Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	day_n	rest_n	rest_v	2,554	5	9.3487	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07761	A discourse of life and death: written in French, by Phil. Mornay. Done in English by the Countesse of Pembroke; Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort. English	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of, 1561-1621.	1608 (1608)	STC 18141.5; ESTC S113371	23,951	146

seeking their happinesse in lessening themselues not finding in the world one place to rest this greatnesse or one bed quietly to sleep in Happie is he onely who in mind liues contented and hee most of all vnhappie whome nothing he can haue can content Then miserable Pyrrhus king of Albany who would winne al the world to win as he said rest and went so farre to seeke that which was so neere him But more miserable Alexander that being borne King of a great Realme and Conqueror almost of the earth sought for more worldes to satisfie his foolish ambitiō with in three daies content with sixe foot of groūd To conclude are they borne on the highest Alpes they seeke to scale heauen Haue they subdued al the Kinges of the earth they haue quarelles to plead with God and indeuour to treade vnder foote his kingdome They haue no ende nor limite till God laughing at their vaine purposes when they thinke themselues at the last step thunderstriketh al this presumption breaking in shiuers their scepters in their handes and oftentimes intrapping them in their owne crownes At a word whatsoeuer happines can be in that ambition promiseth is but suffering much il to get ill Men thinke by dayly climing higher to pluck themselues out of this ill and the height wherunto they so pamfully aspire is the height of misery it self I speak not here of the wretchednes of thē who all their life haue held out their cap to receiue the almes of Court fortune and can get nothing often with incredible hart griefe seeing some by lesse pains takē haue riches fal into their hāds of thē who iustling one another to haue it lose it and cast it into the handes of a third Of those who holding it in their hands to hold it faster haue lost it through their fingers Such by all men are esteemed vnhappie are indeed so because they iudge thēselues so It sufficeth that al these liberalities which the Deuill casteth vs as out at a window are but baits all these pleasures but ambushes and that hee doth but make his sport of vs who striue one with another for such things as most vnhappy is hee that hath best hap to finde them Well now you will say the Couetous in all his goods hath no good the Ambitious at the best hee can bee is but ill But may there not be some who supplying the place of Iustice or being neere about a Prince may without following such vnbridled passions pleasantly enioye their goods ioyning honour with rest and contentment of minde Surely in former ages ther yet remaining among men some sparks of sinceritie in some sort it might bee so but being of that composition they now are I see not how it may be in any sort For deale you in affaires of estate in these times either you shal do wel or you shall do il I fil you haue God for your enemy your owne conscience for a perpetually tormenting executioner If well you haue men for your enemies and of men the greatest whose enuy malice wil spie you out whose cruelty tyrāny will euermore threaten you Please the people you please a beast pleasing such ought to be displeasing to your selfe Please your selfe you displease god please him you incur a thousād dangers in the world with purchase of a thousand displeasures Wherof it grows that if you could hear the talke of the wisest and least discontent of this kinde of men whether they speake aduisedly or their wordes passe them by force of truth one would gladly chāge garment with his tenāt another preacheth how goodly an estate it is to haue nothing a third complaining that his braines are broken with the noise of Court or Palace hath no other thought but as soone as he may to retire himself thence So that you shall not see any but is displeased with his own calling enuieth that of another readie neuerthelesse to repent him if a man should take him at his word None but is wearie of the businesses wherunto his age is subiect wisheth not to be elder to free himselfe of them albeit otherwise he keepeth off old age as much as in him lyeth What must wee then do in so great a contrariety cōfusiō of minds Must we to find true humanitie flie the societie of men hide vs in forrests among wild beasts to auoyde these vnruly passions eschue the assēbly of creatures supposed reasonable to plucke vs out of the euils of the worlde sequester our selues from the world Could wee in so doing liue at rest it were something But alas men cannot take heerein what part they would and euen they which doe finde not there all the rest they sought for Some would gladly do but shame of the world recals them Fooles to bee ashamed of what in their harts they condemne more fooles to bee aduised by the greatest enemie they can or ought to haue Others are borne in hand that they ought to serue the publicke not marking that who coūsel thē serue onely them selues and that the more part would not much seek the publicke but that they found their owne particular Some are told that by their good exāple they may amend others and consider not that a hundred sound men euen Physicians themselues may sooner catch the plague in an infected Towne then one bee healed that it is but to to tempt God to enter therein that against so contagious an ayre there is no preseruatiue but in getting far from it Finally that as little as the fresh waters falling into the sea canne take from it his saltnesse so little canne one Lot or two or three reforme a Court of Sodome And as cōcerning the wisest who no lesse careful for their soules then bodies seek to bring them into a sound and wholesome ayre far from the infection of wickednes and who ledde by the hand of some Angell of God retire themselues in season as Lot into some little village of Segor out of the corruption of the worlde into some Countrey place frō the infected townes there quietly employing the time in some knowledge and serious contemplatiō I willingly yeelde they are in a place of lesse danger yet because they carrie the dāger in themselues not absolutely exempt from danger They flie the court a court follows them on all sides they endeuour to escape the world and the worlde pursues them to death Hardly in this Worlde can they finde a place where the Worlde findes them not so greedily it seekes to murther them And if by some speciall grace of God they seem for a while free from these dangers they haue som pouertie that troubles them some domesticall debate that tormēts them or some familiar spirit that tempts them briefly the world dayly in some sort or other makes it selfe felt of them But the worst is whē we are out of these externall warres and troubles we finde great ciuill warre within our selues the

conuerted to his good so neither ought hee to hope for good in the world hauing there the diuell his professed enemy whom the Scripture tearmeth Prince of the world But with what exercise soeuer wee passe the time behold old age vnwares to vs comes vpon vs which whether we thrust our selues into the prease of men or hide vs some where out of the way neuer failes to finde vs out Euerie man makes account in that age to rest himselfe of all his trauailes without further care but to keep himself at ease in health And see contrawise in this age there is nothing but an after tast of al the foregoing euils and most commonly a plentifull haruest of all such vices as in the whole course of their life hath held possessed them There you haue the vnhabilitie and weakenesse of infancy and which is worse many times accompanied with authoritie there you are payed for the excesse riotousnes of youth with gowtes palsies and such like diseases which take from you limme after limme with extreame paine and torment There also you are recompenced for the trauels of mind the watchings cares of manhoode with losse of sight losse of hearing and all the senses one after another except only the sense of paine Not one parte in vs but death takes ingage to be assured of vs as of bad pay masters which infinitely feare their dayes of payment Nothing in vs that will not by and by bee dead neuerthelesse our vices yet liue in vs not onely liue but in despite of Nature dayly growe young againe The couetous man hath one foote in his graue and is yet burying his money meaning belike to finde it againe another day The ambitious in his Will ordaineth vnprofitable pōps for his funerals making his vice to liue and triumphe after his death The riotous no longer able to daunce on his feete daunceth with his shoulders all vi●es hauing left him and hee not yet able to leaue them The childe wisheth for youth and this man laments it The young man liueth in hope of the future and this feeles the euill present lamentes the false pleasures past and sees for the time to come nothing to hope for More foolish then the child in bewailing the time hee cannot recall not remembring the euill he had therein and more wretched then the young man in that after a wretched life not able but wretchedly to d●● hee sees on all sides b●● matter of despaire As for him who from his youth hath vndertaken to combate against the fleshe and against the World who hath taken so great paines to mortifie himselfe and leaue the World before his time who besides those ordinary euilles findes himself vexed with this great and incurable disease of olde age and feeles notwithstanding his fleshe how weake soeuer stronger oftentimes then his spirit what good I pray can hee haue but onely herein that hee sees his death at hand that hee sees his combate finished that hee sees himselfe readie to depart by death out of this loathsome prison wherein all his life time hee hath beene racked and tormented I will not here speak of the infinit euils wherewith men in all ages are annoyed as losse of friends and parents banishments exiles disgraces and such others common and ordinarie in the world one cōplaining of loosing his children another of hauing them one making sorrow for his wiues death another for his life one finding fault that he is too high in court another that he is not high enough The world is so full of euills that to write of all wold require another world as great as it selfe Sufficeth that if the most happie in mens opinions doe counterpo●z● his haps with his mishappes hee shall iudge himselfe vnhappie and hee iudge him happie who had hee beene set three dayes in his place woulde giue it ouer to him that came next yea sooner then hee who shall consider in all the goods that euer he hath had the euils he hath endured to get thē and hauing them to retaine and keepe them I speake of the pleasures that may bee kept and not of those that wither in a moment will iudge of himselfe and by himselfe that the keeping it selfe of the greatest felicitie in this world is full of vnhappinesse and infelicitie Conclude then that Childe-hood is but a foolish simplicity youth a vaine heate manhood a painefull carefulnesse and olde age a noisome languishing that our playes are but tears our pleasures feauers of the minde our goods rackes and tormentes our honours heauie vanities our rest vnreste that passing from age to age is but passing from euill to euill and from the lesse vnto the greater that alwayes it is but one waue driuing on another vntill we be arriued at the hauen of death Conclude I say that life is but a wishing for the future and a bewailing of the past a loathing of what we haue tasted and a longing for that wee haue not tasted a vaine memorie of the state past and a doubtfull expectation of the state to come Finally that in all our life there is nothing certaine nothing assured but the certaintie vncertainty of death Behold now comes death vnto vs Behold hir whose approache wee so much ●eare Wee are now to consider whether shee be such as we are made belieue and whether wee ought so greatly to flie hir as commonly we doe We are afraid of her but like little children of a vizor or of the Images of Hecate We haue hir in horror but because we cōceiue her not such as shee is but ougly terrible and hideous such as it pleaseth the Painters to represent vnto vs on a wall Wee flie before hir but it is because foretaken with such vaine imaginations we giue not our selues leisure to marke hir But stay wee stand we stedfast looke we hir in the face wee shall finde hir quite other then shee is painted vs and altogether of other countenaunce then our miserable life Death makes an end of this life This life is a perpetuall miserie and tempest Death then is the issue of our miseries and entraunce of the port where wee shall ride in safetie from all windes And should wee feare that which withdraweth vs from misery or which drawes vs into our hauen Yea but you will say it is a paine to dye Admit it bee so is there in curing of a wound Such is the Worlde that one euill cannot bee cured but by another to heale a contusion must bee made an incision You will say there is difficultie in the passage So is there no hauen no port whereinto the entraunce is not straite and combersom No good thing is to bee bought in this World with other thē the coyne of labour paine The entrance indeed is hard if our selues make it hard comming thither with a tormented spirit a troubled minde a wauering and irresolute thought But bring we quietnes of minde constancie and full

vs of thē We say we are Christians that we beleeue after this mortall a life immortall that death is but a separation of the bodie and soule and that the soule returnes to her happie abode there to ioy in God who onely is all good that at the last day it shall againe take the body which shall no more bee subiect to corruption With these goodly discourses wee fill all our bookes and in the mean while when it comes to the point the verie name of death as the horriblest thing in the World makes vs quake and tremble If we beleeue as we speak what is that wee feare to bee happie to bee at our ease to bee more content in a momēt thē we might be in the longest mortall life that might be or must not we of force confesse that we beleeue it but in part that all wee haue is but wordes that all our discourses as of these hardy trencher-knights are but vaunting and vanitie Some you shall see that will say I knowe well that I passe out of this life into a better I make no doubte of it onely I feare the midway step that I am to step ouer Weake hearted creatures they will kill themselues to gette their miserable liuing suffer infinite paines and infinite woundes at another mans pleasure passe infinite deathes without dying for things of nought for thinges that perish and perchance make them perish with them But when they haue but one pase to passe to bee at rest not for a day but for euer not an indifferent rest but such as mans minde cannot comprehend they tremble their harts fail them they are affraide and yet the grounde of their harme is nothing but feare Let them neuer tell mee they apprehend the paine it is but an abuse a purpose to conceale the little faith they haue No no they would rather languish of the gowte the sciatica anie disease whatsoeuer then dy one sweet death with the least paine possible rather pyningly dye limme after limme out-liuinge as it were all their senses motions and actions then speedily dye immediatly to liue for euer Let them tell mee no more that they would in this worlde learne to liue for euerie one is thereunto sufficiently instructed in himselfe and not one but is cunning in the trade Nay rather they should learne in this Worlde to dye and once to dye wel dye dayly in themselues so prepared as if the end of euerie dayes worke were the ende of our life Now contrariwise there is nothing to their eares more offensiue then to heare of death Senselesse people wee abandon our life to the ordinarie hazardes of warre for seauen frankes pay are formost in an assault for a little bootie goe into places whence there is no hope of returning with daunger manie times both of bodies and soules But to free vs from all hazards to winne thinges inestimable to enter an eternall life wee faint in the passage of one pase wherein is no difficultie but in opinion yea wee so faint that were it not of force wee must passe and that God in despite of vs will doe vs a good turne hardly should wee finde in all the World one how vnhappie or wretched soeuer that would euer passe Another will say had I liued till fiftie or sixtie yeares I should haue beene contented I should not haue cared to liue longer but to dye so young is no reason I should haue knowen the world before I had left it Simple soule in this worlde there is neither young nor old The longest age in comparison of all that is past or all that is to come is nothing and when thou hast liued to the age thou nowe desirest all the past will bee nothing thou wilt still gape for that is to come The past will yeelde thee but sorrow the future but expectation the present noe contentment As readie thou wilt then be to redemaund longer respite as before Thou fliest thy creditour from moneth to moneth and time to time as ready to pay the last day as the first thou seekest but to bee acquitted Thou hast tasted all which the worlde esteemeth pleasures not one of them is new vnto thee By drinking oftener thou shalt bee neuer a white the more satisfied for the body thou cariest like the bored paile of Danaus daughters will neuer be full Thou mayst sooner weare it out then wearie thy selfe with vsing or rather abusing it Thou crauest long life to cast it away to spende it on worthlesse delights to misspend it on vanities Thou art couetous in desiring and prodigall in spending Say not thou findest fault with the Court or the Palace but that thou desirest longer to serue the Common wealth to serue thy Countrey to serue GOD. Hee that set thee on worke knowes vntill what day and what houre thou shouldest bee at it hee well knowes how to direct his worke Should hee leaue thee there longer perchance thou wouldest marre all But if hee will pay thee liberally for thy labour as much for halfe a dayes worke as for a whole as much for hauing wrought till noone as for hauing borne all the heate of the day art thou not so much the more to thanke and prayse him but if thou examine thine owne conscience thou lamentest not the cause of the widow and the orphane which thou hast left depending in iudgement not the dutie of a sonne of a father or of a friend which thou pretendest thou wouldest perform not the ambassage for the Common wealth which thou wert euen readie to vndertake not the seruice thou desirest to doe vnto God who knowes much better how to serue him-selfe of thee then thou of thy selfe It is thy houses and gardens thou lamentest thy imperfect plots and purposes thy life as thou thinkest imperfecte which by noe dayes nor yeares nor ages might be perfected and yet thy selfe mightest perfecte in a moment couldest thou but thinke in good earnest that where it ende it skils not so that it ende well Now to ende wel this life is only to ende it willingly followinge with full consent the will and direction of God and not suffering vs to bee drawen by the necessitie of destinie To end it willingly we must hope and not feare death To hope for it wee must certainely looke after this life for a better life To looke for that wee must feare God whom whoso well feareth feareth indeede nothing in this world and hopes for all things in the other To one well resolued in these points death canne be but sweete and agreeable knowing that through it hee is to enter into a place of all ioyes The griefe that may bee therein shall bee allaied with sweetnesse the sufferaunce of ill swallowed in the confidence of good the sting of Death it selfe shall bee dead which is nothinge else but Feare Nay I will say more not onely all the euilles conceiued in death shall bee to him nothing but hee shall euen scorne alll the mishappes

faces Yet neuerthelesse where the countrey man sleeps at the fal of a great riuer at the noyse of a market hauing no other bed but the earth nor couering but the heauēs these in the middest of this silence and delicacie doe nothing but turn frō side to side it seemes still that they heare some bodie their rest it selfe is without rest Lastly wil you know what the diuersitie is betweene the most hardly intreated prisoners and them both are enchained both loaden with letters but that the one hath them of iron the other of gold and that the one is tied but by the body the other by the minde The prisoner drawes his fetters after him the courtier wears his vpō him The prisoners minde sometimes cōforts the paine of his body and sings in the midst of his miseries the Courtier tormented in mind wearieth incessātly his body can neuer giue it rest And as for the contentment you imagine they haue you are there in yet more deceiued You iudge and esteeme them greate because they are raised high but as fondly as who shuld iudge a dwarf great for being set on a Tower or on the toppe of a mountaine You measure so good a Geometrician you are the image with his base which were conuenient to knowe his true height to bee measur'd by it self wheras you regarde not the height of the image but the height of the place it standes vppon You deeme them great if in this earth there can bee greatnesse which in respect of the whole heauens is but a point But coulde you enter into their minds you would iudge that neither they are greate true greatnesse consisting in contempt of those vaine greatnesses whereunto they are slaues nor seem vnto themselues so seeing dayly they are aspiring higher and neuer where they would bee Some one sets downe a boūd in his mind Could I attain to such a degree lo I were content I would then rest my selfe Hath hee attained it hee giues himselfe not so much as a breathing hee would yet ascende higher That which is beneath hee counts a toy it is in his opinion but one step Hee reputes himselfe lowe because there is some one higher in stead of reputing himselfe high because ther be a milliō lower so high he climes at last that either his breath failes him by the way or he slides frō the top to the bottom Or is he get vp by al his trauel it is but as to find himself on the top of the Alpes not aboue the cloudes windes and stormes but rather at the deuotion of lightnings and tempestes and whatsoeuer else horrible and dangerous is engendred and conceiued in the ayre which most commonly taketh pleasure to thunderbolt and dash into powder that proude height of theirs It may be herin you will agree with mee by reason of the examples wherwith both histories mens memories are ful But say you such at least whom nature hath sent into the world with crownes on their heads and scepters in their hands such as from their birth she hath set in that height as they neede take no paine to ascende seeme without cōtrouersie exempt frō all these iniuries and by consequence may call themselues happie It may bee indeede they feele lesse such incommodities hauing been borne bred and brought vp among them as one borne neere the downefals of Nilus becomes deafe to the founde in prison laments not the want of libertie among the Cimmerians in perpetuall night wisheth not for dave on the top of the Alpes thinks not strange of the mists the tēpests the snowes and the stormes Yet free doubtlesse they are not whē the lightening often blasteth a flowre of their crownes or breakes their scepter in their hands when a drift of snowe ouerwhelmes them whē a mist of heauinesse and griefe continually blindeth their wit and vnderstanding Crowned they are indeed but with a crowne of thornes They beare a scepter but it is of a reed more then any thing in the world pliable and obedient to all windes it being so far off that such a crowne can cure the maigrims of the mind such a scepter keepe off and fray away the griefs and cares which houer about them that it is contrariwise the crown that brings them and the scepter which from al parts attracts them O crowne said the Persian Monarch who knew how heauie thou sittest on the head would not vouchsafe to take thee vp though hee found thee in his way This prince it seem'd gaue for tune to the whole world distributed vnto men haps and mishaps at his pleasure could in show make euery mā cōtent himselfe in the meane while freely confessing that in the whole world which he held in his hād there was nothing but griefe vnhappinesse And what wil al the rest tell vs if they list to vtter what they foūd We will not aske them who haue concluded a miserable life with a dishonorable death who haue beheld their kingdomes buried before them haue in greate miserie long ouerliued their greatnesse Not of Dionyse of Sicil more content with a handfull of twigs to whip litle children of Corinth in a choole then with the scepter wherewith he had beaten al Sicil nor of Sylla who hauing robbed the whole State of Rome which had before robbed the whole world neuer found meanes of rest in himselfe but by robbing himselfe of his owne estate with incredible hazard both of his power authority But demand we the opinion of king Salomon a man indued withsingular gifts of God rich and wealthy of all thinges who sought for treasure from the Iles He will teach vs by a booke of purpose that hauing tried all the felicities of the earth he found nothing but vanity trauell vexation of spirit Aske wee the Emperour Augustus who peaceably possessed the whole world Hee will bewaile his life past and amonge infinite toyles wish for the rest of the meanest mā of the earth accountinge that daye most happie when he might vnload himself of this insupportable greatnes to liue quietly amōg he least Of Tiberius his successor he wil cōfesse vnto vs that hee holds y● Empire as a wolf by the eares and that if without danger of biting he might he would gladly let it goe complayning on Fortune for lifting him so high then taking away the ladder that he could not come down again Of Dioclesian a Prince of so great wisdome and vertue in the opinion of the world he wil prefer his voluntarie banishmēt at Salona before al the Roman Empire Finally the Emperor Charles the fift esteemed by our Age most happie that hath liued these many ages hee will curse his conquests his victories his triumphes and not be ashamed to confesse that farre more good in comparison he hath felt in one day of his Monkish solitariness then in all his triumphant life Now shall wee thinke those happy in this imaginate greatnesse who themselues think themselues vnhappy