Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	air_n	body_n	element_n	4,001	5	9.7677	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26782	Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with the recompences of the future state for the cure of infidelity, the hectick evil of the times / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1676 (1676)	Wing B1101; ESTC R10741	84,039	330

the highest parts to which no other Waters arise would be unfruitful Now the Winds are assigned to all the quarters of the World and as the Reigns are slack or hard they guide the Clouds for the advantage of the lower World The separation of the Sea from the Land and containing it within just bounds is the effect of Almighty Wisdom and Goodness For being the lighter Element its natural situation is above it And till separated 't was absolutely useless as to habitation or fruitfulness 'T is now the convenient seat of terrestrial Animals and supplies their Provisions And the Sea is fit for Navigation whereby the most distant Regions maintain Commerce for their mutual help and comfort The Rivers dispers'd through the veins of the Earth preserve its beauty and make it fruitful They are always in motion to prevent corrupting and to visit several parts that the labour of cultivating may not be in vain And that these Waters may not fail the innumerable branches spred through the Earth at last unite in the main body of the Sea What they pour into it through secret chanels they derive from it by a natural perpetual circulation not to be imitated by Art In this we have a clear proof of the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator That the Earth is not an equal Globe but some parts are rais'd into Hills and Mountains others sunk into deep Valleys some are immense Plains affects with various delight and is useful for excelent ends not onely for the production of Minerals of Marble and Stones requisite for Buildings but for the thriving of several kinds of Grain and Plants that are necessary for Food or Medicine for some love the Shade others the Sun some flourish best on Rocks and Precipices others in low moist places some delight in Hills others in Plains Thus by the unequal surface of the Earth is caused a convenient temperature of Air and Soil for its productions Add further The Wisdom of the Creatour is discovered by observing the league of the Elements from whence all mixt bodies arise Of how different qualities are Earth Water Air Fire yet all combine together without the destruction of their enmity that is as necessary to preserve nature as their friendship Can there be imagin'd a greater discord in the parts of the Elementary World and a greater concord in the whole To reduce them to such an aequilibrium that all their operations promote the same end proves that there is a Mind of the highest Wisdom that has an absolute Dominion over all things and tempers them accordingly If we come to Plants and Flowers Who divided their kinds and form'd them in that beautiful order who painted and perfum'd them how doth the same Water dye them with various Colours the Scarlet the Purple the Carnation what causes the sweet Odors that breath from them with an insensible subtilty and diffuse in the Air for our delight from whence proceed their different vertues These admirable works of Nature exceed the imitation and comprehension of Man 'T is clear therefore they proceed from a Cause that excels him in Wisdom and Power That some Plants of excellent vertue are full of prickles in their stock and leaves to protect them from Beasts that would root them up or trample on them an Atheist acknowledg'd to be the effect of Providence The same Wisdom preserves the Seed in the Root under the flower and prepares the numerous Leaves of Trees not only for a shadow to refresh living creatures but to secure their Fruits from the injuries of the weather Therefore in the Spring they shoot forth always before the fruits are form'd And tender delicate fruits are cover'd with broader and thicker leaves than others of a firmer substance In Winter they cast their leaves are naked and dry the vital sap retiring to the root as if careless of dying in the members to preserve life in the heart that in the returning Spring diffuses new heat and spirits the cause of their flourishing and fruitfulness The season of Fruits is another indication of Providence In Summer we have the cool and moist to refresh our heats in Autumn the durable to be preserved when the Earth produces none If we observe the lower rank of Animals their kinds shapes properties 't is evident that all are the Copies of a designing Mind the effects of a skilful Hand Some of them are fierce others familiar some are servile others free some crafty others simple and all fram'd conveniently to their Natures How incongruous were it for the Soul of a Lion to dwell in the body of a Sheep or that of a Hare to animate the body of a Cow It would require a volume to describe their different shapes and fitness to their particular natures Besides creatures meerly sensitive are acted so regularly to preserve themselves their kind that the reason of a superiour Agent shines in all their actions They no sooner come into the World but know their enemies and either by Strength or Art secure themselves They are instructed to swim to fly to run to leap They understand their fit nourishment and remedies proper for their Diseases Who infused into the Birds the art to build their nests the love to cherish their young How are the Bees instructed to frame their Hony-combs without hands and in the dark and of such a figure that among all other of equal compass and filling up the same space is most capacious The consideration of their Art and Industry their political Government and Providence and other miraculous qualities so astonish'd some great Wits that they attributed something divine to them Esse Apibus partem divinae mentis haustus Aetherios dixere some there are maintain That Bees deriv'd from a Coelestial strain And Heavenly race What moves the Swallows upon the approach of Winter to fly to a more temperate Clime as if they understood the Celestial Signs the Influences of the Stars and the Changes of the Seasons From whence comes the fore-sight of the Ants to provide in Summer for Winter their oeconomy fervour their discretion in assisting one another as if knowing that every one labour'd for all and where the benefit is common the labour must be common their care to fortifie their receptacles with a banck of Earth that in great rains it may not be overflowed have made them the fit emblems of prudent diligence This is excellently described by Virgil. Ac veluti ingentem formicae farris acervum Cum populant Hyenis memores tectoque reponunt It nigrum campis agmen praedamque per herbas Convectant calle angusto pars grandia trudunt Obnixa frumenta humeris pars agmima cogunt Castigantque moras Opere omnis semita fervet So when the Winter-fearing Ants invade Some heaps of Corn the Husbandman had made The sable Army marches and with Prey Laden return pressing the Leafy-way Some help the weaker and their shoulders lend Others the

in Surgery But he desirous first to cure his Brain and then his Shoulder told him that his Art was needless in that case for according to your own opinion this Bone in the dislocation either was where it was or where it was not and to assert either makes the displacing of it equally impossible Therefore 't was in vain to reduce it to the place from whence it was never parted And thus he kept him roaring out with pain and rage till he declar'd himself convinc'd of the vanity of his irrefutable Argument Now if according to the vanity of Atheists there is no God why do they invoke him in their adversities If there be why do they deny him in their prosperity there can no other Reason be assign'd but this that in the state of health their minds are disperst and clouded with blind folly in sickness they are serious and recover the judgment of Nature As 't is ordinary with distracted persons that in the approaches of Death their Reason returns because the Brain distemper'd by an excess of heat when the Spirits are wasted at the last is reduced to a convenient temper CHAP. VI. The Belief of the Deity no Politick Invention The asserting that 't is necessary to preserve States in order is a strong proof of its truth No History intimates when this belief was introduc'd into the World The continuance of it argues that its rise was not from a Civil Decree Princes themselves are under the fears of the Deity The multitude of false Gods does not prejudice the natural notion of one true God Idolatry was not universal The Worship of the only true God is preserved where Idolatry is abolish'd II. 'T Is objected that the belief of the Deity was at first introduc'd by the special invention of some in power to preserve the civil Sate and that Religion is onely a politick curb to restrain the wild exorbitance and disorders of the multitude This admits of an easie refutation 1. Those corrupted minds that from pride or sensuality presum'd to exempt Men from the Tribunal of Heaven yet affirm'd that a City might rather be preserved without Fire and Water the most necessary Elements than without the religious belief of a God Egregious lovers of mankind and therefore worthy of esteem and credit since they divulge that Doctrine that if believed the World must fall into dreadful confusion by their own acknowledgment But such is the Divine force of Truth that its enemies are constrain'd to give Testimony to it For is it conceiveable that an error not in a light question but in the Supreme Object of the Mind should be the root of all the Vertues that support the Civil State and Truth if discovered should have a fatal consequence on Government subvert all Societies and expose them to the greatest dangers How can they reconcile this with their declared principle that the natural end of Man is the knowledge of Truth It were less strange that the constant feeding on deadly Poyson should be requisit to preserve the natural life in health and vigour and that the most proper food should be pernicious to it So that the objection if rightly consider'd will confirm the Religious belief of a Deity Indeed 't is evident that all Civil Powers suppose the notion of a God to be an inseparable property of humane nature and thereby make their authority sacred in the esteem of the People as derived from the Universal Monarch 2. They can give no account of what they so boldly assert What Historian ever recorded that in such an age such a Prince introduc'd the belief of a Deity to make obedience to his Law 's to be a point of Religion 'T is true Politicians have sometimes used artifice and deceit to accomplish their ends Lycurgus pretended the direction of Apollo and Numa of the Nymph Egeria to recommend their Laws to the People Scipio and Sertorious made some other God to be of their Council of Warr to encourage their Souldiers in dangerous interprises But this mask only deceived the ignorant The more intelligent discern'd the finess of their politick contrivance 3. Is it conceiveable that the belief of the Deity if its original were from a civil decree should remain in force so long in the World False opinions in Philosophy adorn'd with great eloquence by the inventors and zealously defended for a time by their followers though opposit to no Mans profit or pleasure yet have lost their credit by further inquiries And if the notion of a God were sophisticate Gold though authorized with the Royal stamp could it have endured the Touchstone and the Fire for so many ages without discovery could it have past the test of so many searching Wits that never had a share in Government can we rationally suppose that in such a succession of time no discontented person when the yoke of Government was uneasie should disclose the arts of affrightment and release the People from imaginary terrours that with courage they might resume their liberty 'T is a true observation no single person can deceive all nor be deceived by all Now if there be no God one person has deceived all by introducing the general belief of a God into the World and every one is deceived by all believing so from the Universal Authority of Mankind 4. The greatest Princes are under the awful impressions of the Deity Those rais'd to the highest Thrones are not free from inward anxieties when the guilty Conscience cites them before his dreadful Tribunal Of this we have their unfeigned Declarations in the times of their distress Now 't is unconceivable they would voluntarily preplex themselves with a fancy of their own creating and dread that as a real Being which they know to be feigned This pretence therefore cannot without an open defiance of Reason be alledged 3. 'T is objected that the consent of mankind in the acknowledgment of a God is no full conviction of his existence because then we must believe the false Gods that were adored in the World 1. The multitude of Idols created by superstitious fancies is a strong presumption that there is a true God For all Falshood is supported by some Truth Deceit is made credible by resemblance The Heathen Worship though directed amiss yet proves that a religious inclination is sound in its original and has a real object to which it tends otherwise Idolatry the corruption of it had not found such a facility and disposition in Men to receive it 2. Idolatry hath not been universal in all Ages and Nations The first causes of it and motives that preserved it are evident The Nation of the Jews was freed from this general Contagion for we may as rationally argue from their own Histories concerning their belief and practice as from the Histories of other Nations And when a veil of darkness was cast over the Heathen World some were inlight'ned by true Reason to see the folly of the superstitious vulgar that