Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	change_v	glory_n	lord_n	7,489	5	5.2782	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58838	The life of God in the soul of man, or, The nature and excellency of the Christian religion with the method of attaining the happiness it proposes : and An account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life : in two letters written to persons of honour.	Scougal, Henry, 1650-1678.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing S2101; ESTC R2701	52,875	148

Creatures we converse with have their mixture and alloy we are alwayes in hazard to be sullied and corrupted by placing our affection on them Passion doth easily blind our eyes that we first approve and then imitate the things that are blameable in them The true way to improve and ennoble our Souls is by fixing our love on the Divine Perfections that we may have them alwayes before us and derive an impression of them on our selves and beholding with open face as in a glass the glory of the Lord we may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory he who with a generous and holy ambition had raised his eyes toward that uncreated Beauty and Goodness and fixed his affection there is quite of another spirit a more excellent and heroick temper than the rest of the world and cannot but infinitely disdain all mean and unworthy things will not entertain any low or base thoughts which might disparage his high and noble pretensions Love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthily it is indeed the only thing we can call our own other things may be taken from us by violence but none can ravish our love if any thing else be counted ours by giving our love we give all in so far as we make over our hearts and wills by which we possess our other enjoyments it is not possible to refuse him any thing to whom by love we have given our selves nay since it is the priviledge of gifts to receive their value from the mind of the giver and not to be measured by the event but by the desire he who loveth may in some sense be said not only to bestow all that he hath but all things else which may make the beloved person happy since he doth heartily wish them and would really give them if they were in his power in which sense it is that one makes bold to say That Divine Love doth in a manner give God unto himself by the complacency it takes in the happiness and perfection of his Nature But though this may seem too big an expression certainly love is the worthiest Present we can offer unto God and it is extreamly debased when we bestow it another way When this affection is misplaced it doth often vent it self in such expressions as point at its genuine and proper object and insinuate where it ought to be placed The flattering and blasphemous terms of adoration wherein men do sometimes express their Passion are the language of that affection which was made and designed for God as he who is accustomed to speak to some great Person doth perhaps unawares accost another with those Titles he was wont to give to him But certainly that Passion which accounteth its object a Deitie ought to be bestowed on him who is really so Those unlimited submissions which would debase the Soul if directed to any other will exalt and ennoble it when placed here those chains and cords of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty it self this slavery is more noble than all the Empires in the World Again as Divine Love doth advance and elevate the Soul so it is that alone which can make it happy the highest and most ravishing pleasures the most soiid and substantial delights the humane Nature is capable of are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection That which imbitters Love and makes it ordinarily a very troublesom and hurtful Passion is the placing it on those who have not worth enough to deserve it or affection and gratitude to requite it or whose absence may deprive us of the pleasure of their converse or their miseries occasion our trouble To all these Evils are they exposed whose chief and supream affection is placed on Creatures like themselves but the Love of God delivers us from them all First I say Love must needs be miserable and full of trouble and disquietude when there is not worth and excellency enough in the Object to answer the vastness of its capacity so eager and violent a Passion cannot but fret and torment the spirit when it finds not wherewith to satisfie its cravings and indeed so large and unbounded is its nature that it must be extreamly pinched and straitned when confined to any Creature nothing below an Infinite Good can afford it room to stretch it self and exerce its activity and vigour what is a little skin-deep beauty or some small degrees of goodness to match or satisfie a Passion which was made for God designed to embrace an Infinite Good No wonder Lovers do so hardly suffer any Rival and do not desire that others should approve their passion by imitating it they know the scantness and narrowness of the good which they love that it cannot suffice two being in effect too little for one Hence Love which is strong as death occasioneth Jealousie which is cruel as the grave the coals whereof are coals of fire which hath a most violent flame But Divine Love hath no mixture of this gall when once the Soul is fixed on that Supream and All-sufficient Good it finds so much perfection and goodness as doth not only answer and satisfie its affection but master and over-power it too it finds all its love to be too faint and languid for such a noble object and is only sorry that it can command no more it wisheth for the Flammes of a Seraph and longs for the time when it shall be wholly melted and dissolved into love and because it can do so little it self it desires the assistance of the whole Creation that Angels and Men would concur with it in the admiration and love of those Infinite Perfections Again Love is accompanied with trouble when it misseth a suitable return of affection Love is the most valuable thing we can bestow and by giving it we do in effect give all that we have and therefore it must needs be afflicting to find so great a gift despised that the Present which one hath made of his whole Heart cannot prevail to obtain any favour for him Perfect love is a kind of self-dereliction a wandering out of our selves it 's a kind of voluntary death wherein the lover dyes to himself and all his own interests not thinking of them nor caring for them any more and minding nothing but how he may please and gratifie the party whom he loves thus is he quite undone unless he meet with reciprocal affection he neglects himself and the other hath no regard to him but if he be beloved he is revived as it were and liveth in the soul and care of the person whom he loves and now he begins to mind his own concernments not so much because they are his as because the beloved is pleased to own an interest in them he becomes dear unto himself because he is so unto the other But why should I

himself every thing is enough to vex him but scarce any thing sufficient to content and please him he is ready to quarrel with every thing that falls out as if he himself were such a considerable person that God Almighty should do every thing to gratifie him and all the Creatures of Heaven and Earth should wait upon him and obey his will The leaves of high Trees do shake with every blast of wind and every breath every evil word will disquiet and torment an arrogant man but the humble person hath the advantage when he is despised that none can think more meanly of him than he doth of himself and therefore he is not troubled at the matter but can easily bear those reproaches which wound the other to the Soul and withal as he is less affected with injuries so indeed he is less obnoxious unto them Contention which cometh of Pride betrayes a man into a thousand inconveniencies which those of a meek and lowly temper are seldom meeting with True and genuine humility begetteth both a veneration and love among all wise and discerning persons while Pride defeateth it's own design and depriveth a man of that honour it makes him pretend to But as the chief Exercises of Humility are those which relate unto Almighty God so these are accompany'd with the greatest satisfaction and sweetness it is impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which Religious persons feel in the lowest prostrations of their Soul before God when having a deep sense of the Divine Majesty and Glory they sink if I may so speak unto the very bottom of their beings and vanish and disappear in the presence of God by a serious and affectionate acknowledgment of their own nothingness and the shortness and imperfections of all their attainments when they understand the full sense and emphasis of the Psalmist's exclamation Lord what is Man and can utter it with the same affection neither did ever any haughty and ambitious person receive the praises and applauses of men with so much pleasure as the humble and religious do renounce them Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory c. Thus I have spoken something of the Excellencies and Advantage of Religion in it's several Branches but should be very injurious to the Subject did I pretend to have given any perfect account of it Let us acquaint our selves with it My dear Friend Let us acquaint our selves with it and experience will teach us more than all that ever hath been spoken or written concerning it But if we may suppose the Soul to be already awakened unto some longing desires after so great a Blessedness it will be good to give them vent and suffer them to issue forth in some such aspirations as these A Prayer GOod God! what a mighty felicity is this to which we are called How graciously hast thou joyn'd our Duty and Happiness together and prescribed that for our work the performance whereof is a great reward And shall such silly worms be advanced to so great a height Wilt Thou allow us to raise our eyes to Thee Wilt thou admit and accept our affection Shall we receive the impression of thy Divine Excellencies by beholding and admiring them and partake of thy infinite Blessedness and Glory by loving Thoe and rejoycing in them O the happiness of those Souls that have broken the fetters of Self-love and dis-intangl'd their affection from every narrow and particular good whose Understanding are inlightned by thy Holy Spirit and their wills inlarged to the extent of thine who love thee above all things and all Mankind for thy sake I am perswaded O God I am perswaded that I can never be happy till my carnal and corrupt affections be mortify'd and the pride and vanity of my spirit be subdued and till I come seriously to despise the world and think nothing of my self But O when shall it once be O when wilt Thou come unto me and satisfie my Soul with thy likeness making me holy as thou art holy even in all manner of conversation Hast thou given me a prospect of so great a felicity and wilt thou not bring me unto it Hast thou excited these desires in my Soul and wilt thou not also satisfie them O teach me to do thy Will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me unto the Land of Uprightness Quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake and perfect that which concerneth me Thy Mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands I Have hitherto considered wherein True Religion doth consist and how desirable a thing it is but when one sees how infinitely distant the common temper and frame of men is from it he may perhaps be ready to despond and give over and think it utterly impossible to be attain'd he may sit down in sadness and bemoan himself and say in the anguish and bitterness of his spirit They are happy indeed whose Souls are awakened unto the Divine Life who are thus renew'd in the spirit of their minds but alas I am quite of another constitution and am not able to effectuate so mighty a change if outward observances could have done the business I might have hoped to acquit my self by diligence and care but since nothing but a new Nature can serve the turn what am I able to do I could bestow all my Goods in Oblations to God or Alms to the Poor but cannot command that Love and Charity without which this expence would profit me nothing This gift of God cannot be purchased with money if a man should give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned I could pine and macerate my body and undergo many hardships and troubles but I cannot get all my corruptions starved nor my affections wholly wean'd from Earthly things there is still some worldly desires lurking in my heart and those vanities that I have shut out of doors are alwayes getting in by the windowes I am many times convinced of my own meanness of the weakness of my body and the far greater weakness of my Soul but this doth rather beget indignation and discontent than true humility in my spirit and though I should come to think meanly of my self yet I cannot endure that others should think so too In a word when I reflect on my highest and most specious attainments I have reason to suspect that they are all but the effects of Nature the issues of Self-love acting under several disguises and this principle is so powerful and so deeply rooted in me that I can never hope to be delivered from the dominion of it I may toss and turn as a door on the hinges but can never get clear off or be quite unhing'd of Self which is still the center of all my motions So that all the advantage I can draw from the discovery of Religion is but to see at a huge distance that