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	water_n	8,614	5	6.6720	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20573	A sermon preached at Saint Marie Spittle April. 10. 1615. By Thomas Anyan Doctour of Divinity, and president of Corpus Christi College in Oxon	Anyan, Thomas, 1580 or 81-1632.	1615 (1615)	STC 698; ESTC S115864	24,159	48

doe they else but devoure and eate their owne ofspring The first that brake this bond of truth in earth was the Divell Gē 3. whose scholers they shew themselues who teach that Oathes Vowes and Promises of truth are better broken then kept with Heretikes that they may lawfully violate them at their pleasure as Iulius 2. was not ashamed openly to professe fides danda omnibus servanda nemini And of this profession was Alex. 6. and his son Borgias of whom it is reported that the one would never speake what he meant to doe nor the other ever doe what hee spake These were two of the greatest mōsters which nature ever yet produced For what monster can there be in nature more prodigious then a Liar or Equivocator whose speech is not Of a truth All other creatures in the world bring forth the same issue which they conceaue but a Lyar or Equivocator bringeth forth of his mouth that which hee conceaueth not or rather a contrary issue to that which he conceaueth He conceaueth or rather concealeth the truth and bringeth forth a lye and so the issue of his mouth is contrary to the conception of his heart The heathen Philosopher Zeno rather then hee would be the Father to beger or suffer his tongue to bee the Mother to bring forth such a monster bit of his tongue and spit it in the face of the king of Cypres who had a long time tortured him to tell a Lie Pliny in his 37. Booke of Naturall History reporteth that if a perjured person dip hand or foot into the river Olachas in Bithynia hee feeleth as great torments as if he were throwne into a fornace of melting lead And Solinus seconds this relation with the like of a river in Sardinia Periuros furto facto quos lumine coecat And Philostratus telleth as strange a miracle of a river neere Tyara in which if a perfidious person that hath forsworne himselfe doe but bath the water sinketh into all parts of his body and breedeth an incurable dropsie But alas what is Olachas in Bithynia or any river in the earth to that River of Brimstone in hel which boyles with a continuall fire and much wood In which without long and bitter repentance they shall boyle for ever who make no conscience of making a lye breaking the truth Great surely are the tortures which Dives and with him all the damned doe and must suffer in hell yet no part of Dives body was so much tortured as his Tongue He was prowd and clad in fine linnen hee was a Glutton and fared deliciously every day and therefore in all likelyhood a wanton too Nam epulas comitatur voluptas he was vncharitable to the poore and denied Lazarus the crums that fell from his table yet none of these sins were punished so severely as the sins hee committed with his tongue Ex poena indicat culpā quia illud membrum maximè omniū puniebatur they are S t Gregories words l. 1. Mor. c. 5. and may teach vs to put a watche before our lips to make a conscience of breaking the truth which should be the cognizance of euery Christiā mans speech as here it is placed in the frontispice of S t Peters Of a truth I Perceaue S t Peter was not till this time ignorant of God's vnpartiall Iustice to vniversal man but now he doth see that truth cōfirmed in particulars which before he knewe in generall hee knewe it before and now his knowledge was by a sensible probatiō more confirmed Iob in his prosperity knewe that God would not punish the innocent yet hee would never acknowledge so much till he had a sensible experience of it Iob 9. 28. The sincere affection and filiall obedience of Abraham to God could not bee hid from God himselfe yet there was no evidence of it expressed by God till he refused not to sacrifice his Sonne Gen. 22. 12. And although the Apostle before this time had a notion of this truth which here hee preacheth yet a manifest experimentall overture he never learned till he saw the gate of the Church now opened to the Gentiles also The Mistresse of truth is Experiēce the best knowledge hath it's assurance frō particulars By a Generall knowledge we know as he that had bin blind saw confusedly Men like trees but by a collection of Particulars which are obvious to the sense especially in matters practike morall our mind rests assured without hesitation The one I may call Notitia th' other Fiducia the one resides in the vnderstanding th' other in the will th' one is Theoricall th' other Practicall the one consists in General notions the other in Particular Experiments the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the one wee may knowe Good from Bad by the other Better from Good In the knowledge therefore of divine verities we must not cōtent our selues with the first operations of the Spirit which are but generall but we must striue for particular directions and assurances we must not only haue our harts disposed but informed not only ploughed vp but sowen For as all other Sciences and Professions must needs savour of much rawnesse and imperfection if they be studied only in passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to gaine popular estimation or to content the state in which we liue So much more is it with religious knowledge if a man professe it only with relation and fashion superficially not syncerely and exactly For though that a weake faith and confused knowledge of Divine things be of that admirable and working nature that the very least corne and graine of it is able to effect the salvation of him in whom it is to lift him vp to heaven were he as grosse and heavy as a mountaine yet neverthelesse this must not content a Christian man but hee must make a continuall progresse from faith to faith from knowledge to knowledge till at length he be not only able in grosse to knowe but evidently to perceaue the mysteries of religion and properties of God himselfe whereof this is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hee is No accepter of persons God is an agent infinite whose will is nothing else but Deus volens as S t Austin saith essentially God himselfe without whom there is no mouing or efficient cause of his operations but his will is a law to himselfe and to all things else whatsoever the only cause of what and why he worketh It was his pleasure to create this goodly fabricke of the world wee see in time and not before It was his pleasure to permit the lapse of the first created man and his posteritie and being fallen to sequester out of the corrupted masse some few to bee the inheritors of his kingdome and to leaue the major part in their deserved perdition Beyond his pleasure to make a Quaere of his actions were saucie curiositie and yet to thinke his will

neere There is no man liuing but is assured that once hee must pay the tribute due vnto nature Death but because most men put death è longinquo farre from them and the eldest mā that is doth thinke hee may liue yet yet a day longer there is nothing in time of health lesse thought on thē sicknesse and throughout the whole course of our life lesse feared then death But when we apprehend a thing nociue as nociue a danger as a danger ready at hand for to assault vs then doth our dastard bloud retire to the fountaine of heate and what we cannot forcibly withstand that we seeke warily to decline Which eschewing of evill being a thing naturall and ingrafted in the heart of every man as he is a man is in it selfe neither good nor bad but good or bad according to the cause for which or the measure by which it is entertained Now because in diverse Texts of Scripture we read this passion of Feare commended and enioyned and else where forbidden and reprooued to reconcile this seeming opposition we must knowe that on the one side is commended a godly and religious feare on the other is reproued a diffident and perplexed feare the one is a remedie against desperation the other against presumption the one against diffidencie the other against securitie the one reprooues an anxious torturing feare which is without hope the other commends a cautelous and sollicitous feare in every man that stands to take heed lest he fall And if here any Auditour should demand how God can be feared being not only good but essentially Goodnesse it selfe and that nothing can bee feared but that which is evill or apprehended so to be I answere with Aquinas 2 a. 2. q. 19. a. 1. that as hope hath it's double obiect the one the good we pursue in expectation and the other the auxiliarie helpe by which wee hope to obtaine this good so feare hath it's double obiect the one is the evill which it eschewes and dreads the other is something from which this evill may proceed Now although God everlasting and blest for ever cannot in the first sense be said to bee feared or to be the obiect of feare yet in the second he may For although he be goodnesse it selfe yet something may be feared to proceed from him which is evill evill not in it's owne nature but evil in respect of him that feares which is indeed malum poenae not culpae an evill of punishment not of offence And for our direction in this point giue me leaue to note vnto you out of Aquinas a fourefold feare A Naturall a Worldly a Servile and a Filiall feare A naturall feare is nothing else but a providēt shunning of those dangers and mischeefes with which wee are not able to encounter Which passion is entayled to all the sonnes of Adam and made hereditary nor from it was our Saviour himselfe freed but as hee was a man he feared and therefore prayed and that often Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me The second is a worldly feare when for the safety of things temporall we sticke not to admit of things excluding from eternall when we more feare them that can kill the body only then him that can cast both body and soule into eternall fire when we startle at the least bluster of persecution when wee contract our selues at the touch of a pins point being ready at the least assault to leaue Christ for the loue of the world The servile feare is a slavish dread of the iudgements of God and his punishments for sinne when not for the loue of heaven but for feare of hell we retaine our selues within the circle of Gods Commandements The last best feare is a filial chast loving feare when we feare to commit sinne because it is sinne doe embrace vertue as it is vertue cùm non delectaret iniquitas quamvis proponeretur impunitas saith Ambrose Which feare is proper to Christs flocke which who so hath is accepted with God and may bee assured to liue for ever S t Austin in his 120. Epist ad Honoratum doth truely expresse and liuely effigiate the nature and difference of these two feares by the example of the two maried women th' one an adulteresse the other a chaste matrone These both feare their husbands but after a different manner The one feares the presence of her husband least comming home hee take her tardè the other feares the absence of her husband lest by his departure shee be deprived of his much desired company The one feares to commit adultery least her husband catch her her minde neverthelesse is adulterous quod deest operi inest voluntati saith Austin what shee wants in deed shee perfourmes in desire th' other feares her husband but t' is chastly lovingly nothing but his displeasure or absence Nam amanti etiam absentia molesta est So the wicked feare God with a base servile feare they feare him as a Iudge the godly as a Father The servile feare makes men to avoide sinne quia nocivum the filiall quia prohibitum onely because it is forbidden saith Almaine in his Morals He who hath a chast filtall feare doth not only avoide the act of sinne but a desire to commit the act but the servile feare restraines men only ab actu executorio saith Aquinas and leaues behinde velle complacentiae a desire to sinne In a word the servile feare doth tie vs vnto God with clampers of yron and fetters of brasse the filiall with bracelets of needle worke and chaines of gold by the one we receiue the spirit of adoption and cry Abba father by the other the spirit of bōdage againe vnto feare The servile feare saith Hales part 3. q. 06. respicit poenam aeternam vt destructivam subiecti the fil●al tanquam separativam et privativam à Deo By the one we feare the Iudgements of God and the paines of he●● by the other the losse of his grace the ioies of heaven The one is not Timor but Terror a passion mixt of horror and dismay the other sweetly composed of loue and an awfull regard The one is timor poenae th' other culpae the one the feare of the punishment the other of the offence th' one is the badge and brand of the reprobate the other the proper and inseparable character of the elect insomuch that Iacob the religious Father of the Patriarcks did cal God nothing else but the feare of his father Isaac Gen. 31. 42. This feare of God should binde vs hand and foote from sinne make vs thinke of that heavenly Vow of S t Anselmes Si hinc peccatum illinc infernum viderem ac vni eorum necessariò immergi deberem priùs me in infernum immergerem quàm peccatum cōmitterem If sinne saith he were on th' one side and hell on the other I had rather plunge my soule into the depth of hell then