Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	place_n	young_a	youth_n	42	3	7.8614	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57529	Matrimoniall honovr, or, The mutuall crowne and comfort of godly, loyall, and chaste marriage wherein the right way to preserve the honour of marriage unstained, is at large described, urged, and applied : with resolution of sundry materiall questions concerning this argument / by D.R. ...	D. R. (Daniel Rogers), 1573-1652.	1642 (1642)	Wing R1797; ESTC R5451	341,707	420

their place should teach the younger to be sober should rather aime at being under the line then above it But as it is not youth where there is a chast spirit that can provoke to excesse in this kind so neither is it age in any profession if it be once tainted with defilednesse which will perswade men to moderatenesse but as bruite beasts their will is their law and even in those things they know yet they corrupt themselves to the griefe and sad woe of their companions who know not how to redresse it Loth I am to speake that in this argument with many sentences yea in two wordes if one might serve and heartily wish which yet never will bee obteined that at least the religious might be lawes to themselves in such kinds But the experience of the contrary may plead some pardon for that little I have said Some must speake and where more aptly then in a treatise for the nonce But how shall we know when this due measure is observed Surely then when snaring concupiscence is prevented and fitnesse of body and minde therby purchased freely to walke with God and to discharge duties of calling without distraction or annoyance And so doing much fredome may be enjoyed both the former extremities being avoyded and Gods wrath prevented which I cannot say whether it more hangs over the heads of superstitious Papists for vowing a forced chastity contrary to the expresse rule of the word or upon married persons for abuses in eyther of the two kindes Concerning the former we know both into what odious enormity of luste the Lord hath suffred them to be plunged both unnaturall and unlawfull making them the execration of the world for their lust Touching the latter I leave it to the experience of the wise to consider Both what vexation the neglect of this ordinance hath caused to many who under pretexts of their owne have refused the mutuall due to each other who afterwards seeing what wofull snares they have brought themselves into as seeking the Company of harlots and adulterers have bin deeply terrifyed wishing too late with sorrow that they had denyed themselves and subjected them to the ordinance And so for the other extremity when due regard of Chastity hath bin neglected what weaknes diseases inability of body and minde to calling and duty hath ensued Yea further when presumptuous lust hath broken boundes of womanly modesty compting all seasons alike what markes hath God set upon their owne bodies for their incontinency so upon the bodies of their Children yea and upon their mindes and whole constitution the one by disguizement of countenance the other by defilednesse with the like sin for what was bred in bone will not eazily out in flesh when as I say men have met with these penalties then they have justly confessed wrath to ceaze upon them And indeed although there were no religion yet if men were but Philosophers to understand the naturall mischief and poison of such wayes they coulde not but loath them Therfore let a wise mediocrity be observed sanctifying our fellowship and fruite of bodies by earnest prayer that both may be cleane to us Make not that helpe which God hath given as water to quench as oile to enflame There is a white Devill aswell to corrupt as a black to abhorre the remedie But such debauched filthines the loosenes of our age is come to in all kind of lust that I verily thinke if those chast Platos and Lawgivers of old times were now living although Heathens yet would be scorned by many Epicures and Libertines in the Church who thinke it a curbe to their will not to live as they list worse then beasts and Savages Be we therfore who stand to Gods barre a rule to our selves following the steps and practice of such as in our owne degree and ranke go for the most moderate in eyther sexe As hee saide of the endles questions arising about morrall actions let it bee as a wise man would judge so I say of this for questions of this nature are so impossible to be decyded punctually as other the like are of fashions and liberties of our common life that except they be put to a comprimize there wil bee no ende made So much for this third The fourth and last Chastity is that of the body This I make one duty by it selfe For although its true that if the three former were kept this would follow alone yet I say when all is done the body is not to be trusted too farre This sin of uncleannesse is a running sore in our flesh hardly cured Even many otherwise good persons though kept from the act yet by all their strife have scarse felt themselves free through a bodily propensenesse to this evill And Satan is ready to do in this so in other sins even by how much the sin is loathed by so much the more to exasperate this sin not to speake of the falls of those worthies in Scripture So that except there bee a speciall arming our selves against Snares objected and layd in our waies which are innumerable in the lives of such men as have to meddle in the affayres of this life and that with resolution both before and upon the occasion to preserve our selves all our former course taking to shunne temptations by our senses and the like will do us no pleasure when they are brought home by the Devill to our doore and layde in our lap presented in a Lordly dish with secrecie ease and fayre Colors Meere suddennesse of affront marke what I say when nothing else could do it hath prevented some that it hath made them all their life slaves and miserable Take heed bring not uncleane bodies to the marryed estate and bed lest being marryed this dog be not easily rated from the carrion There must aswell bee a fidelity of body as spirit an holy strength to ward off blowes to cut off deadly temptations by the middle by our well ordred members as not to call them in by well awed senses and carriage Chast Ioseph was not only resolved not to provoke himselfe to sin but when he ws suddainly surprized by the offer of an harlot unsought for he abhorred the object as if he had beene warned beforehand It s one thing for a man to have grace another thing to have such a presence of it that when our base hearts are in a readines to embrace present grace is nearer the doore to thrust it away abhor it There is more danger in a prepared snare made ready to our hande then in the speculation or foresight of that which may possibly befall us So much for this fourth which I call Chastity of the body in a speciall sense to note even how the whole man ought to be as well strengthned against the suddennesse of a temptation as beforehand kept from the meanes leading therto And perhaps there are some sorts of men whose sad

or pleasurable meane but by meere sympathy which is farre the more pure and noble cement of union then what else so ever Nay in the very sencelesse creatures is to be seene this amity and neerenesse that as some have an antipathy each to other as the shadow of the walnut is noxious to other plants so the elme and the vine doe naturally so entwine and embrace each the other that it s called the friendly elme who can tell why much more then in reasonable creatures it must be so And hence those heathens that could goe no further make the very constellations of heaven under which two are borne to be the cause and influence of their accord I know not what starre saith one hath temperd my nature so fitly to thine that we should be so united And another scoffing at one he distasted tells him I love thee not certainly and yet I cannot tell why for thou never hurtest me but this I am sure of that I love thee not What wonder then if God for the preserving of that band which is neerest of all durablest of all and the most fundamentall of all hath much more caused a secret sympathie of hearts to live in the brests and bosomes of some men and some women that are to live in the married estate whereof no reason can bee given save the finger of God whereby I say their hearts and affections doe consent together of two to become one flesh the most inward union of all Whence is it that all others set aside sometimes more amiable in themselves more rich better bred and the like yet through this instinct of sympathie an hidden and unknowne cause two consent together to become husband and wife Surely by this it appeares that by how much lesse reason can be given of this temperament so much the more God is in it as purposing by a more pretious and uniting band then ordinary to knit them together whom he purposeth to maintaine in such a league as must endure and cannot be dissolved when once it is made So that we see marriage love is oftime a secret worke of God pitching the heart of one party upon another for no knowne cause and therefore where this strong lodestone attracts each to other no further question need to be made but such a man such a womans match were made in heaven and God hath brought them together But because the finger of God is not so manifest in all matches as by a secret inspiration to unite them and because man being a reasonable creature is led in affections not to live by sensuall appetite as a beast but by rationall motives and inducements therefore providence discovers it selfe herein also even framing the matter so that oftimes where this naturall inclination failes and where in likely hood some antipathie and contrariety of spirits would appeare yet by some accidentall endowments of religion of education of eminent naturall parts of sweet disposition even that party pleases best who yet were as likely to displease as much as any in the generall I say this is a providence more generall then the former so ordering things that where meere sympathy failes yet another band may proove to some persons as pleasing and lasting when as they see that one defect is recompenced with another eminencie and perfection Who but God hath so accorded it that many a woman of exquisite beauty and person like to attract love enough in a mutuall way of man should yet come short of inward wi● wisedome and abilities Surely he who doth all so well that nothing can bee found out after him better then he hath made it hath thus appointed it lest if all perfections should concurre in one impotent subject the heart would be too big for the bosome and swell into an excesse of pride and selfelove And on the other side who hath so ordred it that oftentimes where beauty failes where ●ther person is ordinary there yet these uncomely partes should be cloathed with greater honour of vertue understanding industry providence and other qualities of worth and all for this universall end that there might be an equality So that whereas the person in some regards might be an object of disdaine yet in others might be to a rationall and wise man a meet object of esteeme her gifts drowning her defects and so sustaining the poore creature from contempt and scorne Thus doth God by his wisedome so order contraires that being brought by his own skillfull hand to a due temperature they might cause a most pleasing harmony so that oftimes a nimble wit joyned with a more slow a phlegmatique temper with a sanguine a melancholique with a merry a cholerique with a mild and patient temper might behold the workmanship of God herein with such admiration that the frame of spirit which in the generall might seeme most repugnant yet in respect of the necessarie usefulnesse and commodity thereof might find most favour And why surely because similitude of distempers might breed a confusion in the married estate wheras the one quality alaying the other might reduce the body to a sweet harmony and correspondence So that still we see God hath an hand in this union of hearts in the married and although some unite through a secret sympathy others from some confessed good and amiable object in the party loved yet God is in them both that by a strong marrimoniall knot the married couples might eike out that love and affection towards each other which else neither the need of each other no nor religion it selfe could alone maintaine and preserve And so much for this second branch By all I have said it may be perceaved that by conjugall love here I meane not onely Christian love a grace of Gods spirit for marriage borders much what upon nature and flesh nor yet a carnall and sudden flash of affection corruptly enflamed by Concupiscence rather brutish the● humane but a sweete compounde of both religion and nature the latter being as the materiall the former as the formall cause therof properly called Marriage love And this love is not an humor raysed suddenly in a pang or thoade of affection ebbing and flowing sometymes when the parties are set upon the stage abroad among company and strangers where they woulde acte a parte for their Credit for family and place where they live ought to be their true stage of Action but an habited and settled love planted in them by God wherby in a constant equall and cheerfull consent of spirit they carry themselves each to other each hollow companion wil exceed at an od time and put downe true lovers who if they were tryed by their uniforme love would be tired as jades betray themselves to be counterfeits whatsoever is according to God is equall though but weake So is this of the love of couples no union of imagination mixture nor yet bare affection but an effect of divineinstitutiō betweene two for polygamy is

bitterly inveigh yea incense thine heart against some actuall filthinesse yet till this inward dunghill bee raked which is able to steame forth into an hundered Adulterers yea sinnes without number I say till this furnace kindled by hell as ready to defile thee againe when thou hast seemed to wash out many stains as they appeare with ten fold more wickednesse looke for no redresse of thy disease It s a running soare an issue of uncleannesse and must first bee dreined eare the passages drie up Theseely man who saw the streame of the River run very swift sat him downe upon the banke and slept thinking by that time all would bee run out and he might go over dry shod Poore soule for that river ran still ever did and ever will So is it here till God dry up or turne the current it can be no otherwise The due sight of this thy bent of heart thy frame of spirit alway inclining one way never to Purity first tiring thee as a traveller wurry thee as a dog pursue thee at heeles as the Avenger of blood did the Man slayer is one of the best waies to quit thee of this mischeefe Get an inward abhorring of thy selfe see what an huge heap of filth lies there marke how it s like the doore rolling the same way on his hinges and this wearisome sight may perhaps drinke up thy spirit and casheire all thy dawbings colours and excuses I say This may rase thy forte it selfe and shake it from the foundations and then the out works will soone yeelde and fall to the ground Looke upon this sin in that Glasse with that eye which Paul looked in when he beheld lust forbidden and if any thing this shall swallow thy ship wholly up in the quicksands of selfe-abhorring Say to thy soule thus were I washt with nitre yea scoured with sope yet the clothes I weare will defile mee as fast Alas I get nothing by all my outward abhorrings lust will not bee scared away with Holy-water I have a Bosome Orator within which will draw mee to lust twenty times one after another and pull mee faster to filth then all my owne or others disswasives can withdraw mee from it Lord then draine this flood and overflow teach mee to abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes if ever I get victory over my actuall corruptions Secondly abhorre thy inward Actuall thoughts of contemplative uncleannes Workmen proceeds according to an Idaea and platforme in his mind set before him in all his projects and attempts so doth the Adulterer The heart sayth our Saviour is the Adulterer all the mischiefe is hatcht there What contemplations of villany doth the forlorne stie of Thoughts nourish in many What uncleane man or woman is there whose thoughts do not plod and contrive their meetings the places the tyme manner and circumstances What a Thoroughfare of such scurfe is that defiled spirit of theirs which they carry about them Once a learned man was called a walking library But of these it may be sayd They are a walking Stewes It s as easie to pull their hearts out of their bellies as to alter and turne the course of these suggestions the Devill beeing the Presenter and the fancie the Receiver Mortify then and nip these thoughts which have the whole man at command Senses do not so much hurt to thoughts as thoughts to them and to the bodily performance The loathing of base vaine wanton and capering thoughts in this kind were halfe the cure These vapouring up from the heart to the brayne do so possesse and beleaguer it that the affections are fired and on thornes till they come to practise Now when the fewell is gone or lessened the fire must cease let originall corruption be once abhorred truly and this will follow Thinke that God speaks to thee in St. Iames his phrase clense your thoughts ye sinners and purge your hearts ye wantonly minded ● Howlong shall your uncleane thoughts abyde with and within you Know you not that Imaginations are the first moover of the whole frame of corrupt Nature If they moove must not all inferiour ones dance after their Pipe And tell mee when Satan fires the whole man whither doth he inject first his fireballes Is it not into the thoughts If he would tempt accuse terrifie how goes he to worke but by raysing up a commotion in the thoughts And in what part is hell fire kindled in the damned Is it not first in the thoughts Keep then thy thoughts with all diligence Forestall Satan and uncleannes by good thoughts chast pure contrary thoughts let the Chambers of the thoughts be prepossessed with these guests they will sparre the doore from such encroachers Especially if the pure spirit bee the usherer of them in by the word Thirdly abhorre all those cursed colors and mufflers of this sin which the fertile heart can devise abundantly to alleniate and lessen this sin The Heart is the forge of all these tricks and evasions If the Lord have called this sin so terrible let it bee enough to thee abhorre the Divells figleaves behold the filth of this skirte with detestation Blaunch it not over with thy Nature that worst of all the propension of thy constitution the strength of allurements the difficulty of preserving thy selfe the Generality of the sin the slighty opinion of the Multitude Abhorre these cordially or else the sin abides still under dispensation and connivence Then fourthly as touching other inward fomenters of lust of which I breefly speake because I have prevented my selfe in the point of Chastity before Abhorre thy covers and shelters hope of impunity hiding thine uncleannes under the shrowd of a married whore or of thy wicked friends and Abettors such as the Devill will rayse up to sticke to thee or any such as for a base bribe will ayde thee and keepe thee from open shame Such impunity being forecast in the minde is an hardnor of the Adulterer in his sin Abhorre a luskish lasy heart that delights in ease and ydlenes loath softnesse effeminatenes and impurity of spirit a throughfare for lust Also unarmednesse of the Soule lying open and exposed to occasion empty swept and garnisht fit for the next Devill that comes Abhorre rashnes and unstayednesse which will on the suddeine betray thee to the occasions of lust Renounce all selfconfidence and ventrousnes upon thy stength as rather scorning to be snared then humbly fearing snares for Alas poore worme who art thou if left to thy selfe Know this that lust will give small warning it comes as a torrent as the necessity of an armed man There is the same mettal in thee which is in others and they are soonest snared who feare least Beware of selflove which gives it selfe Allowance of the largest sise as loth to deny it selfe nothing which it covets and counting nothing too pretious no liberty or delight too deare for it selfe Abandon inconstancy and giddines of spirit which cannot

stand its owne ground nor rest in one place cleave to one taske For the bent of spirit to one settled object studie calling or lawfull object will divert the vaine minde from frothie fancies and ideas of uncleane thoughts companies and allurements A spirit whose banks runne full of employment will hardly be unsettled but holdes Satan at staves end Aske thy gadding roaving heart whither she will whence shee comes and what is her busines as watchmen do Roagues Examine the ground and warrant of thy journeys travailes errands and wandrings up and downe forsaking thy station and family Set thy kinfe to thy throate if thou bee an Athenian dayly lusting after new places companies pleasures meetings and delight And whatsoever savors of carnall and sensuall desire know it cannot but threaten mischeefe and dispossesse thee of thy watch I speake still of such as in appearance have given their names to Chirst even these for I judge none let every man judge himselfe have so sarre taken liberties to themselves in the brink that they have fallen into the water One of them once much pleasing himselfe in admiring the features and beauties of women and stroaking the cheekes of one with Wantonnesse was by his wiser neighbour warned therof saying These crimson faces so he cald them will sadly cost you the setting on one day and so it fell out soone after for such an aspersion was soone after cast upon him whether true from man or just with God as brought his hoary head to the grave with sorrow To teach all such gnats to beware how neere they fly to the candle lest they bee burnt And thus much for inward abhorrings As touching outward I will repeat nothing before said in the chastity of Prevention onely whatsoever occasion threatens any affront to the fort of Chastity and the preseving of the whole man in integrity and honour renounce it And so much for the first of the foure heads of counsell against this sinne of uncleannesse to wit Abhorring of somewhat be spoken The second counsell is to meditate of somewhat And whereof Surely of such things as might helpe to quash and quell lust and that partly concerning the sinne it selfe and partly the penalties thereof And both these specialls of Meditation must be attended with two properties in generall First that this meditation be wise and secondly that it bee deepe First I say wise for I would have this noted that some things are of that nature that some kind of musing of them is rather an incensing of the heart unto the sinne then any checking thereof As are all such evills as border upon the sensuall appetite and concupiscible faculty of which sort especially is this sinne of uncleannesse Many complaine that they muse much of the odiousnesse therof that so they might abhorre it But they finde it more and more to follow their hand and to snare their spirit And so the remedy proves much worse then the disease And it fares with such as it doth with two men at variance who put their quarrels to comprimise But when wise men should set them at one they fall on ripping up all circumstances of unkindnes offered each to other that they part worse enemies then they met and so make the wound incurable So here men meditate of the sensuall and carnall occurrents of this sinne their base meetings words gestures unchaste lookes and acts under pretence of a purpose more fully to detest and abhorre them But by this meane the divel casteth fire into the drie powder of their concupiscence and inflameth them to it the more The reason is because the sense and fleshly familiarity of the thoughts doe prevaile against the spirituall hatred thereof So it fares in other temptations of an hideous nature as Atheisticall thoughts against the Majesty of God or blasphemous thoughts against the Scriptures or the essence and Attributes of God the basenesse whereof the more we plod upon especially while Satans wild fire is in the spirit the more we are snared therewith Therefore in such cases as these the practice of Elisha to the servant of Jehoram is to be followed Wee must pray against the tenacity thereof and force our selves to handle such thoughts roughly at the doore and in no sort to give place to them as knowing their Masters feet is not farre behind them Tosse not thoughts off and on about passages which tickle the fancy and wind in deeplier into it then it can bee rid thereof yea though they were most irkesome to it But take up the sinne in the whole lumpe and bundle muse of the bitter roote whence it comes as David did in his Meditations Incense thy soule against the body of corruption whence it flowes that wherein thy Mother conceived thee and thence descend to the fruits of it as the wound which it leaves upon the conscence the wrath of God which it pulls upon it selfe the curse of it how it makes all the soile barren blastes and wastes the grace of God or the least shew of any Keepe it thus at staves end but tamper not much with pitch lest we be defiled Such unwise meditation is not water to quench but oile to encrease the flame Secondly let this meditation be deepe and solemne both about the properties and the penalties of this sinne Touching the former the first meditation about it is how spirituall a wickednesse it is especially under the Cospell It s like Absaloms incest commited shamelessely in the sight of the Sun before all Israel It doth not onely sin against morall light of the naturall conscience but also against the grace of God and the remedy offered therby For the grace of God hath appeared to all and teacheth them to denie all ungodlinesse and fleshly lusts and to live soberly godly and purely in this present world Davids adultery was a morall act but yet inseparable from spirituall wickednesse for he resisted conscience in point not of morall light onely as any heathen might doe but of grace and mercy from God teaching him to abhorre it Yea this very thing was the thing that made the Lord so severely punish it both then and after even because hee fought against his spirituall light embracing a lust and the sweet of a base heart with the losse of that sweet mercy of God which he had tasted Yea against that sweet communion with God which hee had formerly enjoyed both which hee knew would bee wasted hereby as also that hereby the spirit of God was displeased and vexed with this rebellion and the effects thereof and h●s conscience gulled downe and defiled with sensuality and security yea hardned by the deceitfulnesse of sinne And hereby the enemies of God were caused to blaspheme God his worship and the generation of the righteous For our better conceiving of this point in my judgement the most weighty of all to gaster a soule from such Abomination let us observe how the holy