Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	element_n	fire_n	13,062	5	7.1789	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16657	The English gentleman containing sundry excellent rules or exquisite observations, tending to direction of every gentleman, of selecter ranke and qualitie; how to demeane or accommodate himselfe in the manage of publike or private affaires. By Richard Brathwait Esq.	Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1630 (1630)	STC 3563; ESTC S104636	349,718	488

Serpent or some brute beast and this it knew but it would not for thy goodnesse sake This it was which forced from that devout and zealous Father this emphaticall discourse or intercourse rather with God who upon a time walking in his garden and beholding a little worme creeping and crawling upon the ground presently used these words Deare Lord thou might'st have made me like this Worme a crawling despicable creature but thou would'st not and it was thy mercy that thou would'st not O as thou has● ennobled me with the Image of thy selfe make me conformable to thy self that of a worm I may become an angel of a vassall of sin a vessell of Sion of a shell of corruption a Star of glory in thy heavenly mansion And in truth there is nothing which may move us to a more serious consideration of Gods gracious affection towards us than the very image which we carry about us preferring us not only before all the rest of his creatures in soveraignty and dominion but also in an amiable similitude feature and proportion whereby we become not only equall but even superiour unto Angells because Man was God and God Man and no Angell To whom are wee then to make recourse to as the Author of our Creation save God whose hand hath made and fashioned us whose grace hath ever since directed and prevented us and whose continued love for whom he loveth he loveth unto the end hath ever extended it selfe in ample manner towards us How frivolous then and ridiculous were their opinions who ascribed the Creation of all things to the Elements as Anaximenes to the piercing Aire Hippeas to the fleeting Water Zeno to the purifying Fire Zenophanes to the lumpish Earth How miserably were these blinded and how notably evinced by that learned Father who speaking in the persons of all these Elements and of all other his good creatures proceedeth in this sort I tooke my compasse saith he speaking to God in the survey of all things seeking thee and for all things relinquishing my selfe I asked the Earth if it were my god and it said unto me that it was not and all things in it confessed the same I asked the Sea and the depths and the creeping things in them and they answered we are not thy god seeke him above us I asked the breathing Aire and the whole Aire with all the inhabitants thereof made answer Anaximenes is deceived I am not thy God I asked the Heaven Sun Moone and Stars neither are wee thy god answered they And I spake to all these who stand about the gates of my flesh tell me what you know concerning my god tell mee something of him and they cryed out with a great voice He made us Then I asked the whole Frame and fabricke of this World tell me if thou be my god and it answered with a strong voyce I am not said it but by him I am whom thou seekest in mee hee it was that made mee seeke him above me who governeth me who made me The interrogation of the creatures is the profound consideration of them and their answer the witnesse they beare of God because all things cry God hath made us for as the Apostle saith the invisible things of God are visibly to be understood by those things which are made by the creatures of the world Thus wee understand the Author of our Creation of whom seriously to meditate and with due reverence to contemplate is to die to all earthly cogitations which delude the sinne-belulled soule with extravagancies And let this suffice for the first Memoriall or Consideration to wit who it was that made us we are now to descend to the second particular which is for what end he made us He who rested not till he had composed and disposed in an absolute order of this Vniverse proposed us an example that we should imitate So long as we are Pilgrims here on earth so long as we are Sojourners in this world wee may not enjoy our spirituall Sabbath wee may stay a little and breath under the Crosse after the example of our best Master but rest wee may not For what end then did he make us That we might live such lives as may please him and die such deaths as may praise him lives blamelesse and unreproveable lives sanctified throughout pure without blemish fruitfull in example plentifull in all holy duties and exercised in the workes of charitie that he who begetteth in us both the Will and the Worke may present us blamelesse at his comming Now that our lives may become acceptable unto him to whose glory they ought to be directed we are in this Taberna●le of clay to addresse our selves to those studies exercises and labours which may benefit the Church or Common-weale ministring matter unto others of imitation to our soules of consolation and in both to Gods name of glorification Wherein appeareth a maine difference betwixt the Contemplative and Active part for sufficient it is not to know acknowledge and confesse the divine Majesty to dispute or reason upon high points touching the blessed Trinitie to be rapt up to the third heaven as it were by the wings of Contemplation but to addresse our selves to an actuall performance of such offices and peculiar duties as we are expresly injoyned by the divine Law of God Our Lord in the Gospell when the woman said Blessed is the wombe that bare thee and the brests that gave thee sucke Answered Yea rather blessed are they that heare the word of God and keepe it And when one of the Iewes told him that his mother and brethren stood without desiring to speake with him He answered and said unto him that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren And stretching forth his hand toward his Disciples he said Behold my mother and my brethren For whosoever shall doe the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother It is not knowledge then but practice which presents us blamelesse before God Therefore are we exhorted to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Not to idle out our time in the market-place as such who make their life a repose or cessation from all labours studies or vertuous intendments Of which sort those are and too many of those there are who advanced to great fortunes by their provident Ancestors imagine it a Taske worthy men of their places to passe their time in pastime and imploy their dayes in an infinite consumption of mis-spent houres for which they must be accomptants in that great Assize where neither greatnesse shall be a subt●●●●g to guiltinesse nor their descent plead privilege for those many houres they have mis-spent O how can they answer for so many vaine and fruitlesse pleasures which they have enjoyed and with all greedinesse embraced in this life Many they shall have to witnesse against them none to