Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	afraid_a	die_v	zion_n	23	3	9.8355	5	false

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

noting his errour It is not your Hen that is lost but your Citie Roma that is taken by Alaricus King of the Gothes Wherewith comming a little to himselfe he seemed to beare with much more pa●ience the surprize of the one than the losse of the other O childish simplicity you say well yet the like is in us We cannot endure that any one should steale from us our silver yet either honour riches or pleasure may have free leave to steale away our heart We would by no meanes be defrauded of our treasure yet it troubles us little to be depraved with errour We avoid the poisons of the body but not of the minde intending more the diet of the body than the discipline of the minde Since then in these externall desires this Actuall Perfection whereof we have formerly treated may receive no true rest or repose for to those it only aspireth wherin it resteth wee must search higher for this place of peace this repose of rest this heavenly Harbour of divine comfort we are to seeke it then while we are here upon earth yet not on earth would you know what this soveraigne or absolute end is wherein this Actuall Perfection solely resteth wherein the Heart only glorieth and to the receiver long life with comfort in abundance amply promiseth Hearken to the words of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach It is a great glory to follow the Lord and to be received of him is long life Nor skils it much how worldlings esteeme of us for perhaps they will judge it folly to see us become weaned from delights or pleasures of the world to see us embrace a rigorous or austere course of life to dis-esteem the pompe and port of this present world This I say they will account foolishnesse But blessed are they who deserve to be of that number which the world accounts for fooles God for wise men But miserable is the state of these forlorne worldlings whose chiefest aime is to circumvent or intrap their brethren making their highest aymes their owne ends and accounting bread eaten in secret to be the savourest and stolne waters the sweetest for these never drinke of their own Cisterne or feed of the flesh of their owne fold but partake in the spoile of others yet wipe their mouths as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes-man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but be fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no worldly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched only through feare lest they should be wretched and many die only through feare lest they should die but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of Gods mercie How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to God right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable Patte●nes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost he said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost those threescore and ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when he was readie to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith he that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because we have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer He yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one we love and with whom we did familiarly live calls to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly doe griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to be eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our eares any more and certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but be an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the Heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchres of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortalitie which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to be understood that Christians doe contemne this world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of

enterludes boasting of young Ladies favours glorying more in the purchase of a glove than a Captaine in the surprizall of a Fort Have yee cashiered all those Companions of death those seducing Consorts of misery and betaken your selves to the acquaintance of good men conceiving a setled joy in their society O then thrice happy you for having honoured God he will honour you having repaired the ruines of Sion he will place you in his heavenly Sion or engaged your lives for the testimony of a good Conscience hee will invite you to that Continuall feast of a peaceable Conscience or fought the Lords battell hee will say you have fought a good fight crowning you after your victory on earth with glory in heaven or shut the doore of your Chamber and kept the roome cleane and sweet for your Maker he will come in and sup with you that you may rejoyce together or made a covenant with your eyes not to look after the strange woman with those eyes yee shall hehold him who put enmitie between the Serpent and the Woman or weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting Out-landish fashions madding after phantasticke habits for stuffe it skils not whether silken or woollen so the fashion be civill and not wanton you shal be cloathed in long white roabes and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth or done with your mid-night revels and Court pleasures you shall be filled with the pleasures of the Lords house and abide in his Courts for ever or left frequenting Maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes the glorious Spectacles of vanity you shall be admitted to those angelicall triumphs singing heavenly Hymnes to the God of glory or cashier'd those companions of death whose end is misery you shall have the Saints for your companions and share with them in the Covenant of mercy Doe yee not hence observe what inestimable comforts are reserved for those who are truly mortified mortified I say in respect of your contempt to the world which is expressed by ceasing to love it before you leave it Who would not then disvalue this life and all those bitter sweets which this fraile life affordeth to possesse those incomparable sweets which every faithfull soule enjoyeth Yea but our silken worldling or delicate Wormeling will object this discipline is too strict for flesh and bloud to follow Who can endure to yeeld his head to the blocke or his body to the faggot when the very sight of death in another ministers to the beholder motives of terror Surely this is nothing to him that duely considereth how hee that loseth his life shall save it but he that saveth his life shall lose it What is a minutes anguish to an eternity of solace Wee can endure the launcing or searing of a putrified member and this endures as long as our time of wrastling with our Dissolution which brings us to our Saviour nor skils it much what kinde of death wee die seeing no kinde of death can hurt the righteous be the terrors and torments of death never so numerous The way then to contemne death is to expect it and so to prepare our selves for it as if we were this very houre to encounter it resolving never to goe with that conscience to our bed with which we durst not goe to our grave being so uncertaine whether before the next morne wee shall be taken out of our bed and shrouded for our grave And this shall suffice touching our Mortification or Contempt of life if with such a sacrifice wee may be thought worthy to honour him who gave us life We are now to speake of Mortification in respect of name or report wherein you are to understand that this is two-fold First in turning our eares from such as praise us Secondly in hearing with patience such as revile us For the first it is and hath beene ever the condition of sober and discreet men to avert their eare from their owne praises at least with a modest passing over such vertues as were commendable in them which modesty appeared in Alphonsus Prince of Aragons answer to an Orator who having repeated a long Panegyricall oration in his praise replied If that thou hast said consent with truth I thanke God for it if not I pray God grant me grace that I may doe it Others likewise we reade of who could not with patience endure their persons or actions to be praised above truth this princely passion appeared in Alexander who hearing Aristobulus a famous Greek Historian read his writings purposely penned upon the memorable acts he had atchieved wherein he commended him farre above truth being mightily incensed therewith threw the booke into the river as he was sailing over Hydaspes saying withall he was almost moved to send Aristobulus after Neither indeed will any wise man endure to heare himselfe praised above truth seeing no lesse aspersion may be laid on his person by being too highly praised than if he were discommended for should we praise one for his bountie who is publikely knowne to the world to be par●●monious or for his humility who is naturally ambitious or for his continencie who is licentious our praises would not tend so much to his honour as to the display of his nature yea even he himselfe guilty in himselfe would tax us knowing that he the least of all others deserved these praises from us It is flattery saith one to praise in absence that is when either the vertue is absent or the occasion is absent But in the report of our owne praise admit wee should deserve it the safest course is to withdraw our eare from hearing it lest vain-glory transport us upon hearing of those praises which are spoken of us for if our aymes be only to purchase popular esteeme preferring the praise of men before the praise of God or the testimony of a good conscience as our aymes were perverted so shall we be rewarded Now there is no better means to abate or extenuate this desire of praise in us than duly to consider whose gifts they be that deserve this praise in us for were they our owne we might more properly be praised for them but they are Gods and not ours therefore is the praise to be ascribed unto God and not unto us For hee that would be praised for Gods gift and seeketh not Gods glory but his owne in that gift though he be praised by men for Gods gift yet is he dispraised by God for not seeking Gods glory but his owne for this gift and he who is praised by men God dispraising shall not be defended by men God judging nor be delivered God condemning Whereas hee that loveth God will chuse rather to be deprived of all future glory than detract by any meanes from God the Author of all glory Let us then so avert our eare from selfe-praise or ought else that may beget in us vain-glory or ostentation that we may become like unto him who dis-esteemed all