Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	bring_v	rod_n	69	3	9.6959	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44419	Golden remains of the ever memorable Mr. John Hales ... with additions from the authours own copy, viz., sermons & miscellanies, also letters and expresses concerning the Synod of Dort (not before printed), from an authentick hand.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.	1673 (1673)	Wing H271; ESTC R3621	409,693	508

actions whatsoever The Arts of this world are by God's providence so divided that they must of necessity belong onely to some all the world cannot be practitioners in any one of them If all were Husband-men what would become of the Merchant's Trade If all were Merchants where were the Scholar The profit of every one of these may peradventure redound to many the skill necessarily resides in few And let us suppose all to be professors of any one the profit of that must needs perish But this wonderful Art of Godliness is of an higher nature and hath a kind of Metaphysical community it must descend unto all particulars we must if we will have any profit by it be all professors of it Secondly few or no Arts are there in the world that are befitting both sexes some are well befitting men but are utterly unfit for women To go abroad to handle the sword to manage foreign matters this belongs unto the man but to keep home handle the distaff to manage the business of the family these belong unto the woman But for the profession and practise of Piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil Womenkind are as far forth capable of it as men are And Gregory Nyssen tells us that in prayer and fasting and other exercises of Godliness there have been women found who have far surpassed men Thirdly in the world Arts and Professions are to be distributed amongst men according to their several complexions as it were and constitutions of mens wits Ex quo libet ligno non fit Mercurius Every temper of nature fits not every profession as every soil will not bring forth all kind of seeds And hence it is that those who have delivered unto us their opinions concerning the institution of youth have advised men warily to observe towards what Profession or Trade their nature leans and to build upon this as upon a foundation All this labour of examining and trying mens capacities and constitutions in the business of piety is at an end For there is no constitution no temper of nature unapt to receive impression from it There is no Nature so stubborn no wit so weak and silly but can make a perfect Christian and quickly by the help of the grace of God inwardly working with it beleive and understand the darkest mysteries of Godliness The reason of this difference is evident For Man's Art cannot alter the nature of the Subject on which he works and therefore if he cannot do what he would he must content himself to do that which the matter upon which he works will give him leave As the Sun which warms the earth gives nothing unto it onely stirs up the nature and faculty it finds in it and so makes it bring forth fruit so good education in any Art if it find a Nature fit to receive and entertain it it will cause it as it were to bud and blossom and bring forth fruit but give or infuse or make a nature it cannot But the holy Spirit of God where it pleases him to sow the seed of Grace doth alter the very complexion and nature of the foil and were our hearts as hard as flint or as barren as the sand he can make them as soft as wax and as fertile as Canaan or the Paradise of God Create a new heart within me saith the Psalmist The conversion of a sinner is a kind of degree of Creation But I must proceed Fourthly Aristotle discoursing concerning the fit hearer and learner of Moral and Civil Virtues quite excludes Youth as utterly unfit for any such drift and end And why He is yet forsooth impatient of admonition hot in passion when these things are calm'd and allai'd then is he fit wax to receive the impression of natural instruction But he whom the Schole of Nature hath thus excluded the Schole of Grace and Piety hath especially made choice of From a child to have known the Scriptures Suffer young children to come unto me He that receives not the kingdom of heaven like a young child Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way Many more testimonies of holy Scripture which plainly declare unto us that Youth is the fittest subject to receive the influence and operation of the holy Spirit of God Let the passions of Youth rage never so violently let him as much contemn and set at nought the good and grave advise of his Ancients as ever Rehoboam did yet God that sits upon the flouds and gives them Laws and tames them can bridle the unruliest passion of the most disorderly young man and make him like unto young Ioseph or Daniel Fifthly Old men are very unfit learners of the lessons which the world teacheth and almost impossible it is for a man to begin to study in his age Therefore Opsimathie which is too late beginning to learn was counted a great vice and very unseemly amongst Moral and Natural men For the longer we defer the more unapt still we grow our senses wax duller our memory frailer yea our understanding too will sensibly decay But in the Schole of Christ none is too old to learn no memory too short to remember his duty no disgrace no unseemliness even for old men to come to Schole For the Spirit of God strengthens the memory softens the brain supplies all defects that Age brings with it and makes it were it as dry as Aaron's Rod to bud and blossom and bring forth ripe fruit unto righteousness When David in the Book of Kings had invited old Barzillai to the Court Barzillai who had so kindly entertained him when he fled from his ungracious son he excuses himself unto the King by reason of his age his taste fails him his hearing is gone he hath lost all sense of Court delights and pleasures and therefore he requests that favour for his young son Chimham as a fitter person to make a Courtier I am this day saith Barzillai fourscore years old and can I discern between good and evil Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing-women Wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burthen to my Lord the King Let thy servant I pray thee turn back again that I may die in my own city and be buried in the grave of my father and of my mother But behold thy servant Chimham let him go over with my Lord the King and do to him what shall seem good unto thee Thus indeed it is in the Courts of earthly Princes men by age do grow unserviceable and combersome and therefore there is a time for them to retire The counsel which Quintilian gives his Oratour Desinere cum desidereretur to resign and give over whil'st as yet he is serviceable belongs especially unto Courtiers Best for them to resign their places with honour whil'st yet they are able to do service lest if they stay till age hath made them unserviceable they may peradventure be