Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	grace_n	holy_a	lord_n	14,167	5	3.6878	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51223	Of religious melancholy a sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall March the 6th, 1691/2 / by the Right Reverend Father in God John, Lord Bishop of Norwich.	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1692 (1692)	Wing M2547; ESTC R9401	15,050	33

love and affection Can we say too much or think too long of this Saviour who did joyn himself to our Flesh that he might loose the Bands of our Iniquity who being in the Form of God took the Form of a Servant that he might destroy the power of those sins which would have enslaved both our Souls and Bodies and made us for ever miserable Surely we cannot but fall down before the Lord with the deepest reverence and esteem him above every thing in Heaven and Earth who hath created us according to his own Image who hath redeemed us with the Blood of his own Son and who daily doth aslist us with the Graces of his most Holy Spirit and who hath provided for us a House not made with Hands in the Heavens Let such Subjects as these be the Arguments with which you entertain your Thoughts before you begin any Religious Duty and it will strangely conduce to the filling your Souls with Light and Life and make you diligently study to obtain God's Favour and breed in you most passionate Desires to dwell in his presence to all Eternity 3. I come to the last case I proposed to speak to which doth relate to these unhappy persons who have naughty and sometimes Blasphemous Thoughts start in their Minds while they are exercised in the Worship of God which makes them ready to charge themselves with the Sin against the Holy Ghost to pronounce their Condition to be without hopes of remedy and to fear that God hath utterly cast them off Now to give them the best ease and relief I am able I will endeavour these two things 1. To shew that their Case is not so dangerous as they take it to be 2. To give proper advice for their behaviour under the tumultuous Disorders of Mind and for their recovery from them That their Case is not so dangerous as they apprehend it I shall endeavour to shew by the following Considerations 1. Because these frightful Thoughts do for the most part proceed from the disorder and indisposition of the Body And this I take to be evident because they are more rise and troublesome and insult most over a Man after a fit of sickness or a great dsappointment or a heavy loss which hath deeprest his Spirits and made them gross and heavy but when it pleases God that he shall recover his health again and his spirits grow finer and move more briskly and his strength doth become more confirmed then these perplexing thoughts use much to abate and by degrees quite to vanish 2. Because they are mostly good People who are exercised with them For bad men whose Heads are busied in laying one Scene of Wickedness or other how they may gratifie their Malice or execute their Revenge or over-reach their Neighbours or violate their Trusts or satisfie their beastly Lust rarely know any thing of these kind of Thoughts or use to complain of them But they are honest and well-meaning Christians of unhealthy Constitutions and melancholy Tempers who are so miserably harrass'd by them who above all things earnestly desire an interest in their God and Saviour and for that reason the least dishonourable thought of him which infinuates its self into their Minds is so dreadful unto them 3. Because it is not in the power of those disconsolate Christians whom these bad Thoughts so vex and torment with all their endeavours to stifle and suppress them Nay often the more they struggle with them the more they encrease and when they are vehemently opposed they do more domineer and terrifie men And the true reason is because by successful strivings they do but feed this melancholy Humor and grow more dejected So that there is good cause as I observed to judge them to be Distempers of the Body rather than Faults of the Mind 4. We may observe that they who labour under the burden of such dismal Thoughts are seldom betray'd into any great or deliberate sin For they having a very low opinion of the Condition of their Souls are jealous of the least Temptations and tremble at the appearance of any notorious Evil. Which is the cause they commonly set a strict guard over their Words and Actions Hence it is apparent that the sins which most easily captivate others can scarce make an entrance into them They have little temptation to Covetousness who can find no satisfaction in Riches They cannot be hard hearted to their Neighbours in distress who are so ready to beg the prayers and help of all about them They are in no danger of of being swell'd with Pride who think a great deal worse of their own state than it deserves They being then thus humbled into a mean apprehension of themselves by the calamitous disorders of their Mind to contend the more abundantly to keep themselves blameless and unspotted from the World wherein they discovering no ease no relief for their doleful Complaints are not allured by any of its glittering or sensual Baits to transgress the Divine Laws From what has been said it plainly follows That there is more trouble than danger in the case of the dejected Christians which we have been considering Altho I own that none do more deserve our pity so black and dismal is the Sentence they pronounce against themselves and yet I make no question but God in his own season and when he sees it most proper for them will in some measure settle and quiet their Minds and also bestow a large Recompence on them for all the Troubles and Sorrows they have sustained out of fear that he was highly displeased with them I am now arrived at the last part of my Subject which is to give the best Advice I can for their behaviour under these perplexing Disorders of Mind and for their recovery from them Which I shall endeavour in the following particulars 1. Frequently observe how your Thoughts are imployed If they are engaged in a good Matter encourage them to persevere and secure them all you can from outward disturbance and diversions If they are taken up in trifling and vain Subjects of no real benefit to you translate them to some more noble and useful Argument For as your Thoughts are so your Actions will be Men cannot think foolishly and act wisely Besides idle Thoghts are Neighbours to bad ones and there is a straight and short passage from one to the other But if they are exercised in any evil design it highly behoves you to extinguish and suppress them for if the Fountain be muddy all the Streams must partake of its impurity And this Work you ought to take the first opportunity to do and that with all your might not only because it is of absolute necessity to the Health and Peace and Innocence of your Soul but because the Victory over them will be much easier at their first appearance than after by suffering them to dwell with you you have given them some countenance of encouragement and