Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	youth_n	youthful_a	101	3	11.1514	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61207	The spiritual chymist, or, Six decads of divine meditations on several subjects by William Spurstow ...	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1666 (1666)	Wing S5097; ESTC R22598	119,345	208

Piety gives both to the Person and to his Services a peculiar Preheminence and Dignity above all others The Naturalists observe that the Pearles that are bred of the Morning Dew are far more bright and clear than those which are bred of the Evening Dew And so are those duties of a greater worth and beauty which are the fruits of a Morning and not an Evening Godliness It is the commendation of Hezekiahs Reformation above all others of the Kings of Judah that in the first year of his Reign in the first Moneth he opened the doores of the House of the Lord. It is that which makes Josiahs Memory to be as a Box of precious Nard that while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father It is an Honourable Testimony which Paul gives to Epenetus that he was the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ and the like is that which he gives to Andronicus and Junia that they were in Christ before him To have a Precedency in the Faith is not onely a happiness but a dignity What glory can be greater then to be a Jeremiah sanctified from the Womb or a Timothy nourished up in the words of Faith S●condly The comfort of Age is a well-spent Life When a Man comes to the Grave as a Shock of C●rne in its se●son and not as a bundle of Tares to the Fire when the Bones are full not of the Sins of Youth but of the Services that were then done to God when a Man can say as dying Hezekiah Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight O it is sad when the sins of youth become the burthen of age ● if the Grashopper then be a weight to the Body what a pressure will heapes of Mountainous sins be to the Soul Age at the best hath sufficient Griefes it is of it self a Sickness and a Neighbour to Death and needs not the bad provisions of Youthfull Follies to make it worse Let then the Counsell of Wise Solomon be acceptable unto you who are yet in the spring and flower of your age to Remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth and then if Death make you Pale before Age make you Gray you will have this comfort that you are old in houres though not in yeares and bave lived much though not long as having lost no time in sowing Seed unto the Flesh as most doe who make youth a foolish Seed-time to a Mourning Age and Old Age a bitter Harvest to a foolish Youth Or if your Almond-Tree shall flourish and that a more gracious Old Age shall succeed a gracious Youth Old Age it self shall be followed with a Crown of endless Glory Meditation LII Vpon a Rock IT is the saying of the Moralists That Accidents which befall Men have a double handle by which they may be apprehended So as that if they be rightly taken they become not onely less burthensome and unpleasant but also of use and advantage to those that sustain them like bitter Herbes that are by the skill of the Physician turned into a wholsome Medicine The like may be said of this present Subject that it hath a double aspect under which it may be represented to our Consideration each of which will suggest thoughts far differing one from another and yet both have their rise from Scripture Doth not God bid us look unto the rock from whence we are hewen and to the pit whence we are digged And then what can it hold out to our view but the misery of our natural condition our deadness deformity barrenness and untractableness to any good Is it not the complaint of the best that their hearts are Stony and Rocky and that they are apt to stand it out with God and not to yield to the Work of his Grace is there any evil that in their account is more insuperable then a flinty heart When did Moses who had faith to work many Miracles most distrust but when he was to make the Rock to yield Water though God commanded him to speak onely to it yet as deeming it insufficient he smote it twice And yet is it not the Promise of God to take away the stony heart and to give an heart of flesh And is it not that which I beg that God would mollifie both my Naturall and Acquired hardness and preserve me from Judiciall hardness That so I may not resist Pharoah like his Messages his Miracles his Judgments and his Mercies and grow worse in stead of being better I would that God might be a Rock to me but I would be as Wax unto him that so I might be apt to receive Divine Impressions from him It is my sin to be as a Rock to God unflexible and sooner Broken then Bent But it is my unspeakable comfort to think that God will be a Rock to me who stand in a continual need of his aide and power to uphold me who if I be not built upon him cannot subsist and if I be not hid in him can have no salvation I cannot therefore but give some scope and line to my thoughts that I may the better take in the honey and sweetness that drops from this Metaphoricall Name of God who is often stiled in Scripture the Rock of Israel the Rock of Ages the Rock of Salvation But here I must use the help of the Schooles who rightly informe us that when any thing of the Creature is applyed to God it must be via remotionis by way of remotion and via eminentiae by way of transcendent eminency First by way of remotion All defects and blemishes whatsoever are not in the least to be attributed unto him who is absolutely perfect as Heraulds say of Bearings the resemblance must be taken from the best of their properties and not from the worst Is a Rock deformed and of unequall parts God is the first of Beauties as well as of Beings and all his attributes are equally infinite his Justice is of as large extent as his Mercy and his Wisdom as his Power Is a Rock unsensible of the straits of those that fly unto it for succour so is not God who is both a Rock and a Father of Mercies Who can read the expressions of his ten●erness and not be affected How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Is the strength of a Rock intransient and fixed in it self not communicating its ver●ue to what lies upon it So is not the strength of Israel who is a living and not a dead Rock and gives both life and power to those that are united to him I can do all things saith holy Paul through Christ strengthning me Is a Rock Barren and can yield no food though it

its own concernments If there were but a clear insight into that Blessedness into which Peace of Conscience doth Estate a Believer it could not be but that it being laid in the Ballance with the health of the Body it should as far over-weigh it as a full Bucket a single drop or as the Vintage of Wine a particular Cluster True it is that health of Body is the Salt of all outward blessings which without it have no relish or savour neither Riches nor Honours nor Delights for the Belly or Back can yield the least Pleasure where this is wanting So that the enjoyment of it alone may well be set against many other Wants And better it is to enjoy health without other additional-comforts then to possess them under a load of Infirmities And yet I may still say Quid Palea ad Triticum What is the Chaff to the Wheat Though it be the greatest outward good that God bestowes in this Life it is nothing to that Peace which passeth all understanding Sickness destroyes it Age enfeebles it and Extremities imbitter it But it is the Excellency of this divine Peace that it worketh joy in Tribulation that it supports in Bodily languishments and creates confidence in death Who is it that can throw forth the Gauntler and bid defiance to Armies of Trialls to persecution distress famine nakedness peril and sword But he whose heart is established with this Peace the ground of which is Gods free love the Price of which is Christs satisfaction the Worker of which is the Holy Spirit and the Subject of which is a Good Conscience This was it that filled old Simeons heart with joy and made him to beg a Dimission of his Saviour whom his eyes had seen his armes embraced and his Soul trusted in What a strange thing is it then that there should be so few Marchant-men that seek this goodly Pearl which is far above all the Treasures of the Earth that are either hid in it or extracted from it Many say Who will shew us any good but it is David onely that Prayes Lord lift up the light of thy Countenance upon us Others like the scattered Israelites in Egypt go up and down gathering of Straw and Stubble when he like an Israelite indeed in the Wilderness of this World seeks Manna which his Spirit gathers up and feeds upon with delight and then cries out Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased It is the love of God shed abroad in the heart that doubleth the sweetness of prosperity and sweetens also the bitterness of asfliction A wonder onely therefore it is not that few should seek but a much greater that any in this World should live without it Can any live well without the Kings Favour either in his Court or Kingdom And yet there are many places wherein such Persons may lie hid in his Dominions when the utmost ends of the Earth cannot secure them against Gods frownes But if any be so profligate as Cleopatria-like to dissolve this Jewel of Peace in his Lusts and to drink down in one prodigious draught that which exceeds the World in its price and yet think they can live well enough without it let them consider how they will do to die without it Sweet it is in life but it will be more sweet in death ●t is not then the Sun-shine of Creatures but Saviourshine that will refresh them It is not then Wine that can cheere the heart but the Blood of Sprinkling that will pacifie it The more Perpendicular Death comes to be over our head the lesser will the shadow of all Earthly comforts grow and prove useless either to asswage the paines of it or to mitigate the feares of it What is a fragrant posie put into the hands of a Malefactor who is in sight of the Place of Execution and his Friends bidding him to smell on it or what is the delivering to him a Sealed Conveyance that Intitles him to great Revenues who hath a few minutes onely to live But O what excess of joy doth fill and overflow such a poor Mans heart when a Pardon from his Prince comes happily in to prevent the Stroak of death and to assure him both of Life and Estate This is indeed as health and marrow to the bones And is it not thus with a dying Sinner who expects in a few moments to be swallowed up in those flames of wrath the heat of which already scorch his Conscience and cause Agonies and Terrors which imbitter all the comforts of life and extract cries from him that are like the yellings of the damned I am undone without hope of recovery Eternity it self will as soon end as my misery God will for ever hold me as his enemy and with his own breath will enliven those Coles that must be heaped upon me Of what value now would one smile of Gods Face be to such a person how joyfull would the softest whisper of the Spirit be that speakes any hope of Pardon or Peace would not one drop of this Soveraign Balm of Gods favour let fall upon the Conscience heal and ease more then a River of all other delights whatsoever Think therefore upon it O Christians so as not any longer through your own default to be without the sense of this Blessing in your hearts that so in life as well as in death you may be filled with this Peace of God which passeth all understanding If Prayer will ob●ain it beg every day a good look from him the light of whose Countenance is the onely health of yours If an holy and humble Walking will preserve it be more carefull of doing any thing to lose your Peace then to endanger your health remember that Peace is so much better than health as the Soul is better then the Body But Grant Holy Father however others may neglect or defer to seek Peace with thee and from thee yet I may now find thy Peace in me by thy Pardoning all my iniquities and may be found of thee in Peace without Spot and blameless in the great day Meditation LV. Vpon a Looking-Glass VVHat is that which commendeth this Glass is it the Pearl and other precious stones with which the Frame that it is set in is richly decked and enammelled or is it the impartial and just representation which it makes according to the Face which every one that beholds himself brings unto it Surely the Ornaments are wholly forraign and contribute no more to its real worth then the Cask doth to the goodness of the Wine into which it is put or the ●ichness of the Plate to the Cordial in which it is administred That for which the Glass is to be esteemed is the true and genuine resemblance which it makes of the object which is seen in it when it neither flatters the Face by giving any false Beauty to it nor yet injures it by detracting ought from it To