Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	death_n	life_n	power_n	7,316	5	4.8859	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74649	An entertainment of solitarinesse or, the melting of the soule, by meditations, and the pouring of it out by prayers. By Sir Richard Tempest, knight and baronet.	Tempest, Richard, Sir, 1619 or 20-1662.	1649 (1649)	Wing T625; Thomason E1410_1; ESTC R209519	28,217	157

griefes the constant attendants of my life and yet looke sadly and mournfully upon the Grave my corruption belonging to the maintaining of the order of the Universe where at my next rising much gayer clad then before I shall awake to immortalitie and endlesse joy with the eye of Reason I can looke through the glory of the world and behold Vanitie and Oblivion with the eye of Faith I can look through Oblivion and Corruption it selfe and behold Glory and Eternitie Now I finde how many things doe not that are esteemed in popular judgements to make one happy how little they contribute towards it to me alone till I be mixt with those people and take pleasure in those Opinions We entertaine with true and reall passions the Scenicall compositions of the Stage there being in mans life Playes not acted but lived solemne fictions not feigned but beleeved Men now acknowledge their own Natures whom Precept had taught to regulate themselves all day and familiarly owne the impressions Nature hath charactered on them Now doth the ever-running streames of Gods favours which run over our hard and stonie hearts speak louder to us not drowned with the noyse of worldly thoughts If the Sunne hath gone downe in the clouds of our envie and malice it presages future stormes of passions to our life And now Lord I will seeke him in my Bed whom my Soule loves Let me finde thee in the rest thou givest my Soule from Sinne and Vanity in the sleep thou givest my affections they being all quietly reposed in thee and thus I rest on thee more than on where I lye The Arraignment of the Heart I Thought I had so well surveyed this little piece of Earth that I had knowne every turning and winding in it but since I had a holy purpose betray'd to some easie temptation I suspected that there was something yet undiscovered Whereupon calling my Travell Studie and Observation thither I found a strange Labyrinth which the thred of my Reason was too short to unwinde me out of I found it so incircled with the Serpentine windings of Sinne so incompassed with those flexuous imbraces that I perceived Vanitie entring under the conduct of its adversarie apt to glory in the contempt of Glory and grow proud in the lowest debasing my selfe and upon demand of Reason for any good it would informe me That it owed its originall to some secret passion which would untitle it againe There is nothing but darkenesse and wandrings here so that I perceive O Lord I was more secure than safe since I lodged here such deceitfull guests that answered at the light knock of every idle passion I desired to have discovered my heart to thee but found it first necessarie that thou shouldst discover it to me where was such a wildernesse of Passions such rocks of Pride such Maeanders of Deceits and perplext paths of contradictorie motions that it mockt my past endevours and taught me to know that other things might be in the light to me yet I in darknesse to my selfe And since thy sacred Spirit hath dictated to me that it is desperately wicked and inscrutable I arraigne it before thy Throne as that corrupt Fountaine whence hath flowed those bitter streames of Vanitie which hath overflowed my life and here where my naturall life first begins my spirituall death first arises I begge of thee my God another Creation first of a cleane heart and that then thy sacred Spirit would move upon the face of these waters and forme this Chaos into that beautie and order where thou wouldst have thy own Power and Wisdome manifested breathe forth thy heavenly Light into my Soule and to the considerations of my heart cause a distinction betweene the Night of Sinne to be feared and the Light of Truth to be desired make a separation in me betwixt heavenly and earthly thoughts let the other be superior and predominant over these dispose all here into forme and fruitfulnesse plant the flowers of vertue which being fed with the Manna-drops of thy Grace they may communicate their gratefull properties of colour and odour to others Cause the Lights thou hast set in my little World to shine clearer that every of them may have their severall and proper influences upon the course of my life When the Sunne of thy Word shines out let all other Lights be obscured however let that thy other Light of Reason rule the darker part of my life let the lesser Lights of Opinion whose motions though they be erratique yet doe operate upon our actions keepe such place and distance that they hinder not the generall harmonie of the Fabrick That part which denominates my Species make new in me that part formed after thy owne Image and give it command over the beasts of the field that Reason may subdue the wildnesse of my affections And now Lord let all the motions of this Piece turne upon the poles of thy Commands let it be centred in the obedience to thy will that there it may finde a constant Sabbath and Rest This is the regeneration of this lesser World element it Lord with the fire of thy heavenly love surround it with the holy breathings of thy blessed Spirit Let constancie and solid fixnesse be in my wayes let the current of all my thoughts emptie themselves into the Ocean of the infinitie of thy goodnesse and glory And yet Lord this World could not stand a moment if thou didst not behold it through thy Son It s the desire of my heart to entertaine thee as thou art the author of that desire be thou also the granter of it I know a heart being fill'd with any thing denyes accesse to another I am full of my selfe grant me to denie my selfe to be emptied of my selfe for here it is that the pleasures and trifles of the World hold intelligence and correspondence in themselves not so forcible but as they flatter my understanding or affection with apt pretences When Perseus in his Expedition was to kill the Serpent he had a Looking-Glasse given him wherein he was to behold the Serpent as he should strike at him and not to looke upon it selfe and we shall kill the Serpents of outward temptations if we looke at their figures presented in the Glasse of our thoughts and there destroy them in their images received in our hearts Lord doe thou possesse my heart that it may possesse thee that it may receive thee receive it thou art within all things not included let me finde thy infinite Power in the extension of thy Mercie and not in thy Justice let me put off my selfe my selfe is my wayes my customes affections thy promise is for protecting us in thy wayes When I seeke to have my own image represented back again to me more beautifull from the Glasse of popular Opinions courting Fame or Applause when I for feare or flatterie neglect to doe my dutie to thee my God or man then am I in my owne wayes seeking Death in the

content imagining that he still enjoyes those things which commonly so swells mens mindes that they cannot with that evennesse of judgment taste those purer pleasures which arise from the observation of Nature making as it were his Disease his Cure the immoderate esteeme of the other having so vitiated his pallat that he can rellish nothing else though it be by the proxie of the fancie Lord give mee Iacobs Dreames that my very imaginations may represent things as Ladders whereon I may see thy Goodnesse Wisdome and Power descending our Allelujahs ascending Considerations on these Times ALL this goodly Fabrick is broke up The mischiefes of a Civill Warre and disbanded the Elements of it rudely blended and hurld together that which was high becomming low and that which was low becomming high The towring Eagle is shot by an Arrow made of the same Tree where he had built his Imperiall Nest and in that Red Sea of Bloud with which Pride and Faction hath overflowed this Island is the Sunne of Justice and Religion almost set men growing onely politick in Ruine and wittie in Destruction the best meanes applyed to the worst ends the vigour and strength of the Commonwealth consumed on a Disease A Civill Warre once but named what evills throng not into our conquered imaginations How doth our unhappie Country feast the eyes of their enemies with the numerous funeralls of its owne Children What cruell Opinions are entertained residing as Tygers in the brests of men to which must be offred the Victimes and Sacrifices of their dearest Countreymen What monsters of new Faiths lodge in their brests that thus devoure and prey upon the tender Virgins I meane the ancient integritie and candor of their dispositions How doe they dabble in one anothers bloud searching one anothers bowels as if like poysonous Scorpions they should be bruised to yeeld an oyle to cure the poyson given by their owne stings Of 〈◊〉 Warre A forraine Warre is like Lightnings in the Skie which purifies and cleanses those upper Regions but then Nature keepes its station whereas if the Elements themselves of which this World consists should make a Warre together that must needs bring a dissolution If men saw no reason for it it s enjoyned their beliefes That a House divided cannot stand Oh miserable Triumph of our Ruine Oh wofull Pompe of our Destruction How all things weare the Liverie of Mourning There may you discerne Justice in its sable Weedes so farre gone in Melancholy scarce ever to be seene abroad here Religion in a corner weeping grieved to see that they have so long like Whifflers kept the Doore of the Church against the comming in of strangers till all the Church is become full of strange Opinions and that they never more take care to appeare honest and good men than when most especially they intend to deceive in another place the Lawes wildly running about and lamenting yet so lowd that all take notice of it And now as in Orpheus Theatre upon the ceasing of this Musick of the Laws men returne to their frenzies and factions Men consult not with reason but with partio● they doe not debate examine and resolve but follow adhere and combine Sequere post me is the Motto of the Times every one taking notice of the Signe where he hath taken up his Lodging ranging themselves in severall Boxes which beare some outward Badge of the Faction The peoples minds with the fire of Zeale and the heat of these Troubles being become fluid and melted are cast in the severall Moulds that wittie Contrivers had fashioned The vulgar spirits which make up the multitude to preserve their beloved Chattels are prepared to side with parties since that begets support and countenance and that he should be a prey to both without being a partie to one Thus every thing is imbraced to which Ambition armed with Power can make its way Quisque deliberat de partibus de summa nemo The wisdome of later times consisted in wittie diversions of these Troubles The wisdome of later times to divert troubles saith Bacon whereby the many evills threatning the Common-wealth were clearely shun'd An example whereof wee finde in former times in the people of Capua who being resolved to have their Governours no longer to rule over them one who being well thought of by the people and intending to oblige the Senatours used thus his power he had with them he tells the Senatours if they would follow his advice he would save them whereupon they consented all to be lockt up in a roome and thither he brings the people pretending he had got them into that posture to sacrifice them all to their furies for the people will ever be deceived but he desired of them before they proceeded to execution they would chuse from among themselves who should have the others places They divided by their particular affections and severall judgements were brought to put in practice the punishment they intended the others upon themselves falling into so great difference and contentions To prevent which they all cry'd to have the former Senatours released and restored Though the care of former times did keepe this humour low yet The miserie of this to buckle with them like originall sinne it was alwayes sprouting into action If in the naturall body any malignant humour be predominant it presently confounds that harmonie of health which consists in an equall and just temperature of the humours so in the civill Body if those that are lovers of the Common-wealth grow inferiour in number to those affecting change it s like the healthfull temperature disordered by a prevailing noxious humour it s the miserie of these present times to encounter with this obstinate Masse of the matter What evills happen through the remedie is like sicknesse occasioned by Physick and yet many times Potions are entertained with worse faces than a Consumption● And such is the nature of some Sicknesse to flatter the partie into the opinion that it is his onely delight and so subtilly mingles it selfe with their blouds that the other purple streames of Nature seeme to usurpe their azure channels There be in all things circumstances and outward accidents which mock the Polititians Counsels which are governed by the highest Providence and like the Kingdome of Heaven comes not by observation yet here we may view the parties upon the Stage and see how the Sceane is layd The Presbyterian shewes you out of the Word a Government of the Church which is Christs own Kingdome which ought to be superiour to all other Powers and Jurisdictions and saith its lawfull by Armes to impose it upon the Magistrate in case he refuse his practice hath seconded his Opinion The Independent growes angry at it that any restraint of the Spirit should be used and saith its libertie of Conscience hee can prove it out of the Bible it s that he hath fought for and will have The Cavalier admonishes every man to returne to the