Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	great_a	king_n	2,913	5	3.6168	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68615	The mirrour which flatters not Dedicated to their Maiesties of Great Britaine, by Le Sieur de la Serre, historiographer of France. Enriched with faire figures. Transcrib'd English from the French, by T.C. And devoted to the well-disposed readers.; Miroir qui ne flatte point. English	La Serre, M. de (Jean-Puget), ca. 1600-1665.; Cary, T. (Thomas), b. 1605 or 6.; Payne, John, d. 1647?, engraver.	1639 (1639)	STC 20490; ESTC S115329	108,868	275

and ret orts upon it's own paces Man may be sayd to be happy in being subject to all mishaps But Man contrarily being setled upon the declining stoop of his ruine rouls insensibly without intervall to the grave his prison Death is a grace rather than a paine O deare ruine 〈◊〉 O sweet captivity since the soule recovers her freedome and this Sepulture serves but as a Furnace to purifi●● his body The Aire although it corrupt is not for all that destroyed th● corruption of Man destroyes its materiall O glorious destruction since i●steades him as a fresh disposition to render him immortall The Fire thoug● it fairely devoure all things is yet preserved still it selfe to reduce all th● World into Ashes But Man perceive himself to be devoured by Time with out ability ever to resist it Oh ben●ficiall Impotence since hee findes h●● Triumph in his overthrow The ●el●citic of man in this world consists in the nec●ssity of death the Sunn● causeth alwayes admiration in its o●dinary lustre but Mans reason is impaired in the course of Times Oh we●come impairement since Time ruin● it but onely in an Anger knowing th● it goes about to establish its Empire beyond both time and Ages In find the Heavens may seem to wax old 〈◊〉 their wandring course How happy is man in decaying evermore since he thus at last renders himselfe exempt from all the miseries which pursue him they yet appear the same still every day as they were a thousand yeeres a'gon Man from moment to moment differs from himselfe and every instant disrobes him somewhat of his Beeing Oh delightfull Inconstancy since all his changes make but so many lines which abut at the Center of his stability A long life is a heavie burthen to the soule since it must render an account of all its moments How mysterious is the Fable of Narcissus the Poets would perswade ●●s that Hee became selfe-enamoured ●●ewing Himselfe in a Fountaine But 〈◊〉 am astonish't how one should become amorous of a dunghill though ●overed with Snow or Flowers A face cannot be formed without Eyes Nose ●nd Mouth and yet every of these ●arts make but a body of Misery and Corruption as being all full of it This Fable intimates us the repre●ntment of a fairer truth since it in●●tes a Man to gaze himselfe in the ●ountaine of his teares thus to become morous of himselfe not for the li●eaments of dust and ashes whereof ●s countenance is shap't but rather of ●ose beauties and graces wherewith his soule is ornamented and all these together make but a rivelet If a man could contemplate the becauties of his soule in innocence he would alwaies be surprized with us love which leads him to the admiration of that source from whence they tooke their originall Oh how David was a wise Narcissus then when hee made of his Teares a Mirrour If a man would of en view himselfe in the teares of his repentance be would soon become a true self●over so to become enamour'd of himselfe for he was so selfe-loving in his repentance that in this Hee spent both dayes and nights with unparelleled delights But if Narcissus ship-wrack't himselfe in the fountaine of his selfe-fondnesse This great King was upon point to Abysse himselfe in the Sea of his t●eres All the vaine objects of the world are so many fountaines of Narcissus wherein prying men may sh●pwracke themselves for their liquid Crystalline shewd him to himselfe so beautifull that hee burned with desire thus to drowne himselfe Ladies vie● your selves in this Mirrour since you are ordinarily slaves to your owne selve love You will be faire at what price soever see here is the meanes The Crystall Mirrour of your teares flatter not contemplate therein the beauty of this grace which God hath given you to bewaile your vanities This is the onely ornament which can render you admirable All those deceitfull Chrystals Teares are the faithfullest Mirours of penitence which you weare hang'd at your Girdles shew you but fained beauties wherof Art is the work-mistresse and cause rather then your visages Would yee be Idolaters of the Earth which you tread on your bodies are but of Durt but if you will have them endeared where shall I find tearmes to expresse their Noysomnesse Leave to Death his Conquest and to the Wormes their heritage If Ladies would take as much care of their souls as of their bodies they would not hazard the losse both of one and to'ther and search your selves in that originall of Immortality from whence your soules proceed that your actions may correspond to the Noblenesse of that cause This is the most profitable counsell which I can give You It is time to end this Chapter Great Kings I serve you this Morning instead of a Page to awake You and remembrance You that you are Men I meane Subjects to Death and consequently destinated to serve as a Prey to the Wormes a Shittle-cocke to the Windes and matter for to forme an object of horror and astonishment to you altogether Muze a little that your life passeth away as a Dreame The meditation of our nothingnesse is a soveraigne remedie against vanitie thinke a little that your thoughts are vaine consider at the same time that all that is yours passes and flies away You are great but this necessity of Dying equals you to the least of your subjects Men are so neare of blood together that all beare the same name Your powers are dreadfull but a very hand-worme mocks at 'em your riches are without number but the most wretched of men carry as much into the grave as you In fine may all the pleasures of Life make a party in Yours yet they are but so many Roses whose prickles onely remaine to you at the instant of Death Man hath nothing so proper to him as the misery to which hee is borne The horror which environs You chaseth away your greatnesses the weakenesse which possesseth you renders unprofitable your absolute powers and onely then in that shirt which rests upon your backe are comprised all the treasures of your Coffers Are not these verities of importance enough to breake your sleepe If the earth be our mother heaven is our father I awake you then for to remembrance you this last time that you are Men but destined to possesse the place of those evill Angels whose Pride concaved the Abysses of Hell that you are Men but much more considerable for the government of your reason then your Kingdome That you are Men but capable to acquire all the felicities of Heaven if those of the Earth are by you disdained That you are Men but called to the inheritance of an eternall Glory if you have no pretence to any of this world Lastly that you are Men but the living images of an infinite and omnipotent one Though the body and soule together make up the man there is yet as

of the Day which with a continuall aspect We are all amourous of our selves not knowing for what for our defects are objects rather of hate then Love contemplates all created things cannot make reflexion of his beames to see himselfe as if his mother Nature had apprehended in making him so glorious that the Mirrour of his light might not be metamorphosed into a fire of love to render him amorous of his owne proper lustre But the Intellect this Sunne of our Soules has a faculty with which it can both contemplate out of it selfe all things A Man cannot stumble ordinarily but through perve●snesse since Reason enlightens him in the very worst wayes and repeale againe the same power to consider it selfe which makes a Man capable not onely of the Meditation of the miseries of the World but also of that of the afflictions and troubles which inseparably keeps him company to the grave We reade of Moses that God commanded him to frame the * The Laver which was before the Tabernacle Exod. 38.8 fore-front of the Tabernacle all of Mirrours to the end that those that should present themselves before his Altar might view themselves in this posture of Prayer O this excellent Mysterie Mortals it behooves you to view your selves in the Mirrour of your Ashes if you would have your vowes heard God hath taught us an excellent way of Prayer Give us this day our daily bread But why O Lord teachest thou us not to aske thee our bread for to Morrow There is nothing assured in Life but its continuall Death as well as for to day O how good a reason is there hereof This is because that life hath no assurance of tom-orrow besides that it is an excesse of grace that wee may be bold to crave of him the bread of our nourishment for all a whole day since every moment may be That of our Death Reader let this verity serve thee yet as a Mirrour 'T is not sufficient to muse of the necessity of dying but to consider also that every houre may be our Lost if thou would'st have thy prayers to pierce the heavens This is not all to know thy body is a Colosse of filth which is traild along from one place to another as it were by the last struggle of a Life alwayes languishing It behooves thee also to call to mind that every instant may terminate the course of thy troublesome carriere and that this suddaine retreate constraines thee to bid Adieu for ever to all the things of the world which thou cherishedst most Thoughts onely worthy of a noble spirit I have eaten Ashes as bread Psal 102. 9. Cinerem tan quam panem manducabam sayes the Royall Prophet but how is it possible I conceive his thought He entertained his soule with the remembrance of the Ashes of his body and this truth alone serv'd as object to his imagination for to satisfie the appetite of his Soule Lord give me both the same relish and desire to repast my selfe still thus of Dust and Ashes in remembrancing my selfe alwayes that I am nothing else A man to abase himselfe below that which he is being so poore a thing of nothing O sweet remembrance of my rottennesse since it steads me for eternall nourishment of my Soule O precious memorie of my Nothingnesse since able to satisfie the appetite of my heart Let this be the daily bread O Lord which thou hast taught me to aske thee to the end that all my desires together nourishment I recollect my selfe in this digression Having diverse times mused of the imbecillity and weakenesse of Man Si vitrei essemus minus casus timeremus S. Aug. I am constrain'd to cry out with St. Augustin What is there that can be more fraile in Nature If we were of Glasse pursues hee our condition might therein be better There is nothing more brittle than glasse yet man is more for a Glasse carefully preserv'd may last long time and yet what paine somever Man takes to preserve himselfe and under what shelter somever hee shrowds himselfe for covert to the storme hee breakes and is shattered of himselfe What reply you to these verities Great Princes Well may you now be arrogant The fragilitie of Glasse cannot admit of comparison with this of your nature what seat will you give to your greatnesse and what foundation to your vanity Man is fully miserable since his life is the source of his miseries when the wind alone of your sighs may shipwracke you upon the Sea of your owne proper teares what surnames will you take upon you for to make you be mis-taken That of Immortall would become you ill since every part of your body serves but as a But to the shaftes of Death Invincible A man may doe every thing with vertue without it nothing would also be no way proper since upon the least touch of mishap you are more worthy of pity then capable of defence Would you be called Gods your Idolaters would immolate you to their owne laughter Tread under foot your Crownes if rightly you will be crowned with them you onely thus render your selves worthy of those honours which you misprize for Glory consists not in the possessing it Heaven cannot bee acqu●red but by the misprize of earth but in the meriting and the onely means to obtaine it is to pretend nothing at all to it How remarkeable is the custome of the Locrians at the Coronation of their Kings They burnt before them a handfull of Tow to represent unto them the instability of their grandeurs and the greedinesse of Time to destroy them In effect all the greatnesses of the Earth are but as a bundlet of Tow All the grandour of Kings is but as the blaze of flaming tow and then when Darius would make of them his treasure Mis-hap set fire on them and reduced 'em into Cinders and when hee had yet in his heart a desire to immortalize them a new fire seaz'd his intrals by the heat of thirst which burn'd him to the end to consume at once both the cause and the effect So true it is that the Glory of the world vanisheth away like Smoke Great Kings if you build a Throne of Majestie to the proofe both against Time and Fortune lay its foundation upon that of your miseries He which esteems himselfe the least of all is the greatest Humility takes her rise in low linesse from the lowest footing when she makes her flight into the heavens O how admirable is the Humility of Saint Iohn Baptist They would give him titles of Soveraignty in taking him for the Messias but call to you Memory how with an ejaculation o● Love and reverence hee precipitate● himselfe both with heart and though● into the Abysse of his owne Nothingnesse there to admire in all humility both Greatnesse and Majesty in his Throne I am but a voyce Vox clamantis in deserto Iohn 1.23

Man should mis-know himselfe having such faithful Mirrours before his eyes where at all times hee may see apparantly the Truth of his Nature kneaded in Corruption formed by it and destroyed also by the same Strange thing he can see nothing in the World All the obiects of the world bid us Adten while we but regard 'em since they are alwayes fleeing away but Images of inconstancy and yet will not apprehend his owne change whatsoever shall smite upon his eare will resound nothing but the bruit of his flight and yet he will not thinke upon his retreat Lastly his other Sences and his fancy shall have no other object but this of the continuall vicissitude of all things and yet hee will remaine firme and stable in his vanity To muse alwayes of Death i● the way of Immortality till death ruine its foundation Thus in the deceitfull opinion wherein hee is of possessing all things hee looseth the possession of himselfe and having too much dreamed on his pleasures his Life is past as a Dreame without returne I must tell you one of my meditations I shall never be able to comprehend the meaning of those who moane themselves against Fortune A man may well complaine against Fortune these vaine regreetes exempt him not from the paine the World and all the pleasures of this life One forsooth will upbraid to this foolish Deity her deceipts without considering that he deceived himselfe in giving Trust to a Goddesse that nere had any Hee yet will accuse her to have conducted him still through craggy wayes and over-spread with thornes as if in following one that is blind a man should not hazard to run this danger Another will make yet fresh complaints against the Worlds detesting it's Sweetes The world may well bee the instrument of our destruction not the cause cursing it's charmes and calling it a Thousand times deceiptfull but why one would say to hear these plaints that the world began but now to receive its birth I meane were but now newly created that no man knowes it yet and that its first couzenages began but now to be discovered What folly is not this to cheat ones selfe to have commerce with a cheater the world never yet bore any other name or title why then ayme we to nourish our selves with its delights whose after-bitternesse empoysons sensibly our soules But if its charmes be powerfull enough to tempt reason The number of those whom the world hath deceived is so great that they that still trust it are now no more excusable they are yet too feeble to vanquish it provided that the will consent not so that a man remaine convict of all the crimes whereof he may be accused What seeming ground then have we to be enraged against those pleasures which we have received The will is so free that it cannot suffer violence but from it selfe if our selves only give them both being and forme the Fancies conceive these delights and the will gives them birth they are the workes whereof our imaginations form the Species and our desires make the Metamorphosis changing them into objects palpable and sensible which are markes of the seale of our depravednesse Let a man then abhorre pleasures instead of accusing them Pleasures are the greatest enemies of life for in casting flowers upon our heads they fill our hearts with thrones detest their vanity in lieu of complaining of their dedeitfulnesse But if they be criminall they onely beare the staine of their Fathers and if they be complices of our destruction t is we give them Birth to give us death Let men cease to lament of Fortune since the Mirror of its flying scarfe Fortune is stil her selfe he which trusts her takes delight to bee cheated and wings expresse to the life its lightnesse and our folly Let none Argue any more that the world is cause of our ruine since we cannot chuse but tread every houre over the dust and ashes of those who have too late repented to have followed it As for voluptuousnesse t is a vaine Idea to which our passions give a body to make it serve as a sensible object of their brutality insomuch that it can do nothing but by our first motions taking its vigour from our force and its power from our Soveraigntie and this renders us doubly culpable palleating our faults instead of acknowledging them Pleasure still takes its force from our voluntary weakenesse since laments rather than excuses might absolve us them Is it not that St. Iohn Chrysostome toucht with compassion of our miseries cries out in astonishment of our weakenesse ' Oh World how many hast thou deceived 'T is more then folly when the folly of others serves us not for example but this is its trade and profession O Fortune how many hast thou made to fall but even yet still while I am speaking shee gives employment to her treason and exercise to her Tyrannie O Pleasures comfitted in Sweetes and steeped in bitternesse how many have yee poysoned but yet their venome is so common that the whole earth is infected with it What remedy then to all these ils No other then this to pry into ones selfe in the MIRROVR of his owne Ashes Wee can no better contemplate any thing then in the Mirrour of our Nothing a MIRROVR alwayes hanging at the Girdle and which flatters not A MIRROVR whose glasse though more brittle then one of Crystall makes us yet to see that all the objects of the World are false but that of our Corruption a Mirrour which represents us more lively in our pourtraict then in our selves A Mirrour whose kind of shadow and Chimera makes us see in effect that which we are in appearance A Mirrour all miraculous which preserves certaine Species's of nothing to render them sensible to our knowledge A Mirrour all divine which metamorphosing our bodies into shadows yet expresses us so naturally that the most arrogant cannot mistake themselves A Mirrour lastly which Nature hath charmed with it's owne proper spels All the Mirrours of the World flatter except this of our miseries to the end that vewing himselfe herein a Man may be able to resist the charmes of the World's allurements I am greatly astonisht at those that preach us the Knowledge of our selves to be so troublesome and difficult since that at all times and in all places of all sides and all sorts of fashions wee are Nothing at all or if by an excesse of flattery and vanity If a man would still study himselfe he would become the wisest of the World I borrow some names to expresse truely what wee are it can bee no other then those of durt and mire whose noysomnesse takes away all doubt on it from the most incredulous In what then consists this trouble of studying to know one's-selfe since the most ignorant may in this goe out Doctors in the schoole of our miseries Selfe-knowledge onely