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	let_v	night_n	4,105	5	7.7022	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61196	Essayes with brief adviso's accomodated capacity of the ladyes and gentlemen, sometime students of the English academy lately erected at London : to whose use and perusall they are recommended in exchange of their English lectures of late published.	Sprigg, William, fl. 1657.	1657 (1657)	Wing S5080; ESTC R32658	25,281	116

fruition but rather with the prudent fox in the fable will call those grapes sowre with fortune hath plac'd above his reach 23 If admiration be the daughter of Ignorance as most acknowledge it is the duty of every intelligent person to be diligent in the search of causes that he be not suspris'd with amazement the grandest Indecorum and most unbeseeming garbe of a wise man at any revolutions or alterations that may happen in the body politick since that no lesse than things naturall is subject to change and motion there being nothing permanent under the Sun the greatest change is but a nine daies wonder and that only to the shorter sighted sort of people that are not able to discerne of causes The convulsions and distempers of States spring from as infallible Grounds and Reasons as any disease of the body naturall though perhaps in the one they may be more latent difficult to unridle than in the other For nothing happens either in Nature or Republicks that that may be call'd the Daughter of chance or say'd to owe it's existency to the will of the blind Goddesse fortune but the whole empire of the world is govern'd by the scepter of Gods providence who since the ceasing of miracles hath decreed all things to be produc'd by the midwifry of second causes 24 But beware a too great inquisitivenesse into stare affaires purchase not the odious epithite of a Politician for it is better to be wise than so accounted since according to the opinion of most the time is not yet come wherein we may expect the prudence of the Serpent and innocency of the dove should couch together and therefore as some are thought to inherit too small a stock of wit to set up for Knaves so in others are found too many graines of Serpentine cunning to admit much of the doves simplicity whereby it comes to passe that policy is of most use to those that can best dissemble it as if like the art of jugling or sleight of hand it were nothing worth when once discover'd I remember Solomon hath said It is not good to be over wise and there are many that want not wit that had rather be accounted fools than polititians 25 It I hath been alwayes accounted prudence before a man imbarks himself in any design or enterprise to consider well of the event or issue that it is like to arive unto for the want of this hath often prov'd the ruine of many a glorious undertaking for where one design hath been gravell'd in the sands of delay thousands have been split on the rock of praecipitancy and rashnesse Charybdis doth not triumph in morewracks of ships than this in ruines of great undertakings The Spaniard who is reputed none of the worst Polititians accounts his designes ripened and not rotted by time And therefore it 's usuall for the farther to sow the seed of what the grandchild is to expect the fruit Raw and extemporary plots that discover themselves so soon as ever they are hatcht that like young birds come into the world with the shell on their crownes or like forward Plants bud before the Sun of a good opportunity hath shined upon them are usually nipt before they come to maturity and have their fruit blasted in their first blossoms 26 Learning like dancing or playing on a Fiddle is counted by the proud world a better accomplishment than profession and therefore poor Schollars that have nothing to live on but the Stock of their parts and wits journey-work are commonly entertain'd with as little respect as Dancing-Masters or common Fidlers which brings to my mind that of Solomon that wisdome is good with an Inheritance It 's reported of Cleanthes a poor Philosopher that he drew water by night to maintain himself by day in the Muses service The unworthinesse of this age threatens Schollars with as bad imployment unlesse furnish'd with two Strings to their bowes There are some trades too ingenious for any but the Sons of Minerva as Merchandise Making Watches Limning and Ingraving with some others that depend on Mathematicks in some of which a Schollar might profitably employ some of his afternoon hours not as if I thought not learning a full imployment but because the most industrious are often indispos'd to study 27 Let not a fond conceit of thy name being born on the wings of fame sing lull-aby and rock asleep thy industry for many had arriv'd to a great height in Learning had they not too soon thought their knowledge at the Zenith and with Hercules setting up their pillars wrote their Ne plus Ultra This I am perswaded hath rob'd the world of many a splendent Star of Light but to ballance this consider that by reason of that vayle of obscurity that covers the face of nature together with that night of Ignorance that dwels on mans understanding the highest pitch that the best wing'd industry can soare unto is but a discovery that it knows little or nothing more than the various opinions and fancyes of men To conclude set him that hath dedicated himself to the Muses service study such things as are of use rather than ostentation and as one hath well observ'd rather with the Bee endeavour to gather Honey than like the silly Butterfly paint it his wings Let the consideration of the shortnesse of the day of mans life wherein he is to traverse the long and intricate paths of Learning quicken up our diligence to an indefatigable Industry lest the night of death overtake us and cause the Sun of our life to set before any light of knowledge hath dawn'd on our souls and so we go down to the Earth with the same vaile of Ignorance on our understandings and our Reason● as much hood wink'd as when we came first into the world S●● Verbum Sapienti Of Death WHat kind of Bug-bear soever Death may be represented through the Sophisticated Glasse of Melancholy apprehensions as that he is the King of terrours the worme's Caterer and natures Sargeant that arrests poor mortalls for the debt due to corruption and gives checkmate not only to life's pleasure but also the pleasant gaire of mans life and may therefore be term'd life's devourer the grand Anthropophagus or man-eater that as it were cracks the shell of the flesh for worms himself preying on the sweet kernell of the soul These and such like are the black colours with which ignorance and guilt paynts a visard and masks the face of death Whereas could we acknowledge the truth we should confesse it as naturall to dye as to be borne Death being but the souls breaking up of house or dismantling it self of the no less cumbersom than dusty Garments of flesh or rather that it is the goal of the souls race the palme of victory the very crown and reward of life Death is not the Jaylor that captivates but the Herauld that proclaimes liberty and reprievs the soul from the confinement and prison of its body that knocks off the Fetters and Shackles of flesh and gives it the desired Exit from off the stage of this trouble some world the traveler in the fable wishd for death but quayling at his approach desir'd his hand to help him up wth his burthen whereas death intended him a greater courtesy to wit the unloading his soul of those heavy clods or earth and bundle of corruption it groaneth under Thus many stand in their own light and will not suffer themselves to be befriended like the little Poet that durst not put off his heavy shoes left the wind committing a rape on his leight Body should carry him away as the Eagle is said to have done Ganymed thus loath are the most of men that death should take off the leaden shoes of their bodies notwithstanding they hinder their souls flight into Elysium Death is so far from being the murderer of life that it rather hatches it by breaking up the Shell of the body in which it was imprison'd or rather seminally conteyn'd for as the chicken or young fowle is excluded from the egge or materiall forme educ'd from the womb of its first matter in which nature had treasur'd it up so springs the Phoenix 〈◊〉 our lives from the ruines and ashes of our bodies Yea it 's impossible the Sun of our true life should shine forth in it 's full glory till the cloud of our flesh be dissipated which occasioned the wisest of Kings to say The day of a mans death is better than the day of his birth Which according to Platoes Philosophy may be digested without a comment for if the glorious lamp of the soul were thrust into the dark lant-horn of its body by way of punishment for crimes committed in her Virgin estate when shee had her mansion among the Stars then certainly when by death she shall be return'd to her heavenly socket she is no way injur'd but restor'd to her primitive lustre and glory Such a notion as this though I confesse erroneous enough as antedating the souls existency yet is of greater Analogy to the immunities and priviledges death puts the soul in possession of than those cloudy and dastard apprehensions that most Christians entertain thereof who in this seem shorter sighted than the Barbarous Scythians who use to celebrate the obsequies of their nighest Relations more after the manner of a triumph than a funerall more rightly accounting that we falsely terme the expiring of of lives lease the haven of rest the period of misery and souls reprieve from the Captivity of flesh whereas their childrens births they solemniz'd with all expressions of grief and sorrow as fore-seeing the miseries that usually accompany the soules entrance on earths theater Nor did the Scythians alone ingrosse this notion for other Heathens were also Masters of it witnesse the facetious end of Augustus Caesar who is reported to have concluded the fable of his life with a consort of Musick and begg'd a Plaudit of his friends at his going off the Stage of the World Mors ultima linea rerum Manners Nosce teipsum Time Meditation Antiquityes Overvaluing former ages Old age Travail Variety of employment Respect Souldiers Passion Pride Charity Discontent Youth Writing Books Vindication Covetousnesse Boasting Ambition Search of causes Policy Deliberation or Festina lenté Learning despised Conceit Conclusion Ars longae v●ta brevis