Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	house_n	young_a	youth_n	29	3	8.1925	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11881	Five sermons preached upon severall occasions (The texts whereof are set downe in the next page.) By Iohn Seller.	Seller, John, 1592 or 3-1648.	1636 (1636)	STC 22181; ESTC S101223	58,521	276

facis fac cito That which thou meanest to doe doe quickly And thus much for the first objection I come now to answer a second For Religion you will say and the early remembrance of those duties which we owe to our Creator they breed melancholie and fright the Soule with many sad and desperate thoughts not an idle word can be spoken not a Racha given or Thou foole not the least riot or excesse committed but presently the conscience checks us with judgment and Hell fire and gladly would we desire the freedom to live a little chearly in our youth Thus have I seene a patient sometime complaine of his Physick when as indeed he was heart sicke of his disease For pray tell me what is it which in those sad fits whereto the Soules of good men are oft-times subject and perhaps did we more often feele them the more happy might we be what is it I say which breeds this melancholy is it our Religion that wee know is the Physicke of the Soule no surely it is our sin and that is the disease Were it not madnesse in us then to desire to live freely in our sinne that we might live free from sorrow when as indeed there is nothing truly to be sorrowed for but sinne For let us reckon up a catalogue of all such delights as our owne Soule would wish to concurre to make a cheerefull life and you shall see religion hath the promise of them all Wouldst thou injoy long life and see good dayes Keepe thy tongue from vill and thy lippes that they speake no guile And this life of thine wouldst thou have as healthfull as 't is long Praise the Lord O my Soule for he it is that reneweth thy strength and maketh thee young and lusty as an Eagle And this health of thine wouldst thou have maintained with plenty Trust in the Lord and doe good and verily thou shalt be fed Delight in the Lord and hee shall give thee thy hearts desire And this plenty of thine wouldst thou have seconded with joy O be joyfull in the Lord all yee Lands serve the Lord with gladnesse and come before his presence with a song And lastly of this joy of thine wouldst thou have a patent not for thy selfe onely but for thy posterity The Righteous shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherite the Land If then life and health plenty and joy can make a cheerefull man certainly religion cannot make him melancholly But yet I must confesse these rare effects they are perhaps but rarely to bee found and short life craz'd health small plenty unconstant joyes they are the portion oft-times even of GODS dearest Saints not that GOD hath forgotten to bee so good as his word promiseth but that men have not remembred to be so good as his word commandeth but have neglected the performance of those strict conditions whereupon the accomplishment of these so large promises depend But however do the righteous and such as daylie remember their Creator doe they onely eate sowre Grapes and are the sinners such as have not GOD in all theyr thoughts are their teeth never set on edge It is true indeed that GOD receives no man but whom hee doth chastice chastice not with crosse and affliction onely but with sorrow and anguish of Soule with feare and trembling for his sin yet here wee have a mixture of little judgement with great mercy the ioy of our receiving soone easing the smart of our chasticement But is it not true withall that the sinner hee shall receive his chasticement and yet never bee received here is iudgement without mercy With the righteous heavinesse may endure for a night but ioy commeth in the morning but with the sinner this order is inverted ioy indeed may endure for a night but sorrow returnes in the Morning When upon the sober view of of his intemperate luxuriances finding his Soule like CAINS guilty of more sinne then he knoweth how to have forgiven hee becomes subject to the fearefull expectation of more punishment then hee knowes which way to endure Indeed if we looke upon the surface of things onely the sinner may seeme to be the onely chearly man sits downe merrily to eate and drinke riseth to his play and wondereth that any man should refuse to follow the same excesse of riot with himselfe But let us now a little change his cōmons and remove him from his owne table which from the excesse and riot thereof I feare we may too justly ofttimes stile the Table of Devils and bring him to the Table of the Lord and then behold with how heavie a heart doth he reach forth his trembling hand to pertake of those sacred mysteries as justly fearing upon this Conscience of his great unworthines lest he should eate and drinke his own condemnation and rise up seavenfold more the child of Hell thē he sate downe When as the Righteous commeth with joy chearfulnesse whose innocent conscience as it keepeth a continuall feast so never then now is it more plentifully fed and thankfully saith Grace with a Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene my Salvation For now I know that the Kingdome of Heaven true happinesse indeed it is not meate and drinke but Righteousnesse and peace and joy upon joy joy unspeakable even joy in the Holy Ghost It is a memorable speech of HAMAN who recounting the glory of his riches the multitude of his children the great honours whereunto hee had beene promoted above other Princes by the King yet in the end concludeth All this is nothing as long as MORDECAL sits in the Kings gate So surely hee that shall examine the Soules of the Hamans of this World men who for pleasure wealth and honour seeme to be the onely happy men will finde them sometime ingenuously to confesse All this is nothing for there is a MORDECAI a tormenting conscience dayly sitting in the Gate which like IONAS his Worme no sooner is the Gourd of their felicitie sprung up a little but presently it biteth and gnaweth it downe againe And therefore we see daily nothing more frequent thē for the luxurious prodigall upon the sad remembrance of the follies of his youth to breake out into a Laetare sterilis Happie are the barren and the Soules unsensible of these vaine delights the fruition whereof is but a transitorie vanity and the remembrance a perpetuall vexation of the Spirit As then GOD said once unto the Iewes Bring my tithes into my store-store-house and prove mee now if I will not open the windors of Heaven and powre downe a blessing without measure so let me say here to young and old Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth in the dayes of thy age even all the dayes of thy life serve him in chastity in temperance in justice in charitie in prayer in repentance make a tryall of his goodnesse and see whether he will not open the

facile in our youth And hee that shall compare the severall advantages which age and youth have each of other in matters of Religion will finde perhaps that it is no paradox to maintain against the great Philosopher that Iunenis est magis idoneus auditor moralis and divinae Philosophiae too that a young Timothy is a fitter Auditor of a lecture of Divinity than an old Nicodemus Age I confesse to give it its due honour hath many prerogatives of youth Age is coole and temperate those hot pursuites of vain delights if grace restraine not wee see in time nature itselfe forbeares Age it is stayed and resolute good courses well begun it will hold on though the hand bee hardly drawne unto the plough yet the eye will not suddainely looke backe againe Age it is wise and experienc't and having made frequent triall of the fickle unconstancie of all things under the Sunne can now truely say of laughter Thou art madnesse and that all the glory of the world it is but vanity and vexation of spirit Lastly Age it is sickly and craz'd and daily draweth onward nearer to the grave we see the tongue no not of men and Angels to be so powerfull an Orator to proclaime unto us Dust thou art and to dust thou must returne as but one dumbe fit of a disease ALEXANDER whom in his health all the World could not perswade but that a GOD hee would needs be upon a wound receiv'd seeing the blood come could then humble his conceit jam sentio me mortalem and now I see saith he that I must dye so that the old man dayly seeing that death which may be neare unto the young man cannot be far off from him is the more easily perswaded to prepare himselfe for the more easie passage when it comes These indeed are great advantages of age and yet perhaps the young man hath farre greater For first Youth it is bashfull and modest and modesty saith the Philosopher if it be not a vertue it is vertues companion And thus much Christianitie also seemes to acknowledge when wee say of a man that is not yet past shame that surely he is not yet past Grace For shame oft-times it is the Guardian of Grace and many sins there are for the forbearāce wherof even the best Soules are sometime as much beholding to their modesty as to their Religion But age you know it is more bold and daring and therefore oft-times for want of vertues companion vertue her selfe proves wanting and the losse of shame becomes the ruine of Grace Againe Youth it is alwayes subject to controll hath a Father a Mother a Tutor a Master or if all these may fayle yet old age it selfe wee see if for no other cause yet because old it challengeth a kind of Fatherhood over all youth and if but old ELIES gentle reproofe Nay my Sonnes why doe you such things it leaves some impression in the Soule But age 't is uncontrolable Rebuke not an Elder it is the precept in the Text and ELIHU in IOB conversing with his Ancients though they gave him just cause of speech and reproofe too yet you see how long hee layes his hand upon his mouth before ever hee durst speake so that wee see oft-times the greater is the old mans libertie the greater also is his licence Againe youth it is more free and generous in all dealings of the world liveth nearest to the best law of nature Do as thou wouldst be done unto not so ready to defraud and yet more readie to restore But Age it is penurious and griping and now come in those cruell times of extortion and oppression Quocumque modo rem a man will transgresse even for a peece of bread Lastly and that which is the maine advantage youth it is like golde soft and pliable if soone bent soone set to rights againe but age it is like Iron sullen and stiffe Youth indeed it is more heady but tendermouth'd but age it is more headstrong if it flie out it will run its course the old mans Motto is like that of PILATE Quod scripsi scripsi Hee will have his will Sinnes of youth they are but ill dispositions but sinnes of age they are commonly ill habits Here the flesh turneth Traitor and rebelleth against the Spirit but there it turneth Tyrant and commandeth In the dayes of our youth GOD patiently standeth at the doore of our hearts and knocketh and when hee hath spoke once and twice though wee regard not hee will not yet presently leave us nor forsake us but when once thirty or forty yeares long he hath beene grieved with a rebellious and gaine-saying generation in the end his patience turneth to anger What could I have done which I have not done and so gives them over to a reprobate sence Thus then you see the young man also hath his advantages and indeed what ever precedence our age can chalenge of our youth it is then onely to be found when the old man ploughes with the young mans heckfer For then it is no wonder that the incomes of our age multiplying upon the stocke of our youth should make the fairer revenew but set the comparison right and then thus much I dare boldlie say that whereas in these dayes of ours whereof out of zeale I presume to make them better wee wrongfully complaine oft-times as if they never had beene worse many rare and vertuous young men are not perhaps so rare to bee found yet I thinke it is almost a miracle to see a very good old man who never began to bee good till hee was old If then vertue be so hard a taske as to excuse our vices wee are all too easilie perswaded to beleeve surely in all discretion wee are to make choyce of the fittest season to attaine it and that I have shewen you are the daies of our Youth For let sinne have but its course a while and if you will not beleeve me Saint AVGUSTINE shall tell you what will be the issue Ex voluntate perversa facta est libido Confess lib 8. cap. 5. dum servitur libi dini facta est consuetudo dum consuetudini non resistitur factu est necessitas From a perverse will which naturally wee all bring into the World arise sinfull desires and while we humor our desire custome layes hold upon us and while this custome is not controld it proves another nature Heere then you see the difficulties of Sinne they are like the waters mentioned by the Prophet begin at the ankles rise to the knees thence to the waste after to the neck till in the end they overwhelme us Were it not better then at the first to venture over shooes then at the last over head and eares and therefore while the waters are yet low and passable before the overflowings of ungodlinesse shall too much fright our soules let mee commend unto you that Item of our SAVIOUR but upon a better errand Quod