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
A43138	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, January XVI, 1675/6 by Roger Hayward.	Hayward, Roger, 1639-1680.	1676 (1676)	Wing H1236; ESTC R25424	15,953	38

the frequent and solemn proclamation of his Will and invocation of his Name are but as the dead Records of a Chronicle or Calendar which will no better keep up the Honour of the Creator than they do the Wonders of the Creation Soon would the incursions of worldly vanities seconded with our own sensual lusts bear down that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. that natural inclination we have to God and all the Characters he hath left of Himself in our Conscience or in the Creation if they were not often quickened and refreshed by the most devout remembrances and that deep forgetfulness of God which we call Atheism is not born with nor suddenly seizes upon any but creeps upon them insensibly by the disuse of his Service 2. But supposing we could preserve the Reverence of God without it yet neither can this or any other Principle make us good without his assistance to make it present and powerful This is a Truth which the Conscience of the worst Men seals for why else do they flye to Nature Necessity and Impossibility to be their Compurgators And the Confessions of the best do avow who finding the greatest difficulty to be rooted in themselves cry out with the Apostle Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are who shall deliver us Yea and those that never heard of the mighty Wind on Pentecoste yet would not grant that any could be excellent sine afflatu divino so the Orator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Hierocles And however Men may pride themselves in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and think their Souls can mend themselves when they list yet they dare not trust their Bodies when sick and languishing to the weak remains of life and strength to effect their own recovery Arise take up thy bed and walk would be a scornful taunt from any Mouth but our Makers some new Spirits and Succours they are forc'd to flye to to joyn with and reinforce their poor baffled powers for what can they do when they themselves are opprest and out of order There is indeed an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-moving power in the Soul which can never be lost there is an Elatery a motus restitutionis an endeavour to Goodness in the Conscience which cannot be extinguished but when this power is corrupted when this spring is rusted and a mighty weight lyes upon it what weak effects are we to expect from it When the light within us is darkness when reason it self the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath tamely given up its Sovereignty to be led captive by divers lusts how can it alone bring about its restauration And now if the one necessity of the Divine Assistance be admitted I know not how the other of humble applications to Him can modestly be denied Gods Grace descends not like the common Blessings of the Light and Showers whether Men desire it or no it were not grace but force not assistance but violence were it not earnestly and humbly sought Mat. 7.7 Ask and ye shall have seek and ye shall find And of the success of this there can be no doubt if we consider in the next place 3. The direct propriety our Worship of God hath to make us good There are but two ways without miracle whereby we may ever hope it by being clearly instructed and sufficiently obliged and encouraged to it whatsoever doth these doth edifie all else is but empty noise and rituality Now what clearer accompts of Goodness can we desire than those we have from the Laws and Life of Goodness it self which took a Body and dwelt among us and what stronger bonds could Wisdom and Love heve knit than those of Duty and Interest of Gratitude and Hope of Assistance and Success where our Maker intreats our Saviour bleeds his Spirit and our Consciences contend with us where his terrours do beset us his bowels of compassion yern towards us and the Heavens are open'd before us how is it possible we break through all to our ruin These are the engagements God lays on us in his Worship but we are not meerly passive there we come not to be enchanted and chained but to bind all these upon our selves by our own act and deed when we confess we do not tell a sad story but abjure our iniquities before God his Holy Angels and Men when we pray we do not plead or argue with God but we humbly declare our purposes and our requests if they are serious become our vows when we praise him we cause not our voices to be heard on high but we humbly breath out our hearts to him having no greater present for his Love Lastly when we receive the Holy Communion we devote our selves to Him with all the solemnities of fealty and friendship and how stupendious soever a misery some have made of that Act of Worship by straining the holy Expressions of the Fathers into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it yet in this our plain despis'd notion 't is an excellent Instrument of uniting us to the Holy Jesus in spirit and if we believe Him the flesh profiteth nothing John 6.63 Briefly the summ of all that Goodness that can make us acceptable to God to others to our selves is Humility Charity and purity of Spirit For the first Men never see themselves in a true light those especially who have few or none superiour to them upon Earth but when they stand in His Presence there the shadows flye away and they as Job see and abhor themselves in dust and ashes Job 42.5 6. there men of all degrees are found to be lighter than vanity How great improvement Charity gains by it will be the next enquiry But how is it possible that we who live in continual familiarity with the World chiefly those who are under no restraints of want or fear should keep our selves undefiled without those solemn retirements from it whereby we may disintangle our Minds from the Cares and Pleasures of it and by tasting the good things of the world to come correct the keenness of our Appetites to this 'T is to be expected that some should reply to this Discourse Hath the Temple then monopoliz'd all Goodness Is Grace appropriated only to the Priests Lips Can Reason do nothing without those dull Formalities Were not Greece and Rome as fruitful of happy Spirits as the City that was watered with the River of God God forbid 2 Cor. 4.7 that we poor earthen Vessels should ever arrogate any power over the Treasures committed to us And would to God all the Courts of Princes the Seats of Justice and Schools of Learning were holy as the Courts of the Lords House But if many of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the best natural dispositions of the strongest faculties and of the greatest advantages of education and observation do yet fall short of those Virtues that may thence be expected there is no reason to be given for it but their

hearken to the Voice of his Word Psal 103.20 and never cease to give glory and honour to God Rev. 4.8 Mens future portions will not be assign'd them according to their hopes but their habits they therefore that have spent all their days in the Tents of wickedness whose tongues have been full of cursing and bitterness whose hands have never been lift up but to violence or vanity without some more sudden violent and miraculous change than they have any ground to hope for would be utterly incapable to be happy in that Society in those Employments to which they have been so wholly estranged But how easie how pleasant will our passage be from the Courts of Gods House to the Holy of Holies How ready how joyful shall we be to joyn with the Heavenly Quire in their Hallelujahs Thus useful it is to serve God to our Souls to our Societies to our Hopes of Heaven and yet it is too sadly true that too many are neither the fitter to live nor to dye for it and that 's the matter of the last Enquiry viz. 3. How it becomes so vain it must be from one of these Causes 1. That Men misapply it to a wrong end or 2. That they manage it a wrong way either of which must needs render the best things useless 1. There are too many so gross as to think there is no profit but 20 per cent nor gain but ready money This was the Jews humour who brought their Sacrifice as to a Market not an Altar and came to barter the Flesh and Blood of their Beasts for fair Harvests and full Vintages and when they missed complained all was in vain That the Service of God hath a friendly regard to worldly prosperity is evident because it inclines Men to be serious engages them to be honest diligent and temperate in all things and inspires them with that calmness of mind and comfortable trust in Gods Providence which are surer ways to prosperity than all the little slights of the Mammonist but if we expect more from it we defeat it and deceive our selves Others that would be more spiritual put not their Devotion to that drudgery which is fitter for the sweat of their brows all the gain they expect from it is to have their Fancies a little refresh'd their Wits exercised their Opinions and perhaps their Lusts soothed and if it so happen away go they well satisfied though indeed poor and miserable and blind and naked but if this be all their aim they might have gain'd as much in the Fields or the Theatre Great is that joy and full of glory that all pious Souls have in their Devotions but 't is not such as is born of noise or art and dyes with it but that more solid and lasting that springs from the sense of Goodness entring like light and health into the Soul Lastly some perhaps are so vain as to hope by their Service to raise a mighty Interest in Heaven and by their loud importunities or more studied addresses to be able to tyre or charm the Almighty to do what they will without any regard to any impressions made on their own Spirits What a wild conceit is this of our Service which is enough to spoil it were it winged with the ardours of Angels Can Men be serious and think that their Confessions can inform Him of more than He knows of them that their Petitions can direct Him what to do or that their Language and Passions can overcome Him against his Will No no! we confess only to the melting down our own Iron necks we pray to excite and engage our own stupid and false hearts we intercede to enlarge our charity we praise and laud Him to increase his love in us so much as is the influence of our Service upon our selves so much only is our gain if this be not our aim we only sow the Wind and may reap the Whirlwind 2. The other Cause of the vanity of our Service is our using it a wrong way 'T is too common with us to post it off as a piece of Knight-service to a Proxy and to think we have nothing to do in it but to lend an Eye or an Ear to make a dumb shew or a formal noise Were the Holy Offices of Religion some common vile drudgery or some powerful Charms or Spells they would not deserve or need our thoughts but they are of another nature wise and reasonable Instruments for our good and therefore require an intent mind and an honest and good heart to make them effectual If Men come before-hand resolved that hearing they will not hear nor consider though the Angels or the Holy Jesus would again descend they would baffle their Ministery The Ground we stand on is not so Holy but if we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pyth. Symb. Eccles 5.1 keep our feet when we come into the House of God we may return as impure as we came nor is the Air so fine as to cleanse us from all pollution by the meer ventilation of it Moses his Tabernacle nor Solomon's Temple though they had the Shecinah the Glory of the Lord filling them could not hallow a careless Worshipper Did we negotiate our business our Trade with as little thoughtfulness as we pray and hear our gains would come in but slowly we need not indeed that subtilty and those cautions in our dealings with God as with Men yet certainly He alone is not to be served nor our Souls only to be improved without any thoughts or care for them And indeed how is it possible that such excellent Prayers so often sent up to the Throne of Grace should perish in the Air that all the powerful perswasives to Goodness that Heaven and Earth afford which ring continually in our Ears should never reach our Hearts that having one Advocate within us to help our Infirmities and another in Heaven to present our Services yet they should be still ineffectual It could not be but that we only are inexorable and will not hear our own Prayers we are imperswasible and will not believe our own selves our own Consciences We hear and approve and yet we reject the Counsels of God we cry to God for mercy and yet will have none upon our selves we ask for grace and yet will not take it when 't is offered to us or turn it into wantonness Thus whilst we anticipate our latter end and stand like Tombs in the Church full of uncleanness what good can we expect When the sacrifice fell but the beast liv'd in Men when the incense ascended but their filthiness remained in their skirts when the Air was filled and every thing moved with their cryes but their own insensate hearts then had the Prophet reason to complain Jer. 7.4 8. Ye trust in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord ye trust in lying words which cannot profit and 't is no wonder to hear themselves