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	grace_n	life_n	4,700	5	4.5078	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65063	The hearse of the renowned, the Right Honourable Robert Earle of Essex and Ewe, Viscount Hereford, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, Bourchier and Lovaine, sometime Captaine Lord Generall of the armies raised for the defence of King and Parliament As it was represented in a sermon, preached in the Abbey Church at Westminster, at the magnificent solemnity of his funerall, Octob. 22. 1646. By Richard Vines. Published by order of the House of Peeres.	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.	1646 (1646)	Wing V553; ESTC R203895	21,108	39

of receiving doing good Not is there a sharper corrosive than the reflection upon those dayes and times that have passed over him Male aliud nihil agentem The highest hils are the barrennest ground and I would that saying did not so truly square to great Ones that is that the goodliest Trees as Cedars c. doe either beare none or the worst Fruit. Great parts and abilities without exercise and putting forth are but secret and unknowne Mines of Silver and Gold which lye hid in an unfruitfull and unprofitable soyle And therfore you the great and Noble Worthies in whose hands are the Publike Faith the Publike Mercy the Publike Justice and the Publike Peace be good and let your goodnes make you quicke dispensers of what you have in Stewardship because the time is short and the word redde rationem may be given suddenly look upon us as mortall men who shall not live long to receive and upon your selves who shall not live long to give the fruits of your hands And because the Occasion invites me let me propound an object to your charitable justice that is the relief of those great sufferers who have bin great doers I meane the first adventurers with this great Commander when he first cut through the Alps. As for the great and doubtfull matters that are under your hand I would not be thought so rash as to wish you to precipitate A Pilot among shelves and rocks may be too quick A Cunctator sometime saved the Common-wealth only thus I may pray that when the Haven lyes faire before you and is without barre you may fortiter occupare set in stifly lest new waves raised by crosse winds carry you backe into the Main againe 3. Arme you against your fall that the day therof may be to you as the Passion-day of the Martyrs was called the birth-day of Eternity Nequaquam morte mortemini was the inlet of our sin and misery keeps the doore open to sin still The Epicure hath his Armour against death a senselesse consideration of it as of a nothing or a not being The great Spirit hath his Armour too A contempt of death out of principles of Valour and Honour but neither of these Armours can keep the arrow from the quicke There is a terrible clause in the Statute of dying And after that the judgement Nor yet will I goe about to arme you with this meditation that we shall have a shorter journey from death to life again than we had from not being unto life or that which is cited by Gerard out of Luther that all the time that hath run or shall run out from the beginning to the end shall seeme to Adam when he riseth againe but tanquam somnus unius horae as the sleep of the body for one houre But if you will breake the fall which else will breake you then you Gods must become Saints for all Gods are not Saints the death of Saints is more precious then the death of Gods Grace is speciall baile against death there is no gall and vinegar in it to be drunk by them for whom Christ hath already drunke it Death saith the Apostle is yours because contributory and subservient to your happines That life which is hid with Christ in God is out of the reach of death our Saviour proves Abraham to be living because God had long after his death said I am the God of Abraham Those that are confederate with God in Covenant must always live that the Covenant may not be dissolved by the death of the one party There is a way then to break the teeth of death and to be immortall Have God for your God labour to have something in you that is immortall besides your very souls lay up for your selves a treasure beyond the sea of death that when this membrana dignitatis as Seneca cals it a thin skin of honour breaks you may not be quite bankrupts enrich your souls with the power of godlines which is profitable to all things The place of Princes the magnificence and great works of great men The faith and godlines of poore men doe make a rare composition Do not in stead of disarming death arme it rather against you by putting a sword into the hand of it The more service that you may doe by the advantage of ground you stand upon the heavyer will your accounts be if your greatnes be made a Stage and Theater for to act the parts of luxury lasciviousnes oppression upon What difference is there between such gods and those in Homer of whose drunkennesse and adulteries there is frequent mention let me speake one word to you young Noblemen and Gentlemen Learne you the way of godlinesse that may free you from the loosenesse and vanitie incident to greatnesse for when you have given florem Diabolo the floure of your time to lusts of youth your fall may come before you can so much as give faecem Deo the dregs thereof to God I conclude this point with that which one observes upon Gods seeing all the works that he had made that they were very good for then immediately saith he followed the Sabbath or rest of God which though our salvation be not of workes may signifie thus much to you that when you shall come to a retrospect upon your wayes and works and find them so empty of and contrary unto God there can be no expectation of a Sabbath or rest unto your soules and therefore wash ye make ye cleane c. Isa 1. 16 17. The second Know ye not is spoken to you the lower shrubs You are to know that your great men may fall in the very time of their usefulnesse and service for your good In their losse bewaile your sins for though you feele not the stroke while the wound is fresh and green yet afterwards you will find the want of such as are worthy instruments when wee expect they should doe great things God by taking them away interrupts the cast Put not therefore your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no salvation for his breath goeth forth and in that very day his thoughts perish Ps 146. 3 4. even his projects and intentions for your good dye in the wombe and are abortive If we leane hard upon the reed it breaks the sooner and wee are laid flat on the ground God will not let his people enjoy that long which they prize too much some worme shall smite that gourd and it shall wither and though many great men are not likely to be blasted by the confidence of the people yet our sad experience teacheth us that we smell too much to our sweetest flowers and so wither them I Shall now come to the paralell Herse of that Prince and great man fallen this day in England of whom though modestie it selfe may without blushing speak in a magnificent stile yet have my thoughts waved me too and fro it not being easie to be

War and generally to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in headship or power whether Military Judg. 4. 2. 2 King 9. 5. or Senatorian yea though a man bee but the fore-man of his ranke Great man is a note of some singular eminencie above the ordinary trees of the wood and is a title given even to a Nabal that hath 3000. sheep and 1000. 1 Sam. 25. 2. goats which is the meanest ranke of greatnesse But where a great man is added to a Prince it may well import as much as magnificent a man of powerful interest great valour honourable atchievements noble activity in his place Magnus is an addition or hatchment by which Alexander Pompey Carolus c. have beene sirnamed for their great services or exploits So that a man by his orb or place he is set in is Princeps but by his influence and beams of worth raying from him upon the sublunary Commons he is Magnus It is an excellent conjunction a Prince and great man According to style of honour with us a man may be noble by birth discent or blood And though I be none of the new Switzers that could wish Princes Canton'd into the common level yet I may put you in mind that Antiquity of Race is but a Moss of time growing upon the back of worth or vertue And if a man carry not the primigeniall vertue with him which first made his race noble he is but a flower by change of soile degenerated into a weed as having nothing in him but the wax or matter without the form and stamp of Noblenesse And you know also that Nobility is often times the creature of a Prince his fancy which when there is no intrinsecall worth to be the supporter of it is as Charren saith but Nobility by parchment It 's a Cap. d● Nobilitate brave consociation when the goodnesse and activity that makes you great is as high as the place which makes you Princes for if that crazy fancy take a man which possest some great ones they would be called Gods and personate an ostentation of greatnesse above men it may bewray pride madnesse but can never so far deceive the sense of underlings but that they will say as the Cobler did to Caligula in that state and humour that hee was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Dotard It is the acting of your power and place which makes you great I cannot teach you to be princes Fortuitum est but I can tell you how to be great men not great in the glasse which Parasiticall flattery holds before you but indeed and that is thus Fill the sphere of your activity the Church and State the Towne or Countrey with the powerfull and benigne influences that flow from intrinsecall worth make the times the better for you Constraine by your example your inferiours to know God and reform their Families Let not Profanesse hide it selfe under the wing of your patronage nor lessen it self by the greatnesse of your examples Impartial speedy Justice with sweet refreshing Mercy will make you great men in the Commonwealth Zeal and Syncerity for God and his House will make you great men in the Church He that will be a great man must draw his lines to the center of publike good private ends never make a great man 2. The subject of this Lamentation is one Prince one great man Yee are called as some interpret the word the Corners of the people the Shields the Gods the Saviours the Shepheards of the people the Ministers of God for Good Benefactors c. Now the fall of one great Tree makes a great gappe in the hedge the Eclipse of one of the greater ruling Luminaries benights the world Our Lives Liberties c. are all bound up in you we poor men steal into our Graves with no greater noyse than can be made by a branch of Rosemary or a blacke Riband No body takes notice of the Gloeworme that goes out in the hedge bottome No Comet or Prodigie or Earth-quake tolls us the knell of our departure but one of you is carried forth by the teares of all ISRAEL provided that you be what your Names import publick men common Sanctuaries of the oppressed Cities of Refuge Altars of protection for otherwise you may be such as that your death would be more worth then your lives and then though you may be able to put men into black you cannot put them into mourning your death cannot be worth a teare when your lives are not worth a prayer 3. The subject of this Lamentation is a Prince A great man fallen Death is a fall from every thing but grace some do fall from a higher Scaffold great men fall divers stories from Honour Riches Offices others from the surface of a level ground having nothing to fall from but naked life Saints dye the gods doe fall I need not stand to prove it there is not one of you great men but shall be the proofe of this point shortly The Law of Death runs thus All Honours Titles c. to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding there is no Prerogative to check this Law I will not garnish this Deaths-head with fine fragments of Poetry and such stuffe nor would I at all set it before you as a standing dish were I not surrounded with so great a Corone of Princes and great men and haply some of you may be of Lewis the Eleventh his minde that charged all about him that they should not name the terrible word Death which yet you must heare of for it is the way of all the earth the house of all the living your long home or house of perpetuity of which its said Job 3. 14. 1 King 2. 2. Job 30. 2● Luciannecy Kings Counsellours Princes small and great are there and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their bones and skeletons have no Inscription or Titles of Honour remaining on them The way to this house of all the living is as one saith sanguinea or lactea the bloudy or the milkie that is the common naturall or usuall way The former is troden by great men the Prince in my Text was sent home this way and so was the first man in the world that dyed The Sword hangs in a hair over the heads of great ones who are often cut Adrian the fourth Acts and Monum off by the hand of emulation and animosity That slaughter-house of Rome where it hath been practised by the Popes themselves who as one of them said do rather succeed Romulus making his way by blood then Peter hath sent out cruell Emissaries to cut off famous men by a meritorious knife How happily may you the Worthies of our Israel call to mind the goodness of that great God who hath bound the hands of such assassinating blood-suckers from executing their fury upon you all this while that you by renowned industry and zeale have given provocations to Rome and Hell The Common

brave Eccho are not such men worthy of the Honourable tears of Israel or else Israel hath reasō to mourn for the senselesnesse and stupidity of their own hearts And for the State and honour of mourning it is an ancient solemnity credited by time and great examples yea and almost the common sense of mankind For both Egyptians and Israelites concurre in weeping for Jacob whose Exequies were performed in great Equipage when he was cared out of Egypt and not to instance in more examples it s said of Hezekiah that all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour 2 Chron. 32 33. at his death and laid him up in the highest Cell of the Sepulchers of Davids sons such is the convictive Majesty of goodness that this idolatrous-hearted people follow their great Reformer to his grave with honour De purgat lib. 1. c. 3. In vaine doth Bellarmine goe about to prove out of these solemnities that they are done ad juvandas animas Wee find no Law of sacrifices for the dead these expressions are but civill indexes of honourable sorrowes a debt owing to Worthies while they liv'd and the remainder paid at their death Like the after-beames of the Sun which follow him to his bed and we were unworthy heires of their famous acts if out of their owne goods we could not allow them answerable interrment and if any Cynicke in his morosity shall say that it matters not humine an in sublimi putrescat Let him enjoy a Philosophicall rotting in what ditch he please we know there is the buriall of an Asse the graves of the common people which is something above that 2 Chron. 21. 20. and higher yet there is a buriall in the City of David but not in the Sepulchers of the Kings and amongst the Sepulchers of the Kings There are lower and higher Cells Honour will follow after worth and merit even into its grave We doe not lay up the carkasse of every Cole-ship with that respect as that of Drakes was though confessedly the one must rot as well as the other So much for the opening of the point Now I come to the words Doe you not know by their hand to serve in the uses of this point 1. Know ye not You Princes and great men that ye must fall 2. Know ye not You lower Shrubs that these Cedars must fall For you that are Princes and great men I may say of you as X●rxes weeping said of his vast Army within these few lusters of yeares there shall not be one of you standing but all fallen and let me set this deaths-head before you For I have no other dish nor am I likely ever to entertaine such a Table-full of so great guests while I live againe let it therefore First Humble you and give me leave to follow the chariot of your greatnesse with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember that you must fall Greatnesse hath need of some correctives You are such Pictures that if one stand of the one side of you You are Gods but if he looke upon you on the other side You are men and must dye like men this takes you one step lower nay we may goe lower yet For man being in honour without understanding is like the beasts that perish We are all proud pride is the shirt of the soule which it puts off last when it shifts And every rising ground of authority or power makes us rise in thoughts The very bramble if it get a snatch of authority will be talking of his shadow Oh that you had the meeknes of that Moses whose face did shine but he knew not that I speake this by allusion the skin of his face did shine I would that but every tenth thought of your rising was accompanied with one thought of your falling And yet you have more reason to have death in your eyes then other men because the Venice Glasses and China mettall of your fine and tender bodies will not abide so great a stroak as other earthen pots of courser mettall I will not offer to you those complements with death whereof we read good store in use among great men as the boy that cry'd Memento te mortalem or that of presenting severall sorts of Marble to the Emperor upon his Coronation day that he might then chuse which he would have for his Tombe c. But let me presse the sense of your falling condition to humble you I doe not meane by humilitie a morall familiarity or courtesie toward those of lower ranke which yet is agracefull condescency of Greatnesse But I meane a stooping to the reproofes of the Word of God brought unto you by the Ministers thereof who are but earthen vessels like your selves Submit your cheek to reproofs for your owne fins and of your Families Let not your iniquities take sanctuary in your greatnesse Frowne not your Chaplaines into a meal-mouth'd basenesse so that they dare no more make a darke or oblique reflection upon your darling sins then take a Beare by the tooth If you will bleed out your ill bloud you must pull off your Velvet sleeve and let the ●●me be bare to the point of the knife Keep no State against God though he speake thunder and lightning by the mouth of dust like your selves A man never makes worse use of his greatnesse then by it to cast a muzzle over the mouth of sound and searching reproofes And it is a just judgment of God upon such men that they should have Prophets that will say to Ahab Goe up and prosper Secondly Quicken you to activity in your places while you live that you may serve your generation according to the will of God before you dye and see corruption otherwise you are but blind lights in golden Candlesticks You are in great debt both to the Church and Common-wealth they have trusted you with all they have and your bond is good but yet be not offended if they call hard upon you to pay your debts for you are mortall men and we know not what Heires or Executors you may leave behind you The Creditor is oftentimes broken in the Debtors death Get death into your minds and it will put life into your actions what you found made of poore Bricke leave in stately Marble and be not like many who while they are rising appeare very active and stirring men but when they are up doe freeze into a benummed slownesse like Bels that strike thicke when they are rising and afterwards when they are at full pitch are set put your selves on with this spurre I must shortly dye How should I live fruitfully The night will come how should I labour while it is day I wish well to things that are good but Bene ●ogitare est bene somniare a good thinker is but a good dreamer nothing more sads and duls the heart when one comes to dye than his neglect of such opportunities which Gods providence or his owne place have p●t into his hand