Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	present_a	young_a	youth_n	49	3	7.9402	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07761	A discourse of life and death: written in French, by Phil. Mornay. Done in English by the Countesse of Pembroke; Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort. English	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of, 1561-1621.	1608 (1608)	STC 18141.5; ESTC S113371	23,951	146

conuerted to his good so neither ought hee to hope for good in the world hauing there the diuell his professed enemy whom the Scripture tearmeth Prince of the world But with what exercise soeuer wee passe the time behold old age vnwares to vs comes vpon vs which whether we thrust our selues into the prease of men or hide vs some where out of the way neuer failes to finde vs out Euerie man makes account in that age to rest himselfe of all his trauailes without further care but to keep himself at ease in health And see contrawise in this age there is nothing but an after tast of al the foregoing euils and most commonly a plentifull haruest of all such vices as in the whole course of their life hath held possessed them There you haue the vnhabilitie and weakenesse of infancy and which is worse many times accompanied with authoritie there you are payed for the excesse riotousnes of youth with gowtes palsies and such like diseases which take from you limme after limme with extreame paine and torment There also you are recompenced for the trauels of mind the watchings cares of manhoode with losse of sight losse of hearing and all the senses one after another except only the sense of paine Not one parte in vs but death takes ingage to be assured of vs as of bad pay masters which infinitely feare their dayes of payment Nothing in vs that will not by and by bee dead neuerthelesse our vices yet liue in vs not onely liue but in despite of Nature dayly growe young againe The couetous man hath one foote in his graue and is yet burying his money meaning belike to finde it againe another day The ambitious in his Will ordaineth vnprofitable pōps for his funerals making his vice to liue and triumphe after his death The riotous no longer able to daunce on his feete daunceth with his shoulders all vi●es hauing left him and hee not yet able to leaue them The childe wisheth for youth and this man laments it The young man liueth in hope of the future and this feeles the euill present lamentes the false pleasures past and sees for the time to come nothing to hope for More foolish then the child in bewailing the time hee cannot recall not remembring the euill he had therein and more wretched then the young man in that after a wretched life not able but wretchedly to d●● hee sees on all sides b●● matter of despaire As for him who from his youth hath vndertaken to combate against the fleshe and against the World who hath taken so great paines to mortifie himselfe and leaue the World before his time who besides those ordinary euilles findes himself vexed with this great and incurable disease of olde age and feeles notwithstanding his fleshe how weake soeuer stronger oftentimes then his spirit what good I pray can hee haue but onely herein that hee sees his death at hand that hee sees his combate finished that hee sees himselfe readie to depart by death out of this loathsome prison wherein all his life time hee hath beene racked and tormented I will not here speak of the infinit euils wherewith men in all ages are annoyed as losse of friends and parents banishments exiles disgraces and such others common and ordinarie in the world one cōplaining of loosing his children another of hauing them one making sorrow for his wiues death another for his life one finding fault that he is too high in court another that he is not high enough The world is so full of euills that to write of all wold require another world as great as it selfe Sufficeth that if the most happie in mens opinions doe counterpo●z● his haps with his mishappes hee shall iudge himselfe vnhappie and hee iudge him happie who had hee beene set three dayes in his place woulde giue it ouer to him that came next yea sooner then hee who shall consider in all the goods that euer he hath had the euils he hath endured to get thē and hauing them to retaine and keepe them I speake of the pleasures that may bee kept and not of those that wither in a moment will iudge of himselfe and by himselfe that the keeping it selfe of the greatest felicitie in this world is full of vnhappinesse and infelicitie Conclude then that Childe-hood is but a foolish simplicity youth a vaine heate manhood a painefull carefulnesse and olde age a noisome languishing that our playes are but tears our pleasures feauers of the minde our goods rackes and tormentes our honours heauie vanities our rest vnreste that passing from age to age is but passing from euill to euill and from the lesse vnto the greater that alwayes it is but one waue driuing on another vntill we be arriued at the hauen of death Conclude I say that life is but a wishing for the future and a bewailing of the past a loathing of what we haue tasted and a longing for that wee haue not tasted a vaine memorie of the state past and a doubtfull expectation of the state to come Finally that in all our life there is nothing certaine nothing assured but the certaintie vncertainty of death Behold now comes death vnto vs Behold hir whose approache wee so much ●eare Wee are now to consider whether shee be such as we are made belieue and whether wee ought so greatly to flie hir as commonly we doe We are afraid of her but like little children of a vizor or of the Images of Hecate We haue hir in horror but because we cōceiue her not such as shee is but ougly terrible and hideous such as it pleaseth the Painters to represent vnto vs on a wall Wee flie before hir but it is because foretaken with such vaine imaginations we giue not our selues leisure to marke hir But stay wee stand we stedfast looke we hir in the face wee shall finde hir quite other then shee is painted vs and altogether of other countenaunce then our miserable life Death makes an end of this life This life is a perpetuall miserie and tempest Death then is the issue of our miseries and entraunce of the port where wee shall ride in safetie from all windes And should wee feare that which withdraweth vs from misery or which drawes vs into our hauen Yea but you will say it is a paine to dye Admit it bee so is there in curing of a wound Such is the Worlde that one euill cannot bee cured but by another to heale a contusion must bee made an incision You will say there is difficultie in the passage So is there no hauen no port whereinto the entraunce is not straite and combersom No good thing is to bee bought in this World with other thē the coyne of labour paine The entrance indeed is hard if our selues make it hard comming thither with a tormented spirit a troubled minde a wauering and irresolute thought But bring we quietnes of minde constancie and full

A DISCOVRSE OF LIFE AND DEATH WRITTEN IN French by PHIL. MORNAY Done in English by the Countesse of Pembroke AT LONDON Printed by H. L. for Mathew Lownes and are to bee soulde at his shop in Paules Churchyard 1608. A DISCOVERSE OF LIFE AND DEATH WRITten in french by PHIL. MORNAY Sieur du Plessis Marly IT seemes to mee strange and a thing much to bee marueiled that the laborer to repose himself hasteneth as it were the course of the Sun that the Mariner rows with al force t' attain the port with a ioyfull cry salutes the descried land that the traueller is neuer quiet nor content til hee beat the end of his voyage and that we in the meane while tyed in this world to a perpetuall taske tossed with continuall tēpest tyred with a rough and combersom way cannot yet see the end of our labor but with griefe nor behold our port but with tears nor approche our home and quiet abode but with horrour and trembling This life is but a Penelopes webbe wherein we are alwaies doing vndoing a sea opē to all winds which somtime within sometime without neuer ceas to torment vs a wearie iourny through extream heats colds ouer high mountains steep rocks theeuish deserts And so wee tearme it in weauing at this web in rowing at this oar in passing this miserable way yet lo whē death comes to end our work when shee stretcheth out her armes to pull vs into the port when after so many dangerous passages and loathsome lodgings she would cōduct vs to our true home and resting place in stead of reioycing at the end of our labor of taking cōfort at the sight of our land of singing at the approach of our happie mansion we would fain who would beleeue it retake our vvorke in hand we would againe hoise saile to the winde and willingly vndertake our iourney anew No more then remember we our paines our shipwracks and dangers are forgotten we feare no more the trauelles nor the theeues Contrariwise wee apprehende death as an extreame paine wee doubt it as a rocke wee flie it as a thiefe Wee do as little children who al the day complaine and when the medicin is brought them are no longer sicke as they who all the weeke long runne vp downe the streets with paine of the teeth and seeing the Barber comming to pull them out feel no more pain as those tender and delicate bodies who in a pricking pleurisie complaine cry out and cannot stay for a Surgion and when they see him whetting his Launcet to cut the throat of the disease pul in their arms hide them in the bed as if hee were come to kill them Wee feare more the cure then the disease the Surgion thē the pain the stroke thē the impostume Wee haue more sense of the medicines bitternesse soone gone then of a bitter languishing long continued more feeling of death the end of our miseries then the endlesse miserie of our life And whence proceedeth this folly and simplicitie we neither knowe life nor death We fear that we ought to hope for and wish for that wee ought to feare Wee call life a continuall death and death the issue of a liuing death and the entrance of a neuer dying life Now what good I pray you is ther in life that wee should so much pursue it or what euill is there in death that wee should so much eschue it Nay what euill is there not in life and what good is there not in death Consider al the periods of this life We enter it in teares wee passe it in sweate wee ende it in sorrowe Great and little rich and poore not one in the whole world that can plead immunitie from this condition Man in this point worse then all other creatures is borne vnable to support himselfe neyther receiuing in his first yeares any pleasure nor giuing to others but annoy and displeasure and before the age of discretion passing infinit dangers only herein le●●● vnhappie then in other ages that hee hath no sense nor apprehension of his vnhappinesse Now is there anie so weake minded that if it were graunted him to liue alwayes a childe would make account of such a life So then it is euident that not simply to liue is a good but wel and happilie to liue But proceed Growes hee with him grow his trauailes Scarcely is hee come out of his nurses hands scarcely knowes what it is to play but he falleth into the subiectiō of some schoolemaster I speake but of those which are best most precisely broght vp Studies he it is euer with repining Playes hee neuer but with feare This whole age while hee is vnder the charge of another is vnto him but as a prison he only thinks and only aspires to that time whē freed from the mastership of another he may become master of himself pushing onward as much as in him lyes his age with his shoulder that soone he may enioy his hoped liberty Inshort he desires nothing more thē the end of this base age and the beginning of his youth And what else I pray you is the beginning of youth but the death of infancie the beginning of manhood but the death of youth the beginning of to morrow but the death of to day In this sort then desires he his death iudgeth his life miserable and so cānot be reputed in any happinesse or contentment Behold him now according to his wish at liberty in that age wherein Hercules had the choise to take the way of vertue or of vice reason or passion for his guide and of these two must take one His passion entertaines him with'a thousand delights prepares for him a thousād baits presentes him with a thousand worldly pleasures to surprize him and fewe there are that are not beguiled But at the reckonings ende what pleasures are they pleasures full of vice which holde him still in a restlesse feauer pleasures subiect to repentance like sweete meats of hard digestion pleasures bought with pain and peril spent and past in a moment and followed with a long lothsom remorse of conscience And this is the very nature if they be wel examined of al the pleasures of this world Ther is in none so much sweetnes but ther is more bitternes none so pleasant to the mouth but leavs an vnsauoury after-taste and loathsome disdain none which is worse so moderated but hath his corrosiue caries his punishment in it self I will not here speak of the displeasures cōfessed by al as quarelles debates woundes murthers banishments sicknesse peril wherinto sometimes the incontinency sometimes the insolency of this ill guided age conducts him But if those that seeme pleasures be nothing els but displeasurs if the sweetnes therof be as an infusion of wormwood it is plain enough what the displeasure is they feele and how great the bitternes that they taste Behold in sum the life of a young man who rid of

resolution wee shall not finde any danger or difficultie at all Yet what is the paine that death brings vs Nay what can shee do with those paines we feele Wee accuse hir of all the euils we abide in ending our life and consider not how manie more woundes or grieuous sickenesses we haue endured without death or how many more vehement paines we haue suffered in this life in the which wee called euen hir to our succour All the paines our life yeeldes vs at the last houre wee impute to death not marking that life begun and continued in al sorts of paine must also necessarily ende in paine Not marking I say that it is the remainder of our life not death that tormenteth vs the end of our nauigation that paines vs not the hauen wee are to enter which is nothing else but a safegarde against all windes We complaine of death where wee should complaine of life as if one hauing beene long sicke and beginning to bee well should accuse his health of his last paines and not the reliques of his disease Tell me what is it else to bee deade but to bee no more liuing in the world Absolutely and simplie not to bee in the World is it any paine Did wee then feele anie paine when as yet wee were not Haue wee euer more resemblance of Death then when wee sleepe Or euer more rest then at that time Now if this be no paine why accuse wee death of the paines our life giues vs at our departure vnlesse also wee will fondly accuse the time when as yet we were not of the paines wee felt at our birth If the comming in be with teares is it wonder that such bee the going out If the beginning of our being bee the beginning of our paine is it maruell that such be the ending But if our not being in times past hath beene without paine all this being contrariwise full of paine whom should we by reason accuse of the last paines the not being to come or the remnant of this present beeing Wee thinke we dye not but when we yeelde vp our last gaspe But if wee mark well wee dye euerie daie euerie houre euery moment Wee apprehende death as a thing vnusual to vs and yet haue nothing so cōmon in vs. Our liuing is but continuall dying looke how much wee liue we dye how much we increase our life decreases We enter not a step into life but wee enter a step into death Who hath liued a third part of his yeares hath a third part of himselfe dead VVho halfe his yeares is already halfe dead Of our life all the time past is dead the present liues and dyes at once and the future likewise shall dye The past is no more the future is not yet the present is and no more is Briefly this whole life is but a death it is as a candle lighted in our bodies in one the wind makes it melte awaie in another blowes it cleane out many times ere it bee halfe burned in others it endureth to the ende Howesoeuer it bee looke howe much it shineth so much it burneth hir shining is her burning her lighte is a vanishing smoke her last fire her last wike and her last droppe of moisture So is it in the life of man life and death in man is all one If wee call the last breath death so must wee all the rest all proceeding from one place and all in one manner One onely difference there is between this life and that we call death that during the one wee haue alwaies whereof to die and after the other ther remaineth only whereof to liue In summe euen hee that thinketh death simply to bee the end of man ought not to feare it in asmuch as who desireth to liue long desireth to dye longer and who feareth soone to dye feareth to speake properly least he may not longer dye But vnto vs brought vppe in a more holie schoole death is a far other thing neither need we as the Pagans of consolations against death but that death serue vs as a consolation against all sorts of affliction so that we must not onely strengthen our selues as they not to feare it but accustom our selues to hope for it For vnto vs it is not a departing from paine and euill but an accesse vnto all good not the ende of life but the ende of death and the beginning of life Better saith Salomon is the day of death then the day of birth and why because it is not to vs a last day but the dawning of an euerlasting day No more shall wee haue in that glorious light either sorrowe for the past or expectation of the future for al shal be there present vnto vs that present shall neuer more passe No more shall wee powre out our selues in vaine and painfull pleasures for wee shal bee filled with true and substantiall pleasures No more shall we paine our selues in heaping togither these exhalatiōs of the earth for the heauēs shall be ours and this masse of earth which euer drawes vs towardes the earth shall bee buried in the earth No more shall we ouer-wearie our selues with mounting from degree to degree and from honour to honour for wee shall highly bee raised aboue all heights of the world and from on high laugh at the folly of all those wee once admired who fight together for a point as little children for lesse then an apple No more to be briefe shall we haue cōbats in our selues for our flesh shal be dead and our spirit in full life our passion buried and our reason in perfect libertie Our soule deliuered out of this foule and filthie prison where by long continuing it is growen into an habite of crookednesse shall againe drawe her owne breath recognize her auncient dwelling and againe remember her former glory and dignity This flesh my friend which thou feelest this body which thou touchest is not man Man is from heauen heauen is his countrey and his ayre That hee is in his body is but by way of exile and confinement Man indeede is soule spirit Man is rather of celestial and diuine qualitie wherein is nothing grosse nor material This body such as now it is is but the barke and shell of the soule which must necessarily be broken if wee will be hatched if we will indeed liue and see the light Wee haue it seemes some life some sense in vs but are so crooked and contracted that wee cannot so much as stretch out our wings much lesse take our flight towardes heauen vntill wee bee disburthened of this earthly burthen Wee looke but through false spectacles wee haue eyes but ouer growen with pearles wee thinke we see but it is in a dreame wherein we see nothing but deceit All that wee haue and all that wee knowe is but abuse and vanitie Death onely can restore vs both life and light and we thinke so blockish we are that she comes to rob