Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	life_n	spiritual_a	7,689	5	7.0313	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67762	No wicked man a wise man, true wisdom described the excellency of spiritual, experimental, and saving knowledge, above all humane wisdom and learning ... / by R. Younge ...	Younge, Richard.	1666 (1666)	Wing Y167; ESTC R14648	28,496	34

No Wicked Man a Wise Man True Wisdom DESCRIBED The EXCELLENCY OF Spiritual Experimental and Saving Knowledge above all Humane Wisdom and Learning With Directions how to become Wise. Wherein also is proved 〈◊〉 what Sensual Men account the greatest Freedom is indeed the most perfect Slavery and Vassallage BEING A choice cheap Gift to profit please a Friend By R. Younge 〈…〉 in Essex Florilegu● Licensed and Entred according to Order Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather then choice gold For wisdome is better then rubies and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it Prov. 8. 10 11. See Job 28. 15 to 20. Prov. 1. 23. Psal. 111. 10. Joh. 7. 17. Psal. 25. 9 14. Eccles. 2. 26. Prov. 28. 5. James 1. 5. Rare Scriptures touching Wisdome London Printed by Tho. Milbourn and are to be sold by James Crumpe in little St. Bartholomews Well-yard and by Peter Parker in Popes-Head-Alley With 39 other pieces composed by the same Author 1666. True WISDOM Described c. Section 1. MEn no more differ from beasts plants stones in shape speech reason then some men differ from others in brain in heart in life Whence the very heath●n Poets usually and most fitly compare some men to stones for their hardness and ●nsensibleness others to plants that only fill their veins a third sort to beasts that please their senses too a fourth to evil Angels that only sin and cause others to sin a fifth to good Angels that are still in motion always serving God and doing good yet ever rest Besides experience teaches that mens judgements and censures are as various as their pallats for what one admires another slights as is evident by our Saviors auditors of which some admired others censured a third sort wept a fourth scoft a fifth trembled a sixth blasphemed when they heard him And how should it be otherwise when the greater part are as deeply in love with vice and errour as the rest are with vertue and truth when mens conditions and constitutions vary as much as their faces as the holy Ghost intimates in comparing several men to almost every several creature in the Vniverse Nor is the Epicure more like a Swine the Lustful person a Goat 〈◊〉 ●udulent man a Fox the Backbiter a barking Dog 〈…〉 an Asp the Oppressor a Wolf the Persecutor 〈◊〉 the Church-robber a Wild Bore the Seducer a Serpent yea a Devil the Traytor a Viper c. 2 Tim. 4. 17. Luk. 13. 32. Phil. 3. 2. Psal. 22. 12 13 16 20 21. 74. 13 14 19. 80. 13. Mat. 23. 33. Dan. 7. 4 5 6. c. Zeph. 3. 3 4 c. Cant. 2. 15 17. c. then every of them is unlike another Amidst so much variety I have chosen to acquaint you how one man differs from and excels another in knowledge and wisdom and to prove that to be wise indeed is the portion but of a few even in our Goshen where is so much means of Light and Grace All sorts of men may be comprised under one of these three Heads The Sensual Rational Spiritual For if you observe it some men like the Moon at Full have all their light towards earth none towards heaven Others like the Moon at Wain or Change have all their light to heaven wards none to the earth a third sort like to the Moon in Eclipse as having no light in it self neither towards earth nor towards heaven Insomuch that one excels another in wisdom as the stars excel one another in glory Of which particularly First There is no less difference between the rational and sensual the wise simple the learned unlearned then there is between men and beasts as Menander speaks or between the living and the dead as another hath it and yet the rational do not so far excel the sensual as the spiritual excel the rational Touching these three degrees of comparison I begin with the sensual Sensual or as wise Solomon calls them brutish men that have been ill bred are so drowned in sin and sensuality and their spirits so frozen and pitifully benummed with worldliness and wicked customs that they cannot judge aright either of spiritual matters or rectified reason They know no other way then the flesh leads them It is the weight that sets all their wheels a going the horses that draw their chariot the very life of their corruption the corruption of their life without which they do nothing Yea in matters divine and spiritual they are of as deep a judgement as was Callico who stuft his pillow a brass pot with straw to make it soft Or that German Clown who undertook to be very ready in the ten Commandments but being demanded by the Minister which was the first made answer Thou shalt not eat Or that simple Fellow who thought Pontius Pilate must needs be a Saint because his name was put into the Creed They are like the Ostrich Job 39. 17. whom God hath deprived of wisdom to whom he hath given no part of understanding And which leaves them without all hope of being wiser they had rather keep conscience blind that it may flatter them then inform it that it may give a just verdict against them counting it less trouble to believe a favorable falshood then to examine whether it be true Secondly They are so far from receiving instruction that they will scorn and scoff at their Admonishers As do but tell them of their swearing drinking whoring you are sure to be call'd Quaker Phanatick or the like Yea what a clamour will the blundering rabble make if they but hear one reprove a blasphemer or any way endeavour to stop them in their way to destruction and what a number of sharp and deadly arrows will each of them shoot both at the good and goodness affirming with incredible impudence accompanied with invincible ignorance that there are not worse men in the world then the Religious and still the more sottish the more censorious It is the nature of ignorant and carnal men that walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness whom St. Peter calls Brute beasts led with sensuality and made to be taken and destroyed to speak evil of the things which they understand not 2 Pet. 2. 12. Nor will they believe any thing but what they see with their eyes or feel with their fingers And as in spiritual so in natural things also An Ignorant Rustick seeing a Geometrician drawing of Lines not knowing to what end he doth the same is apt to judge him foolish and phantastick Tell a plain Country fellow that the Sun is bigger then his Cart-wheel and swifter in course then the best of his Horses he will laugh you to scorn yea I have red of a simple Clown that killed his Ass for drinking up the Moon which he had a little before seen in the water and of another that looking into his Well and seeing face answer face ran home

by the revelation of his Spirit 1 Cor. ●2 8. Mat. 16. 17. Yea suppose a man be not inferiour to Portius or Pythagoras who kept all things in Memory that ever they had read ●eard or seen To Virgil of whom it is reported that if all Sciences ●ere lost they might be found again in him To Aben Ezra of whom 〈◊〉 was said that if knowledge had put out her Candle at his brain she might ●●ght it again and that his head was a throne of Wisdom or Josephus ●aligar who was skilled in thirty Languages Yet if he want the Spirit 〈◊〉 God to be his teacher he is a dunce to the meanest and most illiterate ●●liever For one excellent and necessary prerogative of the spiritual man 〈◊〉 this he hath God for his teacher he learns the counsels of God of that Spirit which only knoweth Gods counsels Luk. 21. 15. which is no small priviledge for the Scholar learns quickly when the holy Ghost is his Teacher the Eye sees distinctly when the holy Ghost doth enlighten it With the Spirits help the means can never be too weak without never strong enough Luk. 24. 44 45. P●●v 1. 23. Sect. 17. Fourthly Thou must get an humble conceit of thine own wisdom The first step to knowledge is to know our own Ignorance We must become fools in our own opinion before we can be truly wise as the Apostle sets it down 1 Cor. 3. 18. And indeed the opinion of our k●owing enough is one of the greatest causes fou● knowing so li●●le for what we p●esume to have attained we s●ek not after Ye● the very first 〈◊〉 of a Christian is humility He will teach the humble his way Psal. 25. 9. Jam. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5 5. And he that hath not learned the first le●●on is not fit to take out a new Pride is a great l●t to true wisdom For God resisteth the 〈◊〉 and giveth grace to the humble Jam. 4. 6. 1 Pet 5. 5. Whence it comes to pass that few proud wits are reformed Joh 9. 39. And fo● this cause also did out Saviour propound his woes to the Pha●●s●es his d●ct●ines to the Pe●ple A heart full of Pride is like a vessel full of 〈◊〉 This self-opinion must be blown out of us before saving knowledg● will be p●u●ed into us Christ will know none but the humble and none but humble souls truly know Christ. Now the way to become humble is by taking a serious view of our wants The P●aco●ks pride is much abated when she looks on the blackness of her legs and feet Now suppose we know never so much yet that which we know is 〈◊〉 then that which we are ignoran● of and the more we know the more we know we want Prov 1. 5 7. Psal. 73. 22. And the less ●ensible we are of our blind●ess sickness d●formity c. the more blind sick and d●fo●med we are Fifthly Thou must labour to get a true and lively faith for as without faith we cannot please God so without faith no man can know God Faith most clearly beholds tho●e things which are hid both from the eye of sense and the 〈◊〉 of reason John 12. 46. Vnregenerate m●n that want saith are like blind Sampson without his guide or like P●liphemus who never had but one eye and that V●ysses put out For so does the pleasure and custom of sin blind the Sen●ualist We must have minds lifted above natu●e to see and love things above nature heavenly wisdom to see heavenly truth or else that truth which is saving will be to us a Mystery Ma●k 4. 11. If it seem not foolishn●ss 1 Cor. 2. 7 8 14. To them that are lost the Gospel is hid 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Whereas the Believer discerns al things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. 2 15 16 Yea God giveth him a mouth and wisdom where-against all his Adversaries shall not be able to speak or resist Luke 21. 15. These are the five steps which lead up to the palace of wisdom which all must ascend by that mean to enter If you have once attained this precious grace of saving knowledge you wil as much as in you lies employ the same to the glory of the give● An end of the first part as a penyworth of Lawn out of the whole piece Such as would have the residue let them read the Trial of true Wisdom as it is in the first part of my Christian Library out of which Quiver this Arrow is drawn FINIS