Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A55636
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The life of the blessed St. Agnes virgin and martyr in prose and verse / by L. Sherling.
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Sherling, L.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing P3179; ESTC R25817
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41,432
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135
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How his hard fate oppos'd his sweet intent For a warm Mistress a cold Monument Hot Devils must caress our Paramour Hot as his lust nor then his flames more pure His lust could ne're with the Chast Saint agree As Heaven and Hell have their Antipathy How safely may the Saint her foes despise The Devil himself destroys her Enemies Lust and Devil do the Saint surround Enclos'd her goodness does the more abound Incompas'd with a Stew she Chaster is Christians have their Antiperistasis THe Lady continued in her Devotion and the People out of respect to the Young Symphronius ceased their Incivilities and seeing him stay somthing long within imagined he was about his pleasures and therefore entered not in for a considerable time But at last seeing he came not out suspecting by the success of the former Intruders that the fair Witch for they could not allow any better Title might have kil'd him they rush'd in and found the poor Lover cold and pale upon the Ground and immediately cried out the Sorceress hath kil'd the Son of the Governour they all pursued to the Stake with her to revenge the Gods and the Governour This lamentable news presently arrived at the Governours ears who half Distracted at it run furiously to the Stew and approaching the Holy Agnes Dam'd Sorceress cried he out why shouldst thou destroy a Person whose only fault was his too well loving thee Is this your Christian Conscience And could his Affection render him so great a Criminel Ah! cruel ungrateful Woman He was going on when the good Lady extreamly afflicted too hear her Innocence abus'd so No Sir she cried out and interrupted him I did not kill your Son but that Master he serv'd the Devil Blast not my Innocence but impute the Death of your Symphronius to him that was the cause of it No cruel one said he impatiently thy Sorceries have produc'd it and rob'd me of the greatest comfort I had in the world But why for Heavens sake did'st thou spare the rest that came into the Chamber to thee and only destine my poor Boy to so severe a Punishment The rest said the Lady came not upon so bad a Design as thy Son did and the just God would seperate the guitly from the Innocent Thou lyest said the enrag'd Father He was not guilty he was Good and Innocent and thou art the only Criminel or if thou wilt clear thy Innnocence and shew what thy God can do of whose power you talke of so much give me my Son alive again and I will pronounce thee guiltless Christians talk much of Mercy and Compassion shew us now a Proof of it and succour the most miserable Father that ever breath'd Though your Infidelity deserve it not answer'd the Holy Saint yet to shew the power and mercy of my dear Saviour I will beg his Life and doubt not but my Praiers shall restore him But think not Governour of Rome that I do this to oblige thee to rescue me No my Piety shall not be so mercinary It troubles me that that fatal Love which your Son conceived for me should render him guilty of such a Vilanie and then deliver him up to be strangled by the hands of the Devil and though I did not willingy produce that guilty Flame and though I caused it was the Innocent cause of it yet I would have procured him his Libertie by any other means then leaving my blessed Saviour and violating my most sacred Vow of a perpetual Virginitie I will therefore humblie intreat my bountiful and Almightie Lord to restore him to his Life again and that antient tranquilitie he enjoyed before my unhappie eies had destroyed it The Governour hereupon immediately retir'd and left the Saint to her Praiers It would be impossible for me to express her Pious Oraisons her Almightie Tears and Sighs that could extort what she desir'd from her blessed Jesus The Primitive method of Christian Devotion was then Vigorous and Regular and not capable to be desir'd by us that live in so prophane a Generation Her Praiers were not long they were contracted and therefore the more strong and valid A Period was included in a Word and a whole Discourse inclos'd in a Period Such powerful Petitions could not be long in producing their effects as really they were not for the Young Gentleman presently arose and to prove that the Heathen only had died and the Old Man been Buried in him he Rose up to a Christian and running out into the Street where his Father expected what the Ladies Praiers could effect he cried out with a loud voice there is only one God and that God is the God of the Christians SO rais'd And by his Mistriss too alone This is a double Resurrection She from whose hand he could receive his death Without a Sigh and Smile away bis breath Does bountifully life and health conferre Now doubly wellcome ' cause they came from her From her sweet lips life doth new charms derive And makes our happy Lover more then live He lives and does a Christian become Born in the Grave regenerate in the Tomb. Say Christians what a sweet divorce was this How Lovly such a Separation is He dy'd but only dy'd to live again As he 's regenerate that 's a Christian So after a debauch I 've often seen When sence and reason both were put out clean A gentle slumber lock the heavy eies And steal upon the Soul by soft surprise But when these pleasing slumbers go again Then from the Beast there rises up a man Ah! happy Soul 't was worth the dying so By Death to banish Death and wo by wo. While from Eternal pains short pains retrive And dying once thou dost for ever live Baptis'd in Death turn'd Christian in the Grave What need he fear that Death it self can save PIous Martyr thou for all his outrages and violence which his extravagant Love made him commit dost graciously pardon him and by thy holy Praiers freest him from that Death he had endured and deserved to give him the hopes of Eternal Life and Glory in making him commence a Christian How Divine is this Act of thine gracious Lady how well dost thou Imitate thy God in this That oftentimes denies us what we desire when we beg those things that may hurt us and gives us what his infinite Wisedom knows most convenient Thou would'st not grant him what his immoderate affection made him desire thou woul'st not cease to be what thou wast but mad'st thy Lover like thy self a Christian and mad'st him approve of thy blessed choice and Love thy dearest Lord almost as ardently as thy self The People were distracted at so strange an incounter The Priests being the most concern'd Persons were the first that demanded St. Agnes and cried out that her Sorceries and Blasphemies could no other way be expiated but by Flames and then threatned them with the fury of the Gods if such offences were left unpunish'd The giddy Rabble
she pursued their Gods with new Injuries and after a noble Harangue looking upon the Governour with a Christian assurance Thou hast my final answer continued she proceed now to my Condemnation I am as guilty as Christianity can make me I shall never accept my Life upon such base Conditions as thou proposest I scorne to court thy favour my God if he please can protect me and if he wils my Death I will willingly and joyfully entertain it Prepare those Stakes and Faggots now expose me to the wild Beasts and take away my Life the next moment I will not disgrace my Obedience with a murmur Thou canst but make me dye somthing sooner then Nature requires All thy cruelties can give me but one Death that 's all thy tortures can at the utmost amount to But that Death with all it 's frightful adjuncts shall never deprive me of my bountiful Saviour that will instate me in Eternal Life and Glory Symphronius was more confounded then ever at so unparallel'd a constancy but staying some minutes in a deep astonishment at last he rose up and looking upon the Saint Since Death is a thing you so much desire said he with a malicious laughter you shall Live somthing longer We can touch you in a more sensible part and the Honour and Chastity you have vowed to preserve and thereupon dispised a person you were wholy unworthy of shall be a Sacrifice to the fury of the Gods Is this the last effort of thy Malice Answered the Saint and smil'd do Prosecute thy Design my God to whom I have vowed my Chastity is able to preserve it This is too weak an Engine to storm my Faith and though I prefer my Honour Ten Thousand times to Life and all thy gawdy Possessions be assured that the fear of losing it shall never induce me to sacrifice to a Stone My Chastity is in too safe hands for thou or all the world to violate it Since you are so mightily taken with this Honour and Virginity said the Governour go sacrifice to the Goddess Vesta and so preserve both your Life and Honour Become one of her holy Vestals and direct your Devotion to it's right end If I for my dear Saviour replyed the Lady despis'd thy Son that lived and moved and was informed by a reasonable Soul and endowed with all accomplishments desirable in his age think not thy Goddess as thou call'st her the Creature of some Workman that neither sees nor hears me that neither sent 's your Sacrifices nor is conscious of the Honours you do her shall ever bring me to Apostasie I contemn thy Gods more than thee those useless nay more those destructive pieces of Stone and metal Your foolish Legends of the miserable Niobe and the unfortunate Actaeon shall never fright me into an Opinion as Impious as 't is Ridiculous You must needs adore a whole Troop of Gods though your Philosophers laugh at many Infinites Nor really can I conceive a God of a circumscrib'd power and jurisdiction Brake down their Altars then deface their Imagies and convert their Godships that have lain fallow for so many Ages at last to some use go pave the Streets with them you need not fear what a Stone can do to you and you may trample on them with greater security then adore them since there 's no fear they should rise up to revenge themselves but 't is not impossible that their Images may as Nero's once did fall down and destroy their Votaries The Governour and the People were so exasperated at her sawcy Blasphemies as they seemed not able to contain themselves they abandoned themselves to their fury which at that time they thought was too just and reasonable to be condemned Symphronius rose up like a Mad-man and cried out with the greatest fury in the world We shall see how your God will protect your Life and Honour that could not save himself from the Cross And then without delay he commanded her to be stript of all her Cloths and then to be led Naked to the common Bordelli and there to be exposed to the lust of all comers Which command of the Tyrant was so readily obeyed that the Holy Agnes had no time to make an answer The Barbarous Ruffins had in a moment performed their Office and left the Pious Creature without any covering but her Innocency But her heavenly Husband did not here desert her for her hair fell down so long so thick and shady that not the least part of her Body could be seen The People were amazed at the sight and imagined it was a trick of her Witcherie for Christians at that time were commonly branded with the name of Witches and Wizards and notwithstanding so signal a miracle pursued their Villanies But be pleased Ladies to consider the chast Virgin in this condititon A Soliloquite YOu that with Auburn tresses do insnare The captive Hearts of those enamour'd are That with their glorious hopes your Slaves retain They 're Prisoners still though in a golden Chain Hither your eies convert and here descry The nat'ral use of your fair Tapestry In vain they all her Ornaments remov'd That but conceal'd her Beauty not improv'd If through the Cloud she did such light impart That never pierc'd the Skin yet pierc'd the Heart Now disengag'd what wonder will she be Her Charmes no longer can admit degree So stand the blessed Virgins force the Throne Of the Thrice blessed ever Three and One They can't the holy Saint by force undress She still preserves her Vest of Righteousness Cloth'd without Clothes and naked without shame In what strange pleasing Labyrinths I am She a good Heretick might justly seem Who e're would such an Adimite condemn A Lovely Penitent she needs must be Cloth'd in her Hair-cloth and her Piety Thus she retrives the Golden Age and is A second Eve though out uf Paradise So Agnes stands at Eve in Edom then Here 's Serpents too but ah There 's no such men THus was the fair Agnes led along towards the place of dishonour Whilst the People even the most zealous among them that is the most savage and impions could not chuse but commiserate her condition The Roman Ladies though they were as great Sticklers for their Paganism as their Husbands rag'd and condemn'd the Governour They blush'd to see one of their own Sex thus exposed to the sight and laughter of all the world and though they condemned her blasphemies they could not think that she deserved so cruel a treatment However they said it was infinitely uhjust to punish the whole Sex for the fault of a single Person and after these considerations what lamentations what distractions were amongst them Nay those that were the most prudent and stay'd Persons could not moderate their Passions in so strange reencounter Thus did the Ladies express their sentiments of their Husbands cruelty but the poor Agnes was not the better for them The savage Ruffins led her along for all the cries of