Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	life_n	time_n	18,635	5	3.9362	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27641	A learned treatise of the plague wherein the two questions, whether the plague be infectious or no, and , whether and how farr it may be shunned of Christians by going aside, are resolved / written in Latine by the famous Theodore Beza Vezelian.	Bèze, Théodore de, 1519-1605.	1665 (1665)	Wing B2196; ESTC R31585	20,458	25

hath been believed For the better determining of this question they would have it to be considered what the Plague is from whence it commeth what is the cause of it by what means it is sent unto us what is the nature of it and what the end I take their Proposals for it is most lawful and reasonable But how shall we come to the knowledge of these things By no means say they from any reasons out of Physick but only by the word of God Then let all things disputed by Physicians be blotted out and instead of the Books of Hypocrates Galen and others Let Physicians read only the Bible and let there be no difference between them and Divines between the Physick of the body and the minde Nay God forbid will they say for we condemn no other reasons of Physick than such as are against the word of God Let us enquire then forasmuch as Infection hath its beginning from Natural causes and therefore proceedeth from them whether concerning Natural causes of the Plague there be any thing taught in the word of God contrary to the Rules and Judgement of Physicians They say that the Plague is caled by the Hebritians Dener of the word Daner which also signifieth to destroy by Sentence given by God and that the Grecians do render it Thanaton that is to say Death Be it so it is not much to the matter ●or hereof it followeth not that the Plague proceedeth not of Natural ●auses coming between because it is sent by God unless that we will ●ave therefore all Natural causes of Diseases taken away because no man di●th but God decreeing of what kinde and manner of death soever it be that he die Nay say they it is a folly to call the Sentence of God whereby he appointeth unto every man not only death it self but also the kinde of death and Second causes infections But who I pray ever doted so much as to call the Sentence it self of God infectious But that which we say is far otherwise namely That the Infection it self is to be reckoned amongst Second causes for who can deny that many Diseases are gotten by Handling and Touching of the which some are deadly and other some are less dangerous unless they will also contend that the Sun shineth not at noon day Sinne indeed wherewith we are all born infected and from which all this Dying cometh by a certain Spiritual infection not without the Decree of God it is conveyed and spread into all the posterity of Adam therefore there is no substance at all in this Reason But they also demand if Infection be reckoned amongst Second causes appointed by God how we can avoid that which is ordeined by God that hence they might gather that if the Plague be granted to be infectious that in vain a Remedy is sought against it by flying away But this is also a very dull reason For if this reason be good shall it not be lawful to affirm the same of all Second causes of death If so Let us neither eat nor drink nor seek any remedy against any Diseases let Souldiers go unarmed to Battel because Death ordained by God cannot be avoided But thus the Case standeth doubtless neither Death nor the Time or any kinde of Death appointed by God can be avoided Neither do we eat or use Remedies against Diseases or put on armor against our Enemies as if we meant to withstand God But leaving those things which God would have kept secret from us we must use those things which God himself going before Nature telleth us to be ordained by him to prolong our life so long as it shall please him which if we do not we shall worthily be deemed to tempt and most grievously to offend God so far off is it that using the means set down by him to avoid death we should sinne against him although that sometimes we use them in vain that is to say when as the end doth plainly shew that even then we must die when as we thought our life should yet for a time have been prolonged So is Asa rebuked not for that he sent for Physicians but for that he put his hope of life in the Physicians So that when experience hath taught us that Infection creepeth rather into things near than afar off he is not to be accused who leaving no part of Christian duty undone withdraweth himself and his Family Nay he shall be greatly blamed who rashly casteth himself and his into the danger of Infection when as the Apostle beareth witness he is worse than an Infidel which hath not so great care over his as with a pious safety and charity he ought to have Now let us see whether this following Reason be of any more force By those Names say they which in the holy Scripture are attributed to the Plague is sufficiently and thorowly expressed what the quality and manner of the same is Now the Plague is called The hand of God 2 Sam. 24. The word of God 1 Chron. 21. and is also signified by the name of Arrows Ps 31. 90. Therefore it cometh not of Infection when asneither Hand nor Sword nor Arrow woundeth by Infection But besides that peradventure I might worthily call into doubt whether all these testimonies alledged deny this Argument also for in another place as Psalm 17. David calleth his Enemies the hand of God who by natural means assaulted him And when as the hand of God is said to have made us Natural generation is not left out and it is manifest that in the Scripture all evils and punishments whatsoever God sendeth unto Mankinde using either ordinary Laws of Nature only or else using the service of Angels are called Arrows I demand moreover what they call the quality and manner of the Disease They will say The nature thereof it self But I say by those metaphorical terms of hand sword arrow is no more signified of what manner or quality this Disease is in it self than what is Hail or the Scabb when God is said with a stretched out hand to have smitten Aegypt And to be short what is the force and nature of every Disease when as in the additions of the Law they are reckoned up amongst the Curses which God would send upon them What then surely then it belongeth unto the Physicians to search out the nature of Diseases so far as they depend upon the laws of Nature which we often see by them performed with such good success and certainty that they can foreshew both them and what issue they are likely to come unto But concerning Supernatural and Divine causes of Sickness and other Miseries those do Divines declare teaching That we must mount far above Nature and all things appertaining unto Nature when with our Prayers we deal about the avoiding and removing of them far away from us for the true and principal cause of them is our Sins wherewith God being provoked doth raise and stir up against us

ship Ye cannot be saved unless these tarry Christ also though he well knew that his hour was not yet come yet did he more than once withdraw himself when the Jews sought to kill him Finally that which they take for most certain namely that happening or chance is repugnant unto the sure and stedfast Decree of God which notwithstanding it maketh not much to the matter yet who will grant it them we call those happening or chancing Causes which of their own nature may fall out unto either part if any man should take them out of the nature of things I know not whether he should have any man of a right Judgment to hold with him They say out of St. Augustine That the will of God is the necessity of things I grant so far as pertaineth unto the end and effects of the Causes themselves But as St. Augustine saith very well It followeth not that though all things which God hath decreed shall come to pass must needs come to pass that therefore they come to pass of necessary Causes like as the Stoicks did falsely conclude and the same may be proved by most certain and most plain examples For do we not believe that Christ had indeed Man's bones and therefore such as of their own nature might at any time have been broken and yet indeed they could not be broken for that it was otherwise decreed by God Therefore by hap and chance concerning their own nature they were not broken when as notwithstanding they were such as might have been broken and yet by God's Decree they remained of necessity unbroken Again that Christ from the very time that he took upon him our Human nature was indued with a Mortal body all Christians do confesse therefore of his own nature he might have been slain by Herod with the other little Children but by God's Decree he could not Therefore that he was not then slain fell out by hap and chance if you consider the nature of his Body when as it might have chanced otherwise But by God's Decree he could no more be slain by Herod than the will of God could be changed Christ when he was carried to be crucified was then undoubtedly of such health that he needed not at that time to have died he died therefore by chance if you do consider the cause of his Natural death and yet be died of necessity if you look to the unchangeable appointment of his Father because his hour was come and withall he died willingly because he laid down his Life for us Thus far therefore is neither chance nor will repugnant unto the most certain Decree of God There remaineth one Argument taken from Experience which in shew seemeth very strong yet is it of no force to take away Infection I mean to prove the Plague not to be infectious If say they the Plague come of Natural causes or of some certain Constellation or of corrupt Air then should all they doubtless be infected which dwell under the same Constellation or breath in the same corrupt Air which is found to be false for even reason it self doth prove the falshood of this Argument For who is so unskilfull that knoweth not that one and the same Cause doth not always operate alike much less equally nay that the effects are divers according unto the diversity of the matter it worketh upon one and the self-same North-winde doth not equally annoy men with Cold every man therefore seeth how weak this reason is But let us grant that in some place every man of himself is apt to receive the corrupt air yet may many things happen why the same effect in all would not follow as for example one man taketh a Preservative medicine another doth not one forthwith useth a good medicine another very late or never Lastly that which is the principal point is to be considered That Almighty God doth govern Natural causes and their effects as it pleaseth him So that hence it cometh to pass that Infection toucheth not every one which is in danger of it as it is written Psal 91. 6. Neither yet is it deadly unto every one that it hath infected like as Poyson also drunken is not as it is written Mark 16. 18. Therefore this Argument also is not of force to prove there is no infection in the Plague because that many which keep company with those that are sick of the Plague are not taken and contrariwise they that are absent are infected As if the poyson of a Viper were not deadly because that Paul being bitten of one felt no harm at all Acts 28. 5. And thus far concerning Infection Now we must treat of going aside for so I had rather call it than flying though I think it the part of a Wise-man to fly peril with reason There are some therefore which do without exception finde fault with going aside for the Plague that they count it a very heynous offence though they think that those which tarry ought not to use rashness There are on the other side which hold that every man so soon as the Plague cometh ought to provide for himself having no regard or but very small of the fellowship and duties which Christian Charity doth command Now I for my part do dissent from both these and especially from the latter as having most lawful causes But ere I set down my own judgement in this Controversie let us hear these disputing the one against the other Thus therefore they which think it not lawful to fly do first of all Philosophically dispute against those that hold it not lawfull to tarry at all they alledge out of Plato his Gorgias That it is foolishnesse to fear Death and that he cannot seem to be a temperate person which flyeth Death because it proceedeth of too much delight in life nor yet to be a just man for that he which in the time of the Plague provideth for himself by running away doth yield neither to God nor Man his due To these Reasons they set down others taken out of the holy Scriptures as That they think not well of the providence of God by whose unchangeable Decree the course of man's life is limitted That they distrust God and believe not his promise I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed That they are void of all Charity nay and more of all Natural pitty and affection That they tempt God after the example of the Israelites Exod. 17. 3. Psal 78. 18. appointing God by what manner time and place and by what means he may save them That they love not God from their hearts for being enamoured and in love with Earthly goods they neglect and are careless of the heavenly That they fear death too much for that they set themselves against the will of God which is always good That they think themselves stronger than God and that they can escape his hand That they do openly break the law of Christ and of Nature by