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	separation_n	4,198	5	9.8832	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20983	Emblema animæ or Morrall discourses reflecting upon humanitie. Written by John du Plessis now Cardinall of Richleu. Translated by I.M. Also varietie of obseruations delightfull to the minde; Emblema animae. English	Richelieu, Armand Jean de Plessis, duc de, 1585-1642.; Maxwell, James, b. 1581.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1635 (1635)	STC 7359; ESTC S111092	68,276	289

our affections and dresse our selves in such sort that fortune may finde the lesse advantage to offend us for a smal body that can cover and gather it selfe together under a buckler marcheth on towards the enemy with more surely then a bigger body doth that lyeth at large open unto blowes If it were not mine intention to husband the time and to spare paper I could enlarge my discourse by reciting of almost ●nnumerable examples as well of Heathens as of Christians which have placed a great part of their perfection in poverty But ye ought to consider one thing for all that Iesus Christ was poore who was Lord of the whole world his Disciples were poore which did possesse all things and the Saints were poore which might have beene rich If yee should never dye I would advise you to set your affection upon riches but I see to that those to whom they most befall doe finde sooner the end of their living then of their longing Why then should a man torment himselfe for a thing that he must necessarily leave and why is he not rather content quietly with that which is needfull chiefly considering that the fairest kind of wealth is for a man to be neither too poore nor yet too far off from poverty DISC. 18. Of Death CAesar sayd well that the best death was that which was least premeditated and to say truth the preparatiō before death hath bin to many a greater torment then the execution it selfe The Mexicans salute their Infants comming forth of their Mothers wombe thus Infant thou art come into the world to suffer endure suffer and hold thy peace Why then should a man bee sorry to dye when nothing but life is miserable And it seemeth that all incommodities and misfortunes may bee borne with either by the meanes of a long custome or by the helpe of a strong discourse onely Death and the apprehension thereof is the thing that putteth us in greatest feare Now the onely remedy and true easing of this evill is that yee make this reckoning of the world and all that is therein that yee have nothing which is your owne neither life nor living no not so much as your owne selfe but that yee live alwayes borrowing and holding your very life not in property but on condition to restore it unto him againe who hath lent it you whensoever he shall require it at your hands yet for all this yee must not neglect it as a thing not yours but must keepe it faithfully and carefully in regard that God hath trusted you with the custody thereof and when it is time to render it to him that gave it not grudgingly but gladly and with a cheerefull countenance in the meane time thanking GOD the giver of all good things for the time yee have had the use and aide thereof and saying unto him in this or the like manner Lord I render unto thee againe this Soule and Life with as good an heart as it pleased thee to give mee the same yea even with a better and readier will then I did receive it for when thou gavest it me thou gavest it to a little weake Creature which knew not the good thou then didst bestow but now thou dost receive it againe at the hands of a Creature more accomplished who knoweth what it is he commendeth into thine hands and therfore rendereth it unto thee withall franknesse and readinesse of will and truely we may easily imagine that it is not a hard thing for a substance to returne to the place whence it first came the body returning to the earth and the soule if it goe the right way must goe to him that gave it To bee short that man doubtlesse never learned well to live who knoweth not how to die wee must therefore in this case bee so affected towards our selves as wee are wont to be in the behalfe of fencers which must fight in a barred field for wee commonly hate him that beareth himselfe faint-heartedly and favour the other who out of a brave courage had rather chose to dye then to bee overcome Besides the feare of death is sometimes the cause or occasion of it to him that flyeth fastest from it And seeing yee know well that life was given you upon condition to render it againe ●e ought not to be so unjust as ●o desire to enjoy that thing for ever which was given unto you for a day by making your selfe Lord and owner of the thing whereof yee are onely a depositary or keeper Moreover men wil say that it is a matter of great import to wit the feare and apprehension of death and that it is the extreame of all terrible things But ye ought to understand that Death is not to bee found fault with for this seeing that it proceedeth not from the nature of Death but from our owne imbecillity who are commonly overtaken and intangled with delights with a desire of this transitory life and with an immoderate love of this miserable flesh And if yee take good heed it is not so much Death i● selfe that is dreadfull as the opinion which wee hold concerning the same For every man feareth it according to his judgment apprehension and conscience And if it bee so that yee have no feare thereof but onely for this occasion then lay the blame upon your selfe and no● upon it For it fareth with men of an evill conscience when they must dye as it doth with riotous spend-thrifts when they must pay their debts They will not come to an account for the distrust which they have of their ability to satisfie for what they have done And to say that ye feare death ●y reason that it is the last point ●●d period of man hath but lit●●e reason in it For the Soule 〈◊〉 alwaies it liveth ever and ●●nnot dye The Greekes call mans decease ●●e end giving us thereby to ●nderstand that it is the period ●nd end of wearisome life O●●ers a death of which there ●re foure kinds the first is the ●aturall death or separation be●weene the Body and the Soule ●he second is a spirituall death ●r a separation betweene the grace of God and us the third ●s a ghostly death or a separation betweene our sinnes and us and the fourth is an everlasting death or a separation betweene Heaven and us for ever But the Holy Scripture calleth death a sleepe to assure us of an assured Resurrection and to the end wee weepe not as Infidels doe which are withou● hope Let us consider with ou● selves how many holy men and women have prized it and desired it as the onely easemen● of all their anguish The writings of Solomon Iob and the histories of Gods Saints are full of the praises of this Christian desire of death What a vanity is it to love so much this miserable life this Jaile this prison this vale of ●eares seeing that the longer we live the longer we live in sinne the more daies wee spend

in our behalfe but are more easily and with much lesse labour appeased pacified They therin not a little resembling our little dogs which will barke uncessantly at such as they are wont to see and know but by and by are quieted as soone as they heare the voyces of them The Empiry or seate of the minde when it is fixed in its proper Spheare is Wisedome Science and Art being the two supporting pillars and these three are the mistresse parts of a reasonable soule whose governour and guide being the minde the Wise have compared the commandement of it above this sensuall and terrestriall part of the soule out of which our passions doe spring unto the office of a Rider who teaching and training his Horse and sitting within the sadle manageth and turneth him at his will But if he should bring a young Horse to the Turney or Tilt which had never before borne the Bit or galloped the round he must needes reape great discredit thereby as not having before broken him with convenient Discipline fit for a management of so great importance In like manner before we put our backs under the burthen of any businesse or expose our selves unto the publicke view of the world wee must endeavour to breake and bring under this wilde and unbacked part of the soule and make it as it were to bite upon the Bit by bringing it to learne the lawes and measures whereby it must be managed and mastered in all occasions and at all occurrences and in the meane time we must not forget to enhearten and encourage it by acquainting it with the pleasure and contentment wherewith is accompanied the issue and end of all worthy and vertuous actions Meditation is a secret lifting up of the soule from vanity and a fixation of the minde upon things really good and honest and it is much helpt by Eloquence which being a purity and elegancy of Speech stirres up discourse in the apprehensive parts of man and when it is connext with Meditation they both give an edge unto the soule and make it steele-hard unpierceable even unto the sharpest point of the strongest passions and usually wee prove admirable at every such exercise when wee have before hand accustomed our selves unto what difficulty soever they may seeme to carry with them On the other side there is nothing bee it never so easie which will not seeme hard and difficult and withall much trouble us if we are found but novices and new apprentices therein How often thinke yee must Canius have meditated upon death and revolved in his mind what thing it should be who being condemned by the Tyrant and sent to the place of execution was so farre from being any whit dismayed thereat in his minde that merrily and as it were jestingly he bid the Centurion who came for him remember that hee was stronger by the advantage of one Chesseman then he against whom he played at that houre And who taking his leave of his nearest and dearest Acquaintance for his last farewell uttered no other words but these Now my deare friends I shall presently finde that which I have so long longed after and so much desired to know if the soule bee immortall and whether men in dying doe feele the separation of the Soule Body which they endure We must needs thinke that this man though a Heathen had a long time exercised himselfe in commanding and over-ruling his passions and that hee had aforehand armed fenced himselfe with faire resolutions seeing that with such constancy and gravity he went to undergoe a death both cruell and unjust If the onely desire to understand what should become of the soule after death could make the torment and torture not onely tollerable but also acceptable unto him What resolution then ought the certaine and assured knowledge of the Soules immortality together with the hope of eternall felicity worke in such as doe seriously meditate upon the same in their mindes May not these goods thinke ye make unto such mindes not onely supportable but even comfortable and delectable both Death it selfe and all other disastrous afflictions which they endure seeing they are as waves which doe push us forward unto the sweet and sure port of everlasting rest and repose DIS 2. Of the choyce of Callings and Affaires EPAMINONDAS Prince of Thebes so hated idlenesse that finding one of his Captains asleepe in the day time he slew him for which act being reprooved by his Nobles he answered I left him as I found him comparing idle men to dead men And truely man is not borne to live idlely but rather as one of the fairest members of this faire frame hee must-conferre and contribute his whole travaile and paine to the conduction and conservation of that civill societie and condition wherein he is placed And because in the choyce which men make of a calling their rest and quietnesse doth principally depend and that nothing doth so much availe to the leading of a contented life as when they finde themselves fit for the same They ought before all other things to take a tryall and survey of their owne strength and seriously bethinke themselves of that charge which they are about to embrace seeing usually we presume too much upon our owne power and attempt more then our ability is fit to atchieve this errour is incident almost to all our actions And hence it is that some will dispend more then their meanes may well beare And others in labouring and toyling goe beyond their abilities some are not masters of their own anger others dallying disporting and playing the pleasant will not spare any person no not the Prince although thereby they should incurre the danger of hazarding their Heads Some are unapt to manage publicke affaires being either of a fullen and solitary humour or of a slacke and slow disposition Others it doth not beseeme to be at Court for that they be either obstinate in opinion or uncourteous in behaviour And that which maketh us to fall into these faults is that we doe not throughly see and looke into our selves Whence it commeth to passe that neglecting to take a true tryall of our owne ability wee often undertake imployments of such gravity and weight as that afterwards wee must either abandon them with ignorance and shame or else if we goe on with them we must needs suffer much trouble and anxiety of spirit Now that a man may the more warily weigh his occasions or affaires before he put under his backe let him remember that alwayes the bearer must have more pith then the burthen for if it be huge too heavy who seeth not that the undertaker must bee constrained either to leave or else to lye downe under it and consider that there are divers kinds of affaires some whereof are hard and uneasie not so much for that they bee weighty important of themselves as for that they be matched and mingled with a multitude of toylesome and

with such like other disma●l accidents But yet in part we follow popular opinion in the apprehension thereof and this wee doe principally in our owne wants necessities and in matter of affronts circumventions and scoffes when as we imagine that the honour is deferred us which we deserve Against these crosses it were good for us to apply unto our selves the saying of the Poet Menander That which hath befallen you is not indeed grievous but onely seemeth so and that it is so it may appeare in that ye have your mind and body as much at commandement as yee had before the crosse did befall you And against the crosses of the first kinde yee ought to consider how that yee endure nothing contrary to the Law and course of humane things in regard that all these accidents are annexed unto mans being and that from his birth they are allotted to him for ordinary and the truth is nature hath not framed us so feeble to beare out adversity as wee make our selues Let us alwaies think that it is but our inferiour part which is subject unto fortune and that wee have the principall in our owne power that that which lyeth in us as concerning vertue cannot bee overcome by any other thing without our consent For wee know that wee have not neede of any great forces for the doing hereof wee having none to fight against but our owne selves and the better part of the victory consisting in mastering our owne will whereunto adde this that God will alwaies favour the man who through the ayde of rectified reason disposeth himselfe to be the stronger Fortune if so it bee lawful for a Christian to speake may well make thee poore abase thee and afflict thee but she is not able to make thee vitious lasie or il-conditioned neither can shee bereave thee of the courage and vigour of minde wherein doth lie greater strength to governe thy soule then there is in the Art of Navigation to direct a ship For the Mariner let him be never so skilfull and wife in his Art cannot withall his skill asswage the surging tempest of the Sea nor yet take away fearefull apprehensions from another mans fantasie Whereas Vertue and Wisedome in a well ordered minde doth assure and settle the body for it preserveth it from diseases through temperance and pulleth it backe from wicked and vitious dispositions by continence and whereas any thing wherein there is danger shall present it selfe unto our minde as if it were in a quicksand it is good that wee leave it and passe further● or else if the evill be unavoydable let him comfort himselfe and think that the haven is not very far off and that his soule goeth out of the body as out of a crazy or broken bark holding death for a sweete and assured harbour chiefly considering that in regard of the nature of the soule her out-going from this life is her in-going to a better Which consideration ought to adde much unto the courage of Christians yea and make them not to feare that which bringeth affrightment unto others And truely if we had skill and courage enough to looke Fortune in the face and to meete her in the way with a stou● stomacke prepared to sustaine all her assaults nothing in the world could dismay us or make us suffer And this thing would certainely come to passe if we could once be accustomed never to promise to our selves aney great or assured hopes or yet any certaine and settled estate during this miserable life and if wee would take heede diligently considering whether those things wee doe account as evill bee so evill as wee deeme them to bee or if happely they bee not so evill but rather lesse then we imagine Finally this thing would happen if we would behold a far off wisely foresee frowning fortune for in so doing wee might assure our selves that at her comming shee should not affright us but the neerer she came to us the bolder wee might bee to looke her in the face and to esteeme her not to be so lusty and strong as her picture doth import and if no man bee able to boast during this life so farre as to say I am exempted from this bitter potion at least may he say thus though I must swallow it downe yet shall I not bee agast weepe and waile I will not neither despaire as many men do I wil not bring my selfe into so deplorable a plight as divers do amidst their disasters Though poverty pinch me more then many others for al that wil I not beguile my neighbour nor yet take that to my selfe which belongeth to another I will not lie much lesse will I forsweare my selfe Briefly there shall nothing unto mee seeme so intolerable as that for to shun it I would chuse to become vitious If by honest meanes I cannot avoide indigence and neede at least necessity shall make this necessity of mine easie to bee borne Besides the common law of humane things doth not allow us to esteeme that thing heavy and unbea●eable which so many daily doe carry and beare on their backs for choose what manner of afflictions yee will yee shall finde more men burthened therewith then exempted there-from Adversity is a Penelopes web which undoes all that the day of Prosperity had woven In the day of Adversity consider saith the Wise man and the Ancients give a clearer revelation of the Knowledge of God unto it then to Prosperity because it is a nearer way to Heaven Therefore we must likewise comfort our selves with this consideration that where there is no sinne ●here can be no true evill at all ●nd that the vertuous man is more came and quiet in his deepest adversity then is the vitious man in his highest prosperity And such were the crosses of the righteous men of old which by the helpe of the divine grace were so accompanied with fortitude patience and humility that how sharpe and rough soever they were yet they brought them not so much vexation and anguish as their conscience did them consolation and ease and even as those that are sicke of a Fever feele sooner and in more painefull manner the heate and coldnesse of their fit then doe the whole and sound the sharpest cold of Winter or the scorching heate of Summer So likewise doth it sure with those that are trouble with the fever of their vitious affections the which do burne and blister extremely and continually their conscience for they are much more vexed with the corrupt and vitious qualities they do beget and beare in their bosomes then are vertuous men with all their adversities For the vertuous quell pride by humility covetousnesse with temperance and all things with patience and these having the inward and better part sound and without wound cannot be hurt by outward accidents wherunto they oppose a lively and lusty courage together with the force of an honest and inviolable mind which is more strong then any thing