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	paul_n	7,516	5	6.4255	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91918	A treatise of humilitie. Published by E.D. parson (sequestred.); Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas. Part 2. Treatise 3. English	Rodríguez, Alfonso, 1526-1616.; E. D.; W. B.	1654 (1654)	Wing R1772A; Thomason E1544_2; ESTC R208942	125,984	263

inward peace of mind and that without it this cannot be had LEarn of me for I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest unto your souls One of the chief and most efficatious reasons which we can bring for the animating our selves to despise honor and to procure to be humbled is that which Christ our Redeemer propounds to us in these words namely that it is a most excellent means for the obtaining of interior quietnes and peace to the soul a thing so much desired by al spiritual men and which Saint Paul sets down for one of the fruits of the Holy Ghost Gal 5.22 But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace c. That we may the better understand this quietnes and peace which the humble man enjoyes it will be well that we consider the disquiet and restlesnes which the proud man ever carries in his heart for one contrary is the better known by the other The holy scripture is full of sentences which declare that wicked men have not peace There is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked Isa 48.22 For they have healed the hurt of the Daughter of my People slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace Jer 8.11 Wasting and destruction are in their paths Isa 59.7 8. The way of peace they know not They know not what kind of thing peace is and though sometimes they may exteriorly seem to have peace yet that is not true peace for there within in their very heart they have a War which their conscience is ever making against them Behold for peace I had great bitternesse Isa 38.17 Wicked men ever live with bitternesse and sadnes of heart But proud men are subject after a particular manner to great unquietnes and want of peace And the expresse reason here of we may very well collect out of Saint Augustine who saith that instantly envy grows out of pride whose Daughter it is and that it is never to be so und without the company of this hateful issue Which two sins of pride and envy make the devil to be that very devil which he is Now then by this we may understand what mischief these two sins are likely to work in the heart of man since they are bad enough to make the devil a devil He who on the one side shal be ful of pride and of the desire of honor and estimation and sees that things succeeds not according to his design and on the other side is also full of envy which is the Daughter of pride and is ever in company thereof when he shall see that others are more esteemed and preferred before him wil certainly be full of bitternes and restlesnes for there is nothing which so wounds the poor man nor reaches so near to his very heart as those things aforesaid The holy Scripture paints this unto us to the life in the person of that proud Aman. He was the favourite of King Asuerus above al the Princes Grandes of his Dominions He had a great aboundance of temporal goods and riches and was so highly valued and esteemed by all that now it seemed that there was nothing left for him to desire And yet neverthelesse it gave him so great pain that one single man and he a mean person who sat usually at the gate of the Pallace made no reckoning of him nor did him reverence nor rose up nor stirred from his place whilst he was passing by that he esteemed nor all the possessed at a rush in comparison of the distemper and pain to which he was put thereby This himself confessed by way of complaint to his Wife and freinds whilst in discourse he was speaking to them of his prosperity and power otherwise Est 5.13 Yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate That so we may see the restlesnesse of a proud man and the high waves and storms which tosse his heart According to that of the Prophet The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest Isac 57.20 Like a Sea which is angry and fierce so high goes the heart of a proud and wicked man And now the rage which grew in the heart of Aman upon that occasion was so great that he disdained to lay hold upon Mardochaeus who was but a poor particular man unlesse knowing him to be a Jew by Nation he might also procure warrants from the King by Vertue whereof all that race of men who were to be found in his Dominions might be put to death He commanded also a very high gibet to be erected in a Court of his own house whereupon he meant that Mardochaeus should be hanged But his dream fell out far otherwise and the Jews proved to be the men who executed upon their enemies the sentence which had been given against them and Aman himself was hanged upon the very gallows which he had prepared for Mardocheus But first there happened a sound mortification to him and it was this He going one morning very early to the Court in order to the revenge which he had designed and to obtain a Warrant from the King for the executing thereof it hapned that the night before the King not having been able to fleep commanded them to bring the History and Chronicles of his Times and when by course of reading they were come to those particulars of what Mardocheus had done in service of the King by discovery of a certain treason which some of his own servants had plotted against him he inquired what reward had been given that man for that service and they told him none at all The King then asked who was without and whether yet men were come to make their Court. They told him that Aman was there and so he was bidden to enter The King then asked him this question What will it be fit to do for that man to whom the King desires to do honor Now Aman conceiving that himself was to be the man to whom that honor was to be done made this answer The man whom the King desires to honor should be clad in the Kings Princely robes and set upon the Kings own Horse with the Crown Royal upon his head and one of the prime men of the Court should go before him leading the Horse in his hand and proclaiming thus in the publique places of the City Thus is he to be honored whom the King will honor Well then said the King go thou to that Mardochoeus who keeps about the Court gate and do al that to him which thou hast said to me and besure thou faile in no one circumstance Think now what wound of anguish that wicked and proud heart would feel but in fine he durst not fail in executing the Order to a hair It seemed to be beyond imagination to think of a greater mortification then this was for him but yet instantly after followed that other of his being hanged upon that

the honour of God and who steals those jewels which he esteems the most rich and of the greatest price and value and which indeed were set at so high a rate that he thought his own blood and life wel imployed upon the purchase thereof For this reason a certain holy Father being full of care and fear lest he should fall into pride was wont to say thus to God O Lord if thou give me any thing keep it for me who dare not trust my self with it for I am no better then a theef and am still running away with thy goods And now let us also walk on with the same fear since we have much more reason to be afraid and are far from being so humble as he was Let us not fall into this so dangerous pride let us not run away with those goods of God which he hath put with so much confidence into our hands Let no part thereof stick to us let us artribute nothing to our selves but return the whole back to God It was not without great mistery that Christ our Saviour when he appeared to his Disciples upon the day of his glorious Ascension reprov'd them first for their incredulity and hardnesse of heart and commanded them afterward to go and preach the Gospel throughout the whole world and gave them power to work many and mighty miracles For he gives us thereby to understand that he who is to be exalted to the doing of great things hath need to be humbled first and to be abased in himself and to have a true knowledge of his own faculties and miseries that so though afterward he come to great perfection he may yet remain still intire in the knowledge of himself and stick fast to the understanding of his own basenes without attributing any other thing to himself then unworthinesse Theodoret to this purpose notes that God resolving to chuse Moses for their Captain and conductor of his People and to work by his means such wondrous and admirable things as he resolved to let the world see thought fit for the cause aforesaid that first that very hand wherewith he was to divide the Red Sea and effect other things so very strange being first put into his bosome should be then drawn forth and seen by himself to be full of leprosie A second reason for which we stand in more particular necessity of Humility is to the end that we may gather fruit in those very ministeries wherein we are imployed so that Humility is necessary for us not only in regard of our own improvement lest otherwise we should grow vain and proud and so cast away our selves but besides for the gaining of our neighhours and the bringing forth fruit in their souls One of the most principal means towards this end is Humility and that we distrust our selves and that we rely not upon our own industry or prudence or other parts but that we place all our confidence in God and ascribe and refer all to him according to that of the wise man Put your confidence in God with your whole heart and rely not upon your own prudence And the reason hereof is as afterward I shall declare more at large because when through distrust of our selves we place all our confidence in God we ascribe it all to him and put the whole busines to his accompt whereby we oblige him much to take care thereof O Lord dispatch thine own busines the conversion of souls is thine and not ours alas what power can we have to save fouls But now when we are confident in the means we use and in the discourses which we are able to make we bring our selves to be parties to the busines and attribute much to our selves and all that we do we take from Almighty God They are like two balances for look how much the one rises so much the other will be sure to fall as much as we attribute to our selves so much we take from God and run away with the glory and honour which is only his and thus he comes to permit that no effect is wrought And I pray God that this be not sometimes the cause why we do our Neighbours no more good We read of many Preachers in former times and remember some of our own time who though they were not very learned men no nor very eloquent yet by their Preaching Catechising and private communications in an humble and low way have converted quickened inflamed and strengthened many of their flock not in the perswading words of humane wisdom but in the manifestation of spirit and truth as Saint Paul saith They were distrustfull of themselves and placed all their confidence in God and so God gave strength spirit to their words which seemed even to d●rt burning slames into the hearts of their hearers And now I know not whether the reason why we produce not at this day so great fruit be not because we stick much closer to the opinion of our own prudence because we rest and rely much upon our own means of perswasion and our learning and discourse and our polite and elegant manner of declaring our minds and we go gusting and delighting our selves much with our selves O well then saith God when you conceive that you have said the best thing and delivered the most convincing reasons and remain content and jolly with conceit that you have done great matters you shall then effect least of all And that shall be fulfilled in you which the Prophet Isay said give them a barren womb and dry breasts I will take order that thou shalt be a barren Mother and thou shalt have no more thereof but the name I will give you dry breasts such as no child shall hang upon nor any thing stick by them which thou sayest for this doth he deserve who will needs usurp the goods of God and attribute that to himself which is proper and only due to his divine Majesty I say not but whatsoever Men shall preach must be very well studied and considered but yet this is not all for it must also be very well wept upon and very well recommended to God and when you shall have made your head ake with studying it and ruminating upon it you must say We have but done what we ought and we are unprofitable servants what am I able to effect I have made a little noise of words like a peece which shoots powder without a bullet but if the heart be wounded it is thou O Lord who must do it The Kings heart is in Gods hand and he inclines it to whatsoever he will It is thou O Lord who art to move and wound the heart alas what are we able to do to them What proportion can our words all our humane means carry to an end so high and so supernaturall as it is to convert souls No such matter But how comes it then to passe that we are so vain and so well pleased with our selves when