Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abandon_v	body_n	unnatural_a	18	3	10.3700	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58802	The Christian life part III. Wherein the great duties of justice, mercy, and mortification are fully explained and inforced. Vol. IV. By John Scott D.D. late rector of St. Giles's in the Fields.; Christian life. Vol. 4.	Scott, John, 1639-1695.; White, Robert, 1645-1703, engraver.	1696 (1696)	Wing S2056; ESTC R218661	194,267	475

Temper consists for doubtless with the same Temper of Mind that we are of in this World we shall go into the other for meerly by going into the other World Men cannot be altered as to their main State though they may be perfected as to those good Dispositions that were here begun so that he that is wicked here will be wicked there too and that same Disposition of Mind that we carry with us to our Graves we shall retain with us in Eternity If therefore we would know what the Temper of a wicked Soul will be in the future State our best way will be to enquire what it is that we call a wicked Temper here because it will be the same here and hereafter Now a wicked Temper consists of two things First of Sensuality and Secondly of Devilishness By Sensuality I mean an immoderate Propension of the Soul to the Pleasures of the Body such an head-strong Propension as wholly diverts the Soul from all her nobler Delights to the brutish Pleasures of Intemperance and Wantonness and Gluttony together with those other Lusts that are subservient to them such as Fraud and Covetousness and Ambition and the like By Devilishness I mean those spiritual Wickednesses which do not so much depend upon the Body as the former but are more immediately centered in the Soul such as Pride and Malice and Wrath and Envy and Hatred and Revenge c. which are the Sins of the Devil by which those once glorious and blessed Spirits were transformed into Friends and Furies These are the Venomous Ingredients of which a wicked Temper is composed If you enquire therefore what the Temper of a wicked Soul will be in the future State I answer it will be the same there that it is here that is it will be sensual and devilish As for the latter there can be no doubt of it for Devilishness being immediately subjected in the Soul cannot be supposed to be separated from her by her Separation from the Body and may as well abide in naked and separated Spirits as it doth in the Apostate Angels And as for Sensuality though it cannot be supposed that a Soul should retain the Appetites of the Body after it is separated from it yet having wholly abandon'd it self to corporeal Pleasures while it was in the Body it may and doubtless will retain a vehement Hankering after a Re-union with it which is the only Sensuality that a separated Soul is capable of For when She comes into the World of Spirits her former accustoming her self unto the Pleasures of the Body will have so debauched and vitiated her Appetite that She will be incapable of relishing any other Pleasures but what are carnal and sensual which because She cannot enjoy but in the Body She must needs retain an earnest and vehement Longing to be re-united to it For having never had any former Experience of the Pleasures of Spirits when she comes into the other World she will find her self miserably destitute of all that can be pleasant and delightful to her and because she knows that the only pleasures she can relish are such as are not to be enjoyed but in conjunction with the Body therefore all her Appetites and Longings must needs unite into one outragious Desire of being embody'd again that so she may repeat these sensual Pleasures and act over the brutish Scene anew Which possibly may be the Reason why such sensual Souls have appeared so often in Church-yards and Charnel-houses Union with the Body being that which these wandring Ghosts have the most eager Affections to and that they are most loth to be separated from which makes them perpetually hover about and linger after their dear Consort the Body the Impossibility of their Re-union with it not being able to cure them of their impotent Desires but still they would fain be alive again Virgil. Iterumque ad tarda reverti Corpora quae lucis miferis tam dira cupido And this I doubt not was one great Reason of those extraordinary Abstinencies and bodily Severities that were imposed by the Primitive Church that by this means they might gently wean the Soul from the Pleasures of the Body and teach it before-hand to live upon the Delights of separated Spirits that so it might drop into Eternity with Ease and Willingness like ripe Fruit from the Tree and that when it was arrived into the other World it might not have its Appetite so vitiated with these sensual Delights as to be incapable of relishing those spiritual Ones and so be endlesly tormented with a fruitless Desire of returning to the Body again This therefore from the whole is plain and apparent that the Temper of wicked Souls in the other World will be much the same as it is in this that is sensual and devilish made up of Rage and Spight and Malice together with a vehement Longing after the deserted Body in which they enjoyed the only Pleasures they were capable of AND having thus shewed you what are the Felicities of the future State and what the Temper of wicked Souls will be in the future State I now proceed III. To shew you how contrary such a Temper and Disposition must be unto such Felicities And indeed Sensuality and Devilishness are the only Indispositions for Heaven but such Indispositions they are that if upon an impossible Supposition a Soul could be admitted with them into the Habitations of the Blessed She would not be able to relish one Pleasure there among all the Delights with which the beatifick State abounds there would none be found that would please her distemper'd Palate which like a fevourish Tongue must disrelish and nauseate the sweetest Liquor by reason of its overflowing Gall. And hence the Apostle exhorting his Christian Colossians to be thankful unto God for making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light telleth them that this was effected by God's translating them out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of his own dear Son that is by enabling them to mortifie their Lusts and inspiring them with the Graces of the Gospel 1 Colos. xii 13. And this will evidently appear if we consider the particular Felicities of which the heavenly State consists which as I have shewed above consist First In the Vision of God Secondly In our Likeness or Resemblance to Him Thirdly In the Love of Him and fourthly In the Society of pure and blessed Spirits to all which there is an utter Antipathy and Disagreement in every sensual and devilish Temper and Disposition I. IN every sensual and devilish Mind there is an Antipathy and Contrariety to the Vision of God for the Sight of God can be pleasant unto none but those who are in some measure contemper'd to his Perfections and transform'd into his Likeness While we are unlike him and contrary to him as we must needs be while we are sensual and devilish the Sight of Him would be more apt to amaze and

his Faults II ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Bodies is Sicknesses and Diseases by which the strength of our Natures is gradually exhausted the Vigour of our Spirits wasted the Activity of our Parts cramp'd and abated and our Bodies are rendered through incessant Pains and Weakness not only useless but burthensom to our Souls In this case therefore the Law of Mercy requires of us to render to our sick Friends Neighbours and Acquaintants all such good Offices as do any way conduce to their Support Refreshment or Recovery As first if their Sickness be such as will safely admit of Discourse and Conversation we are obliged in Mercy to visit them provided that our Company will be acceptable and to endeavour by our Discourse to chear their drooping Spirits to intermix their sorrowful Hours with the Pleasures of good Conversation and to administer to their wearied Thoughts the Supports and Comforts of Religion For chearful and good Discourse is many times better than the richest Cordial it makes the Patient to forget his pain or at least allays and mitigates his Sense of it it diverts his thoughts from their sorrowful Themes and entertains them with brisk and sprightful Idea's it raises the languishing Heart and like David's Musick charms the rage of those evil Spirits which infest it with their unnatural Heats So that by visiting our sick Friends when they are willing to admit of our Conversation and able to bear it we many times prove their best Physicians and administer to them the greatest Relief and Ease and therefore if when we might do them so much good by our Company we needlesly withdraw or absent our selves from them we are very much wanting in our Charity and Mercy towards them But then as we are obliged in Mercy to visit them when their case will safely and conveniently admits of it so we are also obliged by the same Mercy to render them all those necessary Assistances which either their Souls or Bodies do require and need to endeavour to awaken their Minds into serious Thoughts and Purposes to advise them of their Duty and to resolve their Doubts to comfort and support them with the blessed Hopes of Religion and to take all fair Opportunities to prepare their Souls for a happy Death and a glorious Eternity that so whether they recover or no this temporary Sickness of their Bodies may contribute to the eternal Health of their Souls And then in order to their Recovery we stand bound by the Laws of Mercy to contribute what we are able to their bodily Ease and Refreshment to be ready to serve them in all their Necessities and to help them when they cannot help themselves to compassionate their Griefs and bear with their Pevishnesses and to the best of our knowledge to direct them to the ablest Physicians or the most suitable Means and if they are poor and indigent to supply them with all such Remedies as are necessary to their Health and Recovery and lastly to be their earnest Advocates at the Throne of Grace that the God of all Power and Goodness in whose hands are the issues of Life and Death would commiserate their Sorrows and refresh their Weariness and either remove their Sickness or Sanctifie it to their Eternal Health III. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Bodies is outward Force and violence from those in whose power they are such as Captivity and Imprisonment Persecutions or cruel Torments all which do importunately sollicite the timely Succors of our Mercy and Compassion For so for the first of them viz. Bondage and and Captivity it is a sore and comprehensive Misery that commonly draws a long and heavy Chain of Calamities after it for 't is not only a Deprivation of our Liberty which is one of the dearest of all our temporal Blessings but also a Confiscation of it into the Hands and disposal of our Enemies and when our Persons are exposed to the will and tyranny of our Enemies what can be expected from them in this degenerate state of Humane Nature but a cruel and barbarous usage to be worn out with Stripes and Hunger and intolerable Labour and be forced to pine away our wretched Lives in unpitied Anguish and Vexation of Soul especially if those whom we are enslaved to happen to be Enemies to our Religion as well as Country which is the case of those miserable Captives with whom our Mercy is most concerned who being under the power of those that are sworn Enemies to the name of Christ must upon that account expect to be treated with much more Rigour and Severity there being no Enmity so fierce and cruel as that which is backed and set on by Conscience and enraged with zeal for Religion And when Men are ill treated not only as they are Slaves but as they are Christians what a hazardous Temptation are they under to renounce their Christianity and to exchange their hopes of Heaven for their Liberty and to enslave their Souls to Ransom their Bodies And when both their Souls and Bodies are thus exposed to Wretchedness and Misery what woful Circumstances can render them more proper Objects of our Mercy Wherefore in this case we are obliged in Mercy when any fair Opportunity is proposed to us to contribute to their Ransom proportionably to our Ability and so far as it is consistent with the publick Benefit to sollicit their Cause both with God and Men to beseech him to support and preserve them and to persuade all those with whom we have any Power or Interest to a liberal Concurrence towards their Relief and Redemption AND then as for Imprifonment which is a sort of Captivity too what a calamitous Condition is it for a Man to be shut up in a close and unwholsom Durance to dwell with Hunger and Cold and be confined to a hard Lodging a dark Solitude or a wretched Company to be sequestred from the Conversation of his Friends from the Comforts of Diversion and from his Business and Employment and all opportunities of making Provision for his poor Family All which unhappy Circumstances do commonly meet in the State and Condition of Prisoners and render it exceedingly wretched and miserable In which case the Mercy which is required of us is first to visit them in this their uncomfortable Solitude and Confinement supposing that they are our Friends and Acquaintants and to endeavour by our Conversation to divert their Sorrows to raise and strengthen their Hopes and to chear them with fresh Assurances of our Friendship and then to use all just endeavours to mollifie their Adversaries to vindicate their Innocence or to Compound their Debts if they are not able to discharge them But whether they are our Friends or Acquaintants or no the Law of Mercy obliges us as we have Opportunity and Ability to relieve their Necessities to redress their Injuries and if it be just and feasible to contribute to their Enlargement that so they may enjoy themselves with Comfort