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	life_n	speak_v	4,234	5	4.7152	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62263	The felicity of a Christian life by Hierome Savonarola.; De simplicitate Christianae vitae. Liber 5. English	Savonarola, Girolamo, 1452-1498.	1651 (1651)	Wing S779; ESTC R7937	21,807	82

sight and by which the sight or contemplation it self seems to be perfected therfore we say that in regard of operation or the exercise of Beatitude that it is compleated in the will which with an infinite delight doth embrace that good sight and consent to be absorpt and drowned in the glorious Abyss thereof to all Eternity As in like manner we say of man that he consists essentially in the union of a rationall Soul with the body but yet that he is perfected in regard of operations by such accidents as do either necessarily or contingently follow that union to which sense the Philosopher also saith Delight hath the same relation to Felicity which Beauty hath to youth The XI Conclusion That perfect Blessednesse cannot be attained in this life First because in this life we have no immediate knowledge of God we see him not but by and through the creatures and as it were in such a glasse as the Phantasie or some inferiour faculty of our soul is able to present unto us which manner of knowledge being so imperfect the soul of man sinds no satisfaction therein that is to say no Beatitude no full content Secondly because as Boetius saith Blessednesse is a state consummate or perfected with a concurrence of all good but in this mortall life there never was seen nor ever shall be such a generall confluence of All Good Things upon any one man as that nothing should be wanting either to his body or to his soul especially seing that Immortality the Crown of the Bodies perfections cannot possibly be attained here no more then the certain hour of a mans death can be foreseen and that knowledge which is the prerogative royall of the soul is found but by very few and that never absolutely clear in this life never but darkened and eclipsed with a multitude of errours Not to speak of those inferiour and lesse valuable goods of fortune and the body health wealth c. the least of which yet being wanting doth infinitely disturb our union with God and dayly yea hourly deject us from that state wherein True Felicity consists The XII Conclusion Yet notwithstanding a certain Inchoate Felicity or as 't were the First Fruits of happinesse may be had in this life In the heart of man we may conceive a double rest viz. either of the appetite it self or of the motions and stirrings of the appetite The former which is indeed a beginning of happinesse a man may perhaps perfectly obtain in this life for it is nothing else but the determining or settling of our desire upon that object which is in Truth our last end 'T is true in a generall notion all men do naturally desire to be happy because 't is naturall for every thing to desire at least that perfection which is proper to his kind yet in particular or in regard to their indeavours or motions to attain happinesse they do as generally mistake few of them knowing where to find it or in what Thing it consists and therefore we see their desires thereof are commonly unequall irregular and restlesse But when once a man hath found that his happinesse consisteth in the Contemplation or knowledge of God and is resolved to make it his chief business study and care to advance himself therein his appetite becomes in that respect satisfied and quiet But yet again because this knowledge of God is not perfect in this life but rather in continuall advancement towards perfection therefore we say in that second sense that the appetite is not satisfied that is to say not the motions and stirrings thereof which indeed never cease but are continually labouring and endeavouring after greater perfection in that Contemplation and this so much the more incessantly and strongly by how much a man comes nearer to perfect Beatitude and receives as it were beforehand some glimpses and Irradiations thereof And this is that we call Felicity Inchoate or in its First-fruits The XIII Conclusion That Christians have this Felicity Inchoate in a greater measure then the best of Philosophers The reason is because the Contemplation and Fruition of God which good Christians have are in themselves greater and more perfect then those which the most excellent Philosophers could ever arrive unto By what I have elsewhere said it is manifest that a Christians life is not founded upon any naturall principle either within or without man but in something supernaturall that is to say in the Grace of God by which also he is elevated unto a participation of the Divine nature Seeing therefore that the operation of every thing followeth its Essence for every thing worketh so far as it can agreeably to its own nature by how much the nature or essence of any thing is more perfect by so much perfecter also is it in its operation or working But Grace is a thing of a much nobler and more perfect essence then nature and therefore the operations or effects which proceed from thence must needs excell those of nature And seeing again that by how much the operation or Action of any Thing is more perfect by so much a greater and more perfect delight is conceived thereupon it must needs follow that those spirituall Contentments and Gusts which good Christians have with God and in God do infinitely excel those of philosophers which a best are but naturall and such as the principle is from whence they proceed Besides seeing that happinesse consisteth in the Contemplation of God the greater knowledge a man hath of God the greater that is the more perfect is his Contemplation and Fruition of him But this is certain that Christians have greater knowledge of God then philosophers as well in regard of the light of Grace which perfects that of nature and reveals unto Christians many excellent mysteries altogether unknown to philosophers as also in regard of that Purity of heart which as we have shewed elswhere true Christians do injoy in a more excellent measure then others The delights therefore which Christians injoy in their Contemplation of God are much greater in themselves and more perfect then those which the best of philosophers could have And seeing that this happinesse Inchoate which we speak of doth consist in that Contemplation and Fruition of God which is attainable in this life it follows that it is more perfectly attained by Christians then philosophers Lastly this happinesse Inchoate is so much greater and more perfect by how much it cometh nearer to Felicity consummate or that of the next life But the Felicity of Christians which is here begun cometh much nearer to Felicity Consummate then that of philosophers for as much as no man shall ever actually attain heaven but by Grace which the philosophers neither had nor knew it is manifest therefore that true Christians are more justly esteemed happy in this world then philosophers and if then they much more then any other sort of men The XIIII Conclusion THat the delights which good Christians find