Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	lie_v	soul_n	4,309	5	5.1460	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35983	Observations vpon Religio medici occasionally written by Sir Kenelme Digby, Knight.	Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665.	1643 (1643)	Wing D1441; ESTC R20589	25,029	128

you had But as I said before this example fitteth entirely no more then the other did In such abstracted speculations where we must consider matter without forme which hath no actuall being wee must not expect adaequated examples in nature But enough is said to make a speculative man see that if God should joyne the Soule of a lately dead man even whiles his dead corps should lie entire in his winding sheete here unto a Body made of earth taken from fome mountaine in America it were most true and certaine that the body he should then live by were the same Identicall body he lived with before his Death and late Resurrection It is evident that samenesse thisnesse and thatnesse belongeth not to matter by it selfe For a generall indifference runneth through it all but onely as it is distinguished and individuated by the Forme Which in our case whensoever the same Soule doth it must be understood alwayes to be the same matter and body This point thus passed over I may piece to it what our Author saith of a Magazine of Subsistent formes residing first in the Chaos hereafter when the world shall have beene destroyed by fire in the generall heape of Ashes out of which Gods voyce did shall draw them out cloath them with matter This language were handsome for a Poet or a Rhetorician to speake But in a Philosopher that should ratiocinate strictly and rigorously I can not admit it for certainly there are no subsistent forms of Corporeall things excepting the Soule of man which besides being an informing forme hath another particular consideration belonging to it too long to speake of here But whensoever that compound is destroyed the forme perisheth with the whole And for the naturall production of Corporeall things I conceive it to be wrought out by the action and passion of the Elements among themselves which introducing new tempers and dispositions into the bodies where these conflicts passe new formes succeed old ones when the dispositions are raised to such a height as can no longer consist with the preceding forme and are in the immediate degree to fit the succeeding one which they usher in The mystery of all which I have at large unfolded in my above mentioned treatise of the immortality of the Soule I shall say no more to the first part of our Phisicians discourse after I have observed how his consequence is no good one where hee inferreth that if the Devills foreknew who would bee damned or saved it would save them the Labor and end their worke of tempting mankinde to mischiefe and evill For whatsoever their morall designe and successe bee in it their nature impelleth them to be alwaies doing it For on the one side it is active in the highest degree as being pure Acts that is Spirits so on the other side they are maligne in as great an excesse By the one they must be alwayes working wheresoever they may worke like water in a vessell full of holes that will run out of every one of them which is not stopped By the other their whole worke must be malicious and mischievous Ioyning then both these qualities together it is evident they will alwayes bee tempting mankind though they know they shall be frustrate of their morall end But were it not time that I made an end Yes it is more then time And therefore having once passed the limit that confined what was becoming the next step carryed mee into the Ocean of Error which being infinite and therefore more or lesse bearing no proportion in it I will proceed a little further to take a short survey of his Second part And hope for as easie Pardon after this addition to my suddaine and indigested remarkes as if I had closed them up now Methinkes he beginneth with somewhat an affected discourse to prove his naturall inclination to Charity which vertue is the intended Theame of all the remainder of his discourse And I doubt he mistaketh the lowest Orbe or Lembe of that high Seraphicke vertue for the top and perfection of it and maketh a kind of humane compassion to bee divine Charity Hee will have it to bee a generall way of doing good It is true he addeth then for Gods sake But hee allayeth that againe with saying hee will have that good done as by obedience and to accomplish Gods will and looketh at the effects it worketh upon our Soules but in a narrow compasse like one in the vulgar throng that considereth God as a Iudge as a rewarder or a punisher Whereas perfect Charity is that vehement love of God for his own sake for his goodnesse for his beauty for his excellency that carrieth all the motions of our Soule directly and violently to him and maketh a man difdaine or rather hate all obstacles that may retard his journey to him And that face of it that looketh toward mankind with whō we live warmeth us to doe others good is but like the overflowings of the maine streame that swelling above its bankes runneth over in a multitude of little Channels I am not satisfyed that in the likenesse which he putteth betweene God and Man hee maketh the difference betweene them to bee but such as betweene two creatures that resemble one another For betweene these there is some proportions but between the others none at all In the examining of which discourse wherein the Author observeth that no two faces are ever seen to be perfectly alike Nay no two Pictures of the same face were ever exactly made so I could take occasion to insert a subtile delightfull demonstration of Mr. Whites wherin he sheweth how it is impossible that two bodyes for example two Boules should ever be made exactly like one another Nay not rigorously equall in any one accident as namely in weight but that still there will be some little difference and inequality between them the Reason of which observation our Author medleth not with were it not that I have beene so long already as digressions were now very unseasonable Shall I commend or censure our Author for beleeving so well of his acquired knowledg as to be dejected at the thought of not being able to leave it a Legacy among his friends Or shall I examine whether it be not a high injury to wife and gallant Princes who out of the generousnesse and noblenesse of their Nature doe patronize arts and learned men to impute their so doing to vanity of desiring praise or to feare of reproach But let these passe I will not ingage any that may befriend him in a quarrell against him But I may safely produce Epictetus to contradict him when he letteth his kindnesse engulfe him in deepe afflictions for a friend For hee will not allow his wise man to have an inward relenting a troubled feeling or compassion of anothers misfortunes That disordereth the one without any good to the other Let him afford all the assistances and relievings in his power but without

intermingling himselfe in the others Woe As Angels that doe us good but have no passion for us But this Gentlemans kindnesse goeth yet further Hee compareth his love of a friend to his love of God the union of friends Soules by affection to the union of three persons in the Trinity and to the Hypostaticall union of two natures in one Christ by the Words Incarnation Most certainely hee expresseth himselfe to bee a right good natur'd man But if Saint Augustine retracted so severely his patheticall expressions for the death of his friend saying they favoured more of the Rhetoricall declamations of a young Orator then of the grave confession of a devout Christian or somewhat to that purpose what censure upon himselfe may wee expect of our Physician if ever hee make any retractation of this discourse concerning his Religion It is no small misfortune to him that after so much time spent and so many places visited in curious search by travelling after the acquisition of so many languages after the wading so deepe in Sciences as appeareth by the ample Inventory and particular hee maketh of himselfe The result of all this should bee to professe ingenuously he had studyed enough onely to become a Scepticke and that having runne through all sorts of Learning hee could finde rest and satisfaction in none This I confesse is the unlucky fate of those that light upon wrong Principles But Master White teacheth us how the Theorems and demonstrations of Physickes may be linked chained together as strongly as continuedly as they are in the Mathematickes if men would but apply themselves to a right method of Study And I doe not finde that Salomon complained of ignorance in the height of knowledge as this Gentleman saith but onely that after he hath rather acknowledged himselfe ignorant of nothing but that hee understood the natures of all Plants from the Cedar to the Hyssop and was acquainted with all the wayes and pathes of wisedome and knowledg hee exclaimeth that all this is but Toyle and vexation of Spirit and therefore adviseth men to change humane Studies into divine contemplations and affections I cannot agree to his Resolution of shutting his Bookes and giving over the search of knowledge and resigning himselfe up to ignorance upon the Reason that moveth him as though it were extreame vanity to wait our dayes in the pursuite of that which by attending but a little longer till Death hath closed the eyes of our body to open those of our Soule wee shall gain with ease wee shall enjoy by infusion and is an accessary of our Glorification It is true assoone as Death hath played the Midwife to our second birth our Soule shall then see all truths more freely then our corporal eyes at our first birth see all bodies and colours by the naturall power of it as I have touched already and not onely upon the grounds our Author giveth Yet farre be it from us to thinke that time lost which in the meane season we shall laboriously imploy to warme our selves with blowing a few little Sparkes of that glorious fire which we shall afterwards in one instant leape into the middle of without danger of Scorching And that for two important Reasons besides severall others too long to mention here the one for the great advantage wee have by learning in this life the other for the huge contentment that the acquisition of it here which implyeth a strong affection to it will be unto us in the next life The want of knowledge in our first Mother which exposed her to bee easily deceived by the Serpents cunning was the roote of all our ensuing Misery and Woe It is as true which wee are taught by irrefragable authority that Omnis peccans ignorat And the well head of all the Calamties and mischiefes in the world eonsisteth of the trouble and bitter waters of ignorance folly and rashnesse to cure which the onely remedy and antidote is the salt of true Learning the bitter Wood of Study painefull meditation and orderly confideration I doe not meane such Study as armeth wrangling Champions for clamorous Schooles where the ability of Subtile disputing to and fro is more prised then the retriving of truth But such as filleth the mind with solid and usefull notions and doth not endanger the swelling it up with windy vanities Besides the sweetest companion and entertainement of a well tempered mind is to converse familiarly with the naked and bewitching beauties of those Mistresses those Verities and Sciences which by faire courting of them they gaine and enjoy every day bring new fresh ones to their Seraglio where the ancientest never grow old or stale Is there any thing so pleasing or so profitable as this Nil dulcius est bene quam inunita tenere Edita doctrinae sapientum templa serena Despicere unde queas alios passimque videre Errare atque viam palanteis quaerere vitae But now if we consider the advantage we shall have in the other life by our affection to Sciences and conversation with them in this it is wonderfull great Indeed that affection is so necessary as without it we shall enjoy little contentment in all the knowledge we shall then bee replenished with for every ones pleasure in the possession of a good is to be measured by his precedent Desire of that good and by the quality of the tast and relish of him that feedeth upon it Wee should therefore prepare and make our ●ast before-hand by assuefaction unto and by often relishing what we shall then be nourished with That Englishman that can drinke nothing but Beere or Ale would be ill bestead were he to goe into Spaine or Italy where nothing but Wine groweth whereas a well experienced Goinfre that can criticise upon the severall tasts of liquors would thinke his Palate in Paradise among those delicious Nectars to use Aretines phrase upon his eating of a Lamprey Who was ever delighted with Tobacco the first time he tooke it who could willingly be without it after hee was a while habituated to the use of it How many examples are there dayly of young men that marrying upon their fathers command not through precedent affections of their own have little comfort in worthy and handsome wives that others would passionately effect Archímedes lost his life for being so ravished with the delight of a Mathematicall demonstration that he could not of a suddaine recall his extasied Spirits to attend the rude Souldiers Summons But instead of him whose minde had beene alwayes sed with such subtile Dyet how many playne Country Gentlemen doth your Lordship and I know that rate the knowledge of their husbandry at a much higher pitch and are extreamely delighted by conversing with that whereas the other would be most tedious and importune to them We may then safely conclude that if we will joy in the Knowledge wee shall have after Death we must in our life time raise within our selves earnest