Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	book_n	life_n	write_v	4,779	5	6.1891	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43357	Heraclitus Christianus, or, The man of sorrow being a reflection on all states and conditions of human life : in three books.		1677 (1677)	Wing H1487; ESTC R12496	69,902	193

Sin of whom was punished by his Children who were so irregular that one of them violated his own natural Sister Tamar and conspired the death of his own Father and drove him out of his Kingdom For the Rule of the ancient Philosophers has always proved true that man committeth many faults in this world the punishment of which God reserveth in the other but this sin of not well Educating our Children he usually punisheth in this for the Father in begetting his Sons gives them nothing but mortality and weakness but by good Education Fame and everlasting Renown We will conclude then that if the Children have been in great peril and misery oftentimes by the corrupt milk of their Nurses yet nevertheless the danger is double in respect of them who ought to instruct them for as much as that the nutriment of the body is of far less consequence than that of the mind But seeing that we have not as yet mentioned Plato who hath Divinely Philosophiz'd on Human Calamities and so lively represented the miseries of this life that many of his Disciples reading his Books have cast themselves down headlong from the tops of Rocks and Mountains into Rivers that so cutting the thread of their Calamitous life they might have the enjoyments of the next This great Philosopher Plato in a Dialogue that he hath made concerning Death and contempt of this life introduceth Socrates who deduceth by an admirable Eloquence the miseries and frailties of Human condition as followeth Knowest thou not saith He that Human life is nothing but a peregrination which the wise perform and pass in joy singing with gladness when that by necessity they approach unto the end of it Dost thou not well know that man consisteth of spirit which is enclosed in his body as in a Tabernacle which Nature has bestowed upon him not without great vexation and though she does bequeath some small benefits to us yet are they nevertheless hid and of a short durance and consumed in sorrow and trouble by reason of which the soul resenting the dolour cometh to desire the Coelestial Habitation and wisheth for the Fruition of heavenly pleasures Consider that the going out of this world is no other thing than a mutation and exchange of evil for good and what evil saith He and misery doth not man endure from his birth to his Sepulchre What kind of sorrow is there that he hath not experienced be it of heat of cold of torments in his body as also of his mind What other messenger or more certain forerunner can he have of his misery than his tears sighings and groanings But after he hath born so many evils and come to the 7th year of his age he must have Guardians and Tutors for his instruction in Learning moreover growing and coming into his youth he had need of Correctors who with rigor must observe his actions to tame and accustom him to labour CHAP. V. Of the Misery attending the state of Manhood HIS youth being past over hair begins to cover his chin and then he grows man and then is the time that he entreth into greater anxiety and vexation of spirit he must then frequent publick places keep up a conversation in company if he be of a Noble and Illustrious Extraction he is forced to undertake a thousand warlike stratagems and enterprises and expose himself to an infinite of perils and hazard his life and spill his blood that he may dye in the bed of honour or else he shall be looked on as of a cowardly mean and dastardly spirit If he be of a low condition and ordinary Fortune and be called to the exercise of mechanick Arts that hindreth him not from enduring a thousand vexations infinite labour and travel as well of body as mind he must work night and day must sweat blood and water for to get that which is necessary for the maintenance and suppor of his life and what labour or diligence soever he useth he can scarcely procure himself that which is necessary It is not therefore without cause that Marc. Aurel. considering the miserable condition of Human life was accustomed to say I thought in my self whether there could be found any State any Age any Land any Kingdom in which there could be found a man who durst vaunt that he never tasted in his life what was adverse Fortune this would be such a monster that both the living and dead would have desire to see him and then he concludes in the end I have found my reckoning saith he that he that was yesterday rich is to day poor he that was yesterday whole is to day sick he that laugh'd yesterday to day I saw cry he that I saw yesterday in prosperity I saw to day in adversity he that I saw yesterday amongst the living I see him now amongst the dead CHAP. IV. Mans Misery more particularly considered and first of the miserable life of Mariners REturn we then to our Subject deducing things in particular and who is he among men who hath betaken himself to any State or Trade and way of living that has not at last complained and been weary of it And that this may more evidently appear consider we the principal states in particular Begin we then at them who swim on the water and who gain their livings on the Sea and in how many perils are they night and day What is their habitation but a nasty and stinking prison the same is their diet What are their garments but as it were a Sponge of water They are always as vagabonds and in continual exile without any rest agitated by the Winds Rain Hail Snow at the mercy of Pyrats and Rovers Rocks and Tempests in continual hazard of being intomb'd in the bellies of fishes Wherefore Byas that Sage Grecian Philosopher knew not whether he should reckon these sort of people amongst the Terrestrial creatures or Aquatils and doubted whether he ought to number them amongst the living or the dead And another called Anacharsis said That they were no farther distant from the dead than the breadth of two or three fingers as much as the timber contained in thickness upon which they swam CHAP. VII Of the Misery attending the life of Husbandmen AND if the manner of living of Mariners seemeth terrible to us what greater sweetness think we to find in Agriculture and Rustical labour which at first look seemeth sweet happy quiet simple and innocent and that which many Patriarchs and Prophets have chosen as that in which there was the least of fraud and cousenage and that for which many Roman Emperours have forsaken their Palaces Theatres and other Pompous and Resplendant Edifices that they may retire themselves into the fields and cultivate their Lands with their hands and enjoy that innocent pleasure which they imagined might be found in a Country life but to them who would consider every thing more exactly it will appear that these Roses are not without their thorns and

Subsidies and seek means whereby they may fill the Treasury of their Kings and enrich themselves with the spoils of the poor people and the Princes sometimes deal with them as we do with our Hogs letting them fat themselves that we may eat and devour them and then preferring new ones in their places Behold how these poor miserable Courtiers sell their liberty to enrich themselves They must obey all commands whether just or unjust forcing themselves to laugh when their Prince laugheth and cry when he cries to approve what he approves to condemn what he condemns must subject his humor to every ones alter and wholly change his nature be severe with those that are severe sad with the sorrowful and transform himself almost into the nature of them whom he would please If the Prince be incontinent he must be so too if he be cruel he must take delight in effusion of blood In short he must sympathize with the humor of the Prince whom he serveth though oftentimes a small offence wipes out all the services which he has done in all his life before Which they who served the Emperour Adrian experienced who after having been by him raised up to the highest Estates and Dignities by the means and reports of some flatterers were not only divested of that honour which was given them but were also declared his Capital Enemies Which Plato having considered and foresaw in the Court of the Athenians left them their delicacies yet howsoever could not so well rule himself but that he returned to Denis Tyrant of Sicily who in the end sold him to Pirates and worse fared it with Zeno the Sage Ancient Philosopher whom Phalaris for satisfaction of his Services put cruelly to Death In the like manner did the King of Cyprus to Anacreon and the Noble Philosopher Anaxagoras and Nero to his Master Seneca and Alexander to Calistenus because he would not adore him cutting off his feet ears and hands and plucked out his eyes leaving him to the mercy of an austere Prison where he miserably ended his days and this hath been oftentimes the reward of many Learned men who not willing to obey the unreasonable desires of their Princes lost their lives for the recompence of their Services and wholesom Counsels Not to take notice of many other evils which do ordinarily follow them which haunt the Court where the most part of things are carried on corruptly many at the Court seeing thee take off their Hats to thee who would willingly take off thy Head he bows his knee to thee that would willingly break his Leg that he might carry thee to thy Grave Such a one is there called Worshipful who better deserves the name of Hangman If you would be an Adulterer at the Court you shall not want associates if you have Quarrels with any one you shall there find assistants for carrying them on if you would Lye you shall find them that will swear to it if you would Steal they will learn you a thousand subtilties and Inventions if you would Game you shall there find more cheats than at Gaming-Ordinaries if you would Forswear and bear false witness you shall be hired and paid for it In short if you would give your self over to all sorts of wickedness and villany you shall find there true Examples and Formularies and this is the Life of a great number of Courtiers and this is that wherein they employ their youth which is not youth but a transitory death as for old men know you what they get Gray-heads their Feet full of Gouty humors their Mouth Tooth-less their Reins full of Gravel their Hearts full of Pensiveness and their Souls full of Sin In short Of the Court there is little to write but much to murmur and complain of but to him that desires more of that Subject let him read the Book of De Guevara Bishop of Mondovent and Chronicler to the Emperour And Aeneas Silvius who have composed Two most Excellent Treatises on that Matter where they have so perfectly set forth the Courtier that they have cut off all hope from them who will write after them of adding any thing CHAP. XI Of the Miseries attending the Life of Kings and Emperours BUT leave we the Courtiers with their restless and miserable Life And let us now consider the Life of Monarchs and Emperours for whom it seemeth as it were that Felicity was created for if you would set before you every thing which may make the Life of Man happy joyful and content you shall find that Fortune amongst all other mortals hath been abundantly Munificent to them What maketh man more admirable than plenty of Riches Dignities Kingdoms and Empires Licence and Power to do either good or evil without Contradiction or Correction means to exercise Liberality all forts of Voluptuosness and Pleasures as well of the mind as the body all that may be wish't for or any ways conducible to the delight of man whether it be in respect of eating or drinking as also in their Magnificent Services Utensils and Vestments which may tickle the Senses and cajole Humane Concupiscence all which are prepared from the Cradle that they might lead their lives with greater Content and Felicity Which Discourse if we will only consider externally there 's none but would confess that they Triumph alone in that which all others languish after but if we would consider things a little more near and weigh them in a just balance we shall find that those very things which we think degrees whereby to reach Felicity are the true instruments of Vice and Misery What signifies their costly Robes their Honourable Attendance and delicate Meats when that they are in continual fear of being poison'd and betray'd by those that Serve them Have we not had experience of this in our time Does not Platinus write of a certain Pope who was poyson'd by his Servants that presented him with paper coming off from his stool Others with the smoke of Flambo's and Torches ' I is a thing horribly strange that humane malice is so much increased there having been found them that have mingled poyson with the Sacred Host as did a certain Sienois who caus'd the death of many persons and effected in this manner the death of the Emperour Hen. 7th as may be seen in Fuschius in the 1st Book of his Composition of Medicaments Histories make mention of certain Emperours who durst not repose themselves at night on their Beds till there had been search made in all the parts of their Chambers for fear of being Murdered whilst they slept others would never permit that Barbers should ever touch their Faces lest that taking off their Hair they should take away their lives and are moreover so fearful that they dare not put the meat which they have before them in their mouths till essay be made whether it be poyson Were it not better saith Julius Caesar to dye once than to live always in such a