Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	life_n	old_a	5,148	5	5.6715	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29306	A discourse upon the nature of eternitie, and the condition of a separated soule, according to the grounds of reason, and principles of Christian religion by William Brent, of Grayes Inne, Esquire ...	Brent, William, d. 1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing B4363; ESTC R16167	33,158	108

yet found out the way of fixing Mercury which is the caus they fail in their attempts of making gold notwithstanding the many laborious and chargeable experiments have beene used for the effecting of it and all that have endeavoured to establish their contentment in the perishable goods of this inferiour world have found themselves deluded by their hopes because they were not able to fixe the fleeting instants of the present time whose continuall motion is of all other things most destructive unto the happinesse of life What an uncomfortable voyage would that man have who were bound out in quest of some particular wave i' th middest of the Atlanticke Ocean how improbable that hee should make discovery of what hee sought for and how impossible to settle there considering the perpetuall agitation of the waters in that restlesse Element And yet such is the fatall blindnesse which possesseth the greatest part of humane kind that wee consume our lives in seeking to find out a permanent blisse amid the various diversity of worldly things though all our predecessors for above fifty ages past who have preceded us in that designe have perished in it without being able to informe us any thing save onely this that they have met with nothing in their severall wandrings but vanity nor reaped ought but the vexation of their spirits and that times course as certain though not so rapid as that of the Ocean faileth not to ravish from us all those pleasing objects in the pursuit of which wee entertaine our lives and fancy in the obtaining of them a contentment which is no where to bee found but in the happy region of Eternity That harmelesse innocence which is the precious treasure of our Childhood is violently snatched from us by the heat of youth that inconsiderately ingageth us to seeke contentment in satisfaction of our lustfull appetites and when the accesse of yeares and judgement at mans estate hath made us see the vanity of that employment ambition pride and covetousnesse present us with the specious baits of honour power and riches and traine us by those sweet allurements from contemplation of Eternity to employ the strength and vigour of our age in purchase of them as if they could bestow true happinesse on their possessors untill at last if death prevent us not before wee finde our selves arrived at the utmost period of life old age where though experience discover to us the true nature of those transitory things wee first admired yet we can reape no other fruit of all her counsels but only sorrow and dispaire when we consider the grosnesse of our errours and miscarriages for the time past and the impossibility of amending them in that to come And hence it is the royall Prophet David takes occasion to reproach mankind of dulnesse and heavinesse of heart that forsaking the onely necessary thought and study of Eternity give themselves over unto the love of vanity and the pursuit of lies filii hominum usque quo gravi corde ut quid diligitis vanitatem et quaeritis mendacium as who should say you sons of men how long will you permit your hearts and your affections to bee waighed downe by the inordinate sollitude for earthly things behold the pleasures which you love and court for satisfaction of your youth are onely vanity and those more sollid imployments you search after for the entertainment of your elder yeares are but a lie promising contentment and giving nought but care vexation and repentance If Julius Caesar could have foreseene that all his victories and triumphs whereby hee subjected unto himselfe the Roman State That proud mistresse of the knowne world would but have served to make him fall a glorious victime in the Senate house hee had not prosecuted certainly with so much ardour as hee did the cutting off all those who opposed themselves to the accomplishment of his ambitious designes King Pirrhus had sure followed the councell of his friend and betaken himselfe unto the quiet pleasures of a peacefull life had he beene well informed that all his thoughts of conquests and the inlargment of his Empire should perish together with himselfe by the hands of a weake woman in the attempt hee made to surprise the Citty Argos Saladine that great victorious Sultan of the East would not have spent his life amid the toile and dangers that attend a martiall employment had he but thought at first as hee did afterwards at the houre of death that hee should carry nothing of all the spoiles and riches hee had gotten away with him but onely a poore shirt to shroud his carkasse The rich man in the Gospell would not have joyed in his full barnes and store houses sufficient for the expence of many yeares had hee but knowne that hee should never live to see the birth of the succeeding morne In fine the businesse of the world would cease and we should looke with horror and aversion upon those gilded follies and pleasing vanities in quest whereof wee spend our lives disturbe the Elements and alter the whole frame of nature were but their maske pulled off and wee made sensible of that which is confirmed unto us by the experience of all our predecessors to wit that there is nothing in this inferiour world can give a satisfaction to our soule whose frame is equall unto that of the celestiall spirits and that allthough by an excesse of bestiallity wee could so plunge our soules into the masse of our terrestiall bodies as to set up our rests upon the enjoyment of those things which are the object of our senses yet age and sicknesse would like unbidden guests trouble the mirth of all our entertainments and time the absolute commander of all sublunary things consuming by degrees the matter of them would violently snatch us from their embraces and put in execution that irrevocable decree pronounced by God against materiall things to wit that whatsoever is composed of dust and ashes shall againe returne unto it So that if wee examine the true cause of things wee must conclude that the ill conduct of our lives and all the miseries vices and disorders that flow from thence are an effect of the continuall motion of time which representing unto us these exteriour objects under severall disguises keeps us from penetrating into the true Nature of them and suggesting to our deluded mindes vaine hopes and feares doth by those false alarmes disturbe our reason and brings upon us a forgetfullnesse of what is past a mistake of what is present and a grosse negligence in not providing of our selves for what 's to come For remedy heereof antiquity was used to set up trophies and monuments of all great and vertuous actions as also to expose the bodies of Malefactors who were executed unto the publicke view on poles or gibbets that so posterity being put in minde of what had past might be invited to imitate the one and avoid the other King Phillip Father of the great Alexander gave

command unto a Page of his to wake him dayly with this admonition that hee should call to minde hee was a man fearing lest hee might otherwise bee transported by the false lustre of his greatnesse and prosperities as to mistake which his Sonn after did what himselfe was and forget the condition of humanity wherein hee had beene placed by God and Nature And the great Doctor of the Church Saint Jerome thinkes it a matter of that consequence for us to imploy our selves in the consideration of what is future that hee assures us confidently by warrant of the sacred Scripture wee should never sin did wee but carefully ruminate on the last things that doe attend us Memorare novissima tua et in aeternum non peccabis See here the true condition of our being during the succession of time Let us now alter the Scene and from this theater of confusion and disorder raise up our thoughts unto the contemplation of Eternity It is an instant alwayes present never decaying whose infinity comprehends all times past present and to come and whose simplicity presenting us at once with whatsoever can be good or perfect united in their first cause whereof unlesse our sinns debar us from his sight the Divine Nature wee shall be then made glad beholders cleares up the foggy mists of ignorance of forgetfullnesse and of mistake which hang betweene our understandings and the truth of things fills all the powers and faculties of our soules with the enjoyment of their desired objects and doth establish us in the secure possession of our blisse beyond the reach of fortune or of time which shall not there have power to traverse our contentments with the desire of ought that 's past or the apprehension of ought to come When we have once maturely waighed these sollid truths wee shall begin to loath this prison of our bodies subject to the perpetuall injuries of time and death and shall cry out with the Apostle Infaelix ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus unhappy man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body which belongs to death and with the same Apostle fixing all our affections and thoughts upon Eternity wee shall continually desire to bee dissolved that we may live with Christ in his Eternall habitation and when wee shall receive the summons to dislodge hence brought us by age diseases war famine pestilence or any other officer of time clad in the hideousest dresse that death can weare wee shall with joy prepare our selves unto the journey and with the Prophet David say Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum domini ibimus I am rejoyced in that which hath beene said unto me we will goe into the house of the Lord It seemes being a man according unto Gods owne heart hee had well studied the Nature of that celestiall mansion whose quallities hee doth so excellenty describe in the 2 following verses Stantes erant pedes nostri in atriis tuis Jerusalem Jerusalem quae aedificatur ut civitas cujus participatio ejus in idipsum Our feete were standing in thy Courts Jerusalem Here they are running forced to accompany the motion of time but they shall there be fixed in an Eternal rest never to bee disturbed by time or fortune Jerusalem that is builded as a City whose portion consisteth in the thing it selfe All other places are but Innes where we are entertained as passengers during our pilgrimage and therfore have their buildings subject as are those they harbour unto decay and ruine but this City being the permanent place of our aboade hath its foundations laid upon the never fading basis of Eternity And if you aske what is the stocke or treasure of the inhabitants in that blessed country he forth with tells us that their portion consisteth in the thing it selfe what is the thing it selfe but that which is without dependance upon any other and what is that but hee who being to declare himselfe unto the Patriarch Moses saith hee is hee that is even God himselfe in whom is comprehended the fulnesse of all things and without whom is nothing but the privation of good and happinesse Let us endeavour then so to comport our selves that wee bee not engaged amid these fading transitory things but may bee able to say with the Apostle our life is laid up with Christ in God and let our onely trafficke and negotiation be to hoord up treasures according to the counsell of our blessed Lord and Saviour where neither rust nor mothes can come to wast them nor thieves breake in to steale them from us Wee neede not be to seeke where that should bee since hee informeth us that t is in Heaven the onely proper seat and mansion of Eternity In the precedent discourse I have endeavoured to describe although imperfectly the Nature and condition of Eternity which is the true and proper habitation of our soules who have no commerce with time but onely by their union with our bodies A blessed country but such a one as doth not equally agree with all constitutions to some it is an Ocean of pleasure rest and happiness to others an abisse of everlasting horrour trouble and confusion the reason of which difference proceedes from the diversity of those severall dispositions and affections wee carry with us at our parting hence For the cleare understanding whereof it is necessary that wee consider the Nature of our Soules and examine what are those things which subsist in and together with them after the dissolution of our bodies The Heathen Philosophers guided only by the light of nature did some of them believe the soule of man to bee immortall they perceived well that shee was capable of many operations even in this life without the mediation of the bodie that shee gave a being within her selfe unto an infinite number of thinges abstracted from the severall notions of time place figure or any other property incident unto materiall things which kinde of being because it sorted not unto the things themselves in their owne Nature they must necessarily receive from her and they did thence inferr that shee could not communicate such a being unto them unlesse shee had an immateriall being in her selfe They saw the act of judging was an action purely her own whereby she produced severall conclusions which are new beings out of those premises that present themselves to our imaginations and knowing the infallibility of this argument ex nihilo nihil fit that of nothing there comes nothing they were fully satisfied the soule had a being independant from the body since it was able to communicate a being unto other things without the helpe of any Organes which depend upon her From the assurance of her being they collected also her immortallity for having by the strict observation of all naturall causes found out that nothing whatsoever could lose its former being and acquire a new one which wee terme death