Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	chief_a	faculty_n	good_a	38	3	2.1572	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28640	A gvide to heaven, or, Morall instrvctions compiled partly out of the maximes of Holy Fathers and partly out of the sentences of antient philosophers / written in Latin by John de Bona ; translated into English by Iames Price.; Manductio ad coelum. English. l675	Bona, Giovanni, 1609-1674.; Price, James, 17th cent.	1675 (1675)	Wing B3550; ESTC R26447	94,815	245

no wound if thou canst hold thy peace and esteem more the judgment of the vertuous then fear the insolence of those whoe calumniate thee T is no great matter what others think of thee Thou hast within thee a more just witnes of all thy actions Ask thy own conscience and beleeve what it tells thee What is more base then to regard the speeches of fools and to seek our esteem from the judgment of others Whatsoever others say thou art obliged to be good just as if gold or an Emerald should say whatsoever the world sayes I must be gold I must bee an Emerald and still keep my colour If any one should rail against a cleer fountain will it cease for this to yield a pure water and if any one should throw dirt into it will it not presently wash it out Soe thou maist still keep a quiet mind although evill Tongues speak ill of thee and calumniate thy fame He that is troubled with every little report shews that he hath no great esteem of himself Children strike their parents in the face an infant will tear his mothers hair bite her breasts scratch her cheeks and spit against her and yet we dare not say these actions are contumelies because the party that does them is not capable of contempt which alwaies supposeth a knowledge of what is done Wherefore as parents in this case are not angry with their children doe thou bear the like mind towards those who injure and calumniate thee If thou once shewest thyself to be moved with their injuries thou wilt honour the authors of them For thou shewest by this that thou wouldest be glad to be honoured and well spoken of by him from whom thou art unwilling to bear any injuries which is a mark of a low spirit and little courage Thou wilt alwaies be unhappy if thou thinkest thou canst be contemned CHAP. XII Of the inward Senses The use of opinions How we must cultivate our mind with good Thoughts Diverse instructions how to govern the sensitive faculty of the Soul 1. THe chief point of wisedome consisteth in relying upon no opinion which is contrary to nature or inconsistent with reason Wherefore thou must endeavor to arm thyself against all the motions of fancy as Logicians use to provide against all the fallacies of Sophysticall Arguments A son dyeth It was not in our power to hinder it and therefore it cannot properly be counted an Evill A Father desinherits his son and this also since it was not in our power is no evill But the son did not bear this patiently This being in our power is bad of itself He bore it patiently and with much constancy This also being in our power is good If thou considerest well these things thou wilt find much profit by it A friend is carried away to prison What then what hath hapned nothing but that he is put in prison But every man presently cryes that he is an unhappy man Correct thy opinion and all things are wll As we bind a man that is run mad that he may hurt no body soe we should correct our fancy that it may not fill our mind with false opinions It is our fancy that spoyls all it escapes from us like a wild beast and runs with all liberty here and there it is alwaies vagabond alwaies pratling impatient of rest desirous of novelties and keepeth no moderation Thy chiefest care then must be to bind govern and settle it to the end that thy thoughts and designs may not still depend on the opinion of others All that is not bred in thy own thoughts doth not concern thee 2. Examine well all that comes into thy mind that thou maist throughly know the nature propriety end circumstances profit of every action before thou doest it consider whither it concerns thee whither it be in thy power or no otherwise give it no admittance but resist it as much as thou canst God who is alwaies and intimately present to thee knows all the secrets of thy hart and there is nothing so hidden which his eye doth not reach Take heed thou dost not meditate any thing in thy mind which thou wouldest be ashamed to speak before any honest man Let thy thoughts be quiet simple pure void of all malice In a word let them be such that being suddenly asked what thou thinkest thou maist openly declare without any shame what they were Be ashamed to think what thou art ashamed to speak The way to keep out all evill thoughts is to have our mind alwaies employed in good things 3. Nothing is more hurtfull to the Soul nothing more contrary then that brutish inferior and sensitive desire It is the source of all vice and imperfections it is an enemy which thou oughtest alwaies to fear alwaies to fight against untill that thou hast made it subject unto reason as much as is possible in this life It will give thee no rest no Truce Thou wilt be forced to fight against it without end without measure because it is an adversary that hath no end no measure in attacking thee It is an enemy that is within thee or as I may say thou art thy own enemy more to be feared then if a whole army were set against thee Defend therefore thy Soul from thyself It is an act of greater generosity to attack thyself then to attack a Town to conquer thyself then to conquer others T is not that I exact of thee that thou shouldest wholly destroy thy passions inclinations but that thou wouldst learn to govern them Let reason moderate and refrain them which is all that is required of thee The Stoicks had little reason in their doctrine when they maintained that all passions were bad Our naturall faculties have nothing bad nothing superfluous He takes away all vertue who takes away all passions Where there is no combat there is no victory 4. T is true this is a hard combat the victory is doubtfull for our passions are born and grow with us and our reason follows a long time after when our passions have got the upper hand and our will being deluded under pretense of a feeming good permits itself to be wholly overswayed by them untill reason afterwards and experience gathering strength comes to know her own right of commanding and then begins to resist the Tyranny of our passions The first motions of nature are hard to overcome but thou must alwaies attend unto thyself with great watchfulnes as soon as thou perceivest thyself to be moved with any passion then presently employ thy reason to hinder the violence of it It is easier to resist them in the beginning then to govern them in their violence Thou wilt soon arrive to great tranquillity of mind if thou canst accustome thyself to foresee all occasions before they happen that so the enemy may alwaies find thee prepared against him It is too late to seek for the remedy when the danger is past In

that the Pilot should call and give sign that all things were ready to set Sail which sign given thou wouldest presently make hast to the ship Soe thou art to doe in this life Fix thy mind alwaies on God and use the things of this world so as not to tye thy hart unto them nor to suffer them to withdraw thee from thy last End which is God All the riches and creatures of this world serve thee that thou maist serve God The neglect of this necessary care of thy salvavation is the cause that thou permittest thy thougts to wander after many unnecessary Objects so that t is true to say thou adorest as many Idols as thou louest Creatures with a disordinate love These are thy Gods unto whom thou offerest sacrifice not of an Oxe or Buck but thy self thy whole salvation It is not permitted in the law of divine Love to love any thing else besides God unles it be in him and for him There can be no greater misery then to abandon the soveraign Good to place our affection on creatures 4. That which the Prince of Phisitians sayes of sick bodies the same may be said of vicious souls to wit the more they are fed the worse they are For those who intend to passe from a bad life to a better ought first to vomit up all the Poyson of their past sins before they begin to receive the solid nourishments of vertue This purgation of thy soul must be done so as not only to expiate thy past sins but also to extirpate all affection unto them to root out all thy vicious habits to master all thy disordered appetites and make them subject unto reason to subdue thy body senses particularly that of the tongue and to avoid all that may hinder thee from arriuing to the state of perfection Why dost thou fear and imagine the way that leads to eternall Felicity to be hard and difficile It lies in thy own power to make thyself happy assisted with his grace who is the beginning end of all things But thou must first goe out of thyself before thou canst come unto him and the more thou leavest thyself the nigher thou wilt come unto him 5. Wherefore thou shouldest first consider with thyself what thou desirest to enjoy and whither thou art going then examine the means thou art to use for arriving to that happy state Which done thou will easily perceive what progresse thou dost make every day Be very carefull in examining thy Conscience and taking a serious view of thyself consider what thou oughtest to be whilst thou hast time to amend It will be too late to discover the deceit when thou canst not avoid it Learn how to moderate the violence of thy passions and desires how to appease the frights and fears of thy mind Learn to contemn all earthly things and willingly forsake those things which cannot remain long in thy power Leave all things before they leave thee that soe when Death comes it may find nothing to rob thee of Let thy cheifest care be to provide for thy soul for considering it is first in dignity it is not fit it should be the last in thy care What will it avail a man to have gained the whole world if he looseth his soul in the end we cannot esteem it any profit if the soul perisheth CHAP. II. That he who desires to live well must choose a good Spirituall Directour The qualities of such a Directour and the duties of such as desire to learn Vertue 1. NOthing is more necessary for one that begins to serve God then to permit himself to be guided and instructed by a good Maister And indeed what wise man would undertake to perform a long Journey where he knows not the way without a sure Guide who would goe about to learn any difficile Art without a Teacher We shall find but very few who have advanced in perfection rendered themselves vertuous without the help of others It is an easy matter to instruct in generall terms those who are absent and also to leave in writing for those that shall come after us what is to be done But no man at a distance can tell of persuade when and how this to be done We must be present in time place to deliberate aright of that A Physitian can never prescribe by letter the just time of taking some Medicine or dyet he must be present and feel the pulse of the sick person Soe in curing the maladies of the Soul there are some things which cannot be so well expressed and declared without being present S. Paul whom God had designed to be the Apostle of the Gentils after he had bine converted by Christ himself was sent to Ananias that he might learn of him the way of Salvation Thou hast a hard task to overcome the corruptnes of thy Nature to wrestle with the euill Spirits thy invisible Enemyes and to arrive to the height of Perfection amidst so many obstacles and Impediments Wherefore thou hast need to call for help and that from one who will lend thee his hand who will shew thee the dangers and discover unto thee all the Ambushes of Satan and in fine who will teach thee how to come of with victory in all thy spirituall combats But thou wilt tell me whom shall I call to help me I answer It must be a wise and trusty man who shal be able and willing to doe all for thy spirituall Good one that shall strike respect and not fear into thee when thou meetest him one that is more ready to teach thee how to rise and amend after thy fall then to cry out against thee when thou fallest one who gives more Edification by his vertuous life then by his eloquent words He is little fit to govern who commands others to doe well but doth no good himself 2. Choose such a Helper or Director who flatters no body who doth not haunt much company who doth not goe to great banquets nor intrude himself into the houses of great persons choose one if possible who hath the spirit of discretion and can discern betwixt vertue and vice betwixt good and bad as a skillfull Goldsmith discerneth betwixt true and false money who like a shilfull Phisitian can judge of all thy spirituall diseases prescribe fit remedies to every one of them Choose one that shall be free from all interest and seeketh nothing but thy spirituall profit One that shall instruct thee in the spirit of mildnes and charity one that shall tell thee of thy faults one that shall be able to discover and teach thee how to ouercome all the subtileties stratagems of thy spirituall enemy the Devill one in whom thou maist have a particular confidence unto whom thou maist have no difficulty to reveal thy most hidden thoughts If thou canst find such an one thou are happy is this world 3. Speak frequently unto him of thy spirituall affairs let him

forgiving no man Yet when thou art forced through justice to punish Criminels be not wholly unmindfull of mildnes and Clemency When thou punishest the guilty doe it as if thou wert forced to it against thy will and inclination and carry thyself towards those who offend the Laws as God beareth with thee As he beareth with thee in hope of making thee better soe thou oughtest to bear sometimes with others that they may grow better Thou hast no confidence in the Phisitian when thou despairest of the sick mans recovery But we ought to have more hope of his recovery by how much the Phisitian is more skillfull and obliging A man that is mild appears as a Rock above all the waves and storms of Anger and breaks all the force of the Tempest He is more contented to see the sinner repent then punished Our B. Saviour cryes unto all human kind Come all and learn of me not how to cure the sick and give health to Leapers not how to restore sight to the blind or raise up the dead But what Learn saith he of me because I am mild He seems to have included all the Treasures of wisedome and science in this one point to wit that we are to learn of him how to be mild Such is the excellency of this Vertue 2. As mildnes is a vertue that moderates Anger so clemency is a vertue which moderates the severity of punishment The first belongs unto all men the second unto Princes only and Superiours The nature and property of it is to inflict a lesser punishment then the Laws require not out of fear interest friendship or other motive but through a pure motive of mildnes He that is armed with this vertue will have no need to build castles fortresses upon steep Rocks a Prince that is clement is secure without all fortifications Clemency is the only invincible strength which secureth Governments An evill Prince is hated because he is feared and he desires nothing more then to be feared because he knows he is hated All subjects hate those whom they fear consequently wish the death of such as they hate He that contemns his own life is said to be master of his Princes life T is in vain for a King to think to secure himself by his power if he wants the good will of his people It is as great a disgrace for a Prince to punish many as it is for a Phisitian to be the cause of many funerals If a King is slow in making use of his power to revenge if he contemns thinks himself above all injuries and affronts if he sacrifices some offenders to the anger of others and none to his own he shews himself a true King It is the nature and property of a gallant spirit to be ever mild and quiet CHAP. XXXIII Of Modesty The properties of studiosity Of the rule use of Eutrapelia 1. MOdesty is a geat ornament to all other vertues and good qualities It is the true form of honesty and bridle of vice Although thou speakest nothing yet thy habit and gestures shew what thou art We may judge of vertue by small signs We often see what a man is by his countenance laughing gate and turning of his eyes Live soe that all may know thou belongest to the society of Angels Observe a constant decorum in all the motions of thy body in all thy gestures speech and looks that thou maist not seem rude or effeminate in any thing True modesty doth not only reside in the mind but appears also in an outward gravity of the body as if the soul took pleasure in seeing the exteriour conform itself to the interiour A modest man is a living picture of the Deity for his only sight is enough to strike gravity into those who behold him And who can expresse what an excellent thing it is to doe good unto our neighbours by being seen only It belongs also unto modesty not to exceed thy state and condition in thy cloaths household-stuffe and multitude of Servants These are impediments of thy mind which doe not adorn thee but the things that are without thee Why therefore dost thou rejoyce in thy unhappines Why dost thou admire vain things and makest glory in things which doe thee more hurt then good This great Trayn of servants which are alwaies about thee may be rather called a troop of Enemies whom thou canst never fear enough They are still more ready to observe what thou dost then to hear what thou commandest Nothing is more humble then their entrance into thy service nothing more insolent then their progresse or comportment in it and nothing more full of hatred then their going from thee 2. Studiosity hath two properties the one is to know how to govern and moderate the desire of knowing which most commonly is greater then it should be the other is to shake of all idlenes and to stir up out industry to learn those things which are necessary Nature hath given man a wit naturally enclined to Curiosity and conscious of her own beauty skill hath made us spectatours of all her excellent works and would esteem all her labour lost if so many great and excellent things lay hid and were seen by none but herself But we abuse the goodnes of nature searching with too much curiosity into those things which were better unknown He is not to be counted wise or learned who knows much but who knows what is to the purpose We should first learn those things which concern our Salvation But I doe not dissuade thee from reading other things provided thou referrest all things to good manners and to make thyself better Take heed that too much reading of too many books doth not discover a fickle unconstant spirit Thou must fixe thy study upon a certain number of good and choyce books if thou desirest to learn any thing that may remain in thy mind There is more pleasure in reading severall sorts of books but more profit in reading few choyce ones 3. It is necessary to let our mind rest sometimes and to recreate it after much labour for no study can last long without some intermission The antient Law-givers designed certain dayes wherein the people might meet together to be merry and recreate their spirits There are severall sorts of actions which may divert and recreate the mind As for example to walk in some open and pleasant place where the mind may be free to contemplate and the body grow more vigorous with enjoying fresh ayr to goe and passe some time in the countrey free from all the tumults of the City Thou maist also divert thyself in hawking hunting fishing and the like innocent recreations supposing they are not misbecoming thy state and condition thou maist likewise apply thyself to some mild and recreative Study hear or play upon some Musicall Instrument use some innocent play converse merrily and jeast with thy friends but with this caution that thou dost not