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	soul_n	very_a	5,362	5	5.6127	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17888	A spirituall combat a tryall of a faithfull soule or consolation in temptation. Written in French by I.P. Camus Bishope of Belley, and translated into English by M.C. P. of the Eng. Coll. of Doway.; Lutte spirituelle, ou encouragement à une âme tentée de l'esprit de blasphème et d'infidélité. English.	Camus, Jean-Pierre, 1584-1652.; Carre, Thomas, 1599-1674.	1632 (1632)	STC 4553; ESTC S107507	60,746	308

the patient makes of the state he feeles himselfe in Those litle duplicities those windings that spirituall cunning those couertures which we sometymes make vse of while we treate in matter of cōscience with those to whom we haue trusted the gouernement of our soule are oft cause that the temptations which would but passe through our hart doe put themselues in garrisons and withall falling into mutinie doe stirre vp reuoults seditions and tumults But blessed be God Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST Father of Mercies and God of all consolation who comforts vs in all our troubles * Benediction light wisdome thāksgiuing honour vertue and strength be to God who hath giuen you courage as to another Acan to glorifie him * and to confesse vnto him your owne iniustice against your selfe A great part of health is to wish to be well This makes vs couragiously vse all conuenient kinds of remedies It is a great stepp to goodnes to desire to become good for grace wherby we are made such is neuer awanting to those who haue a will fruitfully to receaue it and carefully to manage it Such may I esteeme you my deare THEOPISTE since for so many yeares you haue made profession of pietie and giuen the testimonie of a good life that you desire to be deuoute Greife for Peace lost CHAP. X. ALas and this it is thē that drawes so many sobbs frō your breast such a world of sighes from your mouth and such floods of teares frō your eyes while you thinke of the faire weather that is past wherin you fought with such courage and alacritie * Ah say you the crowne of my head is fallen woe be to me for I haue offended * And my misfortune is that I know not myne owne miserie * Hence I lift vp my hands towards the heauens and say ô Lord from my secrete sinnes cleanse me and from other mens spare thy seruant ô Sion ô wishfull peace of my hart when I thinke of thee myne eyes become foūtaines and the aples of myne eyes swime therin I ranne so well ay me what 's this that holds me * What troublesome Remora stopps the shippe of my affections which sayled vnder full sayles vpon the Sea of Grace and spirituall delightes What scorching winde hath dryed vp those pleasing fountaines * out of which I drew water of life wherwith I quenched my thirst While God dilated my hart with sweete affections I ranne without paine within the compasse of thy wayes * While he couered me or rather inuironed me with his good pleasure as with a buckler * I contemned the attempts of myne enemye O who will reduce me to the same estate in which I was in tymes past while I washed the feete of myne affections in the butter * of cōsolations and while to me from the Rocke of Faith flowed floodes of oyle * O how my gold is obscured or rather turnd blacke how my redd coulour is changed * No let me be called no more Noemi but Mara since my soule is fild with bitternesse * O God what stumbling block is layd to crosse my way who walked towards thee so directly and whereas nothinge but holy words of prayse honour and benediction issued out of my mouth and rose vp in thy sight like vnto the smoake of incense * while my tongue did onely meditate thy iustice my lipps thy glorie * whence is it that myne interiour doth open its mouth against the Heauens * and like to the wells of the Abisse vomits out no other thing but a smoake of blasphemie and impietie which doth dimme the starrs and depriue me of light THEOPISTE doe not you lye to the Holy Ghost as did ANANIAS and SAPHIRA Tell the truth Are not these your vexatiōs and anguishes Are not these the groneings or rather the roreings of your hart But alas why doe you thus wrongfully change iudgement into Absinth * honie into Gaule and mistake the heauenly dewe and Manna for hayle A lenitiue CHAP. XI BE comforted and I say againe be comforted * to speake with ISAYE for what you apprehend chastisements are caresses Be it that the tempest is great must we therfore loose courage forsake the sterne Though euen the whall had swallowed you vp with IONAS though the knife were put to your throte * though God should euen kill you ought you yet for all that to leaue of to hope in him * I reioyce in my sufferances for CHRIST * said the Apostle and delight in myne infirmities to the end that the vertue of my master may remayne in me * And what is this vertue but Patience I but will you say I suffer not for IESVS CHRIST as did his vessell of Election but against IESVS-CHRIST so that I am one of the diuels martyres Why though the diuell should martyre and torment you as he did IOB and saint PAVLE by the dīuine permission who told you yet that the torments which proceed from the diuell are suffered for the diuell and not for IESVS CHRIST who knowes not that it is the cause not the sufferāces which makes the martyrdome Now the marke and seale of a good sufferance is patience ioyned to Charitie He that suffers without this though he should giue his bodie to be burnt should onely aduance his owne damnation Beware then ô THEOPISTE least by your impatience you spoyle the worke of God in you which can neuer come to its full perfection but by patience * Why doe you thinke that patiēce is meerely vsefull to sustayne exteriour crosses and vexations and that its imployment doth not also concerne the interiour As though forsooth inuisible enemies were not as much to be feared as visible ones and we our selues were not as dangerous to our selues as any other If you know not this you are but yet a freshman in the spirituall warfare But if you be not ignorant of the truth of it when doe you thinke you can make better vse of this Weapon then in the present occurrence God's assistance in temptation CHAP. XII BVT giue me leaue ô man not of litle Faith * but of litle courage a litle to raise vp thy hart without making it swell like a balowne with the winde of any presumption and to tell you that according to the prouerbe you crie before you be hurt and imitating the Prophete you crie out that your bellie aketh * and that death is in the potage * Without anie iust cause For I beseech you what is it that doth affright and so desperately terrifie you It is say you that I continually am haunted with a blasphemous spirit wherewith mine eie is troubled my soule and my bellie * that is my soule and my bodie my whole man Alas doe you not discouer that there is nothing there but the the shadowe of death not death it selfe And with a verie graine of confidence in God are you not able to walke in the midst of the region of the shadowe of death without fearing anie wisfortune *

Champion said well vnto our Sauiour where wast thou ô my master while I sustayned so rough assaults Dost thou so abandone those that serue thee And our Sauiour said vnto him I stood at thy right hand a spectatour of thy vallour and loyaltie encouraging the one crowning the other Sainte PAVLE will haue vs to weepe ouer the deade in a mediocritie * And I am confident that moderate and modest cōplaintes are pardonable in a violent affliction Marrie we must be carefull to put a dore of circumspection to our lipps * least we might commit excesse offensiue to the Diuine Prouidence as though it did onely walke at pleasure vpon the celestiall valtes without consideration of that cōcernes vs For if without it the least bird doth not flie in the ayre nor doth one heire fall from our heade * how much more will it shine in things appertayning to our eternall saluation IOB is highly cōmended in the holy scripture for that in all the rude essayes of his Patience one onely word did not escape out of his mouth which could be imputed to him for sinne O how faithfull is that soule who can say with the Psalmist I haue not opened my mouth because it is thou ô Lord who workest in me what thy holy pleasure is Then shall my wound be healed when it shall be thy blessed pleasure to say the word Meane while I will kisse thy alwayes mercifull hand yea euē when it afflictes vs because thou dost neuer visite but for the conseruation of our soule The paine of temptation is a participation of our Sauiours passion CHAP. XXI THus we are to suffer my deare THEOPISTE not onely with patience but with loue too loue an vnseparable companion of ioy and both of them daughters of a good will the labours and paines of contradictions and Crosses as well interiour as exteriour calling to mynd that he who suffered for the sinners of contradiction in himselfe least we might chance to faile in courage Was to passe through many contradictions euen to the dying of his garments in the purple of his owne precious blood to enter into his owne glorie * This is properly the Crosse which our Sauiour commands vs to take vp and follow him * and it is in those sufferances that the true imitation of the passion of our Redeemour consisteth and that touching of his Crosse * which the Apostle commends vnto vs. And by how much these paynes are greater by so much more liuely doe they represent and so much more conformitie they haue with those of IESVS CHRIST For which cause the great Apostle exhorts vs to haue the same feeling in our anguishes which the Sōne of God had * And what feeling had he but to bathe himselfe in the Baptisme of his bloode * waighing nothing so much in all his sufferances as well those of body as of soule as the holy will of his father to whom he was made obedient vnto death and the death of the Crosse * Such ought our disposition to be in all our afflictions of what nature soeuer they be esteeming them as a fountaine of IACOB wherin we are to wash our vncleanesse * or rather as an excellent and noble estate since that by meanes of them prouided that we be in grace we suffer in qualitie of our crucified Sauiours members not in fansie but in truth not following our owne choyce but as it shall please God almightie whom we are constantly resolued inuiolably to follow euen to death through the midst of these contradictions though they were euē to continew to the last gaspe of our life It was in this generous disposition that the great Apostle with an inuincible and heroycall courage gaue assurance that all the creatures should not be able to separate him from the Charitie of God And though at certaine tymes moued by the contradictions which he felt in his mortall body betwixt the lawes of his members and those of his spirit * this motion made him desire to see his soule deliuered out of the prison of his body * yet was it not out of any desire he had to descend from this Crosse * as he himselfe assures vs in many passages where he shewes his indifferencie to liue or to dye but it was a sacred sallie of his loue which as fire did continually make towards its Center and his Center was the bosome of God there was all his desire * and his delightfull rest for euer and euer How honorable this Tryall is CHAP. XXII BVt what an honour is it to vs THEOPISTE that God by tēptations doth daigne to put vs to tryall therby to make vs worthy of himselfe * Is it not a speciall grace done to a souldier when his Capitaine out of the good opinion which he hath of his iudgement and vallour sends him out to discouer the enemy and though this honour be attended by danger yet so farre is he from cōplayning that of the contrarie he reputes it a singular obligation and an argument of his Capitaines Fauour Shall we be lesse acknowledging of God's fauours since faith assures vs that he nether tempts nor permits vs to be tempted but onely to make manifest whether we loue him or no * as the sacred Oracle speakes in the booke of Deuteronomie God and the diuell tempts diuersly saith sainte AMBROSE the one to distroye the other to crowne vs nor indeed is God's temptation any other thing but a tryall of our fidelitie according to the Psalmist proue me ô Lord and tempt me burne my reynes and my hart * So was the Patriarke ABRAHAM tempted so proued and found obedient * All this life is but the Nouishappe of the next and a continuall essay of our constācie The Lābe shall one day say to the Elect receauing thē into his eternall marriages these are those who remayned constāt in my seruice through all their tēptations * This caused IOB to affirme that all our life was but a warfare vpō earth * or as S. HIEROME notes vpon the Ebrew text a temptation vpon the earth * Whēce we are taught faith that good Father that if we pretend the crownes of Glory we are to haue no other imployment here below but to fight * O how wōderfull great is God's mercy saith the Doctour with the golden mouth to treate vs in temptations like to a Phisitian who by a light paine remedies a greater curing a hote feeuer with a litle hungar and thrist Certes temptation is equally profitable to the vertuous and vicious working increase of grace in those and moueing these to purge themselues of crime and by the helpe of Pennance to obtayne pardon therof * And least that you may be troubled to read that sometymes God doth tempt vs * sometymes he doth tēpt no man * as though the diuell onely did tempt being thervpon called HE THAT TEMPTETH * S. AVGVSTINE will teach vs by a cleare distinction that there is a mayne difference betwixt the temptation of deceauing and

betooke your selfe to pious bookes especially those which doe treate of temptations and of the meanes to put them to flight or to vanquish them As the PHILOTHEE of our B. Father the Spirituall workes of Grenado Point ALVEREZ RODRIGVEZ and the like And as great fires are enkindled by the same wind which doth extinguish litle weake ones so you apprehend that your greife gathers strength from the very meanes which you vse ether to lessen or loose it Following your Directours Counsell you haue multiplied the hearbe Borith which is that whereof the Fullers make vse to take spotts out of cloth I meane you haue had recurse to the sacred exercises of Penance and mortification knowing that a contrite and humble hart * is the greatest present which can be offered vnto God You haue extraordinarily frequented the vse of prayer reading spiritualitie of the Sacraments of Confession and the Euchariste with due attention to the word of God being all of them soueraigne Antidotes to strengthē assaulted Faith In a word there is no practise of deuotion whether counselled by writing or word of mouth whether inspired or found out by your owne vnderstanding being opened by vexation which you haue not imployed opportunely importunely to make those horrible thoughts vanish away which like a broode of vipers doe threaten their parents death according to that which the Psalmist saith of him who hath conceaued iniquitie ingendred greife and brought forth iniustice To what Saintes did you not make vowes to be deliuered of those importune motions which keepe a continuall bussing in the Temple of your hart which being consecrated vnto God by Pietie that raignes therin ought onely to be adorned with Sanctitie not admitting any thing that is profane or defiled since the Temple of the Citie of God had a priuiledge that it should not be disturbed with any of those lothsome beastes What violent endeauours haue you not vsed like another ABRAHAM to driue away those rauinous birds from aboue your interiour sacrifices How oft haue you taken your hart as it were in both your hands to force it to produce Actes of a liuely Faith and quickned with Charitie to repelle the firie dartes of the midday-Diuell who doth dazle your eyes with his execrable illusiōs Me thinkes I see my Theopiste vseing all kind of defence in this skrimish imploying as it were his whole man vpon it inuokeing Heauen and earth to this succour Heauen which seemes to be Brasse to him and the earth iron and God pittifull and rich in mercy becomes cruell and inexorable to him Being thus abandoned he is burdensome to himselfe his sinnes as he thinkes multiplied beyond number doe oppresse him as a heauie loade Euen Giants would grone vnder so many waters of anguish And his greatest torture is the verie same which affected Iob who complayned of nothing so much as to find himselfe contrarie to God euen while God himselfe a thing farre from his conceipt calld him iust vpwaight and a man full of a chaste feare Happy estate and signe of Gods fauour CHAP. VI. MY deare THEOPISTE the ey which seeth all things sees not it selfe so blind we are in our owne deedes Whence Phicitions and Aduocates doe rather referre their owne deseases and suites to the iudgement of some other of the same professions then to their owne directions I doe not wonder that the wayes of of God which are Mercy Truth and Iudgement are as farre beyond our reach and capacity as the Heauen is distant from the earth And if the thoughtes of our imaginations be so different sithens in that which you now propose vnto me the opinion which I constantly imbrace of you is so far different from your owne and that which you tearme Gods Iustice Rigour and abondoning of you I consider as Gods Grace Benignity Bounty and Mercy to your soule O my dearest THEOPIST if you knew the gift of God * his hand which now seemes so heauy vnto you would appeare light and you would perceaue that that sweete and fauorable hand doth sustaine you by the right hand and doth leade you in the way of his will to conduct you to his Glory These temptations which doe essay and affray you and which you take for torents that doe violently beare away your Faith are to me as so many honorable argument of your loyalty and your wounds in this good Combat of Faith as the Apostle calls it appeare in mine eyes so many glorious markes and euen this also vnlesse I deceaue my selfe will be the iudgement of all those that loue and setue God and who haue any experience in this interiour commotion and Combat which is raysed not against flesh and blood but against the powres of darkenesse and spirituall malice You curse and I blesse it and though I would curse it yet should it be no more in my power then it was in Balaam's to fasten his imprecations vpon the Armie of Israel Why are we ignorant that he who like vnto your selfe doth range himselfe in the discipline of God is to prepare his soule against temptation * as the wise man said and the Angell to the good Tobie because thou wast aggreable to God it was necessary marke this word that temptation should trie thee * Who knowes not that the trees which are most shaken with the winds doe spread their rootes more deeply into the ground that incense doth not smell but when it is burnt that the Vine is not fruitfull vnlesse it be prun'd that a souldiers vallour doth onely appeare in dangerous exploites nor doth vertue shew its solidity but by resisting its contrarie Take courage THEOPISTE thou walkest in good companie No saincte doth serue for a liuely stone in the celestiall Citie which was not squared cut carued in the quarrie of this world by temptatiō And the Saint of Saintes was he not tempted in the desert Yea and that in all things as saith his great Apostle euen to that great abandoning whereof he complaines and with a loude voice cries out vpon the Crosse And the same Apostle speaking of the members of his misticall body to witt the faithfull saith he not after the great wonders of Faith which he racounts in the eleauēth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrewes some were stoned others hewed all were tempted and many put to death by diuers sorts of punishmēts or banished dispersed into diuers parts of the world forsaken afflicted tormented wandering in deserts and mountaines and rockie dennes the world being vnworthy of their presence and by their sundrie tribulations they bore testimonie to Faith and gaue a triall of their fidelitie You apprehend peraduenture THEOPISTE that I flatter your griefe and that to asswage it by the leuitiue of consolation I vse these discourses more delightfull then true and that mine aime is to inchante that Aspe * with pleasing passages which notwithstanding you apprehend doth kill you and doth extinguish the light of your faith with her could poison and the