Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	esquire_n	john_n	william_n	2,593	5	9.6217	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02031	A familiar exposition or commentarie on Ecclesiastes VVherein the worlds vanity, and the true felicitie are plainely deciphered. By Thomas Granger, preacher of the Word at Butterwike in East-holland, Lincolne.	Granger, Thomas, b. 1578.	1621 (1621)	STC 12178; ESTC S103385	263,009	371

that I might exhibite it to you as a New yeares gift the best that I haue in token of my sincere loue and duty and earnest desire of your prosperous and happie welfare who as you were studious your selfe when once you were Fellow of Queenes Colledge in Cambridge so were you a speciall fauourer and furtherer of the Studious whereby you purchased speciall loue both in your owne Colledge and abroad also and the same through your perseuerance and prudent gouernement is still continued amongst vs that liue vnder your Iurisdiction Another cause is that it might finde the better passage vnder your patronage and kinder entertainement vnder your name that though it be defectiue in selfe-desert yet for your sake the indifferent beneuolous and generous eye respecting the strong might ingenuously passe by the we●ke Moreouer being desirous to shew forth some testimony of my thankefull minde for your Lordships great fauour towards me I thought good to offer that which onely I am able to giue and which I know you are most ready and willing to receiue euen the fruits of my Ministeriall labours to you a speciall fauourer of faithfull Ministers Lastly as tokens of small weight but of great value are more acceptable then great Summes I trust that this small gaine of my one Talent which I present to your Lordship as a token of my sincere affection obedience and seruice shall counteruaile a ponderous volume And what I am lesse able this way to performe I shall recompence with my continuall and hearty prayers for your temporall and eternall happinesse London 1. Ian. 1621. Your Lordships in all humble obseruance TH. GR. TO THE RIGHT VVorshipfull and worthy-minded Gentlemen Sir Iames Fowlerton Sir Dauid Murray Sir Peter Osburne Knights Mr. Iohn Murray Mr. William Car●e Mr. Henry Gibbe of his Maiesties Bed-Chamber Mr. Emmanuel Giffard one of the Gentlemen of his Maiesties Priuy-chamber Esq Mr. James Douglasse Mr. Richard Jones Mr. Endymion Porter Mr. John Heron and Mr. John Parker Esquires Grace and Peace be multiplyed RIGHT WORSIPFVLL and worthy minded Gentlemen Hauing in the first place elected the diuine learned iudicious enriched with wisedome and piety for the patronage of this worke I haue also further bestowed the same on you nil minuit de lumine lumen to the end that being shielded with reuerend and pious grauity in the Van and guarded by generous and vnblemishable vertue in the Rere I may be safely protected from the snarling detraction of enuie on the one side and receiue a fauourable construction of what may be amisse on the other The vniuersality and excellency of the subiect hath enlarged my dedication It is Solomons Ethiks his tractate de summo bono of the chiefe and compleat felicity and the worlds vanity and therefore the very roote seede or kernell of all happy knowledge both of good and euill in all things naturall politicall ecclesiasticall Contraria iuxta se posita magis illucescunt say the Phylosophers and saith a Father Qui malum non nouit perfecte bonum non intelligit He that hath not knowne euill doth not perfectly vnderstand good As the earth so the Arts haue their weeds from which they are purged by their Physicion Truth is like Gold in the Mine Vprightnesse is sur rounded and clouded with calumnies Wisedome is darkened with sophistry Impurus spiritus se immiscit in omnibus The vncleane spirit intrudes himselfe into euery thing Solomon therefore doth not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est astruere positiuely auouch and lay downe the grounds of true felicitie but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est destruere destroy the false and counterfeit felicities of mans darke heart and that by euident arguments drawne from such grounds as the wise-men of the world could not finde groping like the Sodomites for Lots doore but could not finde it not so quicke-sighted as hee that saw men walking like trees For as they say Nullum elementum ponderat suo loco No element is ponderous in his place so they being in corruption felt no weight of corruption no more then the Fishes in the Sea and wormes of the Earth feele the weight of either Worldly wisedome is wearinesse both to the body and minde and a vexation of spirit For being it selfe crooked it cannot rectifie things crooked Mirth is madnesse Royall magnificence is transitorie and m●table The sagest aduisements depend on vncertaine issues Prosperitie and aduersitie are set one against another as hill against dale The restlesse Pole is immoueably fixed in his place as the grinding milstone so is the earth in her centre a masse of mutabilities Of the heauens there is a constant reuolution vp and downe to and fro they neuer haue the same face neuer hold the same countenance at least from the first motion till the end of times Here is the difficulty of prognostication Omnia versantur in perpetuo ascensu descensu There is a perpetuall ascending and descending of life and state Euery man euery state euery thing is a Planet whose sphericall reuolutions are some of longer some of shorter continuance Vulgar iudgements are variable their counsels groundlesse Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus but the prudent designes of sage States are firme euen so are the imaginations of the wisest worldlings in all their wayes and enterprizes but the foundation of God remaineth sure Their wise sayings are applauded when they doe but dreame waking and raue like men in sicknesse thinking themselues to be in Dothan when they are in the middest of Samaria 2 Kings 6. When they are on the surest ground they walke on pinnacles againe when they are naked in the middest of their enemies Camp● they are armed in the strongest fort For the hand of God doth all that men might feare before him and not leane to their owne wisedome Yet vaine man would be wise seeing he is but a wild Asses Colt saith Iob. He would be happy being but a masse of mortalities For being the most compound and vniuersall nature as concerning his plasme and so the most excellent by creation he is the most miserable by degeneration Nam bonum optimum corruptum fit pessimum And how much greater then is the corruption of his spirit That is to be seene by the corruption of the most excellent spirit Both haue their restraints and limitations yet hath not God left man in desperation but in his eternall wisedome prouided meanes of restauration which here is begun and there finished whence the Authour of corruption fell This restauration is first the renouation or change of the centre the roote of man I meane his heart or spirit of his minde then of his spirits vessell I meane the brutall nature or inferiour part which I take to be the sperme or quintessence of the vniuerse and then are all things renued with him 2 Cor. 5. 17. Felicity therefore is here to be had and by the holy endeauours of renewed wisedome to be obtained But this