Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	body_n	soul_n	union_n	2,456	5	9.5499	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12819	Meditations, and resolutions, moral, divine, politicall century I : written for the instruction and bettering of youth, but, especially, of the better and more noble / by Antony Stafford ... ; there is also annexed an oration of Iustus Lipsius, against calumnie, translated out of Latine, into English.	Stafford, Anthony.; Lipsius, Justus, 1547-1606.	1612 (1612)	STC 23127; ESTC S1001	32,969	235

I wil make a holy vow of an idle complement vowing my selfe the servant of his seruants 57 As there are few good Physicians for the body ●o there are not many for the soule As those of the bodie let many die for want of skill so those of the soule let manie perish because they knowe not how to apply themselues vnto them I haue seene an Empirick prescribe a cold remedy for a colde disease like those who seek to cure the desperation of Gods mercie with the declaration of his iustice As therfore the Physician of the bodie is not esteemed except hee can giue a reason for what hee does no more is the Physician of the soule to be valued vnlesse hee can giue a reason of that hee saies GOD hath left to his Ministers weapons to wound and balmes to heale Keyes to open keyes to shut but some of them wanting theological prudencie manage these things amisse As therefore knowing the constitution of mine owne body I will giue the Physician direction in som things so knowing well the ill estate of mine own soule I will in some things supply the defect and ignorance of my ghostly Physician 58 It is a common speech that Euery man is either a foole or a Physician that is he knowes what does him good and takes it and look what does him hurt hee refuses it It fares not so in matters of the soule For in those most are fooles and few are Physicians like childrē coueting that which harmes them and flying that which helps them I care not if I be a foole in my bodily diet so I be a Physician for the health of my soule 59 It is a thing worthy the consideratiō that thogh the soule be her selfe imprisoned in the body yet shee cannot endure that her prison should be imprisoned Of this there is a two-folde reason first because shee loues not to be double walled in and secondly this brings to her mind her owne imprisonment vvith the thraldome and subiection shee liues in to the Sense Yet withall t is a thing remarkable in her that shee is neuer so glad as when shee hath giuen her body the slip left it imprisoned in the Graue though at Natures first motion she was loth to part from it as hauing dwelt so long in it Lord let my bodie goe to his earthly prison that my soule may enioy that heauenly liberty So shall she bee free of Heauen and free from Earth 60 Examples taken from Great men hurt more than if they were taken from Poore The reason is because adversitie makes a man know him selfe whereas prosperity makes him knowe himselfe too well Now it is more safe to follow him that knowes him selfe than him that does not For as a true knowledge of God and of his truth is the beginning of diuine wisedome so a true knowledge of a mans selfe is the beginning of humane I will therfore sooner imitate those whō misery hath tamed than those whom ioyes haue made wilde 61 It is a great follie to write and print things foolish Things foolish I call things lewd void of sense T is strange that man should not bee content that onely the present generation should call him foole but that posterity also shold prick picke him out for one For my part I will not impart that knowledge to any man which may make him forget himselfe and when hee comes to remember himselfe may make him knowe that I forgot my selfe 62 All flatterers are odious and dangerous and aboue all others the Creeper The first and most pernitious that euer was was a Creeper beguiled the Woman vvho thoght that such a crawler could not haue such craft as afterward shee found he had Such Flatterers are poyson to Princes and oftentimes a bane to the best disposed Flattery is now-a-dayes admitted into the Courts of Princes nay into the bosome of Princes not cōsidering that though her ward below yet shee aymes high and hits those soonest vvho lie highest Those Courts are as happy that want her as those are cursed vnhappy that haue her 63 As the stomack if it be fedde a long time with one meate at length loathes the same so the soule despises ordinary accustomed discourse I will therefore feede my soule with varietie but not with confusion 64 Euery man thinks that which is opposed to the extreamest of his griefes to be mans chiefe felicity The poor man iudges riches the sicke man health the prisoner liberty to bee the highest happinesse I my selfe when I haue been discontented as I haue beene often haue thought content to be the best blisse and I often fall into the relapse and imbrace that opinion Hence-forward I will place my felicity in those things which may bring me to that neuer fading felicity and if my soule haue content heere I will thinke that shee is contented with this world and so hath lost the only marke of her immortality 65 God lookes for most honour from those to whom hee hath giuen greatest honor As Princes haue the highest place vpon Earth so should they do the greatest homage to Heauen 66 Nothing in this life is so vnsauory as Old-age The sadnes of mans last dayes is sufficient to pay him for the folly of the first The neerer Age comes to her growth the neerer Beauty is to her bane For in this pensiue time euery thing withers and groweth old but Euill and that retaines his full vigour Lord let my soule then flourish when my body fades and let the concord of my minde fight against the discord of my body 67 Nothing is so terrible to the greatest part of mortality as Death This little leane dwarfe will beard a Monarch in the midst of his Army making him shake that whilome shook Towers and made the Earth it selfe tremble with the weight of his Hoaste Great Alexander was a little childe in this and though he had often met Death face to face yet at last he turned his back to him and would haue hid himselfe from him as hoping to be inuisible to his inuisible Enemy What an absurdity is it in a man to seek to choak Nature or to grudge her the voyding of her excrements As when I was borne another died so I will consider that when I die another is borne If Nature bee wearie of mee I will bee weary of my selfe I were a foole if I should not For as no man can play vpon a broken instrument no more can any soule recreate her selfe with a bad instrumentaliz'd body If therefore Life flie from me I will not flie from Death 68 When men are calumniated they growe angry and if they be reprehended for any predominant vice in them they seeke to excuse and extenuate it I will not do so but will hearken to Epictetus who wils mee not to deny the sinnes mine enemy taxes mee with but to reproue his ignorance in that being vnacquainted with the infinitie of my crimes he layes

only two or three to my charge whereas indeede I am guilty of a million 69 As Sin sold the world to Death so Death bought the world at the hands of Sinne it being the will of the heauenly Father with the death of one to buy euerlasting life for all Blessed be he then that died the cursed death of the Crosse that wee may lead a blessed life without crosses 70 Christ himselfe sayes that Many are called but few are chosen Many are call'd Christians who are not chosen to liue with Christ Many are in the Church that are not of the Church and many visible members there are which belong not to the inuisible body nor receiue their motion from the inuisible Head We whose soules look vpon others throgh the dimme spectacles of Sense doe often times take a Iudas for a Nathana●ll and contarily a Simon Peter for a Simon Magus Let vs then spare to iudge least wee be iudged to bee vniust by that iust Iudge at the dreadful day of Iudgment I I this is a 〈◊〉 course and this wil I obserue because I knowe not whether or no the Saul I see novv may proue a Paul to-morow 71 The world delights in those that delight in it The reason therfore why the world cōtemnes me is because it is cōtemned of mee So then there must be a mitigation on both sides To a mitigation I may be brought to a subiection neuer 72 The diuell is neuer so busie as when a man is idle Hee hath no so fit instrument to worke by as by Sloth which is indeed the mother of vice I will therefore abandon this mother least in time she bring mee to that father 73 Many pray but fewe pray aright Some presume to beg that which God in his iustice cannot grant and others againe despaire to craue that which God in his mercy will not deny I will not therefore begge all that which I would but all that which I should 74 There is nothing in this world that all men shunne so much as Basenesse yet many run into it because few know the true definition of it Opinion styles many things base which Vertue calls bright and glorious We see Gentlemen asham'd and hang downe their heads when they looke vp to the place vvhere their Ancestors sate And why doe they this Because they doe not think it any disparagement to decline from the vertue of their Ancestors but from their riches If Pouertie take-vp her residence in mee or change beings with me yet shall she neuer make me think my selfe base so long as Vertue leaues mee anie one sparke of her brightnesse 75 The basest griefe of all is that which receiues his birth frō the death of a Horse or a Cow or from the losse of the two too high-priz'd Metalls Phy vpon it that a man should hurt his internall substāce for the want of externall If the Sun and Moone shine vpon mee I shall thinke they doe me a sufficient fauour without presuming to implore their descension in to my pockets but if the Sunne and Moone that is Gold Siluer vouchsafing to make my pockets their Spheres shall afterwards out of their Planeticall inconstancie skippe out and wander frō me I wil not mourn and say I haue lost them but that I haue rendred and sent them backe to him who sent and gaue them vnto mee 76 Pouertie lyes begging in the streets and no man pitties her The reason is because it is against the nature of man to pittie a cōmon enemy to Mankind Man should consider that though Pouertie bee his worldly enemy yet she is his spirituall friend 77 Euery thing hath his fit application but few find it Some by the extraordinary application of a thing common will bring the Reader both into admiration and delight Others againe by an vnwittie application make non Sense and infuse lothing into the nice stomack of the Reader I wil apply nothing which may not imply something 78 All men cry-out for plaine dealing but fewe loue the trade It is an old Prouerb that he that vseth it long shall die a beggar Sure I am that hee who vseth it euer shall die rich Hee that ●aw him in secret wil reward him in secret Hee shall enter and inhabite heauen and partake of that true treasure wheras the hypocrite leaues his wealth behind him and carries his woe with him 79 Eating and drinking too much are two great vices Yet of the two too much eating is the greater To drink too much comes often times from constraint but to eat too much proceeds from a mans inordinate appetite Hee that is a drunkard may iustlie blame others but he that is a glutton can iustly blame none but himselfe I wil therfore make my appetite conformable to my digestion so shal I be sure neither to eat too much nor too little 80 Some fearing their names should die build houses to make posteritie know that they once were and were wealthy This indeede tells the world that they had purses but not that they had pates He is the man who trusts not to oftentripping Tradition but pleads his owne Cause to Posteritie making her confesse that hee was a man of deeds thogh not a man of drosse 81 A great mans fauor is hardly got easily lost Hee keeps a man to serue his turne but not to obserue his turnings The greatest part of his followers are like his horses they carry him and hee guides them That hors which offers to fling him or that is not tēdermouth'd hee puts off as a head-strong Iade It is better therefore to serue God who is voyd of all accidents and humors than man who by them is made voide of reason and hee that is most vnfit to obserue man is the most fit to serue God 82 The Church militant labours to bee vnited to the triumphant and the triumphant longs for the vnion Lord then ioyne them and let sorrow seuer them no longer 83 Nature binds men one to the other but neuer so fast as when she chains them together with the linkes of vertue Nature may make mee loue my kinred but Vertue will make mee doe more 84 Hee that hates a man because he hath some notorious vices is rash and vnaduised for if hee did but looke into the same man he should find some eminent vertues in him I will not shunne his presence that hath a good nature and but one vertue as knowing my selfe to be all vitious 85 It is an vsuall speech that nothing is saide vvhich hath not beene said before If it be meāt that no words are spoke which haue not beene spoke before that is false and if the meaning bee that nothing is thought vvhich hath not beene thought before that is false too For we see that euery day reveales a new secret to the world and that for neuer heard-of thinges wee are faine to faine neuer heard of words I will rather think all braines are exhausted than Nature 86