Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	bring_v	fruit_n	tree_n	11,470	5	9.5299	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08106	An epistle of a religious priest vnto his father: exhorting him to the perfect forsaking of the world.	Southwell, Robert, Saint, 1561?-1595.	1597 (1597)	STC 22968.5; ESTC S95268	12,378	49

daies do but procure many deathes and others in a shorte space attein the life of infinite ages What is the body without the soule but a corrupte carcase and what the soule without God but a sepulcher of sinne If God be the way the life and the truth he that goeth without him strayeth he that liueth without him dieth and he that is not taught by him erreth Well saieth S. Augustine that God is our trew and chiefest life from whome the reuolting is falling to whome the returninge is rising in whom the staying is sure standing God is he from whom to depart is to dye to whom to repaire is to reuiue in whome to dwell is to liue Be not you therfore of those that beginne not to liue vntill they be ready to dye then after a foes desert come to craue of God a frends entertainment Some thincke to snatch heauen in a moment which the best scarce atteined in the moūtenance of many yeeres and when they haue glutted them selues with worldly delites they would iumpe frō Diues his diet to Lazarus croun and from the seruice of Satan to the solacy of a Saint But be you well assured that god is not so penurious of frendes as to hold him selfe and his kingdome salable for the refuse and reuersion of theire liues who haue sacrificed the principall therof to his enemies and their owne brutishe appetites then onely ceasing to offend when hability of offending is taken from them True it is that a theefe may be saued vpon the crosse and mercy found at the last gaspe But well saieth saint Augustine that though it be possible yett is it scarce credible that his death should find fauour whose whole life hath earned wrath and that his repentance should be accepted that more for feare of hell and loue of him selfe then for loue of God or lothsomnes of sinne crieth for mercy Wherfore good Sir make no longer delayes but being so neere the breaking vpp of your mortall house take time before extremitye to satisfie Gods Iustice Though you suffered the bud to be blasted the flower to fade thogh you permitted the fruite to be perished and the leaues to drye vp yea though you let the bougheswither and the body of your tree growe to decaye yett alas keepe life in the roote for feare least the wholle become fuell for hell fire for surely whersoeuer the tree falleth there shall it be whether it be to south or north heauē or hell such sap as it bringeth such fruit shal it euer bear Death hath already filed from you the better part of your naturall forces and hath lefte you now to the lees and remissailes of your wearish and dyinge dayes the remainder wherof as it cānot be long so doth it warne you speedilye to ransome your former losses For what is age but the calendes of death and what importeth your present weaknes but an earnest of your approching dissolution You are now impathed in your finall voiage and not far of from the stint and period of your course and therfore be not dispurueied of such appurtenances as are behoofull in so perplexed and perillous a iorney Death in it selfe is very fearefull but much more terble in regard of the iudgement that it summoneth vs vnto If you were layed on your departing bed burdened with the heauy load of your former trespasses and goared with the sting and pricke of a festered conscience If you felt the crampe of death wresting your hart stringes ready to make the rufull diuorce betweene body and soule If you lay panting for breath and swimming in a colde and fatall sweat weried with strugling against your deadly panges O how much wold you giue for an hower of repentāce at what rate woulde you valew a dayes contrition Then worldes would be worthles in respecte of a litle respitte A shorte truce would seeme more pretious then the trea sures of Empires nothing would be so much esteemed as a trice of time which now by monethes and yeeres is lauishly mispent O how deeply would it wound your hart when looking backe into your life you considered many faultes committed and not confessed manye good workes omitted and not recouered your seruice to God promised and not performed How inconsolable were your case your frends being fled your senses frighted your thoughtes amazed your memory decaied your whole mind agast and no partable to performe that it should but onely your guilty conscience pestered with sinne that would cōtinually vpbreid you with most bitter accusations what woulde you thinke when stripped out of your mortall weed and turned both out of the seruice housrome of this world you were forced to enter into vncouth strāge pathes with vnknowen and vgly company to be cōuented before a most seuere iudge carying in your owne conscience your enditement written and a perfitte register of all your misdeedes when you should see him prepared to passe the sentence vpon you against whom you had transgressed and the same to be your vmpier whom by so many offēces you had made your enemy When not onely the Deuells but euen the Angells should pleade against you and your selfe maugre your will be your sharpest appeacher What would you do in these dredfull exigentes When you saw that gastly dungeon huge golfe of hell breaking out with most fear full flames Whē you saw the weeping gnashing of teeth the rage of those hellish monsters the horrour of the place the rigour of the paine the terrour of the company and the eternity of all these punishmentes would you then thinke thē wise that would daly in so weighty matters and idly play away the time allotted to preuēt these intollerable calamities would you thē account it secure to nurse in your bosome so many serpents as sinnes or to foster in your soule so manye malicious accusers as mortal faltes Would yo not then thinke one life to little to do penance for so many iniquities euery one wherof were enough to cast you into those euerlasting and vnspeakable torments Why then do you not at the least deuote that small remnant and surplusage of these your latter dayes procuring to make an attonement with God and to free your conscience from such corruption as by your schisme and fall hath crept into it Those very eies that read this discourse and that very vnderstanding that conceiueth it shal be sighted certaine witnesses of the rehearsed thinges In your owne body shall you experience those dedly agonies and in your soule shall you feelinglye finde those terrible feares yea and your present estate is in danger of the deepest harmes if you doe not the sooner recouer your selfe into the folde and family of Gods Church What haue you gotten by being so long customer to the world but false ware sutable to the shoppe of such a marchant whose traficke is toile whose welth trashe and whose gaine miserye what interest haue you reaped that maye equall