Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	earth_n	fire_n	nature_n	6,197	5	5.7514	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37239	The original, nature, and immortality of the soul a poem : with an introduction concerning humane knowledge / written by Sir John Davies ... ; with a prefatory account concerning the author and poem.; Nosce teipsum	Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626.; Tate, Nahum, 1652-1715.	1697 (1697)	Wing D405; ESTC R14959	39,660	143

err And ev'n against their false Reports decrees And oft she doth condemn what they prefer For with a Pow'r above the Sense she sees Therefore no Sense the precious Joys conceives Which in her private Contemplations be For then the ravish'd Spirit th' Senses leaves Hath her own Pow'rs and proper Actions free Her Harmonies are sweet and full of Skill When on the Body's Instruments she plays But the Proportions of the Wit and Will Those sweet Accords are even th' Angels Lays These Tunes of Reason are Amphion's Lyre Wherewith he did the Thebane City found These are the Notes wherewith the Heavenly Choir The Praise of him which made the Heav'n doth sound Then her self-being Nature shines in This That she performs her noblest Works alone The Work the Touch-Stone of the Nature is And by their Operations Things are known SECT II. That the Soul is more than a Perfection or Reflection of the Sense ARE they not senseless then that think the Soul Nought but a fine Perfection of the Sense Or of the Forms which Fancy doth inrol A quick Resulting and a Consequence What is it then that doth the Sense accuse Both of false Judgment and fond Appetites What makes us do what Sense doth most refuse Which oft in Torment of the Sense delights Sense thinks the Planets Spheres not much asunder What tells us then their Distance is so far Sense thinks the Lightning born before the Thunder What tells us then they both together are When Men seem Crows far off upon a Tow'r Sense saith they 're Crows What makes us think them Men When we in Agues think all sweet things sowre What makes us know our Tongue 's false Judgment then What Pow'r was that whereby Medea saw And well approv'd and prais'd the better Course When her rebellious Sense did so withdraw Her feeble Pow'rs that she pursu'd the worse Did Sense perswade Vlysses not to hear The Mermaid's Songs which so his Men did please That they were all perswaded through the Ear To quit the Ship and leap into the Seas Could any Pow'r of Sense the Roman move To burn his own Right Hand with Courage stout Could Sense make Marius sit unbound and prove The cruel Lancing of the knotty Gout Doubtless in Man there is a Nature found Beside the Senses and above them far Though most Men being in sensual Pleasures drown'd It seems their Souls but in their Senses are If we had nought but Sense then only they Should have sound Minds which have their Senses sound But Wisdom grows when Senses do decay And Folly most in quickest Sense is found If we had nought but Sense each living Wight Which we call Brute would be more sharp than we As having Sense's apprehensive Might In a more clear and excellent Degree But they do want that quick discoursing Pow'r Which doth in us the erring Sense correct Therefore the Bee did suck the painted Flow'r And Birds of Grapes the cunning Shadow peck'd Sense outsides knows the Soul through all things sees Sense Circumstance She doth the Substance view Sense sees the Bark but she the Life of Trees Sense hears the Sounds but she the Concords true But why do I the Soul and Sense divide When Sense is but a Pow'r which she extends Which being in divers parts diversify'd The divers Forms of Objects apprehends This Power spreads outward but the Root doth grow In th' inward Soul which only doth perceive For th' Eyes and Ears no more their Objects know Than Glasses know what Faces they receive For if we chance to fix our Thoughts elsewhere Though our Eyes open be we cannot see And if one Pow'r did not both see and hear Our Sights and Sounds would always double be Then is the Soul a Nature which contains The Pow'r of Sense within a greater Pow'r Which doth employ and use the Sense's Pains But sits and Rules within her private Bow'r SECT III. That the Soul is more than the Temperature of the Humours of the Body IF she doth then the subtile Sense excel How gross are they that drown her in the Blood Or in the Body's Humours temper'd well As if in them such high Perfection stood As if most Skill in that Musician were Which had the best and best tun'd Instrument As if the Pensil neat and Colours clear Had Pow'r to make the Painter excellent Why doth not Beauty then resine the Wit And good Complexion rectify the Will Why doth not Health bring Wisdom still with it Why doth not Sickness make Men brutish still Who can in Memory or Wit or Will Or Air or Fire or Earth or Water find What Alchymist can draw with all his Skill The Quintessence of these out of the Mind If th' Elements which have nor Life nor Sense Can breed in us so great a Pow'r as this Why give they not themselves like Excellence Or other things wherein their Mixture is If she were but the Body's Quality Then would she be with it sick maim'd and blind But we perceive where these Privations be An healthy perfect and sharp sighted Mind If she the Body's Nature did partake Her Strength would with the Body's Strength decay But when the Body's strongest Sinews slake Then is the Soul most active quick and gay If she were but the Body's Accident And her sole Being did in it subsist As White in Snow she might her self absent And in the Body's Substance not be miss'd But it on her not she on it depends For she the Body doth sustain and cherish Such secret Pow'rs of Life to it she lends That when they fail then doth the Body perish Since then the Soul works by her self alone Springs not from Sense nor Humours well agreeing Her Nature is peculiar and her own She is a Substance and a perfect Being SECT IV. That the Soul is a Spirit BVT though this Substance be the Root of Sense Sense knows her not which doth but Bodies know She is a Spirit and Heav'nly Influence Which from the Fountain of God's Spirit doth flow She is a Spirit yet not like Air or Wind Nor like the Spirits about the Heart or Brain Nor like those Spirits which Alchymists do find When they in ev'ry thing seek Gold in vain For she all Natures under Heav'n doth pass Being like those Spirits which God's bright Face do see Or like Himself whose Image once she was Though now alas she scarce his Shadow be For of all Forms she holds the first Degree That are to gross material Bodies knit Yet she her self is bodyless and free And though confin'd is almost infinite Were she a Body how could she remain Within this Body which is less than she Or how could she the World 's great Shape contain And in our narrow Breasts contained be All Bodies are confin'd within some place But she all Place within her self confines All Bodies have their Measure and their Space But who can draw the Soul 's dimensive Lines No Body can at once two Forms admit

And are astonish'd when they view the same Nor hath he giv'n these Blessings for a Day Nor made them on the Body's Life depend The Soul though made in Time survives for ay And though it hath Beginning sees no End SECT XXX That the Soul is Immortal proved by several Reasons HER only End is Never ending Bliss Which is the Eternal Face of GOD to see Who Last of Ends and First of Causes is And to do this she must Eternal be How senseless then and dead a Soul hath he Which thinks his Soul doth with his Body dye Or thinks not so but so would have it be That he might Sin with more Security For though these light and vicious Persons say Our Soul is but a Smoak or airy Blast Which during Life doth in our Nostrils play And when we die doth turn to Wind at last Although they say Come let us eat and drink Our Life is but a Spark which quickly dies Though thus they say they know not what to think But in their Minds ten thousand Doubts arise Therefore no Hereticks desire to spread Their light Opinions like these Epicures For so their stagg'ring Thoughts are comforted And other Men's Assent their Doubt assures Yet though these Men against their Conscience strive There are some Sparkles in their flinty Breasts Which cannot be extinct but still revive That though they would they cannot quite be Beasts But whoso makes a Mirror of his Mind And doth with Patience view himself therein His Soul's Eternity shall clearly find Though th' other Beauties be defac'd with Sin 1. Reason First in Man's Mind we find an Appetite To learn and know the Truth of ev'ry thing Which is co-natural and born with it And from the Essence of the Soul doth spring With this Desire she hath a native Might To find out ev'ry Truth if she had time Th' innumerable Effects to sort aright And by Degrees from Cause to Cause to climb But since our Life so fast away doth slide As doth an hungry Eagle through the Wind Or as a Ship transported with the Tide Which in their Passage leave no print behind Of which swift little Time so much we spend While some few things we through the Sense do strain That our short Race of Life is at an end E're we the Principles of Skill attain Or God who to vain Ends hath nothing done In vain this Appetite and Pow'r hath giv'n Or else our Knowledge which is here begun Hereafter must be perfected in Heav'n God never gave a Pow'r to one whole Kind But most part of that Kind did use the same Most Eyes have perfect Sight though some be blind Most Legs can nimbly run though some be lame But in this Life no Soul the Truth can know So perfecty as it hath Pow'r to do If then Perfection be not found below An higher place must make her mount thereto 2. Reason Again How can she but Immortal be When with the Motions of both Will and Wit She still aspireth to Eternity And never rests till she attain to it Water in Conduit-pipes can rise no higher Than the Well-head from whence it first doth spring Then since to Eternal GOD she doth aspire She cannot be but an Eternal Thing All moving things to other things do move Of the same kind which shews their Nature such So Earth falls down and Fire doth mount above Till both their proper Elements do touch And as the Moisture which the thirsty Earth Sucks from the Sea to fill her empty Veins From out her Womb at last doth take a Birth And runs a Nymph along the grassy Plains Long doth she stay as loth to leave the Land From whose soft Side she first did issue make She tasts all Places turns to ev'ry Hand Her flow'ry Banks unwilling to forsake Yet Nature so her Streams doth lead and carry As that her Course doth make no final stay Till she her self unto the Ocean marry Within whose watry Bosom first she lay Ev'n so the Soul which in this Earthly Mould The Spirit of God doth secretly infuse Because at first she doth the Earth behold And only this material World she views At first her Mother Earth she holdeth dear And doth embrace the World and worldly things She flies close by the Ground and hovers here And mounts not up with her Celestial Wings Yet under Heav'n she cannot light on Ought That with her heav'nly Nature doth agree She cannot rest she cannot fix her Thought She cannot is this World contented be For who did ever yet in Honour Wealth Or Pleasure of the Sense Contentment find Who ever ceas'd to wish when he had Health Or having Wisdom was not vex'd in Mind Then as a Bee which among Weeds doth fall Which seem sweet Flow'rs with lustre fresh and gay She lights on that and this and tasteth all But pleas'd with none doth rise and soar away So when the Soul finds here no true Content And like Noah's Dove can no sure Footing take She doth return from whence she first was sent And flies to him that first her Wings did make Wit seeking Truth from Cause to Cause ascends And never rests till it the first attain Will seeking Good finds many middle Ends But never stays till it the last do gain Now GOD the Truth and First of Causes is GOD is the last good End which lasteth still Being Alpha and Omega nam'd for this Alpha to Wit Omega to the Will Since then her heav'nly Kind she doth display In that to GOD she doth directly move And on no mortal thing can make her Stay She cannot be from hence but from above And yet this first true Cause and last good End She cannot here so well and truely see For this Perfection she must yet attend Till to her Maker she espoused be As a King's Daughter being in Person sought Of divers Princes who do neighbour near On none of them can fix a constant Thought Though she to all do lend a gentle Ear Yet can she love a foreign Emperor Whom of great Worth and Pow'r she hears to be If she be woo'd but by Ambassador Or but his Letters or his Pictures see For well she knows that when she shall be brought Into the Kingdom where her Spouse doth reign Her Eyes shall see what she conceiv'd in Thought Himself his State his Glory and his Train So while the Virgin-Soul on Earth doth stay She woo'd and tempted is ten thousand Ways By these great Pow'rs which on the Earth bear sway The Wisdom of the World Wealth Pleasure Praise With these sometimes she doth her Time beguile These do by fits her Fantasie possess But she distastes them all within a while And in the sweetest finds a Tediousness But if upon the World 's Almighty King She once doth fix her humble loving Thought Who by his Picture drawn in ev'ry thing And sacred Messages her Love hath sought Of him she thinks she cannot think too much This Honey tasted still is ever

which the World contains Then she of nothing must created be And to create to God alone pertains Again if Souls do other Souls beget 'T is by themselves or by the Bodies Pow'r If by themselves what doth their Working let But they might Souls engender ev'ry Hour If by the Body how can Wit and Will Join with the Body only in this Act Since when they do their other Works fulfil They from the Body do themselves abstract Again if Souls of Souls begotten were Into each other they should change and move And Change and Motion still Corruption bear How shall we then the Soul immortal prove If lastly Souls do Generation use Then should they spread incorruptible Seed What then becomes of that which they do lose When th' Acts of Generation do not speed And though the Soul could cast spiritual Seed Yet would she not because she never dies For mortal things desire their Like to breed That so they may their Kind immortalize Therefore the Angels Sons of God are nam'd And marry not nor are in Marriage giv'n Their Spirits and ours are of one Substance fram'd And have one Father ev'n the Lord of Heaven Who would at first that in each other thing The Earth and Water living Souls should breed But that Man's Soul whom he would make their King Should from himself immediately proceed And when he took the Woman from Man's side Doubtless himself inspir'd her Soul alone For 't is not said he did Man's Soul divide But took Flesh of his Flesh Bone of his Bone Lastly God being made Man for Man's own sake And being like Man in all except in Sin His Body from the Virgin 's Womb did take But all agree God form'd his Soul within Then is the Soul from God so Pagans say Which saw by Nature's Light her heavenly Kind Naming her Kin to God and God's bright Ray A Citizen of Heav'n to Earth confin'd But now I feel they pluck me by the Ear Whom my young Muse so boldly termed blind And crave more heav'nly Light that Cloud to clear Which makes them think God doth not make the Mind SECT VIII Reasons from Divinity GOd doubtless makes her and doth make her good And grafts her in the Body there to spring Which though it be corrupted Flesh and Blood Can no way to the Soul Corruption bring Yet is not God the Author of her Ill Though Author of her Being and being there And if we dare to judge our Maker's Will He can condemn us and himself can clear First God from infinite Eternity Decreed what hath been is or shall be done And was resolv'd that ev'ry Man should be And in his turn his Race of Life should run And so did purpose all the Souls to make That ever have been made or ever shall And that their Being they should only take In Humane Bodies or not be at all Was it then fit that such a weak Event Weakness it self the Sin and Fall of Man His Counsel's Execution should prevent Decreed and fix'd before the World began Or that one Penal Law by Adam broke Should make God break his own Eternal Law The settled Order of the World revoke And change all Forms of Things which he foresaw Could Eve's weak Hand extended to the Tree In sunder rend that Adamantine Chain Whose golden Links Effects and Causes be And which to God's own Chair doth fix'd remain O Could we see how Cause from Cause doth spring How mutually they link'd and folded are And hear how oft one disagreeing String The Harmony doth rather make than marr And view at once how Death by Sin is brought And how from Death a better Life doth rise How This God's Justice and his Mercy taught We this Decree would praise as right and wise But we that measure Times by First and Last The sight of things successively do take When God on all at once his View doth cast And of all Times doth but one Instant make All in Himself as in a Glass he sees For from him by him thrô him all things be His Sight is not discoursive by degrees But seeing the whole each single part doth see He looks on Adam as a Root or Well And on his Heirs as Branches and as Streams He sees all Men as one Man though they dwell In sundry Cities and in sundry Realms And as the Root and Branch are but one Tree And Well and Stream do but one River make So if the Root and Well corrupted be The Stream and Branch the same Corruption take So when the Root and Fountain of Mankind Did draw Corruption and God's Curse by Sin This was a Charge that all his Heirs did bind And all his Off-spring grew corrupt therein And as when th' Hand doth strike the Man offends For Part from whole Law severs not in this So Adam's Sin to the whole Kind extends For all their Natures are but part of his Therefore this Sin of Kind not personal But real and hereditary was The Guilt thereof and Punishment to all By Course of Nature and of Law doth pass For as that easie Law was giv'n to all To Ancestor and Heir to First and Last So was the first Transgression general And all did pluck the Fruit and all did taste Of this we find some Foot-steps in our Law Which doth her Root from God and Nature take Ten thousand Men she doth together draw And of them all one Corporation make Yet these and their Successors are but one And if they gain or lose their Liberties They harm or profit not themselves alone But such as in succeeding Times shall rise And so the Ancestor and all his Heirs Though they in number pass the Stars of Heav'n Are still but one his Forfeitures are theirs And unto them are his Advancements giv'n His Civil Acts do bind and bar them all And as from Adam all Corruption take So if the Father's Crime be capital In all the Blood Law doth Corruption make Is it then just with us to disinherit Th' unborn Nephews for the Father's Fault And to advance again for one Man's Merit A thousand Heirs that have deserved nought And is not God's Decree as just as ours If he for Adam's Sin his Sons deprive Of all those native Virtues and those Pow'rs Which he to him and to his Race did give For What is this contagious Sin of Kind But a Privation of that Grace within And of that great rich Dowry of the Mind Which all had had but for the first Man's Sin If then a Man on light Conditions gain A great Estate to him and his for ever If wilfully he forfeit it again Who doth bemoan his Heir or blame the Giver So though God make the Soul good rich and fair Yet when her Form is to the Body knit Which makes the Man which Man is Adam's Heir Justly forthwith he takes his Grace from it And then the Soul being first from Nothing brought When God's Grace fails her doth to Nothing fall And this