Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	estate_n	young_a	youth_n	20	3	7.5437	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34663	A brief exposition of the whole book of Canticles, or Song of Solomon lively describing the estate of the church in all the ages thereof, both Jewish and Christian, to this day ... / written by that learned and godly divine, John Cotton ...	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.	1642 (1642)	Wing C6410; ESTC R20552	96,952	268

deepe waters and calamities as of his greatest deliverances And the holy ghost saith Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes And though singing be chiefly fit and requisite in mirth yet wee should be fit also for a Psalme in our affliction But we commonly in our ill howers are too sullen to sing and in our merry moods our spirits vanish away in carnall mirth and jolity but whatsoever the estate of the Church be we should have our spirits as ready to sing as to pray Use 3 Thirdly is reproved that ancient law and custome of the Synagogue which prohibited young men under thirtie yeares of age the reading and use of this booke but what age fitter for songs then cheerfull youth And further the amorousnesse of the dittie will not stirre up wantonesse in any age if the words be well understood but rather by inflaming with heavenly love will draw out and burne up all earthly and carnall lust and even as fire in the hand is drawne out by holding it to a stronger fire or as the light and heat of the Sunne extinguisheth a kitchin fire so doth heavenly love to Christ extinguish base kitchin lusts A Song of Songs That is a most excellent Song the chiefest of Songs as when they would expresse the holy place they say The holy of holiest The Lord of lords the King of kings the Servant of servants an Hebrew superlative so this is the chiefest Song first of all Solomons other Songs even of his thousand and five Secondly of all Songs without exception for though David was in his time the sweet singer of Israel yet as Solomons throne exceeded his in all other magnificence so did his name exceed his also yet this is no disparagement to the other Songs so neither that some of Davids Psalmes should bee stiled golden Psalmes All purified gold yet some gold wrought more exquisitely then others and finer engraven then others even some portion of the pure and holy word of God more exquisitely penned and polished then other The first Reason why this Song is more excellent then others is because this Song speaketh not onely of the chiefest matter to wit Christ and his Church but also more largely then any of Davids Psalmes and with more store of more sweet and precious exquisite and amiable Resemblances taken from the richest Jewels the sweetest Spices Gardens Orchards Vineyards Wine-cellars and the chiefest beauties of all the workes of God and Man Secondly this Song admitteth more varietie of interpretation then any other and also of singular use some have applied it to expresse the mutuall affection and fellowship betweene Christ and every Christian soule some between Christ and the Catholick Church some to particular Churches from Solomons time to the last judgement And there is an holy and usefull truth in each one of these interpretations but the last doth exceedingly magnifie the wonderfull excellency of this Song making it a divine abridgement of the Acts and Monuments of the Church And that this booke was chiefly penned to bee such an historicall prophecie or propheticall history may appeare First by the Correspondency or sutablenesse of the words of this Song to the events of each age Secondly by the Repetition of the same description and other occurrences in divers parts of this Song which would be a needlesse tautologie if it were spoken of the same persons in the same time as you may see if you compare Chap. 4. 2. with 6. 6. and 2. 7. with 3. 5. and 8. 4. 3. 6. with 8. 5. Reason 3 Thirdly by the diversities of descriptions of some persons which would intimate and imply a contradiction if they were not spoken of severall times and severall persons Reason 4 Fourthly by the sudden admiration of some new persons and occurrences Use 1 First wee may here see the eldest sonne of Wisedome giveth the double portion of excellency to this Song above all others yea since the Holy Ghost giveth it it is not therefore onely Canonicall Scripture but an eminent portion of it It were profane blasphemie to preferre this Song above other Songs of holy Scripture if it were not also given by divine inspiration as well as they to preferre the invention of Man before the wisedome of God were sacrilegious madnesse And although none of Gods ten proper names in Hebrew be once mentioned in this Song yet that impeacheth not the authority of this booke more then it doth of Hester where no name of God is mentioned at all Besides this booke is full of such names of God as sute more with the arguments as Welbeloved Brother Shepheard O thou whom my soule loveth the chiefest of ten thousand Use 2 Secondly this must exhort us to a more studious reading and meditating of this booke as of a most excellent portion of holy Writ Use 3 Thirdly this shewes us that as this Scripture is Canonicall so the Pen-man of it is a Canonicall Saint in Heaven for hee must needs be so according to that not of Peters successor as the Papists would have it but of S. Peter himselfe Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost so that hee must needs be a Saint by S. Peters confession and not he onely but Christ himselfe saith All the Prophets are in the kingdome of God Now all the Prophets came not neere this Prophet and there was no Scripture but it was penned by a Propheticall and Apostolicall spirit and though Solomon did fall yet If he commit Iniquitie I will chasten him with the rod of Men c. verse 15. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul If some say By this it was meant that God would not take away his kingdome to this it is answered he did take it away but hee would not deale with him as he dealt with Saul so then this telleth us Solomon is a Saint in Heaven Which is Solomons Solomon the penner of it but a wiser then Solomon indited it The Holy Ghost maketh choice of his Instruments according to the use he had to put them to to set forth the estate of his Church by the choycest treasures of nature Hee useth Solomons spirit which was as large as the sand of the Sea shore And as God led Moses to the top of mount Pisgah to behold all the places and situations of Israel So he lifted up Solomons spirit to the mountaine of Activitie that I may so speake where onely all times to come are present to behold the estate of the Church throughout the present and all after ages This is to teach us as it was said before that Solomon is a canonized Saint else hee had not beene a Pen-man of Canonicall Scripture canonized not by Peters pretended successors who have shamefully erred in this kinde but by Peter himselfe yea by a greater then Peter or Solomon even Christ Jesus That

After the Church gathered by the Ministry of the Apostles next followeth that under the ten persecution which is here described First by her restraint verse 13. Secondly by her privacy verse 14. Thirdly by her fruitfulnesse refreshing and watering others verse 15. Fourthly by her prayer in this estate wherein consider 1. The Petitions which are three First for the arising of the winde and coming into the South verse 16. Secondly for favourable blasts of it and that for this end the flowing forth of her spices Thirdly that Christ would come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits verse 16. 2. Christs answer thereunto First he commeth into his garden Secondly he gathereth and enjoyeth the fruits of it Thirdly he fils his Churches friends with a large measure of plenty Chap. 5. 1. A garden The Church is here so called as verse 13. an orchard or as it is in the originall a Paradise as if this were the garden of Eden All the world is as a wildernesse or at least a wilde field onely the Church is Gods garden or orchard in these three respects First as the garden of Paradise was the habitation of Adam in the estate of innocency so is the Church of all those who are renewed into innocency Secondly as in that garden were all manner of pleasant and wholesome hearbs and trees growing so in the Church are all manner of usefull and savoury spirits Thirdly as a man walketh in his garden to refresh himselfe so doth Christ walke in his Church yea and calleth his friends thither to walke with him A spring a fountaine Not Because the Church is the fountaine of grace but because Christ being in it it is the spring or fountaine of the waters of life unto all A garden spring fountaine inclosed shut up sealed Not by a pale or wall of defence by Christian Magistrates but rather shut up by restraint for the word signifies to inclose or shut up as with lockes and fetters Againe the Church prayeth for the inlargement of the flowing of her spices verse 16. and therefore her present shutting up was uncomfortable to her The Church was then said to be shut up First because under the persecutions it was shut up in prisons and other places of punishment as under lockes and fetters Secondly because the Church then assembled in private close places woods dens c. and not in the open places of townes or cities Thirdly because it was shut up from free accesse of forrainers men without neither were the Emperours willing their Subjects should repaire to them nor the Church willing to admit all promiscuously Thy plants That is thy children or members as an orchard of Pomegranates Camphire verse 14. Spikenard Safron Calamus Cynamon The children of the Church are compared to these wholesome and sweet fruits trees hearbs in a double respect First because the vertues of these fruits and spices are especially seen when they are cut and powred out or beaten or burned or bruised So it is with the graces of Gods children they are chiefly exercised by the hard dealing of persecutors Secondly there was in the faithfull then persecuted a resemblance of the vertues of these fruits and spices Pomegranates represse and restraine the heat of Choler the malignity of fevers the loosenesse of the belly they also comfort the stomacke and bowels and prevent faintings and swoonings Camphire with his sweetnesse of smell delighteth and strengthneth the Spirits cheereth up the minde helpes the stone restraines ulcers Spikenard stayeth distillations from the head strengthneth the stomacke digesteth cold humours helpeth conception Safron thinneth flegme helpes lethargies coughs and plurifies furthereth digestion comforteth the heart redresses the rottennesse of the other parts which also are strengthned Calamus helpes the passages of the urine and the faults of the reines helpeth also the wombe and conception Cynamon strengthneth and cheereth the spirits and minde dryeth up rotten matter helpeth against poyson warneth and strengthneth the stomacke to digestion Frankincese restraineth and helpeth ulcers gouts fluxes of bloud cleanseth and glueth up wounds and ulcers Myrrh refresheth the braine drieth up superfluous humors helpeth straightnesse of breath restraineth ulcers and itchinesse filleth ulcers and wounds with flesh Aloes cleanse tough flegme and choller drie up raw and cold humours preserve the rest from putrefying open obstructions strengthen the stomacke strongly Sutable to the vertues of these fruits and spices persecution bred and stirred up in the faithfull graces of like efficacy to restraine heats of emulation contention ambition to represse ulcers of malignity and dis-affection one to another to heale the coldnesse hypocrisie and rottennesse of their spirits to stay distillations of cold raw matters dropping from the head Bishops of Rome as also to strengthen appetite to the word to comfort the faint hearted to knit the members together A fountaine of gardens c. For the Church pouring out her confessions and martyrdomes for the truth propagated and watered many Churches for sanguis martyrum was semen Ecclesiae a Well of living waters The Church was not then dryed up but plentifully stored with the graces of the spirit Streames from Lebanon The Churches were stored with such graces of the Spirit as streamed and issued out from the mountains of Israel the writings of the Prophets and Apostles Awake or arise O Northwind c. The Churches desire that a winde might arise in the North and come into the South to wit that Constantine borne in Yorke would come into the southerne parts and take the Empire upon him and blow upon my garden driving away the blasts of Easterly persecutions and breath favourably and wholesomly upon the Church cooling the tempestuous heats of the persecutions which the Church endured The Church prayeth not the South to come but the North to come into the South else First the word blow if it had reference to both windes should have beene of the plurall number Secondly Northwinde and South-winde blowing together would interrupt and crosse one another by their contrariety That the spices thereof may flow forth That the Gospell and ordinances of Christ and the graces of his children which were there restrained from their free manifestation by the persecutions might have free passage Let my beloved come into his garden and eat of his pleasants fruits Le Constantine come to them and partake of the benefits of the Churches serviceable graces to God and him THE CANTICLES OR SONG OF SONGS opened and explained THE TEXT CHAP. 5. I Am come into my garden my sister my spouse I have gathered my Myrrhe with my spice I have eaten my honey-combe with my honey I have drunke my wine with my milke eate O friends drinke yea drinke abundantly O beloved verse 2 I sleepe but my heart waketh it is the voyce of my beloved that knocketh saying Open to mee my sister my love my dove my undefiled for