Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	know_v	scripture_n	truth_n	7,532	5	5.8743	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39718	Love's dominion a dramatique piece full of excellent moralitie, written as a pattern for the reformed stage.	Flecknoe, Richard, d. 1678?	1654 (1654)	Wing F1228; ESTC R14630	32,315	94

Loves Dominion A Dramatique Piece Full of Excellent Moralitie Written as a Pattern for the REFORMED STAGE Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci In DOMINO CONFIDO LONDON Printed in the Year 1654. To the Lady Elizabeth Claypole Madam I Present you here with my Love's Dominion to which you are no Stranger having the Art by your many Excellent Qualities to make your self honour'd and beloved of all Neither is it a Stranger unto you you having been pleased to like it when I made you but a confused relation of it and will much more now I hope representing it more clearly to your view I must intreat you to favour it a little for never a more Innocenter thing appeared in Court and I do not know how much it would be out of Countenance were it not encouraged and Countenanced by you For the rest I dare not Interest you in its more publique Representation not knowing how the palat of the Time may relish such Things yet which till it was disgusted with them was formerly numbred amongst its chiefest Dainties and is so much •onged for still by all the nobler and better sort as could it but be effected by your mediation you should infinitely oblige them all and in parti•ar Madam Your most humble obedient and obliged Servant RICHARD FLECKNO The Preface to the Reader THe Stage or Theater is but the World in little as the World is but a great Theater where men enter act their parts and have their exits c. T is an Academy of choicest language a Map of the best manners and behaviour and finally a Mirrour representing the Actions of men and therefore by a better title than that of Plays called Actions by some and Operaes or works by others proposing the good for our example and imitation and the bad to deter us from it and for the avoiding it I deny not but aspersions these latter •mes have been cast upon it by the ink 〈◊〉 some who have written obscen•ly •currilously c. but instead of wiping ••em off to break the Glass was too ri•id and severe For my part I have en•eavoured here the clearing of it and re•oring it to its former splendor and first ••stitution of teaching Virtue reproving •ice and amendment of Manners so as 〈◊〉 the rest but imitate my example those who shall be Enemies of it hereafter must declare themselves Enemies of Vir•ue as formerly they did of Vice Whence we may justly hope to see it restored again with the qualification of an humble coadjutor of the Pulpit to teach Mora•ity in order to the others Divinity and th' •oulding and tempering mens minds for the better receiving the impressions of Godliness Devotion like gilding to matter cleaving not nor sticking to rough and unpolish'd minds unlesse they be first prepared with politeness of manners and the tincture of good education for the receiving it which is best taught on the Theater by how much those precepts move the mind more forcibly and efficaciously which besides the allowance of the Ear have a powerfull recommendation of the Eye And sure that Antient meant somewhat like the Stage when he said That could Virtue be seen but by mortal Eyes it would ravish all with its love and admi•ation c. Especially we may hope it now when we are rid of our sullen Masters of so Cynick a devotion as they would enforce men to serve God spight of Humanity and shake us into Religion with fear and trembling not remembring that we are oftner invited to it in the Holy Scripture with rejoycing and jubilation chearfulness having been always accounted the exterior mark of true piety and devotion And it is that for my part I labour to introduce as a thing no doubt more acceptable to Almighty God Hilarem enim Datorem diligit Deus than to see us go about his service with a sad countenance and sullen chear Mean time let who 's list take the black melancholy spirit give me the light chearful one which has hitherto been accounted the better one I am sure and wil be still unlesse we all turn Ethiopians And now having reformed the Stage we may justly expect they should reform the Pulpit too who preach so much against it whereof late there has been uttered more scandalous and libellous stuff than ever yet was uttered on the Stage especially against those in Authority I know not from what spirit but I am sure not from the Spirit of God who commands us to obey our Superiours without exceptions a spirit so much the more dangerous by how much it pretends more Scripture and Religion than the Stage for what it does and you know Corruptio optimi pessima that the corruption of the best things is the worst Neither are we to believe these people the sooner for their saying that this Spirit is Here or There Truth and Falshood ever entring by the same ports into the Mind and t is so ordinary now for every one though contradictory amongst themselves to affirm they have it as if this Trade last we shall shortly amongst the Cryes of London have every Girl and Fellow crying it in the Streets Mean time God send us the Spirit of Humility such as St. Paul had when he doubted whether he had it or no a Spirit I shall believe a hundred times sooner than theirs who so confidently and peremptorily affirm they have it To conclude with them if I may not believe a Iuglars which I see they shall excuse me if I will not believe theirs which I see not of which there is so little probability as the Beadle who should whip it out of them might as well pretend unto it as they themselves And so much for this turbulent and seditious Spirit whom only we intend by what we have writ And now from this necessary digression to return to our matter For the Design or choice of the subject I thought it necessary there first to apply the Remedy where the harm was most universal Love being the generall passion of every breast and there to begin the Reformation of the Stage where its abuse was most frequent and most notororious its greatest disreglement having been in point of Love and therefore 't was f•rst to be rectified and first to be reduced to its right Chanel where its overflow and debordment was the most dangerous For the Plot I have taken a middle way betwixt the French and English the one making it too plain and the other too confused and intrigued I imagining one of these pieces not like a simple Alley where one walks alwayes in the same track nor as a Wilderness where one is lost through so many diversions but as a pleasant Garden composed of divers walks with variety and uniformity so mixt as one part handsomly introduces you into another every one has correspondence amongst themselves and to the whole For the manner of handling it I have so mixt your profit with your pleasure as