Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	dead_a	faith_n	lively_a	5,187	5	10.6802	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60174	Virtue and science pindarick poems dedicated to the Most Illustrious Princess Anne, Dutchess of Richmond and Lenox, and to her sister, the Right Honourable Frances, Countess of Newburgh / by J.S.	J. S. (James Shute), 1664-1688.	1695 (1695)	Wing S3713B; ESTC R26919	14,321	24

VIRTUE AND SCIENCE Pindarick Poems DEDICATED To the Most Illustrious PRINCESS ANNE Dutchess of RICHMOND and LENOX AND To Her Sister The Right Honourable FRANCES Countess of NEWBURGH By J. S. LONDON Printed in the Year 1695. PREFACE To the Judicious and Pious READER THat Virtue or the Love of Heaven above all things is a necessary Requisite to the Attainment of Salvation and the High Road to Beatitude is the constant Judgment of all those who are not meer Libertines or Deists nor can any doubt but Faith is also necessary except those Naturalists who deny all Divine Revelation For How can any man Love Coelestial Goods if he does not first in some manner know them And How can the Generality of Mankind know things Unseen and above the pitch of their Natural Reason but by way of Authority that is by Faith or the Believing others who do know them But yet meer Faith is not alone sufficient for that Great End St. James assures us that Faith without Works is Dead and Life being the Principle of Action or Motion we cannot move or Promote our selves towards Heaven by that which is Dead or without Life Wherefore the Endeavours of all Spiritual Directours are employ'd in rendring Faith Lively and Operative and this can only be perform'd by making it more Clear and more Familiar to our Conceptions that so the Obscurity of it may not Retard our Progress or Benum and Chill the Fervour of our Devotion To this end our Common Directress the Church Instructs her Ghostly Children the Faithful by Catechisms which Explain to them their Faith She Obliges them to Pray at some Set Times and Exhorts them to do it often She proposes to them the Good Examples of Holy Men to excite their industry She Administers to them Sacraments the most pregnantly-expressive Signs to represent to them Spiritual things She enures them to Practise their Devout Tenets by enjoyning them to keep many Signal Seasons as Sundays and Festivals Holy Lastly She Lays a kind of Sweet Force upon them to keep up their Spirits from Drooping and Lazy Dulness by her well-order'd Discipline which puts them upon Exercising what Her Instructions had Taught them And all this to no other end but by Acquanting them more familiarly with their Faith to make it Vigorous Lively and Active But now besides those Ordinary ways of advancing Faith there are other Clearer Lights to attain which is the work of but a few more Elevated Christians tho' if Industry and Instruction be not wanting they may to a fair degree be compassed by considerable Multitudes all of them tending to perfect Souls in the Knowledge and consequently in the Love of God and in a great measure supplying the Disadvantage of Faith's Obscurity Such as are First The Science of Controversy which if rightly managed shews the Absolute Certainty of the Grounds of Faith by Evidencing the Truth of Christs Doctrine and that it has been sincerely and incorruptedly Transmitted down to us who live now Secondly Cheology which renders that Doctrine more Intelligible by shewing its Agreeableness to Natural Principles and its Connexion with those Truths which are more Clear and Obvious to our common Conceptions Thirdly By Higher Purer and more Empyreal Lights gain'd by Abstraction from the world either Totally or at Seasons and continual Employment of our Thoughts in Meditation and Contemplation which burnish the Rude and Vnpolished Ideas we have of Heavenly Goods with a more Bright and Dazling Lustre being as far as our State here will allow a certain kind of Experience of their Transcendent Excellency And Lastly Natural Science or the true Knowledge of the Book of Creatures which and especially that part of Metaphysicks which treats of Abstracted Spirits if Solid and applied as it ought is apt to raise the Soul to very sublime Contemplations And These Knowledges are particularly They which are meant here by Science as she is the Handmaid to Dirtue For they do all conduce highly in their several Stations to make our Apprehensions of Heavenly Things more Clear Active and Lively They rivet and confirm in us our Adhesion to Heaven-reveal'd Truths and add to our Spiritual Progress Incomparable Advantages This is that Wisdom which St. Paul tells us he spoke among the Perfect and which is recommended here to all those that aym at Perfection I thought fit to deliver my Conceptions tho' they were of the Highest Points of Christian Morality in the way of Poetry because this is more Elevated and more becoming Great Subjects than Prose The thoughts of a Poetical Writer use to be more Comprehensive which renders his Sense more Full and his Expressions more Smart And I took the way of Courtship to shew that there is no manner of dressing up a Subject but may be Useful to Devotion especially when the Matter guards the Author from all suspition of Levity Besides there is something of Charmingness in such kind of Addresses Love is so Tender and Soul-melting a Passion that it is Grateful to all whose Natures are not Sower'd by a Rigid Humour Nothing can be either more Attractive or more Perswasive than the Soft and Delicate Language in which it uses to be delivered But I can need no more Authentick Voucher than the Holy Ghost nor a more Warrantable Precedent than the Sacred Scripture it self endited by his Inspiration Never was any thing more affectionately writ than that Song of Songs the Canticles of Solomon in which the Dearest Love between the Church and Her Heavenly Spouse is penn'd throughout in such Amorous Language and such Ravishingly-kind and Courtly Expressions that perhaps the most High-Soaring Fancy that ever Writ since in that strain has never been able to reach or equal it He is but Meanly Verst in Poetry who sees not that that Devout Piece is a perfect Love-Poem and which is most dislik't by some Nice-judgments a Dramatick Poem too or as we familiarly call it a Play where the several Persons Come in Speak and Answer in their turns Whence we may farther discern that 't is not the Artificial Form of Writing this way or that which is Displeasing to God but the applying that Form to Foolish Matter or Unworthy and Unchast Subjects Besides in taking this Method I had a due Regard to the Devout Sex who take more delight in the Tender Expressions of Poetry than in severe Precepts delivered in Rougher Prose their Genius leading them to be more affected with what 's Quaint and to profit more by such Instructions as are usher'd in with Pleasure and some kind of Gayity That I Dedicated these Pieces to those Illustrious Ladies was a Natural Effect of the Just Honour and Highest Respects I do for many Regards bear Themselves and all their Noble Family which dilates it self into so many Branches adorn'd with most signal Marks of Honour as perhaps Few in our Nation can equal it And 't is the greatest Encomium I can give to those Two Excellent Personages that by publishing