Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	great_a	life_n	love_n	7,775	5	5.2746	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19610	The lover: or, Nuptiall love. VVritten, by Robert Crofts, to please himselfe	R. C. (Robert Crofts); Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1638 (1638)	STC 6042; ESTC S109075	27,528	88

I shall now speake more therof in another manner method and to another purpose For this purpose let us imagine a man to bee well skilled in this Art that wee may guesse what such a man can doe and imagin this able skilfull man in this Art have occasion to discourse of the excellency of Love he can readily even Raptim discourse thereof in divers wayes and manners as for example Either from the number of benefits and excellencies flowing from thence as from a fountaine such as are sweet and pleasant thoughts lookes smiles kisses discourses songs tales jests sports embraces dalliances mutuall kindnesses comforts helps society pleasant meetings mirth encrease of parents kindred friends riches sweete and pretty children mutuall enjoymēts of all the blessings and pleasures that can bee thought upon and as he pleases can apply all or any of these to his love and when he sees occasion can sing to the same purpose Wee le sometimes sit and sweetely chat And pretty tales and stories tell Wee le sometimes sing and jest and laugh In all delights wee still may dwell Wee le sometimes lovingly embrace And sometimes sport and sweetely play Yea all delights that can bee thought Like truest lovers wee le enjoy And also he can from these felicities and benefits springing from love conclude the excellency thereof apply it and if he pleases sing 'T is sure a pleasant most excelling thing From whence such and so many joyes doe spring The rarest Iewels are not halfe so precious The sweetest honey is not so delicious Oh then deere Love let us true lovers bee That wee such joyes may feele may tast may see And also if he pleases can discourse of any particular of this number yea even of the least of them As for example of a kisse telling that the Rose Gilli-flower Muske Nectar Balsome Ambrosia are not halfe so sweet as these loue-dropping kisses or in the like manner and this he verifies on her lipps and can when he sees occasion mingle therewith pleasant songs and Poems O that such sweet joy Should so soone passe away and so suddenly wast That such excellent blisses As are thy sweete kisses No longer should last So sugred so precious So soft so delitious So dainty so sweet and so fine As the honey from the Bee Is not halfe so sweet to mee As is one sweet kisse of thine Or from a very thought of Love hee can tell the excellency thereof shewing that even such a thought is enough to fill the heart with joy drowne all sorrow and make us thinke our selves even in Paradise to imagine what pleasures wee shall enjoy hereafter Deere let us ever be in Love Let still such thoughts our fancy move And so of the like concerning any other Particular of this number Hee can further Argue and conclude from any particular of this number the excellency thereof divers wayes as for example from the lesser to the greater As from a thought of Love hee concludes a necessity of greater excellency in greater matters If but a thought of Love bee such a treasure To enjoy the same is sure farre greater pleasure Or from particulars to the number in like manner If from one or a few particulars of this number of excellencies and benefits flowing from Love spring so much felicity How much more doth then proceed for them all When such so many sweetest joyes Shall all at once within us meete Oh how wee shall bee rapt therewith And fild with pleasures extreame sweet And likewise concerning Time as for example To enjoy such pleasure but one houre or a day were enough to possesse the heart with mervellous Ioy yea though that houre or day were halfe a yeere hence yet the very imagination of it in the meane time is sufficient to possesse us with sweet pleasures till then Much more may a longer time delight us To enjoy such pleasures but one day It were enough to ravish even Our hearts and minds with such sweet joy To thinke our selves almost in heaven If but one day bee such sweet joy Such rarest pleasure such delights What pleasures may wee then possesse Perchance a thousand dayes and nights Or otherwise in divers kinds But to proceed Further he can discourse and set forth the excellēcy of Love by examples as of Seneca and Paulina Orpheus Euricide Mansolus and Artimesia Marke Antony and his Octavia Argalus and Parthenia and others Histories are replenished with examples and can shew how such Lovers thinke themselves even in the Orchards of Adonis or the Elizian fields when they enjoy their Love they are so taken with pleasure If others in their Loue doe find Such joy such pleasures in their mind Why should not wee let thee and I Enjoy such sweet felicity Or by comparisons by way of Interrogation or otherwise did ever any Lovers enjoy such pleasures and shall not wee Then will wee sport play laugh and sing And live as merrily as a King Or beyond comparisons Chaereus never tooke such pleasure in his Pamphila as thee and I will in one another Hee thought none living so happy as they two but wee may sweare it of our selves Cupid nor Venus Ioue himselfe Shall never know what wee may tell What heavenly pleasures what delights Within thy heart and mine may dwell Or by contrarieties That the power of Love is of so great force as the losse of it often causeth extreame melancholly sadnesse griefe madnesse and sometimes death it selfe as appeares by the examples of Queene Dido Queene Artimesia Portia Triara Panthea Medea Parthenia Iuliet and Romeo Pyramus and Thisbe Antonius and Cleopatra Coresus Calirhoe Clorus Amintas of Mareus Lepidus Plantius Numidius and many others It must needs bee a most excellent felicity the Losse whereof causeth such misery If it be death to loose a loving wife To enjoy her then is sure more worth then life Or by similitudes divers wayes and in every particular as for example The pleasure of Love may bee likned to fire an ardent and flaming joy to water a fountaine of pleasure Gold Pearles Amber the Rose-muske Nectar Ambrosia or whatsoever is most pleasant is not so precious so sweet so delightfull the Elizian-fields or Turkes Paradise is not more pleasant This Nuptiall Love is often used as a Resemblance betweene Christ and his Church the Canticles is wholly a Love-song to this purpose And it is to bee thought that no humane earthly joy represents that of heaven more then this of true Love though there bee no comparison betweene terrestriall and Celestiall happinesse either in worth or duration of time these being as nothing as drosse in respect of the heavenly yet in respect of our weake Apprehension such comparisons often are and may bee made For some doe thinke that Love is even A joy Divine a taste of heaven Or by the effects of Love To instance among many and divers in a few Love quickens the Spirit and wit and makes a man become pleasant neate spruce

Love of God to it As that this infinite glorious God should send his onely Sonne a part of himselfe to redeeme and glorifie us That this part of himselfe This very God our Saviour Iesus Christ should vnvaile himselfe of all his glory come to live on Earth and suffer so much such a Death for such miserable wretches as wee are when wee were his enemyes to deliver us from Death Hell and all misery and to merrit for us Heaven and all felicity why then it is even overcome and with Saint Ignatius even weepes with Love and joy to thinke that his love was crucified for him Lord teach us a language wholly divine to thanke thee for such Love See what a vertue is in the passion of our Saviour that if our soules in Contemplation of his wounds should ressent the smart yet knowing that he suffered all this most willingly to make us happy It is enough to make us even swoune with Ioy and Love and bee extazied with a thousand sorts of pleasures Insomuch as wee should willingly dye of Love and joy for his sake Moreover when the Soule thinkes how her Saviour loves her it is enough to fill her with sweetest ioy and pleasure O! how shee is inflamed with Love when shee contemplates those sweete words of her beloved calling her his sister his spouse his Love his Dove his vndefiled And saying thou art all faire my Love there is no spot in thee Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes c. Cant. 4. And my beloved is the fairest among Women the chiefest among tenne thousand Looking forth as the morning faire as the Moone pure as the Sun c. Cant. 5. That shee is a Kings daughter As a Queene in a vesture of Gold of Ophir embroydred Rayment of Needle worke that the King might take pleasure in her Beauty Psal 45. O! how the sweet harmonious accents of these words doe ravish the Spirits and powerfully attract the hearts of all those unto him that are able truely but to heare the Eccho of them and to perceive the sweetnesse thereof Insomuch that they are ready to borrow wings on all sides to flye out of themselves that they may bee wholly possest with the Love and Ioy of their Saviour Let us then feelingly speake to our Beloved in the same language which hee speakes to us Then which indeed can be no better no sweeter Come then my Beloved Kisse mee with the kisses of thy mouth for thy Love is better then Wine Draw me and I will runne after thee Shew mee O thou whom my Soule loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flocke to rest at noone Cant. 1 2 4 7. Stay mee with thy flagons and comfort mee with apples for I am sicke o● Love Cant 2.5 Come my beloved let us goe foorth into the fields let us lodge in the Villages Let us get up early to the Vineyards let us see if the Vine flourish whether the tender grape appeare and the Pomgranate bud foorth There will I giue thee my Love Cant. 7.11.12 Set mee as a seale of thine heart and as a signet on thine Arme For Love is as strong as death It is as a fire a vehement flame many waters cannot quench Love and the flouds cannot drowne it c. Cant. 8.6.7 I am perswaded saith Saint Paul That neither life nor death nor Angells nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Rom. 8.38 True Love suffers not for the Subject which it Loves It hath a power in it to change the nature of things From the time that a Soule is chastly taken with this passion even the paines and torments thereof are changing the name and quality within the Heart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of Ioy and not of paine if it bee necessary to dye for the glory of this Lovely cause of its life It is no death to it but a meere Rapt of Contentment which severs it selfe from it selfe in Love of another selfe whom it Loves more then it selfe So that if wee were truely capable of the Love Beauty Glory and excellency of our Saviour Though with Saint Lawrence wee should broyle uppon Devouring flames Yet our hearts which would burne more hot with the fire of his Love then that of our punishment would quite extinguish the same for our hearts being all aflame already and our soules afire how could wee expire amidst those heates though our bodyes were burned to ashes since the stronger must needs prevaile Insomuch as wee should feele the delights of Heaven in the fire whereof we should make our selves a Crowne of glory Though wee cannot attaine to such an height of Love and Ioy yet let us endeavour to love as much as wee can For GOD who alwayes accepteth the will for the deed will lovingly accept of our good wishes and Endeavours And his Power is made perfect in our Infirmities as St. Paul sayth And the more to inflame our loue to GOD. Many gracious and glorious Promises are registred in his Divine word to such as Love him I shall onely mention and Conclude with that of Saint PAVL 1 Corinth 2.9 Eye hath not seene nor Eare heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of man those things which GOD hath prepared for them that Love him Thinke then you Spirits of the world what Felicitie this is Wee know the Eye hath seene most Beautifull Lovely and glorious things The Eare hath heard rare Consorts of Musicke and voyces What sweet Ioy and pleasure hath the Heart of man imagined of the Orchards of Adonis The Gardens of Hesperides The Delights of the fortunate Islands Of the Elizian Fields and Turkes Paradise But let Humane imagination thinke of all these at once and assemble in one Subject whatsoever is most Beautifull and delicious in Nature Let them imagine a Quire of Syrens and let them joyne thereto in Consort both the Harpe of Orpheus and the voyce of Amphion Let Apollo and the Muses bee there to beare a Part And let them search within the Power of Nature all the extreame Pleasures which it hath produced in the world hitherto to charme our Senses and to ravish our Spirits Yet all these are but meere Chymeraes and as a vaine Idaea A meere Shadow of a body of pleasure in Comparison of those Divine thoughts and pleasures which the Saints may and shall enjoy in the Contemplation of GOD and his infinite Beauty Glory Love and of the Felicities which hee hath prepared for them that Love him Their thoughts and Contemplations even in this life may bee Composed of mutterably Glories Crownes Kingdomes Divine visions Heavenly exultations of Spirit and of extreame ioyes pleasures and felicities It is impossible to expresse the pleasures of a heavenly Soule The Contentments thereof are not to bee so called Its sweetnesse hath another name Its Extasies and Ravishments cannot bee vttered Saint Paul himselfe could not expresse the same Hee could not tell whether hee were in his body or no Insomuch as the heart that feeles them cannot comprehend them Truely therefore doth Saint Paul say That such pleasures have not entred into the heart of man This seemes to bee a Riddle Not Entred into the heart of man how can man enioy it then Indeed hee must bee aboue a naturall Man Aboue himselfe that enioyes such pleasures Hee must bee Partaker of the Divine nature of a Superhumane and Heavenly temper All Grace is aboue nature And if by reason of our frailties and infirmities wee cannot attaine to such a height of Love to and joy in God in this life yet if wee indeavour truely for this grace to Love and serve him who alwayes accepts our true Endeavours and desires and perfects our weaknesse by his power There shall come a time when wee shall see GOD as hee is know him as wee are knowne Love him beyond expression and enjoy in him infinite pleasures and felicities for ever And then wee shall bee made like him as Saint Iohn sayth 1. Iohn 3.2 In such sort as fire by uniting it selfe to yron by an exceeding and extreame heate doth purifie the yron and convert the same into fire In like manner but above all degrees of Comparison doth GOD purifie and reduce us to a being supernaturall and deified vnites and takes the soule into his owne divine nature And this fire which shall so vnite us to God is divine Love For as God is a consuming fire to his Enemies So is hee a fire of Love to his friends And then wee shall have a new being and a new Name That is of our Spouse of our Beloved of GOD himselfe For hereby the Soule becomes a Part of GOD and with him and in him enjoyes all Happinesse So as now it may be sayd to be no more a Soule but GOD himselfe To conclude Let us then fervently wish and long for this time which shall bee at the Marriage of the Kings Sonne to which the Angels shall invite us Then shall wee Celebrate an Everlasting wedding Feast yea our Soules shall bee the Bride and Love shall be the Banner over us And then shall we possesse and enjoy infinite pleasures and felicities for ever FINIS Jmprimatur THO WYKES Decemb 7. 1637.