Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	life_n	live_v	soul_n	13,623	5	5.6183	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69655	Autarchy, or, The art of self-government in a moral essay : in three parts : first written to a gentleman in the university, and since fitted for publick use.	G. B. (George Burghope)	1691 (1691)	Wing B5730; ESTC R4200	63,862	179

Interest it serves and as Visionary as the nightly Feasts of Witches As these imagine that they eat and drink and yet still find themselves pursued by the same hunger and Misery so Voluptuousness leaves us as empty as before and raises a greater Thirst than it allays nay more it is lost by Usage and the poor deluded loaths what he hath admires what he hath not is always to seek and is never satisfied he pursues an Aery Expectation and courts a Mistress that when once enjoyed inspires him with new Wants and puts him upon fresh Quests and Dangers Thus the Slave to his own Lusts rowls the stone of Sisyphus and carried by the Gyre of his untam'd Desires moves an unconstant constant Round till Sickness or Age disables him and Death arrests him and carries him to the Infernal Prisons where only he becomes Stationary And thus I have made some Reflections upon that Men call Fruition or Sensual Enjoyment And I have been the longer because if there be any Pleasure in Sensuality it must be in this By what has been said it will appear That there is not a greater cheat impos'd upon Mortals or rather that they impose upon themselves And I will be bold to conclude That Sin begins and proceeds by Delusion and ends in Misery That Voluptuousness is a Masque acted by Furies in disguise which towards the end they throw off and appear in their proper Shape For this is the true End of all Sinful Enjoyments which I must next demonstrate § 12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a Man saith the Divine Preacher but the End thereof is the ways of Death Prov. 14. 12. The End of Voluptuousness is always calamitous and that commonly in this Life Sin brings forth Shame and Sorrow and forbidden Enjoyments tend to the Destruction of that Body they are brought to gratifie Thus Intemperance weakens the Appetite and consequently the Body Thus Lust incites Ammon even to incest and then to hate even to Death till Drunkenness and the Sword of Absalom hath cut him off and so put an end to both Passions And as Sin at last brings a dismal Catastrophe upon it self so each Crime hath its particular Nemesis even in our own Conscience And I dare appeal to Experience whether when a Man's Passion is over and he is at leisure to consider calmly what he hath done he feels not Shame invade him and a natural Horrour dart through his Soul Whether he doth not run as it were from the Presence of God as Adam his Forefather did as asham'd of his Nakedness or sow some thin Fig-leaves together some poor Excuses to cover it Thus 't is at first till Conscience is seared or lull'd asleep and so becomes senseless Custom will take off the Dread of Punishment and because Vengeance seems to slumber the hardned Sinner removeth it far out of his Sight and yet for all this commonly Conscience at last awakes and laying before him the things that he hath done arraigns and condemns him the black Fumes of Atheism which hitherto have hid his Sin and Punishment will at last withdraw and the Deity just and terrible discover himself to his Soul and then learn from his own mouth the Agony of his distracted Mind when he considers that he must leave all his Pleasures Friends and Acquaintance and be carried alone into the dreadful unknown Abyss of Eternity When he begins thus to question with himself What if now at last there should be a God which I have not only provoked but denied a Heaven which I have slighted and a Hell which I have not only chosen but made it my Business and taken pains to procure What if this God shall meet me in the other World and convince me of his Being by his Justice in what a Condition shall I be then Why no worse than eternally and irrecoverably miserable And is it so I find then I have liv'd to a fair purpose I have enjoyed some few shadows of Pleasures and suffer'd many real Griefs I have been cheated all my Life time with Hopes Fears and Expectations and found all at last both Vanity and Vexation of Spirit And now I can perceive no glimpse of Joy no comfort to my Soul but a Darkness and Horrour and the Expectation of a dreadful Sentence when I shall depart hence But Oh sacred Vertue and you hospitable Graces of Integrity and Innocence who alone are able to banish these dreadful Apprehensions and bring home in Peace how have I slighted and despised you This is very probable to be the End of the Voluptuous because the nearer he approaches to his Death the clearer are the discoveries of his Misery yet I know very well that some die as well as live senseless and unapprehensive of future Danger but then their Condition is never the better because their Despair as well as Punishment are transferr'd to the other World The Rich man in the Gospel was never the happier in Hell because he perceiv'd it not before he opened his Eyes in its Flames § 13. I have led you my Dorotheus through the Folly to the Misery of Sensuality of living in Rebellion against the higher Powers of the Soul and working Wickedness with Greediness You may easily perceive upon the whole Matter That there is much Sorrow and very little Pleasure in Debauchery and that Hell stands at the end of it That those poor Pleasures that are enjoyed are little else but Cheat and Delusion and at last leave us not only disappointed but miserable Happy is the Man that can see through the Disguise and apprehend the Deformity and End of Vice Happy is he that by an early Conquest of himself and his Earthly part makes himself capable of the Pleasures of Autarchy of those that are to be found in the Paths of Virtue and the Regimen of the upper Soul And these are they which come next to be considered § 14. It was the wise Epictetus that reduc'd all Morality and his Readings thereupon to these two words mentioned in the end of the former Part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer and abstain These two infold the whole Duty of Autarchy and regulate at once our irascible and concupiscible Appetites The First of these tells us we must suffer Injuries Reproaches and Slanders patiently The Second enjoins us Abstinence from Sin I mean and from all Occasions and Appearances of it These two were the constant Doctrine of our Lord first and then of his Disciples only he went beyond Epictetus refin'd and exalted these Duties and made the first especially the hardest of the two one of the Beatitudes Matt. 5. Blessed are ye when men shall revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you The Conquest of our selves the Exercise of Self-denial and the patient bearing of Injuries is a

hath provided animal Pleasures proportionate to its ends but if you can fansie any other Pleasures peculiar to the sinful use of it which sure is something hard to do turn but your Eyes and Thoughts upon those rotten Carcasses those walking Sepulchres which Lasciviousness hath made its Martyrs see there the Relicts of its Tyranny when it hath exhausted the Spirits darkned the Understanding weakned the Senses and putrified the very Soul by the Contagion of the Body not to be purified but by the Flames of Hell And when you have duly considered this then let the Adulterer boast of his stoln Pleasures These are the chief kinds of the Lust of the Flesh which is the eldest Daughter of Sensuality § 9. The Lust of the Eye holds the next place by which I presume St. John meant Covetousness whose right to Pleasures comes next to be examined And if those I have spoken of had great Pretences to great Pleasures I 'm sure this hath none at all For Covetousness is confess'd by all to be a wretched Plague or rather a Madness and the Man that is enslav'd to it seems possess'd and is rightly Term'd a Miser But because Money answereth all things if you can imagine that there is any Pleasure in looking upon Bags of Gold and Silver that is White and Yellow Earth reflect a little upon the Fate of a Tantalus and think what it is to have and yet not enjoy great Abundance If there be any hidden charms in Cares and Fears in watching Riches lest they take wing and flie away or in the best Effect of it in being honoured and feared yet I 'm sure the Happiness of the liberal Soul which shall be made fat and the sweet content of him that is satisfied with Food convenient doth far surpass them all § 10. The Ostentations and vain-glorious Boastings proceeding from the Fumes of Ambition is the Third kind of Sensuality in St. John's Method And here I cannot but think that the strutting Gallant must be conscious to himself of his own Emptiness and that he should take little Pleasure in cheating others when he knows he doth but cheat himself And for the desire of being great I would fain know where 's the Pleasure of forcing a Man's Way through the Briars and Thorns the Dark Methods of Secret Plots and the Labyrinths of Infernal Combinations When by many dangerous Steps he is arriv'd at the unsteady Seat of Greatness and has put on the Incendialis Toga the poisonous Robe of Jealousies and Fears When he is hated by some and feared by others and made a common Curse by most Is this that which you call a state of Happiness His Port deprives him of Society and the distance that he must keep renders his Life solitary and uncomfortable and yet which is very remarkable he is troubled with Company and his Attendants will not give him the Liberty of an Hour's Privacy and Recess So that indeed a great Favourite a States-man can neither be familiar or retir'd nor can enjoy himself alone or his Friends in Company but must be confin'd to the Bedlam of Buffoons and Parasites If this be then such a Pleasant Life per me licet let those that will run the danger enjoy the Benefit of being great and hated of breaking the wild Beast to an easie Pace and Mildness they had need to have Returns answerable to their Dangers And yet after all I will produce more Safety Satisfaction and sweet Content in a mean Estate and among the Country shades than in all their Glory 'T is true we that move in a lower orb look up and gaze upon Greatness with Admiration and think a Phaeton a happy Man because he sits so high and amongst so much Brightness but alas we know not what Furies carry him on 〈◊〉 what Dangers attend him Every Man is uneasie in his own Condition would be greater and has a Tincture of Ambition and that makes us not know our own Happiness even when we are possessed of it In the mean time did we seriously consider the state of Greatness we should find St. James's description of our Lives to be adapted to his A Vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away A Cloud that looks gloriously towards the Sun and by the Reflection of his Beams carried aloft by a superiour Influence for a short time and then it dissolves in Tears § 11. I have at large examined the Pretences of those Three sorts of Sensualities to that which we call Pleasures and setting them in a true Light have expos'd their Delusions so that upon the whole matter we may justly conclude That their Pleasures are not so surprising and extraordinary nor indeed have they any at all peculiar to themselves but what is common to Vertue and Moderation or rather what proceeds from them For Vertue dwells in the Centre and is the Original of all true Pleasure and Vice in the Extreams where she receives and reflects back some of the Emanations which proceed from the Middle but has none of her own but what she borrows or counterfeits Thus that I may use an apt Similitude the Sun from the Centre of the World shines by its own Light whilst the Planets as so many dark Bodies are whited over and shine by Reflection only But because this is not a common Notion and obvious to every Apprehension I will bestow some short Reflections upon the Vanity of Fruition in respect of its Shortness Uncertainty and Dissatisfaction Appendages which allay it to that degree that it is not worthy of the pursuits of Good and Wise Men. First For First every Sensual Enjoyment is Momentary and Transient It ceafes as soon as perceived and like the Lightning is gone before we are aware of it I have here a large Field of Discourse before me but I need not stay to confirm what is confess'd and at the same time lamented by the greatest Sensualists Secondly It is uncertain we lose it oftentimes in the Embrace and it vanisheth in our Arms. The whole Life of Man is but an Aggregate of indivisible Instants of Time and every one of these may rob us of it the Revenge of Saul was prevented when he had got David even in his Net and Herod's Divinity vanished in the midst of his Adorers when the invisible Hand consign'd him to Worms Every day gives us Examples of the inconstancy of Worldly Pleasures and we are commonly carried up aloft by them and then let sall and so broken to pieces thus Alexander in the midst of his Victories Feasts and Triumphs was call'd off the Stage and so was the Rich Man in the Gospel amongst his Designs of Ease and Fruition Nay more than this a vain and needless Fear destroys all our Enjoyments and they are so much the Creatures of Fancy that they vanish and disappear upon the least alteration of it Thirdly It is at best but dissatisfactory every Sensual Enjoyment is a cheat false as Hell whose