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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87500	Heaven upon earth, or, The best friend in the worst of times. Delivered in several sermons by James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel.	Janeway, James, 1636?-1674.	1671 (1671)	Wing J466; ESTC R178954	227,422	377

in this common calamity It is from thy self O man it is from thy self this evil is because of our falling from God It is a Righteous thing with God that when man departed from him he should reap the Fruit of his own doings and indeed it is impossible for a creature of our composure and constitution but to feel it self dissatisfied with all worldly material employments and to find trouble and disquiet in it self while it is deprived of its true good If we would have a true account of our disquiet and dissatisfaction this it is God made man of all the works of his hands to be the nearest to himself and hath fitted his principles for a higher life then that which hath the things of this world for its object but man hath made himself like the Beasts that perish We have given our souls into captivity to our bodies or rather we are fallen from our Union with God and are gathered up into our selves and become deprived of a sufficiency in separation from God then it must needs be that we being gone down into a lower state than that which we were made to should find nothing but dissatisfaction and emptiness here we are by nature and hitherto we have brought our selves by forsaking God Now the great inquiry will be what Remedy there is for this our woful condition is there any way whereby we may be delivered from this misery if there be what way is it These words which I have chosen to speak to do contain the Answer to this Inquiry Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee This is the counsel of one of Job's three friends to him in the time of his great affliction You have heard of the affliction of Job and how his three friends came to relieve him with their Counsel but the Devil who had a Commission from God to try his utmost with Job yet sparing his life made use of his friends who are to be a comfort in the hour of adversity to be a great means of his disquiet so that he cries out of them Aliserable comforters are ye all Chap 16.2 And the great way of their troubling him was by mis-applying by making false application of true principles In their Discourses there are many excellent Truths yet by their hard construing ungrounded condemning of him they by God are reproved as not having spoken the thing that was right Chap. 41.7 yet in many things their counsel was suitable and seasonable of which sort the words in the Text may be accounted In this Chapter Eliphaz had been inquiring into the cause of Job's great affliction and holding this for an undeniable Principle that the righteous God being the great disposer of affliction did bring this evil upon him because of his sin he measured the greatness of his sins by the greatness of his afflictions he made account because Gods hand was gone forth in an extraordinary manner against Job therefore there was some extraordinary guilt upon him vers 5. 13. And thou sayest How doth God judge through the dark clouds Thus we have his apprehension of Job as one under great affliction because of his great sins and the Text is Eliphaz his counsel to Job under this character and so is suitable advice to those that are under sickness or great afflictions and that are under the guilt of great sin Acquaint thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee The words are a Doctrine for the soul under a sense of its lost condition with a Promise very comfortable upon the embracing thereof The Doctrine is Acquaint thy self with him and be at peace The Promise Thereby good shall come unto sher These words Be at peace may be referred either to the former as an addition to the Doctrine Be at peace that is keep your selves in a quiet submission to the hand of God or to the latter and so be at peace is as much as peace shall be to thee In the Doctrine we are to consider the Act and Object The Act Aquaint The Object is God DOCTRINE So that the Doctrine is To enter into acquaintance with God This Proposition stands forth to the view of every eye that it is the Duty of man to be acquainted with God Now the first thing that is before us to require after is What this acquaintance with God is Secondly to evidence and clear it to be the Duty of man to acquaint himself with God Acquaintance with God implyes several things 1. It signifies a full and determinate knowledge of this Truth that there is a God and so to know him as to his Nature distinct from all other beings There is a three-fold Knowledge of God 1. A Rational 2. A Natural 3. A Supernatural First there is a Rational knowledge of God which is a clear discovery of an Almighty All-sufficient Cause of all things which is attained by a Reasonable discussing Power of the Soul which argueth from things that are visible and sensible to an invisible and self-principled Cause of all things Man found himself brought into the world furnished with an innumerable variety of Creatures and none of these having power to make it self we see likewise such an accurate order in every particular Creature and in all the Creatures one with another that we cannot but see clearly that there is a Supream Almighty Cause of all things who hath by his power brought forth all things into being who is likewise the most wise Agent who by his unsearchable wisdom hath curiously framed every Creature and by his wonderful counsel hath set them in such an order that they all serve one another till at length they all meet in man as in the common center Secondly there is a Natural knowledg of God which is the inward touch and mental sensation of a Supream Righteous Judge to whose trial we feel our selves under an unavoidable bond in doing good and evil This is that which is commonly called Conscience this a man finds in himself if at any time he have committed any secret sin whatsoever which none in the world knows but himself he feels it to be a pressure upon his spirit as being under the examination of a power superior to himself Now this is nothing else but a secret impression that God hath made of himself upon the minds of Men by which man is bound to stand before the Tribunal of God These two ways of knowing of God were very clear to man in his perfect state but since the fall of man they are much weakened and decayed But Thirdly There is a supernatural way whereby we come to know God which hath repaired our loss by Adams sin and that is by Gods extraordinary Revelation of himself in his holy Scriptures by these we may come to have a more clear distinct knowledge of God both that he is and what he is To these three ways of letting in the knowledge

This is laid as a heavy accusation Job 39.21 For this hast thou chosen rather than affliction To choose iniquity rather than affliction is the greatest folly imaginable It is one great part of the misery of Hell that they never cease from sinning and this is the greatest misery on earth our being so much under the power of sin I appeal to any gracious soul that hath the feeling of the burden of sin what is it's great trouble and sorrow is it not because of sin What are his secret moans to God is it not the sence of corruption Oh wrethed man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death saith Paul Rom. 7. He had been complaining of the mass of corruption that did still press hard upon him and in the strong workings of his spirit against it he calls it The body of death It was as grievous to him as if he had been bound to a stinking rotten carcase How wretched then is the state of every soul unacquainted with God Who can do nothing but sin because they want the right rule of action a right pattern of imitation a right principle for action a right object for action a right end for action the only assistance of action It concerns us then as we make any difference between good and evil if we have any respect unto holiness and purity before sin and iniquity to see to get acquaintance with God because without acquaintance with God we are in a woful necessity of sinning 2. Without acquaintance with God we are in a necessity of misery Indeed sin is a great misery and to be in a necessity of sinning is part of the necessity of misery But besides that there is a necessity of misery of another kind What is the great imployment of men unacquainted with God Men labour in the very fire and weany themselves for very vanity Habak 2.13 This was the misery of men because they know not God But in verse 14. there is a promise of better days When the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Then and not till then will there be a deliverance from labouring in the fire when there is the knowledg of God The reason of it is because true satisfaction and peace cannot be till our desires and enjoyments are alike and this cannot be till the soul is acquainted with God For nothing can fill up the desires of the soul but God The soul of man is mighty spacious so that it cannot be filled with the world and while it feels an emptiness it still cryes out for more and cannot be filled till it be filled with the fulness of God Ephes 3.19 The prodigal son had nothing but husks to feed upon when he was gone from his fathers house he would faine have filled his belly with the husks but could not they were not food for the soul When we are departed from God we have nothing to feed on but the world and we would fill our souls with the world but cannot for it is not food for the soul Acquaintance with God is the food of the soul Job 23.12 I have esteemed the words of his mouth more then my necessary food So that a soul that is not acquainted with God is famished for want of food Psal 42.2 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God When shall I come appeare before God David was acquainted with God but for want of an actual enjoyment how doth he here breath out the trouble of his spirit As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God The soul is still panting Some pant after the dust of the earth Amos 2.7 These were of the Serpents seed whose curse from God was Dust shalt thou eat but the seed of Christ they pant for God they that pant after God shall be filled with the fulness of God but he that panteth after any thing besides God will never find any fulness he will feed as upon the dust of the earth And what can follow but dissatisfaction and misery Acquaintance with God is the only way to be freed from a necessity of sin and misery Fifthly Acquaintance with God is the duty of man because God himself doth acquaint himself with man Shall the King seek after acquaintance with the meanest of his Subjects and he refuse acquaintance with his Soveraign shall God acquaint himself with man and shall not man acquaint himself with God! It is expected among men that the inferiour should seek for acquaintance with the Superiour and not the Superiour to the inferiour but yet God out of his wonderful love hath sought first to man for acquaintance Thus Prov. 8.31 it is said concerning the son of God who is meant by the Eternal Wisdom of the Father that he rejoyced in the habitable parts of the earth his delight was with the sons of men If God thus delights in converse and acquaintance with the sons of men how much more ought men to rejoyce in converse and acquaintance with God Isa 65.1 God saith I am found of them that sought me not All men were departed from God and not a man that did seek after God there is none that understands or seeks after God yet God is found of them The good shepherd seeks his lost sheep before the sheep sought him Cant. 5.2 When the soul is asleep it hears the voice of its Beloved that knocks saying Open to me my sister my love my dove my underfiled Revel 3.20 There Christ saith to the revolting Church that he was ready to spew them out of his mouth Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man will hear me and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me Psal 68 18. Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Is it not becoming then that man should open when God knocks He seeks to dwell among the rebellious is it not fit that man should enter into acquaintance with God when God doth thus acquaint himself with man Thus I have opened to you the Nature of Acquaintance with God and evidenced it to be the Duty of Man to acquaint himself with God let us now make some improvement of this Truth USE 1. First Is there to be an acquaintance between the soul and God Let us then stand and wonder at the great condescention of God! This may surprise our souls with an extasie of admiration that God should dwell with man that the mighty Jehovah should have such respect to the work of his hands Psal 113.5 6. Who is like unto the Lord who dwelleth on high who humbled himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth The Psalmist admireth God that he humbled himself to behold things that are in heaven and how much