Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	sin_n	world_n	4,338	5	4.9247	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50012	The divine Epicurus, or, The empire of pleasure over the vertues compos'd by A. LeGrand ; and rendred into English by Edward Cooke.	Le Grand, Antoine, d. 1699.; Cooke, Edward, fl. 1678.	1676 (1676)	Wing L949; ESTC R25451	59,225	137

according to its Language he was the greatest and most Holy of the Sons of Men and though he was conceived in Sin we have this assurance that he never bore the quality of a Criminal in the world He was a Virgin to the death and Impurity never made a breach upon his So●l He was a Martyr and lost his Head in the defence of Justice He was an Anchorite and past the greatest part of his life in Desarts In short He appear'd as an Angel upon earth and living amongst Men he entertain'd himself with those in happiness Repentance causes part of all these advantages unto Sinners it changes their wantonness into continence and teaches them to become Virgins after they have lost their C●asti●y It makes them Martyrs and causes them to feel the pains and miseries of those generous Champions who are dead for the cause of the Son of God It renders them Hermits in banishing them into Solitudes and making them find a retreat in their Hearts in the midst of their Cumbers and troubles in the world It exalts them to the quality of Angels it teaches them Purity sanctifies their dispositions and gives them a foretast of the pleasure of happy Souls Though the Crime be always odious and it is not permitted us to commit a fault that so we may reap advantage from it yet it is certain Repentance gives a new birth to our former Vertue derives good from our Sins and adjoyns a fresh sanctity to that which those had ravish'd from us This Apostle whose Avarice had fixt him to a table who deceiv'd almost all who came to him to inrich himself who was reckoned as a publick Robber and who even suck'd the blood of the poor by his extortions has deserved the name of the first of the Evangelists his penitence acquired him that honor and he became as famous in merits as he had been execrable in his usurious dealings The Church Universal is redevable to his labors his Writings are become her Oracles she reveres all the words that are there recorded and He who was known for an Imposture among his Citizens is become the assurance of the highest Misteries of our Faith His Repentance rend'red him in some measure presumptuous and made him aspire to a dignity which Faith and Hope could not dare to promise him Who can believe Adam and Eve were Ambitious amidst their tears and that those who had their Mouths open only to breath out sighs who covered their shoulders with Sack-cloth who wet the Bread they did eat with their weeping could have thoughts for grandeur Yet those glorious Slaves had hankerings after Liberty and remembring the honors they had lost they essay'd the utmost they could to recover them by their Repentance The torments they exercised upon their bodies the Sobbs they sent from their hearts made them hope to re-enter into their former Rights and Priviledges they assured themselves that Original Justice would follow their Repentance and they should regain the good affections of that God whom unhappily they had offended This Hope was not utterly Temerarious since that Almighty God shows such favor and mercy to the Penitent that he always hearkens to their Prayers and does more usually honor the repenting then the innocent Person When the Evangelists exhort us to appease divine Justice by grief and sorrow and to punish upon our bodies the sin we have committed he does not put us in the middle between Penitence and the Kingdom of Heaven but inseperably unites this vertue to Glory and seems to prefer the grace bestow'd upon us through our Affliction to that which we have conserv'd by our Innocence But though Penitence should not work this Miracle should add nothing to our first Grandeur nor make us dispute with the Saints the qualities that render them famous in the Church yet should we be oblig'd to acknowledg that in remitting our sins it puts us in a state above Calumny and has freed us from the blame which consequently would have follow'd them It makes us to hold up our heads in the midst of our enemies renders us insensible of all their reproaches and does not suffer us to pass for Criminals though we have been culpable Indeed it is to be unjust towards ones self to revive a Crime which we have wash'd away with our tears and to refresh our memories with what God himself has pas'd over with forgetfulness 'T is to be severely malitious to our selves to ripp up a fault which divine Justice has abolished and cancell'd and to give an infamous name to that which has left off being in Nature There is nothing more dreadful then to fall into the hands of the Son of God the Scripture speaks of Him as of an inexorable Judg and as if it had a mind to inhance and amplify the severity of his decrees it gives him all the qualities that may render him Rigorous It calls him a living God when He punishes the guilty and as if his justice exceeded his mercy and that he was more set upon the chastising of Offences then recompencing good works it says he acts freely that he is the absolute Master of his Creatures that his Power is above all their Laws and that he follows no other motions then those of his will in the exercise of his Justice Yet his rigour does not extend its self but to actual faults it condemns only those who persevere in wickedness who seek still to offend him after death and who still keep affections for Sin though they are under a state of Disability to commit it He will not be ma●ful of past faults for fear of being injurious to Penitence and of reviving those offences which Grief has detested Tears washed away and Punishments abolish'd From thence is it that the Prophet Esaias promises those who subdue and mortify the Body and who by Repentance appease the anger of God whom they have provoked that their sins shall be changed from their nature they shall become white as Snow and soft as Wool and what ought to tumble them down to Hell shall raise them up among the Blessed For as all things co-operate to the good of those that love God their Malice shall be turned into Piety their sins which merited eternal Punishments shall bring upon them as Ample Recompences and Grace taking away what was horrible in them makes thereof the occasion of their Felicity and Glory There is no person but receives an extream Joy and satisfaction when he finds himself clear from Servitude that his Tyrants cease to persecute him his vices are vanishing and Innocence taking new possession in his heart Who does not leap with joy when he sees his Safety arise from his Ruin his Miseries to be the cause of his Happiness and that his crimes which rank him in the number of those to be reproved crown him in Heaven Penitence still produces these wonders in the Church and animating Sinners against themselves it gives them a blessedness

support of States the glory of their Army the defence of their Frontiers and as the inhancement of their Reputation and Wealth But as this advantage is Pompous so it is difficult to acquire to deserve the name of Victorious we must ingage our selves in Wars expose our persons to infinite Dangers and abandon to the Discretion of Fortune both our Liberty and Life Now Force and Magnanimity ●urmounts all these difficulties it glories in seeking out the Enemy in setting upon Afflictions in faceing Death and in making up to whatever appears Terrible in the world I● we will credit a Roman Philosopher it is a generous vertue exalting us beyond a capacity to ●ear a Science that teaches us to beat back Dangers contemn Travels and provoke unto Sufferings and Calamities For Evil is the object of this Noble Habitude and it cannot be said to subsist in nature if it has not Enemies to combat with and Difficulties to conquer Some have confounded Force with Valour they have thought that Courage was reserv'd for Conquerors and that one ought to be constantly in Battles and gaining Kingdoms to merit the name of Mighty and Victorious But Certainly they have but imperfectly known the nature of Force the most Glorious Actions are not always the most Dangerous An affliction is often more difficult to get the master of then an Enemy and I question if a Man deserves not more to be Renown'd for induring Death with a firm resolution in his Bed then for despising it in a Battle Who is there but knows that the valour practised in Armies is more ●ure and true in Beasts then in Men that those of the Female kind are as capable of it as the Males and that both of them do strive with as earnest a contention for the possession of a Meadow as Kings do for the Conquest of a Nation But there is this difference that the force of Beasts is true and real and that of Men oft-times but in shew and appearance the one is Natural the other is mixt with Artifice the one purely regards Profit or Glory the other ingages us in Perils but ●●ough the fear of Death or apprel 〈◊〉 of the Poverty which threatens us Who observes the addresses of Humane Valour wil●●te that it is but a Sage dejection and weakness of mind that fore-sees the Danger so as to avoid it that overcomes one Passion by another and that suffers one Mischief to secure himself from a greater To what purpose serve the managing of Horses and the Hall of Arms but to teach us how to turn tail with a good Grace and to become an honorable Coward there 's no doubt but a Shop-prentice might overcome the most Couragious if that Valour consists in taking his time keeping himself in Posture and in observing all those rules that teach us to beat back our Adversary But true Valour despises Artifice it considers it to be the evil but not the means of escaping and it is as little accustomed to ward off Blows as to fear them The Lacedemonians have bannish'd all masters of Arms out of their States and chose rather to be redevable for their victory to Nature then Industry There is none but will commend the valour of that person who dares ingage with a Bear cope with a Lyon and grapple with a wild Boar that is coming with full force and power upon him because Art and Cunning has no part in this combat but he makes an abso●ute Exposal of himself to the fury of his enemy As Valour rejects all craft so it is an enemy to all Circumventions it will not have a victory that shall be Dishonorable it fancies it derogates from its Grandeur when it has recourse to Fraud for the obtaining of it It hopes to conquer as soon as it begins its combats by Counsel Arms and looks upon it self inferior to its Adversary to make use of Stratagems to subdue him Fraud is a discovery of weakness and we must confess our selves conquer'd when we are fain to use shameful means to arrive at our designs If Force should be without disguise and if it should contemn those low subtleties that may give it advantage it is also necessary that it should be illuminated in its Conduct that it should know the danger it has to surmount the difficulties that may hinder its Victory and that it find out ways of vanquishing or at least diverting them For Force is not a blind Temerity that loves danger or that ingages its self in it but upon necessity but a Science that teaches us to distinguish Evils to seperate them from their contrary and to preferr the imaginary and apparent ones to those that are effectual and true That Man is not to be accounted valiant that 's push'd on by the violence of his Choller or relying upon the strength of his body praecipitates himself into dangers and seems to be afraid of nothing only because he would be thought above the power of being frightned and shaken but well may he who knowing the evil and abhorring it does yet attacque it with Courage and put himself in a posture of giving it a Repulse according as it needs and the occasion will suffer him A valiant Man's ingagements ought also to be Just he should not fight but for the defence of Equity and he should rather regard the subject of his Enterprizes then their recompence Victory is not always the reward of Valour the most Couragious are generally the most unfortunate and oft-times they are forc'd to yield to their Enemies who have neither their conduct nor courage To teach us that true Valour resides in the heart that it is rather a product of the Soul then Body and that he may call himself no longer Victorious then whilst he is braving of Dangers despising Death and making head to his Enemies From all that has been said it is easy to inferr that force as well as what accompanies it is obtain'd for Pleasure that it does not give Battles but to obtain it that it is as well its end as its recompence and that it never attacques Troubles but to procure us Pleasure For Evil is odious it shocks our inclinations instead of drawing them and we should never resolve to destroy it if we did not promise to our selves joy and satisfaction from the Defeat Death is the terriblest of all evils it makes a seperation between the Soul and Body it breaks the most strict and perfect Friendships that ever were in the world and taking upon it the state of a Soveraign it brings down the goodliest works of Nature to the Dust and nothing This snatches the dear Wise from the arms of her most affectionate Husband robs the Father of his only Son and brings sadness into Families and desolation into Kingdoms But have we overcome the fear of Death then will this Monster appear to us as a favor from Heaven and we shall look upon it as a way that