Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bring_v	young_a	youth_n	83	3	7.6717	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67470	The lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert written by Izaak Walton ; to which are added some letters written by Mr. George Herbert, at his being in Cambridge : with others to his mother, the Lady Magdalen Herbert ; written by John Donne, afterwards dean of St. Pauls.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.	1670 (1670)	Wing W671; ESTC R15317	178,870	410

perceive it went not through all for one writ to me that some and he said of my friends conceived I was not so ill as I pretended but withdrew my self to live at ease discharged of preaching It is an unfriendly and God knows an ill-grounded interpretation for I have alwayes been sorrier when I could not preach than any could be they could not hear me It hath been my desire and God may be pleased to grant it that I might dye in the Pulpit if not that yet that I might take my death in the Pulpit that is dye the sooner by occasion of those labours Sir I hope to see you presently after Candlemas about which time will fall my Lent-Sermon at Court except my Lord Chamberlain believe me to be dead and so leave me out of the Roll but as long as I live and am not speechless I would not willingly decline that service I have better leisure to write than you to read yet I would not willingly oppress you with too much Letter God bless you and your Son as I wish Your poor friend and servant in Christ Jesus J. Donne Before that month ended he was appointed to preach upon his old constant day the first Friday in Lent he had notice of it and had in his sickness so prepared for that imployment that as he had long thirsted for it so he resolved his weakness should not hinder his journey he came therefore to London some few dayes before his appointed day of preaching At his coming thither many of his friends who with sorrow saw his sickness had left him onely so much flesh as did onely cover his bones doubted his strength to perform that task and did therefore disswade him from undertaking it assuring him however it was like to shorten his life but he passionately denied their requests saying he would not doubt that that God who in so many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength would now withdraw it in his last employment professing an holy ambition to perform that sacred work And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit many of them thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice but mortality by a decayed body and dying face And doubtless many did secretly ask that question in Ezekiel Do these bones live or can that soul organize that tongue to speak so long time as the sand in that glass will move towards its centre and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life Doubtless it cannot and yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer his strong desires enabled his weak body to discharge his memory of his preconceived meditations which were of dying the Text being To God the Lord belong the issues from death Many that then saw his tears and heard his faint and hollow voice professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen and that Dr. Donne had preach't his own funeral Sermon Being full of joy that God had enabled him to perform this desired duty he hastened to his house out of which he never moved till like St. Stephen he was carried by devout men to his Grave The next day after his Sermon his strength being much wasted and his spirits so spent as indisposed him to business or to talk A friend that had often been a witness of his free and facetious discourse asked him Why are you sad To whom he replied with a countenance so full of cheerful gravity as gave testimony of an inward tranquillity of mind and of a soul willing to take a farewell of this world And said I am not sad but most of the night past I have entertained my self with many thoughts of several friends that have left me here and are gone to that place from which they shall not return And that within a few dayes I also shall go hence and be no more seen And my preparation for this change is become my nightly meditation upon my bed which my infirmities have now made restless to me But at this present time I was in a serious contemplation of the providence and goodness of God to me who am less than the least of his mercies and looking back upon my life past I now plainly see it was his hand that prevented me from all temporal employment and it was his Will that I should never settle nor thrive till I entred into the Ministry in which I have now liv'd almost twenty years I hope to his glory and by which I most humbly thank him I have been enabled to require most of those friends which shewed me kindness when my fortune was very low as God knows it was and as it hath occasioned the expression of my gratitude I thank God most of them have stood in need of my requital I have liv'd to be useful and comfortable to my good Father-in-law Sir George Moore whose patience God hath been pleased to exercise with many temporal Crosses I have maintained my own Mother whom it hath pleased God after a plentiful fortune in her younger dayes to bring to a great decay in her very old age I have quieted the Consciences of many that have groaned under the burthen of a wounded spirit whose prayers I hope are available for me I cannot plead innocency of life especially of my youth But I am to be judged by a merciful God who is not willing to see what I have done amiss And though of my self I have nothing to present to him but sins and misery yet I know he looks not upon me now as I am of my self but as I am in my Saviour and hath given me even at this time some testimonies by his Holy Spirit that I am of the number of his Elect I am therefore full of joy and shall dye in peace I must here look so far back as to tell the Reader that at his first return out of Essex to preach his last Sermon his old Friend and Physitian Dr. Fox a man of great worth came to him to consult his health and that after a sight of him and some queries concerning his distempers he told him That by Cordials and drinking milk twenty dayes together there was a probability of his restauration to health but he passionately denied to drink it Nevertheless Dr. Fox who loved him most intirely wearied him with sollicitations till he yielded to take it for ten dayes at the end of which time he told Dr. Fox he had drunk it more to satisfie him than to recover his health and that he would not drink it ten dayes longer upon the best moral assurance of having twenty years added to his life for he loved it not and that he was so far from fearing death which is the King of terrors that he longed for the day of his dissolution It is observed that a desire of glory or commendation is rooted in the very nature of man and that those of the severest and most mortified lives though they may

Winchester who then was the Kings Almoner About this time there grew many disputes that concerned the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance in which the King had appeared and engaged himself by his publick writings now extant and his Majesty discoursing with Mr. Donne concerning many of the reasons which are usually urged against the taking of those Oaths apprehended such a validity and clearness in his stating the Questions and his Answers to them that his Majesty commanded him to bestow some time in drawing the Arguments into a method and then write his Answers to them and having done that not to send but be his own messenger and bring them to him To this he presently applyed himself and within six weeks brought them to him under his own hand-writing as they be now printed the Book bearing the name of Pseudo-martyr When the King had read and considered that Book he perswaded Mr. Donne to enter into the Ministry to which at that time he was and appeared very unwilling apprehending it such was his mistaking modesty to be too weighty for his Abilities and though his Majesty had promised him a favour and many persons of worth mediated with his Majesty for some secular employment for him to which his Education had apted him and particularly the Earl of Somerset when in his height of favour who being then at Th●obalds with the King where one of the Clerks of the Council died that night and the Earl having sent for Mr. Donne to come to him immediately said Mr. Donne To testifie the reality of my Affection and my purpose to preferre you Stay in this Garden till I go up to the King and bring you wor● that you are Clark of the Council doubt not my doing this for I know the King loves you and will not deny me But the King gave a positive denyal to all requests and having a discerning spirit replyed I know Mr. Donne is ● learned man has the abilities of a learned Divine and will prove a powerful Preacher and my desire is to prefer him that way After that time as he professeth The King descended to a perswasion almost to a solicitation of him to enter into sacred Orders which though h● then denyed not yet he deferred it for almost three years All which time he applyed himself to an incessant study of Textual Divinity and to the attainment of a greater perfection in the learned Languages Greek and Hebrew In the first and most blessed times of Christianity when the Clergy were look'd upon with reverence and deserved it when they overcame their opposers by high examples of Vertue by a blessed Patience and long Suffering those onely were then judged worthy the Ministry whose quiet and meek spirits did make them look upon that sacred calling with an humble adoration and fear to undertake it which indeed requires such great degrees of humility and labour and care that none but such were then thought worthy of that celestial dignity And such onely were then sought out and solicited to undertake it This I have mentioned because forwardness and inconsideation could not in Mr. Donne as in many others be an argument of insufficiency or unfitness for he had considered long and had many strifes within himself concerning the strictness of life and competency of learning required in such as enter into sacred Orders and doubtless considering his own demerits did humbly ask God with St. Paul Lord who is sufficient for these things and with meek Moses Lord who am I And sure if he had consulted with flesh and blood he had not put his hand to that holy lough But God who is able to prevail wrestled with him as the Angel did with Jacob and marked him mark'd him for his own mark'd him with a blessing a blessing of obedience to the motions of his blessed Spirit And then as he had formerly asked God with Moses Who am I So now being inspired with an apprehension of Gods particular mercy to him in the Kings and others solicitations of him he came to a●●● King Davids thankful question Lord who am I tha● thou art so mindful of me So mindful o● me as to lead me for more then forty years through this wilderness of the many temptations and various turnings of a dangerous life so merciful to me as to move the learned●st of Kings to descend to move me to serve at thy Alter so merciful to me as at last to move my l●●a to imbrace this holy motion thy motions will and do imbrace And I now say with the blessed Virgin Be it with thy servant as seemeth best in thy sight and so blessed Jesus I ●● take the cup of Salvation and will call upo● thy Name and will preach thy Gospel Such strifes as these St. Austine had whe● St. Ambrose indeavoured his conversion to Christianity with which he confesseth he acquai●●ted his friend Alipius Our learned Author a man sit to write after no mean Copy d● the like And declaring his intentions to ●● dear friend Dr. King then Bishop of London man famous in his generation and no strangth to Mr. Donnes abilities For he had been Chaplain to the Lord Chancellor at the ti●● of Mr. Donnes being his Lordships Secretary● That Reverend man did receive the news wi●● much gladness and after some expressions ●● joy and a perswasion to be constant in his pious purpose he proceeded with all convenient speed to ordain him both Deacon and Priest Now the English Church had gain'd a second St. Austine for I think none was so like him before his Conversion none so like St. Ambrose after it and if his youth had the infirmities of the one his age had the excellencies of the other the learning and holiness of both And now all his studies which had been occasionally diffused were all concentred in Divinity Now he had a new calling new thoughts and a new imployment for his wit and eloquence Now all his earthly affections were changed into divine love and all the faculties of his own soul were ingaged in the Conversion of others In preaching the glad tidings of Remission to repenting Sinners and peace to each troubled soul. To these he app'yed himself with all care and diligence and now such a change was wrought in him that he could say with David Oh how amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord God of Hosts Now he declared openly that when he required a temporal God gave him a spiritual blessing And that he was now gladder to be a door-keeper in the house of God then he could be to injoy the noblest of all temporal imployments Presently after he entred into his holy profession the King sent for him and made him his Chaplain in ordinary and promised to take a particular care for his preferment And though his long familiarity with Scholars and persons of greatest quality was such as might have given some men boldness enough to have preached to any eminent Auditory yet his modesty in this

most Gracious Majesty HAving been informed that certain persons have by the good wishes of the Archbishop of Armagh been directed hither with a most humble Petition unto Your Majesty that You will be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel now resident upon a small Benefice in Suffolk Governor of your Colledge at Dublin for the good of that Society and my self being required to render unto Your Majesty some testimony of the said William Bedel who was long my Chaplain at Venice in the time of my first imployment there I am bound in all Conscience and Truth so far as Your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept my poor judgement to affirm of him That I think hardly a fitter man for that Charge could have been propounded unto Your Majesty in Your whole Kingdom for singular Erudition and Piety Conformity to the Rites of the Church and Zeal to advance the Cause of God wherein his Travels abroad were not obscure in the time of the Excommunication of the Venetians For it may please Your Majesty to know that this is the man whom Padre Paulo took I may say into his very soul with whom he did communicate the inwardest thoughts of his heart from whom he professed to have received more knowledge in all Divinity both Scholastical and Positive than from any that he had ever practised in his dayes of which all the passages were well known to the King Your Father of most blessed memory And so with Your Majesties good favour I will end this needless Office for the general Fame of his Learning his Life and Christian temper and those Religious Labours which himself hath dedicated to your Majesty do better describe him than I am able Your MAJESTIES Most humble and faithful Servant H. WOTTON TO this Letter I shall add this That he was to the great joy of Sir Henry Wotton made Governor of the said Colledge and that after a fair discharge of his duty and trust there he was thence removed to be Bishop of Kilmore In both which places his life was so holy as seemed to equal the primitive Christians for as they so he kept all the Ember-weeks observed besides his private devotions the Canonical hours of Prayer very strictly and so he did all the Feasts and Fast-dayes of his Mother the Church of England his Patience and Charity were both such as shewed his affections were set upon things that are above for indeed his whole life brought forth the fruits of the Spirit there being in him such a remarkable meekness that as St. Paul advised his Timothy in the Election of a Bishop That he have a good report of those that be without so had he for those that were without even those that in point of Religion were of the Roman perswasion of which there were very many in his Diocess did yet ever look upon him with respect and reverence and testified it by a concealing and safe protecting him in the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland when the fury of the wild Irish knew no distinction of persons and yet there and then he was protected and cherished by those of a contrary perswasion and there and then he dyed though not by violence And with him was lost many of his learned Writings which were thought worthy of preservation and amongst the rest was lost the Bible which by many years labour and conference and study he had translated into the Irish Tongue with an intent to have printed it for publick use More might be said of Mr. Bedel who I told the Reader was Sir Henry Wottons first Chaplain and much of his second Chaplain Isaac Bargrave Doctor in Divinity and the late learned and hospitable Dean of Canterbury as also of the Merit of many others that had the happiness to attend Sir Henry in his forreign imployments But the Reader may think that in this digression I have already carried him too far from Eaton-Colledge and therefore I shall lead him back as gently and as orde●ly as I may to that place for a further conference concerning Sir Henry Wotton Sir Henry Wotton had propos'd to himself before he entred into his Collegiate life to write the life of Martin Luther and in it the History of the Reformation as it was carried on in Germany For the doing of which he had many advantages by his several Embassies into those parts and his interest in the several Princes of the Empire by whose means he had access to the Records of all the Hans Towns and the knowledge of many secret passages that fell not under common view and in these he had made a happy progress as is well known to his worthy friend Dr. Duppa the late Reverend Bishop of Salisbury but in the midst of this design His late Majesty King Charles that knew the value of Sir Henry Wottons Pen did by a perswasive loving violence to which may be added a promise of 500 l. a year force him to lay Luther aside and betake himself to write the History of England in which he proceeded to write some short Characters of a few Kings as a foundation upon which he meant to build but for the present meant to be more large in the story of Henry the sixth the Founder of that Colledge in which he then enjoy'd all the worldly happiness of his present being but Sir Henry dyed in the midst of this undertaking and the footsteps of his labours are not recoverable by a more than common diligence This is some account both of his inclination and the employment of his time in the Colledge where he seemed to have his Youth renewed by a continual conversation with that Learned Society and a daily recourse of other Friends of choicest breeding and parts by which that great blessing of a chearful heart was still maintained he being alwayes free even to the last of his dayes from that peevishness which usually attends Age. And yet his mirth was sometimes damp'd by the remembrance of divers old Debts partly contracted in his forreign Employments for which his just Arrears due from the King would have made satisfaction but being still delayed with Cou●t-promises and finding some decayes of health he did about two years before his death out of a Christian desire that none should be a loser by it make his last Will concerning which a doubt still remains whether it discovered more holy wit or conscionable policy But there is no doubt but that his chief design was a Christian endeavour that his Debts might be satisfied And that it may remain as such a Testimony and a Legacy to those that lov'd him I shall here impart it to the Reader as it was found writ with his own hand IN the Name of God Almighty and All-merciful I Henry Wotton Provost of His Majesties Colledge by Eaton being mindf●●● of mine own mortality which the sin of our first Pa●●ents did bring upon all flesh Do by this last Will and Testament thus dispose of my self and the poor things I