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	lord_n	world_n	8,437	5	4.4039	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12614	The ransome of time being captive Wherein is declared how precious a thing is time, how much he looseth that looseth it, & how it may be redeemed. Written in Spanish, by the R. Father Andreas de Soto, confessor to the most excellent Infanta Clara Eugenia. Translated into English by J.H.	Soto, Andrés de, 1553?-1625.; Hawkins, John, fl. 1635.	1634 (1634)	STC 22937; ESTC S101240	58,513	218

all other entertainements other emploiments for man to busy and seriously attend the seruice of our Lord It is likewise called a time of labour according to those wordes of our Sauiour by S. Iohn Euangelist his wordes Now is the time of paines taking whilst day is yet in being for night will come in which no body can worke There is a time enstyled a time of sowing and a time of reaping and of carrying in the Corne the graine the haruest for it is the time that one may deserue well and gather in the fruites of merit whereby the reward of heauen is to be gained Hence it is that the Holy Ghost sendeth the idle careles and sluggish for his shame and confusiō to the carefull fully solicitous Ante goe thou to the Ante saith he in the Prouerbs of Salomon and obserue well how that in the summer season he maketh his prouision for the fall of the leafe for that time of the yeare and how he laboureth and gathereth his graine and how he hoordeth and keepeth it in such places not vnlike granaries corne lofts and hee maketh his prouision for that in winter there is no time to gather graine but to eate and liue by what is before gotten and conserued Our Lord bestowed time on vs said the blessed Laurentius Iustinianus that we should lament and sigh and bitterly be waile our trespasses it was giuen vs for to doe pennance to acquire vertue to multiply merits to obtaine grace to excuse hence to defend and to vindicate our selues from the tormēts of hell and to acquire the glory of heauen And such is this truth that time hath been giuen vnto vs to employ in good workes that that onely which we spend on them and practises of vertue is ours properly and that onely time is registred in the account of our life and of our dayes and of whatsoeuer else is no reckoning made nor memory in heauen nor in the booke of life Although the world numbreth them and recordeth thē our Lord knoweth not those dayes at the least to vnderstād him aright he saith he knovveth them not as that which neither pleaseth him nor is ou●ht agreable to him but rather offendeth him And in like manner Origenes expounding these wordes of Dauid our Lord knoweth the dayes of men who are without blott or staine who are the iust thus deliuereth It is written in sacred scriptures that God knoweth nothing else but what is good and that hee knoweth not euill he forgette●h it not for that his science his vnspeakable fulnes of all knowledg doth not reach apprehendeth not all what good or euill is the meaning hereof is for that they are vnworthy of his sight his taking notice of his knowledge I know you not said he to the foolish virgins and as much to the workmen of mischeife of iniquity Our Lord knoweth the way of the iust said the kingly Prophet Dauid And Salomon delivereth that our Lord vnderstandeth the right hand way And likewise saith Dauid that our Lord knoweth the howers and the daies and their time who liue without staine of sinne and knoweth not the dayes of transgressors Sacred Scripture registreth no more then onely two yeares of Saul his Raigne although he bore the scepter forty yeares for that he liued well but two yeares and vvithout blemish of sinne all the rest of his dayes vvere inquinated vvith foule and shamefull blotts Dionysius Cassius vvriteth that in a Citty of Italy vvas found an auncient sepulcher on the tombe-stone vvhereof vvere insculp't vvere these vvordes vvritten Here lieth Similus a Roman Captaine vvhose life although long it vvas yet he liued not in all this time but seauen yeares onely for during that time he being retired from Court and freed from the sollicitude the care the charges vvhich hee had held dedicated and fully deuoted himself to vertue to it's schoole it 's exercise it 's practise The glorious Damas. in the history of S. Barlaā and Iosaphat recounteth that Iosaphat demanding of Barlaam vvhat vvhere his yeares of vvhat age he vvas had deliuered to him this answere I am if I deceiue not my self forty and fiue yeares old to many there are runne since I vvas borne What is your ansvvere I vnderstand you not said Iosaphat for to my eye to my coniecture you are aboue seuenty if so that you account strictly from the time of my natiuity you say right vvell and you erre not ought for I am aboue seuenty but I can no wayes admitt they be reckoned more for they seeme not to me at all yeares of life nor cā the rest which I haue misspent in the vanities of the world be accounted of For as at that time being slaue to sinne I liuing at pleasure at full swinge of sensuality of my body and outward man I was then vndoubtedly a dead man without life according to the inward mā so farre forth that I cānot call them enstile them vnder the title of yeares of life which were of death I liued not then But after that by the grace of our Lord I was crucified and dead to the world likewise the world to me and that I haue despoiled my selfe of the old man and quite cast him of now I liue no more sensually nor to please the body the spirits enemy but onely for Iesus Christ and such my yeares liued in I call yeares of life of health safety and saluation And beleeue it most assuredly that all they who are in sinne and obey the deuill and passe away I say cōsume their liues in delights and vaine concupiscences are dead and buried vtterly lost for that sinne is death of the soule as Saint Paul affirmeth Diuine S. Ierome in his exposition on the third chapter of the Prophet Aggaeus deliuereth That all the time in which we serue vice perisheth becommeth vtterly lost and so is it reputed as if it had not beene at all it is reckoned for a thing of nothing It is recorded of Titus Vespasian that being at supper one day when hee called to minde that he had donne no good office for any one that he had not been to any beneficial to all the standers by to each one present with resentment with sensiblenes and not vvithout greife he breathed forth these words O my friends hovv much I am perplexed and afflicted that I haue passed of this day vnproffitably that I haue lost this day Let the Christian obserue vvell let him knovv that the day vvhich hee hath ill passed hath ill spent let him account it not his that in it he hath no propriety at all And that this is euident Seneca vvitnesseth in these vvordes that many there are vvho leaue to liue before they begin to liue Time vvas benignely bestovved on vs saith that famous Doctor Thomas de Kempis to spēd it well to employ it well in good workes not to let it passe idely nor to heare nor to tell Fables and

much mercy and such like rich and innumerable treasures and this worme and remorse will alwaies be gnawing their hearts and entrailes And the glorious S. Bernard in one of his sermōs entitled of the Fallacyes and wyles of this present life sheweth how it ensnareth entrappeth and deceiueth sinners one while vnder the persuasion that it is long that they may a great space run on and deferre their pennance in such manner doth it winne them so ouercome are they by this meanes that they neuer make vse thereof that they neuer doe pennance and otherwhile making the same short very breife that they may say life is short alas a breath a blast hence let vs hasten to enjoy all the flowers delights and pastimes of the world least that we be depriued of them before we take notice of thē He farther among many other remarkeable thinges deliuereth that God Almighty doth shorten their paces their walkes their course in the midst of their pleasures their delights seeing their shamlesnes in offending him and he cutteth of both their time and life for that they who will not leaue to sinne willingly giuing themselues ouer to their disordinate affections trespasses and vices he abridgeth them of time taketh away their longer life and maketh them to leaue their further practise therein necessarily through death And hence doe many sinners dye vvhether they vvill or noe for that the world conceiueth that it is for accidents or in dispositions occulte hidden or for manifest occasions notwithstanding that those dayes which they passed in sinne were not as we haue already said truely good were not well spent nor the life candide and sincere but shadowed and alas painted I wis Hence is it that in holy scripture sinners are valued as dead The vviddow sayeth the Apostle who liueth in pleasures is dead And our Lord sayth in the Apocalypse to a Bishop vvho liued not answerable to his calling who lived not according to his duety Thou art thought to liue the opinion of the world is no otherwise but notwithstanding I knovv Thou liuest not I say thou art dead and so doe I value thee when thy soule is dead in thy living body hence say I that a sinner is said not to liue but retaineth onely the name of a liuing creature And if the time which he passeth in vice he liueth not to speake properly and that God Almighty customarily taketh away the halfe he liueth much lesse time then the world apprehendeth he shall proue short and scanted of time of dayes But what the iust farre otherwise liveth a fairer yea and a longer age then the world imagineth and full of dayes and timely and in his good season his maister will cut him of from the tree The end of the third Chapter THE FOVRTH CHAPTER That euen now whilst we haue time it concerneth vs to take paines with feruency and speed and that we ought to employ it well IF time be so precious and that it was giuen vs to operate well and to labour in the vineyard of our Lord all the day to the setting of the Sunne and that if so that we auaile not our selues thereof it wil be taken from vs that we shall be vtterly depriued thereof and that it so fall out that it will faile vs when we most desire it and haue most neede thereof it will stand with good reason that we employ it well and that vve be very solicitous thereof and that we make all hast to labour and to trafficke therein to make right and ready vse thereof And euen so doth Ecclesiasticus aduise vs saying let thy hands labour in their vttermost abilityes earnestly diligently feruently and speedily all he deliuereth is as much as to say let not there be in thee any good thought which thou canst remember which thou keepe not and which thou procurest not to conserue nor good word which thou maist come to the hearing of which thou harken not to or what in duety and charity thou shouldst say that thou speake not nor good worke that thou canst doe that thou doe not without loosing occasion or time And further he deliuereth that what thine owne can doe seeke not a strangers assistance for thou must by no meanes trust thy saluation on others nor must thou think or imagine ought that thy seruant or thy friend or any whosoeuer in the world is are to winne heauen for thee thou iocundizing in fulnes of delights I tell thee plainly and indeed that thy hand thine arme thy strēgth thy vertue are to worke and bring this to passe thou must labour with great desir much earnestnes and maruailous solicitude and most vigilant care yea and with viuacity euē to all speed for that life passeth and suddainly flyeth avvay and vvhen so that thou least thinkest on it the sunne vv●ll set and euen then indeed shalt thou be heartily glad that thou hast taken much paines for that proportionably so much more vvil● bethy revvard and thy rest And the reason vvhich is deliuered by Ecclesiasticus of all vvhich is foresayed is for that after this life vvhich so svviftly runneth his stage his course no vvorke either of reason or vnderstanding or the act of vvill or any such faculty or povver vnder what title soeuer it be shall be of any validity any force of any fruite any commodity or benefit whatsoeuer hence to deserue grace or glory The seauen fruitefull and most plentifull years figured designed noted by the seauen fatt kine which Pharoah saw in a dreame signified the time of this life which by weekes each weeke cōprising seauen daies goe on successiuely making their returnes and running their course but after are to succeed other seauen yeares which will be all that other space of time wherein the other life which is without end and so shall endure shall last haue being and continuance figured designed by the seauen leane and euen hunger-starued kine barrē without any 〈◊〉 of deserte Therefore in imitation of the discreete and prudent Ioseph fill thy Granaries my Sonne thy corne lofts and make thou prouision for time of want for time of dearth for if so that thou deferrest thy gathering of Manna vntill the Sabbath of the other life the other world it will not auaile thee ought rather it will proue vnto thee wormes for that there will be in thy soule as we before said a perpetuall worme and stinge of conscience Faire beyond what tongue can expresse was Rachael the most beautifull but shee was barren and on the other part Lya was farre from being beautifull farre otherwise shee was very homely oh farre inferior to such an excellēt cōelines with gratious beauty yet was this Lya fertill shee was fruitefull The life to come is beyond all account most faire most sweet most amiable but it is barren for alas yea euen alas there meritorious workes haue no place haue no being at all such like are onely and solely

last period the vttermost day of their lives And that the Angell published the Edict with so many and such like circumstances and ceremonyes that time should haue its end once for ever and ever and when this is to take effect it is for that we be informed and begiven fully to vnderstand of what price value and great esteeme it is and what greate benefit God imparteth to vs bestovveth on vs to make vs Lords thereof the whole course of our dayes of our life and contrary wise what a great punishment it is that he subtract it from any one as being altogether vnworthy of it it being ill employed And to know how precious time is it would suffice to contēplate that in an instant the infinite eternity of Glory may therein be acquired since that man may gaine it in so litle a space And hence is it that the Holy Ghost adviseth vs to conserue time as gold carefully wrapped vp as the apple of our eye and that we carefully eschewe vice yea and with perseverance successiuely continually which is as if he should say that we spend it in good workes and that thereof we loose not ought no not one sole moment Againe by the selfe same Ecclesiasticus he counsaileth vs saying Consume not cast not away a good day not without profit let passe the one onely particle of a good guift One text readeth Particula bonae diei and the other which is the vulgar translatiō Bonidoni whether the one or other be h●s wordes his true meaning is his realle scope is to advertise vs to give vs counsaile and to exhort vs earnestly to account of time to vse time well oh yea carefully solicitously and most tenderly not onely of a day but also of each day for he who well vnderstādeth and well disposeth of one day may take patterne there by to square proportiō and well dispose of well order his whole life and he cōpleatly is maister thereof as also maketh thereof right vse vvho vvorketh his owne proper good and that of his Neighbours to his full povver employing himselfe and his time in workes of piety and mercy King David feared a litle parcell of time of much and so much desired he to spēd it all well that he was even agonized in contention in strugling with the Sunne who should rise soonest to giue laudes to God to honor and praise God at length the King overcame got the victory according to those wordes by which it is testified praeuenerūt oculi mei ad te diluculo vtmeditarer eloquia tua My eyes gott ground of the sunne fore rāne it to cōt̄eplate to meditate on thy wordes for before it att all appeared I was all ētertained seriously attētive and earnestly busied thereō which according to the exposition of S. Ambrose is as if he should speake more plainly and more at large oh thou who art a Christian rise before the Sunne is vp before the Sunne appeareth at all For I cannot but hold it for a great lazines and a meerly most indefensible and most strangely careles negligence marvailously blamable and aboue all discretion that the beames of the Sunne rising should finde thee idle thee I say sluggish and drowsing in thy soft couch Art thou peradventure so ignorāt so stupid as that thou apprehendest not that thou oughtest to offer and freely give to God each day the first fruits of thy tongue and heart Behold observe well the guifts bestowed on thee thou possessest dayly harvest and hence each day is fruite And in an other Psalme Prophet saith Anticipauerunt vigilias oculi mei My eyes haue anticipated prevented and raised themselfes vp before the sentinells and Citty watch which importeth according to S. Hierome before any was awake any had opened their eyes euen then I was with watchfull eyes at Midnight when each one sweetly slept and profoundly then risse I not onely then but in the morning and at midday also at evening in a word seaven times a day I giue laud and praise to God and his praise vvas alwaies in my mouth and at all howers It was he who knew well to conserue time he exactly and most prudētly observed vnderstood what it was and of what value it was and how to avail himselfe to make true vse of so precious a gemme vvithout the losse of any one the least either of the good day or good guift A precious hazard is tyme Theophrastus said and Seneca in his first Epistle which he wrote to Lucilius his friend delivereth his minde in this follovving manner vvhat man will you bring forth can you produce who can rightly value time who knovveth the price of one onely day well cōsidering that wee daylie incline to our end our death and that we euer dye Herein we extremely deceive our selues that our phantasie and our eyes make not death our obiect Much of time tending to our end is already passed the rest of our a●e and life that thou canst expect aftervvards is vvhat death doth chal●enge to it self for one foote is then accounted to be in the graue Therefore my good friend Lucilius be thou even answerably to that vvhich thou writest in thy letter to me thou art as one who vvell knoweth the price of time Entertaine make accoūt value all howers and each tēderly so shall lesse depēd on the howers of to morrow of the next day taking strict account and carefull esteeme of the presēt day not slightly and caresly letting it passe of for life though never so much prolonged yet in this his course passeth not withstandnig although at length yea and swiftly flyeth And we cānot account ought our proper owne but time for that all other thinges are strangers to vs divers not agreeing with vs alas not in our iurisdictiō ūder our power our cōmād nature hath impatronized vs here with we are possessed though of what is nimble vvhic rūneth flyeth and passeth beyond expressiō swiftly frō vs. And is humā kinde so vnwise so indiscreete that it is appassionated and looketh after meanes thinges almost matters of nothing and likewise recoverable which lost they miserably lament for There is not any bodie to be found who will acknowledg that he is indebted ought for being made Lord of time although vndoubtedly true it is that time is of a nature so pretious that be one never so thankfull yet is he never able to pay answerably to the greatnes of the due debt the price thereof hath so large extent no not the debt of one dayes time And in his booke of the brevity the litle extent of life he pursueth further There is not any bodie living who desireth to consume and cast away his patrimony his meanes his goods of fortune nor to vtterly despoile himself farre rather to conserve it carefully yea and more to make encrease thereof time and life is easily rendred giuen over and cōsumed in many and divers waies Worldlings are couetous are

his misdemeanour God Almighty subtracting his assistāce from him he became a great robber for vvhich he vvas hanged in the same Tovvne vvhere he vvas bred and being their hung on a gibet and dead and in the presēce of all the people there assēbled vvas●●eene his beard to grovv and that in like manner the haire of his head grevv that there hee vvas seene to haue a vvrinckled face also his head vvas all ouer gray and in semblance in countenance he vvas not vnlike to be of the age of fourescore and tēne yeares vvhich made them all admire yea and affrighted them the Bishop of the Diocesse being informed hereof commanded that all the people should poure forth their feruent prayers he in like manner doeing the same desiring of God Almighty if it vvere his divine vvill and pleasure to reveale this mystery A vvhile after he craving silence and audience and speaking vvith a loud voice deliuered thus much Novv yee see my sonnes that this youth died at eighitene yeares old and here he seemeth in his countenance to be fourescore and tenne yeares old Hence vnderstād that which God Almighty is pleased to teach vs vvhich is that really according to the course of nature he had to liue to the yeares of fourescore tēne and so many had he runne had he been obedient to his parents but in regard of his sinnes and disobediēce God Almighty hath permitted him to dye a violent death cutting of so much time of his life as is betvveene eighteene years and fourescoure and tenne and that all the vvorld might hereof take expresse notice it vvas his diuine vvill to vvorke this miracle Sainct Hierome that rare diuine vseth these vvordes that the shortnes of life is a chastisemēt and iudgement of sinnes and hence is it that our Lord hath abreuiated and cut of short the life and yeares of men from the beginning of the world to this day God decreed that the life of king Ezechias should be lessened fifeteene yeares of vvhat he vvas to haue liued according to the course of nature and yet againe he gratiously granted him them through his teares and hearts sorrow And to this purport saith Haimon expounding the wordes of the Prophet Isaias our Lord hath heard thy prayers and thy teares obserued indulgētly is pleased fo adde fifeteene yeares to thy life that euen as he spake to Adam conditionally that he should be immortall if so that he obeyed his diuine commands euen so in God his predestination vvere giuen these yeares to king Ezechias so that liuing vvithout sinne he vvere not svvollen and puft vp vvith pride and euen those vvho were foretaken vvith pride vvere mercifully restored through their humility Viri sanguinum dolo●i non dimidiabunt dies suos saith the Prophet Dauid Bloody men and men vvho deceiue shall not runne out their race shall not liue halfe their dayes vvhich is as much as to say more cleerly they shall not liue the moity the halfe of their age vvhich they should runne out if so that they had spent their time vvell Sinners thall not obtaine and enjoy as they designe and think for euen as o●r Lord said to the Iewes Auferetur à vobis regnum Dei c. The Kingdome of heauen is to be transferred from yee and it will be bestowed on an other people who may make vse thereof and yeild fruite and may better know and value it Euen so God will abridge sinners of time for that they produce no fruite therein they doe no good and he will bestow it on them to whom it may deseruedly be giuen and who know to make right good vse thereof Those words of Dauid the Prophet in his hundred and one Psalme Ne reuoces me in dimidio dierum meorum in which he petitioned our Lord that he might not be taken of that he might not dye in the midst of his dayes rather according to the exposition of some it is as if he should say My God cut not the thred of my life let not me dye in the middest of my daies for this time and age is the dangerousest time euen the gulph of life full of idle cares phantasies and many vaine and misvnderstood courses and farre more dangerous is it to dye in these yeares then in an age compleatly runne in it is not the same security nor in it the same confidence alas the same trust Other deliuer the self-same according to what vve discourse in other vvordes I feare my Lord I feare my Lord that for my demerits my sinnes and for that I haue so ill spent my tyme that thou vvilst shorten my life vvhich punishment thou didst therefore inflict on some and hence is it that I humbly craue of thee that thou take me not avvay inseasonably in the middest of my yeares and daies but that I may runne them out accomplish them vvhich thou determinedst of had I been correspondent to my duety The holy and most patient Iob sayeth in like manner of a sinner Antequam dies impleatur peribit c. Before that his time shall be run he shall dye and his hand is to become arid dry to fade to perish euen as a branch of a vine in his first blooming shall be withered which is as much as to say that in greene yeares before a full age run he shall dye and that his life shall be shortened and shall be cut of in the midst of his dayes as the dayes of an vnworthy and vniust possessor And besides that it is a great punishement here in the world to come it will be greiueous and of great torment to the condemned the remembrance of the time they had and let slippe without makeing vse thereof and to see that they failed thereof which was to be well employed as for a better time It is read in the booke of the seauen guifts that a Mōke of Claraual deuoute and of a good and tender conscience on a time persisting a lōger time in his prayers then was his custome heard a dolorous sad yea and most lamentable voice as euen of one who miserably plained sighed and breathed forth grones and the religious earnestly beseeching God Almighty with feruent teares that the meaning thereof might be declared vnto him the voice which he heard answered him I am the soule of such an one a sinner calling himselfe by his owne name and I lamēt my misfortune ād condemnation and among all the torments I poore wretch in this my miserable estate suffer which doth not torment me alone but also the rest of my company most extremely and mooueth bitter greifes woefull weeping and lamentations is the remembrāce of the grace and mercy which our Lord the Sauiour of the world hath offered of which we haue made no account no reckoning at all as also the memory of time which we haue lost yea and to too ill employed alas being made capable to gaine in so short a space so