Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	soul_n	word_n	7,065	5	4.2672	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61398	The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a calling in general : and directions for the right managing of the tradesman's calling in particular / by Richard Steele ...	Steele, Richard, 1629-1692.	1684 (1684)	Wing S5394; ESTC R20926	138,138	256

the Tradesman's the Well-being of Man's Life The Substance and first Principles of our Food and Rayment are conveyed to us by the Care and Labour of the Husbandman the Tradesman moulds and fits them for our immediate Use and Service 4. Some again are imployed for Man's Delight and Convenience as Musick and divers other Arts wherein also several Trades have some Concern 5. Some Callings there are again which are conversant about the Defence of Mens Bodies and Estates such as Souldiers and all those Imployments that relate to Military Affairs And lastly some are imployed for the Publick Peace and Safety of Mankind as Princes and Magistrates of all kinds and degrees whose Calling also is of God for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. And here let us make a stand and behold 1. The Folly of Man in reference to what hath been said 1. Of those that mind neither their Spiritual nor Temporal Callings As for their general Christian Calling they were born and bred in it it is true and so do profess it and if they had received their Birth and Education under Paganism or Mahumetanism they had yielded up themselves to those Religions For as they have never searched into the Foundations and Reasons of Christianity so they never study nor set themselves to the Practice of the great Duties of it but their whole business is to please their Appetite and to promote their Interest in this World and do wholly neglect the World to come A lively Faith sound Repentance constant Holiness Self-denial and undissembled Love to God and Man they are Strangers unto and some of them for Temperance Justice Patience Friendship might go to School to Heathens and have only to support them a Form of Godliness but in the mean while they deny the Power thereof And the same Persons are equally mindful of any Temporal Calling that is they no way promote the Good of Mankind they have Parts but improve no Science with them have Strength and Health but use no Art or Faculty Talents but hide them in a Napkin O how will these give account to the Judg of Quick and Dead Do ye think that he will never reckon with you because he delays his coming Or that he will be put off with the Story of your Extraction or Education You have Abilities to ridicule Religion and to do Mischief you have Strength enough to drink to hunt to whore ye are only wise to do Evil but to do Good ye have no Knowledg Wo to you if ye reform not ye have a long Arrear and he that is gracious and merciful and slow to Anger yet by no means will clear the Guilty And therefore bethink your selves grant your selves but Leisure to consider what ye have done for God what for Mankind and what for your own Souls and upon a serious Reflection you will find that ye have been all this while asleep in a pleasant foolish Dream and that it is high time to awake to Action and Imployment who knows but that you may receive your Penny tho you come into the Vineyard at the eleventh Hour 2. Their Folly is here taxed that neglect either of their Callings Perhaps they are very diligent in Reading and Hearing in Prayer and Fasting and do run from one Sermon to another all the Week long but do nothing in any Particular Calling they serve God but serve not their Generation by the Will of God as David did Acts 13. 36. and as they ought to do But these People live as if they were all Soul and no Body or as if they were born only for themselves and for no body else And if some of their Ancestors had taken no more care of them than they do for Posterity they must have fasted out of necessity instead of fasting out of choice Against such as these holy Augustin wrote a whole Book of old who are but a sort of Secular Monks and Nuns that forget the old Canon 2 Thess 3. 10. That if any let them be who or what they will will not work being capable of it they should not eat On the other hand there are a far greater number that are very diligent in their worldly Imployments that rise early sit up late and eat the Bread of Care Labour and Sorrow but apparently neglect the Welfare of their Souls and the Care of the World to come No labouring to get Knowledg Faith or Holiness no reading or hearing of God's Word or Prayer but only such as is meerly superficial and customary busy at the Exchange at Noon but sleepy in their Prayers at Night exhausting all their Strength and Spirits in their Shops and quite heartless in their Closets and Families that live as if they were all Body and no Soul or as if after this short Life there were not a far longer to come yea the very Sabbath that Sacred Day of Rest which should be a Delight is a Grief to them and in their Hearts they cry When will it be over that we may to our worldly Business again yea in that very Day tho the Law doth bind their Hands from Labour yet their Souls are filled with Cares and Contrivances about temporal things But why do ye separate those Callings which God hath joined what Blessing can you expect upon an Estate that is gain'd without Godliness or What will it profit you to gain the whole World and lose your own Souls You might work hard and pray hard also you may gain enough of both Worlds if you would mind each in its place whereas if you neglect the main God may justly as he hath frequently rent away the Earthly and lock'd up the Heavenly Riches from those who value not a grain of Grace above a world of Gold Trust him therefore who never deceived you saying Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all other things shall be added to you Mat. 6. 31. 3. Their Folly is manifest who respect not the Author of their Callings to wit Almighty God That seek not his Advice that mind not his Blessing It is most certain that all Persons and Things are governed by the Providence of God that there is nothing so great nor any thing so small which is not directed thereby Now if this be really believed surely it concerns all Men in their weighty Affairs to have recourse to Him to consult his Will and to crave his Blessing else we neglect him we make nothing of him and he may very justly neglect us and be unconcern'd about our Welfare Learn of Abraham's Servant Gen. 24. when he went about his Master's Son's Affair how earnestly he craves the Direction of God in that matter and how well he sped thereafter Learn of Jacob Gen. 28. when he set forth into the World how he prays and vows and how the Lord blest him exceedingly And that Apostle who forbids distracting Care in any matter commands that in

Nothing will pass in any Man's Accounts except it be done in the way of his Calling Object The truth is I cannot work as that sorry Steward said Luke 16. 3. I cannot dig to beg I am ashamed Answ I take not upon me to be Judg of Men's Capacities or Abilities but are you fit for nothing have ye neither Nerves nor Brains God is too wise and good to make any Man wholly unprofitable Do not you render your selves useless lest ye be dealt with like unsavoury Salt which being good for nothing is cast out and trodden under Foot of Men. Object I cannot attain any Calling I would be in an Imployment but cannot meet with any Answ 1. See that this Disappointment be not a just Judgment of God upon you for your Negligence heretofore Perhaps you have been unfaithful or unthankful in your former Station and therefore God now justly keeps you out of his Service and you are to be readmitted only upon your sound Repentance 2. See that Pride or Sloth be not now the true Hinderance Your Purse is too low for an high Imployment and your Spirit too high for a low one Or it may be you would have a Livelihood without any Labour you would injoy Plenty but would take no Pains whereas you should resign your selves to God's Disposal and be contented to be an Hand yea a Finger yea a Toe in the Body rather than to be an Excrescence and no useful Part of it If they who make these Excuses did want Bread and Friends to supply them they would soon throw away these Crutches these lame Excuses and fall to work 2. By way of Counsel and Exhortation 1. To Parents Educate your Children for Callings dispose them into some honest Calling Isaac was a great Man yet he disposed his Sons Jacob and Esau into several Callings Our Kings themselves disdain not to be listed in some of the Trading Companies of the Great City So was King James of the Cloth-workers King Charles I. of the Merchant-Taylors and King Charles II. of the Grocer's Company The Turkish Emperor hath ever some manual Occupation wherein he imploys himself Why then should any of you neglect or scorn to settle your Children in some fix'd Imployment Otherwise the Estates you leave them will prove Fewel only that will feed their Lust and at last consume them And you of the poorer sort who plead your Poverty in bar to this Command do your Children an irreparable Injury you betray your Trust and implicitly direct them the way to the Gallows whereas by placing them in some honest Calling they might come as many have done to be excellent Instruments in the Church or State and great Comforts to all their Friends 2. To Children and Youths Get into Callings as you tender your own Happiness here and hereafter Rouse up vour slothful Spirits imagine not that such noble Souls were given you for such worthless Lives mind your Books and then you will be fit for something Importune your Parents to put you into a Way consume not your greener Years in Sports and Trifles Idleness is sweet but the Bread of Idleness hath no Taste Your Time wasts and Opportuities are losing all this while Others will step before you into those Professions which would inrich and adorn you In your Races he that stays a little behind will hardly recover his lost Ground Every thing is restless till it be in its place He that is out of a Calling is out of place Therefore up and be doing and the Lord be with you Yet make not more haste than good speed for tho you should be resolute to have a Calling yet you should take good Advice about the Choice of your Calling which leads into the third thing to be handled which is about the Choice of a Calling CHAP. III. Of the Choice of a Calling THE third thing then to be handled is about the Choice of a Calling which commonly belongs to Parents or Guardians not excluding the Inclination of the Party to be dispos'd who must spend his Life in it And here both must agree to chuse First A Calling that is lawful For God calls us to no other neither can we expect his Blessing in any other Nay every Minute we spend in any other we offend and provoke God and whatever Riches or Honour we purchase therein comes with his Anger and Curse which very often cleaves to Posterity that do inherit them How then may we know a lawful Calling A lawful Calling is that which some way tends to the Glory of God and consequently doth some way further the true Happiness of Mankind either Temporal Spiritual or Eternal If the Calling do thus tend to the good of Mankind it undoubtedly pleaseth and glorifieth God Demonstrate therefore the latter and then you conclude the former For our infinitely good God hath instituted no Calling but what is for his Creatures good From the Chief Good nothing but Good can come Far sooner may the Sun dart down Clouds and Darkness than the Holy God appoint or call any Man to a mischievous Imployment Not that every Calling promotes the Happiness of every Individual but it must be either for the particular or general Good And so the very publick Executioner that takes away Mens Lives yet is a Calling for the Publick-Good Yea it must tend to the real Happiness of Mankind and this respects both Soul and Body and comprehends both the Life that now is and that which is to come So that any Calling that doth really minister to the Health of the Body to Man's comfortable Subsistence to his lawful Pleasure and Delight to his Honour and Reputation to his Defence and Safety is a lawful Calling Again any Calling that serves for the inlightning of Man's Mind for the refreshing of his Spirits for the restoring the Decays of his Faculties for the increase of Knowledg in the Word or Works of God is a lawful Calling And then doubtless that Calling which directly tends to reconcile Man to God to restore the Image of God in him to direct a Man how to conquer his Lusts and Passions to guide his Life in true Piety and Vertue and lastly how to attain eternal Felicity is a lawful and noble Calling All and every of these Callings are justified by that of the Apostle Tit. 3. 14. And let ours also learn to maintain good Works for necessary uses that they may not be unfruitful And on the other side we may hereby discern which are unlawful Callings Namely 1. Such as directly tend to God's Dishonour as the Craft of Demetrius that consisted in making Silver Shrines for an Idol Acts 19. 24. And those curious or magical Arts mentioned Vers 19. of that Chapter I say which have this explicite and plain Tendency for otherwise a Man may be innocently imployed in those things which others may wickedly abuse as may be instanced in most Callings in the World So 2. Such Callings as directly tend to the hurt of Man