Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	world_n	write_v	3,052	5	5.1732	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42135	Essayes and characters written by L.G.	Griffin, Lewis.	1661 (1661)	Wing G1982A; ESTC R40526	25,748	100

Essayes AND CHARACTERS Written by L. G. LONDON Printed in the year 1661. TO THE READER READER I Suppose thou art now come into the Stationers Shop and inquirest of him if he have any thing that is new were Solomon at thy elbow he would tel thee there is nothing new under the Sun But it is common with Men as wel as children to long for a new nothing And therefore to satisfie thy humour he wil shew thee this Book perhaps for his own advantage he wil say it is a pretty piece if he does I will assure thee he is not of my opinion for whether it will be for his profit and thy pleasure or not I cannot tell I am sure it will not be for my credit It hath been the usuall Apologie of those who appeare in print that it was against their own wils and through the importunate desire of friends forsooth because the World should think them modest but our fault admits of no such lying excuse for it was meerly my own folly and rashnesse that hath thus thrust me upon the Stage of the World where I feare I shall be hiss'd rather then deserve a plaudite I confesse I would willingly have called in my Book when it were but half printed for it appeared unto me to savour more of Drollery then Divinity which my second thoughts or reflections did clearly apprehend I saw that there were but few pages and yet in those few more Errata's both of the Author and Printer then in some great Volumes a true Looking-glasse to represent my life and actions for my yeares have not much exceeded six and twenty and yet perhaps in this small span or little Epitome of age you may read more errors and miscarriages then in his whose years are written in folio and hath outlived fourscore but I hope Gods mercy will forgive the one and thy ingenuity pardon the other However I have now ventured to send it forth into the World and where it shall find entertainment I know not perhaps it may light into some Ladies lap and have so much honour as to possesse the place of her little Dog but let her beware how she handles it for if she be not vertuous It will bite her Yet I have not in any of these following discourses reflected upon any particular Person save only in the Character of a Scandalous Minister where I took for my Copy one whom I had some cause to know in the Country and who I think having an intent that I should draw his picture came to me at London to give me a second view of his Drunkennesse and swearing I had indeed limned him a little more to the life but that I thought it a sin to foul too much paper with so base a subject I have been too guilty of that already for alas whilest I was writing my mind was like a troubled Sea and therefore wonder not if my pen cast up mire and dirt To be too tart and satyrical hath been alwayes my infirmity I was once complained of to the Justices for going about to pistoll a blind Priest with an Ink-horn nor was it strange for might I have had the benefit of the Press no pistoll could have more wounded his body then my Inkhorn would have done his reputation Printing and Guns are two modern inventions the one as well as the other hath made the leaden Mine as distructive to mankind as the golden Men may be said to shoot from the Press as well as from the Artillery some like Jehu to wound others like Jonathan to warn that is either by writing of railing invectives or sober exhortations Polemicall discourses are like shooting at a mark which mark ought to be truth schismatical Pamphlets are Granado's Playes and Romances are squibs crackers which though they wound not with their bullets yet they blind with their powder Reader amongst which of these fire-men thou wilt rank me I know not only I beseech thee put on charity for thy spectacles and read on VALE A Table of the several Subjects of this Book VIZ. ☞ of Man in generall A religious Prince A reverend Divine A vertuous Woman A rigid Presbyterian A debauch'd Courtier An Vniversity Bedle. A Phanatick A Whore A happy Rustick A beastly Drunkard An ignorant old Man A Player A mechanick Magistrate A scandalous Minister A loyal Subject A Male-content A noble Spirit A bad Wife The Rump-Parliament Essayes and Characters Of man in general THis visible world is a great Book written by the hand of God for his own glory and mans use Every Creature is a leaf or page of this Volume but man is the picture of the Author set in the Frontispice He that abuses the Creature makes a base Comment upon a glorious Text but he that abuses himself goes about to deface and blot out the effigies of his Creator Man consists of a soul and a body which are never separated until death and meet not again till the resurrection It was the morning salutation of the page to King Philip Remember that you are a man that is that you have soule and body let the sloathfull man remember that he hath a soule that must be saved and let the proud man remember he hath a body that must die and then the one will not live like a beast neither will the other think himselfe to be an Angel The body is but the tent or cottage of the soul or rather that mantle which when the spirit like Elias ascends into heaven is cast down and left behind upon the earth and as it is said concerning celestial and terrestrial bodies so of these two The glory of the body is one and the glory of the souls is another What is it in which the body or flesh can glory 't is not strength beauty or age for in strength the beasts and fishes in beauty the plants and flowers in age the very Rocks and Stones doe far excel men In breife the body of man is but a brittle earthen vessel the center of diseases a daughter to corruption a sister to the wormes a tenant to the grave a little dust carried by the wind of his vital breath which when the wind ceases falls to the ground and rests in the bosome of the earth from whence it was Taken Thus the outward or carnal man is not an object of admiration but pitty He lies like Lazarus upon the dunghil of the earth his sins are his sores his righteousness his rags his friends that flatter him and his enemies that reproach him are all but dogs some bark some bite some fawn some lick his sores He came naked into the world and whatsoever he hath he beg'd it of Got and borrowed it of his fellow creatures His Pilgrimage is from Jerusalem to Jericho from the womb to the tomb his constant companions are vanity and vexation the one attends him in health and Wealth the other in sickness and poverty the one would draw him to