Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A33464
|
The little manuel of the poore mans dayly devotion collected out of severall pious and approoved authors / by W.C.
|
W. C. (William Clifford), d. 1670.
|
1669
(1669)
|
Wing C4712; ESTC R7795
|
136,664
|
494
|
great esteeme which we make of his holy will and commande we having no other motive nor respect to draw us thereunto 2. because those small occasions being very frequent they give much practice for vertue and therby to obtayne great grace and many favours from God Let vs therfore make this good use of the least occasion to testify our love and true fidelity to him and therby to encreace his grace in our soules to which in Heaven is answerable eternall glory And who on the contrary shall be negligtfull therin will experience that the holy Ghost hath most truly fore tould us Eccl. 1◠that who contemneth small thins shall fali by little and little Reason ought to be the Rule of all our actions and affections MAns nature is to live according to reason but passion blinding us we weigh not all things by the just weight of their worth but rather by our deceiptfull affections and disorderly appetits the affection which we have for one person makeing all his actions to seeme gratefull and good and our aversion to the other but unpleasing and badd wheras he notwithstanding may wel have what is worthy of praise and the other what may deserve much blame Have not a double hart the one for your selfe and the other for your neighbour it being reason which ought to be the Rule and guide of our will Esteeme not things accordding only as they seeme pleasing to you and in appearence but according to their worth and valour Be not troubled that others seeke their owne conveniences seeing that they are not offended to let you procure yours Doe as you would be donne to and deale with others in the same manner as God dealeth with you who although he suffereth much at your hands yet he refuseth not to bestow blessings and great favours daily upon you Nor be you much troubled if men deale ungratefully with you you being so very ungratefull to God The examen of spirits according to their different feeling in the hart GUsts and interiour feelings must be examined to try whither such as are thought to be spirituall spring not from flesh and blood that devotion is not spirituall which hath its roote meerely frome sense and which is grounded on this foundation can not be solid and stable yea the greatest fervours and most violent ardor in the love of God is frequently discipated like unto watery froth That devotion as true which proceeds from the purest love of God and is best knowne by a generous resolution wherby the soule doth unite her selfe inviolably to his divine will and pleasure through the greatest difficulties and contradictions to nature not having regard neither to gaine nor losse not to sensible consolation in prayer nor to the greatest dereliction and barrenness therin but only and purely to the honour and glory of God And who build not upon this foundation will little advance in perfection but rather whil be still to begin so long as nature beares such a sway The right spirituall gusts and the true holy motions from the spirit of God are that we greatly humble our selves that we renounce our owne will conquering nature and its reluctance to suffering neglecting all interest and that we have no other ayme nor end but purely to please and to serve Almighty God How to draw profit from afflictions and painfull sufferings ARe you in painfull sufferance either by bodily affliction or by some desolation in minde comfort your selfe in that by patience your gaine will be without comparison farr greater then can be your harme For if none can shew greater charity then he who giveth his life for a frend what then may besaid of him who suffers for the love of God that which he both dreads and feares much more then he doth death it selfe I meane derelection and privation of all spirituall consolation temptations scrupules and other afflictions of soule Feare fin and not paine nor doe you abhorr what God gusteth with pleasure nor be you discontent at what is very pleasing to him It is now the very proper tyme of suffering and yet self love makes any paine to be to you extreamely troublesome Yea so weake is the love of God in you as you most unwillingly doe suffer that which even for your owne greatest good he most fatherly ordaynes for you Can he who hopes to enjoy God for alle Eternity feare to suffer one little moment for his sake Force nature but à little to beare Christs holy Crosse and therby your peine will much be lightned for nothing doth so greatly augment our sufferance as doth our owne proper will And if we doe so greatly love and reverence the Crosse of Christ for its being sanctified hy his continuing fastned three or fower houres ther upon why should we not love esteeme and honour laborious and painfull sufferings which he endured three and thirty whole yeares continuing the whole space of his life The reason wherefore all men naturally seekeing happinesse so few doe find it OUr divine Redeemer declaring to his diseiples wherin beatitude and true happinesse in this life did consist hee disabuseth them of the false opinion of worldly people who though they naturally seek happinesse and labour for that end yet they spending their labour to pourchace worldly vaine honour and deluding pleasurs or sordid wealth according to the pernicious false principle of the world they wholy neglect what their divine Maister Jesus Christ hath taught vs both by word and example wherby to leade us the way to true beatitude beatifying the poore of spirit The meeke and humble Who weepe and mourne Who hunger and thirst The mercifull The pure and cleane of hart The peace makers And finally the persecuted and afflicted persons for justice All these our divine Redeemer declares to be blessed and that the kingdome of Heaven belongs to them whom yet the deceived world according to their false maxime doe judge to be but miserable and most unhappy Nor is it a wonder that what Jesus Christ proposed here as happines seemes rather misery to the delued eyes of men whose thoughts not going beyond this present life which being but truly misery in it selfe it can no other wise make us happy but as it serves to help us to gaine that other of endlesse blisse Of sloath and idlenesse THis mother of vice is contrary to nature it being the proper nature of man to labour as for a bird to fly nor hath he à greater enemy then is sloath and idlenesse Which is a sin quite contrary to the nature of man the very institution of his first creation being properly to worke God placed Adam in Paradise Gen. 1◠that he should worke And after his fall it was appointed him in punishment of his sin it being pronounced against him and all his progeny Gen 3.19 that in the sueate of his hrowes he should eate his bread And therefore idlenesse is both unnaturall to Man and unpleasing to God Math.
They that repay evil things for good did back bite me because I followed goodnesse Forsake me not O Lord my God depart not from me Incline unto my helpe O Lord God of my salvation Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 50. HAve mercy on me O God according to thy great mercy And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquities Wash me hencefourth from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Because I doe know my iniquity and my sin is alwayes against me To thee only have I sinned and have donne evill before thee that thou maist be justified in thy words and maist overcome when thou art judged For behould I was conceived in iniquities and my mother conceived me in sin For behould thou hast loved truth the uncertaine and hidden things of thy wisdome thou hast made manifest to me Thou shalt sprincle me with hysope and I shall be cleansed thou shalst wash me and I shall be made whiter then snow To my hearing thou shalst give joy and gladnesse and humbled harts shall rejoyce Turne away thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities Create a cleane hart in me O God and renew a right spirit in my bowels Cast me not away from thy face and thy holy spirit take not away from me Render unto me the joy of thy salvation and confirme me with a principall spirit I will teach the unjust thy wayes and the impious shall be converted unto thee Deliver me from blouds O God the God of my salvation and my tongue shall exalt thy justice Thou O Lord shalt open my lips and my mouth shall declare thy praise Because if thou wouldest have had sacrifice I had verily given it with whole-burnt-offerings thou wilt not be delighted A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit a contrite and humble hart O God thou wilst not dispise Deale favorably O Lord in thy good will with Syon and let the walls of Hierusalem be built up Then shalt thou accept sacrifice of justice oblations and whole-burnt-offerings then shall they lay calves upon thine altar Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 101. O Lord heare my prayer and let my cry come unto thee Turne not away thy face from me in what day soever I am in tribulation incline thine eare to me In what day soever I shal call upon thee heare me speedily For my dayes have vanished as smoke and my bones are withered as a dry-burnt fire-brand I am smitten as grasse and my hart is withered for I have forgotten to eate my bread For the voyce of my groning my bonne hath cleaved to my flesh I am become like a pelican of the wildernesse I am become as a night raven in the house I have watched and am become as a sparow solitary in the house toppe All the day did my ennemies upbraide me and they that praised me sware against me For I did eate ashes as bread and mingled my drink with weeping At the face of the wrath of thy indignation for that lifting me up thou hast throwne me downe My dayes have declined as a shadow I am withered as grasse But thou O Lord endurest for ever and thy memoriall in generation and generation Thou rising up shalt have mercy on Syon for the tyme is come Because the stones thereof have pleased thy servants and they shall have pitty on the earth thereof And the Gentils shall feare thy name O Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory For our Lord hath builded Syon and he shall be seene in his glory He hath had respect to the prayer of the humble and he hath not dispised their petition Let these things be written in an other generation and the people that shall be created shall praise our lord Because he hath looked fourth from his high holy place our Lord from Heaven hath looked upon the earth That he might heare the gronings of the fettered that he might loose the children of them that are flayne That they may shew fourth the name of our Lord in Syon and his prayse in Hierusalem In the assembling of the people togeather in one and kings to serve our Lord. He answered him in the way of his strength shew me the fewnesse of my dayes Call me not back in the halfe of my dayes thy yeares are unto generation and generation In the beginning O Lord thou hast founded the earth and the Heavens are the workes of thy hands They shall perish but thou art permanent and they shall all wax old as a garment And as a vesture thou shalst change them and they shall be changed but thou art the selfe same and thy yeares shall not faile The children of thy servants shall inhabit and their seede shall be directed for ever Glory be to the Father c. Psalme 129. FRom the depthes I have cryed to thee O Lord Lord heare my cry Let thine eares be intent to the voyce of my petition If thou shalt observe iniquities O Lord Lord who shall sustayne it Because with thee there is propitiation and for thy law I have expected thee O Lord. My soule hath expected in his word my soule hath hoped in our Lord. From the morning watch even until night let Israel hope in our Lord. Because with our Lord there is mercy and with him plentifull redemption And he shall redeeme Israel from all his iniquities Glory be to the Father c. Psalem 142. LOrd heare my prayer with thine eares receive my petition in thy truth heare me in thy justice And enter not into judgment with thy servant because no man living shall be justifi'd in thy sight Because the enemie hath persecuted my soule he hath humbled my life in the Earth He hath set me in obscure places as the dead of the world and my spirit is in anguish upon me with in me my hart is troubled I was mindfull of old dayes I have meditated in all thy workes in the facts of thy hands did I meditate I have stretched forth my hand to thee my soule is as earth without water unto thee Heare me quickly O Lord my spirit hath fainted Turne not away thy face from me and I shall be like to them that descend into the lake Make me heare thy mercy in the morning because I have hoped in thee Make the way knowne to me wherein I may walke because I have lifted up my soule to thee Deliver me from mine enemies O Lord to thee I have fled teach me to doe thy will because thou art my God Thy good spirit will conduct me into the right way for thy names sake O Lord thou wilt quicken me in thy equity Thou wilst bring forth my soule out of tribulation and in thy mercy thou wilst destroy mine enemies And thou wilst destroy all that afflict my soule because I am thy servant Glory be to the Father c. The Antiphone Remenber not O Lord our or our Parents offences Neither take