Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	soul_n	understand_v	5,748	5	6.7898	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63941	A funerall sermon preached at the obsequies of the Right Hon[oura]ble and most vertuous Lady, the Lady Frances, Countesse of Carbery who deceased October the 9th, 1650, at her house Golden-Grove in Carmarthen-shire / by Jer. Taylor ...	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1650 (1650)	Wing T335; ESTC R11725	24,363	41

indeed cannot be in simple and spirituall substances of the same species or kind it must needs derive wholly from the body from its accidents circumstances from whence it follows that because the body casts fetters and restraints hindrances and impediments upon the soul that the soul is much freer in the state of separation and if it hath any act of life it is much more noble and expedite That the soul is alive after our death S. Paul affirms Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Now it were strange that we should be alive and live with Christ and yet do no act of life the body when it is asleep does many and if the soul does none the principle is less active then the instrument but if it does any act at all in separation it must necessarily be an act or effect of understanding there is nothing else it can doe But this it can For it is but a weak and an unlearned proposition to say That the Soule can doe nothing of it self nothing without the phantasmes and provisions of the body For 1. In this life the soule hath one principle clearly separate abstracted and immateriall I mean the Spirit of grace which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter as in the infusion superinduction and the creation of spiritual graces 2. As nutrition generation eating and drinking are actions proper to the body and its state so extasies visions raptures intuitive knowledge and consideration of its self acts of volition and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the soule 3. And therefore it is observable that S. Paul said that he knew not whether his vision and raptures were in or out of the body for by that we see his judgment of the thing that one was as likely as the other neither of them impossible or unreasonable and therefore that the soule is as capable of action alone as in conjunction 4 If in the state of blessedness there are some actions of the soule which doe not passe through the body such as contemplation of God and conversing with spirits and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the H. and mysterious Trinity make up the crown of glory it follows that the necessity of the bodies ministery is but during the state of this life and as long as it converses with fire and water and lives with corne and flesh and is fed by the satisfaction of materiall appetites which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases it can be no longer necessary for the soul to be served by phantasmes and materiall representations 5. And therefore when the body shall be re-united it shall be so ordered that then the body shall confesse it gives not any thing but receives all its being and operation its manner and abode from the soul and that then it comes not to serve a necessity but to partake a glory For as the operations of the soule in this life begin in the body and by it the object is transmitted to the soule so then they shall begin in the soule and pass to the body and as the operations of the soule by reason of its dependence on the body are animall naturall and materiall so in the resurrection the body shall be spirituall by reason of the preeminence influence and prime operation of the soule Now between these two states stands the state of separation in which the operations of the soule are of a middle nature that is not so spirituall as in the resurrection and not so animal and naturall as in the state of conjunction To all which I adde this consideration That our soules have the same condition that Christs soule had in the state of separation because he took on him all our nature and all our condition and it is certain Christs soule in the three daies of his separation did exercise acts of life of joy and triumph and did not sleep but visited the souls of the Fathers trampled upon the pride of Devils and satisfied those longing souls which were Prisoners of hope and from all this we may conclude that the souls of all the servants of Christ are alive and therefore doe the actions of life and proper to their state and therefore it is highly probable that the soul works clearer and understands brighter and discourses wiser and rejoyces louder and loves noblier and desires purer and hopes stronger then it can do here But if these arguments should fail yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail For suppose the body to be a necessary instrument but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger by accident and chance by defect and imperfections yet that it is better then none at all and that if the soul works imperfectly with an imperfect body that then she works not at all when she hath none and suppose also that the soul should be as much without sense or perception in death as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him For 2 God will restore the soul to the body and raise the body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon it shall be made spirituall to minister to the soul when the soul is turned into a Spirit then the soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed from her rest in Christs Holy Bosome and bee made perfect in her beeing and in all her operations And this shall first appear by that perfection which the soul shall receive as instrumentall to the last judgement for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this world all the Register of her own memory For all that we did in this life is laid up in our memories and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them yet when God shall lift us from our dust then shall appear clearly all that we have done written in the Tables of our conscience which is the souls memory We see many times and in many instances that a great memory is hindred and put out and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a curtain we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction or proper consequence And all those famous memories of Simonides and Theodectes of Hortensius and Seneca of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus are onely the Records better kept and lesse disturbed by accident and disease For even the memory of Herods son of Athens of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great and by God made so sure record of all that ever he did that assoon as ever God shall but tune our instrument and draw the curtains and but light up the candle of immortality there we shall find

crime yet she did infinitely remove all sacrilege from her thoughts and delighted to see her estate of a clear and disintangled interest she would have no mingled rights with it she would not receive any thing from the Church but religion and a blessing and she never thought a curse and a sin farre enough off but would desire it to be infinitely distant and that as to this family God had given much honour and a wise head to Govern it so he would also for ever give many more blessings And because she knew that the sins of Parents descend upon Children she endevoured by justice and religion by charity and honour to secure that her chanel should convey nothing but health and a faire example and a blessing 10. And though her accounts to God was made up of nothing but small parcels little passions and angry words and trifling discontents which are the allayes of the piety of the most holy persons yet she was early at her repentance and toward the latter end of her daies grew so fast in religion as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time her discourses more full of religion her prayers more frequent her charity increasing her forgiveness more forward her friendships more communicative her passion more under discipline and so she trimm'd her lamp not thinking her night was so neer but that it might shine also in the day time in the Temple and before the Altar of incense But in this course of hers there were some circumstances and some appendages of substance which were highly remarkable 1. In all her Religion and in all her actions of relation towards God she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage sliding toward her ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion So have I seen a river deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face and paying to the Fiscus the great Exchequer of the Sea the Prince of all the watry bodies a tribute large and full and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequall and neighbour bottom and after all its talking and bragged motion it payd to its common Audit no more then the revenues of a little cloud or a contemptible vessel So have I sometimes compar'd the issues of her religion to the solemnities and fam'd outsides of anothers piety It dwelt upon her spirit and was incorporated with the periodicall work of every day she did not believe that religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation but to pardon of sins to the pleasure of God and the salvation of souls For religion is like the breath of Heaven if it goes abroad into the open aire it scatters and dissolves like camphyre but if it enters into a secret hollownesse into a close conveyance it is strong and mighty and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end at the other side of this life in the daies of death and judgment 2. The other appendage of her religion which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life was a rare modesty and humility of spirit a confident despising and undervaluing of her self For though she had the greatest judgment and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth and sex and circumstances yet as if she knew nothing of it she had the meanest opinion of her self and like a fair taper when she shin'd to all the room yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud and she shin'd to every body but her self But the perfectnesse of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid and all her humility and arts of concealment made the vertues more amiable and illustrious For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil so humility is the greatest eminency and art of publication in the whole world and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things was but like one that hideth the winde and covers the oyntment of her right hand I know not by what instrument it hapned but when death drew neer before it made any show upon her body or reveal'd it self by a naturall signification it was conveyed to her spirit she had a strange secret perswasion that the bringing this Childe should be her last scene of life and we have known that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment sometimes speaks rarely Magnifica verba mors propè admo●a excutit sometimes it is Propheticall sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments or accidents of his own serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul But so it was that the thought of death dwelt long with her and grew from the first steps of fancy and feare to a consent from thence to a strange credulity and expectation of it and without the violence of sicknesse she died as if she had done it voluntarily and by design and for feare her expectation should have been deceiv'd or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable feare or apprehension or rather as one said of Cato sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet she died as if she had been glad of the opportunity And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire the wisdome and infinite mercies of God For having a tender and soft a delicate and fine constitution and breeding she was tender to pain and apprehensive of it as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden Grave est tenerae cervici jugum and in her often discourses of death which she would renew willingly and frequently she would tell that she fear'd not death but she fear'd the sharp pains of death Emori nolo me esse mortuam non curo The being dead and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world she hop'd would be for her advantage and therefore that was no part of her feare But she believing the pangs of death were great and the use and aids of reason little had reason to fear lest they should doe violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution But God that knew her fears and her jealousie concerning her self fitted her with a death so easie so harmlesse so painlesse that it did not put her patience to a severe triall It was not in all appearance of so much trouble as two sits of a common ague so carefull was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance that this soule was dear to him and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it he that began would also finish her redemption by an act of a rare providence and a singular mercy Blessed be

that goodness of God who does so carefull actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprehension of death is worse then the pains of death and that God loves to reprove the unreasonablenesse of our feares by the mightinesse and by the arts of his mercy She had in her sickness if I may so call it or rather in the solemnities and graver preparations towards death some curious and well-becoming feares concerning the finall state of her soul But from thence she pass'd into a deliquium or a kinde of trance and as soon as she came forth of it as if it had been a vision or that she had convers'd with an Angel and from his hand had receiv'd a labell or scroll of the book of life and there seen her name enrolled she cried out aloud Glory be to God on high Now I am sure I shall be saved Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholly ignorant what judgment can be made but certainly there are strange things in the other world and so there are in all the immediate preparations to it and a little glimps of heaven a minutes conversing with an Angel any ray of God any communication extraordinary from the Spirit of comfort which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners are infinitely far from illusions and they shall then be understood by us when we feel them and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusuall visitations But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God to all her Relatives If we consider her Person she was in the flower of her age Iucundum cum aetas slorida ver ageret of a temperate plain and naturall diet without curiosity or an intemperate palate she spent lesse time in dressing then many servants her recreations were little seldom her prayers often her reading much she was of a most noble and charitable soul a great lover of honourable actions and as great a despiser of base things hugely loving to oblige others and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality so free in all acts of favour that she would not stay to hear her self thank'd as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needfull or an obliged person should ever return to her again she was an excellent friend and hugely dear to very many especially to the best and most discerning persons to all that convers'd with her and could understand her great worth and sweetnesse she was of an Honourable a nice and tender reputation and of the pleasures of this world which were laid before her in heaps she took a very small and inconsiderable share as not loving to glut her self with vanity or to take her portion of good things here below If we look on her as a Wife she was chast and loving fruitfull and discreet humble and pleasant witty and complyant rich and fair and wanted nothing to the making her a principall and a precedent to the Wives of the world but a long life and a full age If we remember her as a Mother she was kinde and severe carefull and prudent very tender and not at all fond a greater lover of her Childrens soules then of their bodies and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth then by their relation to her self Her Servants found her prudent and fit to Govern and yet open-handed and apt to reward a just Exactor of their duty and a great Rewarder of their diligence She was in her house a comfort to her dearest Lord a Guide to her Children a Rule to her Servants an example to all But as she related to God in the offices of Religion she was even and constant silent and devout prudent and materiall she lov'd what she now enjoyes and she fear'd what she never felt and God did for her what she never did expect Her fears went beyond all her evil and yet the good which she hath receiv'd was and is and ever shall be beyond all her hopes She liv'd as we all should live and she died as I fai● would die Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos I pray God I may feel those mercies on my death-bed that she felt and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance which she feels of the many degrees of he● innocence Such was her death that she did not die too soon and her life was so usefull and so excellent that she could not have liv'd too long Nemo parum diu vixit qu● virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere and as now in the grave it shall not be inquired concerning her how long she liv'd but how well so to us who live after her to suffer a longer calamity it may be some ease to our sorrows and some guide to our lives and some security to our conditions to consider that God hath brought the piety of a yong Lady to the early rewards of a never ceasing and never dying eternity of glory And we also if we live as she did shal partake of the same glories not only having the honour of a good name and a dear and honour'd memory but the glories of these glories the end of all excellent labours and all prudent counsels and all holy religion even the salvation of our souls in that day when all the Saints and amongst them this excellent Woman shall be shown to all the world to have done more and more excellent things then we know of or can describe Mors illos consecrat quorum exitum qu● timent laudant Death consecrates and makes sacred that person whose excellency was such that they that are not displeased at the death cannot dispraise the life but they that mourn sadly think they can never commend sufficiently FINIS a 2 Tim. 1.18 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Eccle 1 Cor. 15. 18. 1 Thess. 4. 16. Rev. 14.13 John 5.24 2 Cor. 5. 8. 6. 1 Thes. 5.10 Prov. 2. 17.