Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wont_a	world_n	write_v	21	3	5.0232	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15701	The castell of Christians and fortresse of the faithfull beseiged, and defended, now almost sixe thowsand yeares. VVritten by Iohn VVolton, on e of the Cathederal Church in Exetor.	Woolton, John, 1535?-1594.	1577 (1577)	STC 25975; ESTC S103316	80,248	214

iniquitie and in sinne my mother conceiued me What should I speake of the tyme betwéene his conception and byrth which is full of sorrowe and sicknesse the mother being encombred with weaknesse of stomack headache swymming of the head and many other infirmities yea oftētymes if she eyther snéese or smell the snuffe of a Candle shee trauayleth before her tyme. If besydes these you marke the time of delyueraunce you shal hardly iudge whether Nature be a more louing mother or an heauier stepdame to man For Man is caste forth bare and naked vpon the earth senceles and is compelled to kiuer him selfe and hyde his priuie partes by the reliefe of others so that if we wyl signifie any notable miserie wee neede no more but note the Byrth of man into this worlde Whervpō the Thratians were wont to wéepe in their chyldebedde and the Parentes with mourning to receyue their Chyldren new borne into the worlde but at their death to bury them with marueilous reioysing gladnesse as though that he which is newe borne were rather to be lamented then he that deceaseth and departeth the myserie of the worlde Other Beastes entering into light are cladde and couered and by the verie motion of nature doo séeke after foode The Lambe as soone as he is yeaned is able to followe the damme the Chicken as soone as it is out of the shell wyll doo the like and euerie one in their kindes haue couerings and defences to reskew them selues from daunger The Elephante his snowte the Bucke his hornes the Boore his tuske the Woolfe his téeth the Birdes theyr bylles and Tallants and to euerie creature accordingly But naked man is cast into naked nature crying wayling and straight waye is wrapped in swadlyng cloathes as it were in manacles and fetters cast vpon his handes and feete beginning his lyfe with a kinde of imprisonment so that we may right well saye with Plinie O meere madnesse to thinke that vve are borne to pride vpon such simple beginnings how long is it before a man can speake how long before he can go Nowe when man is brought vp many thousand lets many daūgers many kindes of intrapmentes declare howe harde it is for him to passe the race of his lyfe and to come to his fatall ende Surely he is subiecte to all kinde of perylles and daungers in his minde body and goodes In daunger of water of fyre of ruyne of houses of the sworde and of diuerse kinde of maladies wherby he is cut of most commonly by death before he come to olde age Which things moued a certaine Wise man to saye That Citties and Tounes were nothing else but places of humane sorrowes and miseries wherein mourning lamentation and troublesome labours of mortall men are inclosed and contayned Whereof Plinie also wryteth after this manner The gyft of Nature is fyckle vncertaine yea it is euyll and short to those that lōgest enjoy it VVhat should I speake of one halfe of mans age passing away in sleepe and spent in darknes For we may not accoumpt the time of infācy any part of lyfe which almost wanteth sence● neither yet olde age which is ful of so many sorrowes cares thoughtes and feares insomuch that olde men p●ay for nothing so often as for death a● though nature could geue nothing so good vnto man as a short lyfe For in olde age the limmes waxe stiffe the sight dimme the hearing deaffe and the teeth fall away Againe no lyuing creature is in daunger of moo disseases none standeth in more ha●arde of priuie Amboushmentes then he doth and that by man Lyons for all theyr wyldnesse yet doc not one encounter another the Serpēt stingeth no Serpent but Man is a Woolfe to Man at whose hand he daily receaueth much harme Furthermore none is couetous but hee none ambitious none vncontentable in desyre of thinges but he onely he is in continuall paine wearyed with calamyties of which euylles although thou arte perswaded that thou hast discomfetted one or two and so thinkest thy selfe in safetie Yet thou must abyde a sore conflict with Nature her selfe séeing thou arte enforced to feare euen the lyghtning of the Element the stenche of the earth the Scorpions stroke so many kindes of poyson and venime which although they neuer chaunce vnto thée yet fleshly flées crablyce and many other lyke vermins shall annoy thée and declare that man is in daunger of many thousande myseries But also the necessitie of death is not to be so much counted vpon séeing it is common to all lyuing creatures for whatsoeuer is horne must dye and returne to duste whence it had his begynning were it not that another kind of death had fallen to man which came through sinne whereby we haue also founde another begynning of a myserable lyse For there is no other lyuing thing but it decayeth vniuersallye and totally man alone excepted whose onlye body perisheth the soule which is seuered from it cōtinuing euerlastinglie so that the good be receaued into a blessed life whereas the badd● be thrust downe into euerlasting tormentes of hell hauing in this poynt death lyke to brute Beastes because they neyther thinke the soule immortall neyther beléeue that there is any resurrection or any hell that thereby the death of an ●xe and a Man séemeth lyke Heape hyther so many meanes whereby wée eyther hasten our owne death or vpon very tryfling occasions léese our lyfe séeing moe dye by surseyt wine then by the sworde Many whyies that contrarye to their nature they labour by helpe of cunning and arte to lengthen their yeares and onely séeke meanes to lyue cast them selues away by vsing too much Phisicke Here I néede not to touche diuerse kindes of soddaine deaths wherby very many haue miscaried and decayde So dyed Anacrien the Poet chooked with a reysyn kyrnell So dyed Fabius the Senatour of an heayre which he did drink in mylke Cornelius Gallus which somtime had bene Praetor and Quintus Heterius a knight of Rome dyed whyles they were in the very acte of generatiō Sophocles and Dyonisius the tyraunt of Cycille both deceassed for ioye when they heard tydings of the vpperhand of a Tragedy Of which sort of examples I could rehearse a number wherby we be put in minde of our mortality that ere we weene we dye soddainly Sure we are to dye but by what kinde of death in what momēt we know not We must watch therefore whyles we lyue in this ciuile lyfe among men lest the soddaine necessitie of death finde vs vnprouided not awake for we shal be so much the lesse be able to geue an accom●pt of our former life the more we yéelde to wickednesse and dispise the obedience of Gods commaundement Finally the daūgers of that soule neglected or slightly passed ouer by carnall men are principally to be considered such are the errors and ignoraunces of the minde prophane opinions of God

carnall securitie dystrust cuyll concupiscence tormentes of the Conscience and horrible terrors of death wherewithall Saule Caine Iudas and suche like being vexed and afflicted fell into damnable dyspayre and murdred them selues These myseries of man myght be séene by Reason and felto by dayly experience if we were not too perciall and euen wylfullye blinde in our owne causes Whereof so many complaintes are almost in euerie page of prophane wryters out of the which heape a learned man of our tyme hath made thoyse of three principall sentences The first is out of Aristotle who asketh this question vvhat is man He is an example of weaknesse a spoyle of time a plaie of fortune an Image of inconstancie a ballaunce of enuie and callamitie and whatsoeuer is besides is but fleame and Choler The seconde saying is taken out of Euripides There is no myserie nor wofull mishappe and mischiefe vvhereunto mans nature is not subiecte The thirde is of Pindarus vve are men but of one day vvhat is some body and what is no body all men are no better then a dreame of a shadowe And vnto these thrée sentences we maye reduce all other complaintes which eyther the Cthincke Poets Historians or Philosophers haue vttered of the fraylnesse of mans lyfe All which sentences Ludouicut Vines endeuored to comprehende briefly after this manner Mans body is infirme and subiect to all iniuries euerie member hath his especiall malladie And as for his minde it is exceeding sicke and vnquiet blinde and improuident neither doth vvyll suffer it selfe to be lyghtned being much lyke the taste of a sick man desiring those thinges that be hurtfull and lootheth those things that be wholsome vnruely and intractable towarde such as would cure him all his affections are out of order and whole man is a seruaunt of those thinges vvhich are needfull for him vvherof he vvas sometime Lord and maister Thus man lyeth in this sicknesse as it vvere in his death bedde vntill he giue vp the goast vvhich is called Death vvheras mannes byrth might more aptly be tearmed Death as Manilius vvriteth Nascentes morimur finisque ab origna pēdet Such a continuall death is laide vppon Adams children for a punishment of his transgression being much more bytter then if he had immediatly dyed Thus we sée the estate of this our sorrowfull and short lyfe some part wherof a● Seneca wryteth vve spende in doing euil a greater part in doing nothing and the greatest part of al in doing those thinges that appertayne nothing vnto vs. These thinges moued Theophrastus to vtter his lamētable complaint That Nature is rather a stepdame to mankind then a louing mother For whereas she hath dealt with brute Beastes lyberally and louingly geuing vnto many of them a long lyfe seruing to no purpose She hath lent to man a verie short time vnto whome moe yeares had bene conuenient to the ende he might haue commen to perfite knowledge in wisdome which is mannes chiefe felicitie Besides these thinges she hath expelled him into this worlde poore and weake not able to do any thing but with howling and crying to foreshew his miserable estate and cōdition Albeit I am not ignoraunt that Theophrastus saying hath beene reprehended both of humaine and deuine wryters of these because he vsurped the woord Nature as they suppose for God himselfe so charged the Creatour with the faulte of she Creature And it can not be denyed but that both Philosophers and Diuines haue tearmed God by the name of Nature For so speake not onely Hippocrates Seneca but also Lactantius although else where hee séemeth to mislyke that phrase As for those wordes of Saint Augustine Omnis quippe natura vel Deus est qui nullum habet autorem vel deus non est qui ipsum habet autorem Are not to this purpose for the worde Nature there hath a farre other signification And y great Phylosopher of our tyme Mattheus Beroaldus amongst many significations of the worde alloweth that manner of spéeche yet the wordes of his Maister Iohn Caluine please me much better writing hereof after this manner I graunt that vve may godly vse this phrase Nature is God so it proceede of a sincere minde but because the speache is harde and vnproper for that Nature is an order appointed by God It seemeth vnto mee very daungerous and hurtfull in matters of so great moment and vvherein there ought to be a singular Religion to vvrappe and confounde the eternall God vvith the inferiour course of his handy vvorkes Of the same mynde was Lactantius wryting That the subuersion of true Religion brought forth the name of Nature For they being eyther ignoraunt by vvhome the vvorlde vvas made eyther desirous to perswade that nothing vvas made by God sayd that Nature vvas the mother of all thinges meaning that all things sprang of their owne accord vvherin they opened their great vnskilfulnesse For if prouidence and Gods povver be set apart Nature is plainly nothing And if they call God Nature vvhat peruersenesse is it to tearme it Nature rather then God Nature verily is not God but the vvorke of God. But in my opinion Theophraste who had that name geuen him partlye for his diuine sentences of God and his prouidence and partly for his swéete vaine in wryting vsed not the woorde Nature in any such sence but rather for vitious corrupte qualities which haue infected this diuine workemanshippe Hereof that common saying commeth that the beginning of vertue is of Nature to wyt of Perfect Nature and that vices procéede of Nature verily of corrupt and poysoned Nature And if any man thinke that I thus conūerre Theophrastes wordes ledde with ioylfulnesse to discent from others rather then with a desyre to séeke oute Truth let him vnderstand that I haue not sucked this out of my owne conceit but haue receiued the same of that learned father Saint Augustine who alleadging the very same sentence cyted out of Theophraste by Cicera pronounceth thereof after this manner The same Tullie in his third booke of a common wealth writeth that man is brought forth into this lyfe not of a Mother but of a stepdam in body both naked weake and infyrme and in his minde perisiue in sorrowes abiecte in feare faint in labours prone to lecherie vvherein notwithstanding there is couered certaine d●●●s● sparkes of vvitte and vnderstanding VVhat saye you to these things he saue the disease but he was ignoraunt of the cause Hitherto Augustine who notwithstanding myslyketh this complaint if it be applied to Nature sincerre and incorrupt But to the ende that this matter may bee more easily discussed you shall vnderstande that the worde Nature as we reason of it in this place hath two significations as Saint Augustine in sundry places hath obserued The fyrst estate of man vvhich vvas sincere and vvithout sinne is properly called mans Nature but by translation we vse it