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	spiritual_a	6,851	5	6.9124	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08106	An epistle of a religious priest vnto his father: exhorting him to the perfect forsaking of the world.	Southwell, Robert, Saint, 1561?-1595.	1597 (1597)	STC 22968.5; ESTC S95268	12,378	49

was yong and yet a principall pastour S. Ihon not olde and yet an Apostle yea and the Angels by appearing in youthfull semblances giue vs a pregnant proofe that many glorious giftes may be shrouded vnder tender shapes All which I alledge not to claime any priuiledge surmounting the rate of vsuall habilities but to auoid all touch of presumption in aduising my elders seing that it hath the warrant of scripture the testimony of examples sufficient groundes both in grace and nature There is diuersity in the degrees of our carnall consanquinity and the preminence appertaineth to you as superiour ouer your childes body Yet if you consider our alliance in the chiefe portion I meane our foule which discerneth man from inferiour creatures we are of equall proximity to our heauenly father both descended of the same parent and no other distance in our degrees but that you are the elder brother In this sense doth the scripture saye Call not any father vpon earth for one is your father which is in heauen Seing therfore that your superiority is founded vpon flesh and blood which are in maner but the barke and rine of a man and our equality vppon the soule which is mans maigne substance thinke it I praye you no dishonour to your age or disparagement to your person If with all humility I offer my aduise vnto you One man cannot be perfect in all faculties neither is it a disgrace to the goldsmith if he be ignorant of the milleners trade Many are deepe lawiers and yett shallowe Diuines manye verye de liuer in feates of the body and curious in externall complementes yet litle experimented in matters of their soule and farre to seeke in religious actions I haue studied practised these many yeeres spirituall phisicke acquainting my selfe with the beating and temper of euery pulse trauailing in the scrutiny of the maladies medicines in cident vnto soules If therfore I profer you the fruits of my long studies and make you a present of my profession I hope you will construe it rather as a duetifull parte then any point of presumption He may be a father to the soule that is a sonne to the body and requite the benefit of his tēporall life by reuiuing his parent from a spirituall death And to this effect did christ say thes words my mother and brethren are they that do the will of my father which is in heauen Vpon which place S. Climacus shewing to what kinred a Christian ought chiefly to relye draweth this discourse Let him be thy father that both can and will lay his labour to disburden thee of thy packe of sinnes Let holy compunction be thy mother to depure thee from thy ordure and filth Let him be thy brother that wil be both thy partner and cōpeditour to passe and perfite thy race towardes heauen Take the memory of death for thy perpetuall pheere and vnseparable spouse Lett thy children be bitter sighes of a sorowfull harte and possesse thy body as thy bondman Fasten thy frendshippe with the Angelicall powers with which if thou closest in familiar affiance they will be patrones vnto thee in thy finall passage This saieth he is the generation kinred of those that seeke God Such a father as this Sainte speaketh of maye you haue of your owne sonne to enter you farther in the fore recited affinity Of which happely it was a significāt presage aboding the future euent that euen frō my infancy you were wont in merimēt to call me father R. which is the custumary stile now allotted to my present estate Now therfore to ioine issue and to come to the principall drifte of my discourse most humbly earnestly I am to besech you that both in respect of the honour of God your duty to his Church the comforte of your children and the redres of your owne soule you wold seriously consider the termes you stand in way your selfe in a christian ballance taking for your coūterpoise the iudgementes of God Take heede in time that the word Thecel writtē of olde against Baltazar interpreted by Daniel Dan. 5. be not verified in you whose exposition was you haue bene poised in the scoale and found of to lighte weight Remember that you are in the waining and the date of your pilgrimage is well nere expired now it behooueth you to looke towardes your country Your force languisheth your senses impaire your body droupeth and on euery side the ruinous cottage of your faint feeble flesh thretneth fall And hauing so many herbingers of death to premonishe you of your end how can you but prepare for so dredfull a stranger The yonge may dye quickly but the olde cannot liue long The yong mens life by casualty may be abridged but the olde mens by no phisicke can be long adiourned and therfore if greene yeres sometimes must think of the graue the thoughtes of sere age should continually dwel in the same The prerogatiue of infancie is innocency of childhoode reuerence of manhood maturity and of age wisdome And seeing that the chiefe properties of wisdome are to be mindfull of things passed carefull of thinges present prouident of thinges to come vse now the priuiledge of natures talent to the benefitte of your soule procure hereafter to be wise in weldoing and watchfull in foresight of future harmes To serue the world you are now vnhable and though you were hable you haue litle cause to be willing seeing that it neuer gaue you but an vnhappy welcome a hurtfull entertainment and now doth abandon you with an vnfortunate farewell You haue long sowed in a field of flint which could bring you nothing forth but a crop of cares and affliction of spirit rewarding your labours with remorse and affording for your gaine eternall domages It is now more then a seasonable time time to alter the course of so vnthriuing a husbādry and to enter into the field of Gods Church in which sowing the seeds of repentant sorow and watering them with the teares of humble cōtrition you may reape a more beneficiall haruest gather the fruits of euerlasting comforte Remember I pray you that your spring is spent and your somer ouerpast you are now arriued to the fall of leafe yea and winter colours haue already stained your hoary head Be not careles saieth S. Augustin though our louing Lorde beare long with offenders for the longer he staieth not finding amendment the sorer will he scourge when he cometh to ludgement and his patience in so long expecting is onely to lend vs respite to repent not any way to enlarge vs leisure to sinne He that is tossed with varietye of stormes cannot come to his desired port maketh not much way but is much tormoiled So he that hath passed many yeeres and purchased little profitte hath had a long being but a shorte life for life is more to be measured by merittes thē by number of daies seeing that most men by many