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
A93781	Spiritual infatuation, the principal cause of our past and present distempers. Or a serious caveate to the many seducers and seduced who under the specious pretences of reformation and conscience endeavour the subversion of Church and State. In several sermons on Isa. 9,10,11,12. By W. Stamp D.D. late minister of the Word at Stepn[e]y near London.	Stampe, William, 1611-1653?	1662 (1662)	Wing S5195; ESTC R229850	116,158	268

and strikes the Soule with Numnesse that she cannot feel the comfort of Gods mercy There is a Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that shall never be forgiven because there shall never any place be sound for repentance But yet though we may conclude that such a s●n there is yet we cannot without great rashnesse and uncharitablenesse conclude tha● This or That man is that irrecoverable sinner It is for the most part agreed that The sin against the Holy Ghost is a Total Apostacy from the Gospel of Christ formerly acknowledged and professed together with a verbal Calumniating and a real persecuting of the same with a deliberate purpose so to continue and persevere unto the Death and then to passe away in that disposition But supposing ●his Definition to be rightly stated can any man say that this mans Apostacy is Total that it is malicious that it is Deliberate and that it shall be final Saint Peter was a Blasphemer but he did not persecute the Church Saint Paul was a Blasphemer and a Persecuter but he did not persevere There was a perhaps left for Symon Magus his recovery even at the same time when he was in the Gall of bitternesse and in the bond of Iniquity when his overture was so profane and Blasphemous that he attempted to purchase the gift of the Holy Ghost with mony Repentance and prayer were prescribed unto him by Saint Peter The schoolmen tell us that there are six sins that are dangerous Introductions into this irrecoverable gulf namely Presumption and Desperation Impenitency and Hardnesse of heart The resisting of a Truth after Convincement and the Envying Gods grace in other men But no man can conclude a man to be Totally and finally surprized with the●e unlesse he be perfectly acquainted with the close of his life We read in the History of our Saviours Cures that he cured one woman that had an issue of blood running upon her twelve yeers another woman whom Satan had bound and bowed together eighteen yeers That he cured a Cripple at the pool of Bethesda that had been there thirty and eight yeers And if these were bodily infirmities only and so no fit presidents for any spiritual Cure we read of Mary Magdalene who had been a notorious sinner and possessed along time by seven Divels and yet by the mercy of her Saviour was recovered into a more Evangelical temper then many of the Apostles themselves as appears Luc. 7. 44. We read also of witches● that having renounced their Baptisme contracted with the Divel and resigned up themselves to his entire possession and Command for many yeers have yet been recovered into the Christian faith and a Salvable condition That madmen should be poysoned because Physitians know not how to cure them That menshould take away t●eir lives because God hath taken away their understanding is a proceeding that savours ●ore of Conveni●nce then Conscience for this is to put no dif●erence at all between Christians and Dogs and Cats in times of Infection I know it is impossible in nature for a Camel to passe through the ey of a needle and yet we read that this and all things els are pos●…ble unto God I say all things that imply not Contradiction or repugnancy to his nature We must grant saith Augustine that God is able to do somthing which we are not able to find out in such works the whole reason of the doing is the power of the doer It is God that hath done them consider the author and all doubts will cease And since the scrip●ure assures us that neither The incestuous Corinthian for the haynousnesse of his sin nor the Theise upon the crosse for his perseverance in sin unto the last hour were excluded Heaven There is little Reason and lesse Grace for any man to conclude himself Damned on this side the grave But let not any m●n mistake me or deceive himself by deriving an Encouragement unto presumption from that which I intend only for an Antido●e against Despaire So that a possibility of Cure being granted our next businesse is to propound what is most probable and instrumental to the same The fat heart I have shewed is called in scripture a stony heart if it were a brazen Heart it might be melted or if it were an Iron heart it might be malleable but the furnace has no power over the stone the Hammer of Gods Iudgement is the fittest instrument to deale with it Now as the Stone in the kidney or the Blader is a disease of great pain and of no small difficulty in the Cure so is it with that disease which Divines call the stone in the Heart or stoninesse of heart Some Analogie or proportion there is in the Cure of both diseases which may serve only to illustrate one another Two ways Physitians have found out for the Curing of the Stone in the blader namely either by cutting and drawing it out of the blader which is a work of pain or els by dissolving it within the blader which is a work of Art Two ways likewise Divines are directed in the Cure of the Stone in the Heart namely to Break it by the terrors of the Law which is a Cure of pain or els to Dissolve it by the mercies of the Gospel wh●ch is a Cure of great Art and Excellency And though for the most part Plures sunt ques Timor Corrigit They are the greater number that are driven home to God by fear yet meliores sunt quos Amor dirrigit They are of a better Constit●tion that are won by Love We read in in Scripture of a Broken Heart and a Burning Heart A Broken Heart when he watered his Couch with his Teares when he roared day and night for the very disquietnesse of his heart upon the sad apprehension of Gods anger and discountenance and a Bur●ing Heart in the two disciples that went to Emmaus whose hearts are said to burn with●n them whilst Iesus expounded unto them the Mysteries of their Salvation Some mens hardnesse is like that of the flint which is easier broken upon a Cushion then an Anvil But most mens hearts are like cracken bels they must be broken all in pieces and new cast by the Belfounder ere ever they will be made to ring in Tune The first potion then I would prescribe for the recovery of an Infatuared Spirit is an Exceeding bitter one and yet it must be taken what it wants in sweetnesse it hath in Salubrity It is compounded of little else but the Terro●s of the Law The weight of Gods Justice The separation of the soul from the body by the blow of Death The Separation of both from the presence of God by the Doom of Iudgement and the view of those torments which are Endlesse Easelesse Remedilesse For the disease being Lethargick and paralitick that is a disease that is attended with much drousinesse and stupidity It is necessary the soul be first awakened to its own danger by the smart and

5. 6. For till we are clen●ed of this filthinesse and this foreskin be taken away the heart of man is abominable and disobedient and to every good work av●…se and reproba●e Of this speaks the same Prophet also in another place A new heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh E●ech 36. 26. So that when God is said to harden any mans heart it is not to be understood of any positive act or operation upon the heart making that ha●d and impenetrable which before was soft and pliable but according to the Co●nsel of h●s most just and holy will by way of N●gation or rath●r preterition he passeth by the vessels of wrath and leaves them as he found them with their natural hardnesse and drynesse upon them No otherwise then as the earth is somtimes parched and made fruitlesse not by any positive curse bu● as it was in Eliahs time when the clouds were withheld from pouring their rain upon it Thus we read of Sihon King of the Amorites that when the Israelites would have passed peaceably through his territory paying not only for their meat but for their water and pawning their Deut. 2. 2● faith only to passe along the high way without turning e●ther to the right hand or to the le●t It is said that God hardned his Spirit and made his heart obstinate Deut 2. 30. that is he lest him to be ruined by his own natural peevish and unfriendly disposition in opposing that people which he saw God Almighty owned by his visible power and protection God hardned his heart non indu●endo malitiam sed propter peccata praecedentia subtrahendogratiam saith Aequinas 2. There is a second kind of Obduration which is Casual and Vol●ntary the work of a mans own wilful and pernicious industry A kind of poison extracted out of many venomous and destructive simples A custom contracted by the iteration and repetition of many vitious and ungodly actions Now though hardnesse be the quality of all iron in general yet there is an apparent difference between the hardness of iron in the Ore and the hardness of iron in the Anvil That in the Ore is hard by nature That in the Anvil is hardned by designe and growes harder every day by a constant multiplication of strokes upon it That in the Ore is malleable and easily broken in pieces That in the Anvil is so obdurate that it resisteth all the strokes that are made upon it Just so is it with a mans heart That which by nature was but Pollution by indu●gence and improvement becomes poison That which by nature was but a skin about the heart by custom becoms a stone in the heart Humors when they are tough and compacted are purged out of the body with greater difficulty and a complication of sins is not easily dissolved in the soul For as in the Natural Constitution that which is but a slim● visious humour in the stomack is by the heat of the body compacted into gravel and by the continual acc●ssion of this gr●…e substance is digested into a stone in the reins or in the bladder which grows there to such a mag●itude that it becomes a disease which is seldome cured but with extreme paine and hazard of the patient Just so is it with the Spiritual Co●stitution That which by nature was but a pronesse and propensitie unto evil by the strength of Custom and encouragement of Delight becoms a second nature a Necessitie whereby a man is so far ensnared and fettered with the cords of his own twisting that he becoms prisoner and slave unto himself and his own corrupt affections and without great grace and m●rcy is never redeemed into the glorious liberty of the sons of God I shall instance only in that cheap and daring provocation the sin of ●…rsing and swearing which makes up a great part of some mens Language Were it certainly revealed from heaven to the common swearer that the next oath he swore he should incur the sentence of Dathan and Abiram and be carried away quick to Hell I perswade my selfe he were not able to forbear so powerful and predominant is the strength of a depraved custom in the soul And truly though custom in some cases may be a good plea in Law yet I am sure 't is a very bad one in Divinity A man that should be arraigned at the bar of Iustice for taking a purse upon the high wey or for picking a pocket at a sermo● and should plead at the bar under this form My Lord I pray be good to me 't is a Custom I have gotten and would leave but I canno● Would not all the world cry shame on him away with him to Execution Certainly the case is the same between God and us Are we born down with the strength of custom The more our guilt and shame that to the high dishonour and provocation of a merciful God could be conte●t to sin over the same sins for ten twenty thirty yeers together without ever taking notice that we were in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity And truly he that shall favour himself in any wicked way and indulge unto any pleasing transgression with a purpose to persevere therein Does apparently strengthen himself in his wickednesse delivers up the possession of himself to that Devil whose name is Legion and makes Mar. 5 9. way for a third kind of obduration which follows in the next place to be spoken of 3. There is a third kind of Obduration and that is Divine and Iudicial the just reward of the former obstinacy For when the Donor of every good and Ezech. 〈◊〉 16. 17. perfect gift finds his Tale●ts ab●sed his silver and gold and the fair jewels of his mercy made the fuel and matter of more licentious provocation his Grace turned into want●nnesse the motions of his good Spirit vilified and rejected no abatement of sin no improvement in Grace notwithstanding all his stripes and Fatherly Corrections When he sees the heart of a man so wedded unto his own way that with Ahab he sets 1. King 21. 25. himself to work wickednesse in the sight of the Lord And with Absolom is not ashamed to commit a barbarous and horrid wickednesse in the sight of 2. Sam. 16. 22. all Israel and the Sun When a man is grown so strangely habituated unto wickednesse that he can as well forbear to eate or drink or sleep as the contrivance and prosecution of his malicious designs And so desperately resolved as to make a Covenant with Esay 28. 15. Death and to be at an agreement with Hell cannot endure to think of being reformed and therefore declines and hates any thing that may tend to his Conversion Then as a just reward and punishment of this wilfulness God delivers up such a man unto himself withdraws

the sweet influence of his grace suffers him to take his full swinge in wickednesse and to run head-long without any restraint to his own ruin and destruction This I take to be the obduration of Pharaohs heart so frequently mentioned in the book of Exodus For it is said Exod. 8. 15. When Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardned his heart and harkned not c. and v. 32. Pharaoh hardned his heart this time also c. and then Exod. 9. 12. it's said God hardned the heart of Pharaoh And 't is observable how he is threatned v. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people c. So that first Pharaoh hardens and then God hardens Pharaoh hardens himself and God leaves him to himself Pharaoh hardens wilfully and God hardens judicially This I take to be the doom of the accursed fig-tree in the Gospel under which is comprised every barren Christian Le● no fruit grow on thee henceforward Mat. 21. 19. Iude 12. for ever These are th● trees Saint Iude speaks of whose fruit withereth without fruit twise dead pluck'd up by the roots Where the Method of Gods Iustice is very observable upon an obstinate and Apostate sinner First His fruit withereth he deserts his station grows weary of well doing and puts off the yoke of Christianity as if it were an intolerable burden Then without fruit The sap of grace is withdrawn and the soul becoms immediately barren Then twise dead dead naturally and dead spiritually For as the soul is the life of the body so is the Grace of God the life of the soul And lastly pluck'd up by the root not presently cast into the fire They may continue in the garden of Gods Church a long time after may participate of the dew of heaven of the holy Ordinances of God and external communion with his people But as never fruit comes of a tree that is pluck'd up by the r●ots and so left So never any thing capable of Divine acceptation comes from a man thus miserably deserted The ground and foundation of this doctrine I conceive may be safely laid upon that maxime of our Saviour Habenti dabitur To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundance But whosoever hath not that is hath not improved his talent from him shall be taken away even that which he Mat. 13. 12. seemeth to have These are the several kinds or degrees of Obduration and this last I take to be the disease in its full height and malignity Secondly We are in the next place to look upon the cause of this disease and what is particularly instrumental unto it We say in Philosophy Anim● sequitur temperamentum corporis The soul hath its operation according to the temper organs and disposition of the Body As there is no disease in the body so there is no distemper or depravity in the mind but is the effect and product of a certain particular cause So that as Infatuation of mind is a certain preparative unto judgement so there are certain preparatives and predispositions to Infatuation of mind Two sorts of evils there are ●n the world the evil of sin and the evil of punishment this of Infatuation is both it is hard to say whether hath the greater share in the composition This twisted evil as it arises from several causes so it is compounded of several ingredients In the general God himself may be said to harden according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 8. Whom he will he hardneth Not by any positive operation upon the mind as was said before but by a privative withdrawing or withholding of Grace No o●herwise then as wax being taken from the fire from being soft and pliable returns to its natural hardnesse and inflexibility And this is the just permission of Almighty God that such as will not conform unto him and walk in his ways should be left unto themselves to take their own precipitate and destructive courses For Instrumental Causes there are many To instance in some few for all the rest The first Medium unto Obduration I shall propound is The misunderstanding and abuse of secular prosperity and successe Thus Senacharibs best argument to perswade Ierusalem to revolt from good King Hezechiah is drawn from the successe of his sword upon the men and gods of Hamah Arpad and and Sepheruaim and from thence he 2 King 18. 34. 35. inferr'd that therefore the Lord of hosts should not deliver Ierusalem out of his hand And never under●tood the guilt of his Blasphemy nor the falacy of his argument nor the vanity of Nisrock his Idol till he felt the power of his maker and the stroke of Divine vengeance in the swords of his own Sons sheathed in his own bowels in the very Act and posture of his Idolatrous worship When the greatnesse of Nebuchadnezzars power and conquest lifted him up so high that he forgot he was a man God brought him down and humbled him into the very nature and condition of a beast There was a time when Dan. 4. Babylon was grown fat as the heyfer at grasse by eating up the inheritance of the Lord but it lasted not long for within a short time after Every one that went by Babylon Ier. 50. 11. was astonished and hissed at the sight of all her plagues And the same Prophet takes notice of some of Gods own people that were waxen fat and shined that overpassed the deeds of the wicked that did not Iudge the cause of the Fatherlesse c. and yet they prospered until the day of Gods visitation came Ier. 5. 28. 29. upon them Thus was Egypt gro●n as a fair heyfer and her men in the midst of her as so many fatted bullocks and all to their own destruction as appears Ier. 46. 20. Thus was I●surun grown fat and kicked he was grown thick and covered with fatnesse and mark what followed hereupon he presently forsook the God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Deut. 32. 15. And therefore the Divine Omniscience foreseeing this evil consequent arising from blessings abused enters a caveat against it Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and thy flockes multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplyed and all that thou hast is multiplyed then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God c. Deut. 8. 11. 12. 13 14. The Psalmist speaks very home and close to our purpose who describing the wickeds day of Sunshine saith Their eys stand out with fatn●sse they have more then heart cou●d wish they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men pray observe the co●seque●t Therefore pride compasseth them about like a chain violence covereth them