Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A65777
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A contemplation of heaven with an exercise of love, and a descant on the prayer in the garden. By a Catholick gent.
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White, Thomas, 1543-1676.
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1654
(1654)
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Wing W1814A; ESTC R220997
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65,739
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200
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same meats dyeting and lodging with them maintain'd by Alms having no certain aboad but most commonly among the poor and simple Fishermen Farther we see him weary thirsty hungry forgetting hunger for love of souls envy'd slander'd blasphem'd threatned now ready to be stoned now to be precipitated flying hiding himself troubled in spirit weeping for his friends weeping for his Countrey contradicted persecuted conspired against His confidents corrupted his followers excommunicated his friends sought to death others not daring to acknowledge him and a thousand such indignities But the State of Love shewes it self first in the Garden O the dolefull unheard cryes to Heaven O the bitter Agony and deadly Sweat of bloud O the ravenous throats of devouring Wolves led on by one of his own dearest houshold See with what outcryes and howlings and noyse they drag him through the streets of Jerusalem every one looking out at their windowes to fill their eyes with gazing at this strange wonder See how He is toss'd from one Tribunal to another here revil'd and buffetted there flouted and spit on every where despis'd and maliciously affronted But what wofull spectacle is that Pilate presents to the People which causes so great and loud cries The Stature is of a Man but the Head of a Monster A Crown of piercing Thornes bloody and bloodying all that is near it Hair such as ravish'd the heart of the delicious Spouse but clotted with gore sticking some to his Neck and Flesh some to the horrid Thorns all rudely ruffled in a hideous disorder A Face and Eyes able to subdue all hearts if stripes and buffets and bloud and swellings and marks of blind rage permitted them to beseen Well-shap'd Limbs but disfigur'd and hidden in their own bruises and tearings and shatters A red ragged Mantle and a Sceptre of a Reed to accomplish a King of sorrow calamity and scorn And why all this this ingenious cruelty to disguise a poor Man into so monstrous an Object of disdainfull Malice Alas all 's but to glut the blood-thirsty jaws of an unfaithfull and rebellious Multitude which no longer then five dayes since sung praises and Hosanna's to this very Person and strewed their garments and Palm-branches in his way A People infinitely oblig'd and no wayes offended by him A people that cannot accuse him of the least crime that have seen him cleered in all Tribunalls the Judge himself pleading His Innocence Yet no lesse then his heart's last drop will satisfie them though it be at the cost of their own and all their posterities Nor can they tell why more then that they are push'd on by those who abuse and pillage them and who have conceiv'd this implacable hatred against him only because he discovered their violences oppressions and tyrannyes over these very people that so furiously exclaim against him Well if there be no remedy charge those wounded shoulders with thy heavy Cross dear Saviour and shew us on Mount Calvary a greater and stranger Transfiguration able to dim That of Mount Tabor I see thy spread Arms thy nailed Hands and Feet thy rack't Sinews thy pierced Side thy bended Neck thy faln Looks thy torn Body thy pale and bloudlesse Flesh thy Company of infamous Thieves and thy miserable Favourite and forlorn Mother I hear thy last Words and breath'd-out Soul into the Hands of thy Father not as they command Heaven but as they reach to Hell O Love canst thou love or expresse it beyond this Yes heark and consider Those higher-endearing Charms of heaven The Father the most tender and perfectly-loving Father whose Essence is pure distill'd spirit of love He put his Onely-his Equall-his Intimate-his Co-essentiall Son with His own hands nay with This Son 's own commanded Will and hands to all these and infinite more unspeakable tortures and miseries for thy sake for thine my soul that thou mightest not complain thou wantedst an Object a Motive thou hadst not a Teacher a Pattern an Exciter an Enforcer to Love IF there be a Hall for all comers certainly there 's a Parlour too for select and choice friends where they may confer together of thine infinite perfections and often repeat with joy thy unspeakable bounties where they may retire from the noise and distractions of the World and entertain their thoughts with the sweet still-musick of contemplation where they may sit alone excluding even themselves and be chastly ravisht with the dear embraces of the Divine Spouse of Souls O what Droanes are our highest-strain'd Lovers whose memories in all languages affect immortality for their fantastick passions what dull buzzing of Beetles are their kindest expressions to the melting notes of this heavenly harmony But is there no further admittance O glorious King of Love for those who have so happily enter'd thy Palace I remember a large upper-room furnisht by thy self and richly prepared to give yet a more noble treatment and methinks I hear something within me bid me advance a few steps further What fair gilt door is that which dazzles so my sight to look on Sure 't is the holy place we seek sealed up for thy peculiarly beloved Open it some bright and flaming Seraphin O my God what do I see what 's this my eyes behold Manna raining from Heaven for those that can get to the shoar of that former Red Sea of loves flouds Truly my God my Lord Love has transported thee even to extasie it has made thee do extravagant and frenetick actions extravagant indeed and freneticall if measured by the narrow and short judgement of poor humanity but heights and depths and Abysses if referr'd to thy uncircled wisdome and unlimited reach of bounty and goodness Behold the Body that hang'd on the Crosse that was anointed in the Grave that rose again and ascended to the right hand of the heavenly Creator Behold It falls down in wheaten drops like Coriander Seeds to feed and feast the wretches descended from Adam Behold the Body the Blood the Soul the eternall Person the Deity the Trinity all couch'd as it were in a corn of Bread The Omnipotency that made Heaven the Wisdome that link'd all possibilities into the Chain of all Beings the Bounty that crowded into Natures teeming bosome all that was Best these all these lie here covered like a Chymical pill in a Sugared wafer Those looks from which Heaven and Earth amazedly flie in whose Presence the Princes of the celestiall hosts and the Pillars of the World tremble that Head on which depends the fate of Souls both past and to come that Tongue which shall doom in one word the Nations of all Ages All are here humbly stoop'd and subjected to me and other such wretches even to be abused by our wickednesse Yes yes all these are as truly Here as they are on thy Throne in Heaven as they will be in the midst of the blessed on the Day of thy Triumph over Nations What do I say as truly and not even more in a far more excellent manner
Himself He himself can have no cause and that they having their being from Him may be and not be as compos'd of being and what is only God has no such composition wherefore since He cannot be what is without being He is being without what is whereas all Creatures Substance is what is and being an Accident to them This I find that God is not only none of these things we see but nothing like any of them of a higher and super-excellent strain not agreeing with them in any name that can signifie Substance infinitely above our utmost conceptions incomparably sublimer nobler more wonderfull more deserving knowledge and more stirring and straining an appetite of it Beyond all this I see that God is not such an Existence and being as we apprehend by this name we give it and which we exalt above what is by it but as far retir'd above it as that 's above what is He is not a being by which a thing is but a being which is a thing a Substance He is a being redoubled upon it self giving and receiving being to and from it self and yet neither for this is impossible but a higher inexpressible force implying both without their contradiction I see that all I have said and can say are pure follyes not expressing in the smallest degree the thing which I see is and the more I force my self to understand it the farther I am from it one abysse still calling upon another because it is infinite and unsoundable but only to God himself O happy darknesse if once to become lightsome the more hidden thou art now the greater blisse wilt thou be then Oh that my heavy thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft and towre height upon height till I came within view of these celestiall Quires not to discern Thee my dread Lord for I should be never the nearer but to quicken my desire and encrease my longing O how fix'd would mine eyes stare upon Thee when thou shouldst be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortall body that now intercepts the view of thy glory and demolish the strong-wall that as yet unhappily detains me from thy Presence Methinks I see that no violence of nature no falling weight no bent of forced steel no earth-bursting vapour no tower-shivering thunder or bulwark-tossing mines could expresse the eagernesse of my Souls embracing Thee Methinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy Thee in and that my Soul would sooner wane to nothing then part from Thee Methinks there 's no possibility of Pleasure which is not in Thee nor any out of Thee no faculty in my Soul to wish or think of any other thing but Thee Thee my onely my eternall incomprehensible All my dear dearest Lord and my God If the good God has reserved for his Friends be so immense and the joy and blisse it brings the Soul so extream who can doubt but the losse must be proportionable and the grief and anguish of missing it be measured by the same weights what then must thou do my poor Soul wavering yet betwixt hope and fear of these so important contraryes what must thou do to assure thy chief interest and make thy self secure Mistresse of so great so glorious pretensions Peradventure spend thy time in wishes and flashing thoughts like the Northern Fire-drakes or the lightning breathings of fair Sommer nights which but vent their own heat without firing any thing No no these goads pierce too deep to be contented with palliating and superficiall remedies Adieu then those so charming warbles of Father Friend Spouse another self and whatever else the Wit of Man or even the Spirit of God has invented to tickle materiall fancy and to revive Taraâ—â—nteliz'd Souls These are Milk for beginners Lenitives to take away the angrinesse of their festring hearts when they first tear off from worldly toyes Metaphoricall expressions which have no proper and solid meaning to feed the truth-hungry mind The affections growing out of these are grounded upon love to our selves even then when we wish more good to another then to our selves even when in comparison we wish harm to our selves But that God is our Good and finall End is as true as that He is our Maker and the very Essence of our Soul is nothing else but a pure capacity and emptinesse of Him all its strength by nature or grace nothing but an inclination to apply it self to Him and be replenished by Him Here all the sinews of nature are rack't to their height to this the Soul 's more strongly bent then to its own being since we see our thoughts are first driven outwards and from the Objects return to make us reflect on our selves only at this Object we aim not to make it ours but to make us its All other knowledges are but as it were divers figurations and dispositions of our Soul this is an adhering and union of our Soul to another thing All Ends are Masters of our wills as far as they are Ends the Medium's only master'd by us the last End therefore must be the absolute commander and forcer of the very Essence of our Will And as the basis of a Statue had it an appetite proportion'd to its nature would not wish to be above but to lye under and support the Statue or as the motion and way towards a form and term would wish to perish in bringing the thing alter'd or mov'd to that state whereto its Essence imployes its service so our Soul rightly affected can wish no other then to be most subject most conformable and most entirely fitted to its last End That then my Soul which thou hast to do is in the greatest peace and discretion and quiet of thy Heart to cast about and seriously consider in what course of life all things maturely ponder'd thou art likeliest to cultivate and improve thy self best and render thy thoughts most apprehensive of this only this eternall Good which having once found with thy whole strength with the neglect of all other things as far as they avail not to this be sure to prosecute vigorously never sitting down or so much as looking back and in all considerable actions even in this chosen way still have a pure eye open to discern what most conduces to this only necessary work or least deviates thee from it O Gregory Lopez Thou after the Apostles unparallell'd Master of Christian life who will give me that prodigious unheard-of constancy of thine in every breath for moneths and yeares continually to fix my thoughts upon this main aim of my being till I had made it hard and almost impossible for me to restrain them from it But since this is more Angelicall then Humane obtain me grace at least from our Generall thy immediate Master every day to spend some competent space of time in framing a lively view of this Great truth and settling a strong resolution to continue in it for ever Still may I strive by the following