Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	begin_v	life_n	live_v	4,413	5	5.6341	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80530	Experience, historie, and divinitie Divided into five books. Written by Richard Carpenter, vicar of Poling, a small and obscure village by the sea-side, neere to Arundel in Sussex. Who being, first a scholar of Eaton Colledge, and afterwards, a student in Cambridge, forsooke the Vniversity, and immediatly travelled, in his raw, green, and ignorant yeares, beyond the seas; ... and is now at last, by the speciall favour of God, reconciled to the faire Church of Christ in England? Printed by order from the House of Commons.	Carpenter, Richard, d. 1670?	1641 (1641)	Wing C620B; ESTC R229510	263,238	607

snowes beleeved it was black and the maine point of his doctrine was that sence playd foule with reason and snow was black We are all mortall some of us dye every day and all in a due time Yea saith S. Ambrose Vitae hujus principium mortis exordium est nec prius incipit augeri S. Ambr. lib. 2 de vocat Gent. cap. 8. vita nostra quàm minui Cui si quid ad icitur spatii temporalis non ad hoc accedit ut maneat sed in hoc transit ut pereat The first entrance into this life is the beginning of death neither doth our life begin to be encreased before it beginneth also to be diminished To which if any time be added it doth not come to remaine with us but to leave us and come no more Those who lived in the Age before us our Fathers and Grandfathers are dead and turn'd to dirt and we now in their places we also must shortly dye and turne to dirt and others succeed us and they likewise must take their turne and thus we all turne by turnes one after another into plaine dirt and this is the meane and homely end of all our bravery And yet an infamous sect of Heretikes in St. Justine firmely beleeved they forsooth were immortall and should never dye and this although they saw the brethren of their Sect sicken and dye like other men and then be buried in Graves and there lye still The old Annals of Egipt and Italy tell us that Flouds Trees Mice Cats and Crocodiles were honoured by the Egyptian Sages for gods and when the Cat kill'd the Mouse they said one god in his anger destroyed the other the more great the lesser and as meane creatures by the Roman Senatours And as S. Justine observeth the same creatures were esteemed S. Just Apolog 2. as they were Beasts by some by others used as Sacrifices to please the gods and by a third sort adored as gods Three things S. Austen would have seene if God had so ordered it in his providence Paulum in ore Romam in flore Christum in corpore Saint Paul the divine Oratour in his flourishing time of preaching the Gospell Rome in her flower Christ in his body And in Rome when she was in this pompous estate the Ague was honoured as a Goddesse and there also by ill fortune ill Fortune had her Temple Feare Palenesse what not The Lacedaemonians all the time of their life adored death Amongst another wise Generation of people rich Altars were dedicated to Poverty and old Age. Another grave Tribe beleeving fire to bee a most powerfull God travelled from Country to Country in the reigne of Constantine the great and provoked by a generall Challenge the Gods of other Countries to encounter their God And overcōming them as being compacted of wood or other matter subject to fire they came at last to Alexandria in Egypt where the River Nile by the due spreading of which that Country is fatned was accounted a God The statue of Nile being brought forth as it was hollow and full of water having on every side little holes covered with wax and fitted in all points for the purpose and fire being applied for a set battell the wax melted the water found way and the victorious God Fire was put out and there was an end of the journey And all these people cried up for Gods the things they conceived to be good ut prodessent that they might help and profit them and the things they found to be hurtfull nè nocerent that they might not hurt them CHAP. 6. MAhomet in his Alcoran describing the Turks Paradise saith it is beautified with pleasant Brooks enriched with beautifull fruits adorned with rich hangings and the like We may fitly say of him as Eusebius saith of Cerinthus an old Heretick who thought and taught that the happinesse of the other life consisted in the pleasures of marriage to be enjoyed in the fulnesse of delight for a thousand yeares in Hierusalem Quarum rerum cupiditate ipse ducebatur in eisdem beatam vitā fore somniabat Euseb li. 2. Eccl. hist cap. 22. He dreamed happinesse to be placed in those things with which himselfe was tickled And the Thalmudists the stricter and more rigid part of Jews have stuffed their Expositions with most idle Stories as that God doth punish himselfe at certain times for having beene so rough to them and the like stuffe The Indian Priests were as vaine who instilled this doctrine into all their simple Followers that when a Master should dye the Servants ought all to kill themselves that so they might readily serve him in the other world A grave Author writes of a people so fond that the first thing they saw in the morning was their God for that day and so perhaps they loved as many Gods as they lived days It hath been alwayes the maine plot of the devil to canker and corrupt the world with false opinions and chiefly with the practice of Idolatry For as the understanding is opinionated so the will works and if wee faile in the keeping of one of the two first commandements wee strike at the head of him that enableth us in the keeping of all the rest The devout Christians in the Primitive Church went in great numbers to see the places wherein Christ was borne was conversant and was crucified But the devill had quickly so stirred in the businesse and squared the matter by the power of the Pagan Emperours that the Christians comming afterwards and thinking to finde the crib in Bethleem found the image of Adonis Venus her white Boy and found nothing of the Crib but onely that it was not to be found And turning from thence to mount Calvarie they found the scene chang'd there also and beheld the statue of Venus placed with such evident signes of open warre against Christ and the profession of his name and faith Vt si quis Christianorum Ruffi Eccl. hist. lib. 1. cap. 7. saith Ruffinus in illo loco Christum adorare voluisset Venerem videretur adorare that when the sincere Christian should come with a rectified will to adore Christ his action if not his devotion might goe a wry and honour Venus The devill would faine have taught them to adore an Image which they saw rather then God whom they saw not And even amongst Christians the devill who in other matters is alwayes the wilde Authour of Confusion and Disorder hath yet opposed the Articles of the Creed in order For first Simon Magus Marcion and others strove against the title of God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth Secondly Arius in the first generall Councell of Nice in Bithynia laboured against the Divinity of Jesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. Thirdly Macedonius planted his Engine against the Holy Ghost and was condemned in the Councell of Constantinople Which observation may be also made plain in the other Articles And because the Holy Ghost

is drawne strait to the bone through all his body His eyes fix constantly upon one thing as if there hee saw the dreadfull sentence of his eternity Two black circles lay seige to his eyes on every side and it seemeth that for feare they are sunke inwards as if they would turn presently and looke upon the deformity of the soule Hearke with what a lamentable accent he grones I remember I have heard some that soon after came to this point sing and laugh heartily Poore man how little all his pleasures have profited him Such a rich purchase the favour of such a noble man such and such a merry meeting what doe they help in this agonie his freinds are present yet of themselves they are miserable comforters they may looke sorrowfully speake mornefully cast themselves upon their knees and pray for him but they cannot doe the deed they cannot helpe him humane power stands amaz'd and can do nothing You do you heare what thinke you now of going abroad and being merry your old companions are at the doore Looke to your goods and your selves your house is on fire not a word And the little life which as yet keeps weak possession is so dull'd and over clouded with the pangs of Death that hee cannot raise from the fog of his body one clean thought towards God or Heaven Hee is ready now to leave every thing but his sinnes lands house friends gay clothes the gold in the box and jewels in the Cabinet and all See see he is going hee stands upon the threshold Death lurkes in yonder corner and aimes at the heart and though it move so fast Death will not misse his marke Hee has beene an Archer ever since the world began There flew the arrow Here is a change indeed His Soul is gon but it would not be seene Not only because it could not but also because it was so black Now dismisse the Physitian and pray him to goe and invent a preservative against the poyson of Death Close up the dead mans eyes hee will see no more Shut his mouth hee has left gaping for aire all is past hee will never give an other crosse word Now cast the beggerly wretch an old sheete and throw him out to the wormes or after three days hee will poyson us and then we shall bee like him It is a true speech of saint Hierom with which hee puts the latter stamp upon the soft heart of Paulinus to whom hee writes Facile contemnit omnia qui se semper cogitat esse moriturum Hee doth easily contemne Hier. ep ad Paul and with a violent hand throw under him all things who thinkes he stands alwayes with one foote in his grave O my soule heare me let me talke to thee in a familiar way The corporall eye this eye of man seeth nothing but figure or fashion and colour no man ever saw a man onely the figure or fashion and colour of a man and these are outward and superficiall things which onely flatter the eye And S. Paul saith worthily The fashion of this World passeth away The man dyeth the lid is 1 Cor. 7. 31 drawn over the eye the fashion or figure disappeareth is not seene The Hous-keeper hath changed his lodging the windows are shut Call him at the doores of his eares tell him that his wife and children are in danger of their lives and that they call to him for help the windows remain shut stil Here is the mind which hath wisdom There is nothing in this great World for a mortall man to love or settle upon Hee that will Reve. 7. 9 love ought to love wisely he that will love wisely ought to love good Good is not good if it be not permanent this World passeth away Nihil tam utile est quod in trāsitu prosit saith Seneca nothing is so compleately Sen. ●p 2. profitable as to profit when it only passeth And verily this world hath bin alwayes a Passenger for it hath passed from age to age through so many hundred generations by them and from them to us Adam liv'd a while to eat an Apple and to teach his posterity to sinne and to dye and the world passed by him Caine liv'd a while to kill his honest brother Abel and to bury him in the sands as if God could not have found him or the winde have discovered what was done and afterwards to be haunted with frightfull apparitions and to be the first vagabond and the world passed by him Noah liv'd a while to see a great floud and the whole world sinke under water to see the weary birds drop amongst the waves and men stifled on the tops of Trees and Mountaines and the world passed by him David liv'd a while to be caught with a vaine representation and to commit adultery to command murther and afterwards to lament and call himselfe sinner and when he had done so the world shuff'd him off and passed by him Salomon liv'd a while to sit like a man upon his royall throne as it were guarded with Lyons and to love counterfeit pictures in the faces of strange women and while he was looking Babies in their eyes the world stole away and passed by King Salomon and all his glory Iudas liv'd awhile to handle a purse and as an old Author writes to kill his Father to marry his Mother to betray his Master and to hang himselfe and the world turn'd round as wel as he and passed by the Traytor The Jews liv'd a-while to crucifie him who had chosen them for his onely people out of all the world and quickly after the world weary of them passed by them and their Common-wealth The old Romanes liv'd awhile to worship wood and stones to talk a little of Iupiter Apollo Venus Mercury and to gaze upon a great statue of Hercules and cry hee was a mighty man and while they stood gazing and looking another way the world passed by them and their great Empire The Papists live awhile to keepe time with dropping Beads or rather to lose it to cloath images and keepe them warme and to tell most wonderfull stories of Miracles which God never thought of but as he fore-saw and found them in their fancies and in the midst of a story before it is made a compleat lye the world passes by them and turnes them into a story The Jesuits live a-while to be call'd Religious men and holy Fathers to frame a face to be very good and godly in the out-side to vex and disquiet Princes to slander all those whom they cannot or gaine or recover to their faction and the world at length finding them to be dissemblers dissembles with them also and looking friendly upon them passes by them The painted wall tumbles and then Woe to you Hypocrites Wee live a-while a little little while to put our cloathes on and off to shew our selves abroad to be hurried up and downe in Coaches and to be

from as high a descent as they doe and as they are sinfull I am more perfect and exceedingly more beautifull in the sight of God and all his Angels I doe not marvell now that the holy Psalmist spoke so heartily when he said Iniquitatem odio habui abominatus Ps 119. sum I hated iniquity and my soule had it in abomination Go sinne the Viper shall take place in our bosomes before thee For the Viper that eateth through the tender wombe of the mother never saw the mother before that blinde act of cruelty so that the Viper is onely cruell before he is borne and before he ever saw a gentle creature or this blessed light to which his mother brought him But the sinner sees God in his creatures And the Viper doth but defeate the body to bring a temporall death thou the soule to bring a death drawne out and lengthened with eternity CHAP. XVI TO sinne is to turne our backs with great contempt towards God Towards God standing in the midst of all his Angels and holding up Heaven with one hand and earth with another and to turne our faces and imbraces with great fondnesse to a vile Creature O that a true sight of this like a good Angell might alwayes appeare to us before we sinne As the proud man and woman turne from God the boundlesse treasure of all excellencie and sit brooding and swelling as upon empty shels upon the fraile and contemptible goods of minde body fortune The angry man and woman turne from God the sweetnesse of Heaven and Earth and side with their owne turbulent passions The Glutton and Drunkard turne from God to whom the eyes of all things doe looke up for their meate and drinke in due season and performe their devotions to their fat bodies and bellies quorum Deus venter est whose Phil. 3. 19. God is their belly Which Saint Paul spoke as it appeareth by the verse immediatly precedent even weeping The lascivious man and woman turne from God the Fountain of all true and solid comfort and take in exchange the pleasure of Beasts The covetous man and woman turne from God without whom the rich are very poore and dance about the golden Calfe making an Idoll of their money For Covetousnesse Coloss 3. 5. is Idolatry The envious man and woman turne from God from whom come both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not inward only but all outward gifts and stick to a repining at Gods liberality in others The sloathfull man and woman turn from God whose providence is in continuall action exercise and give flesh bones head heart and all to the pillow Judas had thirty pence for Christ but we have little or nought for him All the good gifts of the holy Ghost are struck to the heart by sinne S. John beheld in his Revelation a great red Dragon having seven heads and seven Rev. 12. 3. crownes upon his heads And againe a woman Rev. 17. 3. sitting upon a Scarlet-coloured beast having seven heads The seven heads are the seven deadly sinnes which the great red Dragon the Devill begetteth upon the woman the sinfull soule wherewith he resisteth and putteth to flight the seven choice gifts of the holy Ghost I remember the woman whom our Saviour dispossessed of seven Devils and the Leaper that by the Prophets appointment was dipped seven times in the river Jordane The Devill over-commeth the gift of feare The feare of the Lord is the brginning of wisdome with pride and presumption which utterly expell the feare of God With anger he smothereth the gift of knowledge For blinded with anger we judge not according to knowledge With envie he stifleth the gift of piety or godlinesse For by envie we bandy with our thoughts words and actions against our neighbours With lust and luxury he destroyeth the gift of wisedome by which we are made brutishly foolish With covetousnesse hee confoundeth the gift of counsell by which we are violently drawne from all good counsell in the pursuite of base but sweete lucre Covetousnesse being the roote of all evill With Gluttony and Drunkennesse he killeth the gift of understanding by which we are besotted and left altogether unfit to know or understand And with sloth he vanquisheth the gift of Fortitude by which we are made weake and infirme and benummed with feare and sorrow in the search of good things Here is a battell wherein the weake over-come the strong and all because the strong are fallen into the mischievous hands of a most barbarous Traitor a Traitor to God and his owne soule To sinne is to betray Christ and give him over to death and destruction that the sinne that is Barabas the murderer may live Here is a businesse O Lord And to sinne is to banish the holy Ghost with all his gifts to bid him goe go seeke a lodging amongst the rogues beggers And being unwilling to go as he is love it selfe and therefore struggling to stay to thrust him out of the soule by the head and shoulders as desirous in our anger to break a limbe of him if he had one O that we could remember at these times that we are the Devils officers And when sinne is not the privation of Grace because it comes where it is not it the more dimmeth and defaceth nature Sinne is the death and buriall of the soule which onely God can raise againe For as the body dyeth and falleth to the ground when the soule forsaketh it so the soule dyeth and falleth under the ground to Hell-gate when it is forsaken by God O Christian saith Saint Austin non sunt in te charitatis viscera si luges corpus a quo recessit anima animam vero a qua recessit Deus non luges O Christian there are no bowels of charity in thee if thou mournest for a body from which the soule is gone and doest not mourne for the wretched and forlorne estate of a soule from which God is departed One sinne is a greater evill greater above expression then all the evils of punishment that can be inflicted upon us by God himselfe in this world or in the world to come A greater evill beyond all measure then Hell-fire which shall never be quenched One sinne O what have I done many thousand times over It is the truth and nothing but the truth And therfore it is said of the sinne of evill speaking The death thereof is an evill death the grave Ecclesiasticus 28. 21. were better then it The words will beare another sense utilis potius infernus quam illa Hell were more profitable then it And this is proved as easily as written or spokē For the evils of punishment bereave us only of limited and finite goods as sicknesse depriveth us of health death of life But sinne depriveth us of God the onely Good that is infinite And the privation is alwayes by so much the more grievous by how much the good is more good of which