Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	cause_n	great_a	sin_n	4,172	5	4.8426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48314	A moniter of mortalitie in two sermons, by a consideration of the manifold and uncertaine surprizalls of death, guiding the pace and passages of a temporall life, towards the obtainement of life eternall, occasioned by the death of that hopefull young gentleman John Archer Esquire, sonne and heir to Sir Simon Archer, Knight of Warwickshiere and by the death of Mistris Harpur, a grave and godly matron, (wife to Mr. Henry Harpur of the city of Chester,) and of the death of their religious daughter Phabe Harper, a child of about 12 years of age / by Iohn Ley.	Ley, John, 1583-1662.	1643 (1643)	Wing L1884; ESTC R228694	42,269	56

if done amisse a wise-mans life hath been defined by a principall * Plato apud Cel. Rhodigin lib. 19. cap. 8. Philosopher to be a meditation of death if so it will be no prejudice I am sure to your prudence to attend with patience while I deliver you not in any very long speech some necessary notions of that which after a short appearance passeth away The shortnesse of life Vapour-like hath various expressions in the Scripture It is compared by David to a fading flower Psal 103.15 to a fleeting shadow Psal 144.4 and by Job to the passage of a Weavers shuttle Job 7.6 and here you see to a vanishing vapour which we must for reasons referre First to the prime and most predominant cause of all things Secondly to inferiour and secundary causes subservient to his purpose and providence For the first as God is the Authour and giver of life Gen. 2.7 1 Sam 2.6 so gives he the measure of it in what proportion best pleaseth himselfe unto Methuselah he made a very large measure as taken out of the whole peece of secular duration and to some he allowes but a snip of time as to Davids Child who lived not to receive the Seale of Circumcision set upon him as under the Gospell many by the Ministry of the Midwife are borne once but tarry not to be borne againe by our administration of the Sacrament of Baptisme though it require no adjournement to the 8th day as Circumcision did and of himselfe saith the Psalmist thou hast shortned my dayes Psal 89.45 even to the narrow measure of an hand-bredth Psal 39. v 15. and this he doth by his Power as a Creator and by his Office as a Judge rewarding sinne with death Rom. 6.23 2. For secundary causes besides sinne deserving death and provoking Gods Justice to hasten it upon sinners though to some death be sent in hast as an invitant to a feast not as a Serjeant to arrest they are within us or without us Within us Diseases and distempers in the humours and Passions Without us Poisonous Malignities wrathfull hostilities and casuall mishaps The gate of life is but one the posternes or trap-dores of death are many I may call them so for a man is taken by death as by a trap and that such a one as catcheth sodainly killeth certainely and holdeth fast what it taketh hold of 1. First for the causes within us to begin with diseases It is above 2000. yeares agoe that as * Ante bis mille firmè annos 300. morborum c. Erasm Chiliad Proverb dulce Bellum inexpert p. 298. Erasmus said in his Chiliads there have been reckoned up 300. Names of them and there be many under one Name many Namelesse which pose the Physitians not only how to cure them but how to call them and then they give it their passe under the name of the New disease and passe it will for they cannot stop it Of these though many feed upon nature by degrees and sometimes also without noyse as a moth eateth into a garment some sodainely destroy it as a fire doth a faggot of dried Thornes for divers dye with very short sicknesse and some without any sicknesse at all we have daily experience of various descants made by death upon this narrow ground of an hand-bredth as David measures the life of man Psalm 39.5 We see some grownd with the Stone some smitten downe with the Epilepsy or an Aposteme or as the Vulgar miscall it Impostume which secretly and insensibly gathered to an head may breake in a moment and stop the breath of mans bosome or stifle the spirits of his braine some blowne up with the Collick or Iliaca passio some eaten up by a Consumption some by a multiplication of * Pherecides of the Island of Syros dyed of a great quantity of Lice Aelian var. Hist li. 5. c. 28. Creeping vermine and some drowned with the Dropsie some burnt with a Fever And some of them are such Epidemicall malignities against the health and life of man that the Chambers of death are enlarged and great and wide caves to be digged for more roome where the dead are piled up as Sampson said of the slaughtered Philistines by heapes upon heapes Judg. 15.16 while faire and spacious roomes above ground are empty for want of living guests to lodge in them yea such desolations have been made among men by devouring Postilence as Thucidides and many other Authours have left upon Record that the living have beene scarce left enough to bury the dead 2. And for the affections and passions of the mind the distempers of them are no lesse deadly to some then the diseases of the body we will instance in Love and the contraries to it Envy and Wrath in Hope and Feare in Sorrow and Joy 1. For Love we finde the Church sick of Love to Christ Cant. 2.4 and we are sure that Christ dyed for Love of his Church Eph. 5.25 and that Love which is moerely humane hath by experience proved mortall to many what David wished to have suffered for Absolom saying in the pangs of his excessive Love unto him would God I had dyed for thee 2 Sam. 18.23 to the same have divers actually exposed themselves sometimes by deadly adventures for their friends sometimes with their friends to which danger nothing induced them but meere Love unto them but it is more ordinary for men and women both to dye of the excesse of this passion upon defect of enjoyment so might Ammon have done when he fell sick of longing for Thamar if Jonadab his carnall friend but spirituall enemy had not for the recovery of his body advised the ruine of his soule 2 Sam. 3. v. 2 3 4. And what was but fabled in the ¶ Ovid in his Fable of Iphis hanging hunselfe for love to Anaxarets Cumforibus laquei religaret vincula summis Inscruitque caput Metamorp lib. 14. Poet of Iphis laying violent hands on himselfe to the taking away of his life through impatience of his Love hath been often tragically acted by divers whose love to others for want of reciprocation of affection from them and of grace and reason to rule it hath turned to a deadly hate against themselves And where that affection is answered it hath proved as deadly in excesse as in defect of fruition especially when degenerated from Love to lust which is too familiar in the familiarity of different sexes as is obserued by Philosophers in Birds Beasts and Men for Birds they note in Sparrowes that they are very short lived by their frequent coition especially the male kind which * Plin. Hist nat lib. 10. cap. 36. they say commonly liveth not above a yeare and for the same reason doe Mules which are barren and ingender not much outlive Asses and Horses for they sometimes lived to the ¶ Idem lib. 8. cap. 44. 80 h. yeare but these seldome attained to halfe that age the ordinary measure of their

spectatour of the funerall solemnities of Queene Anne Mother to his Majestie that now is If he travell a stumble whether on horse-back or on foot may so lay him along on the earth as if he were to take measure of his grave whither after one remove followeth a commitment to close prison there to remain untill the great Judge of quick and dead release him If a man stay within doores as conceiving according to the ancient saying his house is his Castle his life may there many wayes be betrayed to death for a violent winde may blow downe the house upon his head and overwhelme him as it did Jobs children Job 1. and as in the raign of ¶ Stows Chro. continued by How p. 130. K. William 2d. 606. houses were blowne downe by a Tempest in London At his Table death may be in his diet for a Reyson stone stoned * Plin. Nat hist cap. 53. Anacreon to death a milstone could have done no more and an haire in a messe of milke sodainly strangled ‖ Idem Ibid. Fabius could death have made more haste or done him more hurt with an halter There may be death in the Cup for there may be a Fly in it and a Fly hath been the death of † Fox Martyr vol. 1. pag. 265. him who takes upon him much more then belongeth to man the Caiphas of Rome Pope Adrian the 4th Is there not then good cause to give but a passant advertisement by the way that we should not fall to our meat as an horse to the manger or a Swine to the trough before we have begged the blessing of God upon what we are to eat and that we take mannerly leave of God when we have done giving thanks to his goodnesse not only for his allowance of the good creatures for out nourishment but for a comfortable use of them that they have not become unto us as the Quailes to the Israelites accompanied with deadly wrath when the meat was in their mouths Psal 78.30 31. To draw towards a summary Conclusion of this great Arithmetician who brings in the finall account and number of all our dayes and makes such an exact reckoning of them as no man can controule we cannot but by experience of all times persons and places acknowledge that as a great * Plin. Nat. hist l. 7. c. 57. Phylosopher losopher and Historian observes though there be an infinite number of signes that presage death there is not one knowne that can assure a man of certainty of life and health Nor is there any Prescription of time to be pleaded against this King of terrours as death is called Job 18.14 no time unseasonable for his surprizall no night so darke but he can hit the marke no day so bright that we can discover his comming towards us if he will steale in upon us at unawares we shall neither heare his feet of wooll nor see his arms of steele but shall feele him haply when we doe not feare him and receive a wound from him for which no cure can be had of any No businesse so serious that can cause him to adjourne his arrest untill another day nor is there any more hope of escape from him by art or flight then there is of conquest of him by contending by fight This is the only King against whom there is no rising up as Agur phraseth the most absolute predominance Prov. 30.31 to make resistance against whose absolute Monarchy by no humane power or prevalence may be pretended If any it must be either the Prerogative of Kings or the vigorous and cordiall Antidotes of Physitians but not the former for the mortal sy the is master of the royal Scepter it mowes downe the Lillies of the Crowne as well as the grasse of the field Nor can the Physitians though called in as Advocates or Champions in the cause of nature to aid and protect it against this great warriour prevaile any thing at all to preserve it from death their strongest Cordialls are against him but as stubble to the great Leviathan Job 41.28 Nor can they so much as save themselves though by their art they professe the saving of others Nay as it were in scorne and contempt of medicines death sodainly snatcheth them away when they are applying their preservatives or restoratives to others as is storied of * Plin Nat. Hist l. 7. c. 53. Cajus Julius a Chirurgeon who dressing a sore eye as he drew the instrument over it was strucke with an instrument of death in the act and place where he did it I have hitherto shewed you the causes of mans mortall mutability and exemplified the shortnesse and uncertainty of his life in so many instances not meaning here to take up and set up my rest for though mans life be a vapour that soone vanisheth away I would have the observations of this vanity to be like the distilled Rose-water which comes downe from a vapour and drops into the bottle and is there preserved for especiall use and my desire and prayer now is that as it is in the 32. of Deutronomy My doctrine may dropps as the raine and my speech distill into your hearts as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grasse Deut. 32.2 in a present application And I shall apply it many wayes for it may serve 1. As a spurre to our dsligence 2. As a whip or scourge for our negligence 3. As a check to vain confidence 4. As a curbe to concupiscence 5. As a prop unto our patience so farre my devotion to this service would proceed if my discretion told me I might expect your patience so long it growing now so late For the first Applic. 1. if our time and state in this life be as short and uncertaine as a vapour and that vapour be but an appearance of a thing rather then a thing indeed and that appearance after a while soone vanisheth away how diligent and watchfull should we be while it is present which is all the time of action allowed unto us to imploy it and improve it to our best advantage for the future Humane prudence will prompt us while we do enjoy it to make as good use of it as possibly we can and religious policy will stirre us up to present expedition and not to put off untill to morrow the performance of any good thing which we may do to day for at the next puffe of breath we may blow away our life but to use all diligence in doing of good while we have time as the Apostle admonisheth Gal 6.10 We have some examples of moment though most contrary in themselves yet tending to this very end viz. to shew where the time is but short the endeavour must be great to make it serviceable to most defirable ends Our Saviour of himselfe for our instruction and imitation hath said I must worke the worke of him that sent me while

so out of envy as in the Apology for Herodotus the Authour telleth of a little Child who killed his Brother because the Mother of them both proferred him as Joseph did Benjamin before the rest of his Bretheren giving him a better or greater refection of m●ate then to himselfe which we may the rather believe by that we reade in * Quintil. Instit Orat. lib. 5. cap. 9. Quintilian of a Boy who was naturally so cruell as to make it a pastime with a sharpe instrument to pluck out the eyes of Quailes for which he was condemned by the Aecopagite Judges And by the observation of ″ Aug. confess l. 1. c. 7. Augustine of a little sucking Infant growing pale with envy to see another such an one as himselfe to be his partner in the milke of his Nurses breast Jealousie of the Wife of the bosome hath the like operation for kinde but for degree of indignation it goeth farre beyond it and for danger it as much exceedeth it as a man in wit and strength overmatcheth a child so much is signified by Solomon Jealousie saith he is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance he will not regard any ransome neither will he rest content though thou givest him many gifts Prov. 6.34 35. and the Devill who was a murtherer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 and as antiently a deceiver as a murtherer for his first murther had as much of the subtilty of the Serpent in it as of the sting so blindes the mindes of men sometimes as to make not only the passions of men the motives to these bloody mischiefes but to engage their consciences unto it so farre as to make them conceive it a service acceptable to God and so as bound in conscience to performe it to kill his best servants so much our Saviour himselfe hath foretold Joh. 16.2 and his saving by the powerfull imposture of the destroyer hath been often fulfilled * Cent. 16. Ofiand Epit. cent l● 2 ca. 2. part 1. pag. 115. from that time to this In the last precedent Centurie we have a prodigious example of his fanguinarie seducement in an Anabaptisticall Enthusiast killing his own Brother in the presence of his Parents as an imitation of Abrahams offering to sacrifice his Son Isaack Gen. 22.10 God was pleased with the offer only and forbad the act v 11 12. but the Devill that red Dragon as he is called Rev. 12.3 delighting in the effusion of mans blood drove on the delusion of his fancy through his conscience affections and will to the execution of his hand All this while I have said nothing of the mortality of the Sword in the prodigall effusion of blood by warre which to that of single slaughters is like the flowing of the Sea to the running of the channels whereof heretofore we have taken notice only by heare-say or reading and I wish I were put to it to make you apprehensive of it only by memorandums out of antient and forraine warres as of the Carthaginians and Romans or the Turks and Scythians or of the Frenchmen and Spaniards the Spaniards and Hollanders the Swedes and Imperialists or if we must have our part in that more then brutish malignity For the rage of beasts never bestrewed either Land or Sea with so many dead carcases as humane hostility hath done nor was it ever so permanent in time as either to muse much upon mischiefe before they doe it or to retaine a long remembrance of it after it is done that it were betwixt English and Irish Protestant and Papist but we have lived to be so unhappy as to see death riding furiously upon his red Horse with his great Sword in his hand as hee is described in the Rovel 6.4 and under his Colours who is the most Catholike Generall swaying in all Armies in the World English against English Protestant against Protestant killing one another first in a set Battle ″ Kinton where the Battle was is in the vaile of the Red-horse of the shape of a red-Horse cut out of a red Hill by the Countrey people Cambd of Warwick-shire in his Britan p. 561. in the vale of the Red-horse and since in severall places of the Kingdome and yet like unconverted Sauls we breath out threatnings and slaughter against one another at home as if we had no enemies abroad and that with such deadly bate and spight and in such sort that if the God of peace be not pleased to take up the quarrell the issue of English and Protestant blood may swell up to the Horses bridles for 1600. furlongs as the measure is observed Revel 14.20 come to passe which cannot be without many instances pertinent to my Text for how soone doe many men's lives in a Battle vanish like a vapour their last breath mingling with the vapour and smoake and their dying groanes stifled in the hideous noyse of roaring Artillery And if we hold on in the practice of these mutuall massacres of one another we may become so hardened against both Christian charity and common humanity as to make but a sport or play of thrusting Swords into out fellowes sides as we reade of Abners and Joabs Souldiers 2 Sam. 2. v. 14 15 16. The third generall cause of contraction of mans life is casuall mishaps which are so many as we may well say of them as * Plin. nat hist lib 7. cap. 57. some doe of diseases that they are innumerable I will give a touch of some few particulars to which your owne consideration and it may be experience also may adde many more if a man doe but offer to stirre out of doores where sinne lyeth as was said to Cain Gen. 4. there death will be as if there were such an inseperable society betwixt them as Ruth professed unto Naomi Ruth 1.16 and indeed the league betwixt sinne and death is much more firme then that ¶ Idem lib 7. cap 53. Emilius Lepidus did but hit his toe upon the doore-sill and though the hurt were so farre from his heart he died upon it If a man get safely out of dores it may be he shall not live to come in againe a beast chased and chafed by the driver may gore him to death and there are divers instances of this kind or a drunkard worse then a beast mocked by wine and enraged by strong drinke as Solomon saith Prov. 20.1 for it deludeth the fancy and raiseth the passions to fury may fall upon him as if he meant to sacrifice him to Bacchus or in the streets a tile from an house as a peece of a Milstone throwne from a Tower which broke the skull of Abimelech Judg. 9.53 may smite him sodainly dead The like deadly blow light upon the head of a Schollar by the * Purchas Microcosm p. 190.191 192. falling of a letter of stone from the battlements of the house of the Earle of Northampton neare Charing-crosse while he was a