Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	word_n	world_n	worst_a	85	3	8.3535	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43674	Some discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson occasioned by the late funeral sermon of the former upon the later.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1695 (1695)	Wing H1868; ESTC R20635	107,634	116

Sufferings upon them As if indeed they had been what Mr. Dolben called them at the Sessions in Northampton The Vermin of the Nation which ought to be destroyed Yet our Preacher saith That (a) P. 26. 27. he had a Sweetness and Gentleness in his Nature that lean'd to Excess and that he he never did an ill Office or hard Thing to any Person whereas in his Thanksgiving Sermon at Whitehall for the Victory at Sea he represents his old suffering Brethren only as Pretenders to Conscience and in his sly way insinuates that the most likely and effectual way to reduce them was to load them yet with more Sufferings Saith he As bad an Argument as Success is of a good Cause I am sorry to say it but am afraid it is true it is like in the Conclusion to prove the best Argument of all others to convince those who have so long pretended Conscience against submission to the present Government One such Intimation at Court against the Dissenters and such a Character of them in the former Reigns would have been said to have proceeded from an unchristian Spirit of Persecution but for fear one Insinuation should not have been enough against our present Sufferers in the next Paragraph he saith it over again in other Words to the same purpose Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a good Cause and the most improper to satisfy Conscience and yet we find by Experience that in the Issue it is the most successful of all other Arguments and doth in a very odd but effectual way satisfy the Consciences of a great many Men by shewing them their Interests which is the true Purport Intent and English of that Latin Sentence of his dear Friend the Master of the Charter house whom he made Clerk of the Closet in the Dedication of his Archaeologia to K. W. Ne quid detrimenti Respublica capiat ex nimia Caesar●s Clementia Oramus supplices From hence I proceed to make some Animadversions upon some Sayings of our Preacher concerning his Heroe which lie scatter'd about his Funeral Sermon (b) P. 29. He tells us he never affected pompous Severities by which we know very well he means the Austerities of Fasting and Abstinence which the Church not only recommends but enjoyns and that (a) P. 21. he complied with the ill Practice of having Pluralities in the former Reigns because it was common and (b) P. 27. intimates also plain enough That the ill Usage he met with by those Reflections which he describes as Calumnies and Reproaches help to break his Heart But now for God's sake how doth the Character of heroick Piety agree to a Man that practised no Austerities and that complied for his Advantage with the corrupt Customs of the Times For heroick is always severe Piety and full of Self-denial and addicted to observe the wholesom Rules and Doctrines of Mortification especially those that are prescribed by the Wisdom of the Church and it never complies with but resists the prevailing Corruptions of the Times like Abraham in Chaldea Lot in Sodom or Daniel in Babylon And with what Congruity did he set him forth for an Example of heroick Vertue who had so little Christian Courage or support from his own Innocency as to sink under the Calumnies of Men which Cato and Socrates and a Thousand brave Heathen Heroes would have despised Certainly this Character of heroick Piety and Vertue agrees much better with the deprived Clergy who are Men generally speaking of more austere Lives and bear not only Calumnies and Reproaches and cruel Mockings but the Loss of all they had with exemplary Patience Courage and Resignation to the Will of God by which they are conformed in their Sufferings to those Worthies which the Apostle proposes for our Imitation in the 11th Chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews and deserve now to be reverenced by all good Christians as Confessors who dare be Honest and Poor and prefer the Truth and Honour of their Religion before the Lands and Revenues of the Church More particularly it agrees much better with the late Archbishop Dr. Sancroft upon whom our Preacher thinks he neatly couched a Reflection when he told us that his Heroe who intruded upon him did not affect pompous Austerities Indeed he practised them but without Pomp or Ostentation And as for his Sufferings of all Sorts both in these and former Times he bore them with exemplary Courage and Chearfulness They had no influence on his Health but quite contrary He blessed God for them and told my Lord N. when his Lordship went to Lambeth to try his Constancy That he had rather suffer any Persecution under a Lawful Prince than be preferred under an Usurper He tells us again (a) P. 28. That few Men observed human Nature better than his Hero or could make larger Allowance for the Frailty of Mankind than he did And so it appears from the Character he gave his Master in his Thanksgiving Sermon for the Victory at Sea There he saith That he was a Prince who hath made it the great Study and Endeavour of his Life to imitate the Divine Perfections as far as the Imperfection of human Nature in this mortal State would admit Before I make any other Reflection upon this Passage I must here tell the World That in the former Reigns no Man could less endure any Thing spoken in the Pulpit though never so modestly and correctly in the Praises of our Kings It was his common Practice to censure it in others on all Occasions and to say That Flattery was so mean and despicable a Thing in it self and savour'd so strong of Interest and Design in the Pulpit that Clergy-men ought to avoid all appearance of it And yet behold how shamefully he flatters his King here and I doubt not (b) See the Remarks upon some late Sermons but it is owing to the ill Example he set the Clergy in this and some former Sermons that we have had of late so many fulsom and despicable Sermons of Flattery as no Age ever saw or will I hope see again But this of his Prince's imitating the Divine Perfections is the highest Strain of all and shews with a Witness what large Allowances he made for the Frailties and Imperfections of Men. For at this rate Abolishing and Abjuring of Episcopacy making War in the most (c) Hostes hi sunt qui Nobis aut quibus nos publicè Bellum Decrevimus Caeteri Latro●es aut praedones sunt F. de v. s. thievish and predonical Manner without first demanding Reparation slandering and robbing of Parents massacring in cold Blood Adultery or if there be any Thing worse than these may pass among Divines for human Frailties and the worst of Sinners with those Allowances for the best sort of Saints He tells us (d) P. 19 20. of the great Concourse of the Clergy-men to his Lecture which made People consider him as the