Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	great_a	river_n	9,026	5	7.1511	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07913	A most true relation of a very dreadfull earth-quake with the lamentable effectes thereof, vvhich began vpon the 8. of December 1612. and yet continueth most fearefull in Munster in Germanie. Reade and tremble. Translated out of Dutch by Charles Demetrius, publike notarie in London.	Demetrius, Charles.	1612 (1612)	STC 18285; ESTC S103115	11,000	30

to execute his displeasure Of which Tragicall fury of the Billowes this is one memorable and notorious proofe to be lamented in more wordes then I set it downe in letters that amongst those numbers of dead carkases which the Sea as vnwilling to beare such vnnaturall and ignoble Burdens paide backe againe vpon the Shoare a dead Woman was one about whose body were found tyed as it seemed in the heat and height of the Tempest seauen Children she her selfe being great with the eight Thus haue you heard a true report of the Almighties Anger and his Mercy his Power both by Sea and Land let vs therefore whose liues and possessions he might haue confiscated in his iust indignation yet hath spared them fall vpon our knees with thanks for his deliuerance and bringing vs safe through this Red Sea of troubles in which if it had pleased him we might with the rest haue beene for euer confounded For our hearts made so by our sinnes are hardened not onely one against another but against him as much as theirs were or euer Pharaohs was Open the Closet of euery mans conscience and you shall finde a Booke there all blotted and written full of impieties blacker then the incke yet so marble-breasted are we that like fooles going laughing to the stockes we are insensible of our owne harmes The Vine vntimely cut weepes away her strength at the wound but no misery that cuts vs earely or late can make vs weepe for our sinnes Sinne and we are as inseparable as trechery is from the Soule of a Turke or blackenes from the cheekes of an Ethiope Wee feele the smarting paine of a slight blow it angers vs nay the losse of a little bloud makes vs cry out and almost starke mad for the feare of approaching death but if our soules be buffeted we laugh at it if they be shattered in pieces rent and ruined we stirre not at that Her ill dayes we write downe in no Kalender for we thinke there are not any can hurt her Swallowes would not come within Thebes because the wals were so often besieged but wretched man puts on wings to flye to those Cities which are most shaken with vices The more rotten the hart of this Worlds Kingdome is by feeding on sweet and bewitching pleasures the more we dote like fond Louers vpon it To set downe our sinnes is as infinite a taske as to paint our thoughts it is a chaine reaching downe as low beneath vs as the glories of heauen are aboue vs. To set downe our sinnes at full we had need to study a new Arithmeticke to be as long-liude as the Hart when we sit to doe it to turne the Sea into Incke when we write the Figures to binde vp a Booke with as many Leaues as are rent by Autumne and to haue the Sands of the Ocean for Compters yet all these helpes are not able to cast vp the Summe For we are still at difference with God yet is he loath to fall out with vs we owe him Millions yet pay him not a Mite He loues vs as the Apple of his Eye yet we cast his loue at our feete he sings sweet Notes of mercy in our Eares and they make vs presume he then shakes his Iron Mace of Justice at vs and then wee despaire So that his patience and our wickednesse our prouocation and his tender-hartednesse are no more tunable together then Lute-strings of a Wolfe and a Lambe which neuer agree in Musicke If then the number of our bad deeds swels to a heape so great how can wee at Gods hands but looke for as great and as many punishments If a debter owe vs money we looke to haue all we spare not him we vexe him we plucke out his throate for our owne Why should not God then handle vs so Yet he reckons seldome and forgiues much when he sees vs wasting the Talents he trusts vs with and too too lauishly consuming them then then we must be sure to pay for all Euery man hath by himselfe an accompt to make vp euery Nation runnes in Arerages yea the World it selfe is behinde hand with his Lord and Maker The Audit day is set downe in his euerlasting Reportary knowne to man that it must come but knowne to the King of Heauen onely when it shall come for when eyther we by our selues personally or any Nation particularly or the world in generally is to be summoned to make his rest euen lyes hid in a Booke which none can vnclaspe All of vs therefore had neede to be in readines because the hower is vncertaine when he will call How vnspeakable then is the Mercy of our Sauiour how indemensiue is his bounty that our offences being as innumerable as the torments of hell and our least deseruing them all yet he whips vs but with silken rods and giues vs fillops when he might dash vs in pieces We are all his flocke and all haue gone astray yet he strikes but one to warne the rest For the Diuell like the Teumesian Foxe ouer takes and teares all that he hunts but he that saued the Prophet in the belly of the great Leuiathan of the sea can and doth deliuer vs when we are held fast betweene his pawes O my deare Country of Germany this is not the first warning that thou hast had from Heauen to amend thy wickednesse Many a Trumpet haue the Angels from aboue sounded in thine Eare to awake thee but seeing thou wilt not listen to the song of the Larke thou art inforced to hearken to the hoarsnesse of the Screech-owle Thou hast longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt when thou feddest vpon Quailes and Manna and that is the cause that thou art worthily afflicted and compelled in stead of rich Wines to drinke thine owne teares and for thy full banquets to eate the bread of thine owne and thy childrens sorrow Least therefore that this thy present calamity be but vnto thee as a fearefull dreame and least thou shouldst write this fresh and bleeding misery in water when it is most fit to be engrauen in leaues of Adamant or rather printed in the palmes of thy hands to be euer in thine eyes I intreate thee to looke backe vpon the woes which thou hast borne in ages past Remember some sorrowes of thy younger dayes though the wounds be closed vp yet behold the scars and in beholding them weepe that thou shouldst so incense Heauen to strike and yet reioyce that the punishment is so gentle Amongst many therefore of the rods with which thou hast beene beaten I will onely shew thee three and these are they In the yeare 1346. vpon the Regall of S. Catharine the Citie of Basill being one of the noblest buildings in Germany and for the brauery of it called Regnopoli the Kingly Citie was as Munster is at this present shaken with an Earth-quake which was so violent that by force thereof a great part of the Cathedrall Church or Summum Templum fell downe and a magnificent Palace adioyning to that Temple drowned her loftiest Pynnacles in the Riuer Rhyne vpon which that renowned City stands And againe in the yeare 1356. on the day of S. Luke another Earth-quake did not onely shake and search the foundations of all Germany but for many times one after another tossed the foresaid Citie of Basill casting downe her Towers Churches Palaces and Wals and murdring in their ruines aboue one hundred persons and with the fall of stones and timber striking infinite numbers lame Yet the rage of it was not satisfied thus for by the shaking in pieces of houses that had fires in them a lamentable destruction fell vpon the whole Citie insomuch the flames being exceeding great and not able any wayes to be quenched men women and children stood afarre off wringing their hands to see their riches their dowries and patrimonies swallowed vp in flames which burned day and night and in their greedy and mercilesse fury consumed besides the Citie of Basill these places also viz. Schouuenberg Vuartenberg Reichenstein Angenstein Berenfelss Pleffingen Scholberg Froburg and many others as by a Letter sent to Sebastian Munster by Bonif Amerbachius is to be seene in his description of Germany The same Authour sets downe likewise the sad remembrance of a misery which fell in August 1545. vpon Mechlyn in Brabant where God thundred first so terribly on the buildings and the sinnes of the people that Mechlyn shooke and trembled to her very foundations That dreadfull voice of Thunder being quiet a darknesse followed with a most horrible stench of Brimstone more terrifying the Inhabitants then the Thunder did And that misery being likewise remoued from them as bad or worse succeeded for the Clouds opening their reuenging bosomes threw downe such fearefull Lightning that men expected when the whole frame of Heauen would haue melted And to increase that terror the flashes brake into a Tower that was stored with eight hundred Barrels of Gun-powder which taking fire blew vp a great part of the Tower in a moment Stones Timber and mens quarters flying vp into the Ayre and many whole carkases found dead the next morning No Church stood vndefaced no house vnruined no man but vndone by it At the same time three men sitting at Cards were strucke dead whilst the woman that went into the Cellar to fetch them drinke escaped aliue yet dismayed no doubt but not so much terrified as he was who in the heate of those diuine punishments fled and hid himselfe in a caue by the space of three dayes from whence being driuen out by Famine for no force else could haue made him aduenture to the light he with faint voyce and trembling ioynts asked aloud If the world stood still or not Thus Munster And thus farre hauing led thee backe to looke vpon thy ancient ruines I wish thee the full fruit of all those Prayers which the Country round about terrified by thy miseries and pittying them doe daily poure out in their Churches commanded thereunto by their Rulers And with their Prayers doe I mingle mine that it would please God to deliuer not onely this our Country from his heauie punishments laid vpon it for the sinnes of the people in it but also that he would call home those angry messengers of his wrath whose stormy rage hath afflicted England France and other neighbouring Nations to the vndoing of thousands in their goods and leauing many Widowes and fatherlesse children by losse of their husbands liues FINIS

a breach made into the very Rocke it selfe that the Castell is sunke beneath his setled and first foundation more than the depth of two mens height That which remaineth vndeuoured in this stony and craggy Gulfe aboue ground ●eeling wauing and tottering too and fro as easily when the blow is giuen as you see standing corne shaken by some mightie wind Thus the poore people liue in this citie thus they perish but leauing them a while Into whose bosome shall I poure the riuer of my teares Into my countries she is ouerwhelmed already in the torrent of her owne sorrowes Shall I sigh my lamentations vp into Ayre She is frighted with the vnusuall prodigies which the wrath of her Maker stickes vpon her beauty will men heare me Sinne hardens their hearts and they are more senselesse than Rockes to the Rockes Mountaines and Hilles then breath I out my Tragicall condolements Alas they tremble too as readie to feele the generall dissolution Let me open therefore the mangled booke of thy Ruines onely O thou my inexpressibly dilacerated countrey because in these leaues are written the blotted Stories of thy downefall Why art thou aboue all thy fellowes marked out and drawne to the slaughter Is it because thy iniquities exceede the rest as thy punishments do Or is it because God is but angrie as a father chastising any one that is next his hand not in a particular quarrell to that one but to make these stripes giuen to him startle all the rest and so to keepe them in feare of correctiō Or shal I let flie none of these arrowes but shooting at Rouers in another bow shal I with the Naturalist searcher of secrets conclude that these Earth frauers haue their shakings from the ordinarie distemperature of Winds stealing into the bowels of the earth and there with rombling tossing stragling to acquire vent passage they open that Cauernes of the massie foundation and so tumble down all waightie matter that compresseth their violence Shall these Crutches serue for my beliefe to leane vpon No let the Lame halting Heathen that neuer trode in y● right path of his Creation hold vp his knowledge by that weak staffe Let him suppose that the wheeles of this great Vniuerse are set a going by the subtile workemanship of Nature that their motions shall grow flow and weaken according as she her selfe waxeth old and decaying But if I that am a Christian can read that there is a God who controlles Nature a God that made the Sunne to shine by day a Moone by night with Starres in the firmament not so much to beautify that Roofe as to serue the vse of man And that those officers of light those celestial torchbearers are appointed to keep a decent setled vnchangeable orderly course if I can also read that the same Omni-sufficiently-skilfull Enginer is at all times furnished with Thunder Lightning Tempest the Artillerie of his vengeance The naturall Philosopher shall pardon me if I thinke and so wish all Christians to bee of this opinion that as in our Earthly or Lunarie bodies accidentall violent diseases are fore-runners of languishing Sicknes or Imminent Death So when those heauenly bodies are out of tune distempered distracted they are predictions of some fatall fearefull portentious calamities assuredly threatning some particular Nation not shot from an ordinarie but a supernaturall hand And I doe farther thinke that if the omnipotent Thunderer could locke vp sufficient store of Waters to drowne all the world as by his word giuen since he hath sworn to destroy it with fire sure it is that his opening of the same Sluces now which ouer-flow and swallow vp our corne fields in their mercilesse inundations are but to shewe vs the old whip which hee then held in his hands when first he gaue correction as these tearings of the Element with fires darted from his lightning vpon one especiall citie are meere Items to put vs in minde of that dreadfull last blow which shall pash the world in pieces in her vniuersall consummation No no It is an extraordinarie Finger that points out where such Tempests shall fall The Lord of Hostes hath some great Battle to bee fought and hée doeth now but leuie his forces The Judge of all Kingdomes is to arraigne the sinnes of some one people and these are now but the summons sent from his court to warne their appearance You neuer shall see these gentle Lashes vppon the outward flesh of a few but bee assured they are Flagella Dei his Rods which hee ties vp in bundels against some more terrible execution I should here weepe mine eyes into Inke to set downe the deplorable condition of my countrey if I saw her onely tyed to the Stake of these afflictions But is Germanie in a flame and doe other Nations stand a loofe off warming their handes by her fires Not so Denmarke our next neighbour with France England Scotland Ireland and many other Maritime Kingdoms haue eaten of this sowre Grape as well as Germanie they as we sit still on the weather beaten shores increasing the wrathfull Seas with Waters showring from their eyes for their fresh bleeding and neuer to be forgotten Irrecuperable losses Awaken therfore O you seuenteene daughters of Belgial you that are rich in Possessions glorious in beautie princely in ornaments leaue listning to the charms of your light and wanton instruments and let the cries of vs your poore Neighbors force you to lift vp your eyes to heauen Thinke not though you stand higher than vs that you stand snrer for the same Arme that hath shooke our strong Battlements can as suddenly crumble yours into dust your amendement may sue out our generall Pardon Looke vpon your feete then and blush for all your gay Fethers at your deformitie Your ancient and noblest vertues haue you turned into Sordid and most ugly abhominations Peace hath made you proude pride hath made you ambitious ambitiō warlike and Warre bloudie and insolent Your industrie so admired throughout the World and so commendable at home is now like a Spiders Loome curiously wrought but to no good purpose Sloth sits in your gates and wantonnesse lies dallying in your chambers temperance in diet is growne to surfeting and those surfets breed oathes and quarrels All your good deeds may be ingrauen within a ring of gold but your bad-ones stretch beyond all dimension These are the trees of your glories but note I pray how the fruits haue beene blasted The Spaniard hath marched with swords of fire vpō the harts of your proudest cities your marriage-beds haue suffered deturpation and felt the hot lust of strangers your fairest Froes haue beene rauished of their honours by the mercenary souldier yea the Dutch themselues haue like Vipers eaten out the belly that brought them forth Inhabitants of cities haue made their owne cities desolate and beaten downe those walles that should haue defended their families Fathers haue murdered sons sonnes fathers and kinred