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
A31460	The tablet of Cebes the Theban philosopher, or, A true emblem of human life with an additional treatise concerning tranquillity of mind / written by Hipparchus and translated by Robert Warren.; Tabula. English. 1699	Cebes, of Thebes.; Hipparchus, the Pythagorean. Excellent treatise concerning peace of conscience.	1699 (1699)	Wing C1653A; ESTC R35480	26,828	143

time so requireth It is written That there is a time to laugh and a time to mourn a time for joy and a time for sadness And therefore a Christian Man may learn to use both the one and the other well and all to the glory of God Most certain it is that God hath permitted us honest Pleasures and delight which he hath not forbidden or are to his dishonour or any occasion of evil All honest and vertuous Exercise are permitted unto us in rendring thanks to God forthem and acknowledging his benifits by them provided also that we keep our selves alwaies within the rules of Sobriety Modesty and Honesty Thus we see one manner of Life and that which most conveniently beseemeth man The other is more brutish than humane the sence and description whereof taketh it self thus First for the large and common beaten way whereby men entred into the Garden and concerning the unbridled multitude that made use thereof I must understand his Meaning thus that every Man affecteth ease idleness and voluptuous Pleasures Some knew how to give a Mean to their desires and took not so much Meat and Wine as should trouble their understandings but could well return to their ordinary businesses and use Reason in all things Now there were others that knew not any Mean or Measure neither had regard to Time or Place but would needs venture further and fell into such extremity of folly as they lost their senses understanding and memory So that thereby they became brute beasts and could no way retire from this disorderly battel till diseases poverty and necessity admonished them of their duty For they are the last Companions of Drunkenness and Wayes of all Carowsers that do her the greatest Honour By Handmaids or Waiting-Women to Drunkenness I understand those several vices as their apt Names do signify and they are the meetest for her Company And by the Drinks which she gave to her Quaffers he meaneth the venom and poyson of voluptuous excess which maketh such a Transport of mens Understandings that they grow like unto brute beast according as they take less or more and according to the complections they are of representing even those very beasts whose Nature and Manners they cone nearest unto and refusing all friendly counsell and advice do delight more in such barbarous and uncivil courses than any other manners that should shew them to be Men. The CONCLUSION An Admonition concerning the Shortness of Life MAny men complain that Nature is very unkind to them in allotting them so little time to live and often cry out that no sooner are they born but they must die before they can take their full Draught of the Pleasures of this Life Neither is this the complaint of the Illiterate and Vulgar sort of People only but even of the most Valiant and Learned Men. We not often meet with any that are desirous to relinquish the enjoyments of this Life and to enter upon another state But too many that cry out with Aristotele Life is short but Art is long We find many bemoaning their condition with sighs and tears and such dismal expressions as these Nature is more bountiful to the very beasts and savages then to Man They can live for five or ten Ages but as for Man who is born to greater and nobler ends is not allowed half their time though he entreats and strives never so vehemently But to these Persons we may find Seneca does give a severe Reprimand How comes it to pass that we loose and squander away so much of our time if we complain we have not Enough When we can spend whole Days and Months and Years in doing Evil or else in doing nothing or in doing things besides our real business Infinite are the hours which we bestow upon Ceremony and servile Attendances in Hopes and Fears Love and Revenge Balls and Entertainment Ambition Coust flatteries Rambling voyages Impertinent Studies and Unaccountable Amours Life is long enough and the time allotted us if it were well employ'd were abundantly enough to answer all the Ends and Purposes of Mankind But we never remember our End nor seek the means and so it comes to pass that when Death makes a visit to us we are damped and dejected in our Spirits and are extremly loth to depart In a word we live as if we were never to die without any Reflection upon our Lives which may be taken from us in a Moments time For would we live as if we were always in expectation of Death and set our Accompts right every day that passes over our Heads Would we I say seriously consider and put in practice Pythagoras his excellent Advice to his Disciples Namely daily to call our selves to a strict Account what we have omitted or what we have committed we should never set our Affections upon this Life nor be the least a fraid of Death which would free us from this troublesom habitation and invert us with a Blessed Eternity The CONTEMPT OF DEATH THat all Men must die is most certain and that Death which we so much dread and decline is not a Determination but the Intermission of a Life which will return again is as certain What is it then I wonder that makes men afraid Oh! 't is an hard thing to die will some say Who can without very great reluctancy enter into an ruknewn state and quit the gaudy pleasures of this varnish'd Earth Thus do they fear and tremble and can't endure to think of an after separation For they represent Death to their thoughts as a strange and hideous Monster and with Aristotle are willing to conclude it the most Terrible of all Terribles But alas would they consider that to die 't is but a moments work and that no sooner is the pure Soul stript of its gross Body but our Pain and all the Miseries of this wicked life are at an end Again let them remember that the World it self stands condemn'd to a Dissolution that every man must submit to the Prince of Death He that will not voluntarily follow in the great and beaten Road must be drawn by force for our fate is fix'd and the Decree is immutable And besides what Reason have men to murmur or be afraid of Death when that which we call Death is the Gate and Door of Eternal Life and who is not willing to exchange a Life of Mourning and Sorrow for an Eternity of Happiness Death in a word is a Debt to Providence and Nature and this Life was never design'd but for a Journey to another Place O! therefore let us comply with that cheerfully which Providence hath made necessary The END

scowre away with all speed unto the Palace of TRUE INSTRUCTION This is the charge that LIFE'S GENIUS layeth upon all that are just making entrance into the first Enclosure He that either refuseth it or misapplyeth it comes home by Unhappiness and Ruin This my good Friends is the whole Exposition of this Table if you want any farther satisfaction in any particular let me know and I shall be ready to resolve you Strang. A Thousand thanks to you Sir for what you have already made easy to us and you will lay an infinite obligation upon us if you will be pleas'd to inform us what it is that the GENIUS wisheth them to take at the station of FALSE INSTRUCTION Expos Such things as will be requisite and beneficial Strang. And what are those Expos Letters Languages and Discipline which Plato calls the Bridle of Youth curbing them in and keeping them out of worse Exercise and Employments Strang. Must he that will hasten to TRUE INSTRUCTION needs take these here or may he let them alone at his pleasure Expos He need not unless he will there is no compulsion in the case They are convenient but not of any necessity to Virtue Strang. No Are they not necessary for the bettering of our Understandings Expos Yes but however our Goodness may encrease without them yet are they not altogether useless For as on occasion we may understand what is said by an Interpreter tho' it would not be amiss if we understood the very Language our selves however otherwise we do apprehend the matter even so without these sorts of Learning nothing hinders but we may attain unto Vertue Strang. I but doth not the understanding of these Arts and Sciences qualify and enable Men to have goodness better infus'd into them than others that have not these Disciplines Expos No how should that be when they have as bad a Notion of the True Nature of Good and Evil and are as black with the pitchy touch of viciousness as others It is an easy thing for one to be a pretty good Scholar and Master of all the Arts and for all that be a Sot to be Lewd Stingy Injurious Perfidious and in short as meer an Idiot as he that never knew what belong'd to a School Of such there are numerous Instances and Examples we need not go far to fetch them and now then what Prerogative so great hath Learning in the Reformation of Men's Extravagancies Strang. Why none methinks if things go thus But why then are Scholars in the second Enclosure as nearer neighbours to TRUE INSTRUCTION than the rest Expos Alas what good do they get by that When we may often behold many that pass out of the first Enclosure from INCONTINENCE and the other train of Vices unto TRUE INSTRUCTION without once resting amongst these great Scholars What Man then can avouch their Estate better because of the place They are either more dull or at least more idle than others Strang. Why said we how comes that to pass Expos Because tho' those of the second Enclosure were clear from all faults else yet this alone would stick by them for ever to profess they know what they do not which indeed is a great obstacle and impediment to them in the acquiring of TRUE INSTRUCTION Again do you not see how the OPINIONS come thick and threefold out of the first Enclosure unto them These are the causes why their condition is not a rush better than the others unless REPENTANCE and they fall once acquainted and they be verily persuaded that they dwell not with TRUE INSTRUCTION but with her Counterfeit which leads them into ERROUR and obstructeth all the means of their Reformation and Passage to SECURITY Wherefore my Friends unless you take this course and often meditate on my words and alwaies keep in mind some of these Admonitions I leave with you all that I have said will be in vain and you 'll not be a Farthing the better for the Exposition of this Table Strang. Upon our Faith and honest Word we 'll do our very best but Pray Sir do us the favour as to resolve us this Question why are not the Gifts that FORTUNE bestoweth upon Men worthy to be accounted Goods As Life Health Riches Honours Children Success and such other her Bounties And why are not their contraries Evils This Assertion seems strange and almost incredible unto us Expos Well be sure then that you answer directly unto what I shall Propound Strang. We will Sir Expos What think you Whether is it good for him that is an Evil Liver to Live or not Strang. It is not good for him in our opinion to Live but rather bad Expos How then can Life be a Good if it be Bad for him Strang. Because as to a Bad Man Life is Bad so to a Good Man Life is Good Expos So then I find you suppose Life to be both good and bad Strang. So in good earnest we do Expos O! mark what you say for that one thing should be both good and bad implies a flat contradiction For then at that rate it would be both profitable and hurtful and likewise alwaies to be lov'd and desir'd and hated and avoided at the same time Strang. This is something absurd we must confess But if he that liveth badly have a badness by living so how can Life but be bad unto that Man Expos I but remember that it is one thing to live and another to live badly Strang. That is true Expos So that LIFE is not bad in it self For were it so it would be so to the best liver as well as to the worst for all would be possess'd of a LIFE that would be badness in its very self and then Bad would be the Best Strang. Right in truth Expos Well then LIFE being communicated both to the good Liver and to the bad to Live of it self is neither good nor bad no more than cutting or burning is both which are good in some Diseases but prejudicial to all found Constitutions Just so is this Life And therefore put the case to your selves whether had you rather live badly or die honourably Strang. I 'd make choice of the latter Expos So then Death in it self is no bad thing belike for it is oftentimes to be preferr'd before Life Strang. Right again Expos Well then Health and Sickness have one and the same respect For occasion may so happen that the sick Man may not recover Strang. Not unlikely Expos Weigh Riches then in the same Ballance recollect that which we often see A Man hath plenty of Riches and puts them to no good use but lives a Miser Not a few of this sort Strang. In troth too many Expos So then his Riches don't augment his happiness any way Strang. Not in our Judgment by reason of his own badness Expos Therefore you see 't is not Riches but good Instruction that makes a Man both Good and Happy