Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A47384
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Mid-night and daily thoughts in prose and verse / by Sir William Killigrew.
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Killigrew, William, Sir, 1606-1695.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing K462; ESTC R22780
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45,259
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108
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subtile Agent stand With all his wicked Instruments at hand Ready and glad to be employ'd while we Make haste to Hell by our impiety Till youth and vigour with its power decrease And cause our evil appetites to cease From wicked acts yet he 'll not give us o'er Nor quit us so He has new sins in store When wrinkled age adorns us with gray hairs He terrifies our hearts with high despairs Shews us the ills that we have done too great For pardon are and now too late to treat With Heav'n having resign'd our selves to Hell No holy Charm can e'er dissolve that Spell And dictates thus to our affrighted sense Repentance cannot balance our offence Who have so many years our God refus'd So many ways his Laws and Grace abus'd That in his Justice he can ne'er forgive Our Crimes Thus he torments us whil'st we live When flattering objects fail he thus presents Our fancies with despairing arguments That we must never hope to see God's face 'Cause we have sinn'd beyond the reach of Grace Out-gone the merit of Christ's Blood and have Done things beyond the power of God to save Thus by degrees he leads us to despair Never to hope for better than we are And thus by doubting God's Omnipotence To aggravate his wrath and our offence Unless our great and glorious God do please To free us from this Devil and this Disease So deadly to our Souls and let us see We may be yet redeem'd by Piety If we get Grace to pray and to repent With constant fervent zeal and full intent For ever to forsake and truly hate Those horrid Sins we doted on of late If we get faith to love and serve God thus No doubt he doth already pity us And will in time forgive there 's no dispute But Mercy is God's highest Attribute Severe in Justice yet of Grace not scant When chief of Sinners was the greatest Saint Our Reason must unto our Faith Submit LOrd I have search'd my heart but do still doubt It is not pure enough not clean throughout Nor can be till the Holy Ghost comes in And do assist in casting out of sin That so he may possession take for thee And I may hold my heart in Fealty To pay my God a thousand Thanks a day While thus thy Holy Spirit does bear sway O Holy Ghost when thou art once possess'd I shall not dare disturb so bless'd a Guest With a vile act or a vain thought that may Lessen my Bliss and drive my God away Thy presence will my wavering heart direct To Heaven and will from Enemies protect My Soul and me while thou art my defence Who dares contest with thy Omnipotence So cleans'd and so inform'd I shall soon learn To worship thee aright and shall discern The Mystery of Faith my Reason teach How to submit to what it cannot reach Faith shall take place my Fancy shall retire And I will be contented to admire The mighty Secrets of thy glorious Throne Which thou reserv'st unto thy self alone Lord tho' my heart can never understand The manner nor the motion of thy hand Nor all my Zeal and Fancy raise a thought To comprehend thy Essence as I ought I can persuade my Reason to give way Unto my Faith for if thy Gospel say 'T is so it is enough I do believe Tho' wonder how a Virgin did conceive And bring a Son who was both God and Man And do not doubt thy holy Spirit can Dwell in my heart and teach me to prevent Doubting that Christ is in the Sacrament Or searching of thy high Divinity How the Godhead becomes a Trinity I can see thee now in the Creation Full as great as in the Resurrection Though I know not how all these come to pass Thy Word says so it is and so it was And I believe 't while thou art mine my Faith No curiosity nor doubting hath To the Ambitious Envious Man DOes that Man's honour and his wealth abound Is his felicity sufficient ground For thee to envy what he does possess When thou dost feel no want though thine be less Such envy dwells not in a noble heart Yet I will teach thee a mysterious art Shall make ambition and thy envy swell As high as Heaven and yet thou shalt do well Thou want'st not understanding nor a wit But want'st the will and grace to manage it Let the dull Clown still multiply his Cows And make 't his business to enlarge his Mows The wary Merchant traffick on the Seas The Souldier kill as many as he please The Usurer injoy his full-stuff'd Bags And the gay Courtier boast his golden Rags And greatest Lords to highest Titles born Search all the World they never can adorn Themselves with wealth or glories that shall last Unto eternity Then do not waste Thy life on trifles let thy envy rise Do thou contest with those that Heav'n do prize With all that do pretend a better right Than thou to be God's greatest Favourite 'T is a noble and a brave Religion That allows thy envy and ambition To trample on the World in spight of fate Until thy forehead knock at Heaven Gate To the Luxurious Man ARe thy brave Statues Pictures Jewels Plate Which cost so many thousand pounds of late Destroy'd Is thy vast Building with thy Land Torn from thee by some unjust powerful hand And dost thou sit computing the great cost Of all thy Pleasures and this Treasure lost With a half broken heart and dost not see All this is to deface thy Luxury Which did thy Soul besot Till these were gone Thou hadst no leisure time to think upon Thy God who thus in Mercy and in Love Doth that calamity from thee remove That thy free heart may only Him adore And so be richer than thou wert before If Heaven and Earth be God's and he be thine Thou ought'st to thank him rather than repine Then will thy long-sick Soul recover health And thou possess an everlasting wealth Free from the Cares and Fears that daily hap To Men that seek their Bliss in Fortune's lap Love thy Neighbour as thy self IT is a prime and great Commandment To Love our Neighbour as our selves God meant Us happiness on Earth that did impose Severest Laws to make us love our Foes Including that our Friendships would not need A Law when hearts in unity agreed But we that still his Will prevaricate Do change this pleasant Precept into hate Throughout the World the daily Mischiefs show That Neighbourhood but little love do know We see the best of Men do often do What they themselves would not be done unto And few of us there be that do believe Our plenty should our Neighbour's wants relieve How few the sick do visit or endure The smallest Charges for a poor Man's Cure And yet we hope our God our selves will bless Who neither Love nor Charity express To love our Neighbour as we ought would be Mongst Men angelical Felicity My Toke is easie and
losses as a punishment For our past crimes we should our thoughts inure To pains our hearts and bodies must endure Something beyond easie self-denials And be armed for such fiery trials As the first Martyrs felt If God command The Grid-iron or the Rack we must not stand Amaz'd he can enable us to sustain The torments of such deaths and flight the pain His Power is still to us the same so we As great faith have and such-like piety To love and serve our God as much as they In those days did not terrours can dismay For where the holy Spirit does prevail It is not possible that strength should fail If we have faith enough there is no doubt But we may walk on fire and tread it out An Ejaculation LOrd I have done what lies in me The work does now belong to thee I have resign'd my heart 'T is thine who only art Able to keep what is thy own Which I cannot if left alone But shall fall back again And merit thy disdain It is thy pleasure and thy will I should depend upon thee still And never dare to trust The frailty of my dust Which by nature does incline To be more earthly than divine Thus I can only stand Supported by thy hand On Prayer THe Lord regards not words we may Be silent and yet pray 'T is the intention of the heart That doth our zeal impart Tho' vocal prayers be daily us'd Our sighs are not refus'd And our good deeds for prayers do go 'Cause God esteems them so Our Charity and Mercy shown Will plead our Cause alone Such acts of our obedience Is the best eloquence And does in Heav'n gain more regard For pardon and reward Than a whole age was ever known To get by words alone Our alms do double use obtain And multiply our gain When penitence does plead for sin And gratitude steps in Acknowledging the grace we have Must raise us from the grave And put us in a decent frame To call upon God's Name These practick Prayers will do the deed And help us at our need Much better than a story told In language rude and bold Such as rash fancies do throw out From wants from fears or doubt Of our Condition which may be Words without modesty When pious works fail not to bring Us Blessings from the King Of Heaven the Searcher of our hearts Beyond the reach of arts In language by him all disguis'd Formalities despis'd And the poor holy Ignorant Will sooner get a grant Of his desire than thou or I With all our Orat'ry When our good works and words agree They both accepted be On Charity WHen we hear a poor Beggar cry For food how can we him deny Or if some raiment he do need Are we not bound to cloath and feed Our Christian Brother in distress When Charity is blessedness Yet Charity does not consist In alms alone we must assist Our friends with Counsel if need be To lead them unto Piety And by our own example show That we the way to God do know Oh! 't is an acceptable thing When we can Souls to Heaven bring For though Men can no merit have They near it come that Souls do save On Discontent for Poverty HAst thou thy Fortunes lost and now Poor Man do'st live thou know'st not how And art so much bereav'd of sense As not to see God's Providence That thus without thy loss or care Provides thee of all necessary fare Why art thou then so discontent To call this Plenty Punishment It is not well to make such moan 'Cause all thou seest is not thy own Thy heart is earthly and thy mind Will neither peace nor comfort find Though the whole World thou didst enjoy Something would still thy heart annoy Did'st ever yet see any thing Did thy expected Pleasure bring Or did'st thou ever any-where Once find the Joys thou look'st for there But now methinks I hear thee cry Thou griev'st for thy Posterity While thou do'st doubt the same great hand That does the Heaven and Earth Command Should less provide for them than thee All this is great Impiety On Mercy IT is or ought to be while we do live Our Prayers to be forgiv'n as we forgive Yet I do fear that most of us offend This way too oft what e'er we do pretend For I have known some Men so full of rage When a flight injury did them engage That neither sleep nor food could do them good While their unlawful Vengeance was withstood Others there are more mild will only try Whether they can subdue their Enemy And if that fail they will not then refuse To take submission 'cause they cannot chuse And some will seem as if they did not see Nor understood a down-right Injury But will fierce Malice in their hearts retain Until they can return it back again And some do highest wrongs receive and bear Them patiently with smiles because they dare No other do unless to make it worse In private they do whisper out a Curse Some too there be so cautious and so wise All offer'd wrongs do seemingly despise But their whole lives will study how they may Return the injury the safest way And some will make their adversary know His errour and their power and then will show Such Mercy as himself may boast and be If rightly understood an injury And some so sweet and gentle are they still Remit all injuries to God who will They hope in his good time the quarrel take And of their Foes some sad example make Too few there be who rightly understand The weight and scope of this so great command This prime Christian Duty so much admir'd By heathens and so much to be desir'd Some good men there are who know Mercy is God's highest Attribute and they in this Come near unto his own Divinity When freely they forgive an injury We should do good for evil love and pray For those bad men that wrong us ev'ry day In friends or fortune life or our good name 'T is our Religion to forgive the same Lord turn the hearts and open wide the eyes Of those mistaken men our enemies Who wrong themeselves and let them timely see How much they anger thee and hurt not me On Despair AMongst Satan's chief Magazine of Arms To fight against men's Souls none does such harms As those despairs which he in clouds le ts fly At faithless men when we draw near to die He treats our Youth at first with such delights As do most please men's appetites With lusts with gluttony and avarice Or what will more our eyes and hearts entice To follow him into his hidden snares Where once engag'd he leads us to despairs And throws such mists before our dazled eyes We cannot find our selves in his surprize But do run on in pleasures and rejoice Mistaking his deceits for our own choice And so applaud our wits for our success In sin and do admire our activeness And ne'er discern this