Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A14795
|
Spare-minutes: or resolved meditations and premeditated resolutions. Written by A.W.
|
Warwick, Arthur, 1604?-1633.
|
1634
(1634)
|
STC 25096; ESTC S102697
|
27,998
|
212
|
by the Cape of good hope till I arive at the haven of eternall happinesse THE same water which being liquid is penetrated with an horsehaire will beare the horse himselfe when it is hard frozen I muse not then that those precepts and threats of GODS judgements enter not into the hardned hearts of some old men frozen by the practice of sinne which pierce and penetrate deepe into the tender hearts and melting consciences of yonger folks thawed with the warmth of GODS feare Hence see I the cause why the sword of the Word so sharpe that it serveth in some to divide the joyntes and marrow in others glaunceth or reboundeth without dint or wound from their cristall frozen and adamantine hearts I cannot promise my selfe to bee free from sinne I were then no man but I will purpose in my selfe to bee free from hardnesse of heart by custome and continuance in sinne I may erre in my way I will not persist and goe on in my errours till I cannot returne againe into my way I may stumble I may fall but I will not lye still when I am fallen WHen I see two game-cocks at first sight without premeditated malice fight desperatly and furiously the one to maintaine the injury offered the other to revenge the injury received by the first blow and to maintaine this quarrell not onely dye the pit with their bloud but die in the pit with their mutuall bloudy wounds me thinkes I see the successe of those duëllers of our time which being ambitious of Achilles his praise Pelidis juvenis cedere nescij desperatly and furiously adventure their lives heere and indanger their soules heereafter onely for the vaine termes of false honour I will not say but that being flesh and bloud I may be carelesse of my flesh and bloud to revenge injurious indignities offered me yet since as a tenant my soule must answer her Landlord for reparations of the house she dwels in and I have no warrant of GOD or man for such revenge I will not kill my owne soule to kill an other mans body I will not pull the house of my body on my soules head in a fury that GOD may make them both fuell for the fury of hell fire WHen I view the heavens declaring the glory of GOD and the firmament shewing his handy worke and consider that each litle numbred starre even of the sixth magnitude containeth the earths dimension 18. times in bignesse by Astronomers conclusions I easily descend to consider the great difference of earthly mens glory and that weight of glory affoorded the Saints in heaven For what a poore ambition is it to bee the best man in a City What 's a City to a Shire What a Shire to the whole Island What this Island to the Continent of Europe What Europe to the whole Earth What that Earth to a Starre What that Starre to Heaven and that to the Heaven of Heavens And so by a retrogradation how litle How nothing is this poore glory I finde many which say hoc nihil est aliquid I finde in my selfe cause to say hoc aliquid nihil est If I needs will bee somebody by my ambition I will bee ambitious to bee ranged with the Saints in Heaven rather then ranked with the Kings on earth since the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then they I Saw once a Ierfalcon let fly at an Heron and observed with what clamour the Heron entertain'd the sight and approach of the Hawke and with what winding shifts hee strave to get above her labouring even by bemuting his enemies feathers to make her flaggwinged and so escape but when at last they must needs come to a necessitated encounter resuming courage out of necessity hee turned face against her and striking the Hawke thorough the gorge with his bill fell downe dead together with his dead enemie This sight seemed to mee the event of a great sute in Law where one trusting to his cases potency more then his causes equity endeavours to disinherit his stubborne neighbour by colourable titles to his land Heere may you heare the clamorous obloquies of the wronged and see the many turnings and winding Meanders in the Law sought out to get above his adversary And lastly when the issue must come to tryall oftentimes in the grapple they both sinke to beggery by the Law whiles lawfully they seeke to get above each other Hence warned against potent enemies I will alway pray LORD make mee not a prey unto their teeth and against an equall or inferiour I will not borrow the lawes extreme right to doe him extreme wrong nor fall to law with any body till I fall by law to bee no body I will not doe that to have my will which will undoe my selfe of what I have by my willfullnesse THe Psalmist doth not slander the slanderers when in a good description of their bad natures hee saith their throat is an open sepulcher c. the poyson of Aspes is under their lippes For what more loathsome stench and noisome smells can a new opened sepulcher belch out then these venomous open throated slanderers And well may their lipscontaine the poyson of Aspes of which Lucan saith in nulla plus est serpente veneni when a few words of theirs shall like a Witches spell charme and strike dead a mans deerest reputation I will therefore indeavour to make my actions of that vertue that as an antidote of Mithridates his best confection they may repell the worst infection those serpents shall spit at mee And albeit I cannot bee free from their assaults from which none is freed yet I will not with Cleopatra set those Aspes so neere my heart that they may stop my vitall spirits with their poyson And since I must passe thorough this Africa of monsters and harmefull beasts I will carefully feare and shunne the worst of tame beasts the flatterer and of wild beasts the slanderer MEditation is a busie search in the store-house of fantasie for some Idea's of matters to bee cast in the moulds of resolution into some formes of words or actions In which search when I have used my greatest diligence I finde this in the conclusion that to meditate on the Best is the best of Meditations and a resolution to make a good end is a good end of my resolutions A Meditation of the Authors found written before a Sermon of his for EASTER-day MY heart a matter good indites O then Lord make my tongue a ready writers pen That so assisted by thy graces art Thy grace unto the world I may impart So raise my thoughts my willing minde so blesse That I thy glorious rising may expresse And rays'd from death of sinfull ignorance Thy selfe-advancing power may advance And if my simple willingnesse wants skill Thou mad'st me willing LORD accept my will An other written before a Sermon of his on the 51. Psalme verse 1. LORD guide my tongue that covets to declare How great my sinnes how good thy mercies are I both would shew and yet so great is either That whil'st I both would shew I can shew neither They both are infinite they both began Ere I beginning had or shape of man Where then shall I begin with hope to shew How great both are who both exceeding know Mercy still pardons sinne doth still offend And being endlesse both where shall I end Thou first and last whose mercy heale my sin Shew me to end and teach me to begin The last thing the Author wrote a few daies before his death A Bubble broke its ayre looseth By which losse the bubble's lost Each frost the fayrest flower brooseth Whose lives vanish with that frost Then wonder not we die if life be such But rather wonder whence it is we live so much Tales long or short whether offending Or well pleasing have their end The glasse runnes yet the set-time ending Every atom doth descend If life be such as such life is t is sure When tales and times find ends why should life still indure This world is but a walke of paine That ha's onely end by death This life 's a warre in which we gaine Conquest by the losse of breath Who would not war-fare end and travells cease To live at home in rest and rest at home in peace Nothing heere but constant paines Or unconstant pleasures be Worthlesse treasures loosing gaines Scantie store chaynd liberty If life affoord the best no better fate How welcome is that death that betters that bad state What 's the earth when trimmest drest To that cristall spangled dwelling Yet the Saint in glory least Is in glory farre excelling Glorious Redeemer let this earth of mine Thy glorious body see and in thy glory shine Oft I see the darksome night To a glorious day returning As oft doth sleepe intombe my sight Yet I wake againe at morning Bright Sunne returne when sleepe hath spent deaths night That these dimne eyes of mine may in thy light see light FINIS