Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	earth_n	heaven_n	holy_a	7,009	5	4.7805	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89326	The soules own evidence, for its own immortality. In a very pleasant and learned discourse, selected out of that excellent treatise entituled, The trunesse of Christian religion, against atheists, epicures, &c. / First compiled in French by famous Phillip Mornay, Lord of Plessie Marlie, afterward turned into English by eloquent Sir Phillip Sydney, and his assistant, Master Arthur Golden, anno Domini M D LXXX VII. And now re-published. By John Bachiler Master of Arts, somtimes of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge. Published according to order.; De la verité de la religion chrestienne. English	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586.; Golding, Arthur, 1536-1606.; Batchiler, John, ca. 1615-1674.	1646 (1646)	Wing M2802; Thomason E324_3	62,858	73

the immortall spirit of our soule move and rule our frail body Hereunto consent all the writers of his time as Ovid Virgill and others whose verses are in every mans remembrance There wanted yet the wight that should all other wights exceed In lofty reach of stately minde who like a Lord indeed Should over all the res'due reign Then shortly came forth man Whom either he that made the World and all things else began Created out of seed divine or else the earth yet young And lately parted from the Skie the seede thereof uncloong Reteyned still in fruitfull wombe which Japets sonne did take And tempering it with water pure a wight thereof did make Which should resemble even the Gods which soverein state doe hold And where all other things the ground with groveling eye behold He gave to man a stately look and full of Majesty Commanding him with stedfast looke to face the starry skie Here a man might bring in almost all Senecaes writings but I will content my selfe with a few sayings of his Our Soules sayth he are a part of Gods Spirit and sparkes of holy things shineing upon the earth They come from another place then this low one Whereas they seeme to be conversant in the bodie yet is the better part of them in heaven alway neere unto him which sent them hither And how is it possible that they should be from beneath or f●om anywhere else than from above seeing they overpasse all these lower things as nothing and hold scorn of all that ever we can hope or feare Thus ye see how he teacheth that our souls come into our bodies from above But whether go they againe when they depart hence Let us here him what he sayes of the Lady Martiaes Sonne that was dead He is now everlasting sayth he and in the best state bereft of this earthly baggage which was none of his and set free to himselfe For these bones these sinewes this coate of skin this face and these serviceable hands are but fetters and prisons of the soule By them the soule is overwhelmed beaten downe and chased away It hath not a greater battell than with that masse of flesh For fear of being torn in peeces it laboureth to return from whence it came where it hath readie for it an happie and everlasting rest And again This soule cannot be made an Outlaw for it is a kin to the Gods equall to the whole world and to all time and the thought or conceit thereof goeth about the whole Heaven extending it selfe from the beginning of all time to the uttermost point of that which is to come The wretched course being the Iayle and fetters of the soule is tossed to and fro Upon that are torments murthers and diseases executed As for the soule it is holy and everlasting and cannot be layd hand on When it is out of this body it is at libertie and set free from all bondage and is conversant in that beautifull place wheresoever it be which receiveth mens soules into the blessed rest thereof as soone as they be delivered from hence To be short he seemeth to pricke very nere to the rising againe of the dead For in a certain Epistle to Lucillus his words are these Death whereof we be so much afraid doth not bereve us of life but only discontinew it for a time and a day will come that shall bring us to light againe This may suffice to give us knowledge of the opinion of that great personage in whom we see that the more he grew in age the nerer he came still to the true birth For in his latest bookes he treateth alwaies both more assuredly and more evidently thereof Also the saying of Phavorinus is notable There is nothing great in earth sayth he but Man and nothing great in Man but his soule if thou mount up thether thou mountest above Heaven And if thou stoope downe againe to the bodie and compare it with the Heaven it is lesse than a Fly or rather a thing of nothing At one word this is as much to say as that in this clod of clay there dwelleth a divine and uncorruptible nature for how could it els bee greater than the whole world As touching the Nations of old time we reade of them all that they had certain Religions and divine Services so as they beleeved that there is a Hell and certain fieldes which they call the Elysian fields as we see in the Poets Pindarus Diphilus Sophocles Euripides and others The more superstitious that they were the more sufficiently doe they witnesse unto us what was in their Conscience For true Religion and Superstition have both one ground namely the soule of man and there could be no Religion at all if the soule lived not when it is gone hence We read of the Indians that they burned themselves afore they came to extreme oldage terming it the letting of men loose and the freeing of the soule from the bodie and the sooner that a man did it the wiser was he esteemed Which custome is observed still at this day among the people that dwell by the River Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Affricke who offer themselves willingly to be buryed quicke with their Masters All the demonstrations of Logicke and Mathematicke sayth Zeno have not so much force to prove the immortalitie of the soule as this only doing of theirs hath Also great Alexander having taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers whom they call Gimnosophists asked of one of them to try their wisedome whether there were moe men alive or dead The Philosopher answered that there were more alive Because sayd he there are none dead Ye may well think they gave a dry mocke to all the arguments of Aristotle and Callisthenes which with all their Philosophie had taught their scholer Alexander so evill Of the Thracians we reade that they sorrowed at the brith of men and reioyced at the death of them yea even of their owne childen And that was because they thought that which we call death not to be a death in deede but rather a very happie birth And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to have been called the Neverdying Getes and whom the Greekes called the Neverdying Getes or Thracians Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie that is to say after the interpretation of the Getish or Gotish tongue to him that gave them health saluation or welfare and gathered them together The like is sayd of the Galles chiefly of the inhabiters about Marsilles and of their Druydes of the Hetruscians and their Bishops and of the Scythians and their Sages of whom all the learning and wisedome was grounded upon this poynt For looke how men did spread abroad so also did this doctrine which is so deeply printed in man that he cannot but carie it continually with him Which thing is