Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	body_n	death_n	separation_n	4,050	5	10.4642	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94777	A sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Worcester the second of Febr. last being Candlemas day, at the funerall of Mris Alice Tomkins wife unto Mr Thomas Tomkins one of the gentlemen of His Majesties chappell royall. By John Toy, Master of arts and one of the petty canons of the said cathedrall church.	Toy, John, 1611-1663.	1642 (1642)	Wing T1996; Thomason E154_47	12,390	28

weather now he is calme and temperate anon he is clouded with cares one while he is gladsome and cheerfull then the Sun shines another time chafed and angry then it thunders another while he weeps then it rains but this change of the Text follows all our appointed dayes which is onely death Death is a great change indeed First we change from health to sicknesse then our cheerfull looks are changed into ghastly palenesse our strength into pain and weaknesse the whole man into another man happy if into a new man The next change is from sicknesse to death a great change indeed our handsome habits are changd into a shroud our habitation into a Coffin our Lands into a Grave nay we into our Lands our lively heat into an everlasting cold our mirth into sable mourning Man goes unto his long home and the mour ners walke about the streets the Bells ring of these changes by this the Family changeth too the Wife is become a Widow the sonne fatherlesse the master without a servant the servant masterlesse these changes once in fifty yeers renew the face of the world Death doth change a marriage into a divorce life is the union of the soul and body death the separation the soul is sent back to her heavenly Father the body to her Mother the Earth this is a great change indeed that two that lived so long and so lovingly should be separated so long and into places so remote Death is a change of a compounded body into his native principles the Aire receives our breath the Sun our heat the Sea our moisture the Earth that which we had of her our dust these Elements which were ere while knit in one common building are now distructed into all the world where will you look for the parcels of your dead friend his breath perhaps helps to drive a ship in some remote Sea his moisture perhaps went up into the grasse which grew on the grave and the Horse hath eate it you must look quickly for the rest of his carcase ere the worms have eate it perhaps the fisher hath baited his weels with the worms that fed on your friend here is a change indeed Death is a change from variety of forme and condition into all alike among the living there is much difference one is noble another base in death Diogenes as great as Mansolus Menippus as good a man as great Alexander In this life some are rich the rest poore In death there is not respect of riches the carcase of Irus may boldly stink by Craesus without any offence Among the living some are faire some ill-favoured among the dead there is not a pin to choose between Sappho and Hellen Thersites and Aeneas all are bald pate hollow-eyed flat nosed chap fallen and grim alike Amongst us there is difference of wits one is sharp and subtle another blunt and simple let them lye a little in the grave together and you will not discern the wise man from the foole the grave Politician from the canting beggar If that this change were much in our mind who then would be proud of wealth that anon must be stript of all of wit whose fine head must be filled with musty mould of birth that must descend into the bowels of the earth of beauty which will wither into deformitie of his person which lice and wormes must eate of any thing since anon all will be alike the worst in the world as good as he 5. But yet Beloved this change is no robbery although we suffer a little we shall not loose by it we are not lesse men with God he numbers and reckons the dead he is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. We cannot loose by this dissolution it is impossible that any thing should perish into nothing else there would be vacuity and God must create a new to repair the losse no the earth will give back our dust the Sun our heat the aire our breath the water our moisture each part of the world each part of every man and the dead shall live againe Observe Jobs blessed confidence I shall see God in my flesh not with other but with these same eyes how possible is it to presume a resurrection when God Almighty that so made us at first out of nothing hath now all the former materials and the soule entire ready and disposed for the work Nay we are so far from loosing by this change that we get much by it to change labour for ease and rest is a good bargain life is torne and distracted with many cares in the grave is no noise or disturbance Blessed are the dead they rest from their labours to change corruption for incorruption is a great bargaine the lying in the Grave doth draine away our poyson and corruption and returns it pure and perfect to change a lease of few yeers into a free and perpetuall tenure is great gaine by dying we turn our Copy-hold for life into life immortall to change the world for Christ is a glorious advantage all things compared to Christ are losse and dung by being dissolved we come to Christ In a word if glorious and crowned liberty be better than continuall bondage if a state triumphant be better than a militant if fulnesse be better than famine and substance than shadow heaven than the dunghill earth and eternitie than doubtfull time then are we much better and more happy by this change of death Hence it is that holy Job looks and longs for this change as he saith in my Text All the dayes of my appointed time c. Of this one word 6. If Job waits for the salvation of God then hath he faith towards him for we doe not wait for that which we thinke will not come If wee will make this change of death happy and beneficiall unto us we must like Job expect the mercy of God beleeve that he is and that he is a faithfull rewarder of them that seeke him that this God hath salvation in his hand for them that will stretch forth the hand of faith to receive it from him If Job wait then hath he hope to receive all expectation is mixed with hope if heaven be not hoped for it cannot happen to us if we want this anchor we may oft try to land and be as often driven back in the troubles of the labouring deep This expectation cannot be without contented patience He that is impatient will not wait You have heard of the patience of Job you know the passion and patience of the Lambe Christ Jesus If we will follow him we must take up our crosse if we will raigne we must suffer it is fit we should suffer somewhat for glory in heaven were cheap and contemptible if we might attain it easily This waiting and expectation supposeth preparation every one that hath this hope faith the Apostle purgeth himselfe as he is pure How doe we wash and combe and trimme our selves when call'd to

and each day the Epitome of our whole life but me thinkes a day is too much to attribute to man that is his which he enjoyes what is that the time past no that is dead and gone the time to come no that may never come the present yea but what 's that an instant point an individuum an ens rationis a conceit of our braine indeed almost nothing but stay I should goe beyond my Text if I doe I doe not goe beyond Scripture David saith Mine age is nothing unto thee Indeed that is halfe a nothing which hath an end man hath two our whole space is even just nothing in respect of the dayes of Eternitie for between finite and infinite is no proportion looke back on all the time past all the dayes yeares and houres are measured with one sudden thought which is next to nothing The generations of men saith the Poet are like the succession of leaves which no sooner are greene but already turning yellow and readie to fall Harke to the Prophets cry what will he cry that All flesh is grasse and the glory thereof as the flower of the field rising withering flourishing fading growing declining living dying as it were all in an instant David calls mans life a spanne a dreame a vapour a bubble Salomon saith lesse all things sublunary are vanitie that is the appearance of nothing Till thou canst enjoy life 't is not a life but a being or at most but as the life of trees which is without sence of it selfe We have perhaps seventie yeares before us but little of this doe we enjoy minimum est quod vivitur Infancy and Childhood is but the portall through which we enter into life all that while we are not come to our selves in youth we are so sublimed with pride or so vehemently forc'd with headlong passion that all that while we live like madmen beside our selves we cannot well be said to live till we arrive at gray haires and no sooner do we arrive at that Meridian but we are mellow and ripe for the grave and indeed senectus ipsa morbus age is nothing but a long disease a lingring death Again of that space we live how little do we live to our selves halfe of all is consumed in sleep the sister of death thanks to nature so long we are innocent of the rest much is worne out in businesse for others much lost and lavisht on our pleasures some slips idlely through our fingers little bestowed on God or goodnesse almost all expended on businesse that least concerns us diù fuit non diù vixit so much we have lived as we have lived well and alas how ridiculously short are our lives if measured by our goodnesse O how much are they too blame that haunt company and hunt after pastime that 's the world beguiling themselves of those pretious houres which God hath given them to studie and procure Eternity alas are the wings of time so leaden and lazie that we should adde and impe more feathers to it time lacquies with the motions of the heavens and they are as swift as thought the Sun one of the lower and slower Planets moves not lesse then foure thousand miles every minute if you are sure of heaven spur on delude time as you list but if not O why should you hasten your misery O how much to blame is the covetous man he not considering how short his time is rakes and toiles to heap up a miskin of wealth as if he meant to live for ever what doth he think to continue still why there is a statute of mortalitie against him Statutum est semel mori Doth he think to bribe death it will not be Mors aquo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres The rich man died also doth he think to carry it with him no we must not allow transportation of our money to hell nudus venit naked he came naked he must return What will he lay it up for his children I thinke he that truly loves money little thinks of that if he did marry he would doe them a great pleasure to leave them cursed wealth to undoe them he will lay it up for his old age and then enjoy it least of all quo minus via eo plus viatici covetousnesse is fiercest in the close he will rather choke himself with cares or starve himself not daring to diminish his mouldy god his treasure Since our time is so short a Kalendar of a day O how much too blame is the intemperate glutton and drunkard that drink away their health and fill their body with diseases every intemperate draught is but a sweet poyson the glutton eates his knife and God may justly challenge them of self murder that thus will eate and drinke in spight of health and nature and so shorten that precious time which God indulged for better purpose Is life so short at utmost extension O cursed condition of men that delight in bloud that like Atropos make a trade of killing butchers of their brethren traytors to nature why should we cut that thread which another will shortly cut why should we envy our Brethren a little light why shouldest thou envie light to thy self thy thread murderer is twist with his whom thou slayest just vengeance hath decreed the bloudy minded man shall not live out half his dayes Is life so short why then being mortall doe we nourish immortall hatred against our Brother hath he done thee wrong forbear the fault the sentence of death is upon him anon the worms will pull him all to peeces what greater revenge canst thou desire dum luctamur aderit immortalitas spight of all thy spight death will disarm the make thee lye quietly in the grave with thy contemned Brother If life be so short why doe we post off repentance and make so little care to prepare for the presence of the Judge and hazard our salvation to the extreamest minutes how many that long since might have been raked up in the grave are but beginning to live nay 't is not so well they doe but say they will begin but let him that means to goe to heaven set out betimes lest like the foolish boy we game out the candle which should light us to bed time past will not be recalled and we have a spatious distance to dispatch in a few minutes how short and uncertain soever our dayes are to us with God they are determined and appointed so saith my Text All the dayes of my appointed time 3. God Almighty hath set up bounds which wee cannot passe and untill that houre which he hath determined doe approach we cannot dye this paper body of ours is proofe against all violence to this agrees that of Job above thou hast made my dayes as the dayes of an hireling the hireling is but for a certain time That of Salomon There is a time to be borne and a time to dye this appears by this that