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	spiritual_a	5,356	5	6.8798	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