Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A47384
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Mid-night and daily thoughts in prose and verse / by Sir William Killigrew.
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Killigrew, William, Sir, 1606-1695.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing K462; ESTC R22780
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45,259
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108
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my Burthen light JESVS Christ the great Pattern of our Lives Does bid us follow him and loves who strives To imitate him most for he that can But near him come will be a blessed Man 'T is not commanded nor expected is That our own righteousness should equal His Our God from us doth nothing more require Than our utmost endeavours and desire To do his Will He only calls us to What he does give us Grace and power to do He wills us to believe obey and love But does not give us mountains to remove His yoke is easie and his Burthen light We make of Mole-hills Mountains in our sight To a strong young Man T'Hou'rt young 't is true and strong mayest yet Live many years but do not thou forget That young and healthy People often die By various accidents as suddenly As old nor yet expect that death must bring A Fever to fore-shew thou art dying When death with thee divides this minute's breath Though we call the last act of dying death Because we then do cease to die no more When we are dying all our lives before Thy youth and my gray head now dying are Thou need'st no other Summons to prepare For Heaven but observation every day What multitudes of young men drop away Only the old Man's Dream is almost gone The young Man's Dream but newly is begun The longest is like twinkling of an eye Moments compar'd unto eternity On Hypocrisie HE errs that owns his Crimes in the World's sight To avoid being thought a hypocrite We are not bound our frailties to reveal But may our shame with modesty conceal Rather than aggravate our sins 'gainst God By boasting that we do contemn his Rod. But he that does a feigned Zeal put on To cloak his sins doth scorn Religion And does not only with his base intents Contemn Obedience to Commandments But does that way design his God should shroud His wickedness under a holy cloud And does God's Goodness mock thus to presume Rudely to move his anger to consume Such mad-men as do his known power despise By daring to affront him in disguise Who thinks a Vizard on his face can hide His heart God does such hypocrites deride And will in fury finite so bold offence As undervalues his Omnipotence To GOD. WHen I look back on my past life the ills That I have done my heart with horrour fills And does amaze my frighted Soul to see Thy Judgments due to such impiety But since thy Mercy hath so long forborn To smite and thou art pleas'd at last to turn My heart to Heaven when I was running on Heaping sins on sins to my perdition I bless thy Name that would not let me go To Hell nor suffer me to perish so This Grace gives hope and does my Faith encrease To Confidence that thou wilt now release Me from the punishments and from the shame Due to my Crimes and make me love thy Name It is thy own great Work the honour 's thine I cannot own a vertuous thought for mine Shall I then fear to raise my thoughts to thee When thou dost fill my heart with Piety When my assurance is thy gift I may Approach thy glorious Throne and humbly say Thy Grace hath such a Confidence begot As cannot be in one that loves thee not Lord let this love encrease let it endure Unto my end make my Election sure That I may feast my Soul with thoughts of thee My God the Fountain of Felicity Thus fill'd with Grace and by thy Spirit led I shall for ever live when I am dead And with true courage when I come to die Shall gladly pass to my eternity On a bold profane Sinner WE may well fear great Judgments in our times That dare to boast and glory in our Crimes To sin is humane frailty but to slight Religion and to make 't our chief delight To show how we can triumph in the act Of ev'ry sin does aggravate the fact And make us worse than Heathens heretofore Who never scorn'd those Gods they did adore But Christians now do take the liberty To own no Joy but in the infamy Of their worst deeds and do a War proclaim With Heaven as if they could their God desame The Giants war by Poets feign'd came short Of those who use Devotion as a Sport And rally on their Priests who stories tell To awe the ignorant with Heaven and Hell While Wit and Courage do disdain to be Frighted from Pleasure by such Foppery Thus some gay Gallants of our age do treat Their God as if his Precepts were a cheat To make us live in fear and trembling die With idle Dreams of an Eternity If these Opinions like Contagions spread God may in rigour strike the Nation dead Then sow the Land with Dragons teeth fit seed For soil that does such monstrous people breed On Eternal Life NO sooner born than we begin to die By Nature taught to cry we know not why Till riper years do teach us wicked arts To cozen and betray our wanton hearts That boldly dare our great Creator brave By sinning from our Cradle to our Grave Sad fate for Souls thus destin'd to obey The various Vices of corrupted Clay Involv'd in dangers that we do not fear Because the certain ruine seems not near Till some diviner light our hearts inform How to fail safe in this devouring storm Bless'd be that light which does from terrour free And make us Victors in Captivity For Souls by Grace enlarg'd will quickly taste Such Joys as no Eternity can waste Thus born to live and yet ordain'd to die And live again is such a mystery As only Faith can reach and shew us how To out-live Death by pious living now Which will a prepossession take of Bliss And such angelical transports as this Will such a bless'd celestial Courage give We shall be glad to die that we may live On Valour and Fear VAlour mistaken through the World we see When rashness looks like Magnanimity When senseless Drunkards vap'ring in the Street For want of Courage quarrel all they meet When practised danger brings the meanest Clown To vie with Alexander for Renown When shame will fear remove and money hire The scum of Men to face the Cannon's fire We must some other Rules for Valour find That grows from Vertues of a higher kind These Men do not know why They do not fear to die Experience shews the Valiant and the Wife May start at the first glimpse of a surprise And may avoid such squabbles as will stain Their Courage and no jot of Credit gain High Valour and true Vertue brightly shine When they 're asserted by a Cause Divine When King and Country or thy Church wants aid 'T is basest Cowardice to be afraid True Courage will endeavour to create Safety to them though ruine be their fate These are the Men know why They do not fear to die On Repentance WHen Adam fell GOD did a Curse disperse On all
Mankind throughout the Universe And on his Issue did Contagion spread Till CHRIST appear'd to bruise the Serpent's Head Then Penitence and Piety began To be refin'd and call'd relapsed Man By Rules and Christ's Example to possess Heaven with his united happiness So that repenting sinners Heaven must fill Because there 's none on Earth but have done ill Though sighs and tears may a good Prologue be To introduce Repentance yet we see High Structures on such thin Foundations built Have tumbled with much noise and greatest guilt So that to pray and fervently desire To be enlightned by celestial Fire How to forsake our sins if not too late Denominates who is regenerate On Easter-Day HOw Christ triumph'd o'er the Grave and Hell Is joy to think tho' terrible to tell When Rods had made his sacred Body bleed And purple Robes did aggravate that Deed When Pilate to consummate all his Scorns Adorn'd his Temples with a Crown of Thorns Hard were their hearts who did endure to see Their Saviour bleeding bound to set them free Those then who did his Agonies deride When they had pierc'd his feet his hands and side Were of much harder metal made more fit For their descent into th' infernal Pit While dying Christ by a diviner fate Gave Heaven to the repenting Reprobate To shew whom Faith and Penitence sustain Will sure a place in Paradise obtain Bless'd then were those whose eyes were never dry After they saw their Lord and Saviour die Till searching in the Sepulchre they find That sacred Body could not be consin'd To Earth which was declar'd before must rise To chear their hearts and dry their blubber'd eyes When the dull mist of Nature was remov'd They saw and knew whom they ador'd and lov'd Surpriz'd with joy transported with delight They trembling do approach his awful sight Until enlightned they at last grow bold By recollecting what he had foretold Which fix'd their Faith and by a joy'd Converse He then his Resurrection did rehearse And by his Spirit made them understand And look for his Ascension then at hand Thus fill'd with heavenly Wisdom they retir'd Well satisfied with what they most desir'd And by their Records of these Truths do teach Us by a lively Faith how we may reach The same assurance and like Comforts find Unless we will be obstinately blind If we can sin subdue this world despise This day we may with Christ to Heaven rise On late Repentance VAin Men who do presume to live in sin Hoping to end as easie as begin When Custom and Time such habits do beget That easie Nature to our Wills submit And force our hardned hearts with them comply To glut our Senses till the hour we die As if one Moment were enough to gain That Mercy we for many years disdain With all our power thus blindly running on In high contests to our confusion Thus heedlesly our Youth does bear the sway And middle age too willingly obey Still thinking as our Bodies do decay We may repent But age will not give way To quit his feeble appetites grown bold By Custom then does scorn to be controul'd And when no active vigour does remain Delights to tell and think sins o'er again By such sad precedents we learn too late And march to Hell in a triumphant state A Rapture O Lord thou seest the Secrets of my heart Beyond what sighs or tears or words impart Yet I must daily worship and adore Thy Name too much neglected heretofore Now own thou art the mighty Lord of Host One God the Father Son and holy Ghost What Reason wants we must by Faith supply For finite ne'er can reach infinity Thou lov'st a zealous heart and dost require Our best endeavours then grant'st our desire When servent Prayers the greatest pleasure brings In our addresses to the King of Kings And makes our joy in carnal appetites Submit to higher and divine delights Which fire the heart and make Devotion warm That inward works like a Seraphick Charm Lord bless my age that I may end my days In a delightful Rapture of thy praise On the Felicity of constant Health THo' honour with renown and greatest wealth God's Blessings are they can't contest with health For happiness which is the root that brings More pleasure unto Beggars than to Kings When fits of Gout Strangury or the Stone Do all or any of them come alone Health makes us eat and drink and sleep at ease When wealth creates but cures not a Disease What would not a daily sick rich Man give To have a poor Man's health while he does live His Plate his Jewels with his Bags of Gold Will ease no pain tho' all he has were fold Which shews that all Mankind should daily pray For health and not by wealth be led astray For there 's no joy like a contented mind Tho' 't is with poverty and health confin'd On lost Innocence THo we cannot lost Innocence re-call Repentance will preserve from farther fall And Faith in Christ will then recover all So we by him shall Victory obtain And God by mercy will the Glory gain And thus by grace and savour of God's love We may with joy triumph all fears remove Which will our hearts revive new hopes create And raise our Souls to our first blessed state And thus from sin by Christ's great Merit freed We may as God's adopted Sons proceed With Duty and Obedience to his Will Till he in Heaven does all our hope fulfil To a young Man surpriz'd by Death THo' Death has many ways to be disguis'd We have as many not to be surpriz'd So that surprize is but a lame excuse Which rather doubly trebbles the abuse When we are plac'd by God upon the guard Who proffers life eternal for reward But thou young Man for pain may'st loudly groan Or is' st for grief to die thou mak'st such moan If by the first thou do'st find any ease 'T is well the second adds to thy disease And by a great mistake disturbs thy heart With a false fancy that thou dying art Now thy beloved Carcase does decay VVhich should unto thy Soul raise no dismay But chear thy heart and so enrich thy mind With joyful thoughts of a diviner kind For when God calls for thy last puff of Breath He 'll bring thee to eternal life not death For so 't will prove and be more truly said That thou begin'st to live when thou art dead The Dream of a reconciled Sinner SOmething I saw more glorious to behold Than can I now awake by tongue be told Such glitt'ring rays too glorious to impart When raptures flow in a Seraphick heart Which only can behold so bright a shine To testifie such Dreams must be divine That comforts sleeping Souls with such delights As are inessable to waking sights Tho' God some secret Counsels doth conceal He may a glimpse of Glory thus reveal To fix such hearts as mercy does afford When Penitents are unto Grace restor'd To show some