Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	church_n	militant_a	triumphant_a	4,315	5	11.6530	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12649	A short rule of good life To direct the deuout Christian in a regular and orderly course.	Southwell, Robert, Saint, 1561?-1595.	1622 (1622)	STC 22970; ESTC S106293	53,144	246

deinties that wit can deuise or heauen and earth afford but onely Gods owne pretious body was by h●m deemed a rep●st fitte to feed it If not all the creatures of this no nor milliōs of new worldes if so many more were created but onely the illimitable goodnesse and maiestie of God can satisfie the desire and fill the compass and capacity of it who but of lame iudgment or peruerse will yea who but of an incredulous mind and pittiles spirit could set more by his soule or be contented to suffer so noble a paragon so many monethes and yeeres to lie chan●lled in ordure and mired in all sinne Can we not see our 〈◊〉 sicke but we allow him a Phisician our horse diseased but wee send for a leach nor our garment torne but we will haue one to mēd it And cā wee so much maligne our soule as to let it die for want of cure seeing it mangled with so many vices neuer seeke any to resto●e it to the wonted integrity Is our seruant neerer our beast more pretious and our coate deerer than our owne soule If any should call vs Epicures Atheists rebels vnto God or murderers of soules wee would take it for an intollerable reproach and think it a most disgraceful and opprobrious calumniation But to liue like Epicures to sinn like Atheists to struggle against Gods callinges and like violent rebels to scorne his commandements yea and with daily and damnable woundes barbarously to stab our infortu●ate soules this wee account no contumely wee reckon for no discredite yea rather wee register it in the ●aunt of our chiefest praises O yee so●nes of men how long wil you carrie this heauie hart aliking vanity and seeking lies howe long will children loue the follies of insancie and sinners ●unne carelesse and wilfull to their ruine Will you keepe you● chicken from the kite your lambe from the wolfe your fawne from the hound Dare you not suffer a spider in your bosome or a toade to come neare you and can you nestle in your soule so many vipers as vices permit it to be so long chewed and wearied with the poisoned iawes and tuskes of the Diuel And is our soule so vaine a substance as to bee had in so litle esteem Had Christ made ship wrack of his wisdom or was he in a rage of passion when he became a wandering pilgrime exiling him selfe from the comfortes of his God-head and passing three thirty yeeres in paine penu●y for the behoof of our soules Was he surprized with a rauing fit when in the tragedy of his passion so bloodily inflicted and so patiently accepted hee made his body as a cloud to resolue into showers of innocent bloud and suffered the deerest veines of his hart to be launced to giue full issue to the price of our soules redemption Or if Christ did not erre nor deeme amisse when it pleased him to redeeme vs with so excessiue a ransome then what should wee iudge of our monstrous abuse that sell our soules to the Diuel for euery vaine delight and rather aduenture the hazard thereof then of a seelie pittance of worldly pelse O that a creature of so incomparable a price should be in the demaine of so vnnaturall keepers and that which is in it self so gracious and amiable that the Angels and Saints delight to behold it as S. Chrisostom saieth should by sinne be fashioned into so lothsom disguised shapes as to become a horrour to heauen and a sutely pheere for the fowlest fends Alas if the care of our owne harmes moue vs no more but that we can stil be so barbarous to the better portion of our selues lett vs at the least feare to iniurie an other party very careful and ieallous ouer it who wil neuer endure so deepe an impeachment of his interest to passe vnreuenged We must remember that our soule is not onely a part of vs but also the temple the paradise spouse of almightie God by him in baptisme garnisht stored ēdowed with most gratious ornamēts And how thinke you he can brook to see his temple prophaned turned into a den of Diuels his paradise displanted altered into a wildernesse of serpentes his spouse defloured and become an adulteresse to his vtter ennemies Durst we offer such vsage to our Princes yea or to our Farmers daughter woulde not fe●re of the lawe popular shame disturne vs frō it And shal not the reuerēd Maiestie of almighty God the vnt●bated iustice of his angry sword terrifie vs frō offering the like to his owne spouse Doe we think God either so impotent that he cannot so base and sottish that hee will not or so weake witted that he knoweth not howe to wreak himself vppon so contēptuous daring offenders Will he so neglect and loose his honor which of al things hee claimeth as his chief peculiar Will he that for the soules sake keepeth a reckoning of our very hairs which are but the excrementes of her earthly weede see himself so much wronged in the principall passe it without remonstrance of his iust indignation O deere sir remēber that the scripture termeth it a thing full of horrour to fal into the hands of God who is able to crush the prowd spirites of the obstinate to make his enemies the footestole of his feet Wrastle no longer against the cries of your owne conscience and the forcible inspiratiōs that God dooth send you Embrace his mercy before the time of rigour and returne to his Church iest hee debar●● you his kingdome He cā not haue God for his father that refuseth to professe the catholick church for his mother neither cā he atchieue to the church triūphant in heauen that is not a member of the church militant here in earth You haue bene alas too lōg an al●āt in the tabernacles of sinners straied too ●ar frō the fold of Gods flock Turn now the biaze of your heart towards the sanctuary of saluation the City of refuge seeking to recompence your wādering steps troddē in errour with a swift gate zealous progresse to christiā perfectiō The ful of your spring tide is now falē the streame of your life runneth at a low ebbe Your tired ship beginneth to leak grateth often vpon the grauell of your graue therfore it as heigh time for you to strike saile and to putt into harbour lest remaining inthe scope of the wicked winde and weather of this time some vnexpected gust and sodaine storme dash you vpothe roks of eternall ruine Tēder the pittiful estate of your poore soule be hereafter more feareful of hel than of persecution more eager of heauen thē of worldly repose If God the Father had been the inditer the Sōne the sender the holy Ghost the scribe that had written this letter if hee had dipped his pen in the woūdes of our Sauiour vsed his precious bloud in lieu of inke If one of the highest

Seraphins formed into a visible personage had come in most solemne embassy to to deliuer it vnto you do you not think that it would haue strained your hart wonne your thoughtes to fulfill the contents alter your course according to the tenour the●● of Doubtlesse I suppose you will not deny it Then good sir let it now take the same effect seeing that difference had been in the ceremonies and not in the substaunce that very God that in those three persons should haue then inuited you to your cōuersion saieth of such as I am though most vnworthy Hee that heareth you heareth me and hee that despiseth you despiseth mee I exhort you therefore as the vicegerent of God and I humbly request you as a dutifull childe that you would surrender your assent and yeeld your soule a happy captiue to Gods mercifull inspirations proceeding from an infinit loue and tending to your assured good I haue expressed not onely mine owne but the earnest des●●e of your other children whose humble wishes are here writtē with my pen for it is a generall fore that sitteth at all our heartes whome it hath pleased God to shrowd vnder his mercifull winge to see our dearest Father to whō both nature hath bound and your merites fastened our affections to be dismēbred from the body to which we are vnited to bee in hazard of a farther and more gree●ous separation O good Sir shall so many of your brāches enioy the quickning sap frie of Gods Church and daylie shooting vp higher towardes heauē bring forth the flowers and fruites of saluation and you that are the roote of vs al●●e barren and fruitlesse stil couered in earth and buried in flesh and blood Shall the birdes of he ●uen I meane the Angells sing and build vpon your boughes the stemme be deuoured by the worme of conscience pestered with the vermine that Schisime ●ngendereth Shal the beames bee bright and the sunne eclipsed The brookes cleere the head-spring t●obled Your lot hath no such affinity with the nature of a Phoenix that you should reape your of-spring of your owne ruines You are not so tied to the straites of a Pellican as to reuiue your yssue with murthe●ing your selfe neither are we a generation of vipers that cannot come to life but by our parents destruction Yea rather it is the thing we haue chiefly in request that wee may be as neere lin●ked in spirituall as we are ●n carnal consanguinity and liuing with you in the compas of one Church we may to our vnspeakable comfort enioy in heauen your desired company Disblame me good sir if zeale of your recouery haue caried me beyond the limits of a letter So important a truth cannot be too much auerred not too many hooks baited to draw a soule out of the pudle of Schisme The misery therof is so great if it fall the rewarde so excessiue if it stād so malicious the ennemies that assault it and so iust the Iudge that must proceede vppon it that to raise it from the lapse and to fortifie it from recidiuation no number of helpes can be more than needfull nor any perswasions more vehement then necessary Howsoeuer therfore the soft gales of your morning pleasures lulled you in slumb●ing fittes how so●uer the vio●ent heates of noone might awake your affections yet nowe in the coole calme of the euening retire to a Christian rest and close vp the day of your life with a cl●ere sun-set that leauing all darknes behind you and carying in your conscience t●e light of grace you may escape the horrour of an eternall night and passe from a mortal day to an cuerlasting-morrowe Thus e●tsoones commending vnto you my bounden duety and humbly desiring that my sincere affection may finde excuse of my boldnes I will surcease This 22. of October 1598. Your most dutifull and louing sonne R. S. Approbatione Bartholomei Petri Lintrens S. T. Doctor in Vniuersitate Duacena Professor