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	soul_n	very_a	5,362	5	5.6127	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28635	A guide to eternity extracted out of the writings of the Holy Fathers and ancient philosophers / written originally in Latine by John Bona ; and now done into English by Roger L'Estrange, Esq.; Manductio ad coelum. English	Bona, Giovanni, 1609-1674.; L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1680 (1680)	Wing B3545; ESTC R23243	85,374	202

Satisfaction He that covets Praise does not deserve it for what is there in us that is Praise-worthy Frail and miserable Wretches that we are and at the best but Unprofitable Servants If there be any man that has the Confidence to justifie himself and say he has done his duty let him have a care that he be really what he would be thought to be and that he approve himself in that which the World esteems him for Our Being Life and Reason we owe to Almighty God and the only thing we can claim to our selves is our Iniquity Nothing we are and nothing we have to boast of and till we acknowledge this we shall never be any thing CHAP. X. Of the Government of the Body and the Senses How far the Body may be indulged The Lust of the Eye and Excess in Apparel are condemned I. IN the Entertainment of our Bodies we are to take care that they be kept in Obedience to the Mind on the one hand and want nothing that is necessary for Health on the other We are to provide for them but not wholly to serve them Give me Meat to lay my Hunger Drink to quench my Thirst Clothes to keep me warm and Lodging to shelter me from the Weather I 'll ask no more Nay we are to suspect all Superfluities for Whatsoever is beyond a Competence is a Snare He that is over-solicitous for his Body is thecontrary for his Soul And certainly we are born to Nobler Ends than to be Slaves to our Carcases which we are no otherwise to consider than as the Cages and Prisons of our Minds A wise and a good man does not so behave himself as if his Body were the main end of his Being but he takes care of it because he cannot live without it The Body is the Instrument of the Soul and 't is not for a Workman to neglect his Trade and spend his whole time in ordering his Tools It is the sign of a Sot to be always tending of the Body II. Since it is by the Windows of the Senses that Death enters into the Soul we are to draw them as much as may be from the earthly Life to the Heavenly and to keep them from being altogether taken up with worldly Delights For we are to use them as Servants not as Masters In the first place we are to set a Guard upon our Eyes There is not any thing that more powerfully moves the Imagination stirs the Appetite or works upon the Mind than a wandring Glance and the Mischief is done in a moment Wherefore let the inward Eye accompany the exterior that we may see God in every thing we look upon and when we shall have once learn'd to adore him in his Creatures our next step will be the Contemplation of his Divine Majesty and to worship him in Himself A delicate well-drest Woman is an elaborate Luxuy There 's Death in her very Looks and if you stand to gaze upon her you 're undone Comedies Balls and Publick Spectacles do but weaken the Mind and fill it with Toys that take us off from the Consideration of better things One Error in the Eye begets another in the Affections III. Hearing is the Sense of Discipline the Gate by which the Notions of Truth and Wisdom are convey'd into the Mind If the Passage of the ear be not narrowly watch'd we shall entertain Lies and Fables for Verities and Folly for Wisdom We must keep out all Slanderers Tale-bearers New mongers Babblers Busie-bodies Idle Impertinents and whatsoever else is beside our main Business As in Musick a Man is not only affected upon the very Instant of hearing it but the Harmony leaves an Impression behind it that works upon him when it is over so in Conversation a lewd Discourse though it does us no hurt perchance at present will be yet running in our heads afterward and create in us evil Dispositions The less we hear Men about our ears the more shall we hear God in our hearts As to Perfumes and precious Odors they are an effeminate kind of Luxury Let us sweeten our Manners for it is more noble and manly to indulge our Souls than our Nostrils The Taste is to be humbled by Abstinence and Sobriety The Touch by Discipline Mortifications and Austerities Is it not bitter to punish the Body and preserve it than so to flatter and indulge it as to ruine both Body and Soul for ever IV. One may give a shrewd guess at the humour of a Man by his Clothes There is some regard therefore to be given to the decency of our Apparel and Dress A Fool is known by his Coat The ancient Sages among the Heathen would not suffer a man so much as to hold up his finger without giving a Reason for it Now though I would not be so strict I could wish yet that men would be a great deal more careful in many cases than they are I do not like profuse Laughter Scurrility Loose Behaviour Antick Motions and Gestures a huddling Gate nor any thing whatsoever that may give Offence as foul Linen a greasie Doublet an unpleasant Countenance waggling the Head or making Apes faces yawning and looking about as if one were weary of the Company nor in Conclusion any thing to make them weary of us Many things may be well enough done that are not fit to be seen V. Man was created naked and he was not ashamed for he knew no shame in it But after his Transgression came in his shame he lost his Innocence and kept him in Countenance before and made himself Breéches to cover his Nakedness But that which was originally a Mark of Guilt and Shame is now become a Badge of Dignity and Honour Our Garments now adays are not so much for Covering as for Ornament and to entertain the Eyes and Curiosities of others The Trimming and Dress is the index of the Mind It is a scandalous Effeminacy for a man to spend his time betwixt the Comb and the Glass If he that 's proud or enamour'd of an outside did but well consider what 's under it I am perswaded it would take down his stomach He that has Vertue in his Mind never troubles himself about Lace for his Back Vertue is best in her native Beauty without Arts or Fucusses and so glorious in her self that if she were covered with Jewels they would but serve her for a Foil It is a miserable mistake in men to bestow so much Cost and Care upon the Body and leave the Soul in all manner of Pollution and Uncleanness To see men load themselves with Chains and because they are of Gold to glory in them too without any sense of Infamy or Contempt as if the Metal made the difference We are Princes in Golden Fetters and Slaves in Iron Some are only shackled with Gold others are riveted and fastened to it Their ears are bored where they carry a whole Patrimony in a Pendent and that which was in old time a

one to the Mind than the other is to the Body He that lives in Hope has not one moment of quiet so long as the Will wants the thing it hopes for II. We should never cast an eye upon any thing either without us or about us but with this Consideration It is all transitory and frail How strangely do we forget our selves Are we not born Mortal And this day nay this very hour what assurance have we of it Do we not live upon Trust and is not Death at the very heel of us It is by Gods Power and Mercy that we live and have a Being From him we have received all and when he calls to him it is that we are to render all without repining He 's an ungrateful Debtor that speaks ill of his Creditor There is not any thing under Heaven that we ought to hope for And Heaven it self is the only warrantable Subject of our Hope III. Despair proceeds from a sluggish Abjection of Mind too great an Apprehension of Difficulties a criminal Distrust of our selves and a Defect both of Resolution and Industry This weakness may be overcome by suggesting Encouragements drawn from the Examples of those that have extricated themselves out of greater Straits Let us begin then and press forward for God will assist our Endeavours and all Difficulties will be made easie to us so soon as we shall have relinquish'd the false Opinions that have misled us There is not any thing befalls us but what was allotted us from Eternity and it is either tolerable or otherwise If it may be born we are not to despair but to endure it If not it will make a quick end both of it self and of us too and we are not to despair there neither If we cannot endure it 't is short if we can 't is light It is in our own power to make many things tolerable by balancing them with the benefit and convenience that attends them Affliction is the occasion of Virtue CHAP. XVII Of Fear The Vanity of it and how to master it Rashness to be avoided and something more of Anger I. I Have known many people without any visible or so much as probable danger run raving up and down as if they were stark mad upon the bare Apprehension of some Imaginary Mischief to befal them The Torment they endure is unspeakable what betwixt the Impression of a present and the Apprehension of a mischief to come There are many Misfortunes which we create and have a Being only in the Imagination There are others which threaten us indeed but a far off and they 'll come soon enough of themselves without being drawn on before their time There are some so weak as to govern themselves by Dreams and idle Phansies without any reasonable ground of Conjecture at all and to be startled at every foolish Rumor A word mistaken is enough to break their sleep and the Apprehension of a Great Mans Displeasure puts them directly out of their Wits not so much for the Displeasure it self as for the Consequences of it But these are vain Thoughts and the vainer the more Troublesome For Truth has its Measure and Limits but Imagination is boundless And the main Difference I find betwixt the Sufferance of a Misfortune and the Expectation of it is this The Grief for what hath befaln us will over but the fear of what may befal us hath no end II. He that would deliver himself from the Tyranny of Fear let him take for granted that what he fears will come to pass and then enter into a Computation upon the whole matter Upon this Deliberation he will certainly find that the things he fears are nothing so terrible in themselves as in the false Opinion of them 'T is a hard case for a man to be banished or laid in Irons 'T is a terrible pain to be burnt alive And yet we have many instances not only of Christians but Infidels also that have Despised and Triumphed over all this and more indeed than this amounts to Stephen suffered death with a quiet Constancy of mind and pray'd for his Persecutors Laurence rejoyces upon the Gridiron and braves the Tyrant The Virgin Appollonia leaps into the Fire Anaxarchus is chearful in the Morter under the very stroak of the Hammer Socrates takes off his Cup of Poyson as if it had been a Frolick and drinks the Health to Critias What is there now so terrible in the Faggot or the Gibbet or in the train of Executioners and Officers of Justice that attend it under this Pomp and Formality which serves only to fright Fools there lies Death That which so many thousands of Men Women and Children have not only Welcom'd but Courted Set aside the noise the hurry and the disguise in these Cases and let every thing appear in its own shape we shall find there is nothing terrible in the matter but the mere Apprehension of it And that it fares with us great Boys as it does with little ones our very Nurses and our Play-fellows if they be but drest up with a white Sheet or a Vizard are enough to put us out of our Senses Nay and we are the sillier Children of the two for we are struck with a Panique Terrour not only at the Counterfeit of a Reality but the very Counterfeit of a Counterfeit torments us III. Bring it now from a particular to a common Cause and let every man say to himself I have a frail and mortal Body liable to distempers sickness and in the conclusion to death it self All this I have known from a Child and the many ill Accidents that threaten me What have I now to fear Bodily sickness My Soul will be the better for 't Poverty My Life will be the safer and the sweeter for 't Loss of Fortune Why then farewel all the Cares and Dangers that accompany it Loss of Credit If I suffer deservedly I shall detest the Cause but approve the Justice If wrongfully my Conscience will be my Comforter Shall I fear a Repulse or a Disappointment there never was any man but wanted something or other that he desired Banishment I 'll Travel and Banish my self Loss of my Eyes It will deliver me from many Temptations What if men speak evil of me It is but what they are us'd to do and what I deserve Shall I fear Death It is the very condition I came into the World upon Well! But to dye in a strange Country All Countries are alike to him that has no abiding-place here But for a man to die before his time As if a man should complain of having his Shackles knock't off and being discharged of a Prison before his time We are not to look upon Death or Banishment as causes of Mourning as Punishments but only as Tributes of Mortality It is a senseless thing to fear what we cannot shun IV. Let us take heed of being over-confident and venturing at things beyond our strength for no man is more

Fortune is a great Slavery and Thrones are but uneasie Seats and so they find them that possess them let the Multitude conceive of them what they please That Felicity cannot but be troublesome to the Ruler that makes him burthensome to his People And when it comes to that once how sick they grow of that Splendor which charmed and dazled them before What Contemplations and Philosophising upon the Blessings of Privacy and Freedom and the Vanity of Earthly things They look then with Terror upon Death and the Last Judgment And all the Greatness that they have purchas'd with so much Sweat and Blood shrinks to nothing at the very thought Let us therefore so live that we may appear with Comfort before the Great Tribunal He that humbles himself now shall be exalted hereafter IV. He that thinks he shall be safe and quiet when he is great is directly out of his wits Many Liberties may be taken in a private Condition that are dangerous in a Publick The higher we are raised the more eminent are our Infirmities There 's no concealing of any thing upon the top of the House We have lost even the Tranquility that we had before There 's not a day not an hour that we can call our own And then the Fall is in a manner from Heaven to Hell How can we then expect Peace and Repose in a Station where all that ever went before us have encountered Hazards and Trouble if not Death it self How many Princes have been poysoned at their very Tabls betray'd in the Arms of their Mistresses Caesar was murthered in the Senate-house He that stands high upon a slippery place and the brink of a Precipice God have mercy upon him But the man that stands below upon the firm Ground needs not fear falling In our Greatnesses we are to consider that every man that admires and flatters us envies us too in his heart What with our open and our secret Enemies we are never secure We are betray'd by our Servants our Friends our Relations But these are the sins and miseries of Courts not of Cottages He that lies close lives quiet He fears no body of whom no body is afraid V. A man could hardly forbear laughing to see a Horse or a Dog take upon himself an Authority over the rest of his kind And is it not more ridiculous for a Man to do it because he has more Money perhaps or more Power Proud Dust and Ashes to exalt himself upon his own Bottom when he has nothing good in him but what he has received from above We can call nothing our own but our sins Let us render Glory then for what we have received unto him that gave it Do we prefer one Horse before another because he has more Meat or gayer Trappings No by no means but we reckon him to be the better that 's the fleeter No more is a Man to be esteemed for any thing apart from himself But I am a Person of Quality says one and the best man in the Company The very saying of such a thing is a Forfeiture of the Honour he pretends to for no man is truly Honourable but a Good man with whom this Titulor Honour is of no Accompt True Nobility does not advance it self and the great Ornament of an Illustricus Life is Modesty Humility goes a great way in the Character even of the most Glorious Prince VI. If we would but take a measure of our little Bodies and make a Search into our Infirmities we should find much to humble us and very little or nothing to brag of The Philosophers tell us that the World is but a Point And yet we must be dividing even of this Point into Kingdoms and Dominions The Earth we trample upon shall ere long be laid upon us and of all our Possessions we shall have only so much left as will serve to cover a cold and rotten Carcase And is not here a goodly Foundation think ye for all our great and mighty Projects This Consideration methinks should put a Check to our furious and insolent Passions There 's no designing of Conquests and ranging of Armies in the Grave When the mad Humour is over we shall come then though too late I fear to understand the Emptiness of Names and Titles and that they are like Glass the Brighter the Britler and the more they shine the sooner they are broken The Oak that has been an Age a growing is cut down in an hour VII He that withdraws himself from Company has cut off one dangerous Temptation For Pride shews it self more or less in proportion to the number of Spectators People dress and trick up themselves to be seen Are not all the excesses of Luxury and Magnificence for Ostentation Did ever any man expose the Pomp of his Vanity and Riot in a Desert Ambition loves to shew it self in the Face of the World and is never so well pleased as with a Popular Applause When the Bee has made her Honey the Horse finish'd his Course the Tree brought forth its Fruit their Business is at an End But the Man that is struck with Vain-Glory accounts all the rest as nothing without making himself the Idol of the Multitude and to be adored flattered and pointed at by the Rabble But certainly did we but daily consider who they are that commend us we should hardly think them worth our Courtship They are a vain and fickle sort of men the dregs of Mankind and made up of Phrensie and Contradiction They are short-liv'd both the Bestowers and Receivers of these Applauses The Earth it self is but a Point and this is done but in a corner even of that Point There were divers Dissenters too and scarce a man of all the rest that knows his own Mind But 't is a brave thing for a Man to make himself famous to Posterity that is to say to those whom we never did see nor ever shall Why are we not as well troubled that no body talk'd of us before we came into the World as delighted to think how we shall be spoken of after we are gone out of it Nay let us give it for granted that our Memories shall be perpetuated and our Names live for ever What then what shall we be the better for this when we are dead Or to come nearer what are we the better for this same thing called Fame even while we are living A man is many times commended where he is not and tormented where he is The Value of every thing is in it self and it self and it is neither the better for a good word nor the worse for wanting it The Sun would be every jot as glorious without Spectators as with them The Rose is never the sweeter nor the pleasanter the Diamond is never the brighter for an Encomium It is a strong proof of a generous Mind for a man to be content with himself and not to depend upon the Breath of the Common People for his