“We cannot live long in this world.
We owe God a death.
We owe nature a death.
The sentence of death is passed upon us.
We cannot enjoy the comfort of this world long.
And for favour and applause of the world,
we must leave it,
and it will leave us,
we know not how soon.
And this meditation should enforce us to be willing,
however it go with us,
for anything here, for life, or goods, or friends, or credit and reputation, or whatsoever,
to be willing to seal the cause of Christ
with that which is dearest to us.”
- Richard Sibbes -
This appears to derive largely from Shakespeare (HenryIV (Henry IV pt 2) and partly from a tag I remember from somewhere, ‘We all come into the World under Sentence of Death’. The burden is, I suppose, that since all who live must die, life without a death-wish would be insupportable. Don’t see the relevance of the religious bit. In my limited experience, the more convinced people are of an afterlife, the more reluctant they seem to enter thereunto. Note in particular the frantic way in which Pope Ringo and Mother Teresa clung to the last vestiges of life. But perhaps they knew something I don’t.
I am a short story writer, and one of my stories is called To Owe Death a Life. I thought I made it up but am wondering if it can be attributed to Shakespeare or other writers.
I think the “owe God one death” is attributed to a more ancient source. Can some one point me to it? I would really like to find the original source.
Thanks, Joe
Little Rock, AR