Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	air_n	fire_n	water_n	32,759	5	7.2266	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68615	The mirrour which flatters not Dedicated to their Maiesties of Great Britaine, by Le Sieur de la Serre, historiographer of France. Enriched with faire figures. Transcrib'd English from the French, by T.C. And devoted to the well-disposed readers.; Miroir qui ne flatte point. English	La Serre, M. de (Jean-Puget), ca. 1600-1665.; Cary, T. (Thomas), b. 1605 or 6.; Payne, John, d. 1647?, engraver.	1639 (1639)	STC 20490; ESTC S115329	108,868	275

much d●fference between the one and the other as between the sc●bberd and the sword Cleare streames of immortality remount then to your eternall source faire rayes of a Sunne without Eclipse rejoyne your selves then to the body of his celestiall light Perfect patternes of the divinity unite your selves then to it as to the independant cause of your Beeing Well may the Earth-quake under your feet your wils are Keys to the gates of its abysses should the Water or'e-whelme againe all your hopes cannot be shipwrack't That the Aire fils all things may bee but your expectations admit of some vacuum Though the Fire devoure all things the object of your hopes is above its flames let the heavens poure downe in a throng Although the puissaences of the soule worke not but by the senses the effects in this point are more noble then the cause their malignant influences here below your soules are under covert from their assaults Let the Sun exhaling vapours make thereof thunders for your ruine you are under the protection of him who ejaculates their flashes Man needs feare nothing being a●evated above a.l. insomuch that instead of hurting you all things doe you homage The Earth supports you the Water refresheth you the Aire imbreaths you the Fire warmes you Man could not be more happy then be is since God is his last felicity the Sun lights you Heaven attends you the Angels honour you the Divels feare you Nature obeyes you and God himselfe gives himselfe to you to obliege you to the like reciprocation Is not this to possesse with advancement all the felicities which you can hope I dare you to wish more A wake thy selfe then Reader and let thy conscience and thy miserie each in its turne serve thee as a Page every morning to put thee in mind That thou art a Man To dye is proper to man I meane a pourtraict animated with Death rather then with Life since thou canst doe nothing but dye but in this continuall dying amid the throng of evils and paines which are enjoyned to thy condition Consider also that thou art created to possesse an Eternity both of life and happinesse How happy is man thus to bee able to be as much as he desires and that all these infinite good things are exposed as an ayme of honour and glory to the addresses of thy will for if thou wilt Paradise shall bee thine though Hell gape at thee Heaven shall be thy share it's delights thy Succession and God alone thy Soveraigne felicity A PROLVSIVE upon the EMBLEME of the second Chapter SWell on unbounded Spirits whose vast hope Scornes the streight limits of all moderate scope Be Crescent still fix not i' th' Positive Graspe still at more reach the Superlative And beyond that too and beyond the Moone Yet al 's but vaine and you shall find too soone These great acquists are bubbles for a spurt And Death wil leave you nothing but your Shirt Be Richest Greatest Pow'rfullest and Split Fames Trumpet with the blast on 't there 's it That 's all a Coffin and a Sheet and then You 're dead and buried like to Common men This Saladine foresaw and wisely stoopes Unto his Fate ' midst his triumphant troopes A world of wealth and Asiaticke Spoyles Guerdon his glorious military toyles Ensignes and Banners shade his armyes Eyes With flying Colours of fled enemyes Yet humbly he doth his chiefe Standard reare Onely his Shirt displayd upon a Speare Meanewhile his valorous Colonels were clad In rich Coate-armours which they forced had From subdu'de foes and 't seem'd a glorious thing Each man to be apparreld like a King The very common Souldiers out-side spoke Commander now and did respect provoke Their former ornaments were cast aside Which 'fore the victory were al theirpride To check their Pompe with clang'ring trumpetsound A Herald loud proclaim 's in Tone profound See what the Emperour doth present your Eye 'T is all that you must looke for when you dye This Shirt is all even Saladine shall have Of all his Trophy's with him to the grave Then be not over-heightned with the splendour Of your rich braveries which you so much tender Nor let your honours puff you least you find The breath of Eame jade ye with broken wind This solemne passage of this Monarchs story VVith greatest luster doth advance his glory Victorious SALADINE caus'd to be Proclaim'd to all his Armie that he carried nothing with him to the Graue but a SHIRT after all his Conquests THE MIRROVR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. II. The horrour and misery of the grave makes the haire stand on end to the proudest ARrogant spirits ambitious Hearts be silent and lend an eare to the publicke cry of this Herald who with a voyce animated with horrour and affright as well as with compassion and truth proclaimeth aloud in the view of heaven and earth and in the presence of a world of people That this Great SALADINE magnificent Conquerour of Asia and Monarch of the whole East carryes away to the grave for fruit of his victories but onely a shirt which covers the mould of his body and even this scrap of linnen too Fortune leaves him but to give the wormes Absolute Kings puissant Soveraignes what will you reply to these discourses for to you they are addrest I doubt well that shame confusion and astonishment barre your speech This necessily of dying serves for temperament to the vanity of the greatest Monarchs of the world and that this sensible object of your proper miseries affects you so with ruth to force from your bosomes a thousand sighs The greatest Monarch of the earth becomes at a clap so little as not to be found no not in his miseries for the wind begins already to carry away the dust whereof hee was formed The powerfullest King of the world is reduc'd to such a point of weakenesse that he cannot resist the wormes after vanquishment and subjugation of entire Nations The richest Prince of the East takes a glory of all his treasures to carry away but onely a shirt to his Sepulture What can you answer to these verities This famous Saladine the terrour of men the valour of the earth and the wonder of the world Man cannot complaine of the world since at his death he gives him a shirt which at his birth his mother Nature refused him esteemes himselfe so happy and so advantaged by fortune in respect she leaves him this old ragge to cover his corruption that he makes this favour to be published with sound of trumpet in the midst of his Army that none might be in doubt on 't what beyond this can be your pretentions I grant you may be seated like Xerxes upon a Throne all of massie gold canopied with a glistering firmament of precious stones and that on what side somever you turne your menacing regards you see nothing but objects humbled before your Royall Majesties You never seate your selves

is no Tongue in Nature which can-furnish us with termes strong enough to expresse the miseries of Man that Man is of the race of the Gods yes surely since thy Gods are Gods of earth the cause is matcht to the effect for Man is of the same matter Plotinus thou also did'st not misse it when in favour of Man thou said'st he was an abridgement of the wonders of the world for since all it's wonders heretofore so famous are no more but dust and ashes Man may hereof be the example with good reason O how much more is expert David in the knowledge of our condition when he compares Man not onely to the Dust but to the Dust which flies away to show us that that little which he is still flies away till it be nothing in the end But how glad am I O Lord that I am but Dust to the end that I may flie towards heaven Memento homo quòd nihil es in nihilum reverteris for the earth I undervalew How I am satisfied that I am but Ashes that I may but be able to keepe in my soule some little sparkle of thy love What glory and what contentment too is it to be devoured by wormes since thou callest thy selfe a Worme gnaw O Lord gnaw both my heart and intrals Ego sum vermis non homo Psal 22.6 I offer thee them in prey and regive me new ones that may offend thee no more I know well that my life flits away by little and little but how agreeable is this flight unto me since thou art its object I see well that my Dayes slide away and passe in continuall course But O what consolation is it to be sensible of dying at all houres for to live eternally O Verities againe what ravishments have you to consolate the soules of the most afflicted I returne to my subject Humility is ever honoured by all the world Wee reade of the Priests of the Gentiles that they writ letters every yeere to their Gods upon the Ashes of the Sacrifices which they made upon the top of Mount Olympus and I beleeve that this was upon designe that they might thus be better received being written upon this paper of humility Let us fetch now some truth from this fancy All the parts of the body are as so many Characters of dust wherein may be read the truth of our nothingnesse Let us write every day to heaven upon the paper of our Ashes confessing that we are nothing else and let us make our sighs the faithfull messengers of these letters as the onely witnesses of our hearts I will hide my selfe under the Ashes O Lord to the end that thy Justice may not see me said David What Curtaine 's this This Soveraigne Justice which makes it bright day in hell cannot pierce the Ashes to find underneath a Sinner No Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himselfe I will not bring the evill in his dayes 1 Kings 21.29 no for this vaile has the vertue to reflect the beames of this revenging light within the source which produced them Remember that I am nothing O Lord and that thou hast made me of nothing Recordare quae so quòd sieut argillam feeisti me in pulveremreduces me Iob 10.9 and every moment canst reduce me to something lesse then nothing cryes out Iob in his miseries He finds no other invention to appease the mild choller of his God then putting him in mind of his infinite greatnesse and at the same time of the pitifull estate whereunto he is reduced Why should you take Armes against me O Lord pursues he when the breath of your word is able to undoe the same which it hath made me Humility triumphs over all things Remember O Remember that I am but what the benigne influence of your divine regards permits me to be for on the instant that you shall cease to regard me I shall cease to live Man remember thy beginning for thou art not made of Fire like the Starres nor of Ayre like the winds but of mire from whence it is thou soyl'st all the would Decke we then with Ashes our Body of Dust and let us cover with a new earth our owne to make Rampiers of proofe against the thunders of heaven See you not how its all-powerfull Justice finds limitation in the confession of our being nothing We need feare nothing acknowledging that we are nothing Well may the thunder make a horrid rumbling yet the Hyssope out-braves it in its lowlinesse He which can overcome himselfe shall never be vanquish't by a greater Captaine Feare and Humility ever abandon each others company The onely meanes to triumph over all things is to vanquish Ambition O Lord I durst scarce beleeve that I am if thy providence alone were not the Prop of my Being But since thy goodnesse hath drawne me from the Abysse of Nothing let thy grace cause me alwayes to keepe the remembrance of my originall Before Time was I was Nothing now Time is I am yet Nothing But what happinesse is it to be Nothing at all since thou art All-things for if I search my selfe in vaine in my selfe is it not sufficient that I am found in thee I will then forget even mine own name and muse of nothing but of the Chimera of my being since as a Chimera it passeth away and vanisheth The onely consolation What a joy is it to passe away continually with all things towards him that hath created all things that remaines me in my passage is that thou alone remainest firme and stable so that without end thou art the end of my carreere and without bounds limitest the extent of my course as the onely object both of my rest and felieity See me now upon returne With what and over to be adored lustre appeares the love of God in his day Heaven changes the sighs of the Earth into tears I meane its vapours into dew in the work of Man Would not one say that it seemes hee made him of earth that hee might strow thereon the seedes both of his blessings and graces O fortunate Earth which being diligently cultured may bring forth the fruits of eternall happinesse Boast thy selfe O Man to be Nothing but Earth Since we are of Earth let us suffer this divine Sun of Love to exhale the vapours of our si●hs for to me●amorphose them into the teares of Repentance since the heaven bedewes the Earth continually But if with a provoked eye it lancheth out sometimes its thunders upon it her selfe doth afford hereof the matter Live alwayes Innocent and thou shalt not know what 't is to feare Imploy thy selfe without cease to measure the depth of the Abysse of thy nothingnesse and though thou never pierce to the bottome hereof thy paines shall not be unprofitable because seeking thy selfe in thy basenesse thou shalt alwayes recover thy selfe againe much greater then thou art The Sunne this faire Planet

Mercurie Trimegistus that thou hast reason to publish that Man is a great miracle The magnificence of man hath neither bounds nor limits since God is his end since God himselfe hath been willing to espous● his condition to shew us in its mise●ries the miracles of his Love I confesse Pythagoras that thou hast had no lesse ground to maintain● that Man was a mortall God Though a man still fade away hee is yet a lively pourtray of immortallitie since except this sweet necessitie which sub●jects him to the Tombe hee has thousand qualities in him all immo●●tall I should finally have beene 〈◊〉 advise with thee Plato then when tho● preachedst every where that Ma● was of the race of the Gods since 〈◊〉 piece of work so rare and so perfect could not proceed but from a hand Omnipotent All the creatures are admirable as the effects of a soveraigne and independant cause but man has attributes of an unparalleld glory I meane this Rivelet of admiration could not proceed but from a source most adorable I am of thy opinion Plotinus henceforth will maintaine every where with thee that Man is an abridgement of the wonders of the world Since that all the Univers together was created but for his service pleasure Say we yet moreover that those wonders of the world so renowned are but the workes of his hands so that also the actions of his spirit can take their Rise above the Sun and beyond the heavens and this too now in the chaines of its servitude Great Kings Be it supposed that you are living pourtraits of Inconstancy Man flies away by little little from one part of himselfe shat hee may entirely into himselfe The perfection of your Nature lyes in this defect of your powers for this Vicissitude which God hath rendred inseparable to your condition is a pure grace of his bounty since you wax old onely that you may be exempted from the tyranny of Ages since I say you dye every moment only to make acquisition of that immortallity to which his love has destin'd you This defect of inconstrancie is the perfection of man since he ischangeable to day to bee no more so to morrow O happy Inconstancy if in changing without cease we approach the poin● of our soveraigne felicity whose foundations are immoveable O dear Vicissitude if row ling without intervall in the dust of our originall we approach by little and little to thos● Ages of glory which beyond a● time assigne at our End the beginnin● of a better Carreere O Gloriou● Death since terminated at that crue● instant A man is onely happy in the perpetuall inconstancie of his condition which separates us from Immortality It is true I confesse it againe Gre●● Kings that you are subject to all th● sad accidents of your subjects The greatest miserie that can arrive to a man is to offend God Bu● what happinesse is it if these misfo●tunes are as so many severall waye● which conduct you into the Port. B●● it granted that you are nothing b●● Corruption in your Birth Miserie 〈◊〉 your Life and a fresh infection 〈◊〉 many attributes of honour to yo●● since you disroabe your selves in t●● grave of all your noisomnesse for 〈◊〉 Decke your selves with the ornamen● of Grace of felicity and glory whi●● belong in proper to your soules as being created for the possession of all these Good Things Heaven ' Earth Nature the very Divels are admirers of the greatnesse of man Who can be able to dimension the greatnesse of Man since he who hath neither bounds nor limits would himselfe be the circumference of it Would you have some knowledge of Mans power heare the commandement which Iosuah made to the Sunne to stop in the middest of his carreere Would you have witnesses of his strength Samson presents you all the Philistins buried together under the ●uines of the Temple whose foundations he made to totter Require you some assurances of his courage Iob offers you as many as he has sores upon his body In fine desire you some proofes of his happinesse Heaven has sewer of Starres then of felicities to give him Man may bee whatsomever hee will be What name then shall we ●ttribute him now that may be capable to comprehend all his glory There ●s no other then this of Man and Pilate did very worthily no doubt to turne ●t into mockage before the Jewes Iohn 19.5 hee ●hews them a God under the visage of Ecce homo Behold the Man a Man Let the world also expose the miseries of Man in publicke The name Man is now much more noble than that of Angels His Image of Earth is yet animated with a divine spirit which can never change Nature Well may they teare his barke the Inmate of it is of proofe against the strokes of Fortune as well as the gripes of Death The Man of Earth may turne into Earth but the Man of heaven takes his flight alwayes into heaven With what new rinds some-ever a man hee covered he beares still in his sorehead the markes of his Creator That Man I say fickle and inconstant kneaded and shap't from durt with the water of his owne teares may resolve into the same matter But this stable and constant Man created by an omnipotent hand remaines uncessantly the same as incapable of alteration Rouse then your selves from sleepe great Princes Hee that would alwayes muse of Eternitie would without doubt acquire its glory not for to remember Death but rather to represent unto your selve● that you are immortall since Death hath no kind of Dominion over you● Soules which make the greatest as being the Noblest part of you Awake then great Monarchs not fo● to Muse of this necessity which drawe● you every houre to the Tombe bu● rather to consider that you may exempt your selves from it if your Actions be but as sacred as your Majesties Man ia a hidden treasure whose worth God onely knowes Great PRINCES Awake and permit mee once more to remembrance You that you are Men I meane the Master-pieces of the workes of God since this divine worke-Master hath in conclusion metamorphosed himselfe into his owne worke My feathered pen can fly no higher Man only is she ornament of the world Those which have propounded that Man was a new world have found out proportionable relations and great correspondencies of the one to the other for the Earth is found in the matter whereof hee is formed the Water in his ●eares the Aire in his sighes the Fire ●n his Love the Sunne in his reason ●nd the Heavens in his imaginations But the Earth subsists and he vanisheth 〈◊〉 Sweet vanishment since he is lost 〈◊〉 himselfe that he may bee found in is Creator But the Earth remaines ●●me and his dust flyes away O hap●y flight since eternity it it's aime The ●ater though it fleets away yet returns ●e same way

but for that time and as you are not the owners they take them away againe when they will and not when it pleaseth you So then I will have no Scepters for an houre nor no Crownes for a day If I have desire to raigne 't is beyond Time that I may thus be under shelter from the inconstancy of Ages Trouble not your selves to follow me This world is a Masse of mir● upon which a Man may make impresse of all sorts of Characters but not hinder Time to deface the draught at any time Ambitious Spirits faire leave have you to draw the Stell of your designes upon this ready prim'd cloth Some few yeeres wipe out all Some ages carry away all and the remembrance of your follyes is only immortall in your soules by the eternall regreet which remaines you of them SCIPIO made designe to conquer Carthage and after he had cast the project thereof upon mould he afterwards tooke the body of this shadow and saw the effect of his desires But may not one say that the Trophies of his valour have beene cast in rubbidge within that masse of durt whereof the world is composed since all the marks thereof are effaced Carthage it selfe though it never had life could not avoyd its Death Time hath buried it so deep under its owne ruines that we seeke in vaine the place of its Tombe I leave you to ruminate if its subduer were himselfe able to resist the assaults of this Tyrannie If ALEXANDER had sent his thoughts into heaven there to seeke a new world as well as his desires on earth there to find one he had not lost his time but as he did amuze himselfe to engrave the history of his ambition and triumphs upon the same masse of clay which he had conquered he writ upon water and all the characters on 't are defaced The Realmes which hee subdued There is more glory to despise the world then to conquer it for after its conquest a man knewes not what to doe with it have lost some of them their names and of this Triumpher there remaines us but the Idea as of a Dreame since men are ready to require Security even of his Memorie for the wonders which it preacheth to us of him May wee not then againe justly avow that of all the conditions to which a man may be advanced without the ayde of vertue either by nature or Fortune there is none more infortunate then to be to these a favorite nor any more miserable then to be a Great-one This inconstant Goddesse hath a thousand favours to lend All those who engage themselves to the service of fortune are ill payd and of this every day gives us experi●●●● but to give none but haltars poysons poniards and precipices 'T is a fine thing to see Hannibal begging his bread even in view of Scipio after he had cal'd into question the price of the worlds Empire-dome Is it not an object worthy of compassion to consider Nicias upon his knees before Gillippus to beg his owne and the Athenians lives after he had in a manner commanded the winds at Sea and Fortune ashore in a government soveraignly absolute Who will not have the same resentiments of pity reading the history of Crassus then whē by excesse of disaster he surviv'd both his glory reputation being constrained to assist at the funerals of his owne renowne All those who hound after fortune are well pleased to be deceived since her deceits are so well knowne and undergoe the hard conditions of his enemies attending death to free him from servitude Will you have no regreet to see enslav'd under the tyrannie of the Kings of Egypt the great Agesilaus whose valour was the onely wonder of his Time What will you say to the deplorable Fate of Cumenes to whom Fortune having offered so often Empires gives him nothing in the end but chaines so to dye in captivitie You see at what price Men have bought the favours of this Goddesse when many times the serenity of a happy life produceth the storme of an unfortunate Death You may judge also at the same time of what Nature are these heights of honour when often the Greatest at Sun-rise find themselves at the end of the Day the most miserable And suppose Fortune meddle not with 'em to what extremitie of miserie thinke you is a man reduc't at the houre of his departure All his Grandeurs though yet present are but as past felicities he enjoyes no more the goods which he possesses griefes only appertaine to him in proper and of what magnificences so'ere hee is environed this object showes him but the image of a funerall pompe I wonder not if rich men be afraid of death since to them it is more dreadfull then to any his bed already Emblemes the Sepulcher the sheets his winding linnen wherein he must be inveloped So that if he yet conceit himselfe Great 't is onely in misery Since all that hee sees heares touches smells and tasts sensibly perswades him nothing else Give Resurrection in your thoughts to great Alexander and then againe conceive him at last gaspe and now consider in this deplorable estate wherein hee finds himselfe involv'd upon his funerall couch to what can stead him all the grandeurs of his life past they being also past with it I grant that all the Earth be his Fortune sells every day the glory of the world to any that will but none but fooles are her chap-men yet you see how the little load of that of his body weighs so heavy on his soule that it is upon point to fall groveling under the burden I grant that all the glory of the world belong to him in proper hee enjoyes nothing but his miseries I yeeld moreover that all Mankind may be his subjects yet this absolute soveraignety is not exempt from the servitude of payne Be it that with the onely thunder of his voyce he makes the Earth to tremble yet he himselfe cannot hold from shaking at the noyse of his owne sighs I grant in fine that all the Kings of the world render him homage yet hee is still the tributary of Death O grandeurs since you fly away without cease Omnis motus tendit ad quietem what are you but a little wind and should I be an Idolater of a litle tossed Ayre and which only moves but to vanish to its repose O greatnesses since you doe but passe away what name should I give you but that of a dreame Alas why should I passe my life in your pursuite still dreaming after you O worldly greatnesses since you bid Adieu to all the world without being able to stay your selves one onely moment Adieu then your allurements have none for me your sweets are bitter to my taste and your pleasures afford me none I cannot runne after that which flyes Worldly Greatnesses are but childrens trifles every wise man despises them I can have no love for