Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A00049
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Thrifts equipage Viz. fiue diuine and morall meditations, of 1. Frugalitie. 2. Prouidence. 3. Diligence. 4. Labour and care. 5. Death.
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Aylett, Robert, 1583-1655?
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1622
(1622)
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STC 1004; ESTC S118663
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33,126
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66
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they may more indulge to ease and pleasure vaine One praiseth hunger as best sawce to meat Because it cost him least yet sauour'd best And alwaies with delight did drinke and eate Because he ne're did without hunger feast Some onely liue to eate drinke and digest But we ought onely eate and drinke to liue To liue to feed is to be like a beast Who would in reason more than sense be thriue To body needfull things to Soule must plenty giue Xantippe's said once Socrates too blame For that he often made an inuitation Of greatest friends yet 's fare was still the same Auoyding alwaies costly preparation Soone he replide thus to her allegation If as they seeme they be our friends indeed They will respect our Thrift but if for fashion They make a shew let 's to our selues take heed And not spend our estate them daintily to feed These patternes are of frugall abstinence Which as you see the Heathen eu'n adore Now see the holy fathers prouidence To raise themselues to plenty being poore Noâ— Abraham Booz and a thousand more Liue vpon Tillage Grazing Husbandry And tend their flockes come cattell grasse and store Yea Kings did hereunto themselues apply To ioyne Magnificence with this Frugality Eu'n after Saul anoynted is a King He followeth the Cattell from the field And they that death to Ishbosheth did bring Came to buy Corne it seemes he Tillage held None e're did so magnificently weld A Scepter as did royall Salomon To which his Thrift such wondrous store did yeeld To his sheepe-shearing sprucest Absolon Inuites eu'n princely Dauid and his eldest sonne See how great Princes and the sonnes of Kings Are not ashamed of Frugality Priests liu'd indeed of Tythes and Offerings And therefore lookt most to Gods husbandry Paul had a trade although a Pharisie And though he to th' Apostleship attaine Yet workes he in his Trade and Mysterie His liuing with his labour here to gaine Nor will he charge the Church though bound him to maintaine Th' Apostles all were Fishermen and gain'd Their liuing by induring wet and cold Diuines thinke Ioseph blessed Iesus train'd In his owne Trade till he thrise ten yeeres told I could be yet three times as manifold This Vertue with examples to commend But I had rather be a little bold And you perswade her practice to intend One's for her praise but this is counsell for a friend Oh what a happinesse it is to liue And do much good without offence to all To eate secure those cates our ground doth giue To lie so low one can no lower fall Yet haue eu'n there Content imperiall No wickednesse can enter such a Cell Highest delights that can a Prince befall This priuate Cottage may affoord as well Where care not halfe their sorrowes vnto thee will tell To many Riâ—t from meane to great estate Is not an end but change of Misery The fault is in the Mind not in the Fate Which is the same in wealth and pouerty Who onely mind change and variety Liue ill because they still begin to liue They rightly here inioy prosperity That so much pleasure to their Bodies giue As they not for but in the Body sought to liue Happy is he who neuer saw that one With whom he would exchange his meane estate Most miserable who to that are come They things which were superfluous of late Haue now made necessary to their state Such are eu'n slaues not masters of their pleasure They loue their ills which is the hardest fate Alas there is no remedy nor measure Of Vices when as men esteeme them as a treasure No good befals a man vnder the Sunne The which his mind is not prepar'd to lose No losse more easie is to any one Than of the things he hath no need to vse He 's neuer poore who Natures rules doth chuse Nor rich that liueth by Opinion Natures desires be finite boundlesse those That false Opinion depend vpon Loathing no Sallet Hunger likes an Onion Sure he is best to whom with sparing hand God giues sufficient let him wish no more In need of things superfluous to stand Is miserable want in greatest store Excesse oppresseth many who before With little could haue liu'd and beene content These though they haue enough yet stil be poore Because they first beyond their compasse went This euill prudent Thrifâ— betimes seeke to preuent Who is not made in Husbandry to sweat May sweat in Arts or Lawes politicall 'T is fit all earne their bread before they eate Nothing is more expensiue prodigall Than to haue nothing here to doe at all Want of employment Ease and Idlenesse Haue caus'd more noble Houses here to fall Than Fortunes blasts or Enuies bitternesse Let him not liue to spend that nothing doth professe Then let him neuer liue that doth professe What 's worse than nothing basest Vsury Herein is certaine profit I confesse But alwaies with anothers misery Is this the vertue of Frugality By others losses to increase our store Then so is rapine theft and robbery Selling of Iustice which oft bring in more Than all the frugall Trades I named haue before Since Nature with so little is content Who here would vse vnlawfull Arts for gaine We are but Stewards here of what is sent If we our Talents vse aright to gaine We twice as many shall of God obtaine But if to hide them in the earth we chuse Or spend them on our Lusts and Pleasures vaine They shall be tane from vs who them abuse And giu'n to such as shall them to Gods glory vse But I so worldly Thrift haue followed That I forgotten haue to thriue in Grace And as it in the world is practised Must put her off vnto the second place For I so neere haue finished my race I must deferre this to another time God grant we may them both aright imbrace Now like good husbands knocke we off betime And be at worke to morrow in the mornings prime BEhold how Birds for morrow take no care Secure God will due food for them prepare Can woorthlesse Birds be confident of meate And is a farthing-Sparrowes Faith so great She knowes but by Gods will she cannot fall And shall Gods sonnes Christs images once call In doubt their Makers will to do then good No sure who lends them life will giue them food MEDITATION 2. Of Prouidence THe frugall Husband which I erst describ'd So soone as Titan with his glistring Beames Begilds the locks of stately Pines which hide The tops of Mountaines from his hotter gleames Walkes foorth amongst his cattell flocks teames His Land to open to Sunnes mellowing heate And feed his Herds along the siluer streames To drinke and bathe when they their fil haue eate That fat they him may feed that now prouides them meate Thus early rising as the Prouerbe sayes Brings Thrift in body in estate and mind The early riser spends in health his dayes And by his diligence doth plenty find And in the
Abraâ—ams-bosome plac't As Starres of heau'n which first in East do shine Arise till their Meridian they haue past But do from thence as fast againe decline Till they into the Westerne Seas are cast Eu'n so vaine Mortals here are all in hast Till they their highest pitch of strength attaine But that once got they fall againe as fast And downeward to the graue descend amaine Some here a shorter some a longer course obtaine And as hee 's happiest whom the swiftest wind Brings soonest to the Port and hau'n of rest So 's he that soonest in the graue doth find Harbour against worlds stormes which him infest Death doth but like his brother Sleepe arrest The weary wight where he a longer night Himselfe in graue than in his bed may rest And yet no longer than till Christ our Light Awakes vs to enioy for ay his glorious sight To all that labour pleasing is the end The Traueller inquireth for his Inne The hired Seruant when his Yeere doth end The Husband when his Haruest doth beginne Merchant of his Aduentures comming in The Woman when her ninth Month doth expire So Saints of Death haue euer mindfull bin For where 's our Treasure there 's our hearts desire And where our Crowne is laid our eyes do ay aspire Therefore the dying Saints like Swans do sing Foreseeing that they in the graue should rest From Labours and be freed from the sting Of Sinne which here their liues did most infest Why should we with Deaths feare be so distrest When as the Lord of Life himselfe did die That we from sting of Death might be releast Eu'n Sinne the Cause of all our Misery And made Death our first step to true Felicity The truth hereof the sacred Pages seale When that which commonly we dying call They call it sleeping For Christ did repeale The Act of dying by his Funerall Thus Patriarchs Prophets Kings Apostles 〈◊〉 Lie sleeping till the finall Resurrection From Adâ—m to the Iudgement generall All to this faâ—all Lord must yeeld subiection And sleepe sâ—cure and sound vnder his safe protection The Wiseman therefore better doth commend The Day of Death then of Natiuity By that our paine and labours haue an end This the Beginning is of Misery The Lord of Life who Life and Death did try Proclaimeth endlesse Blessednesse to those With rest from labour in the Lord that die Blessed whom he to liue in him hath chose But till their Death from Labour they haue no repose See but how wiser Heathens entertaine This fatall stroke this last necesâ—ity How they on Birth-dayes lowd lament and plaine At Funerals make mirth and melody For that begins this ends all misery No man say they that doth not Death despise Can here on earth enioy true Liberty They onely saw an end of miseries But lo heau'n stands wide open vnto Christians eyes Ah why should Painters limme Death with a dart Time with a Syth before him cuts all downe Death doth but lance and play the Surgeons part Time fells the Corne that 's ready to be mowne Alas what Cruelty hath Death vs showne Thou art but as a Seruant vnto time To gather Fruits which he saith ripe be growne In Wine-presse thou but treadeâ—t out the wine To barrell vp in Tombâ—s that there it may refine As we greene Fruites more difficultly pull Than those we find hang ripe vpon the tree So youthfull Sprites of heate and vigor full More hardly die than they that aged be This is the greatest difference we see Betweene their courses that are short and long Both goe the broad way of Mortality Death like a mighty wind here layes along As weake and hollow Elâ—nes so Cedars stout and strong Who is so strong whom she hath not cast downe Looke all the generations gone and past Their ancient Monuments by Bookes are knowne In Graâ—e their Bodies all to dust do waste The Iewes long-life more eagerly imbrac't As 't was a type of endlesse happinesse But since Christ in his youth of Death did taste All Substances fulfill'd their Figures cease Now happiest he whom Death the soonest doth release Happy though clouds of stones thy head infold Like Steph'ns so open heau'ns shew pure cleare And though a Trance like Pauls so fast thee hold That whether thou without the Body were Or in the Body thou canst not declare Though thus Death doth like sleepe they flesh arrest The ioyes of heau'n shall to thy Soule appeare Not to be vttered Lo they are best By Negatiues not by Affirmatiues exprest No eye hath seene no eare hath euer heard No heart conceiue no tongue that can recite The ioyes th' Almighty hath in heau'n prepar'd For them that here do liue and die aright Oh enter Soule into thy Lords delight This ioy thou canst not in thy selfe containe For thou art bounded that is infinite Who enters shall for euer there remaine And for these finite Cares Ioy infinite obtaine Oh! who can know this Death and be afraid Although amongst the pots thou lie a time Thou like a siluer Doue shalt be arraid With golden feathers which like heau'n shall shine But ah Thus with my selfe I do diuine Without least perill by free Speculation But should Death seize on this my brittle Shrine And offer me to act my Meditation How should I tremble at my houses desolation That which is now familiar to my thought Will bring me then Amazement Horror Feare Alas this battel 's not so easily fought Except Iehouah on our side appeare Didst thinke Death would with Complement forbeare And onely thee delight with Meditation No he will try what courage thou dost beare And seize vpon thy Fleshes habitation It laying waste till all in Christ haue restauration Then as I feele this outward man decay Grant I may strong and stronger grow within And by a constant daily dying may Be arm'd against this strong man enter in That though he seize vpon this man of sinne My inward man may like the siluer Doue That newly hath escap't the Fowlers ginne Fly to her Lord and Sauiour aboue And be embraced in his blessed armes of Loue. Oh! there I shall inioy eternall rest And happy Peace which here I craue and misse And wander further more and more distrest What if some little paine in passage is Which makes fraile flesh to feare Deaths pallid kisse That paine 's well borne that endlesse ease doth gaine And from Sinnes cruell slauery dismisse Sleepe after Toyle faire-weather after raine Peace after Warre ease is most pleasing after paine We all are wanderers weary of our way And hasting to the Graue our certaine home This world 's the Flood which doth our passage stay Till Charons boat to weft vs ouer come Who Life did limit by eternall Doome And times for all things hath established Appoints each Centinel vnto his roome And so the termes of Life hath limited None may depart but by their Captaine licensed Nefarious wretch who with flagitious hand Dares violate