Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30337
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A discourse on the memory of that rare and truely virtuous person Sir Robert Fletcher of Saltoun who died the 13 of January last, in the thirty ninth year of his age / written by a gentleman of his acquaintance.
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1665
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Wing B5778; ESTC R37517
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24,758
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193
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Lands designed and marked only in his Conceit But he choosed rather to Mantle over that which he knew by a Shadow than to pretend to that which he had not In fine rare was it to see so much Worth vailed under so much Humility Which keeped him so from the Knowledge of Others but most of all from himself Yet as the Sun beams when stopped in their even course and refracted in a Cloud do appear in that rare Contexture of Light and Shadow the Rainbow so the Vail of Humility though it a little interrupted yet it had not the force to keep up the Glancing light of that shining Soul but rather as a Shadowed Picture appeared he with advantage And as the rare endewments of his Mind did not intoxicate him so the Virtues of his Soul however valued by others were ever counted few and mean by himself For he had Perfection in his eye His Aimes Designs stooping no lower Whence the recurring defects of the daily imperfections which annoyed him in his Pilgrimage represented alwayes himself in the blackest shape disdain could set him in And there was nothing more grating to his Ears than his own praises Is there not then a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel The Soul of Man being by the Power of the Divine Spirit rescued from the bondage of Corruption is brought into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For these staining Tinctures of Passion Lust and Pride are not done of that He should continue as a whited Wall or a Fleece of Wool Nor are these Divels only cast out that the house be empty Sweeped and Garnished No we need not fear so great preparations shall end in Nothing We are uncloathed of our Filthy Garments in lieu whereof we receive Change of Raiment And the Treats of the Image of God are drawn on the Soul Thus the Mind is Transform'd by that Participation of the Divine Nature whereby it is united and knit unto God with that bond of Perfection Love which having consum'd all that fewel of Lust and Vanity which had so long smothered the Divine Life but becoming Victorious it inflameth the whole Pile and offereth it up in one Burnt-offering to God And the Soul being agitated by the Love of God shed abroad in it as by an Active Principle of Life is ever in its Desires and Meditations mounting thither where it hopes to be for ever Our Saviour compared this establishment of the Minde on God to Hungering and Thirsting Which is not caused by Reason but by Life Thus the Supream Exaltation of the Soul is in being so fixed on God that we need not be jogged up to it by Arguments but by a natural and unforced emanation of Spirit to be ever Breathing after and Panting for Communion with God This is to have our Fellowship with the Father and with the Son To place our whole Affiance and Confidence on God who through the Mediation of his Son is become Our Mercifull and Gracious Father To bestow on him the Supremacy of our Love and Affections and by uncessant Motions to be springing towards Him Thus the Soul maugre the Load of its Body that separateth it so far from Heaven will not be delayed of its Glory untill Vnbodied but will be snatching the Summer-fruits even before Harvest come Which though they be not ripened to the delectableness of Angels-food yet that Antepast of Glory will yeeld the Mind such sweet Solaces and Pleasures so Sublime and Highly Divine as will beget a Loathing of the most unmixed Delights Earth can afford For that Original sin that they be of the Earth will sufficiently discredite them The Soul having now found an Object that will both deserve and attract its more Fixed Thoughts With what silent Admiration will it be considering these Divine Adorable Excellencies wherewith the Glorious Lord God is cloathed as with a garment which will sometimes choak them to a stillnesse next to Ecstasie and at other times will burst forth in Halelujahs and Thanksgivings Could we trace the steps and Sacred Soliloquies of a Devout Spirit in those blessed retreats it makes from the Loud disturbances of the World into the Presence of Him who is its Hiding place and strong Habitation whereunto it will continually resort We should see it with delight sum up all the passages of the Power Providence and Goodnesse of God whereby it rouseth it self and all that is in it To blesse his Holy Name and to forget none of his Benefits And if the World offer it self to its View It will quickly say with S. Paul These things that before were gain to me are now become losse through Christ. Yea doubtless I count all things but losse for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Iesus Christ my Lord. Yea I will account them but dung that I may win Christ. Thus are the Meditations of God sweet unto it Neither is this only the Holy-dayes Imployment of the Soul For God doth not come to a Soul as a way-faring Man to tarry for a night But he dwelleth and abideth in it The Soul is Acted Moved and Directed by Him in all its goings And when its Station to which God hath commanded it in the world calls it from these immediate Adorations it resolves quickly to return again and leaves the Heart with God in Pawn So that however it may be busied yet all passionate fervour is blunted and quenched And it is so exactly regulated by the Divine Will into which its own is changed that it Cares Desires Joyes and Sorrows for Nothing Earthly But all the Methods and Steps of the Divine Providence are by it judged to be both Wise Good and Just as flowing from an unerring Skill an unchanged Goodnesse and a spotlesse Iustice. Therefore in Patience doth it possesse it self and with an Unreserved Submission equally welcomes as well the Ebbings as the Flowings of Earthly Satisfactions As being none of them of a nature capable of promoting or retarding that Happinesse it expects and desires from God alone Thus with open face as in a Glasse beholding the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Order of this Discourse doth call for the Applying what hath been spoken to the Glorified Saint that hath now left us In doing whereof several Instances must be disclosed which in his life were unknown to all save to his other self his Friends His Soul was even fraughted with adoring and Magnifying thoughts of his Maker His Frequent and Fervent entertaining himself with Divine Meditations did let us all know wherein he placed his Happinesse Every day many Hours of his Time were spent in the Outer Court of Heaven in those approaches to God No Company was so bewitching as to make him forget him who had inhanced all his desires and delights But when the entertainment of Friends did seem to hinder him from that Imployment yet still He either
A DISCOURSE On the Memory of that Rare and truely Virtuous Person Sir Robert Fletcher OF SALTOUN Who died the 13. of Ianuary last In the thirty ninth year of his Age. Written by a Gentleman of his Acquaintance 2 Sam. 3. 38. Know ye not there is a Prince and a Great Man fallen this day in Israel EDINBVRGH Printed by a Society of Stationers Anno Dom. 1665. TO THE READER SVch is the Force and Tyranny of Custome that Somewhat must be prefixed to the following Discourse The Occasion was told in the preceeding Page At which time Love and Regrate were bringing to the Authors Remembrance many Instances of that Excellent One his Worth and Virtue He feared least in that Croud many precious Reliques of his dear Friend might be lost He thought therefore that to digest them into a Regular Composure would be the surest course to preserve them In which attempt He had also an eye at the satisfaction of some Others but did intend nothing lesse than the Presse Else may be He would have been more Backward in it It was in hast He wrote it and you have it here with the same defects which at first dropt with it from the Authors Pen for neither his Leisure nor his Humour could well allow him a serious Review of it Only some Amendments were made by the Pen of another Yea He could heartily wish it had been guilty of greater Errours and Faults That so both It and He might have been excused from this Pennance which the Importunities of Others to whom neither the Design nor Discourse was unpleasing hath enjoyned If the Vndertaking be thought Unusual all the Answer intended for That is The Person was Extraordinary Some will may be say too Much is said of Him Well! But Others think there is too Little And I know with great Truth More might have been said Some will call it too Flaunting Others too Flat The Author knows of a Sanctuary from all Censures that is a Carelesse Indifferency May be it will find favourable Reception with some if it be not more Vnfortunate in Print than it was in Writ Sure it will not be unwelcome to those to whom that Rare Person was not Vnknown For as in the absence of the Sun these Rayes which are reflected though from the uneven and spotted surface of the Moon are not ungratefull So that shining Soul being now gone from our Horizon This Representation of Him although the Rude Essay of an unpolisht hand will not be disdained except in spight that so good a Them should be ill managed The Author will detain you no longer but leaves the Discourse to your Perusal and Himself to your Charity And so bids you Farewell A DISCOURSE On the Memory of that Rare and truely Virtuous Person Sir Robert Fletcher OF SALTOUN AS a River when cut in many Streams loseth in strength though it abound in Chanels So Mankinde becoming fruitful hath multiplied by those many productions diffusions of Humanity mean while the Vigour of the Rational Soul hath suffered great Decaies and by a daily and lasting Degeneracy is mouldred almost to nothing So that however the Face of the whole Earth be covered by Swarmes of Men Yet most of them are of that Temper that nought but their Shape doth entitle them Such Their Spirits are so emasculate their Strength and Vigour so effoeted That save a Skelete nothing of a Man shall be found amongst whole Droves of Mortals Yet in this Rable there are some Erected Souls who like Saul amongst the People are from the Shoulders upward higher than the Rest. Shall One of these engage in the search of more of his Kind long will he weary himself with fruitlesse labour ere he espy a person truely Virtuous But if He discover any such Suddenly that sight will snatch him to Admiration and anon fix him to Attention With what pleasure will He consider all the Treats of these wel-featured souls Whos 's Beautified looks will quickly conquer the hearts of all true Judges thereof Hence followeth such an Union of Noble Minds that no Force nor Craft can unty the Knot which their entangled Affections cooperating have sublimated beyond the Bond of ordinary friendship into that of Indissoluble love Whence flow the truest Joyes that Frail Mortality is capable of But while this Pair of Souls or rather One enlivning Two Bodies does grasp one another in the closest Embraces and with a Disdainfull Smile laughs at Misfortoun as not within its reach Like a Ship carried by the prosperous gales of a Favourable Wind through smoothed Waves to the desired Harbour Lo of a sudden the sturdy blasts of boisterous storms together with the swelling Billows of an inraged Sea will force those whose hopes had set them beyond danger to their Long Home amidst the Waters Thus Divine Providence not allowing us Repose while here below having reserved our Happinesse for another State when nothing can undoe that entangled Knot in a trice Deaths dividing Sword is sent to cut it The Halfed Soul finding it self fallen from its rest and Felicity into a gulf of misery will fill Heaven and Earth with the doleful resentments of its Desolation and Woe BEing now by a sad Arrest widowed of Him whose Charming Conversation hath so oft relieved and refreshed us by the delights of many a pleasant hour It is but just we pay to his Memory the Tribute of a Tear and besprinkle his Hearse with such fragrant flowers as may make Others relish that wherewith vve have been much glutted yet vvithout hazard of loathing Descend we then into a Charnel-house and in this Mournfull Vault may we see the Ruines of a Noble Fabrick which the Hands of the Great Architect had reared up But novv the Soul is dislodged the House unfurnisht and the Structure fallen to the Ground If to a searching eye there appeared in Him an unsampled glory even while He was in His travelling cloaths Sure now vvhen apparelled with the Garments of Salvation he shines with a lustre bright and orient While he sojourned here on Earth vvith us he knew his Soul was sequestred for Heavens service and hating Sacrilege too much he would not invade Gods Propriety nor bestow it on prophane uses But payed his Love and Obedience in a constant Annuity to Him whose right it was And having the stock His Soul ever in his hands to yeeld up when demanded The terme is now come and the sum payed which was so vast that it hath impoverish'd us all even to the point of being bankrupt for There is a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel A Sublime Mind joyned with a Noble Extraction doth justly entitle one Great Begin we then with the latter of the two If we consult the Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah He will tell us that in true Heraldry the noblest descent is Heavens Pedegree Each of whose off-spring resembleth the Children of a King Titles of Honour among Men are but a mean peice