Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	death_n	die_v	life_n	17,942	5	5.0592	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89691	A meditation of life and death Translated with some alterations out of the works of the learned and ingenious Eusebius Nierembergius.	Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio, 1595-1658.	1682 (1682)	Wing N1150; ESTC R231382	13,161	54

Sorts That so we may be th● more willing to quit the Stage and after the heat and toil of a tedious day to refresh our selves in the shades o● Death What a deep Tragedy now i● Life which begins and ends in miserie I now no longer wonder at Isis for saying in his Sacred book that th● Souls were all in Sadness when they understood they were Condemned t● enter Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies he And Camephes thus describes their complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What have we poor Creatures done amiss to deserve this punishment to minister to a cold and humed Body Our Eyes shall no longer see the divine Souls since they are now streightned within little Orbs and Humours But as often as we shall look up to our Native Heaven we shall figh and sometimes we shall not be able to see so much as that For we poor Creatures are condemn'd neither have we an absolute power of sight but dependent upon the Light of the Sun Distance of place intercepts our sight and we shall hear our cognate sou●s pittifully sighing in the air for want of our company Now we are no company for them Now instead of the high Arch of Heaven our house must be the narrow compass of an heart O if any one would loose us from what to what would he translate us But thou O Lord Father and Creator who so easily neglects thy workmanship set us some bounds and vouchsafe to converse with us tho never so little while we are here below The souls Petitioned Death as a solace of life and since 't was their doom to live in the body at least at length to die Next to not living at all nothing was more desirable then to die speedily So far is Death more eligible then life There is not one part of life desirable to a considering person because there is not one part free from sorrow and dissatisfaction And therefore as a Traveller tired with going up a rough and steep Hill is forc'd to stand still many times to recruit and take breath that he may with the more ease perform the remainder of his journey So the Pilgrim-Soul in this rough and uneven Life wants the rest and pause of Death whence she may gather a new supply of strength for the progress of Eternity Our jaded Life will not carry us through in one continued course to Immortality Such along journey cannot be perform'd without resting by the way The Grave is our Inn from thence we set out for Immortality Neither indeed can we stay so long till the pause of Death We must have many intervals of rest as wearied Travailers which bait oft by the way and and defer not their refreshments till they take up for all night The importunity of our labours troubles compel us to stop upon the Road before we take up our quarters in the Grave What else are the constant returns of Sleep but the pause and reparation of wearied and languishing life So much is Death better than Life that our Life is sustain'd by Deaths Our Immortality depends upon Death and our state of Mortality upon Sleep the Image and Shadow of it Now to compare Death with Life If that be the repast of this it will consequently be pleasant Or altho it be not Sweet in it self yet the trouble of Life will make it so Weariness prepares the pleasure of rest and whatsoever succeeds Bitterness is Sweet 'T was well said by Charidemus that Pleasures and Grievances were linkt together in a Chain interchangably succeeding one another so that the succeding pleasure would b● proportionable to the proceding grie●viance Now what greater grieviance then our Mortal Life and consequently what greater pleasere the Death Phalaris said that Life is therefore pleasant because we know of n● greater evil then Death But h● speaks the Sense of the vulgar an● yet to the discredit of Life too find it must be beholding to an evil to recommend it I should rather have said That Death ought to be thought pleasant because there is no greater evill then Life And yet we are flatter'd on by the emergent happiness of some men But why do we look upon those who have escaped shipwrack We should rather consider those that are drown'd These are innumerable and yet are thought few because they don't appear Let not now the Tears shed at Funerals be alleadg'd against what has been said This depends all upon the opinion of the vulgar And indeede every one laments rather himself then him whom he call's dead I say do not alleadg the Tears of others you may your own 'T is a mans own thinking which makes him either happy or miserable What argument is it for the preference of Life before Death that others weep When you die if when you are born you your self weep 'T is a folly to rate our miseries by other mens opinions Contrary circumstances attend our Death and Nativity At the Birth of a man others rejoice but he himself weeps at his Death others weep but he will rejoice unless his Death be imbitter'd by an ill Life Neither are we to think this gladness the less because calm and inward and not so obvious to the sense The Infant that wept at his Birth by sleep learns to smile says St. Austin He dedicates the Image of Death with a smile who begins his Life with Tears A notable presage of the miseries of Life and of the happiness after Death Weeping is narural we need no teaching to dissolve in Tears joy is a difficult Lesson slowly learnt and not without Discipline 'T is one of the precepts of Seneca learn to rejoyce Sleep gives us a sip of joy but Death the full draught Greif and Misery are Natural and Born with us but joy advances more leasurely For we may credit Avicenna the Infant has no sense of joy till after the Fortieth day The reason therefore why others weep at thy Death is because they never made trial of it and the reason why they rejoice at thy Birth is because they are not to live your life You alone who can best presage human condition refuse it with Tears which are the language of unwilling nature And as the Ceremonies of our Birth are contrary to those of our Death so is the condition of the one contrary to that of the other Death either inverts or restores all things Or rather restores by inversion For the inversion of things that are upside down is the way to set them right 'T was a Funeral Ceremony in use among the T●bitenses to turn their garments inside outward Death it self is term'd a change and 't is our last and greatest for all beyond it is a State unchangeable The change is from confinement to liberty from Time to Eternity and unless it be our own fault from misery to happiness Fortune is commonly prefer'd before Life How many are there who prodigally throw away