Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	fear_v	soul_n	6,074	5	5.4095	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01053	A line of life Pointing at the immortalitie of a vertuous name.	Ford, John, 1586-ca. 1640.	1620 (1620)	STC 11162; ESTC S114264	21,399	139

A LINE OF LIFE Pointing at the Immortalitie of a Vertuous NAME Printed by W. S. for N. Butter and are to be sold at his shop neere Saint A●stens gate 1620. WISE and therein NOBLE AMbition beeing sooner discouered by acting then plotting can rarely personate practise in studie vnlesse the Arts themselues which in themselues are liberall should 〈◊〉 too curiously censured too inquisitiuely confined It is an easie vanity in these dayes of libertie to be a conceited Interpreter but a difficult commendation to bee a serious Author for whatsoeuer is at all times honestly intended oftentimes is too largely construed Generall collections meet not seldome with particular applications and those so dangerous that it is more safe more wis● to professe a free silence then a necessarie industrie Here in this scarce an handfull of discourse is deciphered not what any personally is but what any personally may be to the intent that by the view of others wounds we might prouide playsters and cures for our owne if occasion impose them It is true that all men are not borne in one the same or the like puritie of qualitie or condition for in some Custome is so become another Nature that Reason is not the mistresse but the seruant not the directresse but the foyle to their passions Folly is a sale-able merchandise whose factour youth is not so allowedly profest in young men as pleasure in men of any age yet are the ruines the calamities the wofull experiences of sundrie presidents and samplars of indiscretion and weakenesse euen in noted and sometimes in great ones so apparent so daily that no Antidote against the infection disease leprosie of so increasing an euill can be reputed superfluous For my part I ingeniously acknowledge that hitherto how euer the course hath proued a barre to my thrift yet I neuer fawned vpon any mans Fortunes whose person and merit I preferred not Neither hath any court-ship of applause set me in a higher straine a higher pinnacle of opinion then seuerest Approbation might make warrantable Howbeit euen in these few lines that follow my ayme hath not beene so grossely leuelled that I meant to chuse euery Reader for my Patron considering that none can challenge any interest herein from me vnlesse he challenge it by way of an vsurped impropriation whom I my selfe doe not out of some certaine knowledge and allowance of Desert as it were poynt out and at with my finger and confesse that Hic est it is this one and onely By which marke I can deny no man not guiltie to himselfe of a selfe-unworthinesse to call it his owne at least none of those who freely returne the defects to their proper owner and the benefit if any may be of this little worke to their own vse and themselues So much it is to bee presumed the verie taliarie Law may require and obtaine In all things no one thing can more requisitely bee obserued to be practised then The Golden Meane The exemplification whereof howeuer heretofore attributed I dare not so poorely vnder-value my selfe and labours as not to call mine But if I should farther exceede I might exceede that meane which I haue endeuoured to commend Let him that is wise and therein noble assume properly to himselfe this interest that I cannot distrust the successefull acceptation where the sacrifice is a thriftie loue the Patron a great man good for to be truly good is to be great And the Presentor a feodarie to such as are maisters not more of their own Fortunes then their owne affections Aestatis occasum hau●d aegre tulit vnquám Temperata Hyems IO. FORD LINEA VITAE A Line of Life TO liue and to liue well are distinct in thēselues so peculiarly as is the ACTOR and the ACTION All men couet the former as if it were the totall and souereigne felicitie of a humane condition And some few pursue the latter because it giues an eternity to their blessednesse The difference between those two is Life desired for the only benefit of liuing feares to dye for such men that so liue when they dye both dye finally dye all But a good Life aymes at another mark for such men as indeauour to liue well liue with an expectation of death and they when they dye dye to liue and liue for euer In this respect hath death be●ng the parting of a precious Ghest from a ruinous Inne the soule ●rom the bodie beene ●y the Ancients styled a Hauen of safetie a finishing of Pilgrimages ● resting from trauaile ● passage to glorie Eue●ie man that most shuns ●t and he most shunnes ●t that most feares it ●unnes notwithstanding wilfully to meet it euen ●hen posting to it when ●ee abhorres it for the comparison is liuely ●emarkeable as he who in a Shippe directs his course to some Port whether he stand walk reuell sleepe lie downe or any way else dispose himself is notwithstanding alwaies driuen on to the period of his voyage So in this Ship of our mortalitie howsoeuer wee limit our courses or are suited in any fortune of prosperitie or lownesse in this great Sea of the World yet by the violence and perpetuall motion of time are we compeld to pace onward to the last and long home of our graues and then the victorie of Life is concluded in the victory of our ends It is granted in Philosophie that Action is the Crowne of Vertue It cannot in reason the light of Philosophie be denied that perseuerance is the Crowne of Action and then Diuinitie the Queene of Nature will confirme that sufferance is the Crowne of perseuerance For to be vertuous without the testimonie of imployment is as a rich Minerall in the heart of the Earth vn-vseful because vnknowne yet to bee vertuously imployed and not to continue is like a swift runner for a Prize who can with ease gaine it from others but slothfully sitteth downe in the middle way but to perseuere in well-doing without a sence of a dutie only with hope of reward is like an Indian Dromedarie that gallops to his common Inne prickt on-wardes with the desire of Prouender It is beast-like not to differ from beasts aswell in the abuse of reason as it would bee in the defect ACTION PERSEVERANCE IN ACTION SVFFERANCE IN PERSEVERANCE are the three golden linkes that furnish vp the richest Chain wherwith a good man can bee adorned They are a tripartite counterpawne wherby wee hold the possession of life whose Charter or Poll Deed as they terme it are youth till twentie manhood till fortie olde age till our end And hee who beginnes not in the spring of his minoritie to bud forth fruits of vertuous hopes or hopefull deserts which may ripen in the Summer of confirmed manhood rarely or neuer yeelds the crop of a plentifull memory in his age but preuents the winter of his last houre in the barren Autume of his worst houre by making an euen reckoning with time mis-spent dying without any Issue