Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	5,160	5	5.5664	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A72844	The conversion of a sinner faithfully translated out of Italian, by M.K.; Breefe treatise exhorting sinners to repentance	Luis, de Granada, 1504-1588.; M. K., fl. 1580.	1598 (1598)	STC 16899.5; ESTC S124577	58,895	174

whom is the foundation of wisedome and beginning of true blisse Endeuour therefore so to arme and addresse thy selfe at all poynts that thou be not vanquished by sinne Farther shalt viewe thine owne wretchednesse and infirmities whiche will serue as a corzie to quallifie the swelling rancor of pride and to establish humilitie the very quéene and guide of all other vertues And shalt easily reiect hatefull auarice and gréedie gaping for earthly vanities For the memorie of death causeth thée to knowe that none of these thinges can be called thine which thou canst not carry with thee out of this world And thou cōtinuing in this exercise vnwares thy dread shall be turned into desire and death shall not séem so terrible vnto thée for that it depriueth thée of thy temporall life as delightful and acceptable because it giueth ende to so many gréefes and miseries and giueth enterance to life and light eternall And thou shalt perceiue howe little cause thou haddest to complaine or to be sorie weighing that whilest thy bodie doth perishe and consume in the graue thy soule liueth blisfully in heauen with a firme beléefe to rise againe at the last day to life euerlasting The Argument In the seuenth consideration ought to be premeditated how seuere and rigorous Christ will be at the day of iudgement for that his countenance will then declare to the wickid beholders nothing else but furious wrath and reuenge which none can escape for there must be giuen vp an exact account of all thinges done and thought of in this world CHAP. IX EAch man proueth and perceiueth in himselfe by often experience that his vnderstanding by the apprehension of some fearfull obiect or weightie consideration retireth and coucheth closely within it selfe and for that instant repelleth easily all other idle imaginations For which cause it is most prositable counsayle that a sinner at his first conuersion exercise himselfe seriously in such cogitations for that by this meanes péeuish fansies sometime through dread sometime through wonder will be either brideled or banished quite If the memorie of death as is aforesaide hath such force to cut off and to restraine our vaine and bagraum thoughts howe much more may this be done by the remembraunce of that which insueth after death immediately whiche is Gods iudgement and the paines of hell By which meditations if thou often thinke vpon them shall be brought to passe that which Ecclesiastick affirmeth Remember thy daies whereby hee meaneth that which then shall happen vnto thee and thou shalt neuer doo amisse S. Hierome not without iust cause said Whether I eate or drinke mee thinkes still I heare the sounde of the Trumpet buzzing in my eares Arise from death and come to your iudgement Which howe terrible it shall be cannot be imagined sith all other terrours or tragedies whatsoeuer in comparison of this is nothing at all Many times God hath manifested his iudgements in this worlde as when hee drowned the worlde with the great floud when hee burned Sodome and the Cities adioyning when he strooke Egypt with diuers dreadfull plagues when he made the earth to open in the desert to swallow vp sinners all which iudgements beeing compared to that generall iudgement which shall be exercised in the last day are but shadowes but shewes and figures of the veritie If then thou desire to come to thy selfe and to gather thy wits togither with the remembraunce of this represent to thy imagination the terriblenesse of Christ thy iudge whose countenance shall declare nothing else but rigour and reuenge as at the first comming he shewed mildenesse altogither From whom thou canst not appeale to any other because he is supreme Iudge neither canst thou auoide his furie because he is most puissant and for that hee is the very fountaine and God of knowledge nothing can be concealed from him And because he hateth iniquitie out of measure hee will not suffer any sinne to be vnreuenged There thou must bee accountable of all thy transgressions debts and trespasses whereof if the least be inough to put thée in extreame danger and perplexitie who can make satisfaction for so many debtes and arrerages as shall bee exacted at thy handes Then thou shalt bee examined how thou hast vestowed thy time howe thou haste ordered thy body howe thou hast gonerned thy sences and how thou hast guided thy heart howe thou hast answered to the diuine inspirations how thou haste acknowledged so many curtesies In the which accusation thou shalt bee conuinced with so many witnesses as are the creatures which thou hast abused by sinne which then will be so stirred to reuenge the wrong done vnto their creator that if it were possible those which are immortall would dye with feare For it shall be a horror inestimable to sée the worlde all on fire the buildings and princely Pallaces ouerthrowne and torne in péeces the earth to tremble to viewe the elements to chaunge theyr course the Sunne to bee darkened the Moone and Starres to léese theyr light to beholde the death and destruction of all creatures the open gaping of graues to heare the voyce of the terrible trumpe and wofull waylings of nations to marke the discouering of consciences to regarde the monstrous deformed diuels and she in●●●nall furnace sparkling with furious flakes But of all other things shall be most terrible to looke vppon the victorious flagge of the Crosse clittering in the ayre with all the ensignes of the glorious passion of our Sauiour To sée the Iudge to charge his enemies for the making frustrate yea the reitteration of so many torments as hee hath suffered for their redemption Who might more easily endure the smart of hell paines then to sée themselues so accused and accursed of the Lord of bountie and courtesie and to be expelled from his presence to perpetuall punishment The Argument In the eight consideration we ought to premeditate vpon the intollerable terrour of hell paines which shall be perpetuall But of al those torments the most greeuous is the losse and lacke of Gods chearefull countenance without any hope for euer to gaine it againe CHAP. X. BUt it may so chance that mauger thy might for all these considerations ydle thoughts will not forsake thee though it must néedes bee a sounde fléepe and a very drowzie dreame that will not bee awaked with such incitations Yet thou must not be discomforted but howe much more difficults doo arise so much the more stoutly thou shouldest striue to atchieue thy enterprise Assay then whither the search of hell paines will bee more behouefull vnto thée concerning which two things are chiefly to be noted that is the vehemencie of their smart and the time of their continuance The least of these is able to mollifie the most stubborne and stony heart of the worlde but the which is not mooued neither with the one nor with the other is eyther dead in his soule or else beléeueth not that which the Christian faith sheweth For though the greatnesse of hell torments cannot bee imagined nor expressed filled with most iust feare If thou accustome thy selfe to such exercises a●● doest perseuer therin in short space thou thalt become a newe man for by these meditations thy minde shall be brought to despise the world to shun sinne to fear these paines and to loue vertue And though at the beginning thou bee appaled and affrighted vehemently yet hand patience a while for thy colde feare shall be qualified and tempered with the heat of loue as the black night is turned by little and little into the bright shining day EINIS

a gallant superscription as héere thou seest grauen by the hande of God It was much lesse then this that Quéene Sabba had heard of Salomon and yet she came from the vttermost partes of the earth to trie whether those things were true which were reported vnto her Wherefore then hearing such and so certaine tydings of vertue doest thou not betake thée to a litle trauell If thou wilt be assured hereof graunt thy selfe vnto the word of God and confidently commit thy selfe into his handes loose thy selfe from the hands which hath wrapt and wonne thée and thou shalt sée that the same of vertue is lesse then her merite and that whatsoeuer we haue said is nothing in comparison of that she is in her proper effect The Argument To perseuere in sinne with a thousand excuses and delaies intending to amend his life hereafter deceiueth a Christian maruellously For by this meanes he blindeth and burieth himselfe in the durtie dunghill of vice and waxeth daily more prone therevnto in such wise that iniquitie taking deep roote in the intrailes of his mind it will very hardly be remoued CHAP. VIII NOtwithstanding all these assertiōs whereby the condition of vertue is iustified sufficiently the wicked wil neuer want their wonted excuses and delaies for as it is written He that will shake off his friend searcheth for a cause of quarrell but in so dooing he meriteth a gréeuous reprehension and controlment Yet some there be which with one onely worde will easily reply to all this saying It sufficeth them to amend hereafter and then to reduce the course of their life to a better order foolishly feyning to themselues that it is too hard a matter presently for them so to doo and that in time to come they may attempt atchieue this thing with more facilitie How fondly man deceiueth himselfe which is one of the grossest errours wherewith a man may delude himselfe For if thou mindest so long to procéede and perseuere in that perillous path wherein thou art entred still augmenting the heape of thine iniquities howe canst thou so easily hereafter forsake it at thy pleasure thy naughtie conditions béeing growne by continuall custome into an habite Further if thou continue héerein euill custome shall bee more fortified and confirmed and nature shall be corrupted the more and the diuell shall preuaile and haue more power vpon thée and shalt be still farther from the fauour of GOD and consequently more blinde more enclined and plunged déeper in the stinking puddle of iniquitie Then howe can it be more easie for thée to performe this businesse béeing increased with these newe difficulties by reason of thy perseueraunce in sinne If euery time that thou doest offend thou leauest behinde th●● a dayes iourney of thy voyage towardes vertue how canst thou more readily frame thy selfe thereunto hereafter hauing let slip so many daies iourney as thou hast committed offences It may well appeare that by this answere thou art instructed by the father of lyes and falshood that after thou hast so long inured thy selfe to vice and folly and haste runned a race so farre from the trade of vertue shall then bee most easie for thée to attayne therevnto But among these things what shall I say of the great power of custome and of the force shee hath to binde and wrap thée fast in wickednesse For true it is that as they which fasten a nayle in any thing with euery stroke they driue it further in and yet with other strokes further and so the more still they strike the more they fasten it and waxeth thereby the more harde to pull out againe In like maner by each euill fact we commit vice as it were with a béetle is more déepely rammed into our minde where it is fixed so fast that there can very hardly bee founde any force able to remooue it Whereby wée sée not seldome that the olde age of those who in their flourishing yeares were wholely giuen to carnalitie is often subiect to the dissolute manners of theyr youth yea although they then abhorre them and nature thereof disclaymeth vtterly which onely commeth to passe through the tyranny of euill custome For it is affirmed by Iob that the bones of the wicked shall be full of those vices that they vsed in their youth which shall accōpany them in their graues in such sort the vice hath no other end then death which is the dissolution and extinguishment of all mortall things which onely suffiseth to redresse and cure it And the cause hereof is custome cōfirmed which nowe is growne to nature For vicious appetites taking such roote in the bones and bowels of their souls is euen like vnto a ioynt ague which hauing setled it selfe in the intrailes of a man is become incurable The very same thing is shewed by our Sauiour in the resurrection of Lazarus which had lien dead nowe foure daies whome GOD called againe to life with such vehement shrikes and cries notwithstanding hee raised many from death before with such falicitie thereby to make it knowne vnto vs what a wonder it was that God raised him againe who foure dayes had béene dead and buried This long since is espied to be in sinne For as Saint Augustine openeth this place of these foure dayes the first is the delight we haue in sinne the second is the consent of minde the third the accomplishment in déede the fourth the perseuerance in sin and he that is come to this point is Lazarus lying dead foure dayes who cannot be receiued but with the loud lamentations and teares of our Sauiour If peraduenture this chaunce vnto thée which very seldome hapneth to any tell mee what lawe canst thou alleadge for thy leawdnesse that God before all worlds hauing loued and created thée to inuest thée with the glory of eternall felicitie wilt not consume in the seruice of him who hath bin thy benefactor and friend so long in this short brickle life that thou enioyest The Argument Repentance ought not to be deferred to the end of life for thē God doth seldome grant them his grace to dye well For he that hath lead a leaud life hath commonly a worse death and so findeth a righteous recompence for his vniust deserts CHAP. IX BVt some there be so blinde shamelesse that it suffiseth them not to haue sinned all their life passed but they resolue with themselues wilfully to wallowe therein vntill they sensibly féele themselues assited with the very sommons of death O dreadfull time full of perplexitie what thinkest thou with this price to purchase the Kingdome of Heauen and to merit the societie and seate of Angels Doest thou not sée that whatsoeuer is done at this time is necessitie and not will is forced and not frée is constraint and not consent is feare and not friendship yet it is loue not the loue of God but selfe loue which shunneth naturally his owne annoy Doest thou not perceiue that these things are méere opposite