Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	comfort_n	life_n	live_v	4,359	5	5.5637	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52535	A discourse of natural and reveal'd religion in several essays, or, The light of nature a guide to divine truth.	Nourse, Timothy, d. 1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing N1417; ESTC R16135	159,871	385

is drawn from its Natural Inclinations which are such as are still aspiring towards higher degrees of Perfection The Mind is never satiated with Knowledge but still thirsts after new Discoveries our perception of one thing does naturally lead us into the enquiry of another which having once obtained our Soul takes a farther prospect still till at length being arriv'd to the first origine of all things it dwells on it and enquires also into the Nature and Perfections of it as far as its own limits will allow and deserves to be united with it for ever Now this shews sufficiently that in this life 't is only in a tendency to that Perfection and Rest which cannot be attain'd to but in another The descending stone if any thing obstruct its Motion does by its resisting weight tell us that by Nature it would go farther and the nearer it comes to its centre it presses still with greater weight and if no obstacle occurr it is still more impetuous in its Motion till it falls at last to that point of Rest from which 't will not be remov'd but with greater difficulty In like manner we observe also how the Flame mounts upwards and the more pure and subtile 't is the quicker in its Motion which still encreases the higher it rises till at last 't is swallow'd up and incorporated in that immense Region of Aether to which it was design'd by Nature Thus fares it with the Soul of Man which does enlarge its desires far beyound the Enjoyments of Life the more t is fill'd the greater still is its appetite which discovers plainly that it is not yet arriv'd to its place of Rest but is only in the way towards it which since it can never find whilst it is in union with the Body it remains that there must be a future State where it shall meet with a suitable content which cannot be unless the Soul by Nature were Incorruptible and Immortal So that whosoever shall but make a Reflection upon himself and consider the Frame and Temper of his own Mind must needs observe it to be of a Nature more active and diffusive than Fire and more quick and penetrating than Lightning and as to its comprehensive Power most capacious and such as Labour cannot exhaust nor Age make feeble On the contrary the longer it endures it still grows more Vigorous and requires something more than finite to fills its Dimensions from all which we may well conclude that 't is of a Spiritual and Angelick Nature and such as must survive all the decays and changes of the Body And indeed were it corruptible and mortal it must be some of these ways First by the Action of its Contrary as we see mixt Bodies are corrupted by some Excess or Irregularity in their first qualities which interchequing with one another cause a dissolution but this cannot be the case of the Soul which is of a Nature most pure and unmixt Another way by which things are destroy'd is by Division and Separation of its parts thus by daily experience we see how things Natural and Artificial are always wasted and broke to peices but the Soul being without Extension of parts cannot be dissolv'd by divisibility A third way by which we observe Bodies to perish is by a deficiency of their Aliment thus a Tree dies for want of Moisture and a Lamp is extinguish'd for want of Oyl to feed it but 't is not so with the Soul of Man for though it subsist in the Body as the flame of a Lamp in the Viol yet has it not its Illumination from it 'T is true it receives many Informations by the outward Organs of the Senses but these Images being simple and common bear no Analogy to the workings of the Mind besides we find the Soul subsisting and acting when all sensitive assistence is withdrawn That then on which the Mind of Man feeds and improves it self is that infinite variety of Objects whether visible or intellectual which we meet with perpetually both in Heaven and Earth together with those noble Speculations and Conclusions of Reason which though compounded of a few naked Notions and capable of being multiplied into as great a number as that of Words which yet are but the Productions of a few simple and Alphabetick Sounds variously mixt and set together Now since the Multitude and greatness of mental Objects can never be exhausted by the Soul it follows that the Soul of Man can never perish through want of a suitable Aliment and Supply indeed all sensible and material things cannot so properly be said to perish as to be corrupted by being chang'd into something of another Nature which Transmutation or Corruption of things is at the most nothing but a resolution of them into their Elements from whose implace new bodies do rise but the Soul of Man is uncapable of all such Alterations It is not resolvable into any Elements as being of a Nature more unmixt and pure than any Element whatsoever it is not changeable into another Soul or capable of being other than what it is but by Annihilation which yet is not consistent with the Nature of God who having once created a thing is never known to have reduc'd it to its first nothing And therefore as the third General Argument the Immortality of the Soul is yet farther demonstrable from the Justice of God's Providence We have observ'd in the precedent Chapters that as to the Comforts and Blessings of this Life wicked Men generally have the upper hand whilst Innocent and Vertuous Persons are oft-times expos'd to unjust Sentences Calumnies Oppression Torments Imprisonments Confiscation of Goods and sometimes to Death it self How many a poor and honest Christian is there in the World who suffers by Sickness Cold Hunger and all courses of Poverty and yet lives always in an humble Resignation of his Will to that of Almighty God and is thankfull too for the small Comforts of life he receives from him by the Ministry of his own laborious Hands whilst some rich Glutton lies Batning amidst his Wealth and swelling with Pride and Fatness of Bread abandons himself to ease and all manner of disorders both of Body and Mind Whose Religion indeed consists only in having some young formal Chaplain for State rather than for Devotion thinking his Equipage defective unless he has some one in the Ecclesiastick Livery to wait upon him Now how these and infinite such Indecencies can consist with the Justice of God's Providential Government is a difficulty which can never be answered were there not a Future State where unfortunate Vertue should be crown'd and prosperous wickedness be chastis'd which yet can never be unless the Soul of Man survive the Miseries and Dissolution of the Body The Truth of it is take away the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality and we destroy all Morality For morally speaking who would deny his Soul the Contents and Pleasures of his Appetite were all Felicity determin'd in sensual

imploring the Mercies of Heaven notwithstanding all their Efforts become a Prey to Impiety being either Sacrific'd to the Exactions of Usury or trampled on by the Voluptuous and Proud or perhaps Plunder'd at the Will and Pleasure of a Tyrant or exhausted by the methods of a tedious process of Sickness or blasted by Defamations and Slanders or afflicted with an unfortunate Family with many such like Miseries and Disasters Upon which Account when one told Diagoras Thou who dost believe that the Gods neglect Mens safety dost thou not observe the contrary from the many Pictures or Votive Tables hung upon their Temples by those who escap'd Shipwrack Very true reply'd Diagoras for there are no Pictures of those who perish'd In Answer to this Calumny and all the Parts and Members of it First Good men may not be successful in what they pray for because they do not use the Means The Husband-man in the Fable finding his Waggon stuck in the Dirt lays down his Whip and calls on Hercules for help to whom the God made answer Rise Fool and use thy Whip and put thy Shoulders to the Wheels and then call on Hercules and he will succour thee God does not work Miracles to supply the Sloth of men Secondly though men may use their best Endeavours for attaining what they pray for they may be unsuccessful nevertheless by proposing undue Ends. This man asks for Riches that he may pass the remainder of his Life in softness and delight that man sues for Honour and the Grace and Favour of his Prince that he may shew a Grandure in Commanding others and receiving Marks of Homage and Obedience Thirdly Tho' the thing we pray for may be Honest and the End Good yet God may refuse to grant it because it may not be Beneficial or if of present Benefit yet of future and durable Inconvenience which made the Heathen cry out Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt Dii The Gods instead of what seems pleasant may answer us another way by giving us what is fitting and useful But if the Subject of mens Prayers be the Preventing of some Evil which threatens us or perhaps the Removal of something which afflicts us yet may we be unsuccessful without any Reproach to Providence upon these two Considerations First The Evil which we deprecate may be design'd only for Correction and Amendment this is no more strange than to see the Surgeon whose help we implore to remove a Pain instead of giving present ease to fall a-cutting and burning and perhaps dismembring Secondly God may lay Calamities and Afflictions upon men that they may produce Nobler Acts of Virtue The Stock from which the Husband-man expects the choicest Fruit is prun'd most and must often bleed by suffering his Luxuriant Branches to be cut away whereas Common Trees have been suffer'd to grow at random and to spread wide their Arms that they may afford more Fuel for the Fire This the Heathens understood perfectly in the Temple which they built to Honour which was so plac'd that there was no entrance to it but by that of Virtue whose Nature consists in Fortitude and whose Object is Difficulty and Danger Aeneas is Figur'd as a Pattern of Heroick Virtue whilst he is expos'd to Burnings and Tempests toss'd from Shore to Shore and always made to feel the strokes of an incens'd Deity all which serv'd but to render him more firm and resolute in his Actions being like the Armour he wore which was made impenetrable by being wrought in the Fire by being forg'd and beaten upon the Anvil and dipt in the Stygian Lake Further yet Divine Providence may suffer Good men to be a long time under Disgraces and Afflictions to render restor'd Comforts more dear and affecting The longer men have lain in Chains and Captivity the greater is the Jubile by which they are restor'd to Liberty 'T is like a Pardon upon the Point of Execution where the Fears of Death yield stronger Fuel and Vigour to Life How sweetly does a man who is deliver'd from the sharp Assaults of the Gout taste the Pleasures of Health how thankful is he for the Benefit and what esteem has he for the Means by which he was restor'd In the last Place Though Divine Providence should never withdraw the Misfortune under which we groan yet is this no Argument that we are neglected by it on the contrary it is the best Argument in the World to support us under it it being utterly inconsistent with the Nature and Goodness of God to suffer Innocence to be oppress'd without a due Reward which because it is not found in this Life it remains that there is a future State after Death where Virtue shall be Crown'd But this I shall wave at present as being founded upon the Soul's Immortality a Point which by the method of this Argument may be discours'd upon hereafter for at present I shall decline all Topicks taken from the Truth and Doctrines of the Christian Religion till I shall arrive to it by the Course and Progress of Reason Upon this Prospect which the wiser Heathens had of a future State after death they bravely endur'd the Insults of Fortune and triumph'd over the Cruelty of those by whom they suffer'd Theramenes being Condemn'd by the Thirty Tyrants of Athens took the fatal Cup into his Hand and drank to Critias who was the most active man amongst them to pronounce the Sentence Brave gallantry in him to behold Death with an undaunted Countenance and drink his Enemies Health in his own Poison Socrates not long after was by the Command of his Judges Condemn'd to the same Prison and to drink of the same Poisonous Cup which being about to take off he discours'd after this manner I have great hopes my Judges it will be well with me that I am condemn'd to die for one of these two Things are certain either that Death shall extinguish all Sense or Translate us into another Place if all Sense be extinguish'd Death certainly is but like a sound sleep which is then most pleasing and natural when it is not interrupted by the Fantasms of a Dream Good God! How great Profit is it for me to die or who can be more Happy than I But if it be true as men say that Death is nothing but a Migration into those Regions which men Inhabit after this Life thou art yet more happy since thou shalt be deliver'd from them who would now be accounted Judges that thou maist go over to those who are Judges indeed such as Minos Rhadamanthus Aeacus and Triptolemus and there Converse with those who have liv'd Justly What would you not give to discourse with Orpheus Musaeus and Homer Truly I would die often if it were possible that I might Experiment the Truth of these things nor would such of you amongst my Judges who declar'd me Innocent fear to die For no Evil can happen to a good man whether living or Dead nor can his