Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	anger_n	sanctify_a	stoic_n	28	3	16.3822	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09277	Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A plea for grace More especially the grace of faith. Or, certain lectures as touching the nature and properties of grace and faith: wherein, amongst other matters of great use, the maine sinews of Arminius doctrine are cut asunder. Delivered by that late learned and godly man William Pemble, in Magdalen Hall in Oxford.	Pemble, William, 1592?-1623.; Capel, Richard, 1586-1656.	1627 (1627)	STC 19591; ESTC S114374	222,244	312

They knew mans nature to be corrupt but never dreamt of any such Originall universall depravation of our nature as that we are dead in sinnefull infirmity utterly deprived of that Spirituall life and ability which sometime wee enjoyed They knew the Outward act of sinne and the grosser sort of Inward thoughts to be evill but they could not imagine that so high perfection of Spirituall obedience was required of man by any Law as to condemne him for every disorderly thought not consented unto To wish for our Neighbours House or Wife is a thought which allowed of with consent may by a Heathen upon the fundamentall notions of right and wrong bee condemned as repugnant to charity and equity But for the same thought to arise in the heart and passe away without all approbation and intention of practice yea haply with some dislike and yet to be esteemed as an offence was never thought of by the naturall man The discovery of the sinfulnesse of this first brood of Lust when by secret entisings it drawes away the heart and shootes forth onely in sudden motions arising and vanishing without notice and allowance this is a point of Divinity of a higher straine than ever any naturall man could reach unto Yea Paul himselfe though a Iew a learned Pharisee yet before his conversion understood it not Rom. 7. 7. and the Papist to this day will not bee perswaded t is so though Paul affirme it Now from hence wee shall learne in part to judge aright of the naturall mans vertue and goodnesse How farre ordinarily it goes and what worth is in it in regard of Gods approbation of it I will briefly set this downe in five Propositions 1. The Vertuous practice of the naturall man is more busied about the Outward act than the Inward affection in reforming the maners not amending the heart in restraining the externall action not resisting the inward desires and inclinations as the true Christian doth It is indeed not to be denied but the Heathen came so farre as to condemne the roote of sinne as well as the fruite and to judge them punishable as vitious persons not onely whose lewd practices testified them so to be but those also who in their affections and thoughts approved the like wickednesse And Philosophers have not a little laboured to finde out the true meanes of composing and settling that more distempered part of our mindes in our unruly passions and perturbations whence they easily perceived did issue originally the chiefe provocations to all evill And in this point they did rightly judge that it was of much greater difficulty to order the unruly motions of the mind than to restraine the outward actions of the body or to atchieve any hard adventure They well knew that the Soveraignty of the Will over the Appetite and Affections was but a civill perswasive authority which might be easily withstood by the stubbornnesse of the inferiour faculties onely over the outward parts the Will had a masterly and absolute command to move them as it pleased without gainsaying Now then although we may finde many among the Heathen of an excellent temper who either by a Naturall disposition or studious education and wise observation of themselves carried a singular command over some of their passions of Anger I ove and the rest yet in the generall wee may assuredly beleeve that all those precepts delivered by the wisest Philosophers touching the calmenesse of minde were farre too weake and heartlesse in their practice to bring the observers of them to true Tranquillity No t is onely the Spirit of Sanctification that commands our disordered soules and if we consider it even in the sanctified Christian having that Supernaturall helpe the longest combat and most doubtfull conflict is with these carnall affections and lusts This exceeding difficulty of mastering the affections did as it seems turne the Stoickes quite on the other side who truely perceiving how great enemies these Desires and Passions were unto Wisedome Tranquillity and Vertuous Endeavours judged them all utterly evill and not to neede reformation so much as abolishment whereby they did rather astonish than conquer them and such their peace might be termed the dull stupidity and unmoveablenesse of a blocke rather than the quiet calmenesse of a man Which thing did in many passages of their lives upon occasion of unexpected dangerous accidents discover it selfe to others laughter and their owne shame when their passions which were formerly stupified and charmed by Philosophicall discourses but not mortified did easily recover their strength and brake forth with unresistable violence So then the naturall man will utterly come short of that endeavour which Christians make their chiefe viz. the inward Reformation and Sanctity of the Soule if he strive about it t is but faintly and hee soone gives it over finding the contention laborious and the victory impossible Outward evill practices he may in part forbeare the grossenesse whereof make a deeper impression of dislike in the naturall conscience and also bring him in compasse of many Civill inconveniences but for the inward loathsome corruptions of the Soule he takes as little notice of them to amend them as the world doth to punish them As in Vice so t is in Vertue the naturall man will love and practise so much of it as may by its outward splendor winne praise honour and reward but to entertaine an entire and unchangeable love to vertue severed from all these by-respects hath beene seldome found in any but those alone in whom Grace hath prevailed more than Nature There have beene some among the Heathen that have held on in a vertuous course even when they have got disgrace and smart by so doing but this hath beene rather out of a kinde of surly Obstinacy and Stiffenesse of minde than any zealous affection to goodnesse it selfe T is one thing to Scorne an ill practice another thing to Hate it and so t is one thing to Love vertue and another to Practise it out of Greatnesse of minde and High Spirit when men having fallen upon some good course and continued long in it with commendations they now scorne so to submit themselves to other mens wills and wisdome as for their pleasure to alter their owne resolutions out of meere stomacke they 'le endure any thing rather than bee so base And in these high Conceits they pleased themselves much more than in the goodnesse of that vertue whereof they made profession For wee cannot beleeve that those cold discourses of Philosophers That vertue is to be loved for it owne sake could ever set so faire a glosse on Vertues face and so to represent her excellencie to the dull apprehension of naturall men as to make any of them so farre enamoured with her beautie that they would still follow her when praise or profit forsooke them Nay this is a point most hard for the best Christians to attaine unto few of whom those excepted whose more strong and lively faith