Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A37276
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An anatomy of atheisme a poem / by a person of quality.
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Dawes, William, Sir, 1671-1724.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing D453; ESTC R16785
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11,428
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40
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the World corruptive is And since it is decay'd and wasts so fast This plainly shows it has not long to last Immortal things Immortal Beauty hold Unchang'd and sure of never growing old Whereas the World does almost ev'ry day Give us fresh Instances of it's decay Unhappy Naples more than half o'rethrown This dismal Truth unwillingly must own And Aetna's flames show by their constant rage The World is come into her latest Age. Nothing from ruine can her Fabrick save But nodding now she bends tow'rds her Eternal Grave Thus does the World most evidently prove The Being of that God who sits above For since from various reason's we infer The World's Nativity as plain and clear By reason cast the Atheists quit the Field And that the World is not Eternal yield If not Eternal then it once was made If made it certainly a Maker had Now all Men this must for an axiom take That nothing can it self produce or make For that this contradiction would implye At the same time to be and not to be Some outward cause we therefore must explore Either of Chance or an Eternal Pow'r The World 's too well proportion'd and design'd To be the Work of Chance ill-shap'd and blind God for her Maker she alone will own And throws her self at his Allmighty Throne Nor does the World and its harmonious frame The being of a God alone proclaim But Moses by his wonder-working Rod Gives us another proof there is a God And each effect surpassing Natures Laws Bids us look out for a superiour Cause In vain Philosophers their Wisdom try And stretch poor Nature to Extremity To make her solve each wond'rous Mystery To Nature's Master they must often go If of Effects they would the Causes know How strangely must the Atheist look to see The fire renounce its burning quality And things which nat'rally increase it's rage Clam its fierce scorchings and it's heat asswage Yet thus it 's Nature did the fire foregoe For Shadrach Meshach and Abednego In vain the Tyrant did their Ruine threat And sev'n times o're his stubborn Furnace heat Safe in the midst o' the flames the Brethren stood And cool as Summer Breezes from the Wood. What pow'r of Nature can transform a flood Of Chrystal Waters into Scarlet Blood Or make the Sea without its Motion stand And in a moment turn to Solid Land Yet thus in Antient Days did Moses show The pow'r of God above by Miracles below What strength of Art can quicken and restore A Man when dead to what he was before Infuse new Life into his Frozen Veins And a new Soul to his forsaken Brains Yet this did our all-pow'rful Master do Who rais'd from Death himself and others too Can Nature say awake ye Dead arise Shake off your Sleep lift up your drowsie Eyes I will again once more your Corps inspire Kindle your Breath with my enliv'ning fire And give your Soul back to it 's Antient Friend Your Soul which when I please I take or lend No she with Modesty withdraws her head And Challeng'es no pow'r to raise the dead But owns she has a Lord whose awful sway She must not cannot dares not disobey When he commands she leaves her wonted way He makes the Water Earth and Air and Fire When he sees fit against themselves conspire Makes Lyons though by Nature fierce and wild Fearful and gentle as a new-born-Child He makes the tender Lambs securely sleep Whilst hungry Tygers do the Sheep-folds keep Let him but speak and Nature stops her course Abates her pace and slackens all her force At his command the Sun and Moon stand still And give his Servants light their Foes to kill A word from him makes the Clouds cease to rain Another Word makes them distil again Tho' Nature saith our Noons are always bright Yet let him speak and there shall be no light But Day it self shall be transform'd to Night Thus does each Miracle in Letters plain And at a mighty distance to be seen Show the great name of Nature's Sacred Lord By us with Love and Reverence ador'd To him the Atheist must his Tribute give From whom alone he borrows leave to live His being sure he can no more deny Of which so many Wonders testifie The Miracles stand fix'd in History Stamp'd by Traditional Authority To which no Man of sense will give the lie The Credit of the World is much too strong To be beat down by any single Tongue The facts he therefore cannot well disown Unless he has resolv'd to Credit none But what he sees to believe nothing told Or think no Truth but what his Eyes behold If not the Facts we take our strength from thence And thus we argue for our Consequence If Works are done which Natures pow'r exceed We in some higher pow'r these wond'rous works must read The Gifts of Prophecy as plainly show There must be one to whom those Gifts we owe. Man's knowledge is too shallow to foresee What shall to Morrow or the next day be Much more to tell a Thousand years events Which all depend on future accidents And lay those things before us bright and clear And just as if they were already here Which shall not come to pass till the next Age Shifts Scenes and brings a new one on the Stage Yet thus of old did Abraham foretell That his poor Off-spring should in Aegypt dwell And for the space of many a tedious year The toilsome Yoak of cruel Pharaoh bear Exactly did the sad Event agree With what had been foretold in Prophecy Thus was Josiah's Birth and Reign of old Some hundred years before they came foretold And thus Isaiah told as he foresaw That Cyrus to the Persians should give Law That by his Mighty Arm the Jews should rise And tho' then Slaves subdue their Enemies And that the matter might be free from doubt By Name he mark'd this Glorious Monarch out Thus all the Prophets did praesig nifie The Blessed Jesus his Nativity And laid each Circumstance so nicely down That by the Character the God was known If all these Prophecies are not fulfill'd We are content with shame to quit the field But if they are as justly we believe The Atheist must be damn'd beyond reprieve For they who shut their Eyes and will not see The pow'r of an all-knowing Deity Who looks with ease into futurity No Mercy must expect or Pity pray When the Great God shall keep his Judgment-Day Man they confess is of too short a sight To fee things future sown in depth of Night Some nobler pow'r they then of course must grant Which does no measure of fore-knowledge want This pow'r is God whom rashaly they deny They know not upon what account or why But some perhaps will call for Instances Out of Prophance and Common Histories Tho' without reason they this favour ask Yet I most willingly accept the Task And here the Antient Oracles afford
A Thousand Prophecy's which word for word Exactly were accomplish'd and reveal'd So clearly that they must not be conceal'd Some were indeed told in a doubtful way But other's clear as Sun-shine at Mid-Day Such was that Prophecy which did declare That Cyrus should the Lydians beat in War Such that which told it should the fortune be Of Xerxes's Navy to be beat at Sea When all things promis'd the quite contrary Before the Bar then let the Atheist kneel And take Conviction from his own appeal No more Evasions can he hope to find But he must see or must confess hee 's blind For as when Light won't enter through the Eyes We strait conclude the Organ's are amiss So if our Atheist still will persevere And neither Truth nor solid Reason hear We must conclude his Soul so full of sin That she can't let her proper object in Once more I 'le try if like a sensless Rock Fixt and unmov'd hee 'l stand another shock I 'le ply him but with one more Argument From Universal Judgment and Consent And if this fails to work upon his Soul It is because his faculties are foul Let us survey the Universe around And search each Nook where Men are to be found No Nation shall we meet in all our Tour That does not some Divinity adore Of this Divinity which all believe Too few there are that do aright conceive Yet with one voice they all agree in this God is altho' they know not what he is Some attribute a God-head to the Sun Others with equal Honours crown the Moon Some to a Monkey with Devotion bow Others Religiously adore a Cow And by their misplac'd Zeal show they agree I' th gen'ral Notion of a Deity Great part o th' World believes more Gods than one But no part ever yet profess'd that there were none See then our Atheists all the World oppose And like Drawcansir make all Men his Foes See with what Sawey Pride he does pretend His wiser Father's Notions to amend Huffs Plutarch Plato Pliny Seneca And bids ev'n Cicero himself give way Tells all the World they follow a false light And he alone of all Mankind is right Thus like a Madman who when all alone Thinks himself King and ev'ry Chair a Throne Drunk with Conceit and foolish Impudence He prides himself in his abounding Sense But soon this Pride would to the Ground be brought If hee 'd allow himself a moments thought For let him but consider well within From whence this gen'ral Notion did begin Who was it's Authour from what hint it came And our conceited Bully will grow tame This Notion then was either first embrac't Because by Nature on our hearts impress't Or else because a Nat'ral Tendency Perswades us to believe a Deity So that whenever any Man we hear The Being of an all-wise God averr This Truth with as much eagerness we own As soon as first discover'd and made known As do the Eyes whose Organs are aright Suck in the beams of the clear shining light Or Thirdly we from Reason's Sacred Law This inference most evidently draw And with St. Paul from things Created prove The Being of that God who sits above Or lastly this was from Tradition brought And by our Fathers to their Children taught If in our search we shall by Nature find This principle ingrafted on the mind It 's truth of Consequence we must allow For Natures Principles are always true Her steady light can never go astray But leads us to one right and constant way Or if the Soul is by its Nature bent At the first sight to give its free assent To this assertion that a God must be And ha's been always from Eternity The self-same evidence will still remain To make the matter beyond Question plain Man's Soul is fram'd by Nat'ral Appetite In Truth and Reason's Dictates to delight If then our Souls unpraejudic'd and free Do of themselves to this great Truth agree With reason argue and confess we must Their Judgments equal and their Verdicts just But if our Reason does this Truth evince The Atheist never more must make pretence Ev'n to the lowest pitch of common sense Men's Company he must of course forsake And sensless Brutes for his dear Comrades take If from Tradition we this Truth receiv'd Which all our wisest Ancestors believ'd Into the same Dispute again we fall About its rise and first Original How came it first to him who did begin To broach it to the World and let it in Nothing but an all-powr'ful ruling hand Mens Hearts and Mouths can equally command To Adam first God did himself unfold He to his Children all his knowledge told Thus Faith by reason strength'ned does obtain And through the World without resistance Reign See then a Cloud of Witnesses appear For the whole World bears Testimony here See how all Nations in full Consort crowd And with one voice cry out A God aloud Before these let the Atheist show his head And hear his dismal Accusation read His fatal Crime is of the deepest dye 'T is Treason ' gainst the highest Majesty His Lord and Maker he denyes to own And rudely kicks against his Sovereigns Throne Through all the bonds of right and nature breaks Nay his own reason and himself forsakes Puff'd up with Pride and Sawcy Impudence He denyes things most evident to Sence And as old Zeno motion did dispute And by his walking did himself confute So he although he ev'ry where descryes Things made a Maker foolishly denyes The Accusation read the Tryal's done His guilt 's as plain as is the Noon-day Sun There 's not one Man in Court but 's heard to Cry The Treason 's clear oh let the Traytor dye To Sentence then we justly may proceed And make the obstinate Rebellious bleed In lakes of brimstone must our Atheist dwell Plung'd to the bottom of the hottest Hell Where no Day enters where no Sun appears And the sad place with its bright presence cheers There he to all Eternity must lye In pangs of Death but yet must never dye Doom'd by that pow'r whom he too late will know To never-ceasing pains and Everlasting woe Nor will their guilt or punishment be less Who Scepticks in the case themselves profess Who think the Case some scruples may admit And so suspend their Faith and Thoughts of it We have no medium left for doubting fools No Castles in the Air for faithless Souls Wing'd with belief of a Divinity Our happy Souls shall to his Mansion fly But Disbelief and Scepticism is so Will Soul and Body into Ruine throw Besides in doubtful cases we deride That Man who will not chuse the surest side Prudence commands us with a cautious care Against the worst can happen to prepare And names those Men alone discreet and wise Who chuse their Road where certain safety lyes For once then let the case for doubtfull go Whether there be a Deity or no Till after Death the point must