Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	deliver_v	life_n	soul_n	4,053	5	4.9531	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63969	Poems on several occasions, with a pastoral to which is added, A discourse of life / by John Tutchin.; Poems. Selections	Tutchin, John, 1661?-1707.; Tutchin, John, 1661?-1707. Unfortunate shepherd.	1685 (1685)	Wing T3382; ESTC R20654	43,574	158

Clouds like the Poetick Birds who sing on the tops of Trees though their Nest be in the Hedge It shews more of a generous and Heroick temper to contemn the grandeur of the World than to desire it The greatest Spirits that ever blest the World with their Memory have done it A better sight it was to see Scipio retired into a Wood after all his Conquests than to behold him at the head of his Army Epaminondas the best Man that ever Greece bred who delivered his Country of Thebes from the Lacedemonian Slavery whose Conquests could have lifted him to the highest pitch of Pride and Profit yet was he such a Contemner of Riches that when he died he left not enough behind him ●o defray his Funeral Charges Natural Reason can easily discover how much they are mistaken in Happiness who place it in Wealth and outward Grandeur What the chiefest Felicity is cannot easily be determin'd but of this we are sure That it is hard to be obtain'd We may truly say of Happiness That Philosophers seek it Divines find it and only Religious Men enjoy it The chiefest Felicity by the excellent Boethius is defined to be Statu●● omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectu●● a State perfect in the confluence of all good things A state certainly not attained by any in this Life All that Men call Good may be reduced to these Three heads Either the Goods of Fortune the Goods of the Mind or the Goods of the Body But where shall we find one Man that enjoys 'em all We see we purchase one by the loss of the other If I am Rich and great in Fortune yet I may want a greatness of Mind If I am Beautiful Rich and Learned yet I may be too Bookish and want a complaisant Humor to render me agreeable Had Methusalem lived to this Age 't is like he might have acquired these accomplishments but our Age is too short to admit of ' em Da spatium vitae multos da Jupiter annos Give many Years good God! and lasting Life is the Prayer both of Old and Young Though Life be indeed so Calamitous and troublesome that were we capable of knowing what it is before we enjoy it none would venture on so tedious a Fatigue Yet do we naturally desire our Lives to be lengthn'd out though our Misery encrease with it As a Man is a Creature he is Mortal as he is Rational he is Miserable For his Reason is but the Usher to introduce his Misery and the Perspective through which he beholds his trouble Whoever expects to have an entire Happiness here may expect to see the Orbes move irregularly Rivers flow back to their Fountains and Rivulets command the Ocean The most we can enjoy is but a Scene of Bliss Fate will change the Scene let down the Curtain and put an Exit to our phancied Joys Why then should we court a Shadow we cannot hold and be desirous of a Good that depends only upon the imagination For certainly there is no other Happiness here but what is phancied we sooth our selves with hopes of future Joys and Paint what the Wise call Vanity and Vexation of Spirit like the Statue of Pleasure Well then if Life does afford no Happiness that is real let us expect it at Death certainly there 't is to be found according to that of Ovid Sed ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque Funera debet Which Mr. Sands very excellently Translates But Man must censur'd be by his last hour Whom truly we can never happy call Afore his Death and closing Funeral Indeed there is no better way to understand the Vanity of Life than the Contemplation of its contrary Death Death that frees us from the Miseries of Life that removes us from the distraction of Noise and Tumult that delivers us from the Fetters of Diseases and Lashes of Pain Sleep which is the image of Death how grateful how refreshing is it to a Natural Body When I am asleep I am in the Land of Forgetfulness happily buried in a pleasing silence my Soul for that time is as it were removed from its troublesome companion the Body Oblivion has seiz'd on all my Passions all my Pains and Aches are still and quiet What a Tranquility then must attend Death which is Sleep in the highest degree Sleep in its perfection When I am Dead I need no pleasing murmurs of Winds in the Trees nor sleepy groanings of purling Brooks to lull my Senses asleep I need no soft melancholy Musick to charm the Evil-Spirit from my Eye-lids they close naturally The Province of Death affords no Noise Hurry or Contention but a lucid Ray of Serenity informs each Breast Morpheus is the only God they adore and Tranquility the only Pleasure they admire Death is the beginning of Happiness and the consummation of it Happiness has not a motion as other things by degrees it has not a Maturing and Mellowing time like Fruits but is born in Perfection The destruction of Life is the Generation of Happiness And if Happiness be not attainable before Death how diligent ought we to be to make our Lives as Happy as we can To counterfeit a Happiness and please our selves with it on the Ocean of Life 'till we arrive at the Harbour of Death To live well is to be Wise betimes and Wisdom is attained by so few that we have reason to doubt whether Animal Rationale be a good definition of Man in general Methinks it is a bold saying of the Sieur de Mountaigne That were he to live over his Life again he would live as he had done Were the Sieur my Equal I should accuse him of Madness and Folly For my part I am but in the Twenty third Year of my Age and have always devoted my Time to the study of Learning and Wisdom yet were I to Correct the Errata's of my short Life I would quite alter the Press Not an Action have I done but is lyable to the censure of right Reason and not a Line have I Written but has need of Correction Certainly the Life of the best amongst us is but one great Blot We may see Folly attending the wisest of Philosophers when they would perswade us to follow their dictates at the same time they grow Cynical and morose and the Tub of a Diogenes is but the derision of an Alexander Should I speak of those Worthies that have won the immortal Garland of Honor in the Field we should find Folly and Rashness always mixed with their Enterprizes Should I speak of Alexander he Slew Parmenio Should I mention Marcus Antonius he lost the World for a Cleopatra a Woman a thing in Petticoats What an odious sight must it be to see this great Man this Anthony who not long since appear'd in Iron and Painted it with Blood now prostrate at the Feet of a silly Woman To see Honor and Glory subdu'd by Beauty Hence we