Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	bone_n	flesh_n	7,585	5	7.4908	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65154	A healing question propounded and resolved upon occasion of the late publique and seasonable call to humiliation in order to love and union amongst the honest party, and with a desire to apply balsome to the wound, before it become incurable.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.	1656 (1656)	Wing V69; ESTC R38388	16,135	28

derived unto their successive Representatives as the most equal and impartial Judicature for the effecting hereof Where there is then a righteous and good constitution of Government there is first an orderly union of many understandings together as the publique and common Supream Judicature or visible Soveraignity set in a way of free and orderly exercise for the directing and applying the use of the ruling power or the sword to promote the interest and common welfare of the whole without any disturbance or annoyance from within or from without And then secondly there is a like union and readiness of will in all the Individuals in their private capacities to execute and obey by all the power requisite and that they are able to put forth those soveraign Laws and Orders issued out by their own Deputies and Trustees A Supream Judicature thus made the Representative of the whole is that which we say will most naturally care and most equally provide for the Common good and safety Though by this it is not denied but that the supream power when by free consent 't is placed in a single person or in some few persons may be capable also to administer righteous Government at least the Body that gives this liberty when they need not are to thank themselves if it prove otherwise But when this free and natural accesse unto Government is interrupted and declined so as a liberty is taken by any particular member or number of them that are to be reputed but a part in comparison of the whole to assume and engrosse the office of soveraign rule and power and to impose themselves as the competent publique Judge of the safety and good of the whole without their free and due consent and to lay claim unto this as those that find themselves possessed of the sword and that so advantagiously as it cannot be recovered again out of their hands without more apparent danger and damage to the whole body then such attempts are wortth this is that Anarchy that is the first rise and step to Tyanny and laies the grounds of manifest confusion and disorder exposing the ruling power to the next hand that on the next opportunity can lay hold on the sword and so by a kind of necessity introduces the highest imposition and bondage upon the whole Body in compelling all the parts though never so much against the true publique interest to serve and obey as their soveraigne rule and supream Authority the Arbitrary will and judgement of those that bring themselves into rule by the power of the sword in the right only of a part that sets up it selfe in preference before or at least in competition with the melfare of the whole And if this which is so essential to the well being and right constitution of Government were once obtained the disputes about the forme would not prove so dificult nor find such opposition as to keep up the bone of contention and disunion with much danger to the whole For if as the foundation of all the soveraignty be ackowledged to reside originally in the whole body of adherents to this Cause whose natural and inherent right thereunto is of a far ancienter date then what is obtained by success of their arms and so cannot be abrogated even by Conquest it selfe if that were the case and then if in consequence hereof a supream Judicature be set up and orderly constituted as naturally arising and resulting from the free choice and consent of the whole Body taken out from among themselves as flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone of the same publique spirit and nature with themselves and the main be by this means secured what could be propounded afterwards as to the form of administration that would much stick Would a standing Council of State setled for life in reference to the safety of the Commonwealth and for the maintaining intercourse and commerce with Forreign States under the inspection and oversight of the Supreme Judicature but of the same fundamental constitution with themselves would this be disliked admitting their orders were binding in the intervals of Supreme National Assemblies so far only as consonant to the settled Lawes of the Common-wealth the vacancy of any of which by death or otherwise might be supplied by the vote of the major part of themselves Nay would there be any just exception to be taken if besides both these it should be agreed as another part of the fundamental constitution of the Government to place that branch of Soveraignty which chiefly respects the execution of the Lawes in a distinct office from that of the legislative power and yet subordinate to them and to the Lawes capable to be entrusted in the hands of one single person if need require or in a greater number as the legislative power should think fit and for the greater strength and honour unto this Office that the execution of all Lawes and Orders that are binding may go forth in his or their name and all disobedience thereunto or contempt thereof be taken as done to the peoples Soveraignty whereof he or they bear the Image or Representation subordinate to the Legislative Power and at their will to be kept up and continued in the hands of a single Person or more as the experience of the future good or evil of it shall require Would such an office as this thus stated carry in it any inconsistency with a free State nay if it be well considered would it not rather be found of excellent use to the well-being of Magistracy founded upon this righteous bottome that such a Lieftenancy of the peoples soveraignty in these three Nations may alwayes reside in some one or more persons in whose administration that which is reward and punishment may shine forth And if now it shall be objected that notwithstanding all these Cautions should once the Soveraignty be acknowledged to be in the diffused body of the people though the adherents to this Cause not only as their natural but as their acquired right by Conquest they would suddenly put the use and exercise of the Legislative power into such hands as would through their ill-qualifiednesse to the work spoil all by male-administration thereof and hereby lose the cause in stead of upholding and mantaining it The Answer unto this is First that God by his providence hath eased our minds much of this solicitude by the course he hath already taken to fit and prepare a choice and selected number of the people unto this work that are tried and refined by their inward and outward experiences in this great quarrell and the many changes they have passed through In respect whereof well qualified persons are to be found if due care be but taken in the choice of them And if herein the people of the Lord shall be waiting upon him for his guidance and presence with them we may have grounds to hope that God whose name hath all along been called upon in the managing

of this Cause will pour out so abundantly of his spirit upon his people attending on him in righteous wayes and will also so move their hearts to choose persons bearing his Image into the Magistracy that a more glorious product may spring up out of this then at first we can expect to the setting up of the Lord himselfe as chiefe Judge and Lawgiver amongst us And unto this the wisedome and honesty of the persons now in power May have an opportunity eminently to come into discovery For in this case and upon the grounds already layed the very persons now in power are they unto whose lot it would fall to set about this preparatory work and by their orders and directions to dispose the whole Body and bring them into the meetest capacity to effect the same The most natural way for which would seem to be by a General Council or Convention of faithful honest and discerning men chosen for that purpose by the free consent of the whole Body of adherents to this Cause in the several parts of the Nations and observing the time and place of meeting appointed to them with other circumstances concerning their Election by order from the present Ruling Power but considered as General of the Army Which Convention is not properly to exercise the Legislative Power but only to debate freely and agree upon the particulars that by way of fundmental Constitutions shall be laid and inviolably observed as the conditions upon which the whole body so represented doth consent to cast it selfe into a Civil and Politique Incorporation and under the visible forme and administration of Government therein declared and to be by each individual member of the Body subscribed in testimony of his or their particular consent given thereunto Which conditions so agreed and amongst them an Act of Oblivion for one will be without danger of being broken or departed from considering of what it is they are the conditions and the nature of the Convention wherin they are made which is of the people represented in their highest state of Soveraignty as they have the sword in their hands unsubjected unto the rules of Civil Government but what themselves orderly assembled for that purpose doe think fit to make And the sword upon these conditions subjecting it self to the Supreme Judicature thus to be set up how suddenly might harmony righteousness love peace and safety unto the whole Body follow hereupon as the happy fruit of such a settlemeut if the Lord have yet any delight to be amongst us And this once put in a way and declared for by the General and Army as that which they are clearly convinced in the sight of God is their duty to bring about and which they engage accordingly to see done How firmly and freely would this oblige the hearts and persons the counsels purses the affections and prayers with all that is in the power of this whole party to do in way of assistance and strenthning the hands of those now in power whatever straights and difficulties they may meet with in the maintenance of the publique safety and peace This then being the state of our present affairs and differences let it be acknowledged on all hands and let all be convinced that are concerned that there is not only a possibility but a probability yea a compelling necessity of a firm union in this great Body the setting of which in joynt and tune againe by a spirit of meekness and feare of the Lord is the work of the present day and will prove the onely remedy under God to uphold and carry on this blessed cause and worke of the Lord in the three Nations that is already come thus far onwards in its progresse to its desired and expected end of bringing in Christ the Desire of all Nations as the chiefe Ruler amongst us Now unto this re-uniting work let there be a readinesse in all the dissenting parts from the highest to the lowest by cheerfully coming forth to one another in a spirit of self-denial and love in stead of war and wrath and to cast down themselves before the Lord who is the Father of all their spirits in self-abasement and humiliation for the mutual offence they have been in for some time past one unto another and great provocation unto God and reproach unto his most glorious name who expected to have been served by them with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And as an inducement unto this Let us assure our selves the meanes of effecting it will not prove so difficult as other things that have been brought about in the late war if the minds and spirits of all concerned were once well and duely prepared hereunto by a kindly work of self-denial and self-abasement set home by the spirit of the Lord upon their consciences which if he please he may doe we know not how soon Nay if we shall behold with a discerning eye the inside of that work which God hath been doing amongst us the three years last past it would seem chiefly to have been his aime to bring his people into such a frame as this is For in this tract of time there hath been as we may say a great silence in Heaven as if God were pleased to stand still and be as a looker on to see what his people would be in their latter end and what work they would make of it if left to their own wisedome and Politick contrivances And as God hath had the silent part so men and that good men too have had the active and busie part and have like themselves made a great sound and noise like the shout of a King in a mighty Hoast which whilst it hath been a sound onely and no more hath not done much hurt as yet but the feare and jealousie thereby caused hath put the whole Body out of frame and made them apt to fall into great confusions and disorder And if there be thus arisen a general dissent and disagreement of parts which is not nor ought to be accounted the lesse considerable because it lies hid and kept in under a patient silence why should there not be as general a confession and acknowledgement of what each may find themselves overtaken in and cannot but judge themselves faulty for This kinde of vent being much better then to have it break out in flames of a forward and untimely wrathful spirit which never works the righteousnesse of God Especially since what hath been done amongst us may probably have been more the effect of temptation then the product of any malicious designe and this sort of temptation is very common and incident to men in power how good soever they may be to be overtaken in and thereupon doe sudden and unadvised actions which the Lord pardons and over rules for the best evidently making appear that it is the work of the weak and fleshly part which his own people carry about with them too much