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	nature_n	soul_n	16,493	5	5.5392	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29097	Apostate men fit objects of divine care and compassion a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, February the 6th, 1698/9, being the second for this year of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by Samuel Bradford ...	Bradford, Samuel, 1652-1731.	1699 (1699)	Wing B4107; ESTC R19973	15,105	36

but form Ideas of their own of various kinds inventing compounding dividing either according to the nature of things or at their own pleasure They can reflect upon what is past nay recollect what they have forgot and foresee things yet to come They can stretch and extend their thoughts till they are quite lost in the oceans of Immensity and Eternity They acquaint themselves not only with the material part of the World but the immaterial also From contemplating themselves they enlarge their thoughts to other Beings of the same kind They discern the Spirits of other Men through the veil of their Bodies and find out and contemplate an unknown and innumerable number of Spiritual Natures till at last they ascend to God himself that infinite Spirit who was the Maker and is the Preserver of all And here we are arrived at the top of their knowledge Not that the Souls of Men are able to comprehend the Nature of that first and most excellent Being but they can make such discoveries of his Divine Perfections as will naturally produce in them an high Admiration a profound Reverence and an ardent Love towards the Deity and will incline and dispose them to adore and serve him to resign themselves to him and to yield a ready obedience to his Commands And what those Commands are the Soul is in some measure also capacitated to discern infering its Duty from the consideration of its own nature and the relation it stands in to God and to its fellow-creatures And which is yet an higher Perfection than meer Knowledge the Souls of Men can perceive the Will of God and consequently their own Duty from certain secret inclinations and propensions which they feel within themselves and of which they are apprehensive even in this degenerate state That natural regard to God and looking towards him upon all Emergencies that approbation of Justice and Kindness between Man and Man especially that gratitude for benefits receiv'd and unavoidable commiseration towards miserable Objects which are to be found in most Men not debauch'd in a more than common degree are plain and undeniable Instances of this kind which will not be controverted by those to whom I am offering these Considerations and for which I may be allow'd to appeal to the far greater part of Mankind And I question not but the like might be observ'd as to most other plain and considerable instances of Moral Vertue For which reason it is that the Consciences of Men do so naturally and universally either accuse or excuse them according as they contradict or comply with not barely the reasonings but the natural apprehensions and inclinations of their Minds And this indeed I take to be the Perfection of the Humane Soul as it came out of the hands of God that it had a capacity not only of knowing God and it self and of inferring its Duty by exercising its Reason but that it was also made to resemble the Divine Nature in its inclinations and propensions to all that is good which inclinations and propensions had they been cherish'd and improv'd as they might and ought to have been would have fully discover'd the dignity of Humane Nature and made Men to have appear'd what God by their make design'd them to be There is yet one Ability more with which the Humane Soul is endued not to be past over when we are considering the excellency of its Nature and that is Freedom or Liberty of choosing and a Power consequently of acting according to such choice without which its Liberty would have been given to it in vain But shall I call this a Perfection or an Imperfection As it is a Power of freely choosing that which is good and as freely pursuing that choice it must be thankfully acknowledg'd to the praise of our bountiful Creator that it is a Perfection even whereby we are made to resemble God himself who always freely chooseth and acteth according to the eternal and immutable Laws of Goodness 'T is a Talent of great worth with which Mankind is entrusted and which may be improv'd to very great advantage It gives us an Ability of offering to God a free-will Offering of voluntarily doing that which is acceptable to and rewardable by our Maker 'T is that which indeed makes us strictly speaking capable of a Reward But then as Men can at the same time choose that which is Evil and pursue the unhappy choice it must be own'd to be an Imperfection but such an one as seems necessarily to result from the condition of a Creature Absolute Perfection belongs to God only his Nature is too good ever to choose or act amiss but the condition of a Creature is to be defectible of its self so that if it be made capable of choosing aright it must at the same time also be capable of choosing wrong Liberty implies a Power to determine its choice one way or the other and there is no such absolute Perfection in a Creature as can always necessarily oblige it to determine it self the right way Experience and Use may produce strong and confirmed Habits of Virtue and the Grace of God may at any time put a Creature out of all Danger but I cannot see how 't is possible to frame an Idea of a created Agent left at Liberty but it must at the same time be fallible and mutable But this may suffice to shew the dignity of the Humane Soul with respect to its Liberty that it is made capable of choosing and acting freely by the same Rules by which God himself chooseth and acteth And had Men always acted according to the design of their Beings the excellency of their Nature would have plainly appear'd in a whole world of intelligent and reasonable Agents exercising all the Faculties before-mention'd regularly and orderly acknowledging adoring magnifying and serving their Maker admiring his wonderful Works and rendering to him with one consent the Praises due upon the account of them living in perfect Amity one with another discharging readily all the Offices of Beneficence performing and enjoying all the Benefits and Pleasures of mutual Society and deriving from Heaven all those Blessings which would have render'd their abode here perfectly easie and comfortable and if God should have thought it fit to have translated them to any superiour Regions as a reward of their Obedience here they would there also have spent a happy Eternity in the Enjoyment of their Maker themselves and one another I mention their translation to some other Regions because all those Powers of Soul which I have been discoursing of imply nothing but what is immaterial and spiritual and consequently immortal and if Men had used their Liberty aright in this state of tryal it is not to be conceiv'd that God would have permitted the corruption of the Body but rather have preserv'd for ever that Union which himself had given to the two constitutive parts of Humane Nature and have assign'd them such places of residence as might

have been fit for Men improv'd and confirm'd in Virtue and Goodness What I have hitherto been discoursing concerning the Nature of Mankind appears to me in it self highly reasonable and I think will do so upon serious consideration to such a Deist as I am arguing with and if so I would then proceed to ask whether such Creatures as these are not fit Objects of the Divine Care and if they are fallen of the Divine Compassion also supposing any of them capable of a Recovery from their lapsed Estate Will it not appear very worthy of the infinitely good God to concern himself in some extraordinary way for the restoration and salvation of Beings whom he had form'd after this excellent manner to whom he had imparted so many of his own Perfections in such a degree and whom he had made capable of being for ever happy in his Favour But for the farther illustration of this matter we may in the next place consider the Persons whom Christ Jesus came to save as they are in their fallen state Sinners as our Text calls them and see whether under that denomination also they are not proper Objects of the Divine Compassion even in such a degree as it is express'd by the undertaking of our Redeemer The Method of our Salvation by Jesus Christ is so contrived as I hope to shew hereafter as not only to testifie the Compassion of God towards Sinners but also his Hatred of Sin To make it appear therefore that such a Method was agreeable to the Divine Nature we shall do well to consider the condition of Men as Sinners to which purpose it may be proper To take into consideration the nature of Sin To observe the miserable consequences of it to Mankind And To inquire how Men were drawn into the commission of it To take into consideration the nature of Sin I doubt not but those who undervalue our blessed Saviour's Undertaking for the recovery of Sinners have at the same time very slight apprehensions of the evil of Sin They are apt to account it a matter of no great consideration or consequence for so inconsiderable a Creature as they would have Man to be to gratifie suppose the inclinations of his fleshly part though against the Dictates of his Mind and the Laws of his Maker But this proceeds from their want of a due sense of the nature and reason of things For to sin against God is for a Creature to rebel against his Creator and Preserver 't is to oppose his Will to the Will of the supreme Lord and Sovereign of the Universe 't is to disturb that excellent Order which is appointed and settled by him who made all things very good 't is for a Man to assume to himself a Liberty of doing that which God will not allow himself to do namely to vary from the eternal and unalterable Laws of Truth and Goodness those Laws which result necessarily from the Nature of God and the condition of created Beings 't is resisting the highest Power contradicting unerring Wisdom disobliging infinite Goodness making disingenuous and ungrateful Returns to the most endearing Obligations 't is in a word thwarting the true judgment and perverting the natural byass of a Man 's own Mind and acting contrary to the very frame and design of his Nature Now whatsoever is absurd or monstrous in Nature we are apt to conceive an abhorrence at the first appearance of it and whosoever is endued with Moral Principles ought in like manner to feel a detestation arising in his Soul when he considers the nature of Sin as I have here represented it Doth not every ingenuous and well-disposed Mind severely censure and detest the untoward behaviour of a graceless Child towards a wise and tender Parent The unworthy carriage of a rebellious Subject towards a just and kind Prince one who is truly the Father of his Country Especially when the Rebel not only dishonours his Superiors but at the same time disturbs the Peace and good Order of the whole Community Do not all Men of good sense and honest disposition abhor him who shall make spightful or ungrateful returns to a Benefactor or a Friend to whom he has been extremely beholden Who is there that does not despise the Man that degrades and vilifies himself by doing things altogether unworthy of his Birth and Education or Profession Why all this and infinitely more is in the nature of a Sin voluntarily committed against Almighty God And is it not credible then that so holy and good a Being as God is should be inclin'd to save such of his Creatures as are capable of Salvation from so great an Evil and that he should effect it in such a way as may convince them at once both of his compassion towards them and his abhorrence of their evil doings But to render this the more evident we may in the next place observe the miserable consequences of Sin to Mankind and that either in any single Sinner apart or in the mass and bulk of Mankind in general The state of every particular Sinner is extremely miserable A Man has no sooner consented to Iniquity but he is naturally fill'd with great uneasiness of Mind arising from Shame and Fear from a consciousness of having done an unworthy act and an apprehension of the Mischiefs that may follow The very first Act is a mighty Disorder as being an abuse of that Liberty with which he was entrusted and a contradiction to that natural inclination with which he was endued by his Maker By this means the tone of his Spirit is as it were immediately relaxd the Will corrupted the natural propension of the Soul towards God and Goodness weaken'd and a contrary disposition perhaps introduc'd the Appetites and Passions which were made to be rul'd having once broke loose from the Government they were plac'd under are apt thence-forward to become impetuous and arbitrary the Understanding having been once mislead or over rul'd is for the future less able to discern clearly or to judge Impartially in a word Innocency and Integrity are lost Every repeated Act strengthens the evil Habit and increases the disorder which is thus unhappily begun in all the Faculties If the Man continues to be a Sinner only in a lower degree he will find a perpetual struggle and conflict within his breast his Understanding and Reason and Conscience directing and leading him one way whilst his Appetites and Passions hurry him the other Rom. 7.23 the Law in his Members warring against the Law in his Mind and for the most part bringing him into Captivity he neither approving what he does nor finding himself at all dispos'd to do what he approves wretched Man that he is And if he be grown a harden'd Sinner he is still the more wretched because more incurable though at the same time less sensible of his evil condition And all this while he is exceedingly estrang'd and alienated from God the Author of his Being and the Fountain