Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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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