Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	live_v	world_n	13,510	5	4.9137	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44540	A sermon preached at the solemnity of the funeral of Mrs. Dorothy St. John, fourth daughter of the late Sir Oliver St. John, Knight and Baronet, of Woodford in Northamptonshire, in the parish church of St. Martins in the Fields, on the 24th of June, 1677 by Anthony Horneck ...	Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1677 (1677)	Wing H2849; ESTC R7942	28,330	40

but dreadful shape and as the one attracts company so the other frights them Therefore to get prey to feed on she retires to a place which Nature hath adorn'd with trees and bushes and there covers her self with leaves so that her scent is only perceiv'd but her body remains unseen The wild Goats and such other creatures ranging in the Wood and delighted with the rich Perfume approach and now outleaps the mighty Murtherer and leads the captive wretches in Triumph home Whether St. Chrysostome's Libyan Monster be a fable or no I will not dispute the moral I am sure cannot be improper for our purpose This Creature he represents to be of a shape partly Humane partly Serpentine The upper part of its Body like a Woman its face beautiful its skin white its breasts large a strange liveliness and briskness in its eyes but the the lower part full of Scales and rough ugly and intractable and its Tail like that of a Viper swift and running very fast having no voice but that of a hiss laying force on all Animals it meets withal except Man whom alone it deceives by guile and cunning for to him it threatens no danger makes no noise fixes its eyes with some modesty on the ground now and then looks up to allure Man into its embraces and if any be so ignorant as to come near and handle it it then leaps upon his back and shoots its poison through his bowels and when he falls the rest of its companions come all out of their dens and help to devour so fair a prey The application of these passages is easie enough and who sees not that sensual pleasure is that Panther and that Dragon that in the end destroys the fond man that is either delighted with its smell or with its glorious outside And here I remember what the noble Plutarch saith Pleasure he means that pleasure which Lust and Luxury affords is a Brute but not a Savage one It tears indeed like a wild one but doth not seem to be so Did it appearin its proper colours it would be shun'd as Bears and Leons and there would be no difficulty in catching and killing of it but coming in the habit of a friend it doth both hurt and cheat murthers by adulation and while it pretends to give liberty makes a prisoner of the man and enslaves him to a Prodigy the man doth not so much buy Pleasure as sell himself to it and his reason is turn'd out into exile and he is banish'd from himself for it makes him venture upon the basest most childish most sneaking and most impertinent actions things below a man and below those excellent faculties he is endow'd withal and like some ill natured Physician gives a pleasant Potion and cures him for the present keeps up his spirits and supports him that he may abuse his body more and venture upon new diseases Xerxes knew what he did when he forbad the Babylonians the use of arms and permitted them to give themselves over to Wine and Women and all manner of luxury He was sensible this would emasculate their vertue and make them objects of Scorn who once had made the most puissant Monarchs tremble Indeed this is it which dissolves courage and makes the greatest valour melt into cowardice It debases a Sardanapalus to a spindle and roots out all sense of greatness and ingenuity Whatever conceits men have of it in the end it leaves them miserable and instead of pity their neighbors cannot but laugh at them as much as the World did at the attempts of that Prince who tired with variety of pleasures at Land had a mind to try their sweetness in a more unruly Element the Sea A Ship is built liker a Palace than a Vessel Here are erected Chambers for himself there Apartments for his Concubines a Garden is planted too set out with Aromatick trees and herbs no splendor is wanting no cost spared all the rooms dazle the Spectators eyes with the Gold that glistered there The Egyptians admire it all are ambitious to go aboard of it The mighty Vessel being launched the King enters and while the Calm lasted nothing could appear more glorious But a boisterous wind soon turns that calm into a tempest and now the vast bulk sinks and the World seems to suffer shipwrack So that it may be truly said of Pleasure what was said of the Honey that was given to Pompey's Souldiers it drives men into madness and what they intended for their Cordial proves their Death and that which they hoped would have refresh'd them doth but intoxicate them and the sweetness turns into Gall and Wormwood IV. Life This hath in all ages been counted so vain a thing that wise men have been at a loss for words to express its vanity A shadow a dream a bubble a tragedy a wheel a vapour have been thought Epithets too great for it and therefore some have adventured to call it nothing I confess I cannot but smile when I find what admirers of long life the Chineses are and what pains they take to preserve themselves here on Earth from mortality It 's pleasant to read how one of their Kings being by some Impostor promised a cup of Liquor to make him immortal would by no means be discouraged from his strong persuasion that upon the drinking of it he should certainly be freed from death for ever till a friend of his more wise than he snatched the cup from the place where it stood and drank it off The King mightily incens'd at the insolence immediately drew his Sword to kill him to whom the Gentleman wittily replied Either upon the drinking of this Liquor I am immortal or I am not If I am then in vain do you attempt to kill me if I am not you have reason to thank me because I have deliver'd you from a cheat Which answer pacified the King and made him commend his friends prudence and fidelity Yet it seems so bewitching a thing is this desire of Immortality here on Earth in that kind of men that this very King not long after that modest reprehension of his friend attempted the impossibility afresh and commanded a House to be built of all sorts of fragrant and odoriferous Trees as Cedar Cypress Camphire c. The scent whereof perfumed the Air for two or three miles together In this large and splendid Palace was placed an ample Bason togather the soft Dew that fell in which dew pearls were every day dissolv'd and from this rich draught the unwise King promised himself no less than Eternity on this side Heaven But his death which soon after follow'd manifested the folly of the attempt and discover'd the vanity of the King and of his life together Where men live in contempt of a better World no marvel if they magnifie this present life and wish for the longevity of the ancient Patriarchs and would be glad if they might arrive to the age of Methuselah

crush the healthiest bodies into the greatest pain and anguish How doth death arrest a Samson with all his vigour and sortitude about him and how little is sickness afraid to enter into rooms where the various odours seem to be intended as spells to keep out the Enemy so that it may be said of health as of Jonas's Gourd it comes up in a night and perishes in a night Jon. 4. 10. and those with whom it continues longer are every hour in danger of losing it VI. Children See how the fond Parent dotes on those Pictures and how enamoured he is with those Representatives of his person one would think he had found cut something that will satisfie the great soul of man and lighted upon that which can give an immortal spirit true and solid satisfaction See how he views these lively images of himself as if he had eyes for no other use but to look on them and how his soul seems to be bound up with theirs But while his sparkling eyes convey and shoot all their rays on these Darlings of his affections grim death unmannerly as it is a stranger to respect of persons steps in marrs all his triumphs and snatches the Fondlings out of his hands How have I seen a tender Mother carry her Babe in her arms feed him with her breasts dandle him in her lap and embrace the comely boy with a love as strong as death and which many waters cannot quench she breeds him up watches his steps her eyes are over him and like the Angels of God she preserves him in all his ways and with his age her affection grows and she is concern'd for his welfare she studies how to advance him plots how to make him great rejoyces to hear her Neighbours speak in commendations of him And now the Lad being grown up and understanding what the tenderness of a Mother means the Mother justly expects some returns answerable to the mighty expressions of her love but we see too often that when all these pains are taken and all this industry and care is bestow'd and the kind Mother hopes that the measure of his love to her will be good measure press'd and shaken together and running over behold the inhumane wretch Viper-like preys upon the bowels that did feed and nourish him grows surly to her that bare him and it is not all her fire that can kindle any reciprocal flames in his breast and thus he that was expected to have been her greatest comfort proves her scourge and the Staff that in her old age was to support her turns into a Serpent to hiss at her and to sting her He whom she look'd upon as her glory becomes her shame and he whom once she did rejoyce in brings her down with sorrow into her grave And this it 's like Eve had experienc'd in her eldest Son Cain and therefore when Abel was born she call'd him vanity for that 's the true import of the name Gen. 4. 2. Augustus at last is forced to put that Daughter from his sight whom formerly he look'd upon with a favourable eye and her lewdness makes him hate that name which once he delighted in Absolom formerly his Fathers Darling at last invades his Crown and Scepter and the indulgent Prince lives to see that Son he doted on attempt his life and defile his Bed And suppose the kind Son with Coriolanus doth that for his Mother which neither the Peoples tears nor the Senators prayers could effect and with Cotta rescues his Father from death yet the losses reproach disgrace and disasters which often befall even the most dutiful and best natur'd Children make wounds in their Parents breasts And thus these certain cares and uncertain comforts by the instability and mutability of their condition proclaim to the world that they are but Vanity And having thus with as much brevity as the subject would bear led you to a prospect of the vanity the creature is involv'd in I must not dismiss you without some practical reflections We see how necessary Illumination of Gods holy Spirit is in matters of Religion without it the generality of men Ixion like embrace a Cloud for Juno and are so far from seeing vanity in the creature that they do securely build Tabernacles here and make the creature their highest and their chiefest good which was only intended for stairs to raise them into contemplation of the glory and goodness and power of their Maker This irradiation from above the consequent of earnest prayers clarifies the mind dispels the clouds and mists that are upon it teaches the Soul to examine the inside of things as well as the outside and by that means to discover the cheat if there be any in the alluring object and where this day-spring doth not visit the mind men must necessarily continue in ignorance and folly and call darkness light and light darkness and count that gold which is nothing but guilded brass and look upon that as satisfactory to their souls which indeed leavs them empty and destitute of proper food It 's for want of these beams which he may be blessed withal if he will but open the door and let them in It 's for want of admitting these heavenly beams I say that the Drunkard the Lascivious the Proud the Glutton laughs at the Preacher discoursing of vanity because he sees not with our eyes and his intellect is not so clear as ours therefore he thinks that vanity a fable and how should he perceive it whose eyes of understanding are not enlightned into contemplation and observation of the nature quality imperfection and insufficiency of all sublunary objects So that we may speak our spirits away into the Air and read all Solomon's Ecclesiastes to him and we do but talk to him as we do to a blind man of Colours he hears our notions but like empty notions they go in at one ear and out at another Vanity saith the Sinner I know nothing that 's more solid more pleasing or more charming than those Riches and Honours and Pleasures and the other comforts you brand with an odious name These are things I can grasp and feel and I know the satisfaction they will afford my eyes see how happy these things make the men that can creep out of dust and advance themselves above the common Level I have not seen that glorious Eternity you speak of nor was I ever wrapt up with Saint Paul into Paradise I never took a view of those spiritual Crowns and Scepters you talk of Shall I leave a certain satisfaction for I know not what for a thing uncertain and out of sight These outward conveniences I see must help me in distress and if I hope for ease and content it must arise from these It 's not a Notion I can feed upon and I may starve if I have nothing but your spiritual food to rely on It 's the World as you call it that must refresh maintain and feed me And it

it as the Israelites in the Wilderness breaks down the limits of that vanity outdoes Adam that was the occasion of it nay goes beyond the Judg that doom'd that Gold to corruption The Creatures labour under vanity enough because they cannot serve us in that innocence and integrity we once stood in but to abuse them now they are under a state of misery and to force them to serve us in our sins is a bondage which will bear witness against the daring sinner in that day when God shall judg the secrets of mens hearts by the Gospel of Jesus Sinner that wine thou abusest to besot thy understanding suffers violence from thee thou dost ravish it serve thy lusts and it groans as it were under thy oppression and thou makest it vainer than Heaven ever made it God made it serviceable to thy infirmity and intended it as a remedy against the weakness of thy nature but when thou swallowest it to destroy thy nature to throw down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which must guide thy actions and shed discretion into thy speeches and converse forcest it to make thee a beast and leave nothing in thee but the brutal part indeed scarce to leave thee sense and appetite thou dost offer greater insolence to it than Amnon did to Thamar Surely every man is vanity saith the Psalmist Psal. 39. 11. But he that tempts his neighbour to run with him into excess of riot Makes him worse than vanity the Adulterer and Fornicator that is restless till he hath caressed his Mistress as he calls her to consent to his folly The ill companion that solicits his associates to be lewd and prophane with him such persons make the creature so vain that a devout soul cannot but stand amazed at the enterprize vain indeed for they double and treble its misery and he that entices his friend into sin makes him besides his vanity a creature of the Devil The man before this sin was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward but the sin he is drawn into makes his burden greater increases his load and makes his pound of vanity a talent and as if his weakness and frailty here on earth were too little sinks him into Hell and as if the curse of God of old were too light a punishment makes him obnoxious to Gods everlasting malediction And such men must necessarily be of the first form in the Devils Kingdom for these make Devils help to increase the number of the Fiends and are Familiars that make men sinck with them into endless torments The Covetous who confines his money to his Chest and makes that lie still in his Coffers which like blood should have its circulation and as it is given him from Heaven should return to Heaven again by way of charity and doing good seems to be angry with God for giving that Creature so small a touch of vanity and therefore as if God had not made it frail enough makes himself Gods Officer renders the Dye deeper drowns it in misery and inflicts vanity upon it with a witness and Gods little finger he makes heavier than his loyns for he wants in the midst of plenty and is indigent while he knows not how to consume that which he hath already and this vanity increases if extortion and oppression joyn with it and tempt hm to wade through Orphans tears and Widows blood through the necessities of the Fatherless and through the cries and lamentations of the needy to make his heap much greater and certainly if the Creature is to be purged from its vanity by fire it 's but reason his body should be the fewel who hath loaded the Creature with so much vanity and misery and against Gods will and order too His stripes will be iustly doubled for his sin was so and he deserves to be punished both for his cruelty and disobedience The Scripture excludes such men from the Kingdom of Heaven and good reason for they are so given to vanity that they would attempt to make Gods Joys and Hallelujahs so IV. In the vanity of the Creature let us behold our own and whenever we take a view of the decay of terrestrial glories and see day die into night and Summer into Winter one hour one moment into another and herbs and plants shed their blossoms let us reflect upon our own death and departure hence The Stoicks were in the right when they defined Philosophy or Religion to be a Meditation of death He that is frequently engaged in such meditations embitters his sensual delights crushes his fondness of the world dares not live in those sins which other men allow themselves in and takes the readiest way to overcome himself for how should he be enamoured with earth that looks upon himself as leaving of it and what delight can he take in the laughter of fools or in jovial company that expects every hour to be summon'd to the Bar of Christ how should he set his heart upon his Farm and Oxen that looks every moment to be call'd to give an account of his Stewardship and knows not how soon the Arch Angels Trumpet will sound and the Judg of Quick and Dead awaken the world with his thundring voice Arise ye dead and come to judgment This even the Heathens were so sensible of that the Egyptians as every man knows had a Sceleton or Death's head set on amidst their greatest dainties and at their greatest Feasts to check vain mirth and to put their Guests in mind what they were shortly to come to This made the Patriarchs of old dig their Sepulchers in their Gardens while their glory was yet fresh in them that neither the pleasure of a Garden nor their business might take them off from a continual contemplation of mortality This made others order their Winding sheet to be carried before them others command their Servants to call to them every night they went to bed That their life was spent for their going to sleep they looked upon to be but a kind of going to their Graves And indeed he that thus thinks of death cannot be surprized when it comes for it is but what he look'd for and when it knocks at his Chamber door he can let it in and embrace it as a welcome Messenger with Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation V. In the vanity of the Creature let us take notice of the odiousness of sin and it 's large demeri●s when God for mans sin hath subjected the Creature unto van●●y it shews what an abhorrency he hath from sinful actions and how displeased he is with transgression of his Laws in that he confines not the punishment to Man alone but extends it to the Creatures or to his Servants too To the generality of men sin seems but an inconsiderable thing and they fancy God to be altogether such a one as themselves they will not believe that sin hath that poison in it which

be drown'd by Water and another time destroy'd by Fire And this conflagration whereby the World shall be renew'd and reinstated into its primitive splendor all the Creatures groan for and travel as it were in pain together until now to use the Apostles phrase v. 22. with hopes to be deliver'd from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God Thus far the sense of the words which sense I do the rather pitch upon because both Ancient and Modern Divines some few only excepted agree in 't And now what subject of discourse can be fitter for this present occasion than THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE Can we see a curious Fabrick here all broke to pieces and a Creature that was made a little lower than the Angels cut off before half her race was run and tumbling down as she was going up the Hill and forbear crying out with Solomon Vanity of vanities all is vanity There are few men that pretend either to sense or reason but will freely acknowledg the vanity of all sublunary Objects and yet to see them dote on things which by their own confession are fickle inconstant and unsatisfactory to see them hug this Vanity as if it were Mount Sion which shall never be moved as if it were the rock of ages against which the gates of Hell shall not be able to prevail would make any contemplative man bless himself and wonder Quis daemon subiens praecordia flammam Concitat raptam tollit de cardine mentem What evil spirit makes them act contrary to those convictions cross those principles give themselves the lie and love such contradictions But it 's no new thing to speak well and to act ill and to make a learned Harangue of the emptyness and weakness of things below while the affections are so set upon the World that you had as good attempt to move the Pyramids of Egypt out of their places as hope to disentangle the heart from these bryars and thorns The great Idols of this Earth Riches Honors Pleasures Life Health Children c. which the World adores with preposterous Devotion alas what are they all but vanity in grain I. Riches when the Magnificent Croesus sat upon his Throne deck'd with beaten Gold adorn'd with a thousand Jewels and precious Stones he had the curiosity to ask Solon whether he had ever seen a more glorious sight Yes Sir saith Solon for I have seen Hens and Phesants and Partridges more gloriously array'd than you The Philosopher saw the vanity of all this wealth and cost and laught at it The covetous man indeed that Son of the Earth sees with other eyes and cannot think himself solidly happy except he swims in Wealth This is it engrosses the secret wishes of his mind and to have as much as other men is that his soul doth chiefly long for So have I heard a man in a Feavor wish for a cup of cold water which when he hath obtain'd hath prov'd his death and ruine What happyness doth the wretch fancy in a little shining clay He sees no vanity in great Possessions and he thinks that man liv'd like a God that could say I will pull down my Barns and build greater and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods What ever other men think of Nabal he commends him and calls that living like himself when he scrapes what wealth he can together to feed his appetite and luxury Have not you read of whited Sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead mens bones and of all uncleanness So here there is a veil drawn over this glittering dust and the veil is painted and gaudy and takes the eye but that man which hath courage to lift it up and to see what is underneath will quickly find that these are things which to day caress their favourite and to morrow make themselves wings and flee away and that they can neither preserve the Body from disasters for in despight of all my Treasures Lightning from Heaven may strike through my sides and kill me and Vapours of the Earth may infect my spirits and blow my life away and sickness may breed in my bones and rack me nor afford any real content to the Soul for when I see a Judas tremble with his purse full of money and Gehazi walk in fear while he brings home his talents of Silver and an Alexander in the midst of all his opulency dissatisfied and tor●ured with Ambition and Belshazzar with all his Golden cups about him grow pale as Ashes and quake at the sight of the fatal hand when I see how their outward plenty entices men to that which will undo them and how strong a temptation it proves to run away from him who is the proper center of their Souls how it doth teach men to sin and fills their carnal minds with car●s and carkings and anxieties makes Man the noblest work of the Creation a slave to Dust dethrones his reason thrusts him into Vassallage and trrnsforms that part which is like to Angels in o a beast and consequently prepares him for shame and confusion in the end and by degrees breeds in him the Worm that dies not What name what title can I bestow upon it but that of the Apostle Deceitful riches which lead men into snares and drown them in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. Not but that our of this Mercury a wholesom Medicine may be drawn and men may lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on Eternal life But where one prepares an Elixir of it thousands makes nothing of it but Sublimate so strong a Poyson as doth not only kill the body but lays force on the soul makes it sick to death and which is strange for morte carent animae murther that part which the great Creator hath blessed with immortality II. Honour What a stir do men make about greatness and reputation in the world and what is it all but the breath of dying men He that sees the ambitious clamber that Mountain as if it were the Hill of God and there lay the way to Heaven would wonder what the man means to labour so hard when in good truth he only leaps to catch an atom tumbling and playing in a Sun-beam He stands on firm ground and nothing will serve him but a slippery place from whence the least frown of a Monarch throws him down Consul Bibulus surrounded with Acclamations and Euge's knows not where he is whether he is riding in his Chariot or treading air But see the sad reverse which waits on humane triumphs while his fond thoughts and the numerous multitude with their praises swell him above himself a Tilestone falling accidentally from a house puts an end to his life and all his glories together before he can reach the Capitol Sejanus is honored like a God to day to morrow kick'd