Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	father_n	lord_n	7,082	5	3.7016	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50548	A sermon preached at White-Hall in Lent, March the 16, 1682/3 by Richard Meggott ...	Meggott, Richard, d. 1692.	1683 (1683)	Wing M1627; ESTC R17024	12,299	42

a Debauch first give a Shout which they say is a Warning to their Souls to retire into their Heels that they may not be Witnesses to their intended Bestiality All others in such Cases are fain to do in Effect use Arts to shift and get rid of themselves before they can comply well There are none but feel this at one time or other and whatever they do themselves cannot but inwardly approve of those as the most excellent Persons that deny the Sensual Part even in things where the Body would receive no Prejudice by being gratified Now how could this be if there were nothing but Corporeal and Material Soul in us Where then should be the differing Parties Doth the same Fountain send forth both sweet Waters and bitter Can the same thing be adverse and contrary to it self Is it so with the Dog in his Vomit No this perpetual Discord argueth there is something peculiar in the Sons of Men And that is a Second Difference between our Spirits and theirs a Difference in our Wills A Third there is in our Habits I speak not of acquired ones those which are the Fruits of frequent Exercise and Industry but those which by the Schools are called infused Such Dispositions and Capacities as are communicated to and engrafted in each by the Author of their Beings And of this kind we have one of mighty Moment so peculiar to us that if there were nothing else to instance in might of it self convince us sufficiently and that is Religiousness an Universal Bent and Inclination to the Worship and Fear of God They who are most for levelling us with the Inferiour Animals their most eager Advocates freely grant them so far from this that they will not allow them the least Apprehension of such a Being Nor indeed is it possible they should have any How can they that have only Corporeal Phantasms frame any Idea of him These are so far from helping us in forming a distinct Conception of an Infinite Immaterial being that Experience sheweth they but distract and hinder us when we attend to it And yet Mankind of all Ages former and later of all Places civil and barbarous of all Complexions sanguine and melancholly of all Capacities wise and weak as by Instinct and secret Impulse own and feel after him I know there have been some Atheists in the World but I dare say not half so many as there have been Monsters and if these do not make us alter our Opinion of what is Natural as to our Shapes why should those make us call in Question what is so as to our Minds They that pretend this is not any natural Impression but only the Influence of Education contrived for Convenience by Politicians may as well say of the Trees in the un-inhabited parts of the World that they were not produced by the Nature of the Earth but secretly planted by a Knot of Gardiners If it were merely Artificial it would not be Universal and where it was would decay without Care and constant looking to But on the contrary it is so agreeable to the Humane Soul that it springeth up in all of them and they who do all they can are not able utterly to extirpate it so much as out of their single Selves From this Principle and Propensity cultivated spring Faith Devotion Love Sincerity Softness of Heart Denyal of our selves Sorrow for Sin Care for Eternity with many other Heavenly and distinguishing Qualities by which Glorious Things are spoken of thee Oh thou Inward Man And do these look like the Product of Matter and Motion Can Sence be the Parent of Moral Vertue Have Brutes such a Faculty in them as Conscience Are the Horse and the Mule Subjects capable of Divine Grace If they are not why should it be thought they have such Spirits as we That is a Third Difference between our Spirits and theirs a Difference in our Habits I shall add a Fourth as apparent as any and that is a Difference in their Illuminations This I mention distinct from the Understanding as meaning by it only that part of their Knowledge wherein both are merely passive and contribute nothing Of this kind the Creatures about us every one have their Omer what is sufficient and convenient for them unaccountably put into them by the provident Hand of him that made them but with Men besides that Candle of the Lord as the wise Man calleth it set up in the whole Species there is sometimes a Supernatural Light that shineth in upon Indidividuals and the Father of Spirits upon Occasion hath been pleased to honor them with Revelations at sundry Times and in divers Manners speaking to them himself immediately For though there have been great Frauds and Impostures about these matters and such things have often been pretended by some and as oft believed by others where there was no Realty Yet he must be very skeptical indeed that upon that Account will give Credit to none Who can reasonably doubt but the Divine Mysteries of our Faith were communicated this way when he recollecteth by how many mighty Miracles this manner of their Conveyance hath been confirmed to us Who can make any Question but that the several Prophesies in Scripture were imparted in this manner when he findeth how the Events many Hundreds of Years after so punctually and precisely answered the Predictions It is true this hath been the Case comparatively but of few Persons but being as well satisfied as we can be of Matter of Fact that it hath been of any the Argument hath still the same Force and equally proveth what it is alleadged for as if it were universal and constant viz. that we have a more peculiar way of Illumination by Vrim and Thummim by Dreams and Visions by Angels and Inspirations things above our Understanding and Secrets that were then to come have been manifested to some for the Benefit of all And is this to be over-looked as nothing Shall it procure them no Veneration that God himself taketh such Signal Notice of them Are any but ours Partakers of this Priviledge The Three former speak a clear Difference in Kind and are also such probable Arguments of the Immortality of our Spirits though theirs are mortal that they and such like have always obtained general Belief I will not say they are so concluding as that nothing can be objected against them Perhaps Natural Light cannot fully demonstrate it But if we take in this last also that of Divine Revelations then there remaineth no more place for doubting For besides the great unlikelihood that the Almighty should manifest himself in such gracious needless manner to Spirits of that low Rank Doth God take Care for Oxen this is one thing he hath revealed to them that they are not such and that there is not only a Difference as to their Kind but also as to their End The Spirit of the Man goeth upward c. And were this reflected on so seriously as it ought that our