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	wrath_n	259	3	7.1157	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57542	A sermon preached before the corporation of Trinity-house in Deptford Strand, at the election of their master, May XXX, 1681 by John Rogers ...	Rogers, John, b. 1647.	1681 (1681)	Wing R1818; ESTC R11375	14,418	41

him 't is to no purpose they can never fall for he hath built them upon a Rock On the contrary how does Vice naturally tend to debase mens spirits and render them cowardly and effeminate unfit to sustain those many and oftentimes lasting severities which a sea-warfare does expose them to either through foulness of weather inhumanity of strangers scarcity and badness of provision indisposition of body passing through various Climes c. and what is worse than all these outward calamities to make up the vicious mans condition compleatly miserable he hath also a galled Conscience within and is so continually tossed with restless and perplexing thoughts that he becomes like the troubled Sea before him which cannot rest and whose waters cast up mire and dirt I have the longer insisted upon this Point because I am sensible I speak to those who of all men living are the most jealous of their courage and fortitude and therefore shall not be blamed by you if I establish them upon their true foundations But then 2. It is urged That Religion will take up too much of your time and slacken your endeavours in cases of imminent danger In times of fatal concern when the unruly Element becomes boisterous and ungovernable and plays with the goodliest Vessel as easily as the Leviathan sports with an empty Cask when all on a sudden the Ocean becomes a confused Chaos heighth and depth light and darkness are mingled together then when all hands should be at work and every pull seems to be the last tug for life then I say for a man to betake himself to his prayers or with the Prophet go down into the sides of the Ship there lay himself down to sleep though perhaps the next moment it may prove his last or what is much the same thing there fling himself wholly upon Gods Protection rely upon his Providence and rest assured that nothing but a Divine hand can save and deliver him what is this but to render men useless in their Arts insensible of their danger and even to betray them out of their lives and if this be the effect of calling upon God it were as good men should shipwrack their faith as themselves In reply to this S t Paul's Rule holds good That if any would not work neither should they eat Idleness and sloth vain presumption and causeless security are so far from being countenanced by Religion that it lays the greatest obligations upon men to the contrary It charges diligence and industry upon mens Consciences and lets them know that they must one day give a severe account for the misuse of that time which once lost can never be regained it tells them That though they should be careless of themselves yet no consideration ought to make them prodigal of the lives of other men where all things must happen alike to all and there will be but one event to the righteous and to the wicked to him that sweareth and to him that feareth an Oath But now what hinders that men cannot reconcile their business and their devotions together and let their minds be well employed however their Bodies are exercised Sure I am this would be so far from hindring you in your labours how urgent and pressing soever they may be that it will make you undergo them with much greater alacrity and cheerfulness of mind and sweet hopes of success for to entertain serious thoughts to put up a prayer to God and with the Disciples of our Lord to cry out Lord save us we perish will add a great Spur to your endeavours I come now 3. To consider Whether the Knowledge of the Seas is rather apt to draw men off from the belief of a God and Providence than to settle and confirm them in it This Objection I confess is home to the business and if this be true what I have already said may pass for nothing But let us examine those Reasons which seem to prop up this Opinion and they are these that follow First That by the Knowledge of the Seas men discover many useless parts of the Creation Secondly They get considerable Instances against the universality of the Notion of God First That by the Knowledge of the Seas are discovered many useless parts of the Creation This hath been frequent in the mouths of bad men and is an opinion which their old Champion Lucretius hath so garnished and tricked up with Poetry that the gilded Pill hath passed very glibly with loose and inconsidering men What use of the torrid and frigid Zones to what purpose serve the barren Deserts inaccessible Mountains and craggy Rocks will not the Sea willingly resign up her Hurricanes and Afric spare all her Monsters c. Thus is God's Providence called in question and his infinite Wisdom arraigned nay the bolder sort scoff at the workmanship of his hands and take up that blasphemous Speech of the insolent Spaniard Si Creationi affuissem Mundum melius ordinâssem had I been present at the making of the World I could have disposed things after a better sort Now besides that the torrid Zone is well known by you to be habitable and a considerable part also of the frigid and that both serve very wise ends and purposes besides this the inclination of the Axis of the Earth is so admirably proportioned for the making it as habitable as possible that the joint wit of mankind is not able to imagine the least circumstance in which it might have been mended And for those other things which seem so hurtful to the World though it were sufficient to reply in the words of the Son of Sirach That there be Spirits that are created for vengeance which in their fury lay on sore strokes in the time of destruction they pour out their force and appease the wrath of him that made them fire and hail famine and death all these were created for vengeance though I say there needs no other Answer than this yet I think it sufficient once for all to know That things of admirable use in themselves may to our understandings appear quite otherwise and to be of no use at all Of which take this considerable Instance There was a time not many Ages ago when the World no doubt esteemed of the Magnet no more than of a despicable Stone part of the Rubbish of the Creation or at best but some of the Ballast of the Globe but I need not tell you to borrow the words of a learned Prelate of our Church how by the application of a Needle to this Stone you get the mastery of the unruly Ocean ride securely upon the back of the dark waters and make it supply the place of the Stars in Heaven how by the help of this you examine all the Chambers of the Sun and imitate him in compassing the World how you go out at the East and teturn again from the West return laden with the Treasuries of the World