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	soul_n	think_v	5,441	5	4.8272	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41152	Contemplations upon life and death with serious reflections on the miseries that attend humane life in every station, degree and change thereof / written by a person of quality in his confinement a little before his death ... a true copy of the paper delivered to the sheriffs upon the scaffold at Tower-hill on Thursday, January 28, 1696/7 by Sir John Fenwick, Baronet.	Fenwick, John, Sir, 1645?-1697.	1697 (1697)	Wing F720; ESTC R37797	24,831	34

is but a vanishing Smoak and its last Fire but its last Wick and its last drop of moisture So is it in the Life of Man Life and Death in Man is all one If we call the last breath by the name of Death so we must all the rest all proceeding from one place and all in the same manner One only difference there is between this Life and that which we call death That during the one we are always dying but after the other we shall always live In short As he that thinketh Death simply to be the End of Man ought not to fear it inasmuch as he who desires to live long desires to dye longer and so he who fears to dye quickly does to speak properly fear least he may not dye longer But to us who profess the Christian Religion and are brought up in a more holy School Death is a far other thing neither do we need as heretofore the Pagans did Consolations against Death For Death it self ought to be to us a Consolation against other Afflictions So that we must not only strengthen our selves as they did not to fear it but we ought also to hope it For unto us it is not only a departing from Pain and Evil but an Access unto all Good not the end of Life but the end of Death and Pain and Sorrow and the beginning of a Life that shall never have an end Better saith Solomon is the Day of Death than the Day of Birth But for what Reason Why because it is not to us a Last Day but the Dawning of an Everlasting Day No more shall we have in that glorious Light either Sorrow for the past or Expectation for the future for all shall be there present to us and that Present shall be present for ever No more shall we spend our strength in seeking after vain and painful Pleasures for there we shall be fill'd with true and substantial Delights No more shall we weary our selves in heaping together these shining Exhalations of the Earth for the inexpressible Glory of Heaven shall be ours And this Mass of Earth which ever draws us towards the Earth shall be then buried in it and consumed with it No more shall we then be Votaries to that gaudy Idol Honour nor put our Wits upon the Rack that so we may be deck'd with finer Feathers than our Neighbours Ambition will have there no place for we shall there be rais'd to that Excelling Glory and be possess'd of all those Heighths of Greatness that we shall look with scorn and with contempt upon an Earthly Diadem and smile at all the Follies of poor groveling Mortals who fight and quarrel with each other for a small spot of Earth like Children for an Apple And which is better still no more shall we have Combats in our selves Our sinful Flesh that here was our worst Enemy shall cease from troubling there and our renewed Spirits shall be fill'd with Life and Vigour Our Passion shall be buried and our Reason be restor'd to perfect Liberty The Soul deliver'd out of this foul and filthy Prison where by its long continuing it is grown into a habit of Crookedness shall again draw its own breath recognize its Ancient Dwelling and again remember its former Glory and Dignity This Flesh which thou feelest this Body which thou touchest is not Man Man is a Spark of the Divinity shot down from Heaven Heaven is his Countrey and his Native Air That he is in this Body is but by way of Exile and Confinement Man indeed is Soul and Spirit and is of a Divine and Heavenly Quality wherein there 's nothing gross nothing material This Body such as now it is is but the Bark and Shell of the Soul which must necessarily be broke before we can be hatch'd before we can live and see the Light We have it seems some Life and some Sence in us but are so very crooked and contracted that we cannot so much as stretch out our Wings much less take our flight towards Heaven until we be disburthen'd and separated from this Lump of Earth We look but 't is through false Spectacles We have Eyes but they are over-grown with Pearls We think we see but 't is but in a Dream wherein all that we see is nothing but a vain Illusion All that we seem to have and all that we seem to know is but Deceit and Vanity Death only can awake us from our Dream and restore us to true Life and Light and yet we think so blockish are we that he comes to rob us of them We profess our selves Christians and that we believe after this mortal Life a Life of Immortality That Death is nothing but a separation of the Soul and Body and that the Soul returns to its former happy abode there to joy in and enjoy the Fountain of all Bliss and that at the last day it shall re-assume its Body which shall no more be subject to Corruption With these goodly Discousses we fill our Books and in the mean while when it comes to to the point and that we are ready to enter in at this Portcullis of Seraphical Glory the very Name of Death as of some dreadful Gorgon makes us quake and tremble If we believe as we speak pray what is it that we fear To be happy To be perfectly at ease To enjoy more Content in one moment than ever was enjoy'd even by Methuselah himself in all his Nine hundred sixty nine years which was the longest mortal Life I ever read of If this be nothing that we fear then we must of necessity confess that we believe it but in part that all that we have said are only words that all our Discourses as of those hardy Trencher Knights are nothing but Vaunting and Vanity Some there are that will confidently tell you I know very well that I shall pass out of this Life into a better I make no doubt of that only I fear the mid-way step Weak Hearted Creatures They will kill themselves to get their miserable living They willingly suffer almost infinite pains and infinite wounds at another Mans pleasure and fearless go throw infinite deaths without dying and all this for things of nought for things that perish and that oft times causes them to perish with them But when they have but one step to make to be at Rest and that not for a day but for ever And not barely Rest but a Rest of that exalted Nature that Mans natural Mind can never comprehend They tremble their Hearts fail them they are afraid and yet it is nothing but fear that hurts them Let them never tell me they apprehend the pain It is but an abuse on purpose to conceal the little Faith they have No no they would rather languish of the Gout the Sciatica or any Disease whatsoever than dye one sweet Death with the least pain possible Rather piningly dye Limb after Limb out-living as it were all their Sences Motions

other end but that Men should seek them so the World often harbors in disguised Attire among them that fly the World It is not therefore Solitude and Retirement can give us Contentment but only the subduing of our unruly Lusts and Passions Now as touching that Contentment that may be found in Solitude by wise Men in the Exercise of Reading divers Books of both Divine and Prophane Authors in order to the acquiring of Knowledge and Learning it is indeed a very commendable thing but if we will take Solomon's Judgment in the Case it is all but vanity and vexation of Spirit For some are ever learning to correct their Speech and never think of correcting their Life Others by Logical Discourses of the Art of Reason dispute many times so long till they lose thereby their Natural Reason One learns by Arithmetick to divide into the smallest Fractions and yet hath not skill to part one Shilling with his Brother Another by Geometry can measure Fields and Towns and Countries But cannot measure himself The Musitian can accord his Voices and Sounds and Times together Having nothing in his Heart but Discords nor one Passion in his Soul but what is out of tune The Astrologer looks up to the Stars and falls in the next Ditch Fore-knows the future and is careless for the present hath often his Eye on the Heavens tho' his Heart be buried in the Earth The Philosopher discourseth of the nature of all other things and yet knows not himself The Historian can tell of the Wars of Thebes and of Troy but is ignorant of what is done in his own House The Lawyer will make Laws for all the World and yet observe none himself The Physitian Cures others but languishes himself under his own Malady He can find the least alteration in his Pulse but takes no notice of the burning Feaver of his Mind Lastly the Divine will spend the greatest part of his time in disputing of Faith and yet cares not to hear of Charity Will talk of god but has no regard to succour Men. These knowledges bring on the Mind an endless labour but no contentment for the more he knows the more he desires to know They pacifie not the Debates a Man feels in himself they cure not the diseases of his Mind They make him learned but they make him not good cunning but not wise The more a Man knows the more he knows that he knows not the fuller the Mind is the emptier it finds it self Forasmuch as whatsoever a Man can know of any Science in this world is but the least part of what he is ignorant of All his knowledge consisting in knowing his ignroance all his perfection in seeing his imperfections which who best knows and notes is in truth among Men the most wise and perfect In short we must conclude with Solomon that the beginning and end of Wisdom is the fear of God yet this Wisdom nevertheless is taken by the World for meer Folly and persecuted by the World as a deadly Enemy and therefore as he that fears God ought to fear no evil for that all his evils are converted to his good So neither ought he to hope for good in the World having there the Devil his professed Enemy whom the Scripture termeth Prince of this World But with what exercise soever we pass the time old Age unawares comes upon us which never failes to find us out Every Man makes account in that Age to repose himself without further care and to keep himself at ease in health But on the contrary in this age there is nothing but an after-tast of all the foregoing evils and most commonly a plentiful harvest of all such Vices as in the whole course of their Life hath held and possessed them There you have the Imbecility and Weakness of Infancy and which is worse many times accompanied with authority There you are paid for the excess and riot of your Youth with Gouts Palsies and such like Diseases which take from you Limb after Limb with pain and torment There you are recompenc'd for the anxieties of Mind the watchings and cares of Manhood with Ioss of Sight loss of Hearing and all the Sences one after another except only the sence of Pain Not one part in us but Death takes hold of to be assured of us as of bad pay-masters which seldom keep days of payment There is nothing in us which is not visible declining except our Vices and they not only live but in despite of Nature grow young again The Covetous Man hath one Foot in his Grave and is yet burying his Money as if he had hopes to find it again another day The Ambitious in his Will provides for a pompous Funeral making his vice to triumph even after his Death The Riotous no longer able to dance on his Feet danceth with his Shoulders all Vices having left him and he not able to leave them The Child wishes for Youth and this Man laments it The Young Man lives in hope of the future and this feels the evil present laments the false pleasures past and sees for the time to come nothing to hope for And is more foolish than the Child in bewailing the time he cann't recall and remembers not the evil that he suffer'd in it and more wretched than the Young Man in that after a vicious life and not being able any longer to live he must miserably die seeing nothing round about him but matter of despair As for him that from his Youth hath undertaken to combat against the flesh and the World who hath used to mortifie himself and leave the World whilst he continues in it who besides those ordinary Evils finds himself vexed with this great and incurable Disease of Old Age and yet feels his Flesh how weak soever often stronger than his Spirit what satisfaction can he take but only in this that he sees his death is at hand that his Warfare is accomplished and that he is ready to depart by Death out of this loathsome Prison wherein he has been all along rack'd and tormented I forbear to mention the almost infinite Evils wherewith Men in all Ages are afflicted as loss of Friends and Parents Banishments Exiles Disgraces and other Accidents common and ordinary in the World one complaining of losing his Children another of having them one lamenting for his Wives Death another for her Life one finding fault that he is too high in Court and others more often that they are not high enough The World is so full of Evils that it would require a World of Time to write 'em in And if the most happy Man in the World should set his Felicities and Infelicities against each other he would see cause enough to judge himself unhappy And yet perhaps another Man might judge him happy who yet if he had been but three days in his place would give it over to him that should come next And he that shall consider in all the Goods