Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	body_n	earth_n	element_n	7,308	5	10.1853	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09461	A salve for a sicke man. or, A treatise containing the nature, differences, and kindes of death as also the right manner of dying well. And it may serue for spirituall instruction to 1. Mariners when they goe to sea. 2. Souldiers when they goe to battell. 3. Women when they trauell of child.	Perkins, William, 1558-1602.	1611 (1611)	STC 19745; ESTC S105925	56,520	204

but that God in a newe regard and consideration may both will ordaine death namely as it is a due and deserued punishment tending to the execution of iustice in which iustice God is as good as in his mercie Againe it may be obiected that if death indeede had beene ordained of God then Adam should haue bin destroied that presently vpō his fal For the very words are thus Whēsoeuer thou shalt eat of the forbidden fruite thou shalt certenly die Ans. Sentences of scripture are either Legall or Euangelical the law the gospell beeing two seuerall and distinct parts of Gods word Now this former sentence is legall must be vnderstood with an exception borrowed from the Gospel or the couenāt of grace made with Adam and reuealed to him after his fall The exception is this Thou shalt certenly die whensoeuer thou eatest the forbidden fruite except I doe further giue thee a means of deliuerance from death namely the seede of the woman to bruise the serpents head Secondly it may be answered that Adam and all his posteritie died and that presently after his fall in that his bodie was made mortall and his soule became subiect to the curse of the law And whereas God would not vtterly destroy Adam at the very first but onely impose on him the beginnings of the first and second death he did the same in great wisedome that in his iustice he might make a way to mercie which thing could not haue beene if Adam had perished The executioner of this punishmēt is he that doth impose and inflict the same on man that also is God himselfe as he testifieth of himselfe in the prophet Esai I make peace and create euill Nowe euill is of three sorts naturall morall material Natural euill is the destruction of that order which God set in euery creature by the creation Moral euill is the want of that righteousnesse and vertue which the law requires at mans hands that is called sin Material euill is any matter or thing which in it selfe is a good creature of God yet so as by reasō of mans fall it is hurtful to the health life of man as henbane wolfe-bane hemlock all other poisons are Now this saying of Esai must not bee vnderstood of morall euils but of such as are either materiall or naturall to the latter of which death is to be referred which is the destruction or abolishment of mans nature created The procurer of death is man not God in that man by his sin and disobedience did pull vpon himselfe this punishment Therefore the Lord in Oseah O Israel one hath destroyed thee but in me is thine helpe Against this it may be obiected that mā was mortall in the estate of innocencie before the fall Answ. The frame and composition of mans body considered in it selfe was mortall because it was made of water earth other elements which are of thēselues alterable and changeable yet if we respect that grace and blessing which God did vouchsafe mans bodie in his creation it was vnchangeable and immortall and so by the same blessing should haue continued if man had not fallen and man by his fall depriuing himselfe of this gift and blessing became euery way mortall Thus it appeares in part what death is yet for the better clearing of this point we are to consider the difference of the death of a man and of a beast The death of a beast is the total and finall abolishment of the whole creature for the body is resolued to his first matter and the soule arising of the temperature of the bodie vanisheth to nothing But in the death of a man it is otherwise For though the bodie for a time bee resolued to dust yet must it rise againe in the last iudgement and become immortall and as for the soule it subsisteth by it selfe out of the body and is immortall And this being so it may be demaūded how the soule can die the second death Ans. The soule dies not because it is vtterly abolished but because it is as though it were not it ceaseth to be in respect of righteousnes and fellowship with God And indeede this is the death of all deaths when the creature hath subsisting and beeing and yet for all that is depriued of al cōfortable fellowship with God The reason of this difference is because the soule of man is a spirit or spirituall substance wheras the soule of a beast is no substance but a naturall vigour or qualitie and hath no being in itselfe without the bodie on which it wholy dependeth The soule of a man contrariwise being created of nothing breathed into the bodie and as well subsisting forth of it as in it The kindes of death are two as the kindes of life are bodily and spirituall Bodily death is nothing else but the separation of the soule from the body as bodily life is the conujnction of bodie and soule and this death is called the first because in respect of time it goes before the second Spiritual death is the separatiō of the whole man both in body and soule from the gratious fellowshippe of God Of these twaine the first is but an entrance to death and the second is the accomplishment of it For as the soule is the life of the body so God is the life of the soule and his spirit is the soule of our soules and the want of fellowship with him brings nothing but the endles and vnspeakable horrours and pangs of death Againe spirituall death hath three distinct and seuerall degrees The first is when a man that is aliue in respect of temporall life lies dead in sin Of this degree Paul speakes when hee saith But shee that liueth in pleasure is dead while shee liueth And this is the case of all men by nature who are children of wrath and dead in sinnes and trespasses The second degree is in the very end of this life whē the body is laide in the earth the soule descendes to the place of torments The third degree is in the day of iudgement when the body and soule meete againe and goe both to the place of the damned there to bee tormented for euer and euer Hauing thus found the nature and differences and kindes of death it is more then manifest that the text in hand is to be vnderstood not of the spiritual but of the bodily death because it is opposed to the birth or natiuitie of man The words then must cary this sense the time of bodily death in which the body and soule of man are seuered asunder is better then the time in which one is borne and brought into the world Thus much of the first point now followeth the secōd that is how this can be true which Salomon saith that the day of death is better then the day of birth I make not this question to call the scriptures into controuersie which are the

death and directly fixe the eye of his faith vpon eternall life The second practise is to looke vpon death in the glasse of the Gospel and not in the glasse of the Law that is we must consider death not as it is propounded in the Lawe and looke vpon that terrible face which the law giueth vnto it but as it is set forth in the Gospel Death in the law is a curse and the downe-fall to the pit of destruction in the Gospel it is the entrance into heauen the lawsets forth death as death the Gospel sets forth death as no death but as a sleepe onely because it speakes of death as it is altered changed by the death of Christ by the vertue whereof death is properly no death to the seruants of God Whē men shall haue care on this manner to consider of death it will be a notable meanes to strengthen and stablish them against al immoderate feares terrours that vsually rise in sicknesse The meditations which serue for this purpose are innumerable but I wil touch onely those which are the most principall and the grounds of the rest and they are foure in number The first is borrowed from the speciall prouidence of God namely that the death of euery man much more of euery childe of God is not onely foreseene but also foreappointed of God yea the death of euery man deserued and procured by his sins is laid vpon him by God who in that respect may be said to be the cause of euery mans death So saith Anna The Lord killeth and maketh aliue The Church of Hierusalem confessed that nothing came to passe in the death of Christ but that which the foreknowledge and eternal counsel of God had appointed And therfore the death also of euery member of Christ is foreseene and ordained by the speciall decree and prouidence of God I adde further that the very circūstances of death as the time when the place where the manner how the beginning of sickenes the continuance the end euery fitte in the sicknes the pangs of death are particularly set downe in the counsell of God The very haires of our heads are numbred saith our Sauiour Christ and a sparrowe lights not on the groūd without the will of our heauenly father Dauid faith excellētly My bones are not hid from thee though I was made in a secret place and fashioned beneath in the earth thine eyes did see me when I was without forme for in thy booke were al things written which in continuance were fashioned whē there was nine of them before And he praies to God to put his teares into his bottle Now if this be true that God hath bottles for the very teares of his seruants much more hath hee bottles for their blood much more doth he respect and regard their paines and miseries with all the circumstances of sicknesse and death The carefull meditation of this one point is a notable meanes to arme vs against feare and distrust impatience in the time of death as some examples in this case will easily manifest I held my tongue said nothing saith Dauid but what was it that caused this patience in him the cause followes in these words because thou Lord diddest it And Ioseph saith to his brethren Feare not for it was the Lord that sent me before you Marke here how Ioseph is armed against impatience and griefe discontentment by the very consideration of gods prouidence and so in the same māner shall we be cōfirmed against all feares and sorrowes and say with Dauid Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints if this perswasion be once setled in our hearts that all things in sicknes death come to passe vnto vs by the prouidence of god who turnes all things to the good of them that loue him The second meditation is to be borrowed from the excellent promise that God hath made to the death of the righteous which is Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them The author of truth that cannot lie hath spoken it Now then let a man but throughly consider this that death ioyned with a reformed life hath a promise of blessednes adioined vnto it and it alone will be a sufficient meanes to stay the rage of our affections and al inordinate feare of death and the rather if we marke wherein this blessednesse consists In death we are indeede thrust out of our olde dwelling places namely these houses of clay earthly tabernacles of our bodies wherein we haue made long abode but what is the ende surely that liuing dying in Christ we might haue a building giuen of God that is an house not made with hands but eternall in heauen which is vnspeakeable immortall glory If a poore man should bee commanded by a Prince to put off his torne and beggery garments and in stead thereof to put on royal and costly robes it would bee a great reioycing to his heart oh then what ioyfull newes must this bee vnto all repentant and sorrowfull sinners when the king of heauen and earth comes vnto thē by death and bids them lay downe their bodies as ragged and patched garments and prepare thēselues to put on the princely robe of immortalitie No tongue can be able to expresse the excellency of this most blessed and happy estate The third meditation is borrowed from the estate of all thē that are in Christ whether liuing or dying He that dieth beleeuing in Christ dieth not forth of Christ but in him hauing both his body and soule really coupled to Christ according to the tenour of the couenant of grace and though after death body soule be seuered one from another yet neither of thē are seuered or disioyned from Christ. The coniunction which is once begun in this life remaines eternally And therefore though the soule goe from the body the body it selfe rot in the graue yet both are still in Christ both in the couenant both in the fauour of god as before death both shal again be ioined togither the body by the vertu of the former cōiunctiō being raised to eternall life Indeed if this vniō with Christ were dissolued as the cōiunctiō of body soule is it might be sōe matter of discomfort and feare but the foundation and substance of our mysticall coniunction with Christ both in respect of our bodies and soules enduring for euer must needes be a matter of exceeding ioy and comfort The 4. meditation is that god hath promised his speciall blessed and comfortable presence vnto his seruants when they are sicke or dying or any way distressed When thou passest thorough the waters I will bee with thee saith the Lord and through the flouds that they doe not ouerflowe thee when thou walkest thorough the very fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the