Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	soul_n	word_n	5,587	5	4.4264	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52424	Letters concerning the love of God between the author of the Proposal to the ladies and Mr. John Norris, wherein his late discourse, shewing that it ought to be intire and exclusive of all other loves, is further cleared and justified / published by J. Norris.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Astell, Mary, 1668-1731.	1695 (1695)	Wing N1254; ESTC R17696	100,744	365

of this present State And certainly to be fortified against the Venom and secured from the Shame of Sin is no inconsiderable Blessing Repentance is indeed an excellent Atidote to expel the Poyson but 't is much better not to take it For though I were sure to be delivered from the evil Consequences of Sin I would not commit it merely on account of its natural Turpitude and concomitant Evil. 'T is so exceeding ugly in its own Nature and such a Reproach to ours that though I know GOD so great is his Goodness will pardon me upon my true Repentance yet I know not how to forgive my self Even that very Goodness which frees us from the punishment encreases the Shame of Sin and makes it so much the more abominable in that it is an Offence against so great a Goodness Ioseph's Expostulation in my Mind is very emphatick How can I do this great Evil and sin against GOD He does not say how can I expose my self to the Hazzard of Discovery the Pain of Repentance and all the evil Effects and Punishments of Sin No that which was most grievous to him and is so to all ingenious Tempers was the Opposition that is in Sin to the Nature of GOD the Affront that it offers to his Majesty and Goodness In his Opinion Sin in its self was the only considerable Evil the only thing to be avoided and fled from for certainly of all Punishments this is most deplorable to be given up to our own Hearts Lust and suffered to follow our own Imaginations But to return from this Digression What was observed above is by the way a sufficient Apology for the Strictness of the Divine Law For since 't is GOD only that does us good and he only that is our Good since all our Happiness consists in a Union with and Enjoyment of him and since without Holiness there can be no Union with GOD and that without Obedience to his Commands we can never partake of his Nature therefore Holiness is of absolute Necessity because it is impossible to be happy without being holy To suppose it is to suppose the greatest Absurdity and to imagine either that GOD is not our Happiness or that 't is possible to enjoy him without being like him We have therefore no reason to complain of the strictest Precepts of our Religion For when we are commanded to cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit to perfect Holiness to deny and mortifie that Part of us which is the Scene of Temptation the corruptible Body which presses down the Soul to be holy in all manner of Conversation and in a word to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect we are but in other Words commanded to be as happy as ever we can no difficult Task one would think we may rather wonder why it should be enjoyned us since Nature and the Reason of things dictate and press it on us But though we all naturally pursue after Happiness though we all constantly desire it yet we are too apt to mistake the means of attaining it And therefore GOD has thought fit out of his unspeakable Goodness to send his Son into the World to shew us by Precept and Example the true way to Felicity and explicitly discover that which we all blindly pursue He does not exact of us any Duty but what if we had a just View of things we would chuse our selves and only engages us by all that Deference that is due to his Wisdom by all that Obedience we owe to his Authority to seek for Happiness there only where we are sure to find it to make use of such Methods as will infallibly secure us from Delusion and Disappointment and therefore we can never answer it either to Reason or good Nature if we be refractory to such exuberant Kindness and Condiscention But secondly the intire Love of GOD is necessary because unless we love GOD only we do in effect not love him at all the Desire of GOD and Desire of the Creature being in their own Nature incompatible and by allowing our selves to love the one we do by consequence forsake the other For besides what you have already very excellently observed to this purpose in the Discourse it self it may further be considered that Love being the same to the Soul that Motion is to Bodies as Bodies cannot have two Centers or different Terms of Motion so neither can the Soul have a twofold Desire We may as reasonably expect that a Stone should go up Hill and down Hill at the same time as that the Soul should 〈…〉 GOD and any 〈…〉 To love is in 〈…〉 to make the thing 〈◊〉 our End We move towards good in order to make that good our own and to embrace and acquiesce in it Now he that loves the Creature does it because he expects some Degrees of Happiness at least from it and so far makes it his End and consequently does not center upon GOD as his compleat and only Felicity for if he did it were impossible to with-hold any Degree of his Love from him Again if as you said in your last he that enjoys GOD cannot Desire any thing out of him because of the infinite Fulness of GOD then certainly he that desires any thing besides GOD whatever he pretend or however he deceive himself does not truly love GOD for if he did that would quench all Desire of the Creature He that has discovered the Fountain will not seek for troubled and failing Streams to quench his Thirst He can never be content to step aside to catch at the Shadow who is in Pursuit and View of the Substance The Soul that loves GOD has no occasion to love other things because it neither needs nor expects Felicity from them whenever it moves towards the Creature it must necessarily forsake the Creator and it can never truly turn to him without a Dereliction of all besides him Perhaps this may be thought a skrewing up things to too great a Heigth a winding up our Nature to a Pitch it is not able to reach and though it may be fit and desirable yet it is not at present practicable to love GOD with such an intense and abstracted Affection But I consider that since we are so apt to tumble down the Hill so inclinable to take up with the least and lowest Measures since 't is impossible we should love too much and very great Danger of our loving too little and that our Practice does constantly come short of our Theory our Copy seldom reach the Original it cannot be amiss to represent our Duty in the strictest Measures to excite our Endeavours to do as well as we can since we cannot expect to compass what we ought or pay to the Divine Majesty what is due to his transcendent Excellencies and infinite Love to us And since our just Debt cannot be discharged is it not fit to raise our Composition as high as our Stock will bear Besides the

with an Extremity of Ioy that thou wouldst be capable of enjoying an Infinity of Pleasures Thou wouldst know clearly their Nature thou wouldst be incessantly comparing them among themselves and thou wouldst discover Truths which would appear to thee so worthy of thy Application that wholly wrapt up and absorpt in the Contemplation of thy own Being full of thy self of thy Grandeur of thy Excellencies and of thy Beauty thou wouldst be no longer able to think of any thing besides But my Son GOD has not made thee to think of nothing but thy self He has made thee for himself Wherefore I shall not discover to thee the Idea of thy Being till that happy Time when the View of the very Essence of thy GOD shall deface and eclipse all thy Beauties and make thee despise all that thou art that thou mayst think only of contemplating him The Account of this excellent Person is so satisfying that I shall not pretend to add any thing to it but shall only observe from it that since 't is so true that we have no Idea of our own Souls and so reasonable that we should have none it would be in vain to go about to define any of the Modifications of our Spirit which since we have no Idea of them must be learnt by inward Sentiment and can no more be made known by Words to those that have not felt them than Colours can be described to a Man that is blind And therefore you must excuse me if I own my self unable to gratifie your Request in giving you a Definition of Pleasure which though I know when I feel it and am able to distinguish from Light or Colour or Sound or from the opposite Sensation of Pain yet since I know it by internal Consciousness only or Sentiment and not by Idea I cannot by Words render it intelligible to any body else but must remit him that desires the Knowledge of its Nature to Sense and Experience For he can never know it till he feel it and have those Motions excited in the Organs of his Sense to which the Author of Nature has annexed this Sensation However I may venture to call Pain an uneasie Thought not that I intend thereby to define it for I think it no more capable of a Definition strictly so called than Pleasure but only to intimate in general that it is a Modification belonging to Spirit and not to Body For seeing clearly in the Idea which I have of Extension that all its Modifications reduce themselves to Figure and Motion or certain Relations of Distance I conclude that Pleasure and Pain and the rest of those Sensations which I feel in my self by interiour Sentiment are not Modifications belonging to my Corporeal Substance but to some other which I call my Spirit And for this reason it is that I call Pain an uneasie Thought But then for the reconciling this with my saying that it anticipates and prevents all Thought I need only suggest to you that when I call Pain an uneasie Thought I take Thought in its utmost Latitude for all that we are any way conscious of to our selves as my most admired Philosopher does in his Principles of Philosophy P. 2. where he says Cogitationis nomine intelligo illa omnia quae nobis consciis in nobis fiunt quatenus eorum in nobis Conscientia est Atque ita non modo intelligere velle imaginare sed etiam sentire idem est hic quod cogitare i. e. By the Name of Thought I understand all those things which we are conscious to be done in our selves so far forth as there is in us a Conscientiousness of them And thus not only to understand to will to imagine but even to feel is the same here as to think But when I say that Pain anticipates all Thought by Thought I mean all rational discursive and reflecting Thought which 't is most certain and evident by all Experience that Pain does prevent and as certain that Grief does suppose follow and proceed from it But to return from these Digressions for I call all things so that have not an immediate Connection with Religion to that which is the principal Subject of our Correspondence and ought to be the Subject of all our Thoughts the Love of GOD. Our Saviour places it in the Head of all Morality telling us that it is the first and great Commandment And his Apostle St. Paul places it in the Rear of it telling us that the End of the Commandment is Charity So then from both these put together the Result will be that the Love of GOD is both the first and the last the Beginning and the End the Foundation and the Top-work the Principle and the Accomplishment of all Moral Perfection And no doubt but the first Devoir which in Order of Conception we can suppose to result from the Being of an intelligent Creature will be to love the Author of it and if he who is the Author of our Being be also the Author of all the Good Comfort Pleasure and Happiness of our Being nay even of our very Power and Force of loving than as we begin with him so we must end with him too and make him the Term and Object of our whole Love uniting our selves to him with all that we are as when Bodies touch one another according to their whole Supersicies with all our Heart Soul and Mind But of this already and perhaps further hereafter At present I consider that since our Being is in it self a Good and the Foundation and Possibility of all the Good which we do or shall ever enjoy it can be no sooner received than it brings along with it an Obligation of loving our Creator whose we are and to whom we are to offer up our Hearts as a flaming Sacrifice as soon as we enter upon Being which we are to pay to him as our first Homage and as an early Pledge and Earnest of all the Duty that we owe him And that which does the more oblige us to this is that if we do not thus early pay it to our Creator we shall pay it somewhere else where it is not due For no sooner does a Creature begin to be but he begins to love the intellectual Pulse commences its Movement which the first Inspiration of Life as well as the natural and the Desire of Happiness immediately succeeds the Capacity of it Assoon as we are we desire to be happy and assoon as we desire to be happy we must seek for this Happiness in some Object or other If therefore we seek it not in GOD we must seek it in the Creature But if we seeek it out of GOD we seek it where it is not and we err and transgress in our Search GOD only being our true Good We are therefore obliged to seek Union with GOD assoon as we desire to be happy that is assoon as we desire at all that is assoon as we are Our Obligation therefore to