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	soul_n	spirit_n	13,009	5	5.2394	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07767	Meditations vpon Psal. 101. Written first in French, by Philip Mornai lord of Plessis, and by him dedicated to Henrie the fourth, the French king. And now translated into English, for the benefit of the christian reader, by T.W.; Meditations upon Psal. 101.	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; T. W. (Thomas Wilcox), 1549?-1608.	1599 (1599)	STC 18146; ESTC S106486	63,180	176

glorious was the king of Israel this day But hee telleth her plainely That that hee did was before the Lord ● Sa. 6.20.21 who chose him rather than her father all his house And if that were to bee vile hee would bee yet more vile than so Salomon his sonne likewise when he saw the temple furnished and beheld the seruice of God setled and placed therein for which great fauour also hee did so solemnly thanke God as is recorded who I say is able to conceiue in his heart the great ioy that hee receiued thereby Or who would set in a ballance against it those worldly vanities that men commonly call pleasures And such were the pleasures of Constantine Theodosius and of Charles the great Such were the pleasures of these great kings and Emperours that conquered the Pagans were protectors of the church Yea in our age that great king Frauncis so much renoumed in all his pleasures as no man more yet gained little or nothing thereby but the spoiling and wasting of himself his wealth and strength he as it were rotting in them And yet euen for that little labor and loue which he gaue vnto vertue and imploied about learning hee liueth and is worthily remembred euen to this day and shall liue for many ages hereafter The least and last houre of his life almost being well imploied was of more worth than all his yeares before and that was it that got him the name of Great made his verie famous But behold Christendome since that time hitherto for many years together tossed wich differences and diuersities in religion states troubled vnder that pretext and the people beaten downe yea vtterly ruinated All sigh and grone vnder the burthen of their calamine all breath after and desire some reformation and some better estate and condition if it might bee Thinke with your selues what great loue should that king purchase at the hands of his age and what glorie should he procure in posteritie to come what peace and ioy in his owne soule that should build againe the Lords temple that should reare vp his alters that should purge his seruice frō corruption and should by these good meanes and such like compound schismes diuisions partialities in the church in the State and euery where breaking forth And should take from robbers and Tyrants all the matter and occasion of their conspiracies and of their monopolies and priuate profites and should giue a breathing space to so many millions of peoples and to such ●n infinite number of persons assurance ●or their goods freedom to their bodies ●est to their soules And should draw or ●ull from vnder so confused a Chaos and heape of all excesse and outrage a good gouernement a certaine and setled order and a cheerefull light Certainely I persuade my selfe that the people euen of a certaine earnest desire and vnfained good will to such would kisse their apparrell and reuerence euerie thing that did belong to them yea they would reioice exceedingly And good reason because they were restored as it were from death to life and from all miserie to all mercie both outward and inward And I thinke verily that such a prince with so many clappings of hands and blessings as he should receiue wold goe out of his bodie and bee void of his sences and become altogether spirit and altogether soule so farre off would he bee to thinke vpon or make account of these poor pleasures that men esteem to bee such These are the pleasures of a king yea these are the pleasures that I wish with al my heart might be heaped with measure pressed downe and running ouer vpon my king pleasures pure and free from all displeasures and greeffe which to thinke vpon or remember is full of honour of profit of ioy whereof the pleasure and sweetnesse also doth not wither or decay pleasures by which hee approcheth to God and is exalt ed aboue honour it selfe and not those victous and sinful pleasures which creep vpon the earth and cause a Prince to bee a priuate person and a man a beast as it were as wee see particularly in Nabuchadnetzar mētioned in Daniels prophecie Dani. 4.30 and as Hoshea sheweth it in plaine speeches Hosc● 4.11 saying Whoredome and Wine and new wine take away the hart But touching such plesaures the king I speake of will say as Dauid doth I will flie from both the persons that fall away and the fallings away themselues nothing that belongeth to them shall approch vnto mee But Dauid made a vow concerning two points First that hee would be vpright in all his judgements And this respecteth other men with whom hee should haue to deale and is as I may say publike or common The second that he would be pure and cleane in his conuersation But this concerneth himselfe and may bee tearmed priuat Howbeit good also whilest other men seeing his holy conuersation coupled with feare 1. Pet. 3.1 might learne to glorifie God in the day of their visitation And both these are according to the double person that he sustained as he was a priuat man holy life for good example was fit and as hee was a king or Magistrat execution of iustice was more than necessarie Otherwise if hee had failed in both hee had destroied both waies and if hee had failed in the one and performed in the other hee had as fast pulled downe as set vp And theresore that he might be the better holpen and furthered to them both hee saith of the one That hee will flie both the occasion and the contagion thereof and contains his eies and vtterly abstaine from the wicked And for the other the better to preserue the integrity of his reason and of his iudgement yea his vprightnesse as well towards his neighbours as to his subiects hee sayth and promiseth to practise himselfe that which hee had deliuered and therefore he addeth Verse 4. A froward heart shall depart from mee I will not know or allow of euill or of an euill person BY these words froward heart Dauid meaneth such a one as hateth the vpright way that he proposed vnto himselfe and propounded to others to follow and walke in And the reason thereof is expressed in Salomons saying Hee that walketh in vprightnessee saith he feareth the Lord but he that goeth by odde courses in his way despiseth him And why should not wee take it to be such a sinne indeed euen contempt of God when dispightfylly we will refuse the way of good workes which hee hath prepared for vs to walke in and will follow by-paths of our own and of other mens deuise But if a man would take it more largely specially since the corruption of our first Parents hath entred into the world wee shall see that our vprightnesse yea the vprightnesse of all and euerie one of vs is so vitiate and corrupted that none can bee counted better than peruerse and froward be he what hee may bee in his owne or

the greatest part of a Princes life were past yet that should not hinder redresse and amendment of matters The more that hath ben neglected in former time die more should be reformed in the rest of the daies of the pilgrimage that wee are to liue Who knoweth whether God ●ati● granted life to that end That so acc●●ding to the breaches of our former y●ares our liues might bee more glorious to him and profitable to the people and our liues and our deaths to more comfortable to our selues Sure wee are of this Eccle. 5.16 that God commandeth vs to redeeme the season and rendreth this reason of it for the daies of euill And wee know this is a sure note of excellent blessing from God vpon his people they shall bring forth fruit in their age Psal 92.14 they shal be sat and flourishing And yet I meane not for all this that Princes vnwisely or without aduise shal cut off burne seare or as we say in plain Emglish without consultation run into and set open alterations and changes of state execution of iustice c. for so perhaps in seeking to settle good and to auoid euill they might fall into a mischeefe more intollerable by much than their present condition In nature we see that such a humane bodie there may be as in which all the bloud shall be so corrupted that before a man should find any good bloud therein he might if he wuld vse phlebotomie or bloud letting draw out and take away both the life the last drop together In such a case when the corruptions are so grosse ●nd infinite a skilfull Physician will vse Epicrasis as they call it or labour to bring it to a better temperature or mixture of the humours He will draw from the bodie I confesse both by diuerse meanes and at diuerse times but yet he will take no more but what is needfull and necessarie to vnburthen Nature of Which when it is discharged indeed gathereth vigorand force vnto it selfe againe and euaporateth and euacuateth by sweating and other good meanes the rest of the poyson or maligne humours and to be short doth by this gentle euacuating and sundring euil from good make good indeed at the length the verie bloud it selfe And euen so must the Prince doe in this abundance of superfluous and corrupt humors in the State or Commonweale There may bee in a kingdome sometimes such maligne influence and such store of poysonfull corruption that though the Prince would willingly purge the euill in that estate yet wanes at home and abroad plagues famines and a number such like pestilences within the bosome of the Commonweale will not suffer him to doe it If he should open a veine the spirit would depart with the bloud and the life would goe away with the strength What must he doe then Countenance euill At no hand Shall hee wincke at transgression Not so neither Shall hee disgrace and keepe backe from preferment the good and vertuous Be it and all the rest farre from him For the first is to commit sinne with a high hand Deut. 29.20 and the Lord will not be mercifull to such The second is to suffer it to get a head and when it is once aloft it will hardly or not at all bee beaten downe And the third is to wound yea to breake the hearts of the faithfull who the more they bee discouraged the more doe the wicked preuaile What then He must as hee may take away from the wicked and vngodlie all their gouernement and autharitie for they are not men meet for it because it being a holie and a heauenlie thing it must haue men to exercise it that do in some sort sort with the nature thereof On the other side hee must raise vp good people from vnder their yoke and burthen hee must deuide amongst them his fauour his authorities his offices for they only are both worthie of them and fit for them because God and not man by shedding his graces into their hearts hath made them meet therfo●e This if they would doe they should in a small time see by this discretion and thorow Gods blessing vpon their care a conuersion or turning of their State without any subuersion nay without any great great trouble to it or in it and a new kingdome yet without any great noueltie or change The ship of Delos so much read of and celebrated in antiquitie for lasting many yeares and ages without renewing whence got it that fame but because that so soone as a lord or planet was in danger they diligently and presently prouided another in the roome thereof And euen so if a King will amend an estate or kingdome that is deca●ed he must proceed by the same course If so soone as a dignitie state or office shall be void he be careful to haue it replenished with good and vertuous people and such as are fit for the charge hee shall within lesse than tenne yeares make all new and yet without innouation yea hee shall doe it by an encreasing that shall not bee perceiued till God make it breake forth and so shall bring backe pietie and iustice to their auncient glorie and shall beget againe in the hearts of his subiects vertue honestie loyaltie and euery good thing besides specially if euerie one in his Countrey in his Colledge in his companie in his Towne according as hee hath beene chosen by the Prince to a good place shall bring to this good worke the same good affection and shall set it forward after the selfesame maner But if on the other side hee set vp in the roome of a wicked man a wicked successor if he prouide for the place by lot as wee say or bestow it vpon him that will offer most or giue it for importunitie or for fauour then I can say no more but this The good that was done in nine moneths will bee ouerthrowne in three daies For this wee may assure our selues of an estate or a building decayeth in fewer daies than there was of yeares spent to reare it vp and establish it So true is that saying of the Philosopher It is more easie to destroy than to build Wherefore the king that wee treat of seeing hee is fallen into such a wicked age will begin his worke earely in the morning euen as soone as hee entreth so soone will hee begin because hee is persuaded that God hath aduaunced him to that end And our Sauiour commandeth First seeke the kingdome of heauen Math. 6.33 and the righteousnesse thereof and then all these things shall be giuen vnto you And hee will doe it also euen with the same hart and affection that Dauid did that is that he might purge and reforme the citie of his God and he will not doe it that he might raigne quietlie and at his ease for that is but a priuate and worldly thing and not thankes worthie but that the Lord might rule and raigne in his ●ate and Kingdome