Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	lord_n	11,091	5	3.8914	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51399	A pious and Christian consideration of life and death and of all humane actions. Written originally in French by the famous Philip Morney Lord of Plessis. Translated into Latin by Arnoldus Freitagius. And now done into English by M. A. for the benefit of his countrymen.; Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort. English	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Freitag, Arnold.; M., A.	1699 (1699)	Wing M2801; ESTC R216834	34,660	74

A PIOUS AND Christian Consideration OF LIFE and DEATH AND Of all HUMANE ACTIONS Written Originally in French by the Famous Philip Morney Lord of Plessis Translated into Latin by Arnoldus Freitagius And now done into English by M. A. for the benefit of his Countrymen LONDON Printed by J. L. for LUKE MEREDITH at the Star in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. A GODLY AND Christian Consideration OF Life and Death IT seemeth to me a thing worthy of great wonder and amazement and not unlike a Paradox when I consider how all sorts of Workmen and Mercenary People rise up early and labour hard all the day in hopes to enjoy their desired rest at night how Mariners tug at the Oar with all their might that they may gain their port and with what signs of joy with what shouts and acclamations they behold the shore though at a distance How Travellers despising the allurements of Life think nothing more pleasant than to attain their Journeys end Only we who are engaged in the labours and trouble of this World are soon tired therewith and though we be tossed with the waves of this troublesome Sea and worn out with hard and painful Travel yet are we unwilling to see the end of our labours we cannot without tears think of coming to our safe and secure Harbour nor without fear and trembling of entring into a quiet retirement This our Life is much like Penelope's Web which was daily to be woven and unwoven It is a Sea exposed to Winds and Storms with which sometimes the outward sometimes the inward Man is miserably tossed it is a Journey in which we must expect to meet with hard Frosts and deep Snows in which we must travel through craggy Rocks dreadful Precipices vast Wildernesses and be daily in danger to be assaulted by Thieves and Robbers Let us daily meditate of these things and of these things let us commune with our own hearts and let us thus tug at the Oar that we may gain our Port. But when we see Death draw nigh and offering us an helping hand to refresh us who are wearied with Labour to put an end to all our grief and sorrow to bring us into a safe Haven after so dangerous a Journey and instead of such troublesome Inns to lodge us safely in our own House instead of Joy and Rejoycing thereat instead of a Swan-like Song we are more willing if the Fates would allow it to repeat our former Labours reiterate our former Voyage and once more trust our selves to the tumultuous and tempestuous Sea of this World we are willing to forget all our former miseries all our shipwrecks and all that danger of Thieves and Robbers that we have been in and to look upon Death as our greatest punishment much greater than all those dangers and misfortunes that we have undergone or can possibly befall us in this Life We act like Children who though they have spent whole days in tears yet upon the approach of a Physician will not own that they are sick Not unlike those who being miserably afflicted with the Tooth-ach spend whole days and nights in bewailing their misery yet upon the sight of a Chirurgeon who offers to pull out their faulty tooth deny that they have any pain at all We act much like those delicate ones who being afflicted with an acute Pleurisie send forth most miserable groans and can scarce have patience to stay the coming of a Chirurgeon yet when he is come and come to remove their Malady they no sooner see him make ready his Instrument but they draw back their Arm and hide themselves within their Bed as if he were about to kill them We fear the Physician more than the Disease the Chirurgeon than the pain Incision than Suppuration We have a quicker sense of the bitterness and momentany trouble of a Medicine than of the cruelty of a long and tedious Disease we are more afraid of the end of our misery than the continuance of those evils which we do and must daily suffer in this World Now whence comes it that we are thus mad and stubborn but only from hence that we do not rightly understand what Death is Hence is it that we are afraid of those things which we ought to hope for and desire those things which we ought to be afraid of We call that Life which is a continual dying and we call that Death which is an Exit out of that state of continual dying and an entrance into Eternal Life Furthermore what is there is Life that is so greatly to be desired Or what is there in Death that is so greatly to be feared Let us examine the several periods of our whole Life We enter into life weeping and wailing The miseries of each several Age. we go through it toiling and sweating and we go out of it decaying and languishing There is no difference between high and low Noble and Ignoble in this they are all alike they must all submit to this Condition of Life none can plead an exemption therefrom The Condition of Man therefore is much worse than that of other living Creatures being born and brought forth into this light he cannot remove himself from the place where he is 1 Of Infancy The first years of his Infancy are void of all pleasure yea so far therefrom that he is troublesom both to himself and others and even to those years in which Reason and Judgment begin to bud he is exposed to infinite dangers In this one thing that period of time is more happy than the rest that he doth not understand his own unhappiness Now is there any of so abject and base a Mind that he would willingly chuse to live always in this state of Infancy Whence it is plain that if we take an estimate of Life as it is in it self and in its own nature there is nothing desirable therein but only to live well and happily But let us proceed 2 Childhood Together with the growth and increase of the Body trouble and sorrow increase too No sooner is he freed from the hands of his Nurse and before he knows what pleasure there is in Play he is committed to the discipline of a School-Master I speak of those who are more liberally Educated whilst he is at Play he is in fear whilst he is at his Book it is grievous and unpleasant to him All that period of time which is spent under the tuition of another is no better nor worse in his esteem than a Prison He thinks of nothing else nor aspireth at any thing more than how he may arrive at those years in which he may be free from the government and restraint of others and live at liberty This is his great and only care that he may quickly see an end of his Infant-state and be admitted into another of more freedom The entrance into this State 3 Adolescence what is it else but the destruction of Infancy