Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abate_v	action_n	worldly_a	37	3	12.0543	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13019	The righteous mans plea to true happinesse In ten sermons, on Psal. 4 ver. 6. Preached by Iohn Stoughton Doctor in Divinity, sometimes fellow of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge, late preacher of Aldermanbury, London.	Stoughton, John, d. 1639.	1640 (1640)	STC 23310; ESTC S117842	148,853	302

of this rotten cottage of ours meate and drinke take a great deale of our time And the labour of a mans particular vocation all these must needs take up a great deale more of a mans time for the world then a man doth immediatly for the service of God and without blame well suppose that Thoughts and cares But now examine in the next place the proportion of thy paines especiall with the concurrence of thy affections and thy heart which hath the most full gale of thy paines and which art more eager upon I say if thou dost neither give God the principall of thy time nor bestow the greatest part of thy time upon him yet dost thou give him the principall of thy heart and affections that though thou art necessitated to converse more about the world then for God why yet if thou dost it more eagerly and with a greater eagernesse of affections towards God and thy heart doth infinitely more prize and love and esteeme of God and goeth with more alacrity and cheerefulnesse and more heate and delectation of spirit when thou art about God and about heavenly things than it doth about worldly things this may be some thing indeed but if there goeth together with the flower of thy time the eagernesse of thy heart and affections towards earthly things that thy heart is corrupted with them and thy judgement and thy estimations drawne after them and thou art builded more on them and pleased more with them and in a word all thy affections runne more to them than to heavenly things I cannot see then how there can be any colour of excuse Now therefore examine thy selfe in this and doe thou deale truely with thy selfe and by that wee may discerne a greater streame running for the world than for God and so a great disorder in the affections And lastly it is an evident character Neglect of that there is an inordinate love going a whoring after the world and of placing our felicity in them more than we should doe and more than we doe in God when wee can facilitate and further our prosecution of these worldly things with a neglect of our duty to God Duty to God when I can neglect my duty to my God when I can neglect my duty to my owne soule To our owne soule when I thus runne after the world that I care not if I doe trample upon God in the way and trample upon Christ in the way upon my owne soule upon heaven and all in the way so that I can make so much the more speede towards these worldly things This is an evident signe that my heart is addicted to them and that my heart is over-growne with a desire of them Marke this and if thou findest I say that thou canst dispense with thy duty towards God or any service of his for the prosecution of thy worldly estate if thou findest that thou canst dispense with thy duty towards thy neighbour because thou wilt not diminish thy estate or that thou canst dispense with thy duty towards thy owne soule neglect the spirituall edification of it because it doth take thee from the prosecuting of the world This is an evident signe that thy heart runnes out wonderfully inordinatly after them Exhortation 3. Vse In the last place let me adde briefely the summe of the Exhortation which if time had not prevented I would have propounded more particularly The exhortation shall be to presse this duty upon us that wee knowing our felicitie doth not consist in these worldly things would regulate and square our selves by this rule I will briefely touch these two things I will briefly touch 1. The duties that may be inferred upon the consideration of this Point 2. The motives that may be used for the inforcing of those duties upon us to set us upon the performance of them 1. Duty Now there be divers duties that might be inferred very naturally upon the consideration of this truth and are worthy to be learned As 1. Abate for the world Abate for the world If this be so that our happinesse doth not consist in these worldly things Let us learne then to abate our selves something in our eagernes towards the world that we would not be so eager for it Tanquam hac sit nostri medicina doloris follow not the world as though that would cure our maladie and heale our misery and bring a happinesse to our soules and therefore they that have such erronious thoughts and finde themselves convinced let them shew it by abating of their eagernesse towards these worldly things 1. Abate our actions Action the eagernesse of them learne hence not to be so busie not so early and so late and so thoughtfull and so carefully for and about these worldly things not to be so anxious in our spirits for them I say learne hence to abate our actions not to incumber our selves too much with worldly things doe but as our duty and conscience require so farre as we are bound by the rule of dutie to provide for our selves and family do it in duty and inconscience to God but doe not over-doe it doe not too much trouble not your selves about too many things as Martha did Affections 2. Abate at least if not our actions if wee cannot forbeare any one of our actions but our charge and calling require it yet I say abate in our affections coole our affections towards these things that though I doe use them for necessities sake yet my heart longs to be freed from this necessitie O when shall my minde be perfectly freed from these things and O when shall that happy time be that God will free me from the burden of these worldly things that I may not soile my soule still with these worldly things that I may not converse in this present world alway but that I may live continually in the injoyment of that blessed presence of God and behold his face continually and exercise my selfe in nothing but serving and praising of him and having nothing else to doe Abate at least your affections doe not so much esteeme these worldly things and this world though you cannot leave it yet despise all these worldly things and contemne them and trample them and have them under our feete as God hath given them to us so esteeme them but as in the Psalme 8. Hee hath put all things under our feete In respect of worldly things it is true of the godly man in this sense it is true I say in regard of Christians they have them all under their feete but worldly men have them as a crowne on their head and they esteeme it so but indeede it is a burden that presseth them downe that they cannot arise in any noble thoughts and therefore to prevent this abate your affections towards these worldly things 3. Learne to abate your estimation Exhortation or else these cannot doe it For so long as

against all enchantmens in this kinde that doe fascinate our minds and bewitch us with the things of this world Doe not thinke the rich man or the honourable man or the wise man that because he hath these indowments therefore he is happy not you your selves if you have them Deceive not your selves your happinesse hath not in these things although you are rich and witty and beautifull c. these are indeede great things but these make not the man doe not thinke so as to befoole yourselves and not looke out after the maine It is an observation a man were better be deceived in the darke than have a false glimmering light because the confidence of the one will make him carelesse and so fall whereas otherwise hee would weigh more how hee goeth and ponder every steppe carefully and so avoid the danger A man were better be in a bad and blind estate and condition than in such a condition as hath a kind of glimmering of happinesse which keepes him off from the true happinesse and makes him runne many times upon the rocke of true misery out of a false conceit that he is already in the state of happinesse But of these things I have spoken enough for the present 2. Vse Reprehension of As we have something here for the rectifying of our judgements in the point of happinesse so in the second place this affords matter pregnant enough of Reproofe Reprehension to reprove the practise of many men in the world I will first name the practises and then a little unmaske the pretences by which men thinke they have a nooke to runne out at and thinke that this truth doth not touch them with any just reproofe The practise of worldly men 1. The practises of worldly men It is cleare enough that all worldly men that are made up of dirt and who carry about them the curse of the Serpent Vpon thy belly shall thou go dust shalt thou eate They are like the woman in the Gospel that had a spirit of infirmity for so many yeares that grew crooked downward towards the earth These are worldly men men that doe minde the things of the world onely which makes them grow crooked downeward who make it their great worke and onely study because they place the onely happinesse in it and so spend and ravell out all their time and spinne out all their bowells for the purchasing and the getting of worldly things They are cleane out of the way and mistake foully as the Father speakes Vitam beatam quarunt in regione mortis It is a foule mistake to looke to finde heaven in hell happinesse in misery such are they that minde nothing but worldly things And they are clearely to be reproved Of Godly men 2. The practises of the godly men here reproved There are many that doe not onely pretend to godlinesse but doe participate it may be in some degree of godlinesse that are blame worthy too If our happinesse lie not in worldly things as it doth not why then doe godly men soule their hands and disparage their names in being so greedy in their pursuit of these worldly things in being too having and taking too much delight and contentment in them and being infinitely grieved at the losse of them and so for all other the symptomes which argue an adherency of the soule to them It argues a roote of bitternesse in them in some degree and that they place more happinesse in these worldly things then God would have them or then hee ever did for every man doth proportion his care in seeking after any thing according to his estimation of the conjunction of that thing which hee seekes after with his happinesse happinesse being the end of all a mans aimes Hee would not minde over much or be greedy over-much of any thing but that there is a secret estimation in a mans breast that it is very neere alyed and of very neere kinne to his happinesse Now it is cleare and evident amongst us that there is this fault even in godly men that they doe too much licke up the dust and doe too much groape after worldly things and set too great a price upon them and therefore the reproofe reacheth to them also I may well make use of that which Chrysostome said sometime that if he were the fittest in the world to preach a Sermon to the whole world gathered together in one congregation and had some high mountaine for his pulpit from whence he might have a prospect of all the world in his view and were furnished with a voyce of brasse a voyce as loud as the trumpet of the Arch-angell that all the world might heare him he would chuse to Preach upon no other Text then that very one even in this Psalme O mortall men how long will ye love vanity and follow after leasing those deceitful things of the world which promise happinesse when they cannot make it good It is that which would make a Sermon of a generall reproofe to all the world and come home to every one Pretences there 2. But now to come to the second thing I propounded which I will but briefely touch on Besides those Practises Men have pretences to excuse themselves upon some faire colours and such possibly may be in them yet for all these pretences we may otherwise discerne well enough that they place their happinesse too much of it at least in these worldly things yet that they may not deceive themselves we will examine them The best plea of all is that they doe but make conscience of their duty we are to seeke these worldly things in some measure because God appointed every one to doe it and the hand of the diligent shall make rich God hath made us our owne executioners our owne instruments to be fabirs fortunae in some sense to be servers of our selves and to helpe our selves with the necessaries of this life And the consideration of a mans charge and family and estate and such like will afford a man plausible glosses and probable arguments to defend themselves even those that are most deeply tainted with this poyson and guilty of this fault yet thinke to wind out of all reproofe and escape the blow thereof with such faire pretences But briefely in a word for answer for I intend not to sift things to the branne and to prosecute them so close in a word therefore for answer I shall give but a touch There be two things that I desire every one to consider against all their pretences beside one thing which I desire may be considered in generall I desire no man would deale with me or with any other that should cal on them to take heed of immoderate love of worldly things or an immoderate prosecution of them I say not deale with us as many wil deale with man for though men have no such art as to enter into the hearts of men men have not a window