Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	sin_n	soul_n	work_n	7,280	5	5.6981	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26295	Vox clamantis, or, An essay for the honour, happiness and prosperity of the English gentry, and the whole nation in the promoting religion and vertue, and the peace both of church and state. / by P.A. ...	Ayres, Philip, 1638-1712.	1684 (1684)	Wing A4314; ESTC R32826	52,049	117

them with the meanest of the People but with the filthiest of Animals even Swine which must needs render them very contemptible and mean to all Persons For Sin of any kind is the greatest deformity in nature it transformed Glorious Angels into Devils how dishonourable is it therefore for Gentlemen to be in love with Ugliness and Deformity And could men alas but take a survey and view of themselves their Behaviour in their Excesses and Debauches how odious and despicable how ridiculous and absurd would they appear to themselves to their own serious thoughts For it becomes all men but more especially Gentlemen to have Wise and Sober thoughts and worthy designs in which to imploy and delight themselves in which consists true joy and comfort of mind for Res est severa verum gaudium as one well speaks Now for them that should in their Conversations be like Stars of the First Magnitude shining and refulgent seasoned with Religion Wisdom and Vertue and should enliven and enlighten all about them within their several Orbs and Stations encouraging Vertue Temperance and Goodness and frowning upon Vice and Wickedness to see them wallowing in Mire and Dirt in their Excesses and Debauches O Monstrum horrendum c. Consider also seriously what great guilt you contract by giving bad example by teaching and propagating Vice and Wickedness in the many your Inferiors you are eminent in your Stations set above a multitude of other men and therefore your actions must needs be very conspicuous and the greater the person is offending the more mischievous is his example your examples are of great force and efficacy to lead others either to Vertue and Goodness or to Vice and Wickedness As for the ignorant and mean Persons why may they not think to be bold in those courses where their Betters by far dare so freely venture Yea as it was observed of Cato an eminent man in his time Facilius quisquis objecerit crimen honestum quam turpem Catonem you will make your Inferiors take Vice to be Vertue Beware therefore Gentlemen I beseech you you that move in a higher Orb of giving bad example for thereby you will involve your selves certainly in infinite guilt will be a means of damning thousands beside your selves and double damning your selves at the last you therefore have little need of heating the Furnace of Hell seven times hotter than else it would be by urging and tempting men nay forcing them to this horrid Excess which must needs bring you into the rank of the Infernal Spirits whose proper work and delight is in tempting men to sin to the destruction of Millions of Souls How unfit also doth Surfeiting and Drunkenness make men to govern themselves or their own affairs their Wives Children and Families their Estates and Concerns How doth it unfit them by thus degrading and debasing themselves by their sensualities to be Magistrates and Governours under their Prince for as Solomon saith Eccles. 8.1 It is wisdom that maketh a mans face to shine therefore how unfit doth this sin render Gentlemen to be assistant to their Sovereign in governing licentious and stubborn People let us consider that wise advise Prov. 31.4 It is not for Kings O Lemuel it is not for Kings to drink Wine nor for Princes strong drink lest they drink and forget the Law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted c. By which we may understand plainly how this sin and vice of Excess and Intemperance tends to weaken the Government of the World of States and Kingdoms disables Magistrates to Govern and brings them into contempt And it is well observed by a late worthy Author that the most singular and strongest part of Humane Authority is properly in the wisest and most vertuous although Nunquam ita bene erit in rebus humanis ut plures sunt meliores We may herein not impertinently take in also this consideration by the by that this Excess once lent a hand to the undoing the best and justest cause that ever was in the world I mean of Charles the First of blessed memory let it not again be so far prevalent among us especially the Kings Loyal Subjects to the prejudice of the same just Cause of our present Prince and Sovereign against his Seditious and Rebellious Subjects if ever God should permit them to make their attempts again against the Crown Let all such as are eminent for affection and Loyalty to their Prince be always Wise Sober Serious and Temperate but let all the Kings Enemies be Drunk yea let them be Drunk and Spue and fall and rise no more Shall therefore any man that hath a rational and immortal Soul and Spirit so far forget himself his own Reason his Religion be so monstrously vain foolish and absurd as deliberately and wilfully to give himself over to a habit and custom in sin especially in this Swinish excess to the dishonour of God reproach to himself and to render him useless and unprofitable both to himself and his Generation which in conclusion will be the destruction both of Body and Soul Can any thing be more unsuitable to a man Can any thing be more desperate and insensate madness and absurdity And shall it be ever said of the Renowned English Nation so famous in all the world for Temperance and Sobriety that they are at last swallowed up in a deluge of Wine and Strong Liquors let never our former glory be thus turned into shame and contempt Lastly Let it be considered that this Excess is usually if not always an Enemy to Peace it must needs be not only an Enemy to Peace of mind for Sin and Guilt must needs trouble the Conscience and Mind but also it is an Enemy to External Peace Prov. 23.29 Now all men do certainly desire Peace and therefore one would think should endeavour to shun and avoid all occasion either of trouble of mind or publick discord It is frequently very apparent what disturbance mens lusts make in the world as to the publick peace and happiness thereof and amongst the rest this sin of Intemperance Men and Women given to their Appetites how do they many times disturb their own inward peace with care and anxiety to make Provision for the same What great Perturbation of mind do they undergo when they meet with disappointments but more especially what disturbance doth Drunkenness and Excess make as to outward peace in both Families and Towns what discords between Man and Wife what Quarrels and uproars yea in our Taverns and Houses of Publick Resort How often may we meet with Storms and Tempests at Land as well at Sea And indeed how should it be otherwise for according to the old Proverb When the Drink is in the Wit is out And needs must those Barks and Vessels speedily fall fowll on one another in a Storm when there wants Pilots to steer and manage them And as a late Author hath it Ebrietas est blandus Demon dulce venenum

ancient times that there was in the Air certain surly and malevolent Spirits and Demons who were endeavouring to do all the mischief possible to Mankind on Earth How much therefore doth it concern us that we do not by our sins and wicked lives forfeit our interest in the protection of the Almighty and his blessed Angels his Ministring Spirits who as the Learned Sir Thomas Brown observes have a friendly respect and good will to man and do many courteous Offices for us his words are these That having therefore no certain knowledge of their nature 't is no bad method of the Schools whatsoever perfection we find obscurely in our selves in a more compleat and absolute way to ascribe unto them He further goes on I could easily believe that not only whole Countries but particular persons have their Tutelary and Guardian Angels which is not a new opinion of the Church of Rome but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato that those Noble essences in Heaven bear a friendly regard unto their fellow nature on Earth and therefore he believes that those many prodigies and ominous prognosticks which forerun the ruins of State Princes and Persons are the charitable promonitions of good Angels which more careless enquiries term but the effects of chance Now God hath made a gracious promise That he will give his Angels charge over them that fear him it therefore doth not a little concern us to keep our selves from all pollution of sin that is so contrary to God and to their pure and holy natures and which will estrange them from us and as it were force them from our protection and will consequently invite to us the society of those Surly Wicked and Malevolent Spirits and Demons who design nothing but mischief and ruin to mankind both to tempt and further us in sin and then to afflict and hurt us so far as they are permitted to do by God for this is very much to be feared that where the Carcase of Debauchery and Wickedness is thither these Eagles will be gathered together What great cause have we to pray as our Church well directs us in the Collect upon Michaelmas day O everlasting God who hast Ordained and Constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order mercifully grant that as thy holy Angels alway do thee service in Heaven so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Vertue and true Goodness would not only render you truly Rich Honourable and Happy in the injoyment of that full satisfaction in the serenity calmness and quiet of Mind that tranquility of Soul that Proemium ante Proemium in which mans happiness and welfare in this life principally consists as the Son of Syrach witnesseth Ecclus. 2.26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight Wisdom and Knowledge and Ioy but would certainly place you under the protection of God and his holy Angels and at last will Crown you with Honour Glory and Immortality for ever in the highest Heavens CHAP. V. A word by the by to the Reverend Clergy of the Church of England as now by Law Establish'd MAy I add a word or two without offence as a digression to our Reverend and Worthy Clergy whom I hope I may place with Gentlemen being Scholars he that is a Scholar having one principal part if not the best part of a Gentleman their calling and imployment also high excellent and sacred if the service of the highest Lord be the highest and best service in the world having been sometimes as I intimated before the imployment of Kings and Princes who were both Kings and Priests which sacredness and dignity of Office will ever be acknowledged in the world while there is a God acknowledged and worshipped therein which will be without question to the end thereof in despight of all the Atheists and Debauchers with their great Patrons Pope Leo 10 th Ochinus with our English Leviathan I hope the Excellency Dignity Sacredness of their Office yea their very Vestures betokenning Purity and Innocency will put them in mind what they should be in their Conversations I hope therefore I need not mind any of them to have a special care of being carried away by the impetuous current of intemperance and excess so abounding in our days I hope I need not caution them to be resolute in vertue and goodness for as one said very well in honest Principles it is good to be Vir rigidae innocentiae which I have read Livy should say of Cato Debere inesse quandam moribus contumaciam to be pertinacious in goodness is commendable in them I need not wish them to endeavour to stop the tide or that they of all others would however add no fuel to these Flames but have a great care and watchfulness that they do not transgress the Divine Laws and offend God in any kind and thereby open the mouths of theirs and the Churches Enemies Oh that they if it were possible might be all great examples of Justice Righteousness Tempeperance and Moderation and all other Christian Graces that their Conversations might be ever Holy and Heavenly and their affections above earthly things that they would Ventri bellum indicere For they of all others should not forget that Rule of the Father Quantò facilùs illicita timebit qui etiam licita verebitur It is wisdom some times even to shun things that are lawful that we may not run into the unlawful And let that excellent and worthy saying of the famous Dr. Reynolds be ever in your hearts and minds who being too much intent upon his Studies to the prejudice of his Health as was thought and being advised by a friend Non perdere substantiam propter accidentia he presently replyed Nec propter vivendi vitam perdere Causam I hope you will be all as resolute for God and his Laws at least as wicked men are for the Devil and his works of darkness and that at all times with Wisdom and Courage you will own your Lord and Master the ever blessed Jesus and do your duties in Exhortation Admonition Reproof in Christian Advice and Counsel but more especially by your Conversations your constant deportment according to the holy Christian Religion discountenancing of all sin but more especially this Epidemical this growing sin of Swinish Drunkenness so much abounding among us in this Nation that so it may be truly said of every one of you Planxit ruinas animarum God requires this of you as you well know that you should be the Salt of the earth seasoning all places and all companies where you come with Religion and Goodness And although it will be your lot to converse sometimes with Publicans and Sinners as your Lord and Master did yet let it be always to reclaim them to do them good and more especially to give them good Example as he did but by no means to incourage them in their Sins by ill