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	world_n	5,455	5	4.3686	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43566	A sermon preached at Market Harborow in the county of Leicester, on the 17th day of February, 1684/85 being the day on which our Sovereign Lord James II was there proclaimed king, &c. / by Thomas Heyricke.	Heyrick, Thomas, d. 1694.	1685 (1685)	Wing H1755; ESTC R10744	14,600	41

supposed to exceed men in knowledge not so much from the purity of their essence as from their nearness to God and being continually in his presence with what submission ought we to obey the commands and directions of our Princes who are thus directed by God and how ought we to forbear censuring their Actions since our Souls are not elevated enough to know their ends and designs nor to see upon what center they turn round They have lofty conceptions that we are not capable of and the scene of things looks with one face to us that are below and with another to those above God gives them singular and extraordinary endowments that they may go in and out before his people What common mind is able to comprehend the goodness clemency and tenderness of a good King toward his people What Tongue is able to express that mercy so inherent to our Kings till it hath been almost fatal to them who can express that pity and compassion a King a true Father of his Country hath for an afflicted Nation David when he saw the Angel that smote the people cryed out Lo I have sinn'd I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thy hand be I pray thee against me and against my Fathers house 2 Sam. 24.17 When Iphigenia was to be Sacrificed the Painter drew the Spectators grief with all possible Art but when he came to her Father he drew a vaile over his head it being a grief not to be delineated in such a manner may the tenderness of a King to an afflicted people be a little shadowed out God who is all mercy fills them with mercy who is all wisdom gives them a liberal portion and directs them with his own right hand 2. By way of protection and defence the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord and who shall tear it thence in that hand that hath done so many wonders that mighty hand and out-stretched Arm he that touches him touches the apple of his eye he hides him under the shadow of his wing And though providence is interest in all things in earth as well as heaven in the concerns of a Peasant as well as of a Prince yet if in any thing it is more careful than other it is in the preservation of Princes And surely the miraculous protection both of our late Soveraign of blessed memory and this our present King from open force and private Conspiracy hath sufficiently shewed the finger of God was there So that the happiness of the King and the safety of the people is in the same hand the same arm protects them both I know there are too many men that seem to repine that the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord they would have it in their own they would prescribe rules and methods of Government and all should move according to the model laid in their own brains They that were but of yesterday would give Laws to the world and correct the ancient of days and they that know not what a day will bring forth would have the guidance of Providence for future ages and prescribe the limits in which it should move We have seen the times when men whether out of a belief that Providence wanted their helping hand and the wheels of it could not stir without their assistance or whether out of a distrust of the wisdom power justice or goodness of God is hard to determine had a design to alter the course of Nature and Succession against the Laws of God and Man and as if God did not know what was best for us so well as themselves as if Gods will was not the rule of Justice but they would call him to the Humane Bar as once his Vicegerent was served contrary to Gods revealed will they attempted such a piece of Injustice that the fairest Apology that can ever be made for it is that they would have done evil that good might come of it But it is no unusual thing when men are denyed their requests at the hands of God because they ask amiss to seek it by evil means as Saul in his despair went to the Witch of Endor 1 Sam. 28. that therefore we may not depend so much upon our selves and our own wisdom as that of God let us consider two things 1. The wisdom of God in whose hand the Kings heart is That there is an infinite wisdom that runs through the smallest causes effects and circumstances and that as the Spirit did upon the waters in the Creation Gen. 1. it doth brood upon the mighty frame and produces all those various occurrences that happen in the world will appear to any one that with a serious judgment doth consider the order of things either in Heaven Gods Throne or in Earth his Footstool 'T is writ in Heaven in glorious Characters the Sun Moon and Stars and 't is no less visible in this lower world every chive of grass sets it forth What branch of it is there that we can comprehend and what small stream of it is there that will not swallow us Heaven is not so much higher than the earth as Gods wisdom is above ours ours is not so much as a dust of the ballance or a drop to the ocean That small weak knowledge we have is conveyed to us by the sences by species and objects which being received are laid up in the brain like impresses of a Seal in wax from these we discourse argue conclude and after all our labour spent the deceitfulness both of the objects and of our sences considered and that neither any thing here below is capable of giving as true wisdom nor if it was were we capable of receiving it It appears that after all our wisdom is but elaborate folly and all our knowledge but an acquired madness and there is not one of the lowest rank of Angels but is as much superiour to us in knowledge as we are above the vilest Infect When on the contrary God knows all things by and in himself all things that were are or shall be without deceit imperfection confusion or mixture nor had this his knowledge any beginning or increase as ours but was from eternity to eternity is the cause of all things and contains all things in it self comprehends all things by one eternal immutable act of understanding and that in a moment what is our weak knowledge if compared to this got with labour and toyl by discourse reading and other helps blind and uncertain transitory and fading and at best of little use of lesser extent and least perfection But that which comes nearer to our present purpose will be the consideration of the wisdom of God in respect of the dispensations of Providence which produces great and glorious designs beyond the reach thought imaginations of men and contrary many times to their designs not unlike a skilful Architect when the Scheme of the building being contrived and modelled in his