Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	death_n	life_n	torment_n	1,579	5	9.6249	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01523	Abrahams decease A meditation on Genesis 25.8. Deliuered at the funerall of that worthy seruant of Christ, Mr. Richard Stock, late pastor of All-Hallowes Bread-street: together with the testimonie then giuen vnto him. By Thomas Gataker B. of D. and pastor of Rotherhith.	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1627 (1627)	STC 11647; ESTC S102880	78,010	76

course of his ministery and that his worke it were once at an end The Vse of which seuerall Points in a word may be First of the two former to admonish old men and such more specially as through the goodnesse of God enioy a commodious and comfortable time of it free from many such griefes as they heare others of their yeares oft complaine of to acknowledge Gods great mercy and goodnesse to them therein as in lengthening out their life and satisfying them with a greater number of daies then others ordinarily attaine vnto by means whereof they may liue to see those brought vp vnder them and bestowed by them that are of their charge and whom God hath here blessed them with so in freeing of them from such annoiances as are vsually attendants of that age and which might make their continuance here the more tedious and vncomfortable to them And to apply themselues therefore to such holy and religious Employments so farre forth as their present estate and condition shall permit whereby they may bring glory to God and doe some seruice to him who is so good and gratious to them aboue many others in that kinde Remembring withall that howsoeuer old age of it selfe be an honour yet it is nothing lesse if it be not found in the way of righteousnesse as the wise man speaketh if it be not religiously imployed And that howsoeuer to the godly long life may be a blessing yet the wicked man saith the Prophet though he liue an hundred yeeres shall be but an accursed wretch Secondly the vse of the last of these points may be to shew a difference betweene godly and worldly men The godly haue oft euen a satietie of life As willing they are to leaue the world as men are wont to be to rise from the bord when they haue eaten their fill or so much as they desire But with worldly men for the most part it is farre otherwise they haue neuer enough as of the wealth of this world so of this present life by their good will they would neuer die It is true indeed that sometime either crosses and calamities extraordinarie disasters or sore torturing paines and long lingring diseases out of a kinde of impatiencie may make them weary of their liues and desirous of death which but for those grieua●ces and a●●oia●ces they would else be farre from Whereas the godly with Abraham Dauid euen then also when they haue a good and a comfortable continuance of life accompanied and attended as well with health of body as with honour and wealth yet haue their fill of it and are as well willing to leaue it as the other are some dish of meat that they haue eaten their fill of Yea so fondly are worldly men herein oft affected and their hearts so possessed with the loue of this life that though they know not how to liue yet they are not willing to die though their life be so irkesome and painfull unto them that they seeme to be long a dying rather than to liue long and the delay of death farre worse with them than death it selfe could be to them yet they desire to endure rather any extremitie of griefe and torture with life than to haue an end put to their paines and torments by death But let vs rather herein striue to be affected as Gods Saints are especially when it hathpleased God to blesse vs with long life with many yeeres more than the greater number of folke are wont to attaine to labour to finde and feele in our selues this satiety and fulnesse of life and be willing and content to leaue it when God shall please to call for it though no speciall affliction or paine enforce thereunto not as a meat loathed which the naturall man oft doth but as 〈◊〉 dish though well liked that we haue fed our fill of And hitherto also of the third Particular to wit time when he died The fourth and last followeth and that is whither hee went when hee died whereof the Text saith here that He was gathered to his people and in another place of him that He went to his Fathers And there is nothing more frequent and common in Scripture than these and the like phrases vsed of persons deceassing that they sleepe with they goe to they are gathered vnto either their people that is their countrimen or their ancestors for that is their Fathers So that Men when they die they goe to their people to their 〈◊〉 Fathers That which may well be vnderstood two waies and the Holy Ghost might well therin aime at both because both goe vnder one generall and the phrase as it may fit either so it may well include both First in regard of the body because it returneth to the earth the common receptacle of all As it is said of Dauid that he was laid vnto or laid vp with his Fathers For howsoeuer of Abraham it seeme to some that it cannot be so meant because his corpes was enterred in the Land of Canaan so generally termed in a strange countrey where his countrey-men in likelihood none of them lay yet it followeth not thence that it may not euen in that sense also be said of him too since that the graue in generall not the artificiall one but the naturall which the Hebrewes also well distinguish is as Iob fitly termeth it the Congregation house of all liuing that is the place wherein they all meet together after decease be the places of their sepulture neuer so farre asunder yea whether they haue any sepulture or no as Iacob supposed that Ioseph had not whom hee yet saith hee would die and goe downe to to the graue And as well might Abraham for his body also be said to be gathered to his people though hee were buried in some other place then the most of them were as Jacob might be said to goe to Ioseph because he was to be laid in the ground when he died Ioseph being as he supposed buried in the bowels of some beast since that as Solomon saith all goe to one common place all returne againe to their dust Secondly in regard of the Soule First in Generall because it departeth hence indefinitely into another world not proper and peculiar as he said each one did when hee slept but common and generall it goeth hence to the vnseene world as the Heathens termed it or to the world of Soules as the Hebrew Doctors call it to that other world including both Heauen and Hell in generall that is the Congregation House of Soules as the Graue is of Corpses As the supposed Samuel told Saul though he meant not nor intended it so to be taken that Saul should be in the same speciall state or place that Samuel

and goodnesse in that sense goeth sometime for greatnesse Or quiet happy and prosperous as it is said elsewhere in peace and prosperitie Or haile and healthy as wee say free for the most part from such annoiances and troublesome infirmities as that age is wont to be infested withall though not it may be so fresh and vigorous as Moses or so able and actiue as Caleb are neere their ends said to haue beene Or all these for the word may well include them all 2. Old and full not of grace and goodnesse as some that is most true indeed also of Abraham but seemeth not here intended But of daies or of yeeres as it is expressed elsewhere hauing liued euen as long as himselfe desired or so long as we say as heart could wish Whence the Point that in the Generall wee may obserue is this that euen The longest liuers die at last The daies of mans life are seuenty yeeres saith the Psalmist But Abraham had liued a whole hundred to that and yet at length you see he dieth Yea that is the conclusion still one onely excepted with all those Ancients that liued so long before the floud not three or foure times as they say of Nestor and some other but nine or ten times as long as the longest ordinary liuers liue now adaies And hee died Nor is it any maruell that they so doe For first we are of a glassie matter of a very brittle mettall ready with euery light dash to cracke asunder to fl●e in pieces And * wee walke amids many casualties ready euer anon to seize on vs and any one alone enough to make an end of vs. And the pot as the Prouerbe is goeth so of● to the well that at length it commeth home broken or rather that it neuer commeth home againe Death lieth euery where in euery corner in waite for vs euen in those things themselues that are the meanes to maintaine life Not a crum of that bread we eat nor a drop of that we drinke but if it goe but an haires bredth awry it may be our bane There is not a bare step or a pace only betweene death and vs as David speaketh or an hand-bredth some few inches as it is said of those that be at sea but euen scarce a nailes bredth yea or an haires bredth betweene vs and it if not at all times yet at many times more at least than wee are vsually aware of And it is no maruell therefore if death meet with vs or light vpon vs at length it is maruell rather that it misseth of vs so long Besides that wee our selues also helpe oft to hasten our owne end while wee betray our selues to him who lieth thus in wait for vs by wilfull distemper by disorder by misdiet As not one apple therefore of an hundred hangeth on the tree to full maturitie or so long till it drop downe with ripenesse alone and its owne weight but either it is pluckt off with the hand or blowne downe with the wind or preuented of its maturitie by some one meanes or other not one glasse or earthen pot of an hundred that lasteth so long as it might but by some mischance or other it commeth to its bane So not one man among an hundred what and I should say a thousand that fulfilleth his naturall course that liueth so long as in course of nature he well might but hath his life shortned and his end bastned by sword by stresse by sorrow by sadnesse by surfet by sicknesse by some one such casualty or other 2. We carry euery one of vs our owne bane about vs. Euery one say some Chymicks hath his owne balsome within him but euery one of vs sure I am hath within him his own bane and that that will be sure at length to make an end of him though no such casualtie as before wee spake of should befall him We are of a glassie matter saith he nay were it so onely we were better and safer th●n now we are For a Venice glasse as brittle as it is yet if it be charily kept if it be carefully set vp if it stand shut vp vnder locke and key out of vse out of harmes way it may hold out many ages it might last peraduenture euen as long as the world it selfe is like to last But shut you vp man neuer so charily keepe him neuer so carefully hee may nay he will drop away for all that he hath poison within him that will at length make an end of him He was bred and borne with a dangerous with a desperate disease on him and such as by no care or art of man he can be cured of or recouered Old age said he sometime is it selfe a disease and a disease that cannot he cured But this life it selfe saith an ancient Father is a disease and such a disease as we must all of vs needes one day dye of Thou art sure to die saith he not because thou art sicke but because thou liuest For sicke a man may be and yet not die of it not to adde that a disease hath sometime delaid death But what man liueth and shall not see death that is who liueth and shall not die The whole course of our life is nothing else but a passage to death the seuerall ages of our life so many seuerall degrees of death we are dying daily by degrees No sooner are we I say not borne but euen bred but wee are dying and decaying Euery minute and moment that seemeth added to our life taketh from it For our life it is as a taper that being once lighted neuer linneth spending till it be wasted all at last as the houre-glasse that being once turned and set a running neuer staieth till the sand be all out So that considering as well the varietie of casualties that we are all subiect vnto as our owne frailty and mortalitie that we are brod and bor●e with it is no maruell if the longest liuers of vs die at last it is maruell rather that any of vs liue so long Now this may first teach vs not to please our selues with a conceit of long life Why may not wee liue as long as such and such To omit that it is a thing altogether vncertaine For who can tell a man what shall be Certaine it is that first or last die we must liue wee neuer so long As nothing more vncertaine than how long we shall liue so nothing more certaine than that once wee shall die As sure as death we say And it neuer stayeth long that commeth at last Stay death neuer so long before it come it will seeme