Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	work_n	world_n	worm_n	17	3	8.6803	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62047	The fading of the flesh and flourishing of faith, or, One cast for eternity with the only way to throw it vvell : as also the gracious persons incomparable portion / by George Swinnock ...	Swinnock, George, 1627-1673.	1662 (1662)	Wing S6275; ESTC R15350	123,794	220

provide for the flesh HAving laid down these reasons in the Doctrinal part of my discourse I shall now speak to that which is practical The truth may be useful both by way of Information and Exhortation First by way of Information If our flesh will fail us what fools are they whose whole contrivance is to feed and please the flesh We laugh at the vanity and folly of Children when we see them very busie and taking much paines to make up an house of Cards or pies of Dirt. The greatest part of men are but Children of larger dimensions and are indeed more foolish because they ought to be more wise What is their main work but to make provision for the flesh to provide fuel enough for the fire of its covetousness and pleasant Water enough for the Leviathan of its voluptuousness and air enough for the Camelion of Ambition as if God had no other design in sending them into the World but that they might be Cooks to dress their bodies as well as possibly might be for the Wormes All their care is What shall we Eat and what shall we drink and wherewith shall we be cloathed and how shall we do to live in these dear and hard times as vermine in Dung-hills they live and feed on such filth never once asking their souls in earnest What wilt thou do for the bread which came down from Heaven and how wilt thou do to put on the Robes of Christs righteousness that thy nakedness may not appear to thy shame and O what wilt thou do to be saved to live eternally These things are not in all their thoughts Like Flies they are overcome with the spirits of Wine and nourished with froth It s enough they think if when they come to dye they bequeath their souls to God in their Wills though its a thousand to one if those wills be proved in Heaven I can tell them of unanswerable caveats which the Judges Son will put in against them and therefore their whole lives must be devoted to the service of their bodies like dying men they smel of earth and carry its complexion in their very countenances If a man that had two houses in his possession one whereof was his own free-hold for ever and the other his Land-Lords which he agreed to leave at an hours warning should neglect his own house let all things there run to rack and ruine but night and day be mending and adorning his Land-Lords House as if he could never be at cost enough or make it neat enough would not every one condemn this man for a fool or a mad man Truly this is the very case of most men The soul in the body is a tenant in domo aliena saith the Oratour Cicero Tusc The body is our house of clay in which we are Tenants at anothers will we may be turned out of its Doors without so much as an hours warning the soul is our own everlasting possession yet generally the immortal spirit is slighted no time taken for a serious view of its wants no cost laid out for its supply as if it were an indifferent thing whither it swim or sink for ever when men are always plotting and studiing to gratifie and please their fading flesh O this is one of the dolefullest sights which eyes can behold the servant to ride on horse-back and the Prince to go on foot the sensitive appetite to be the grave of Religion and the Dungeon of Reason Greg de la NuZ. Tract Evan. It is reported of a certain Philosopher that dying he bequeathed a great sum of money to him that should be found most foolish His Executor in pursuance of his will travelled up and down to find out one that excelled others in folly and so might challenge the legacy at last he came to Rome where a Consul abusing his office was adjudged to death and another suing for the place chosen who chearfully took it upon him to this man he delivered the money telling him That he was the most foolish man in the World who seeing the miserable end of his Predecessor was nothing therewith discouraged but joyfully succeeded him in his Office How much do most titular Christians resemble this foolish Consul they see in the World their sensual Companions like sheep as they are feeding in their fleshly pastures culled out by death and called away from them nay they may see in the Word if they will beleive God himself the block on which they are laid by that bloody Butcher Satan the Knife with which they are stuck and which he runs up to the very Haft in the throat of their precious souls the heavy curse of the law and the infinite wrath of the Lord which they must undergo for ever and yet they are therewith not the least affrighted but merrily follow them to the place of endless mourning Reader If thou art one of these flesh-pots of Egypt What folly and madness art thou guilty of Is not thy spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plate an Heavenly plant the immediate workmanship of the glorious God and thy flesh like the first Adam of the earth Earthy and art thou not a fool to prefer Dirt before that which is divine Is not thy spirit the impress and Image of God himself in its immortality noble faculties and capacity of honouring and enjoying his infinite Majesty and thy body the resemblance of beasts nay in many things inferior to them and art thou not unwise in esteeming that which is brutish above that which is the Picture of Gods own perfections Again is not the well-being of thy body involved in the welfare of thy soul As really as the branches depend on the root for its flourishing thy body dependeth on thy soul for its salvation how mad art thou therefore to let the Vessel sink and yet presume to preserve the Passenger that sayleth in it Once more shall not the life of thy spirit run parallel with the life of God himself and the line of eternity and hath not God himself told thee that thy flesh will fail thee dost thou not find it now and then tottering and as it were telling thee that it must drop down and art not thou a fool in grain a fool in the highest degree to place all thy happiness for ever to set all thy stress weight for thine unchangeable estate on this rotten bough which will certainly break under thee when thou mightest have sure footing and lay up a good Foundation by an hearty regarding thine Heaven-born soul O consider it and give conscience leave to call thee fool once that thou mayst be wise for ever Attilus King of Swethland made a Dog King of the Danes in revenge of some injuries received from them What wrong hath thy soul done thee that to be revenged on it and to spight it to purpose thou makest its slave its Soveraign that part by which thou art kin to the beasts its Lord and King