Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	blood_n	body_n	heart_n	5,603	5	5.0093	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91526	Jewish hypocrisie, a caveat to the present generation. Wherein is shewn both the false and the true way to a nations or persons compleat happiness, from the sickness and recovery of the Jewish state. Unto which is added a discourse upon Micah 6.8. belonging to the same matter. / By Symon Patrick B.D. minister of the word of God at Batersea in Surrey.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1660 (1660)	Wing P817; Thomason E1751_1; Thomason E1751_2; ESTC R203168	156,691	423

cleansing of the inward parts by purging physick to carry away bad humours should conduce much to a cure So likewise it is with sinful men they are loth to have their hearts throughly searched and such severe and sharp medicines that will eat away all the dead flesh all their base lusts and desires applyed but they love smooth and oily things that will mitigate the pains and asswage the grief and flatter them into a meer conceit of a cure They would not have the inward and more latent cause removed nor the foulness of their souls medled withall but they content themselves with an outward amendment and desire only that the lips of their wound may be closed that they may not cry out against them A plaister of the blood of Christ they can well like that shall be clapt upon their sore and cool the rage and anger of their conscience but to be purified and refined by the Spirit of burning and judgement is a way of healing that they are not willing to submit unto They would have a robe of Christs righteousness cast over them that should hide the rottenness and putrefaction of their wounds but his righteousness in them which should recover their health and restore them to soundness is a thing far from their desires if not from their thoughts 5. But supposing that men are willing to undergo any thing for a cure and fall into the hands of honest Physitians also yet it is possible that they may not understand the whole cause of the distemper and so apply but imperfect remedies and administer medicines proper but for one particular affect By which means the disease may not only continue but be increased and turn into a worse For so it happens to many souls who begin to think their condition is very bad and resolve for to amend they are put upon the practice of some Religious duties and are followed most with such advices that make them think these are sufficient to work their amendment They easily imagine that if they can but weep when they pray or hear a Sermon those tears have a rare faculty to wash supple and cleanse all their sinful wounds But while they use not all Christs prescriptions they fall into a more dangerous distemper and the hardest of all to be cured The sore eats deeper the heart becomes rotten and unsound makes a man to labour with hypocrisie of which few do ever recover And so it is likewise with politick bodies the corruptions which seem most notorious in the eyes of the present Governors are commonly lamented and in some degree reformed but then under the comfortable shadow of that reformation a thousand other sins walk securely and enjoy their freedom and protection from having any hands laid upon them 6. The state of our Nation is at present so very sick and weak and so desirous now we are of a cure and yet so willing to have our hurt healed slightly that the most ordinary understanding can apply what hath been said unto its case and condition Our sins have brought us down under a great number of diseases and laid us upon a bed of affliction Great gaps are made in our body our bones are broken and sore vexed the last drop of our vital blood is ready to issue forth If I should but represent to you how the treasures of the Nation are exhausted which Statesmen call its blood and spirits it would make any heart ake to see how pale and wan we look without any colour in our cheeks But besides that Trading is dead Justice also is sore maimed Charity and Love is broken Piety is dismembered the very frame of our Government is dissolved and a whole deluge of miseries threaten to flow in at these wide breaches Jer. 8.15 22. Long have we looked for peace but no good comes and for a time of health but behold trouble Is there no Balm for such wounds as ours Is there no Physitian in the English Nation Why then is not the health of it before this time recovered Whether we have not tampered too much with State-Doctors who sought by meer power and worldly policy to settle our discomposures I leave to every serious man to consider And whether we have not been backward to take the advice of our spiritual Physitians and to follow their directions is a thing that may be soon determined That which I shall enquire into shall be this whether even among the spiritual Physitians some have not been sought unto who considered not the chief cause of our maladies but applyed those things most unto us which did accidentally feed our diseases and make them to be more dangerous And so we shall find out what will compleatly remedy all our evils and restore us to an healthy constitution again 7. Now in this matter I know not how to take a better course then to imitate Physitians who consult not meer reason but likewise the experience of former times And where they find the same symptoms and all indications of a disease which an exact Author hath described though many hundred years ago they conclude the same remedies and medicines are to be used which are consigned to them by his Probatum est I shall therefore search into the records of divine History and observe what the state of the Jews used to be and what method they were wont to take for the healing of their Nation when any publick calamity did befall them and as Physitians truly say Curatio indicat morbum by their cure we shall certainly know what their disease was and give a guess also at our own both disease and remedy But many ineffectual applications there were which the holy Writ takes notice of and therefore I shall divide my discourse into two parts and first shew you what things were not of sufficient vertue to cure them though otherwise they were good and healing And secondly what God did particularly direct them unto for a perfect recovery of their strength when it was decayed and a binding up of their wounds when they were sorely broken CAP. II. 1. The seventh of Zachary opened with many other Scriptures which shew the grounds of their appointing Fasts 2. Gods slighting of them 3. Which discovers this was one of the ineffectual courses they took to appease him though they were very ceremonious in this performance 4. Under which mistake the world still labours 5. The true ends and uses of Fasting are discoursed of in regard to the time past 6. And to the time to come 7. And to the time present 8. Which we ought seriously to mind 1. AND you shall find both the one and the other of these insisted upon in the seventh Chapter of the Prophet Zachary out of which I will take the foundation and ground-work of my ensuing discourse For the understanding of which you must remember how God for their sins had forsaken his house and left his heritage and given the dearly beloved of his

but be glad they might think that such good friends of his grew rich on any fashion seeing he was not like to lose but to get by it For if you look into Matth. 23. you cannot but observe that they were monstrous extortioners and as full of covetous desires as a drunkards cup is full of drink Besides they were abominably proud undervaluing all men in compare with themselves And so many wayes also they had of disanulling all Gods commands as if by their prayers they had obtained a power from God to wipe and cross what they pleased out of his Law They took God to be so much beholden to them for their pains and sweat in praying to him that they thought he was bound to let them make themselves an amends some other wayes And because it cost them much to be so devout they thought their labour was as pretious with him and that he put the same value upon it In short so little there was in all this devotion that if a man had had a mind to deny himself in little or nothing his best way had been to have put himself into the garb of a Pharisee and buy a grant of God to do what he list by many prayers Which was just as if a man should think by giving his neighbour many good morrows to make him overlook the breaking of his hedges and the stealing of his goods or as if a man should beseech another not to be offended with him though he beat his children and took upon him to do what he listed in his house 4. And such there have been in the Christian world who have delighted in praying and offering up continual petitions to heaven whom the earth could not bear because of their vile and wicked lives As John Basilides Duke of Muscovy whom Dr. Casaubon instances in who loved to be continually upon his knees and lifting up his hands to God when they were not employed in some butcherous and bloody action or other And Hacket here in England in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth of whom Saravia saith that he seemed to have a divine heat in him when he prayed though it is known to all the world with what wild fires he was acted For there is a natural ardor may do much this way as that Doctor speaks or rather a Religious melancholy as Mr. More hath shewn in his excellent Treatise of Enthusiasm For that humour will work and boil up even to an Exstasie and where it meets with some spice of Religion it may do strange feats by way of devotion Ignatius the Jesuites tell us was sometimes lifted up four cubits above the ground when he was at prayer and he might possibly seem to himself so to be if that be true which Eunapius reports of Jamblicus how that when he was a praying Eunap in vita Jambl. V. etiam in vita Aedesii he was heaved up from the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above ten cubits and his rayment seemed to shine with a brightness like to gold But above all I desire the Reader to take notice of what Theodoret saith of the Mossaliani or Prayers that they used to do nothing else and would not follow any calling but when they did not pray they fell asleep L. 4. Eccles hist cap. 10. L. 4. haeret fab cap. 11. And then they thought that they beheld Visions and could prophesie and saw the sacred Trinity with their eyes They said that there was an evil spirit in all men which must be cast out by prayers and then the holy Spirit of God comes in after which there was no need of fasting for to humble the body nor of any doctrine or teaching which bridles and guides the motion of the body but the Spirit doth all One egg is not more like another then those men were like them among us who say they are above all Ordinances They feel some heat in their hearts when they pray and they are lifted up in some kind of pious thoughts by the strong workings of their own melancholy fancies and then they think that this is to them instead of all other things so that the Lords Supper is but a carnal Feast and the Scriptures themselves are but dead letters and Ministers are but School-masters for children and fools 5. So much of the Pharisee is still among us that it would make any godly soul blush to see what foul things are done by those that make very fair pretences to God in their prayers The measure of which many times is length and loudness many words and much heat whilest there is no true spiritual life and sense of God which breaths forth their souls unto him Men care not to be as long in confessing of their sins as they intend to be in leaving of them if it will but pass current for Religion They will pray for forgiveness of their sins as often as God pleases so they may but have leave when they see occasion to commit them They will call for that strength and power which they never mean to use for that Spirit of holiness which they would not have so kind as to come and trouble them in their enjoyments They pray for that light which they would not have to look too broad in their faces for that purity and sanctity which they will bestow no more upon then a prayer to obtain and if they knew what they prayed for they would be loth to have an Answer They beg that comfort the spring of which they would be loth should dwell within them that righteousness of Christ which they would have to cover all their filthiness and keep them warm in their sins that blood of Jesus which should quench the fiery indignation which they say but think not that their sins do deserve 6. And yet I have told you the best of this sort of Religionists for there are that think they shall be heard for their much babling and are little better then heathenish worshippers They are rude and sensless in their Tautologies without any real and unforc't affection Their prayers are a confused indigested heap of words rash and bold expressions irreverent and unbecoming addresses to the glorious majesty of heaven fulsome and nauseating language savouring of an unprepared though hasty careless though confident mind They are measured by the glass and must be stretched though by heathenish repetitions i. e. without any order or handsom zeal to such a certain length And if a childish tone like that when they say their lessons can help out these devotions it is accounted a great token of good affection and a sign that a man is more then ordinarily moved If the voice likewise be loud sonorous most people are apt to think the heavens will hear those prayers sooner then others as coming from the greatest zeal and fervency of Spirit But all good Christians whose hearts are in their prayers feel that the sence of Gods Glory as well as his

yielding to temptations to covetousness deceit and unlawfull gain or on the contrary very fearfull to fail in a ceremony but worshipping the flesh and living loosely An Hypocrite is much imployed in little things and busied about the shadow and bark of religion be it what it will If religion be pompously gloriously cloathed then he will strive to be most ceremonious costly and chargeable in his devotion so that we may say of him as the Philopher said of a finical but empty Lawyer homo in causis agendis bene vestitus a neat man in his Religion one that pleads with God in gorgeous apparrel But on the contrary if men take to a side that loves to be sordid and slovenly and as careless as they can in all outward decencies none shall more fiercely decry all ceremonies nor more prophane all that was before accounted holy And so in all other matters the most inconsiderable among them exercise their zeal and the weightiest exercise only their fancies and tongues 5. A Sixth thing to be noted in them is that they would be just in one thing that they might be unjust in another v. 23. They would pay their tithes to the Priests that this might cover all their acts of rapine and covetousness among the people And they did not only pay them but were very scrupulous to pay them exactly as if they would not wrong one of a Cummin seed or a Speer of mint or as we say of the hair of one head when as they neglected judgement if any causes came before them they shewed no mercy to the poor and kept no faith in their Covenants and promises It concerns a man to be very punctual with some persons and in his ordinary intercourse to keep to rules of justice else he would be hissed out of the world and he would have no opportunity to deceive a simple or unwary soul Much less would he be able when he stretches his conscience to do a base action to take himself still for a godly man if he did not at other times deal fairly And therefore he is fain also to imitate the Pharisee in a Seventh quality and that is to do some great act of Charity to excuse himself from a constant exercise of it It is like that these hypocrites which our Saviour speaks of paid the tythe which was due every third year for the use of them that were in need Deut. 14.28 as well as the yearly dues to the Ministers of God in the Temple And this great and expensive charity they thought perhaps so highly of that they never reproved themselves for their miserable and wretched covetousness at all other times As many men now whose fingers are very stiff may chance to draw their purse-strings at some solemn time or when they are much moved with a good Sermon of Alms-doing who at other seasons have hearts as hard as flints to the crying necessities of their Brethren Much of the Religion of men and their charity also knows its times and daies if they be observed God lends them they think the rest of their lives to dispose of as they please themselves 6. And lastly they would not stick to do more then they were commanded that they might neglect Gods express Commands For many think that the tythe of every herb which they paid Luke 11.42 was not due by the Law but they could be content to over-do in this case that they might do nothing in others to give these free-will offerings that they might have their own wills in greater matters so false is the heart of men that they think an excess in what pleases them will satisfie for all their defects in that which is most pleasing unto God As to keep whole daies of prayer is far more grateful to some then to keep a continual watch over themselves in all their dealings and converses with others and in all their own inward thoughts and desires They will leave no stone unturned to find out an Art or device to save themselves from the trouble of Mortification and self-denial They will wriggle every way rather then be strait and upright as God made them Any labour or pains they will take to shift off the great Commandments of loving God with all their hearts and souls and strength and loving their neighbours as themselves 7. The more need there is that men should be earnestly urged to search into their hearts and examine them well about these things lest there lie hid any of this leaven under many seeming actions of Godliness Take heed lest you wink at some evil affection which you bear a particular respect unto and let it scape untouched when you profess to cleanse your selves Beware lest you cast only a favourable look upon some duties of Religion and look asquint upon the rest or take no notice of them Labour to remove all obstructions that Zeal may have a free passage through the whole frame of your souls and that you may be equally spirited to every duty of Religion And I shall commend these two things as of singular use and advantage to keep our hearts from self deceit First Let men suspect themselves when they are moved with an extraordinary heat and feel a great zeal agitating of them in some one thing which they undertake upon the account of Religion Let them presently begin to ask themselves how they stand affected to all the rest and to feell how their pulse beats in all things especially in the most spiritual actions Or else it is a thousand to one that this zeal will betray them into hypocrisie and they will place all their religion in it And therefore search well if there be not some externall inducement which thou dost not observe some corrupt end at the bottom some willingness to spare a foul and nasty desire which makes thee so zealous in that particular thing which may be as a covering for thy coldness in other matters Be not cheated by thy self into a belief that thou art religious when thou bearest not a love to all Gods Commandments but labour impartially and conscienciously to carry thy self to every duty alike and then thou maist be well perswaded of thy sincerity in Religion 8. And Secondly Let every man observe what it is that he is most in danger to neglect when his Spirit is forwardly carried towards one thing There is alwaies some one duty more then others that a partial zeal is apt to devour Be sure therefore to take heed and beware of covetousness while you cry out against profaneness Be as carefull to maintain love in your heart to your Brethren as you are to observe them reprove them or to make them of your mind Be as humble lowly and poor in spirit as you are ready to distribute to relieve the poor or despise the world Labour to be in as great charity with your enemies to love them pray for them and bless them as you are willing and perhaps forward