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	spirit_n	1,763	5	5.2732	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29240	Times treasury, or, Academy for gentry laying downe excellent grounds, both divine and humane, in relation to sexes of both kindes : for their accomplishment in arguments of discourse, habit, fashion and happy progresse in their spirituall conversation : revised, corrected and inlarged with A ladies love-lecture : and a supplement entituled The turtles triumph : summing up all in an exquisite Character of honour / by R. Brathwait, Esq.	Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.	1652 (1652)	Wing B4276; ESTC R28531	608,024	537

wholly divided from society yea so immured as they seemed to be buried living Whose conversation as questionlesse it argued a great mortification of all mundane desires so it ministred matter of admiration to such who given to carnall liberty wondred how men made of earth could bee so estranged from conversing with inhabitants of earth But to leave these and imagine their conversation to be in Heaven though their habitation was on earth wee perceive hence how beneficiall Recreation is to the mind in cheering solacing and refreshing her if used with Moderation How it lessens those burdens of cares wherewith shee is oppressed revives the spirits as if from death restored cleares the understanding as if her eyes long time shut were now unsealed and quickens the invention by this sweet respiration as if newly moulded Neither is this Benefit so restrained as if it extended only to the mind for it confers a Benefit likewise to the body by enabling it to performe such Labours Taskes or Offices as it is to bee employed or exercised withall There are two Proverbs which may be properly applyed to this purpose Once in the yeere Apollo laughs this approves the use of moderate Recreation Apollo's bow 's not alwayes bent this shewes that humane imployments are to bee seasoned by Recreation we are sometimes to unbend the bow or it will lose his strength Continuall or incessant employment cannot be endured there must be some intermission or the body becomes enfeebled As for example observe these men who either encombred with worldly affaires so tye and tether themselves to their busines as they intermit no time for effecting that which they goe about or such as wholly nayled to their Deske admit no time for Recreation lest they should thereby hinder the progresse of their studies See how pale and meager they looke how sickly and infirme in the state of their bodies how weake and defective in their constitution So as to compare one of these weaklings with such an one as intermits occasions of busines rather than he will prejudice his health reserving times as well for Recreation and pleasure as for imployment and labour were to present a spectacle of Inius Dwarf not two foot high and weighing but seventeen pound with Iolaus the youthfull son of Iphiclus whose feature was free complexion fresh and youth renewing such difference in proportion such ods in strength of constitution For observe one of these starved worldlings whose aimes are only to gather and number without doing either themselves or others good with that they gather with what a sallow and earthly complexion they looke being turned all earth before they returne to earth And what may be the cause hereof but their incessant care of getting their continuall desire of gaining being ever gaping till their mouthes be filled with gravell So these who are wholly given and solely devoted to a private or retired life how unlike are they to such as use and frequent society For their bodies as they are much weakned and enfeebled so is the heat and vigour of their spirits lestened and resolved yea their dayes for most part shortned and abridged the cause of all which proceedeth from a continuall secluding and dividing themselves from company and use of such Recreations as all creatures in their kind require and observe For if we would have recourse to creatures of all sorts wee shall find every one in his kind observe a Recreation or refreshment in their nature As the Beast in his chace the Bird in her choice the Snaile in her speckled case the Polypus in her change yea the Dolphin is said to sport and play in the water For as All things were created for Gods pleasure so hath he created all things to recreate and refresh themselves in their owne nature Thus farre have we discoursed of moderate Recreation and of the benefits which redound from it being equally commodious to the mind as well as the body the body as well as the mind to the mind in refreshing cherishing and accommodating it to all studies to the understanding in clearing it from the mists of sadnesse to the body in enabling it for the performance of such labours taskes o● offices as it is to be imployed or interessed in It now rests that wee speake something of her opposite to wit of immoderate Recreation and the inconveniences which arise from thence whereof wee shall but need to speake a word or two and so descend to more usefull points touching this Observation AS the wind Caecias drawes unto it clouds so doth immoderate recreation draw unto it divers and sundry maine inconveniences for this Immoderation is a loosener of the sinewes and a lessener of the strength as Moderation is a combiner of the sinewes and a refiner of the strength So dangerous is the surfet which wee take of pleasure or Recreation as in this wee resemble Chylo who being taken with the apprehension of too much joy instantly dyed Now who seeth not how the sweetest pleasures doe the soonest procure a surfet being such as most delight and therefore aptest to cloy How soone were the Israelites cloyed with Quailes even while the flesh was yet betweene their teeth and before it was chewed So apt are wee rather to dive than dip our hand in honey Most true shall every one by his owne experience find that saying of Salomon to be It is better to goe to the house of mourning than to goe to the house of feaesting for there may we see the hand of God and learne to examine our lives making use of their mortality by taking consideration of our owne frailty whereas in the house of feasting wee are apt to forget the day of our changing saying with the Epicure Eat drinke and play but never concluding with him To morrow we shall die So apt are we with Messala Corvinus to forget our owne name Man who is said to be corruption and the sonne of man wormes meat For in this Summer-Parlour or floury Arbour of our prosperity wee can find time to solace and recreate our selves Lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch our selves upon our beds and eat of the Lambes of the flocke and the Calves out of the stall Singing to the sound of the Violl and inventing to our selves instruments of musicke like David Drinking wine in bowles and anointing our selves with the chiefe oyntments but no man is sorry for the affliction of Ioseph So universall are we in our Iubile having once shaken off our former captivity To prevent which forgetfulnesse it were not amisse to imitate the Romane Princes who as I have elsewhere noted when they were at any time in their conquests or victorious triumphs with acclamations received and by the generall applause of the people extolled there stood one alwayes behind them in their Throne to pull them by the sleeve with Memento te esse hominem for the consideration of humane

shall be no lesse usefull to your selves if rightly observed then motives of comfort if duely and exactly considered Hee was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question When a man should marry A young man not yet an elder man not at all Of which opinion was Arminius that Ruler of Carthage whose harsh conceit of marriage proceeding either from personall disability or some experience of womans levity deserves small approbation For had it beene Arminius fortune to have matched with Arminia hee would doubtlesse rather have fallen into admiration of so sacred a rite then into distaste of it For this Noble Lady being bidden to King Cyrus wedding went thither with her husband at night when they were returned home her husband asked of her how shee liked the Bride-groome whether she thought him to bee a faire and beautifull Prince or no Truth saith she I know not for all the while I was forth I cast mine eyes upon none other but upon thy selfe Or had Calanus prevented Hi●●o of his choice hee would have fallen from his Stoicall dreame to a Nuptiall song for one of Hiero●s enemies reproaching him with a stinking breath hee went home and questioned his wife why she told him not thereof but what answer gave this continent Lady Surely said shee I thought all men had the same savour Or had Claudian injoyed so inimitable a consort as the no lesse beauteous then vertuous Clara whose constant affection to her decrepit and diseased Valdaure in sh●wing most love when a loathsome bed might have ministred most dista●●e hath recommended her living memory to the succeeding Annals of posterity O● had Timon attained the happinesse to joyn hands with Theogena wife to Agathocles hee had not inveighed so much against the state of Marriage for this renowned Lady shewed admirable constancy in her husbands greatest misery showing her selfe most his owne when hee was relinquisht and forsaken of his owne saying That she was not given him to bee a sharer onely in his prosperity but in what fortune so●ver should befall him Or had Zenocrates enjoyed Zenobia hee would no lesse have admired his fortune then beshrewed himselfe for depriving himselfe so long of so sweet a Companion For this princely Lady after the death of Odonatus though a Barbarian Queene yet by her reading of both Roman and Greeke Histories so managed the state after the decease of her husband as shee reteined those fierce and intractable people in her obedience being a woman no lesse absolute for learning then discreet governing for she abridged the Alexandrian and all the Orientall Histories a taske of no lesse difficulty then utility whereby she attained the highest pitch of wisdome and authority Or had Aristippus beene so happy as linked himselfe with Artemisia hee would have preferred so kind and constant a yoke-fellow before all exteriour contemplations for this chaste and choice Lady after the death of her beloved Mansolus thought it not sufficient to erect a glorious monument in his memory but to enshrine him in her owne body by drinking his ashes and interring him in her selfe Many such eminent women may wee reade of in Histories both divine and humane whose vertues have equalled if not surpassed most men So as howsoever it was the Milesian Thales his saying that hee had cause to give Fortune thankes for three things especially first for that hee was a man and not a beast secondly that hee was a man and not a woman thirdly that hee was a Greeke borne and not a Barbarian Women there be whos 's more noble endowments merit due admiration because as in their sex weaker and inferiour so in the gifts of the mind richer and superiour But now to our Choice for it is to be received as already granted being by the authority of an Apostle confirmed that Mariage is honourable among all and every honourable thing is more eligible then that which is not honourable So as hee that shunneth Mariage and avoideth society is to be esteemed a foe to humanity or more then a man as hee whom Homer reprehendeth saying That hee was tribe-lesse law-lesse and house-lesse I could wish every young Gentleman to make that Choice of his Mistris which Seneca would have one observe in the choice of a Master Choose him for thy Master saith he whom thou mayest more admire seeing him then hearing him Neither altogether as Egnatius in Catullus is brought out shewing the whitenesse of his teeth for all outward perfections are but as fuell to feed desire without that inward faire which onely maketh woman worthy loving For what is a beautifull complexion being an exteriour good or that which Euryclea his nurse praysed when shee washed the feet of Vlysses namely gentle speech and tender flesh wanting those inward graces which truely adorne and beautifie women So as it is much better to follow his direction in the choice of a wife who said that they were to be chosen Modestiâ non formâ which Modestie cannot admit of this ages vanity where there is nothing lesse affected then what is comely For these garish fashions agree well with none but prostitutes and shamelesse women Neither can that face bee a good one which stands in need of these helpes For what madnesse is it to change the forme of nature and seeke beauty from a Picture Which Picture is vices posture and the ages imposture Neither doe these affected trumperies nor exquisite vanities become a Christian. For what is more vaine then dying of the haire painting of the face laying out of brests Doe not say that these can have shamefast minds who have such wandring and immodest eyes For the habit of the mind is to be discerned by the carriage so as even in motion gesture and pace is modesty to be observed How miserable then is the state of these phantastick Idols who can endure no fashion that is comely because it would not bee observed How base is her shape which must borrow complexion from the shop How can she weepe for her sinnes saith S. Hierome when her teares will make furrowes in her face With what confidence doth she lift up her countenance to heaven which her Maker acknowledges not I would I poore wretch saith Tertullian might see in that day of Christian exaltation whether with Cerusse and Vermillion and Saffron and those tyres and toyes upon your head you are to rise againe which if they doe they shall certainely witnesse against them to receive the reward of their painting in a Lake of tormenting For these are they who lay hands upon God correcting with a hand of contempt the workemanship of God These never carry a box of oyntment to bestow on the members of Christ but a box of complexion they have in readinesse to bestow on a cheeke Which sort of Wantons for how should I otherwise terme them are well displayed by one in their

wipe their mouthes as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but bee fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no wordly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched onely through feare lest they should bee wretched and many die onely through feare lest they should dy but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of GODS mercy How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to GOD right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable patternes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkeable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost hee said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost these threescore ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when hee was ready to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith hee that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because wee have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer Hee yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one wee love and with whom wee did familiarly live cals to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly do griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to bee eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our cares any more And certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but bee an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchers of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortality which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to bee understood that Christians doe contemne the world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of God unto them Diogenes trod upon Plato's pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humility surmounteth and subdueth all wordly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest hee should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to bee sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke onely for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailty is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is effected and enjoyed for there can bee no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may bee so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the dregs of vanity no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The Kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoyng a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life sempiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignity without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuity without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole sufficient summary supreme good that good which we require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinity of the divine persons is

true glory to a woman or better preserves her esteeme then to reteine a constancy in the quality or disposition of her estate Bee shee young or old let her fame live ever fresh and like greene Bayes most flourishing when the winter of adversity is most nipping Vertue cannot exercise her owne strength nor expresse her owne worth without an Opposite Spices send forth the sweetest smell when they are most bruised and Palmes spread the broadest when they are soarest pressed Resolution without an assailant would in time become effeminate Yet I must tell you it is dangerous to tempt either youth or age with motives of fancy or to give least way to a promising opportunity You shall find secret assacinates enough to undermine you you need little to become your owne betrayers I have heard of a noble Lady in my time whose descent and desert equally proclaime her worth so tender of the esteeme of her honour as shee held it scarce safe to receive any Letter from a great Personage whose reputation was touched by rumour This was the way to preserve her honour impregnably and to reare it above the reach of Calumny Neither are you to bee cantelous onely of your Estimation in subjects of love and affection but even in your domesticke affaires which trench upon your providence or expence Your discretions in these are brought to the Stage Let not profusenesse draw you to spend where honest providence bids you spare nor niggardlinesse cause you to spare where reputation bids you spend Shee deserves not to bee governesse of an house who wants discretion to moderate her expence Let her reflect upon her progeny intend her charge and provide for her family A good wife is compared to a wise Merchant who brings his trafficke from a farre Now a wise Merchant will not have his Oare in every mans Boate but will seriously addresse his care to his owne Busie women would make ill Snayles and worse house-wives straglers will never become good house-keepers To cloze this branch so compose your affections at home and abroad as providence may expresse you care and charge in the one a grave and reserved reverence preserve your esteeme in the other As your lives are lines of direction to your selves so should they bee arguments of instruction unto others Bee you planted in what state soever let your good report be your greatest stake for ever so may you reape what your vertues have deserved and keepe your Estimation impregnably preserved NOne can preserve what hee loves by mixing it with the society of that hee loathes The Ivye while it winds and wreathes it selfe about the Plant with an envious consumption decayes the sap If you be companions to Ostridges you shall favour of the wildernesse Socrates called Envie an impostume of the soule so may every corrupt affection bee properly termed Vices love neighbourhood which like infectious maladies doe ever most hurt when they draw nearest the heart There is nothing Gentlewomen that brings your Honour to a more desperate hazard then giving reines to your owne desires These must you subdue to the soveraignty of reason if you expect rest in your inward mansion What better fruits then ignominy may carnall liberty produce When you make the Theatre your chiefest place of repose phantasticke gallants who never yet converst with vertue your choisest consorts delicious viands servants to your liquorish appetites what conclusion may wee expect from such dangerous premisses When modesty puts off her vaile and vanity begins to ruffle it in sinne when chaste desires are chased out a breath and lightnesse pleads prescription when vermillion has laid so deepe a colour on an impudent skinne as it cannot blush with sense of her owne shame when Estimation becomes a word of Complement or carelesly worne like some over-cast raiment valued as painted Pageants doe guilded Puppets onely for shew What prodigy fuller of wonder then to see a woman thus transform'd from nature Her face is not her owne note her complexion her eye is not her own note her straid motion her habit is not her owne eye her strange fashion Whilest loose weares imply light workes and thin cobweb covers promise free admittance to all sensuall lovers Yea which is more shee holds it no shame to glory in sinne nor to court vice in her owne livery all which she maintaines to be complements of gentility Thus vice is ever in fashion and keepes her gradation till shee aspire to the height of her building Shee begins with conceit seconds it with consent strengthens it with delight and incorporates it with custome One of this ranke have I oft-times observed tracing the streets of this flourishing City who as one weary of her sexe forbore not to unwoman her selfe by assuming not onely a virile habit but a virago's heart Quarrels shee would not sticke to bind upon any fresh-water Souldier whose late induction to the siege of Gallants had not sufficiently informed him in that posture Nothing desir'd shee more then to give affronts in publike places which shee did with that contempt as the disgrace shee aspers'd on others was her sole content Places of frequent were her Rendevou where her imperious tongue run descant on every subject ministred her selfe she usually ingaged for a Second upon least occasion offered Now could these courses any way choose but cause that to be irreparably lost which by any modest woman should be incomparably lov'd Tell mee were not his spirit armour of proofe who durst encounter with so couragious an Amazon or enter nuptiall lists with such a feminine Myrmidon Surely these as they labour to purchase them opinion of esteeme by their unwomanly expressions of valour so they eclypse their owne fame and by these irregular affronts detract highly from their essentialst honour Such may gaine them observance but never esteeme Take heed then lest publike rumour brand you Scandall is more apt to disperse what is ill then Opinion is to reteine what is good When the world is once possest of your shame many deserving actions of piety can hardly wipe off that staine Esaus birth-right was temporall yet once lost many teares could not regaine it your soules honour is a birth-right spirituall which once lost many tedious taskes shall not redeeme it Let your estimation bee by you so tenderly lov'd as you will rather choose to loath life then irreparably lose that which is the sweetest Consort of humane life THere is nothing which workes not for some end wherein it may rest and repose Long before that glorious Light wee now enjoy did the very Heathens who had no knowledge of a future being rejoyce highly in the practice of Morall vertues and performing such commendable offices as might purchase them deserved honour living and eternally memorize them dying This might bee illustrated by severall instances in Maids Wives and Widowes For the first those Locrian Virgins deserve our memory whose custome it was yearely to be sent to Troy which use