Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ability_n	able_a	child_n	22	3	4.6930	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59621	Antapologia, or, A discourse of excuses setting forth the variety and vanity of them, the sin and misery brought in by them, as being the greatest bar in the way to heaven, and the ready high way to hell : being the common snare wherein most of the children of men are intangled and ruined / by Jo. Sheffield ...	Sheffeild, John, d. 1680.	1672 (1672)	Wing S3061; ESTC R11053	145,253	322

indeed and I might have known where to begin but not where to end I have here gathered and set a many Stocks which a more skilful Hortulane would have set in a better and more comely Order and likely have graffed better fruit upon more pleasant to the Eye and Tast of the Reader by a more substantial handling a more smooth pithy and taking stile and a more gracious and spiritual strain of Spirit But I must say I write not to Scholars ●r quaint Citizens the Stile is as the Author Subrustick and Inurbane I write not to you Fathers and able Learned ones whose Unction and Abilities teach you in a much higher way I only say I write to you Children you weaker ones who look not for the strong meat of strong Lines and high Language but best relish the plain and uncompounded milk of the word Indeed Ornari res Sancta negat contenta doceri And without dissembling think that Title best becomes it which Reverend Perkins prefixed to one of his which he Inscribed To all Ignorant people which desire to be instructed And now it is gone out of my Hand say to it as once a Wit said to his Vade sed Incultus yet do I read that Samson once did great Execution with the Jaw-bone of an Ass and never was there a more unlikely Battle-Ax used and Gideon again with his Earthen Pitchers never such weak Ordinance employed and David with a Sling-stone never more contemptible Arrow shot But it was in the Name of the Lord that he went out And who knows what a day of small things may produce The Lord saveth not by Sword or Spear not by Might or Power Zech. 4. 6. not by Learning and Eloquence but he can make the feeble to be as David Zech. 12. 8. and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 1. 28. the base and contemptible things and those which are not just nothing accounted to bring down the things which are That no part of the glory may fall to the Instrument but the whole redound to the praise of the glory of his Grace who worketh all things according to the Councel of his own Will But to the matter it self Excuses are the Subject of this Discourse which I can look upon as no other then Satans Master-piece and can call them by no fitter Name then that Common Black Art wherein he doth instruct the most of the sons of men and by this he doth inveigle more and hold them almost as fast as he doth those whom he hath trained up to the study and practice of that which is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Black Art The Fox and Serpent have advantaged Satans Interest more with his Neq aquam moriemini and his Eritis sicut Dii ye shall not Die at at all but shall be as Gods than to appear a Lyon and Dragon in his own colours saying Cast thy self down head-long or fall down and worship and make a f●rmal Compact with me We find by Experience that our English Flocks the Glory and Wealth of our Land are more prejudiced by the subtle Foxes lurking in their Dens than by the more savage Wolves which our prudent Forefathers have happily rid the Land of And our spiritual Pastors find more prejudice done to the Souls of men our Spiritual Flocks otherwise the glory of the Christian Name by these lurking Excuses than by those ravenous Wolves of Rome Jesuites and Seminaries whom our pious Princes have formerly chased out of the Land by their just Interdicts These are the great Abaddon and Apollyon the Destroyers of Souls the Mice that near the Land 1 Sam. 6. 5. The Samsons destroyers of our Countrey that lay Heaps upon Heaps not of Philistins but Israelites The opprobria Theologorum By these is the Ministry of Gods faithful Servants baffled and rendred unsuccessful not by open contradiction but by a tacit reserve and resolvedness aforehand how far they will go no further Excuses they are Satans Off-spring Sins great Grandmother that came in with the Fall begotten between Sin and Guilt Sin the Father Guilt the Mother God created Man upright it is said but Man faln sought out many Inventions among which Excuses to cloke and cover Sin were the first and are the chiefest An Epidemical Evil and as General almost as Original Sin and ●ath as that Universal Deluge in Noah's time overspread the face of the whole Earth They are the old Primitive Language learnt of Satan in Paradise and though other Languages have been lost or so confounded that we hardly know what remains of them this remains entire and may be called the Universal Character of the World and the Mother Language of all Nations who as soon as born and learn to go and speak learn to go astray and speak Lies An Evil so much the more to be lamented because Hereditary Connatural born with us No Nation so barbarous Religion so gross Worship so impious Superstition so fond Manners so brutish Opinion so irrational but hath borrowed somwhat from Excuses to defend them No Age Sex Nation Condition sort and rank of men without them The youngest Child hath learned one and the elder Father more none so simple and ignorant as to be destitute of one and the more knowing and cunning the more the pity the more store Take any man without Excuses and you may say Rara avis that you have seen a strange Sight Peganisme and Idolatry had never been known in the World nor had continued had it not been for them Popery had never stood so long had it not been underpropt by them No Wars Murder Rapine Adulteries Witchcrafts False Wi●●ess Perjury Cheating Lying Equivocation Pride Revenge firing Towns and Cities Blowing up of Parliaments Assassination of Princes Butchering and Massacring of People had ever been in the World had it not been for this great Mother of Abominations No Heresie Schisme Doctrine of Devils Corruption of Worship had ever troubled the Church No Sedition Treason Rebellion Conspiracies Factions Innovations Oppressions Tumults had ever troubled the State had it not been for these the setters on or Abetters No such persecutions opposition and slighting of faithful Ministers and sound Doctrine no such scorn cast upon wayes of Godliness where the Gospel is professed no such backwardness as repent reform believe and obey and become true practisers of Godliness in the power but for them Nothing but Piety Charity Peace Love Concord Friendship Faithfulness Truth Sincerity in the World were it not for them Take away these and you take away all that is hurtful rid the World of them and what a World should we see weed these out of the Church and it becomes a Paradise a Garden or Well inclosed Yea take these from a man and you restore him to his Integrity and you have a real terrene Saint Take a view a little and consider what is the great Propugnaculum or Bulwark under which all Evil shelters it self against the weapons of

them let them Play and do as Children And have they not Death and Hell before them too Train up a Child saith the Prov. 22. 6. Lord in the way of his Youth and he will keep it when he is old And again who so fit to be taught as these Esay 28. 9. Whom shall he teach Knowledge and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine them that are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the Breast Gracious Timothy was grounded 2 Tim. 1. 5. 3. 15. in the Scripture when a Child by his religious Mother and Grand-mother And Solomon tells us what Lessons he had given him by his Father and Mother Prov. 4. 3 4. Our Saviour bids us to bring our little Children to him for of such so brought up Mark 10. 14. is the Kingdom of Heaven We read of Children believing in Christ Matth. 18. 6. Of little Children knowing the Father 1 John 2. 13. Therefore doth that aged Disciple direct his Epistle to his little Children as well as to the young Men and aged Fathers Our greatest care should be of our young Children they are Spes Gregis the hope of the next Generation We break the Colt when young bend the Twig and twist it while green We swath and swaddle the Bodies of our Children when small and tender to keep them strait and then if ever is the time to frame and form their Spirits to prevent ill habits The lameness or crookedness in the Cradle as in Mephibosheth is hardly if ever cured much less are ill Principles to be rooted out that were suckt in when Children He who had been so from a Child was past Disciples Cure Mark 9. 21. The young Disciple usually wears the Garland and proves the most useful and eminent aged Father My Soul desireth the first Ripe Mic. 7. 1. Fruit saith the Prophet The most eminent Saints and choicest Instruments in God's Church have been usually such as have been trained up in Pious Education called and sanctified in their Infancy or Childhood as young Samuel Solomon Josiah Jeremy John Baptist Timothy c. of old And some such Instances we have of late That incomparable Vsher for one of whom it may be said Multa tulit fecitque puer sudavit alsit He could speak of his being in Christ from ten years of age then was he converted and what a blessed Instrument of much good was he not to many particular Persons and Congregations where he came and preached but as a Star of the first magnitude his light did shine not only all over the Horizon of these two great Islands of Great Britain and Ireland his Native Country to which he was so great a glory but his Name and Memory is pretious to all the Churches in the Europaean World But above all that example above all examples of our blessed Saviour when but a Child of Twelve years who was so increased in Knowledge and Wisdom that he was among the Doctors in the Temple hearing and puting forth his Questions to their astonishment and admiration And that saying of his in answer to his Mother worthy to be printed in the Breasts of all hopeful Children and be inscribed in the Frontispiece of all their Books I must now be about my Fathers business And he was Luke 2. 49. not yet come into the Teens was but Twelve years of age then A second makes the like excuse when his 2. Unlearned duty is laid before him and saith Non sum Doctus as he to whom the Book was given and bidden to read answered I cannot Esay 29. 12. for I am not learned I am a Lay-man a poor Mechanick Illiterate what would you have of me should I meddle with Scripture matters Duties of Religion Would you have me instruct my Family pray give thanks at Meat It is for Ministers Schollars and the learned to deal in such matters saith the ignorant Papist and the lazy Protestant But our Saviour biddeth the Laity as well as the learned Priests Search the Scriptures And St. Paul Joh. 5. 39. exhorteth all Christians that the Word of Col. 3. 16. God should dwell in them richly in all Wisdom teaching and admonishing one another c. The most eminent Saints in God's Acts 4. 13. Calendar were sometimes illiterate men Fishermen Publicans Plebeians c. But after they had been conversant with Jesus they were taught and inabled of God and made fit for every good work They who are not Book-learned may be Christ-learned Austin said in his time Surgunt Cons l. 8. c. 8. indocti rapiunt Regnum coelorum The unlearned rise up and get the start of us the learned of the World and break into Heaven with a holy Violence while we with our learning and disputes lie weltring in the mire Think not therefore want of Book-learning may excuse thee from all common Duties of Christianity There is not one Heaven for Schollars and another or none at all for the unlearned In an Army you see all are not Commanders and Commission-Officers but the greater number common Souldiers upon whose hands the great shock and brunt of the Battell lies So in God's Host the Church-militant all are not Divines and Pastors but the greatest part of Christ's Flock consists of ordinary and many of them unlearned Christians In the Catalogue of Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes the total is summed Heywoods Elizabeth up to amount to 260 whereof five were Bishops one and twenty Doctors eight Gentlemen but the greatest part by far was of the meaner rank eighty four Artificers an hundred Husbandmen Servants and Labourers fifty five Women Maids Wives and Widows A third little differing from the former 3. Want of Parts is I want Parts and sufficient Abilities This was Moses his excuse O Lord I pray thee have me excused I am not Vir verborum Exod. 4. 10. I am not eloquent I pray let it be done by some better hand So plead some Masters of Families had I the Gift and Ability of some others I would pray and set up Religious Exercises in my Family but I want expression and that discourageth me So it may be some Ministers I should Preach more frequently and more chearfully had I the gifts and utterance of some Paul or Apollos God's work would not be done negligently they say True but if it be done faithfully seriously and sincerely it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what a man hath not We find by experience God doth often bless the Endeavors of conscientious Masters of Families to a great measure of promoting and spreading Religion all over the Family and as oft the Labours of some his faithful though less eminent Ministers to the conversion and building up of more then some of the chief Master-Builders As if the Lord would say Not by Might nor by Power Zach. 4. 6. but by my Spirit And as if he would have us say

the Flock of Jacob if there were one not spotted it was none of his Laban's were all white Cattle The Lord had one Son only without Sin not one not him without smart Sufferings They who are now in their white Robes Rev. 7. 14. were once in their blacks and had waded through great Tribulations St. Chrysostome once was invited to a Marriage and was to go through a foul Lane but as he was going met a Malefactor going through the High-Street to his Execution whence he had this pious meditation How much better is it to go through the worse way if to a Feast then the fair to Execution Non qua sed quo said he No matter what way we go to Heaven so we get but thither Through many Tribulations was ever wont to be the way to Heaven Acts 14. 22. 11. But I fear saith one I have committed 11. Fear I have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost the Sin against the Holy Ghost and then what place for Faith or Hope It is like the Sin of Elie's House not to be purged by any Burnt-Offering or Sacrifice But dost thou fear indeed The more there is of that fear the less of this danger Such as fall into that sin are Leviathan like without fear Job 41. 33. Past feeling Eph. 4. 18. Have Eyes but see not Ears but hear not Sin but tremble not Know therefore that every sin even the most heinous and grievous is not the sin against the Holy Ghost otherwise Manasseh had been in it not all sin of Ignorance though pursued with greatest Violence otherwise Paul's had been it nor any sin against Knowledge faln into through surprise and infirmity and after repented otherwise Peter's had been it But if Paul had had Peter's knowledge of Christ or Peter Paul's rage against Christ both had had a sad account to make He that shall attentively read and compare those two places Heb. 6. 4 5. with Heb. 10. 26 27 28 29. will understand the better what this Sin against the Holy Ghost is and what Ingredients are in it 1. There must be Knowledge and Illumination in the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven It is not a sin of Ignorance 2. There is a sinning wilfully It is not every sin of Infirmity or relapse into a former sin 3. There is in it a falling away not every slip or stepping aside not every fouler sin bewailed and broken off but an absolute falling off 4. All these with a studied and professed opposition to Christ and his Grace and Spirit Thence they are said to Crucifie Christ again and put him to more shame as if he had not suffered enough before and to despight the Spirit of Grace So that lay all these together this cannot be thy case oh poor mournful distressed doubting and complaining Christian who dost lament mourn faint pant hunger thirst fear grieve which they never do who fall away as is here described but are given once to impenitency and obdurateness of spirit There are four kinds of Falls which may befal the Child of God each worse then other The first and lightest is that in our daily combate by reason of the sin that dwells in them they do what they would Rom. 7. 18. not and cannot do what they would but daily fall short In which respect we are none of Gal. 5. 17. us Supralapsarians but Sublapsarians and Relapsarians too This is but like the fall of a mist in Winter the Sun breaks out and a fair day follows The second is Gal. 6. 1. When a good man is overtaken with some more notable miscarriage as were they who dissembled in the business of Jud●izing Gal. 2. 14. They did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk strait these did Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restore This is as a fall whereby a Leg is put out of joynt yet set again and all is well Let him that is free from these two take a Ladder as Constantine said to Acesius the Novatian and go Socr. l. 1. c. 7. to Heaven alone For in many things we sin all Jam. 3. 2. The third is more sad when a Believer falls into some fouler sin as did David and Peter into sins wasting Conscience This like the fall of Eutichus from the third loft dead for the present but after recovered by a Miracle of Mercy The fourth is a kind of Apostasy or insensible decay an abatement or loss of first love and may be never comes to former strength and liveliness or to regain their former peace Thus as David in his age grew cold and needed an Abishag to lie in 1 Kings 1. 3. his Bosome his natural heat being abated So his Sons spiritual heat abated by reason of the many Abishags that lay in his bosome and though he was beloved of his God yet did his Sun set in a Cloud This like the fall of the hair in old age waxeth thinner and thinner though life remains nature is not so strong and vigorous as formerly But there are four worse kinds of falls peculiar to wicked men The first proves final but is not total at first but sensim sine sensu by little and little Thus the thorny ground miscarried This like Elie's 1 Sam. 4. 18. fall backward to the breaking of his Neck The second Is a total and final but not voluntary at first but are beaten out of heart as the stony ground by tribulation arising This like the fall of Sisera he fell down Jud. 5. 27. dead with his nail sticking in his Temples The third A more fearful a total final voluntary and deliberate yet not malitious fall Thus Demas is supposed to fall who of a Disciple or Teacher formerly is said afterwards to have become a Priest in an Idol-Temple at Thessalonica so Dorotheus Esther 6. 13. Reports This fall is like the fall of Haman when they thus begin to fall no hopes of Recovery 4. Yet is there a worse The fourth is as the opening of the fourth Seal where appears Rev. 6. 8. the pale Horse and Death upon his back and Hell following a total final voluntary deliberate and malitious falling away Such was the fall of Simon Magus Hymenaeus Alexander Julian c. Upon such a fall the Gulph is fixed the Decree gone out Nulla retrorsum no renewing such to Repentance This fall is like the fall of Jerichoes walls which fell down flat Josh 6. 20. with a Curse annexed against Rebuilding or of Judas who falling head long burst asunder in the midst and all his Bowels gushed out or if you will as the fall of Lucifer himself who from an Angel of Light is become a Prince of Darkness This last onely is the Sin against the Holy Ghost upon which I have therefore the longer insisted from which they are far enough that are oft so much affrighted who are more afraid then there is cause when their case is at most but as Paul's Peter's David's