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	life_n	part_n	5,356	5	4.4664	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15393	Eliah's vvish a prayer for death. A sermon preached at the funerall of the Right Honourable Viscount Sudbury, Lord Bayning. By Ro: Willan D.D. Chaplaine to his Maiesty.	Willan, Robert, d. 1630.; Spencer, John, d. 1680.	1630 (1630)	STC 25670; ESTC S120043	16,811	52

them to bee slayne as degenerate wretches that would ouerliue their Temple and their Religion hee is not worthy of life who will not aduenture it for the author of life To conclude this second motiue lett vs alwayes haue that preparation of mind in the phrase of Tertullian to retaliate bloud with bloud our Sauiour in great plenty shed his most precious bloud for vs bee wee ready to spend our liues for him and with Paul and Barnabas to ieopard them for his Gospell although our liues in respect of his are but stubble to Pearle yet being the greatest oblation wee can offer it will bee most acceptable most rewardable The losse of life for his cause is the sauing of it Elias sute for death was neuer granted he neuer died at all but was conueyed not into Earthly Paradise the Deluge made that pleasure desolation nor stayed he in the Aeriall Heauens too vnquiet and disconsolate a place amongst Stormes and Thunders Lightnings and Tempests St. Chrysostome saies it affrighted the Prince of the Ayre to see him ride so gloriously through his quartér Nor did he rest among the Spheres to be rapt and whirled about by their diurnall motion not to the highest heauens that Prerogatiue was reserued for the Worlds Sauiour no Souldier triumphs before his Generall but God translated his enflamed Zelot and earthly Seraphin into a happy and blessed estate in the bosome of Abraham with this Priuiledge others were there before in soule hee both in soule and body Now proceede wee from the Motiues forerunning the Prayer to the Reasons attending vpon it You haue heard of some as of St. Paul eloquently pleading without any Aduocate to saue his life before Felix Fesius and Agrippa and by an Appeale taking truce with death But here is one in the Text pleading for death and finding Reasons why he should liue no longer His Arguments are in number two The first is drawne from the satiety of life It is now enough as if hee should say thus in effect I haue liued long enough to my selfe long enough to my Countrey First to my selfe it pleased thy diuine goodnesse by making mee an instrument of thy glory to aduance my owne so as I shall leaue an high reputation and a venerable name to all posterity and for my Countrey such thy mercy by my meanes they enioyed much good spirituall good I reclaimed them although they bee now relapsed from Idolatry to the Seruice of thee their true and onely God I was the Reformer of their corrupted manners my rugged Robes and hairy Habit condemned their proud attyre my austere and strict life taught them to amend their loose and licentious conuersations As a retyred Heremite I sequestred my selfe from humane society to let them see 't was lesse dangerous to dwell among brutes then beastiall men And for good temporall I turned their drought into Raine and their famine into Plenty hauing in my whole course equalled nay transcended the period of Mortality It is now enough O Lord. His second Argument is drawne from the common law of nature I am no better then my Fathers my Ancesters in time my Predecessors in profession are all arriued at their wished Port why shouldst thou prolong my dayes by miracle sometimes appointing the Rauens those vncleane birds by thy law and vnnaturall in their kinde to be my Caters as at the brooke Carith Sometimes by multiplication of the old store or by creation of new prouision turne meale barrels into Granaries and cruets of oyle into Fountaines as at the Widdowes of Sareptah I desire not the producing of my misery the preseruation of my life by extraordinary wayes let me passe O Lord the common way of all my Fathers For J am no better then my Fathers Obserue in Elias Arguments his method and modesty how orderly hee rankes his Reasons There goes a sufficit before tolle animam Hee doth not aske death of God vntill hee hath performed great seruice vnto the Lord in his life for it is a preposterous course to demand wages before the worke bee done Rest comes after labour no Souldier lookes for a donatiue vntill the warre bee ouerpast no Marriner cals for a faire winde vntill his vessell bee full fraught It is no matter how long or how short our liues be but how good The Morall man saw this Life is long enough if full of good St. Austins similitude expresseth this well As a Musitian tarrying long vpon one string little vpon another his lightest touch makes not perhappes so loude a sound but as sweet an harmony So in God his Consort who as the Prophet speakes keepes true time they make as good musicke that is glorifie God in their calling vnto whom he vouchsafeth a short life it being both ornatus ordinatus cursus as they who enioy the longest The Sunne and Moone those Fountaines of light and guides of time fulfill their courses in a short season The dimmer Plannets are a longer while wheeling about The Scripture compares our life to Hearbes and Flowers A Flower is Res Spectaculi Spiraculi Delighting our eyes with various colours pleasing our sense with sweete sauours but withall of a fading substance Say they escape the browsing mouth of the beast the pruning knife the plucking hand the nipping ayre the violent winde they will wither of themselues Of such mettall are wee made Imagine wee could be free from Asaes Gowt Naamans Leprosie Jorams Iliaca passio Jobs vnsauory breath Hezekiabs botch Lazarus biles the woman of Syrophenissa's dysentery Publius Feuer and all diseases whereof the body of man is a Lazaretto and Receptacle Galen found in one little part of the eye an hundred seuerall infirmities could all these be auoyded yet our bodies of their owne accord would moulder into earth from whence they came Since they are Flowers vse wee them like Flowers which last long if they bee distilled into sweete waters distill wee our liues into holy and vertuous Actions distill them into the works of Piety distill them into the workes of Charity this is the way to make a short life last long no Babylonian Tower no Aegyptian Pyramis no Rhodian Colossus no Mausolian Tombe no Triumphall Arche no life-counterfeiting Statua can giue such life of memory as a life it selfe transacted in worthy designes for Glorious sayes the Wiseman is the fruite of good labours perpetuall is the memory of the Righteous one generation proclaiming their vertues vnto another So then haue wee in our allotted stations serued God in vprightnesse and sincerity of heart haue wee endeauoured in the vtmost extent of our ability to doe good to our Religion our King our Countrey our Brethren is there a sufficit in our liues Wee must hold our life in patience but wee may put death in our prayers when Paul may say hee hath fought a good fight kept the faith finished his course then he may come to his Cupio dissolui When Hilarion can alleadge his 70. yeeres

employment in the seruice of God then he may say Egredere anima mea go out my soule why shouldst thou feare approaching vnto him whom thou hast serued so long when Elias can plead a sufficit then tolle animam may come after it O the secure life of good men when death is expected without feare entertained with chearefull welcome nay prayed and wished for with sweet deuotion In the second Argument take notice of his modesty he esteemes himselfe though wonderfully qualified no better then his Fathers If some small portion of Elias modesty were left in the world any blush of vertuous bashfulnesse the vile would not in the Prophets phrase presume aboue the Honourable nor the vpstart so highly disdaine their Ancesters preferring the false and fading beauty of recent opinions before the amiable wrinkles in the face of aged truth St. Paul says he serued God from his elders and progenitors from whom hee receiued his being and existencie from them hee tooke his piety and religion and he commends the deriuatiue faith of Timothy descending from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice And here Elias making honourable mention of his Predecessors tels vs wee owe vnto them a double memory First of their liues as Adamants to draw vs to the imitating of their vertues Secondly of their deaths as monitors to put vs in minde of our owne mortality All vertues Morall and Diuine haue beene by our Ancestors most fully exemplified when a Poet would encourage a young Sparke to noble vndertakings hee doth it by this very way Te Pater Aeneas auunculus excitet Hector Let thy father Aeneas and thy vncle Hector bee thy Guides Would you learne faith and confidence in God thinke vpon your Predecessor Abraham the Father of the faithfull Desire you to leade a pure chaste life thinke vpon your Predecessor Joseph Would you meekly sustaine afflictions of minde and tormenting diseases of body thinke vpon your Predecessor Iob would you bee zealous in the cause of God and his Orthodox truth thinke vpon your Predecessor Elias The Wisemen of the East had but one Starre to guide them vnto our Sauiours cradle but we so many of our Predecessors as haue led holy and Regular liues so many Starres enlightning our way so many Loadstones to draw vs vnto goodnesse our Ancestors hauing runne their Race resigned the torches of their life and withall left vs the lampes and lights of their example 2. It is very good and wholsome for them also who spend their dayes in sinne and vanity to reflect their eye vpon theyr Predecessors Let the couetous ayming at wealth and doing no good with it thinke vpon his Predecessor Nabal who tenne dayes together lay as a block without sence motion or shew of life Let the Ambitious aspirer thinke vpon his Predecessor Absolon meeting with a tree in the forrest which heard not his fathers Caueat for his life but became the Reuenger of his ingratitude and the fatall instrument of his destruction Let the Lasciuious wanton wallowing in sensuall delights thinke of his Predecessor Zimri dying in the act of his sinne Let the Capacious Funnell able to do as much alone as Zerxes multitudinous Army dry vp an Hellespont thinke vpon his Predecessor Balthazar perishing in his carowsing Bowles Let the vayne-glorious boaster proud of what is not his own think of his predecessor worm-eaten Herode cut off in the midst of his glorious Harangue And let all true Repentant sinners thinke on theyr Predecessor Dauid whose bed swamme in teares and of the three sillables reconciling his angry God vnto him of his Predecessor Peter recouering more grace by weeping then hee lost by sinning of his Predecessor Mary Magdalen who became a Lebete Phiala of a Cauldron seething and boyling in lust a Christall viall of pure Chastity And let all disconsolate soules flying with Elias for shelten to the Iunipertree thinke of their Predecessor Jesus who dyed on the tree vnder his Crosse is the true shade Oh good and desirable is the shadow vnder thy wings Lord Jesus there is the safe Sanctuary to flye vnto the most comfortable refreshing of all sinne and sorrow whatsoeuer cups of affliction this life propines vnto vs is nothing to the bitter draughts hee dranke vpon the Crosse who inuites to heauen Let vs all thinke of our Predecessor treading the Paths of death before vs wee haue erred with our Fathers wee are Pilgrimes and strangers vpon earth as all our Fathers were wee must dye as our Fathers did For we are no better then our Fathers The third and last part is the prayer it selfe Tolle animam out of it there doe naturally flow these two Corallaries The first that life is no such Iewell but a good man may finde time and cause to bee weary of it or else Elias had neuer beene at tolle animam The second that there is a more blessed life after this life or else Elias could not haue bene so mad as prodigally to cast away his life present To the first Life may be considered two wayes First as God at first gaue it Secondly as wee now enioy it The life which God gaue had fiue prerogatiues two without man three within him without him God and his blessed Angels to protect him besides Paradise the pleasing seate of his Habitation Within him Knowledge Righteousnesse and Immortality his knowledge exceeding ours in three particulars First in amplitude and extent reaching to God the creatures and himselfe Secondly in the excellent manner not as we by coniecturall probability deriued from effects but by euident demonstration out of the causes Thirdly for duration or continuance ours is gotten with difficulty aud easily lost either by discontinued intermission and cessation or the braine and fancy may be distempered as in a Phrensy or the memory dulled as in a Lethargy Secondly man was created Righteous that Righteousnesse was the rectitude and integrity of the whole man whereby his soule was obedient vnto God his body to the soule This was the Crowne and Diadem of mans life Thou hast Crowned him with glory and worshippe adorned him with grace and holinesse An happy life was that wherein Methusalem liuing almost a thousand yeeres should not haue offended once whereas now the most righteous man fals seauen times that is often-times a day Lastly that was a kinde of Immortall life a thing is said to be incorruptible three wayes First in respect of the matter either which it hath not as the Angels are immortall those pure and immateriall substances or in respect of the matter which it hath as the Heauens the matter whereof they are made being insusceptible of any forme but one Secondly in regard of the forme so the body of Adam was immortall as the widdowes oyle lasted in the cruse without diminution so might his body haue endured without corruption and that by the third the efficient cause not by any inherent quality or disposition in the body but