Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
state_n body_n soul_n union_n 1,547 5 9.5555 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A65571 Eight sermons preached on several occasions by Nathanael Whaley ...; Sermons. Selections Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709. 1675 (1675) Wing W1532; ESTC R8028 120,489 326

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

our selves and the Love of our selves is the Standard of our Love to him it follows that we have as great Obligations to the full to be tender of our own Lives as of his and therefore if it be Murther to Kill our neighbour it must be at least as great a crime to Kill our selves Nay in some respects it exceeds all the instances of Inhumanity and Vice and transcends the most cruel and Crying Sins For 1. To Kill our selves is the most unnatural Murther that can be if we consider how deeply the principle of Self-preservation is planted in our Nature and that it is a Law in our Minds teaching us to abhor the Destruction of our selves and to take the best care we can to preserve our own Life and Being there can be no such unnatural Murther as the putting of our selves to Death There is no Natural Union in the World so dear and intimate as that of the Soul and Body nor any that hath greater Interest depending upon it both in reference to this and the Future State And therefore nothing can be more contrary to the voice and dictate of Nature than the wilful Distruction of it by the same Person that is most nearly concerned to Preserve and Enjoy it 2. It is of any Sin the most directly opposite to the saving condition of Repentance which is a remedy for all other Sins but this Self-Murther is a Sin of that quick dispatch and that desperate Nature that it leaves a Man no time to Repent of it We may be Guilty of many other Sins and may live to Repent of them But he that Murthers himself is fure to Dye in his Sin and to be hurried away in the Reek and Guilt of his own Bloud to the Tribunal of God without allowing himself time to ask the forgiveness of it or at least to purge his Conscience from so deep and indelible a stain as this And therefore if we cannot be saved without Repentance as the Gospel assures us we can not he that Destroys his own Life cannot be saved according to the Gospel-Covenant because he dyes in a Sin that cannot be Repented of T is true God may have more Mercy for Sinners than he makes us acquainted with which may be just enough to keep our hopes alive at the Death of such Persons but the Gospel being the last Revelation of the Grace of God it is an infinite Presumption in expectation of unrevealed Grace to venture upon a Sin which all the Grace and Truth that came by Jesus Christ is too little to secure the Forgiveness of These are great Aggravations of the Sin of Self-Murther And I fear the excuses which are made for it will prove no better since they all center in a high discontent at the Providence of God NO man offers to make away himself that thinks himself well in this World or that submits to the Troubles and Calamities which befall him as coming from the just and overruling Hand of God And for men to throw away their Lives in a Pet and to grow so utterly weary of them that they cannot endure to live a few day's longer or wait for Gods Permission to Depart in peace is a very high Reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of his Providence As if he had thrust them into a World that was not fit for them to live in as if hey knew better when and how to deliver themselves out of the Miseries of this Mortal Life than he dos As if God had no Regard to their Sufferings or had left it to their discretion to leave the World and discharge themselves from his Service when they pleas'd or had not provided a better World to requit them for it As if an Eternal Weight of Glory was not a sufficient Recompence for their Patience under the heaviest Afflictions of this present Life which are but for a Moment This is so false and insolent a Charge against the Providence of God that it is enough to spoil the best-designed Action in the World and therefore cannot excuse so bloudy and unnatural an one as Self-Murther is I shall close all with a caution or two concerning this desperate unnatural Sin and the rather because it has been observed by those that have Travell'd into foreign Countries that Self-Murther is far more common in this than in any of the Nations about us 1. First then let us be very cautious of those Doctrines which have occasion'd many and some very serious Persons to despair of the Mercy and goodness of God and in the Anguish of their Souls to fling away themselves into the dreadful Abyss of Eternity There is no ground that I know of from the Gospel to believe that God had no good-will to any particular Man from Eternity and much less to the far greater part of Mankind or that the Generality of Men are bound over to destruction with the Iron Chain of an Irrespective Decree or that Christ dyed to save but very few of those that are called by his Name And methinks the effects which these and the like Doctrins have had upon Poor Melancholy Souls should be no Arguments to recommed them to any serious and impartial Judgment We ought to be very tender of narrowing the infinite Goodness of God who would have all men to be Saved Or laying the Damnation of Men upon any thing but their own wilful Oposition to the Grace and Goodness of God which leadeth to Repentance 2. It concerns us to be very cautious of all the methods and degrees of this Sin Such as piercing our Hearts with worldly Cares poisoning our Health and surfeiting our Bodies with Excess and Dying the Martyrs of Intemperance or Lust How many owe their Death to the Revels of a Night Drink away their reason and drown themselves in Rivers of Wine Game high and when they have lost their Money or engaged their Estates or Honours sell their Lives to Redeem them These Men do as certainly Kill themselves and very often as suddenly too as he that strangles himself or sheaths the Fatal Poyniard in his sobbing and despairin Breast And is not this to Dye as a fool Dyes without any consideration of the Life he has led or of the Everlasting State he is launching into That man that is not fond of Distruction and in love wih Misery would venter his Life and Soul upon such hazards as these Were there no other Life than this a prudent Man would not be prodigal of it but to throw it away at one Cast or to stake it against the Pleasure of a Debauch when all Eternity depends upon it is an astonishing instance of the Madness of Folly Oh that ment were Wise Deut. 32.9 that they understood this that they would consider their latter end That in kindness to their Souls which must live forever they would frequently entertain themselves with the serious thougths of Death and Judgment Eternal Happiness and Misery and not suffer their Lusts and