Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	body_n	earth_n	element_n	4,634	5	9.8975	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07629	Contemplatio mortis, et immortalitatis	Manchester, Henry Montagu, Earl of, 1563?-1642.	1631 (1631)	STC 18023.5; ESTC S112815	39,881	132

right way Herein bee as great a questionist as were those religious Ladies of Rome who neuer let Saint Hierome rest for questions which was the readiest way to heauen If a man would but compare the Forenoone of his age with the Afternoone how long the one is and how short the other is euery man would be dying dayly Palmarios posuisti dies The longest liuer hath but a handfull of dayes Life it selfe is but a circle alwayes beginning where it ends Erat quando non erat sed erit Time was when man was not But how late a beginning soeuer man had yet after death hee shall be sure neuer to see end With the Ancient of dayes there are no dayes And the time shall be when time shall be no more There be two common errours which deceiue most men Two common errors First that a man enters not into eternall life till he dyes when as his calling heere begins his life eternall To Zacheus Christ said This day is saluation come vnto thy house Faith preuents time and makes things future present The godly man that hath his present life hid with Christ in God so liues heere as if his conuersation were in heauen carrying himselfe not onely honestly ciuilly and humanely but beyond naturall condition his life seemes super-humane diuine and spirituall The second errour is that howeuer a man liues yet if at last he seeme to die well then all is well and his soule is sure to bee saued this is a bold and a dangerous conceit for though Misery be the obiect of Mercy and Hope the miserable mans god yet humane life hath not a greater friend nor many times a greater foe then Hope Many would dye did not hope sustaine them more haue dyed flattered with vaine hope Whoso hopes too much cozens himselfe at last Be not deceiued God is not mocked not euery one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen In this mortall life enter into the first degree of life eternall or thou mayest die eternally with Lord haue mercy vpon vs in thy mouth But haue thy part heere in the first Resurrection which is from sinne to Grace and then thou shalt enioy the second Resurrection which is from dust to Glory The third step to well dying To die by little and little the third step is to die by little and little Totâ die mortificamur Naturally wee are euery day dying by degrees The faculties of our mind the strength of our bodies our common senses euery day decaying paulatim He that vseth this course euery day to dye by little and little to him let death come when it will it cannot be either terrible or suddaine If wee keepe a Courser to runne a Race wee leade him euery day ouer the place to acquaint him by degrees with all things by the way that when he comes vpon his speed he doe not start or turne aside for any thing he sees So let vs enure our soules and then wee shall run with boldnesse the race that is set before vs. To die by little and little is first to mortifie our lesser sinnes and not to say with Lot Is it not a little one Wee may not wash our hands from crying and from bloody sinnes and yet hugge in our bosome some beloued and Herodian sinne Certainely great sinnes will neuer be conquered if little sinnes be cherished Saint Cyprian writing consolatory Epistles to the Martyres of his time told them that he that once hath ouercome death in his owne person doth dayly ouercome him in his members if you mortifie the members of your flesh by little and little you will not feare the crueltie of any exquisite death the Tyrant can deuise There be a sort of little deathes as sicknesse of body troubles of minde losse of friends and the like vse these rightly in their kinde and you may make them kindely helpes to dying well The right way to bring any thing to a good end is to proceed by degrees God himselfe made nothing absolute at first This great God loues to haue degrees kept degreeingly to grow to greatnesse is the course of the world so by little and little to goe out of the world per gradus not per saltum is the way to Heauen Let a man goe out of the world as he came into the world which was first by a life of Vegetation then of Sense afterwards of Reason Dauid prescribes vs this order when hee sayes Doce me duce me Domine Hee will not runnetill hee bee taught to goe Teach mee to doe thy will and leade me into the land What land is that There is terra quam terimus land on earth which yeelds vs all pleasures that 's not it There is terra quam gerimus refined earth beautified bodies which we beare about vs nor is this it There is terra quam quaerimus the glorious land of promise that 's the land we seeke Into this land duce me Domine For the manner of dying AMongst men it is a matter of chiefe marke the manner of a mans death All men as men die naturally as Christians they should die religiously The good man equally can die or liue for he knowes if hee liue God will protect him if he dyes God will receiue him The Prophet Dauid in a Contemplation of Death ingeminates the word saying Domine Domine exitus Mortis The issues of Death belong to thee A good man by his good will would die praying and doe as the pilgrim doth goe on his way singing and so addes the paine of singing to that of going Yet by this Surplus of paine vnwearies himselfe of paine But some wretches thinke God rather curious then they faulty if a few sighes with a Lord haue mercy vpon vs be not enough at the last gaspe There is no spectacle in the world so profitable or more terrible then to behold a dying man to stand by and see a man dismanned Curiously diddest thou make man in the lowest part of the earth saith Dauid but to see those elements which compounded made the body to see these diuided and the man to be dissolued is rufull So dependant is the life of man that it cannot want one element Fire and Ayre these fly vpward Water and Earth they sinke downeward So liuing man becomes a dead carkase Seneca thought a man might choose his own death which was some ease to him Quemadmodum nauim elegam nauigaturus domum habitaturus Ita mortem vtique quá sum exiturus è vita But better saith another Stultè haec cogitantur vitam alijs approbare quisquam debet mortem verò sibi But since it is so great a matter to die so necessarie to die well so dangerous to die ill Let your life be an acting of death Certainely Death hath great dependancie on the course of a mans life There bee many that choose rather to die quickely then to liue long sickely Some that will inuite