Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	age_n	old_a	youth_n	4,837	5	8.8963	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A21010	The prayse of nothing. By E. D.	Dyer, Edward, Sir, 1543-1607, attributed name.; Daunce, Edward, attributed name.	1585 (1585)	STC 7383; ESTC S111987	18,920	32

mans sinne and according to this rule that who striketh with the sword shal be stroke with the scabarde a pronounced rewarde of their husbands error Miserable is that course and contrary to the nature of honesty to ascribe to nothing their disloyal parts but so doe they that vnder their owne teste they may be conuinced of many faultes and their condemnation be greater Some others there be by a marueilous indisposition of honestie who although they be garded with mo felicities then diuers ages before them haue tasted courted w e many fauours of hir Maiesty floate notwithstanding ouer the landmarke of due obedience for no other cause if they were well examinied then for nothing a matter not agreing with their impietie which yearely renueth w t Aphrica some monster nursed in their mutinus conferences where being impatient of any season they woulde drawe the gouernments of Princes to the ordinary rule of themselues capitulating their fauorers with special noats of good wil and cancelling the good names of the rest with infamous titles as though that men and not God had the erecting of kingdoms which whilest they frame in the aire with the rebellious Ciclops they vndermine their naturall dwellings and countrye walles thinking to be made no smale fooles in that they be by those meanes knowne to Italie France and Spaine when kings whose secpters be supported with prudence and iustice neuer reckned the executioners of their furye within the Colledge of good men or thought the reward of such mastiues any other then garbage A portion to good for that course which is made miserable in being suspected to them from whom they looke for al fauor and good wil a matter to be reserued by great estates for honest men least their own people by an ill president be drawne from the dutie of good subiects and recompence their Princes error with disobedience the same hapning by the iust iudgements of god which hetherto neuer failed to minister them who haue made themselues stumbling blocks to their neighboures new matter with which they haue béene fearefully intangled to the terrible example of the whole worlde Let them therfore deale vprightly with al men that iudge the earth and not abuse the amitie of vertuous Princes for ouerthrowing a good cause or alienat themselues or peaceable ordinaunces from their willing subiects to the hazard of their whole interests as though their desires were to sée the order in nature troubled and to be the last whose eyes should behold the ruin of all things It were a romth for some idle bodye so looke into the accedents of euery state which hath béen diuersly afflicted for nothing or to péepe into euery dwelling for examining this cause which fathereth many nouelties and such enterprises as are either bloodily executed or performed against the vse of common sence as though those things were lawfull to wise and valiant men which are not permitted ideots or thought naturall for brute beasts In this lowest degrée of reason Xerxes the greatest prince and least wise of his time by an vnspeakeable folly acquited all other of extreame blockishnes for whatsoeuer any dedicated to that Lady or dame he seruilly loued applied this forgetfull king to a plane trée putting theron his Diadem yéelding humbly therto his scepter complaining with such iestures as be eyther dissembled by wise louers or plainely vsed by simple fooles accursing that day and night in which neither Sun or Moone spread on him the shadowe of his beloued boughes which had in such sort bereaued him of iudgement by gathering in the swéete ayre by their softe mouing that his care of the Persian gouermente lay vnder foote more estéeming the compasse of earth which inclosed the roote of their trunck thē his seuerall gouerments and large dominions which in his conceipte were no otherwise beautified then by giuing nurrishment to the same Of like passions may large volumes be written though worthy of no other pen then a black coale or memorie then was by decrée of all Asia left for the burner of Dianas temple And although nothing is absolutly simple innocent harmlesse in it self yet therfore hath all impiety been set abroch duties abrogated vertue suppressed truth put to silence charitie purst which should be currant amongest men by which peruersiō nothing hath found no lesse fauor then the ritch stone by luster of his foile or as the faire mistresse by the company of browning hir mayde It shall be necessary in respecte thereof to obserue a lyke proportion in disciphering y e incomodities of those things we estéeme profitable to that ende we may more apparantly perceiue the good effects which come of nothing as of the least or no enimie of life by whose societie many euils depart which as murderers of peace either drawe vs from the fauour of God or bring vs into the vncertaine liking of the worlde in which there was neuer any but that he was continually foste and made seasicke or suffered extreame wracke of lyfe or other fortunes And although the opinion which we conceiue of this trashe hath a like dominion in vs as white or blacke in other coullors we neuerthelesse gaze theron w e no other admiration danger then Narcissus beheld his beautifull reflexion or chearishe it then as the frozen serpent in the warme bosome of the ideot by meane wherof we render many times a sorrowfull testimonie of our light choise and dangerous affections The knot of this mistery hath closed the best wits for giuing iudgement in this repugnancie in nature vz y ● whilst euery one desireth a long and peaceable time he yet hunteth after the vse of those things which frowardly abridge y e good course of life It is therfore no maruel though this supernaturall motiue hath béene condemned of them who estéeming al things by their weight fashion haue for their purpose this croked saying Somewhat hath some sauor not weighing consideratly y ● as by those instrumēts by which we perceiue any pleasure common to man we pertake also a thousand incomodities which flocke without number to crosse the ioyes of life which so withereth wyth any sorrow as though we had dwelt in continuall calamitie and neuer felte other then the passions of extreame misery Compaire the ioyes and sorrowes which grow of corruptable things there wil be sufficient reason minstred to confirme this argument For beginning with the state of mariage from whence the maides of Greece reckned their age who are they that after the death of their beautifull chaste wiues or contrary wise of their ritch and louing husbands that thinke not their time past vanished the present perished and their life following desolate reckning the remembrance of their olde ioyes the mother of their newe sorrowes and lamentable state Or what naturall parent being depriued of good children doth not more lament their losse then he reioyced of their liues which being carefully feared were by so much the lesse

pleasant to him who now sorroweth them with manye teares as hauing lost the Image of his youth the lantren of his sight staffe of his olde age Touching the powers of man whose corrupt nature windeth as a hop wier as well about wéedes as hearbs they stand vs in so smale stead that when we haue most néede of them we are to séeke their help For whylest one of them empeacheth the others function the outwarde sences wanting by that meane a moderator take one thing for an other obseruing no order in quantitie or qualitie but filling all things with iarrs verifie the saying of the Prophet by hearing you shall heare and not vnderstand and seeing you shall sée and not perceiue If these two sences which haue a preheminence aboue the rest as well for the necessary vse of life as that by their means we taste of the louing goodnes of God be by the deuine Oracle vnprofitable for vs what is to be said of the other partes of our body which make vs by diuers insolences iniurius to God and man but that we haue in each of them many deformities as though the losenes of our life were appointed the foile of vertue or that honesty could not be expressed without hir contrary The charitable looking vpon the torne leaues and poore afflicted members of Christ greatly profiteth no doubt the dulnes of our bodily sight which being séene and not relieued argueth vs of incrudelitie towards the head whose parts they are Furthermore to behold in our sensuality and not in the singlenes of the eye the beautiful proportion of the world the wonderfull and vnchangeable course of the heauenly bodyes the marueilous motions of those huge heape of waters in the Sea and dayly renuing of his other creatures which preach to vs the infinit wisdome and power of God in the composition of this mighty frame be likewise testimonies of our darknes and grosse ignoraunce For better explayning this matter in which with full consent the world hath willingly erred let vs although there is not any thing so agreable to nature as the society of euery liuing thing in his kind yet view the consequent effects of that felowship and we shal for the most part find it so hurtfull to our selues that in respect of our mutual enmity we are by our owne censures iudged Wolues one to another For whether it be for the desire of dominion or to haue comendation for wit strength or comlines before others seldome is there peace and when it hapneth it rather gaineth vs opportunity to breake into greater violences then to set the good slips of vertue which if we plant they prosper as growing out of their naturall soyle It is not therfore to be marueiled if we regarde all circumstances thoughe the other creatures of God be enimies to vs when our powers and natural parts discent amongst them selues one man with great hatred prosecuteth an other For after the chain of our obedience by which we were tyed to the fauour of God was broken all his other creatures grew weary of our Empier as our profest enimies opposed themselues in the quarell of their creator against vs either vtterly refusing our company as that which is supposed dāgerous or so rebelliously obeying as they séem our Maisters vnto whom we ow our seruice for prouiding their foode and other necessaries for which they being desirous to shake off the yoak of their bondage yéelde no other recompence then the stripe of horne héele or tooth vnlesse by our tirranie they be made the vnwilling seruitors of our appetits For some resolucion of this matter let vs beholde the naturall contradiction of the simple shéepe who by a secret instinct rather chooseth to go naked by clothing the bryers with hir wooll and to venture hir sielie body in company of hir rauening enimies then hir natural owner should be posessed of either Furthermore there is not any liuing thing being not ioyned to our fellowship by some necessitie whether it be the smale vncleane Flie or the hurtful and laborsome Cmot that willingly draweth to y ● ●ame but to anoye vs or those things of which we make our profit conspiring with great mallice against our liues and comodities for which they lye in waite as for a praye due to them for our transgressing the sacred ordinances of God by whose decrée not only they but the elements also haue broken that amitie they had at the beginning wyth man anoying our bodies inwardly by their vneuen proportion and no way fayling to oppresse our weake estate by their outward effects For setting aside how the water ouerfloweth our cattle perisheth our fruits drowneth our bodies may we behold a malice greater then belongeth to lawfull enimies in casting them vp to be deuoured of Foules and beasts who are made honorable sepulchers to our miserable carcases not yet satisfied with this triumphe of vs whom she finddeth beyond al hope receiued of these common aduersaries procéedeth with no lesse fury by mean of the other elemēts against the remnant of them which perished by hir former crueltie in yéelding fulsome vapors which being drawne by some qualitie of the fire are willingly receiued of the aire to be suckt of them who therby are made parents of mortal diseases and long infirmities Nether haue we any peace with the earth a dayly and sullen enemie to man which eyther by hir quaking in bearing the heauie burden of our vncleannes murdereth many or being mindful how hir beauty faded in the deluge for our iniquity so opposeth hir selfe against our labors that in gathering one ounce of things necessary we bring in therwith two pound of sorrow powdring our meate with sighes mingling our drink with teares and slumbering in déepe care as hauing many calamities more attendant then our shadowes which forsake not our payned bodies til they haue deliuered them for a full satisfaction to this gréedy creditor the earth The ordinary of Tantulus were rather to be wished then those things or their effects which by a populer opinion are named profitable and therof durst I make some natiue of Platoes den the Palemon to whome although Epicure had shewed the beautifull buildings of Corinth the swéete perfumes of Thebes the plentiful tables of Capua or magnificence of the Romaine Empire would iudge them farre vnméete for the safe conuersation of man who with this fraught may as easily ariue in the heauenly port as a Camell may passe the eie of a Néedle It is worthy of some obseruation to behold the enmitie which the other creatures besides man as well sencible as insencible haue betwéene their seuerall kinds as the Serpents Fire being things sencible and insencible Oyle and Cowcumbers feathers of Doues and Eagles being both insencible the smale bird Egitus and the Asse being both sencible c. especiallye for that there is no hope left to gather profit by the vse of these things which are so incomodious to themselues It