6. 22. nos i. e. Quis efficaciter and others Quis laesivè prevalenter who can be against us so as to hurt us Acts 18. 9. Then spoke the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace Verse 10. For I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to burt thee for I have much people in this City God had many Souls in this ity to convert and What said Justin Martyr to his murtherers in the behalf of himself and his fellow-Mortyrs you may kill us but you can never hurt us to bring in to Christ and therefore he animates and encourages Paul to preach boldly and to go on in his work undauntedly I but Lord there be many in the City that will set themselves against me I but I am with thee I but Lord there be many in the City that will hate me I but there is no Man that shall set on thee to hurt thee They may kill me said Socrates of his Enemies but they cannot hurt me It was the speech of Anaxarchus a Heathen when as he by the Tyrant he was commanded to be put in a Mortar and be beaten to pieces with an Iron pestel he cries out to the Persecutors you do but be at the vessel of Anaxarchus you do not beat me nor hurt me you do but beat the case the husk the vessel that contains another thing his body was to him but as a case a husk he counted his soul himself which his persecutors could not reach nor hurt Though there were many in the City of Corinth that would be ready furiously to set on Paul yet there should not be a man that should be able to hurt Paul God would be his life guard to protect him and he would make void all the mischievous designs and endeavours of his adversaries against him When in a City the Lord hath those that are ordained to Salvation he will bless the labours of his faithful Servants with happy success so that faithful Ministers may not yea must not for fear of the invincible malice of some neglect the Salvation of others All the Arrows that Men of might and malice should shoot at Paul in the City of Corinth should never reach him they should never hurt him nor harm him 1 Pet. 3. 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good They may oppose you but they cannot harm you they may hate you but they cannot harm you they may plot and devise mischief against you but they cannot harm you they may persecute you but they cannot harm you I know Caesar told Metellus that he could as easily take away his life as bid it be done but these were only bravado's for that is a Royalty which belongs to God only To whom belong the issues Psalm 68. 20. of death or the goings out from death that is deliverances from death and deadly dangers It is an allusion to one that keepeth a passage or a door that is God hath all the wayes which lead out from death in his own keeping Christ hath the keys of death the sole Revel 1. 18. 2 Pet. 2. 9. dominion and disposal of it the Lord knows how to deliver his People from the most desperate and deadly dangers he can deliver them out of the mouth of the Lion he can pull them out of the jaws of death and so secure them from all harm or hurt none can be so against the People of God as to harm their souls as to hurt their happiness But If God be with us who can be against us I answer Secondly None can be so against us as to prevail 2. Matth. 16. 18. Heb. 2. 10. Jer. 1. 19. Cap. 20. 11. over us the Gates of hell may fight against us but the Gates of hell cannot prevail against us Christ is the Captain of your Salvation God hath made him General of the Field and therefore you may be sure that he will stand by you and bring you off with honour you need never fear having the day who have Christ your Captain for your second though your persecutors are as so many roaring Lions yet Christ who is the Lion of the Tribe of Judab will make you victorious over Revel 5. 5. Psalm 129. 2. them all In all storms and tempests the Church will stand fast because it stands upon a rock God is on Zions side and the Enemies of Zion must first prevail against Zions God Before they can prevail over Zion her self Zions God will be a wall of fire about her and Zach. 2. 5 Dent. 33. 26 27 28 29. therefore Zions Enemies shall never prevail over her Were Zions shelter stones these might be battered were it walls of lead these might be melted were it a defence of waters these might be dryed up were it garrisons of mighty men these might be scattered were it engines of war these might be defeated were it trenches these might be stopped were it bulwarks these might be overthrown But Zion is guarded with a wall of fire round about her and therefore all her opposers can never prevail over her The Enemies of Zion 2 Chron. 32. 7 8 Rom. 8. 37. Genes 3. 12. Num. 14. 9. are weak Enemies they are infatuated Enemies they are conquered Enemies they are limited Enemies they are chained Enemies they are cursed Enemies and they are naked Enemies and therefore