Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	lord_n	soul_n	6,920	5	4.8290	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59652	Moral vertues baptized Christian, or, The necessity of morality among Christians by William Shelton, M.A., late fellow of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge, and now vicar of Bursted Magna in Essex.	Shelton, William, d. 1699.	1667 (1667)	Wing S3099; ESTC R37384	107,365	208

return'd with the spoils of War The feast of a good Conscience and the triumphs of a Vertuous Soul may be less pompous as to outward shew but what they have less of the fashion of Agrippa and Bernice they are the more like the Kings Daughter all glorious ●● 45. within The war that the Spirit manageth against the Flesh hath the same design with other wars to procure peace which when it ●● attain'd we Englishmen especially cannot but be sensible how desirable it is We are at the same time unthankful to God undutiful to our Prince and unnatural to our selves if we do not rejoyce that we live in peace There is no kind of peace that is without its kind of joy so is the peace within our own minds when we have bri●led and restrain'd our irregular and exorbitant passions when we have quell'd our lustful inclinations and have either in whole or in part by the blessing of God upon vertuous endeavours Isa 48. and 57. attain'd that peace which God himself twic● saith doth not belong to wicked men when Temperance and Justice and other like habits are so firmly rooted in us that we find none or no great reluctancy of the Flesh in the exercise of them then behold how the soul enjoys it self how glad it is to find things in due order the inferiour faculties subordinate to the superiour and they to their supreme Lord the Father of Spirits Go now and see if a righteous and just man doth not rejoyce to consider that temptations of Covetousness hath not made him unjust go and ask of those men whom you observe to be most sober and upright in their conversations they will tell you that they thank God they have a peace within them that passeth all P●il 4. understanding They will say that Meekness and Charity c. are lovely things to be embraced for their own sakes They rejoyce to think that their souls are delivered from their enthralling lusts and disturbing passions If I should say that Vertue doth this perfectly for us I should my self incurre the censure which I before past upon the Stoicks who have boasted of a perfection that they could not attain Truely the Spirits of just men are not yet in this life made perfect In many things we James 3. offend all Yet this is truth though we are not in this state compleatly holy so as to be sinless and therefore our happiness and comfort is incompleat yet so far as we do arise towards a perfection of Vertue we do thereby get the conquest of our lusts and passions and the more they are subdued the greater freedom and pleasure we gain to our selves and for this reason there is a pleasure and joy in Vertuous Action● which is the second proof Sect. 6 There is a pleasure in Vertue for whereas wickedness and vice doth bring men first or last to repent this is the property of Vertuous actions that the farther a man proceeds in them he is the more confirm'd that they are becoming and fitting things The more Vertuous any man is he doth the less repent that he did ever begin to be Vertuous What Simonides said of silence I have often repented Plutarch ●e Garrulitate that I have spoken but never that I held my peace That says the Vertu us man I have have often repented that I have been no more Vertuous that I have fail'd so often in my Duty but where I have attain'd in any measure to any degrees of it I am glad and did never repent of what I have done There may be some who for want of skill and proficiency in the School of Vertue may repent of their good deeds but what though they do Is it an Argument that there is no pleasure in Learning because a Dunce throws away his Book and wishes he had never gone to School Was St. Paul ever the worse because the love of this world tempted ● Tim. 4. Demas to forsake him Doth it signifie much to the disparagement of Christian Religion because Julian prov'd an Apostate Now this is the case some men have ventur'd upon Vertue out of an opinion that it was an easie thing and when they find the difficulties of it vice is not easily mastered nor passions easily subdued then they fall back again and before they were throughly redeemed from a vain conversation they again make their bargain with the Devil and sell themselves to work wickedness But what shall we say of these men even this they are to Vertue as the many Antichrists are to Christian Religion and of them may Vertuous men say They 1 Joh. 2. went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us They are not Vertues menial servants they are but retainers and hangers on they do but pretend to some Vertuous actions some good things they may do but they do not Benè out of a love to Vertue They may have a procatarctick but they have no proegumenal cause they may be outwardly drawn to the exercise of Vertue but not from an inward principle of goodness Now Vertue is not to stand or fall according to the opinions of these men Sect. 7 But now take a man that hath in good earnest set himself to be an honest and righteous man and that hath made conscience of doing the duties that the Word of God and his own conscience have made appear to be his duties and whatever fears and grumblings he might find within himself when he first began yet as he goes on he is the more confirm'd in his way the more he sees into the mystery of Vertue he admires it the more and chuses it the rather and a man by accustoming himself to it will grow more acquainted with the pleasure of it and will daily see less cause to repent of his choice The rule that Plutarch applies to Temperance will be found true of all sorts of Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De sanita●e tuend● Chuse that manner of life that is best and custonie will make it pleasant This Argument hath somewhat of experience in it for a man to disparage that of which he hath no knowledge he talks for want of wit and he must get into the company of his fellow-fools to be believed Come to those who have experience what Vertue is and they find the deeper the sweeter The more Vertue the less Repentance and the less Repentance the more Joy for he that chuseth a course of life of which he sees no cause to repent he must needs good himself in it and rejoyce to think he hath made a happy choice He tastes the sweetness of it and then because Contra gustum non est disputandum No man can be disputed out of his senses nor perswaded that that is not sweet which he

they lived have had much of their will and fancy and corrupt Affections but little 1 Sam 18. 20. ch of their Reason and so when the Evil Spirit is upon Saul it is no wonder if he cast a javelin at David and afterwards at Jonathan his best Friends but when his Reason returns to him he acknowledges his errour and says that David was more righteous then he In like manner 1 Sam. 24. many Men hate those Vertues which are according to Gods own heart as David was but this is during the prevalency of the Evil Spirit when they come to die as the Soul is loosning from the Body so by degrees they are wrought off from the deceits of sense and the temptations of the World when they are at Deaths door and see it opened for them then they have another representation of themselves Sculls and dead Mens Bones and the Worms that are to feed upon them and besides a dismal pre-occupation of their thoughts concerning the dreadful day of Judgement these things alter the case Then the Men who would sometimes fill themselves with costly Wine and Ointments and crown themselves with Rose-buds Wisd 20. to be partakers of their wantonness c. yet shall be afraid and remember their sins and Wisd 4. their own wickedness shall come before them to convince them Yea they shall change their minds and sigh for grief of mind and say within themselves This is he whom we sometimes had in Wisd 5. derision and in a Parable of reproach We fools counted his life madness and his end without Honour How is he counted among the Children of God and his portion is among the Saints If this be Apocryphal yet it is good sense and the more likely to be true because Canonical Scripture gives us a like instance wicked Balaam did even before his death desire to dye the death of the Righteous and that his last end Numb 23. should be like his Herein are many wicked men like Balaam of whom we read this passage Balaam the Son of Beor hath said and Numb 24. the man whose eyes are open hath said Dixit vir occlusus oculo says Montanus according to the letter of the Hebrew The Margin of our Translation hath this Exposition of it The Man who had his eyes shut but now open There is a beauty and lustre in Vertue against which Vitious Men shut their eyes and will not see but Isa 26. they shall see and be ashamed When death is closing their bodily eyes till the Resurrection then the understanding opens and discerns the folly of the fore-past life when it is growing too late to amend then Men begin to Repent and proceed thus far at least to acknowledge they have done ill and to owne a goodness in Vertue and an agreeableness to their natures and right reason Sect. 2 This observation is common and of easie notice taking that many prophane Men are thus affected when they dye But it is true withal that this General Rule among others hath its Exceptions The Consciences of some Men are past feeling while they live and are not awakened when they dye As Pope Boniface the 8th lived like a Lyon and dyed like a Dog So is many a wicked Man in this sense Primus ad extremum similis sibi From first to last one and the same He lives in sin dyes without shame They live like Beasts and so they dye they sin like Lions boldly and undauntedly and fiercely they dye like Dogs wretchedly and churlishly and basely without the understanding of a Man to consider whither they are going without Faith in God or love to Heaven or Fear of Hell Yet notwithstanding all this as we say of Brute Beasts that they have some semblances of Reason in many of their Actions of which Plutarch give many instances in his Book De solertiâ Ammalium so these Brutish Men while they live have some Candle-light of their understandings The Spirit Prov. 10. of a man is the Candle of the Lord not extinct though it be shut up in a dark Lanthorn and do not discover it self to others unless it be at unawares Sect. 3 For 2. There are some certain times and seasons wherein the most vitious persons that are acknowledge the Vertues contrary to their practice to be agreeable to right Reason for which there are these Evidences Many Men who will not leave sin yet will dissemble it It is not much more common for a Malefactor at the Bar to plead not Guilty then for a Drunkard when he is sober to deny that he was drunk And so they that will swear will lye and deny that they did swear and he that would revenge himself upon his Neighbour will not owne it to be Revenge he that would cheat his Neighbour would be thought an honest Man c. wherefore now is all this were not these vices contrary to right Reason and the Vertues they oppose agreeable thereto Why should any Man be ashamed of that which he doth not believe to be unlawful If it be a Vertue to be Drunk or Kn●vish why do not Men avow and profess it and make as much conscience of being Drunk as others do to be Sober Herein did Gehazi Ananias and Sapphira and others betray themselves when a Man denies a fact which he knows himself to have committed he is therein a self-condemned Man He denies it because he is loth to owne it and therefore Men do not owne their sins because they know them to be sins and the Vertues that are contrary to them to be good and reasonable Actions Sect. 4 If it happen that wicked Men do for some time forbear their excess of wickedness and do some good action If a riotous debauched person continues sober whether for want of opportunity or ability to sin or if because others are he be charitable to the Poor or forgive an Injury or the like how quickly doth he proclaim his Righteousness and take occasion to commend himself As Jehu would 2 Kings 10. have his zeal for the Lord taken notice of when yet he was but a Hypocrite And the Pharisees likewise Hypocrites would sound a Mat. 6. Trumpet when they gave their Alms Such Hypocrites still there are who in a sense but little commendable would make a Vertue of necessity because they could not sin they would be thought Vertuous because they did not A Knave that is made to be Vertuous against his will how ready is he to alledge that as an Argument for himself and to boast that he did no wrong This supposeth Vertue to be praise-worthy else why should they praise themselves for it when yet they are not Vertuous out of love to it but only because they cannot safely commit vice Sect. 5 Yea once more It is evident that wicked Men believe Vertue to be reasonable and good by the apprehensions they have of it in others especially when it makes for their