Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	death_n	life_n	live_v	4,040	5	5.7346	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15393	Eliah's vvish a prayer for death. A sermon preached at the funerall of the Right Honourable Viscount Sudbury, Lord Bayning. By Ro: Willan D.D. Chaplaine to his Maiesty.	Willan, Robert, d. 1630.; Spencer, John, d. 1680.	1630 (1630)	STC 25670; ESTC S120043	16,811	52

them to bee slayne as degenerate wretches that would ouerliue their Temple and their Religion hee is not worthy of life who will not aduenture it for the author of life To conclude this second motiue lett vs alwayes haue that preparation of mind in the phrase of Tertullian to retaliate bloud with bloud our Sauiour in great plenty shed his most precious bloud for vs bee wee ready to spend our liues for him and with Paul and Barnabas to ieopard them for his Gospell although our liues in respect of his are but stubble to Pearle yet being the greatest oblation wee can offer it will bee most acceptable most rewardable The losse of life for his cause is the sauing of it Elias sute for death was neuer granted he neuer died at all but was conueyed not into Earthly Paradise the Deluge made that pleasure desolation nor stayed he in the Aeriall Heauens too vnquiet and disconsolate a place amongst Stormes and Thunders Lightnings and Tempests St. Chrysostome saies it affrighted the Prince of the Ayre to see him ride so gloriously through his quartér Nor did he rest among the Spheres to be rapt and whirled about by their diurnall motion not to the highest heauens that Prerogatiue was reserued for the Worlds Sauiour no Souldier triumphs before his Generall but God translated his enflamed Zelot and earthly Seraphin into a happy and blessed estate in the bosome of Abraham with this Priuiledge others were there before in soule hee both in soule and body Now proceede wee from the Motiues forerunning the Prayer to the Reasons attending vpon it You haue heard of some as of St. Paul eloquently pleading without any Aduocate to saue his life before Felix Fesius and Agrippa and by an Appeale taking truce with death But here is one in the Text pleading for death and finding Reasons why he should liue no longer His Arguments are in number two The first is drawne from the satiety of life It is now enough as if hee should say thus in effect I haue liued long enough to my selfe long enough to my Countrey First to my selfe it pleased thy diuine goodnesse by making mee an instrument of thy glory to aduance my owne so as I shall leaue an high reputation and a venerable name to all posterity and for my Countrey such thy mercy by my meanes they enioyed much good spirituall good I reclaimed them although they bee now relapsed from Idolatry to the Seruice of thee their true and onely God I was the Reformer of their corrupted manners my rugged Robes and hairy Habit condemned their proud attyre my austere and strict life taught them to amend their loose and licentious conuersations As a retyred Heremite I sequestred my selfe from humane society to let them see 't was lesse dangerous to dwell among brutes then beastiall men And for good temporall I turned their drought into Raine and their famine into Plenty hauing in my whole course equalled nay transcended the period of Mortality It is now enough O Lord. His second Argument is drawne from the common law of nature I am no better then my Fathers my Ancesters in time my Predecessors in profession are all arriued at their wished Port why shouldst thou prolong my dayes by miracle sometimes appointing the Rauens those vncleane birds by thy law and vnnaturall in their kinde to be my Caters as at the brooke Carith Sometimes by multiplication of the old store or by creation of new prouision turne meale barrels into Granaries and cruets of oyle into Fountaines as at the Widdowes of Sareptah I desire not the producing of my misery the preseruation of my life by extraordinary wayes let me passe O Lord the common way of all my Fathers For J am no better then my Fathers Obserue in Elias Arguments his method and modesty how orderly hee rankes his Reasons There goes a sufficit before tolle animam Hee doth not aske death of God vntill hee hath performed great seruice vnto the Lord in his life for it is a preposterous course to demand wages before the worke bee done Rest comes after labour no Souldier lookes for a donatiue vntill the warre bee ouerpast no Marriner cals for a faire winde vntill his vessell bee full fraught It is no matter how long or how short our liues be but how good The Morall man saw this Life is long enough if full of good St. Austins similitude expresseth this well As a Musitian tarrying long vpon one string little vpon another his lightest touch makes not perhappes so loude a sound but as sweet an harmony So in God his Consort who as the Prophet speakes keepes true time they make as good musicke that is glorifie God in their calling vnto whom he vouchsafeth a short life it being both ornatus ordinatus cursus as they who enioy the longest The Sunne and Moone those Fountaines of light and guides of time fulfill their courses in a short season The dimmer Plannets are a longer while wheeling about The Scripture compares our life to Hearbes and Flowers A Flower is Res Spectaculi Spiraculi Delighting our eyes with various colours pleasing our sense with sweete sauours but withall of a fading substance Say they escape the browsing mouth of the beast the pruning knife the plucking hand the nipping ayre the violent winde they will wither of themselues Of such mettall are wee made Imagine wee could be free from Asaes Gowt Naamans Leprosie Jorams Iliaca passio Jobs vnsauory breath Hezekiabs botch Lazarus biles the woman of Syrophenissa's dysentery Publius Feuer and all diseases whereof the body of man is a Lazaretto and Receptacle Galen found in one little part of the eye an hundred seuerall infirmities could all these be auoyded yet our bodies of their owne accord would moulder into earth from whence they came Since they are Flowers vse wee them like Flowers which last long if they bee distilled into sweete waters distill wee our liues into holy and vertuous Actions distill them into the works of Piety distill them into the workes of Charity this is the way to make a short life last long no Babylonian Tower no Aegyptian Pyramis no Rhodian Colossus no Mausolian Tombe no Triumphall Arche no life-counterfeiting Statua can giue such life of memory as a life it selfe transacted in worthy designes for Glorious sayes the Wiseman is the fruite of good labours perpetuall is the memory of the Righteous one generation proclaiming their vertues vnto another So then haue wee in our allotted stations serued God in vprightnesse and sincerity of heart haue wee endeauoured in the vtmost extent of our ability to doe good to our Religion our King our Countrey our Brethren is there a sufficit in our liues Wee must hold our life in patience but wee may put death in our prayers when Paul may say hee hath fought a good fight kept the faith finished his course then he may come to his Cupio dissolui When Hilarion can alleadge his 70. yeeres