Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	consider_v	life_n	sin_n	4,806	5	4.6674	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81381	The devils cabinet broke open: or a new discovery of the high-way thieves. Being a seasonable advice of a gentleman lately converted from them, to gentlemen and travellers to avoyd their villanies. Together with a relation of the laws, customes, and subtilties, of house-breakers, pick-pockets, and other mecanick caterpillars of this nation. As also, the apprehension and imprisonment of the hang-man of the City of London.		1657 (1657)	Wing D1224; Thomason E927_4; ESTC R207600	25,923	48

exorbitances comes the period of your life by a shamfull death which the law extracts as a due debt we owe to Justice Hearty disswasions with my best indeavours to reclaim them BOOK II. CHAP. I. The misery of an imprisoned estate which must be the first step of satisfying the Law LIberty that rich inheritance of all that are born to live and live to dye as it is the sweetest of injoyment next that imperiall gem of health so the want thereof next to sicknesse must needs be of all other the most bitter since then to be confined unto the confines of a Jaile is to be in part unmand what and how great is that wretchednesse that is occasioned by a want not onely of liberty but a continuall dread of a shamefull death and that made more terrible by the unavoidable expectation of an eternall imprisonment where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth with flames of unquenchable fire for ever more for like the pitcher that though it go often to the wel yet comes it broken home at last o then forsake this life lest the prison become your Inn and the terrour of that place ful of tortures are so exsasperated by the imagination of a noble mind that hell it self cannot contain more exquisite woes pains a continuance wherof weare sufficient to punish all offences if the law dispenced with that debt due to Justice the life of the offenders for you no sooner enter here but a thousand vices in a hundred licentious wretched soules surround you where sighing is their ayr their comfort coldnesse and their fooddispair when the keeper with the grim aspect of his stern cuntenance makes you tremble with the fear of a new marterdom whilst the insulting rascal on the tiptoes of his prid screws his il-favored face to a stern frown which so dejects the spirit of the imprisoned slaves that the contrition of their looks seemes to implore his smiles whose divilish heart having renounced remorse casts a defiance in their pitious face and not there unquiet hours onely do tast the gall of bitterness but the sweet minuts of their rest if that rude place afford them any are frighted with your cares or some rude noise of beastly creatures from whose drunken voices comes unwelcome sounds oaths cursing the Stars the Earth and all that 's represented to his thoughts blaspheming God banning Angels and their creditors reviling fate in that he is heire only to fortuns frowns and to be sure if onely a smal spark of wickedness came with him to this worldly hel you accomplish the highest exigent of shame before you come to shake hands and part and grow a subtile Artist in the Divels Trade of sin Most in consistant then is the fond practice of the vulgar sort who say a prison will reclaim the faults of youth when t is most true they do precipitate their utter over throw for ill exsamples purge not sin but adultrate the will that is pron to foly so that the prisoners living deaths are feeling moniments of wretchednesse and yet are only prologues to those tragedies your over throws record in characters of blood this will instruct you what it is to dy not unto nature but far worse to a perpetuall infamy CHAP. II. By shewing them how much they are mistaken in other Mens opinions of them MEN may be witty yet not wise subtile yet not discreet as it fareth with most of you who think though vainly that by attempting deeds ignoble will purchase you esteem renown and honour in the popular vulgar eye as if to act base villany were the way to be admired not scorned as though the actions you have done are such as have contracted amity with honour and so engaged Men in Authority to protect your lives that in despite of Law you must survive so from the Jayle unto the gallows in a presumptuous safety you are sent carelesse of danger where justice tels you your conceits are vain as are your lives expences and ungodly trade for men whose judgments stear by piety justly condem your sin and pitty you for charity not your desert and since my sincere indevour hath thus discovered you and your disguise besure they 'l know your tricks to well to be entrapped by you since your fained worths are obvious cheats and faint protectors of your wickedness seace and give over those acts of fiends not men which makes you as much the effigies of Sathan as God created you the Image of Himself CHAP. III. By putting them in mind of their wicked and cursed ends which they fondly and foolishly jest at as also their reward in the World to come GOD concludes him cursed and man most miserably wretched that hangs upon a Tree which besides the shame that attends you and your posterity the death it self might with the cursedness of it disswade you to put a period to the practise of that great wickednesse in which consists the violation of a command and so a breaking of the whole Law neither dyes not your shame with your body but your Family though never so Noble suffers a wrent in their honour by partiscipating of the Infamy you suffer which for some ages rest dyed with scandall although never so much innocent of the crime yet those senslesse Catiffes who inherit this death by their transgressions laugh at this heavy curse as at a sport and call it pleasure to be pluck to heaven in a string and thus by the power of Sathan are they prompt onwards to laugh at their own ruine whilst what affrights others with an apprehention of horror doth rather move them with a kind of pleasing joy to delight themselves who think the more they become conformable to the Divel the nearer they approached happines but the same weakness that leads you on in confidence to those so groundless hopes may prompt you one step farther to presume as I found mercy so may you from God and men I wish to you the glorious grace I found but pray consider a particular cannot Compose a general one Swallow makes no summer know that if mercy did extend to wave heavens and earths wrath from me yet grace twice offended tribles the vengeance of a severe just Judg and for your sufferings here by death that 's but a tast of those highly bitter and everlasting sorrows that are reserved in store for such as defile their lives with so great sinne as makes heaven execute the heat of wrath wrath as the due merit of your hainous sin which to prevent there is onely one means left and that 's contrition if there remain yet any sparks or likelihood of grace though but so much as may occasion one good thought and if that unto sin you have not made a lasting league of servitude behold your fact with a relenting eie of pity thereby to purchase ease and comfort to your sad dispairing souls then happie men not that you have been base but that

since to own the Subject might reflect disparagement not onely on me but on my Family for gladly could I embrace the shame being sensible of my own deserts So that though Heaven hath been gracious to forget I desire still to remember my own unworthinesse not for ought but that thereby I may be humbled and God glorified that in mercy hath shewed mercy which the Lord grant unto us all Grace here that we may have Glory hereafter Farewell From on Ship-board in the Downs September 20. 1657. A NEW DISCOVERY OF THE HIGH-WAY THEIFES BEING A seasonable advice of one lately converted from them to Gentle-men and Travellers to avoid their Villany c. THE PROLOGUE THey who look either for a fine phrase or a sublime lofty strain from me will come as far short of their expectation as he that seeks for happinesse in this transitory World my theame and my aime being onely truth not curiosity makes me rather industrious to benefit by Instruction then pleasant by delighting the fancy with Rhetorique But as my miscarriages have rendered me odious in my own sight so in sincerity I shall endeavour to make my self hatefull in the eyes of my misdemeanors by shewing its nakednesse to the World that so I hateing it it may also abominate me and inveterate enmity rend our late amity to a perpetuall discord and I become an example to others to stear their action by a scale of piety lest doing otherways expose them as it did me to the greatest exigent Imaginable which divine providence having snatched me from I intended by its assistance to become a friend to my Country by being an enemy to my late Company and Courses which were obnoxious and exorbitant which when I embraced in the armes of an undaunted resolution I thought those my dishonest courses legitimate and far more noble then the esteemed babe of basenesse and sneaking way of borrowing arguing thus though inconsistent with honour that it was far better taking of a purse by violence from a stranger then borrowing not intending to pay and so with a complement to rob my Friends and familiar acquaintance when the former was usually repay'd by the Country being lost on the Rode so that many were better able to beare contributing to my wants then one or two or a few when and to which I neither promise nor with a thousand oaths sware to repay them as they that borrow most usually do thus I was and others are poor wretches deluded by Sathan who tels the Quarrellor that to affront a meek Man is noble and the Envious that revenge is sweet representing sin in its false dresse that so it may neither be unpleasing to the Cautious nor terrible to the Fearfull but conformable to every disposition But the better to stifle and overcome these temptations let us consider first that every action hath its proper end if it be good the end will be answerable for the end though it come last it is first proposed and guideth the whole course thence it is that I giving the raines of my actions to deboystnesse had well-nigh ended in destruction here which leades to a greater hereafter these serious thoughts hereof in my restraints fixed a conviction on my conscience that the end of sin cannot be happy because there remaineth some thing to come after it which the spirit of truth saith is death the due wages of sin and it is want of the thoughts of the end that makes the end of so many wretched The Epicure thinks the only means to make him happy is to indulge to sensuality and pleasures taken up at any rate and the Drunkard imagines it consisteth in aboundance of wine like Bonosus of whom it was said he was not born to live but lived to tosse a pot who being out-drank by one he looked on it as an infamy and therefore hanged himself for vexation of whom it was then said in dirision there hangs a Tankard and no man here is the way and the end Secondly that after an expiration of life there is another being to be expected an eternall state the happiness or wretchednesse whereof consists in the former consideration a due weighing that all our actions Center in a good end which end is an eternall state the consequence of this opened my eyes to see the vanity of my villany and youthfull exorbitancies In so much that true conviction of spirit and no self end or intrest or hope of favour hath prompt me on to this discovery but my wounded conscience that makes me feare the displeasure of a Deity more then death knowing in my retired thoughts that it 's my duty towards God and my Country to unfould those secrets that may ruine violence and preserve indemnified Innocencie I shall therefore unlock the door and shew you the deceiveing ways acts and offences of the High-way Councels being of that horrid nature that they deserve the punishment both of body and soul CHAP. II. An absolute Defiance of all those that follow my former lewd Courses NOW you lycentious Rebels that would be deemed Knights of the Road I detest your actions for which I have shewed my reason before I begin my discovery then since your deceite must be divulged pluck of your Beards Vizards Hoods Parches Wens Mufflers and false Perriwigs all unnaturall together with those other disguises that obscure the due proportion of your faces that I may make known unto the world and let them see whether you possess so much grace as may make you blush at the repetition of the vileness of your ways the wch I fear you want wch conjecture ariseth by the experience of my own former hardnesse of heart when it was my own case which in ordinate gracelessnesse I so much commiserate in my mind that I could with joy deposite my blood to extenuate your transgression that they might be no more but sound reason tells me I may be far more advantagious in serving of my native nation if I live by shewing them your basenesse and instructing them how to avoid the danger of the same that so Travellers may be secure and such as have an inclining fancy to your practice may by the unworthinesse of the art be disswaded from a closure with your wickednesse who ever therefore casts an affectionate eye upon this high-way businesse as a course belonging to a Gentleman shews himselfe to be ignoble and is certianly blind it being clearely speculative to every discerning eye as not only base in it selfe but infamous in its end which ought to be regarded in every undertaking It is in part admitted that a Gentleman by birth and education destituted of means and action too may by the haughtinesse of his spirit be lifted up to disdain want as a Tyrant that may through its oppression make him rebell so cause him to attempt this art though void of honour when no nobler an imployment presents him with a maint'nance but now when imployments in the sports of Mars

from sin you have retired to sanctity Times never past to mend better late then never for he that delights to persevere in sin not being able to appeal to Christ and to his merits but with a willing greedinesse lays hold on his damnation And if no sence of things seculiar can convict those hardned hearts if not a temporal yet an eternal death must needs move sence of danger the one is but breath the other endlesse everlasting pain which ere it be ended is still renewed in burning lakes of brimstone that never die but burn with cruel tortures for each hainous sin where howls and hollow grones adds to the eternal weight of misery when frosts fires drownings sulphur and other the worst of punishment attend their wretched souls this is the sad period of your ways which if it work not its desired end I 'le cease to labour to perswade you more But on the contrary if I cannot convert you I could willingly convict you and here I could name both you and your abode but that you have no constant residence but for a night in some by-road and so away either into the West or North or sometimes into the South And as your dwellings you change so do you every day your names so that in shape in being place and name you change with every day like the mutable Cameleon but never into white Innocency And thus to inform were but to put in doubt the Inquisitive and not at all inlighten to your due apprehension CHAP. IV. An Ingenuous discovery of them to each discerning eye by infallible tokens how to know them on the Road and if robbed how surely to track them THe uncertainty of your attire and various disguises with your non-residence and changible names makes me uncapable to do what I would therefore I will do what I can and in every lineament so pourtract you and your carriages to every man that seriously shall peruse this Treatise that with ease not difficulty he may know you as you ride and by that means inable him to provide for his own security or if by you robb'd let him but observe my directions and he need not question to apprehend you when your sence of dangers is past and you in your thoughts secure You shall have it may be two or three of them overtake you pretend if they fear'd your strength that they were lately affronted in the Wood by eight or ten stout fellows but they beat the rogues and made them flie to save themselvs and seal this with strong oaths and by your answer sound your spirits whether valiant or no which if they find apt to be danted then they wait an opportunity to act their roguery on you and it may be somtimes they boast in drink what they have done to others as now to you and as a reward for what unwillingly you lend to them they 'l pretend to give you a word that shall protect you from the like affront again far better then your sword as Round-de-la-vera-hay The Moon shines bright or the like but these are cheats and no securing powers It 's true when we were ready to seiz a prize spi'd a friend or other company coming near we used some such words to bid our company forbear a while for our own safeties sake which honest Travelersignorant of any wrong suspected nothing whilstwe by these knew what we had to do but else those words we valued not for prize and nothing else could satisfie our minds that fought for money therefore never believe them but observe dear Country-men my better rules for your security which for your sakes I 'le take the honest pains to write in plain-wise not deceitfully BOOK III. Plain instructions for the honest Traveller that he may passe in safety on the way CHAP. I. What he is to take heed unto before be begin his Journey DEar Countrie-men that travel on the Road the past-part of my wicked life having been consumed in sin and that sin mainteined by the spoil of Passengers I seeing the wretchedness of that state find how much I am bound to satisfie the debt I owe you to the uttermost of my power which reaches to no more satisfactory an act then good advise how to avoid the dangers of the road and what I speak herein is the issue of my long sinfull experience as thus when you carry a charge about you let secresie conceal your mony and the time of your departure in your breast fot 't is a custome no lesse common then indiscreet when you undertake a journey to blase that undertaking amongst your reputed friends who out of seeming love drink healths to your good Journey and your safe return this glosse of friendship expiates the least mistrust of wrong or thought of Ill when by those means I have often known a Son betray his Father a Brother his Brother and one friend another in condescending and complotting with some thievs who for his giving notice of the prize shares one quarter or more of that gain he so betrays when but for this fond humour they had not been discovered and waylaien and which is worst sometimes you chuse a guard to succor you and to take your part in whom you trust who oft doth bring you into danger without the least suspition on your part for when they bid you stand hee 'l draw as in a valiant rage and with some one appointed for that use hack swords whilst another threatens his death if he stand on those tearms of seeming honour you seeing his false danger fear his death bid him yield which he though willing seems loth to do nay more he knowing wel which way they fled will send the Hue and cry another way and if you suppose you know any of them that did the robbery and do hit right hee perswades you that whilst they fought his disguise fell off and therefore hee markt him and knows 't is not the man and with pensive look he will lament your bad hap and thus your bosome friend betrays you CHAP. II How to carry themselvs in their Inns IT is as common a custom as a cunning policy in thievs to place Chamberlains in such great Inns where Cloathiers and Grasiers use to lye and by their large bribes to infect others who were not of their own preferring who noteing your purses when you draw them they 'l gripe your cloak-bags and feel the weight and so inform the Master thievs of what they think and not those alone but the Host himself is oft as base as they if it be left in charge with them all night he to his roaring guests either gives item or shews the purse it self who spend liberally in hope of a speedy recruit and all this is occasioned by want of discretion in managing your business for the best therefore be secret and let little be made known to those that watch to do you wrong CHAP. III Shewing the danger of travelling on the