Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	dead_a	die_v	4,346	5	5.5733	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42701	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Edward Reynolds, D.D. Arch-Deacon of Norfolk and Rector of Kings-Thorp near Northampton / by William Gibbs ...	Gibbs, William.	1699 (1699)	Wing G668; ESTC R34914	17,370	36

But alas the Generality went not so far the common Cry with them was much like the Arguings of those Fools in the Book of Wisdom Chap. 2. Our life is short and tedious and in the death of man there is no remedy neither was there any man known to have returned from the Grave for we are born at all adventure and we shall be hereafter as though we bad never been for the breath in our nostrils is as smoak and a little spark in the moving of our heart which being extinguish'd our body shall be turned into ashes and our spirit shall vanish as the soft Air Our time is a very shadow that passeth away and after our End there is no returning for it is fast sealed so that no man cometh again Thus it was with them and truly it was little otherwise with their Grave and Learned Philosophers though they made such great Flourishes and some of them talk'd loftily about the Joys of the separate Soul yet they were so extravagant in their Fancies and some of them so inconsistent with themselves when they had Occasion to discourse on this Subject that we may easily imagine they were at a Loss and not much satisfied themselves in that which they taught the common People to believe Insomuch that Socrates who was as great an Instance of Virtue and Learning as the Gentile World could produce yet towards the latter End of his Life plainly confesses his Ignorance in this thing for when he came to plead his cause before his Judges and largely discourses of the Happy State of good Men hereafter at last frankly owns that he could be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dye over and over was he but assured of the reality of what he had so often asserted and afterwards receiving his Sentence concludes his Apology in this doubtful manner I am now leaving the World 't is your Lot to live and mine to dye but whether of us two shall fare the better i.e. whether there be any Existence on the other side the Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is unknown to all but God alone so little Confidence had that great Man even at such a time when he should have been constant to his former Reasonings and magnified his own Philosophy Hence we may safely affirm of a great part of them what the Author of the Book of Wisdom says that As for the Mysteries of God they know them not neither hoped they for the wages of Righteousness nor discern'd a Reward for blameless Souls And now being thus wavering in their Minds and unfix'd as to their Resolutions about an Immortality what was there left to fortifie them against the fears of Dying Nature is apt to startle at the thoughts of a Dissolution even then when it is assured it serves but as a Passage to that Life which shall never end but when it looks upon it as the utmost Period of their Being as that which crumbles them into Dust without any possibility of a return what Reflections can be more dismal or amazing And therefore to prepare themselves the better for the fatal stroak they invented many pretty Apothegms and Paradoxes furnished themselves with some Common Topicks or Witty Sayings that so they might have some Relief against their own or their Friends Departure But alas they are all of them but poor Receipts in respect of that Sovereign Antidote which the Gospel prescribes To instance in some of their choicest Sometimes they would say that Death was the unavoidable Fate of all Mankind that there was no resisting the Power of it they saw that wise Men dyed as well as Fools and therefore it was their Prudence not to be concern'd at that which no ways could be avoided Again It was a common Calamity we every day meet with Remembrances of Mortality and should such thoughts discompose us our Life would be a continual Vexation Sometimes they would use this little Sophistry That Death cannot hurt us because when that is we are not and when we are that is absent so is a thing that does not at all belong to us and if perhaps there be any pain at the last Separation of the Soul from the Body yet afterwards we shall not grieve at what we had endur'd a little before This was the great Retreat Epicurus and his Followers betook themselves to Sometimes they would argue after this Rate That we are dead already as to so much of our Life which is past and gone for so much as we live so much we dye being dead to the day past and that which we usually call Death is but our last Death and therefore as we did not fear our former Death why should we that which is to come Another little Hold they had was That they were admitted into Life upon this Condition that they should give place to others as the former Generation did to them and therefore a piece of Injustice to be unwilling to go off the Stage when their Work was done Others would Comfort themselves after this manner That Death was a desirable thing seeing there were so many Troubles and Disasters that did attend us for it was no more than Solutio omnium Dolorum The easying and disburthening us of all our Cares and Fears the letting us loose from an Infirm Body and a Tormenting World and laying us up in that quiet secure state wherein we were before we had a Being This is Seneca's last Refuge For tho' he sometimes seems to intimate a Belief of a Future State yet he is quickly off again very inconstant as to his Resolutions in that Point and makes use of this as the chief Prescription to allay our Fears and Moderate our Griefs Some in the last place soar'd higher and would solace themselves with the Thoughts of the Soul 's enjoying by Death a true Freedom and Liberty of its being received into pleasant delightful Mansions and there partaking for a vast Tract of Time of such Enjoyments as were more suitable to its Nature This was the Opinion of the Platonists but their Fancies in this kind were so Extravagant their Notions generally so Obscure and their Discourses so Romantick that it may very well be question'd whether they had those great Transports when they were about to exchange this Prison of the Body for those Airy Vehicles they so much talk'd of Nay such as profess'd most to own the Incorruptible Nature of the Soul and stedfastly to believe a Future State yet supposed such various Transmigrations and Shiftings of the Soul from one Body to another as must needs be an abatement of its Happiness because by such alterations it should soon lose all Knowledge both of its Friends and it self too These were the cheif Prescriptions the Moralists made use of but alas how slight and feeble are they in respect of that Lively Hope the Christian is possess'd of with what Courage and Constancy such Notions might inspire them I know not but certainly where