Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	name_n	son_n	14,571	5	5.9519	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52449	A sermon preached before the King at New Market, October 8, 1671 by John North.	North, John, 1645-1683.	1671 (1671)	Wing N1289; ESTC R27521	11,649	37

it has been onely in compliance to them I would reclaim I waved it for the present onely that I might expose the mischiefs of those vices taken barely in themselves for the sake of which they reject Religion hoping that if the ends of a worldly policy could bring them off they might afterwards do it of their own accord upon a more noble Principle There remains onely an humble advice in the Name of God that we would continue to beware the splitting upon these two Rocks Debauchery and Profaneness which we ought more carefully to decline at this time for since there are so many addicted to them out of irreligion we shall be interpreted to do so too by which we sacrifice our own credit and unhappily confirm them in their desperate way for they will think there are so many suffrages the more added to their side They have been noted to gather Proselytes as much as any Party whatever and to dive into the mind of others by discourse whether they are not of the same bold opinion with themselves whereby it appears they support their timorous hearts more by their company by their fellows in iniquity then any strength in their Cause And that we may be the better armed let us novv vvhilst this solemn Exercise has composed our thoughts vvhilst no temptation hovers before our eyes duly perpend these things and if satisfied in the truth of them as surely we must let us use the same Method the Mathematicians do who having once proved a proposition do not examine it again as often as they have occasion to apply it but ever after take it for a Maxime and build other Theoremes upon it So here also being already convinced let us set an unmoveable Rule for our whole life Let not any cajoling pleasure reduce us to an uncertainty or to dispute the case again for then vve are sure to be overthrovvn If once vve be so easie as to admit any sin to plead for it self by its plausible and fawning excuses it vvill infallibly overcome There is a great deal of Mechanism in the body vvhen a pleasant object is presented there arises a tumult vvithin us vvhether vve vvill or no the unruly spirits flie in pursuance of it and oppress vvith their numbers the seat of the Understanding so that vve cannot then fairly deliberate or frame an exact scrutiny but must move upon some judgement vve have formerly made We have all experience hovv much a fit of anger does transport us beyond the limits of discretion each strong inclination is as truly a passion and does debauch our reason as much though the same violence does not outvvardly break forth Let us therefore at any unlawful opportunity not parly but command Let us not be ruled by the thoughts which are then suggested to us but summon into our mind the apprehensions we have had in such a place and at such a time as this In a word let us remember the Scripture almost always denotes Religion by the fear of the Lord by the fearing of his Name which is for that cause stiled the beginning of Wisdome and that Reverence here is like modesty in manners which if we once discard no bounds will ever after contain us Now to Almighty God the Father Son and holy Spirit be ascribed all Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen I cannot forbear by way of Appendix to subjoyn the translation of that most excellent passage cited in Greek p. 12. out of Plato de leg where he thus accosts the young hectoring Atheist My son you are yet but a young man In process of time you will come to change for the quite contrary many of those Opinions you now espouse Stay therefore till then before you determine of great affairs and the greatest of all which perhaps you imagine not is the framing of a right Notion concerning the gods because on this depends the choice of a Wicked or a Vertuous life Now I 'le discover one thing to you which I may truly enough affirm And it is this You and your Camerades are not the first nor the onely persons which have had this desperate Sentiment concerning the gods There have been always more or less those that have fallen into this disease But I may tell you what has happened to most of them Never did any take up in his youth the denial of the Existence of a God that carried the same mind with him to his declining age Those Verses of Laertius cited p. 13. upon Bion the Atheist who falling sick in his old age applied himself in Prayers and Sacrifices to the gods whom he had always before derided may thus be rendred A Fool to think th' Existence of the gods Could for a price be bought or sold As if forsooth they onely then should Be When Bion pleased so to hold FINIS