Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	love_n	young_a	youth_n	62	3	7.6992	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59541	Several discourses and characters address'd to the ladies of the age wherein the vanities of the modish women are discovered / written at the request of a lady, by a person of honour.	Shannon, Francis Boyle, Viscount, 1623-1699.	1689 (1689)	Wing S2965A; ESTC R38898	101,219	214

their own shame or their Misses painted faces as many of our young Sparks nay others that are more than middle aged Sinners allow their Misses Coaches to themselves but with Coachmen in their own Livery for fear all might not know whose Misses they are and who keeps them to shew to the World that their vile impudence scorns all sober Mens censure as well as it defies the great Gods punishment This base species of mercenary Miss Love being grown as very common as themselves are who are as impudent in their Carriage as lewd in their Actions and really 't is now grown a disputable question which now abounds most in London Hackny Coaches or Hackny-Women Tradesmen or Trading-women Thus impudence is now become a kind of Staple Commodity in our Kingdom of Love it being now adays esteem'd a shameful meanness of Spirit in a young Gentleman to be out of countenance for keeping a Miss but grown no shame at all to keep one they being now looked upon but as marks of greatness and riches and signs of Youth health fashion and gaity but never in the least thought on to be the sad effects of sin shame folly and wickedness O strange change That sin should be thus supported by a customary impudence and vertue suppressed by a general Custom Thus the tolerated nay I might have said incouraging mode of acting this sin has taken away both the shame and conscience of committing it yet as very debauch'd as our Age is we ought not to cast our faults on it for there can be no time so bad as to render sins necessary for general Custom can never justifie particular faults since we might all live well if we did not spend our time ill for the will in her immediate operations neither depends nor moves by the temper of the body or the fashion of the times but by the motions of the mind in her own Resolutions In a word keeping of Misses is now grown so common not only among great Men but others of as bad Lives tho not of so great Estates that now as to the keeping of Misses there 's nothing in it so strange as that any should think it so THE NINTH DISCOURSE Of the vain folly of such Ladies who think to shew their Wit by Jeering and Censuring their Neighbours INdeed there would not need many Lines or Arguments on this Subject to disswade Ladies from Jeering at others Faults if they would but seriously reflect on their own for then certainly they would neither accuse others nor justifie themselves but avoid keeping Company with or at least practising of this base ill natur'd and uncharitable vice of Jeering and Censuring their Neighbours We read in the Gospel of S. John how the Scribes and Pharisees brought before our Saviour the Woman that was taken in the Act of Adultery to tempt him saying Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou and after often asking Jesus said unto them he that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone at her and they that heard it being convicted in their own Consciences went away one by one and all left her for as Solomon says who is so pure as to have no sin If all Censorious Ladies would but truly and heartily apply this saying to themselves and fancy our Saviour now saying unto them the Lady that is free from fault among you cast the first Jeer at your Neighbour I am confident the Ladies would be so Conscious of their own Guilt as they would presently all leave this filthy sin as the Scribes and Pharisees did the Adulterous Woman For there 's no Woman in this World of so holy and pure a mixture as to be free from any stain and fault for then she must be more than a Woman and therefore all Ladies ought to make it their business rather to mend their own faults than make it their pastime to Jeer at those of others which very likely they are guilty of themselves and to consider since all are infected none ought to censure any but every one to repent in particular for himself and to be sorry in general for all I have known some ordinary home-spun witty Women who have proclaim'd themselves very foolish in great Companies and have shew'd their want of wit in attempting to Jeer at others above their reach having only slight Ideas of which they pretended to have a perfect knowledge and so have exposed their faint glimmering wit and flashy talk of self conceitedness on a Candlestick to be judged and look'd into by every prying and abusive Critick which had been much better kept at home under a Bushel among their Friends and Neighbours many of these pretenders to Rallying wit fancying they have a perfect knowledge of things when they do not understand nor so much as know that they do not know it for there 's a knowledge of Ignorance as well as an Ignorance of knowledge and some sin by a presumption of knowledge as well as others do by an ignorant presumption and therefore such Women pretenders to wit may be assured that they have great reason to wish for a deliverance from their unknown ignorance as well as holy David teacheth all Men to beg pardon of God for their secret and unknown faults 'T is in ordering of wit as in managing of a voyce she that has an indifferent sweet low voyce and sings within its reach may do it agreeable enough but if she striving to sing better than she can over mounts and stretches her voyce by so overstraining it she raises her weak voyce to meer squeaking and so renders it more discord than good vocal Musick So truly an indifferent Wit that moves in the Sphere of her own ability may pass for good witty pleasant Company but if she pretends to talk of what she does not understand and by endeavouring to make witty scoffs on others to cast only some gross foul slanders on them such a one drowns her small Spring of wit in the Ocean of her folly and receives but contempt instead of praise For my part I have a more nice opinion of that they generally call ignorance than usually most have for many esteem ignorance to consist only in the want of School learning others in that of History Philosophy Mathematicks Politicks or the not well understanding the Affairs of the World and the Intrigues of Courts and the Men and factions in it when in real truth one may be a perfect Master of Art in all these and yet be an ignorant Fresh-man in the very dawning and beginning of true Wisdom the fear of God which truth is confirmed by a wiser Solomon than any that dares contradict it 't is only that wisdom that leadeth to salvation Therefore I am of opinion that a Learned Man that knoweth much and lives ill and is uncharitable is much more ignorant than that Lady who knows little and prays much and gives Alms plentifully and this