Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	joy_n	5,983	5	6.9330	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31427	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, January xxiij. 1675/6 by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.	1676 (1676)	Wing C1605; ESTC R5517	12,884	30

Hypocrite but not truly to entitle him to be a Christian The Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks Rom. 14.17 it is not to be exact and curious as the Jews were about abundance of little observances and ritual devotions but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost IV. Fourthly Satan too often prevails upon Men by tempting them to such Vices as have a shadow and resemblance of Virtue The politick and crafty Spirit knows very well that Sin is of so black a nature that it will never take especially with the more sober and considering sort of Men in its own naked shape and therefore dresses it up in a better garb and calls it by another name Few Men but would recoil and start at a down-right temptation to murder but when 't is whetted by revenge and set off as the maintaining our reputation and our honour it goes down readily without control Caiphas 't is like had no personal pique and quarrel at our blessed Saviour when he advised the Sanhedrim to cut him off but he did it under the specious notion of a common good and the publick security of the Nation How came Satan to actuate St. Paul with a spirit of so much bitterness and animosity such a furious and passionate spleen against the primitive Believers but only that he perswaded him that the Glory of God and the Honour of his Religion did so deeply lye at stake What makes Avarice spread so far and that with many otherwise high pretenders to Religion but because it assumes to it self the plausible pretext of a laudable diligence and frugality and a commendable care to make provision for our selves and families warranted and enjoyned by the Laws of Nature and Religion And under the shadow of this the Tempter leads Men into all the extravagant irregularities into which a greedy and rapacious Mind is capable to betray them Pride never spreads its plumes with more success than when 't is recommended as a piece of neatness and gentility and a just valuing of our selves according to our desert and quality Many a Man would never be betrayed into the excesses of riot and intemperance did he not look upon it as an argument of a free generous mind and a piece of innocent good fellowship and society And thus Satan very successfully leads Men into works of darkness by appearing to them as an Angel of light and puts off his temptations under the notion either of what is virtuous or at least what is useful and lawful to them V. I shall mention but one art and stratagem more whereby this great Enemy recommends his temptations with advantage to us and that is by improving the influence of powerful and prevalent Examples Mankind is of a sociable and pliant temper easily drawn aside with the most especially with a multitude to do evil because the by as of corrupt Nature runs that way We are apt to look upon it as some kind of shelter and patronage to sin in company where every one bears his share of the guilt and shame and so it seems less by being divided like a great Stream that is cut into little Rivulets Example is a mighty argument and one of Satan's most effectual snares and which many times without great care and resolution there is no way to avoid for the corruption of manners has I know not how introduced a kind of necessity of doing as the company does wherein we are and to refuse it is look'd upon as a trespass against the Laws of Civility and good Manners and the Man accounted either a Clown or an Hypocrite that will not venture as far as the rest and run with them into the same excess of riot And the force of the temptation is so much the stronger by how much those whom we follow are persons for whom we have a more peculiar esteem and veneration or by whom we have been obliged as our Benefactors We have a natural regard and reverence for our betters and are prone to imitate them by an implicit Faith The vulgar part of Mankind look upon their Superiours that as they stand under higher and stronger obligations to Virtue and Piety so they are furnished with happier advantages of understanding the true natures and differences of things than other Men and accordingly from them are apt to take the common measures of good or evil and to defend themselves with the warrant and authority of those that are above them The Examples of Great Men give Laws to conversation and are able to add a reputation either to Vice or Virtue and one such instance shall sooner prevail with Men to set upon those things that are just and pure lovely and of good report than an hundred arguments shall perswade them As on the other hand Vice is never more fatally prosperous and successful than when it has the patronage of great Examples to recommend it By these few Instances we see the lot and portion of the present state what snares and stratagems what policies and devices we are exposed to on every side what troops of temptations are round about us that therefore it concerns us to stand continually upon our guard to keep our considerations awake to preserve our consciences quick and tender to be infinitely watchful that our foot be not taken in any of those snares that are purposely laid to ruin us not only in this but which is unconceivably of more importance in the other life For a course of impiety has not only a fatal and malignant influence upon the affairs of the present state it does not only tend to consume the estate or blast the reputation or waste the body distract and torment the mind and render every condition troublesome and uneasie these alas are but the beginning of sorrows in respect of that portion of misery that awaits the Sinner in the future state when the wrath and displeasure of the Almighty shall finally overtake him and come upon him to the uttermost For the other World is the proper scene and stage whereon the Divine Justice shall ride in triumph in the executions of its vengeance when Conscience shall be let loose with all its stings and perpetually prey upon it self when the remembrances of an ill-spent life and the sad reflections upon its past sins and pleasures shall be always pressing in upon it and the Soul unable either to deny or shift off the evidence when nothing shall be able to mitigate the grief or to beguile the sense of it when there shall be no ravishing objects external pleasures no musical Airs or boon Companions to charm Conscience asleep again no intermitting fits of ease but the Soul groaning under perpetual paroxysms of rage and terrour The consideration whereof ought to allarm our fears that if there be any care of our selves any serious regards of our eternal state we may be wise in time before it be too late recover our selves out of the snare of the Devil and become