Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bring_v	eye_n	zion_n	23	3	9.2954	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89235	Miscellanea spiritualia: or, Devout essaies: composed by the Honourable Walter Montagu Esq.; Miscellanea spiritualia. Part 1.	Montagu, Walter, 1603?-1677.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1648 (1648)	Wing M2473; Thomason E519_1; ESTC R202893	256,654	397

certainly such a temper is apter for a right conversion then a harsh and sowre constitution of the mind the first is a good mould of earth with ill seed cast into it and so the fruit may be ill while the pregnancy of the earth is good the other is a heath naturally unfruitfull and requires much more manuring to make it beare Wherefore that nature which hath not a kindly pregnancy in it to beare love is not the best mould for the seed in the Gospell for though it may render thirty it can hardly yeeld the increase of a hundred fold in Devotion Certainly we may then very religiously preferre the constitution of such mindes whose powers are best disposed for the act of loving for love as it is the greatest treasure of our soules so is it the only security stands bound to God for all our debts all the other faculties of man seeme to be receivers only and this the discharger of all their accounts but love hath this extraordinary blessing the greater expense it makes upon this occasion the richer it growes for the more our love payes God the more it improves the same estate but we can assigne nothing but this pure species of love to the receipt of heaven Wherefore all empty formalities and unsincere affectations in exteriour exercises that would passe for Devotion are me thinkes like servants that have got on fine clothes of their Masters by which strangers may mistake their quality but their Masters are not deceived by them so these garments and coverings of Devotion may abuse the eye of the world but we know the master of all sanctity distinguishes dissimulation in all the specious similitudes it weareth And I should beleeve a varnished hypocrite may be more offensive to the sight of God then a zealous unvailed idolater for this is but mistaken in God and the other seemeth to suppose God may be mistaken in him and certainly there is nothing more capitall against the lawes of Heaven then counterfeiting the coyne which piety may not improperly be tearmed as being the price and measure of all exchanges between heaven and earth of these false coyners King David sayes They slatter God with their mouth lye unto him with their tongues and he gives them Gods answer thus The Lord shall laugh them to scorn We may conclude then that the sincere love of God is the spirit and soul of Devotion and therefore is to be intire in every severall part of our religious exercises when God dignifies man with similitude to his own image it is the soul not the body that hath this Divine relation so in the service of God which is a consistence of two such parts united of spirit and of matter the spirit and breath of life doth not reside in the materiall part which is sensible religious offices but in the informing and animating part which is Devotion the which answereth to the soule in humanity as I have endeavoured to demonstrate And thus I hope that I have not indecently apparell'd Devotion in the habit of the place it is recommended to clothing it in this soft rayment of passion being to come unto the houses of Kings But now me thinkes I heare some sensuall and voluptuous persons cry out to warne their passions to stand upon their guard objecting that I like a pyrat have thus put up friends colours while I am in chase calling devotion love and passion that it might the easilyer enter our hearts which when it hath done it takes and imprisons all our humane delights To these I may answer that I have put up these colours indeed that those vessels I would speak with might not fly from piety at first sight as from an enemy to pleasure that speaking with them I might shew them how Devotion comming and possessing our mindes doth rather compose the munity then infringe the true liberty of our affections For grace findes Humane Nature like a vessell richly fraught for commerce with Heaven most commonly in a mutiny where the affections that should saile her rise up against their Commander resolving to make spoile of their commodities and to turne to the piracy of sense taking all whereof sensuality can possesse it selfe and if Devotion enter and compose this sedition and convey the affections cheerefully to their direct commerce with Heaven this may be rather thought a delivery then a violation And surely our senses cannot more justly complaine of Devotion as a dispossessor of their properties then wilde people can call a Law-giver a tyrant For piety doth but regulate the functions not ruine the faculties of our senses and licentiousnesse cannot more rightly be called the mindes liberty then nakednesse the bodies freedome For lawes and apparell doe both in their kinds cover natures nakednesse and lawes like clothes impart conveniencies the one to the minde as the other to the body without impeaching the decent and proper exercises of either and so Devotion doth but reduce the wild multitude of humane affections and passions under the Monarchall Government of the love of God under which they may enjoy a more convenient freedome then let loose in their owne confused Anarchy which they confesse when they are converted by God to this belief of their condition that to serve God is to raigne The Fift Treatise Discoursing whether sensible pleasure may consort with Devotion In two Sections §. I. The rectifying our Affections chiefely our love in the sense of beauty UPon the title of this Chapter me thinkes I see our humane affections stand with the same perplexed attention as a condemn'd multitude at the reading of a Proclamation of Grace to some particular specified names each one watching and praying for his owne Thus doe our humane passions seeme now concerned believing themselves all condemn'd by piety each one me thinkes in a frighted and tacit deprecation of their censure is expecting with anexity to know whether Devotion will allow them life and consistence with her edicts The answer to this must be that I shall only put to death the blind and the lame whch are commonly set to keep the strong hold of our corrupted nature against virtue As they were upon the walls of Sion to keep out David Such Devotion must destroy for they are hated by her Soule and are not to be admitted into the Temple Secular justice is allowed a latitude in mercy to which this spirituall judge cannot extend his favour viz. rather to save diverse guilty then to cut off one innocent for Devotion must rather put to death many innocent affections then save one criminall by reason that in this case mercy renders the judge a complice of the crime so that our Devotion must not looke upon the face of any of our affections but judge by the testimony our conscience brings in against them Yet piety is not so inhumane as many may apprehend that know not the nature thereof for it delighteth not in the death of our

which they perish as some do that wade themselves unawares beyond their depth who go into the water at first with caution and security as they believe and are carefull to find ground at every advance of one of their legs but when the water gets to a certaine height though they feel ground still they cannot use their legs which are carried up by the streame before they are out of their depth and thus they perish by this ill measured confidence Even so the most cautious lovers do often cast themselves away for as long as they feel but the feare of God as a ground they go still upon and finde no temptations which the Scripture familiarly figureth to us by waters force away absolutely their consents which are the souls feet they think themselves safe while they feel the ground of a good resolution but comming on by degrees into such a depth of temptation as the sensitive appetite doth surreptiously lead them into their feet are easily carryed away and so they are lost by this unexperienced presumption and thus as Solomon saith we find There is a way which seemeth right unto man but the ends of it are the wayes of death Me thinks Solomons experience should disabuse all men in the relying upon the virtue of their Spirit when we see that his so singular induement with the holy Spirit was not security against the danger of this presumption we are warned by the Apostle not to extinguish the Spirit and nothing puts it out so soon as the bodyes being set on fire the pure immixt fire of the cloven tongues will not hold in long in cloven hearts they must be perfect Holocausts which are to entertain that flame and when the eyes are but warming themselves at strange fire that is intending onely an innocent delight in the sight of beauty they are often in too much danger of being taken by this incentive Holy Saint Bernard bringeth in Eve looking upon the fruit while it was so yet in her eye when she saw it pleasant faire to the eye and asketh her why do you look so longingly upon your own death why are you so taken in looking upon that which if you tast you are lost you answer that you do but cast your eye and not your hand upon it and that you are not forbid to see but to eat O though this be not your actuall crime yet is it an aptitude thereunto for while you are thus amused the serpent covertly windeth into your heart first by blandishments he intangleth your reason and then by fallacies he diverteth your fear affirming you shall not surely die and thus sharpens the curiosity while he suggesteth the cupidity and by these degres presenteth the fruit and putteth you out of the garden and this is commonly the event of the children of Eve who entertaine this party with the serpent weighing no temptation when it lights first upon their eyes till it fall too heavy on their hearts to be removed Therefore Saint Austin giveth us an excellent advise since the Devill doth watch thy heel do thou watch his head which is the beginning of an ill suggestion when he proffereth first an ill motion reject it then before delectation arise and consent follow thus while thou breakest his head he shall not be able to bruise thy heel And sure Saint Austin is one of the best Counsellors we can consult in this case for he reads it decided in that book which he was commanded to take up and read while he was studying the case which advise as it came from the same voice so it wrought the same effect take up thy bed and walk for it raised him from being bed-rid in this passion and set him a walking with him who is the way the truth and the life We cannot recuse Saint Austine as a party against this passion when he professeth he had studied long the agreement of it with Piety therefore let us heare the result of his studies All the while he was in this disceptation he confesseth he found two wils in himself the one carnal the other Spirituall which by a daily contention did sever and dissipate his mind and thus by experience he found the combate between the flesh and the Spirit which while his mind sought to part and reconcile she was hurt by both parties conscience wounded her on the one side and custome struck her on the other on which she was the most sensible so as his senses swayed him commonly to a partiality thus he sheweth us the links of that chaine which lovers by degrees find their wills fastened by an easie seduced appetite raiseth passion and that cherished induceth custome and that uncontrolled imprints necessity which becometh a punishment of perverted liberty for the law of sinne is the violence of custome by which the mind is drawne and held at last even against her owne reluctancie but deservedly for having willingly fallen into this necessity in this manner he confesseth that often upon the motions of the Spirit which invited him to break off all treaty of accord and to declare for the redemption of his captived appetite he found himselfe kept as it were in a slumber in these meditations of rising out of that soft bed of sensuality and while he lay stretching himselfe to wake overcome still by his drowsinesse he lay still tossing in this resolution And alas how familiarly do we rowle our selves asleep againe in this doubtfull drowsinesse while we are halfe awake purposing to rise and break off our fancyes dreames and illusions O then let Saint Austin's alarum keep us awake while we are in this halfe-wishing or vellity towards our casting off the workes of darknesse let us not lie still stretching and consulting our senses whether the night be farre spent and the day be at hand that is whether there be not enough of our youth left to promise us time to make our selves ready for the last day let us not slumber in this rumination but rise and put on the Lord Jesus Christ and not lie turning our selves to and fro which is to make provision for the lusts of the flesh Saint Austin after he had rowsed himselfe upon this alarum rose up directly and set himselfe to such exercises as kept him alwayes in that vigilancy which is required not to enter into temptation he presently broke off all treaty with this passion and hath left this excellent test for lovers to touch their affections to try if they be of that purity which is onely currant with God They love God lesse then they ought who love any thing besides God which they love not for God This is to state God in our affections as he hath proclaimed himselfe to our faith to be the beginning and end of all things Now whether a passion to the creature can by any compasse of humane frailty be drawne into this perfect circle moving first from the love of God and reflecting still

instrument sized and fitted to worke upon our natures and he who was the best Moral Chymick that ever wrought upon the matter of temporallities by the experiments of all fruitions extracted this as the quintessence of them all Vanity of vanities all is vanity under the sunne and vexation of spirit Here then is the product and summe of all our loves and fruitions in this world and after this convincing manifest of the worthlesnesse of all other creatures alas how much a more deplorable conviction hath he left us of the vanity of man by his owne fall and prevarication when in the splendor of all this light of verity a few fading colours in a womans face dazel'd even his Eagles eyes and so his blindnesse and infatuation is become a clearer evidence of the infirmity of mans nature then even all the beames of his illuminating pen. They who will look attentively upon this naked image of Solomon need no other character of our humanity there they shall discover all that the world accounts the security of happynesse to be the likeliest betrayers of it For he whose knowledge exceeded the stock of nature and whose possessions were equall with all natures provisions may be said to have fallen by the weight of his felicities how infirme a thing then is man that cannot carrie even his own wishes without falling under them when he is charged with their successes for alas how much doth familiar evidence attest this truth that man in honour becomes like the beast that perisheth May not our carnall nature then be justly discredited to us by considering that our life is either a perplexity of wishes or a perversion of successes and this convincing evidence which common experience offereth proveth what Solomon sayes that this is the affliction which God hath given to the sons of men to exercise them in it since indeed this world is but a stage for their wrastling and contention And if we look upon our nature in the exercise and triall of it in the other extream of affliction we shall finde their feeblenesse even in those pillars that were the strongliest supported by grace namely Elias who seemed to have had so little mixture of the elements in his nature as he is called by the holy spirit a fire and a burning light yet even he in his fiery triall had so much earth about him as to faint under his carriage and to cry out to be delivered even of his life as of a burthen thus strong was that little weakness of our nature he had about him holy Jer. who seemes to have brought none but holy earth out of his mothers wombe by the testimony of his sanctification in it yet even this sanctified oare had so much drosse found in it when the burning fire was shut up in his bones as to run over even into the cursing the day of his birth and to prepose his mothers being a tombe for him before a deliverer of him into that light wherein he saw so much misery and affliction May we not well say then in reference to that of Solomon if the best men on earth make this confession of the misery of their nature what doe the worst and the most depraved Thus have we seene frailty and infirmity of our corrupted nature taken from the best figures of it in diverse postures of temporall felicity and affliction and we perceive that in one state it is so unhappily disposed as the pronenesse of it to ingratitude is raised by the very degrees of obligations and benefits it receiveth Insomuch as the plenty of temporall blessings proves often an over-ballancing even of the power of abundant grace as we see manifested in the infidelityes of Solomon and againe we find in the other triall how the weight of sufferance boweth and deflects a little even the strongest pillars of humanity among which we doe bring in Saint Pauls deposition of this truth where we make upon all these surveys this his reflection O wretched man who shall deliver thee from this body of death and corruption But we are not so miserable as not to have a present answer to this sad question the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord. Wherefore let us goe on and look upon our nature as it is Deified in him and as the other representations might make us lament our birth with Job upon our dunghill so this aspect of it in the person of Christ may recall us to rejoyce with Zachary in the Temple and allow our nature this selfe-ascription justly assumed by the second organ of the reparation thereof henceforth all generations shall call me blessed this assumption may be well allowed our nature when we look upon it with S. Paul not living in it selfe but Christ living in it The second Treatise The reparation of Humane Nature divided into two Sections §. I. Treating the admirable meanes God chose for this worke and the rehabilitation resulting to man from this proceeding of God HAving seene the figure of man made much liker the image of him who said he would raise himselfe and become like God then like God himselfe who made man after his own image what meanes is there left to restore that which all the subtilty of the supreamest Angel had much adoe to disfigure when ruine is so much easier then reparation If Lucifer himselfe had applyed all his abilities to have given man satisfaction he could hardly have excogitated such a meanes of mans redintegration for it may be disputed whether it had not been a higher pitch of disrespect to have designed God to have put on this wretched nature of man then it was to project for his own Angelicall nature an independency on the divine So here the spirits of men and Angels are confounded when they consider both these natures of God and man first apart in their peculiar properties and then behold them united in this incomprehensible manner in the person of God here Saint Austins exclamation is more proper then any inquisition one Abisse calls on another the Abisse of misery attracts that of mercy here is the transcendency of all wonder that the unworthynesse and demerit of humane nature should prove the exaltation of it For now the Church doth not stick to say foelix culpa proclaiming even the fault to have been happy that procured such a redemption and a melioration Lord what was man that thou should'st be thus mindfull of him who had nothing left to move thee but his being become worse then nothing did this invite thee to shew thy selfe more God in his refection then in his creation wherein his nullity had thus much towards his being viz. no actuall opposition to thee which his iniquity had and so his reparation seemed more incapable of thy love then his nothing was of thy omnipotency in his first production In this deplorable state of humane nature become even Gods enemy he did not only reconcile but even subject