Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	life_n	live_v	4,791	5	5.2156	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39690	A token for mourners, or, The advice of Christ to a distressed mother bewailing the death of her dear and only son wherein the boundaries of sorrow are duly fixed, excesses restrained, the common pleas answered, and divers rules for the support of Gods afflicted ones prescribed / by J.F.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing F1197; ESTC R26707	66,956	170

I beseech you the time of your childs continuance in the womb was fixed to a minute by the Lord and when the parturient fulness of that time was come Were you not willing it should be delivered thence into the world The tender Mother would not have it abide one minute longer in the womb how well soever she loved it And is there not the same reason we should be willing when Gods appointed time is come to have it delivered by death out of this state which in respect of the life of Heaven is but as the life of a child in the womb to its life in the open world And let none say that the death of children is a premature death God hath waies to ripen them for Heaven whom he intends to gather thither betimes which we know not In respect of fitness they dye in a full age though they be cut off in the bud of their time He that appointed the seasons of the year appointed the seasons of our comfort in Relations and as those seasons cannot be altered no more can these All the course of providence is guided by an unalterable decree what falls out casually to our apprehension yet falls out necessarily in respect of Gods appointment O therefore be quieted in it this must needs be as it is 4. Consid. Hath God smitten your darling and taken away the delight of your eyes with his stroke Bear this stroke with patience and quiet submission for how know you but your trouble might have been greater from the life than it is now from the death of your children Sad experience made a holy man once to say It s better weep for ten dead children than for one living child a living child may prove a continual dropping yea a continual dying to the parents heart What a sad word was that of David to Abishai 2 Sam. 16. 11. Behold saith he my Son which came out of my bowels seeketh my life I remember Seneca in his consolatory Epistle to his friend Marullus brings in his friend thus aggravating the death of his child O saith Marullus Had my child lived with me to how great modesty gravity and prodence might my discipline have formed and moulded him But saith Seneca which is more to be feared he might have been as others mostly are for look saith he what children come even out of the worthiest families such who exercise both their own and others lusts in all whose life there is not a day without the mark of some notorious wickedness upon it I know your tender love to your children will scarce admit such jealousies of them they are for present sweet lovely innocent companions and you doubt not but by your care of their education and prayer for them they might have been the joy of your hearts Why doubtless Esan when he was little and in his tender age promised as much comfort to his parents as Jacob did and I question not but Isaac and Rebecca a gracious pair spent as many prayers and bestowed as many holy councels upon him as they did upon his brother But when the child grew up to riper years then he became a sharp affliction to his Parents for it s said in Gen. 26. 34. That when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith the daughter of Berith the Hittite which was a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca The word in the original comes from a root that signifies to imbitter This child imbittered the minds of his parents by his rebellion against them and despising their councells And I cannot doubt but Abraham disciplin'd his family as strictly as any of you never man received an higher encomium from God upon that account Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Nor can I think but he bestowed as many and as frequent prayers for his children and particularly for his Ishmael as any of you We find one and that a very pathetical one recorded Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee and yet you know how he proved a son that yeilded him no more comfort than Esau did to Jacob and Rebeccah O how much more common is it for parents to see the vices and evils of their children than their vertues and graces And where one parent lives to rejoice in beholding the grace of God shining forth in the life of his child there are twenty it may be an hundred that live to behold to their vexation and grief the workings of corruption in them It is a note of Plutarch in his Morals Niocles saith he lived not to see the noble Victory obtained by Themistocles his Son Nor Miltiades to see the battle his Son Cimon wan in the field Nor Zantippus to hear his Son Pericles Preach and make Orations Ariston never heard his Son Plato's lectures and disputations But men saith he commonly live to see their children fall a Gaming Revelling Drinking and Whoring multitudes live to see such things to their sorrow And if thou be a gracious soul O what a cut would this be to thy very heart to see those as David spake of his Absolom that came out of thy bowels to be sinning against God that God whom thou lovest and whose honour is dearer to thee than thy very life But admit they should prove civil and hopeful children yet mightest thou not live to see more misery come upon them than thou couldst endure to see O think what a sad and doleful sight was that to Zedekiah Jer. 50. 10. The King of Babilon brought his children and slew them before his eyes Horrid spectacle and that leads to the 5. Consid. How know you but by this stroke which you so lament God hath taken them away from the evil to come It is Gods usual way when some extraordinary calamities are coming upon the world to hide some of his weak and tender ones out of the way by death Isa. 57. 1 2. He leaves some and removes others but taketh care for the security of all He provided a grave for Methuselah before the flood The grave is an hiding place to some and God sees it better for them to be under ground than above ground in such evil dayes Just as a careful and tender Father who hath a Son abroad at school hearing the Plague is broken out in or near the place sends his Horse presently to fetch home his Son before the danger and difficulty be greater Death is our Fathers pale Horse which he fends to fetch home his tender children and carry them out of harms way Surely when National calamities are drawing on it s far better for our friends to be in the grave in peace than exposed to the miseries and distresss that are here which is the meaning of Jer. 22. 10. Weep not for the dead neither bemoan him but weep for him that goeth away for he shall return no

your case been But as long as your best mercies are all safe the things that have salvation in them remain and only the things that have vanity in them are removed you are not prejudiced or much hindred as to the attainment of your last end by the loss of these things Alas it was not Christs intent to purchase for you a sensual content in the enjoyment of these earthly comforts but to redeem you from all iniquity purge your corruptions sanctifie your natures wean your hearts from this vain world and so to dispose and order your present condition that finding no rest and content here you might the more ardently pant and sigh after the rest which remains for the people of God And are you not in as probable a way to attain this end now as you were before Do you think you are not as likely by these methods of providence to be weaned from the world as by more pleasant and prosperous ones Every wise man reckons that station and condition to be best for him which most promotes and secures his last end and great design Well then reckon you are as well without these things as with them yea and better too if they were but clogs and snares upon your affections you have really lost nothing if the things wherein your eternal happiness consisteth be yet safe Many of Gods dearest children have been denied such comforts as these and many have been deprived of them and yet never the farther from Christ and heaven for that 3. Consid. Alwaies remember that how soon and unexpected soever your parting with your Relations was yet your Lease was expired before you lost them and you enjoyed them every moment of the time that God intended them for you Before this Relation whose loss you lament was born the time of your enjoyment and separation was unalterably fixed and limited in heaven by the God of the spirits of all flesh and although it was a secret to you whilst your friend was with you yet now it is a plain and evident thing that this was the time of separation before appointed and that the life of your friend could by no means be protracted or abreviated but must keep you company just so far and then part with you This position wants not full and clear Scripture authority for its foundation how pregnant and full is that Text Job 24. 5 6. Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee Thou hast appointed him his bounds which he cannot pass The time of our life as well as the place of our habitation was prefixed before we were born It will greatly conduce to your settlement and peace to be well established in this truth That the appointed time was fully come when you and your dear Relation parted for it will prevent and save a great deal of trouble which comes from our after Reflections O if this had been done or that omitted had it not been for such miscarriages and over-sights my dear husband wife or child had been alive at this day No no the Lords time was fully come and all things concurred and fell in together to bring about the pleasure of his will let that satisfie you had the ablest physitians in the world been there or had they that were there prescribed another course as it is now so it would have been when they had done all Only it must be precaution'd that the decree of God no way excuses any voluntary sinful neglects or miscarriages God over-rules these things to serve his own ends but no way approves them but it greatly relieves against all our involuntary and unavoydable oversights and mistakes about the use of means or the timing of them for it could not be otherwise than now it is Object But many things are alledged against this position and that with much seeming countenance from such Scriptures as these Psal. 54. 25. Blood thirsty men shall not live out half their dayes Eccles. 7. 18. Why shouldst thou dye before thy time Psal. 102. 24. O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes Isa. 38. 10. I am deprived of the residue of my years And Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth dayes but the years of the wicked shall be shortened It is demanded what tollerable sense we can give these Scriptures whilest we assert an unalterable fixation of the term of death Sol. The sense of all these Scriptures will be clear'd up to full satisfaction by distinguishing death and the Terms of it First we must distinguish death into Natural and Violent The wicked and blood thirsty man shall not live out half his dayes i. e. half so long as he might live according to the course of nature or the vigour and soundness of his natural constitution for his wickedness either drowns nature in an excess of riot and luxury or exposes him to the hand of justice which cuts him off for his wickedness before he hath accomplished half his dayes Again we must distinguish of the Term or limit set for death which is either General or Special The general limit is now seventy or or eighty years Psal. 90. 10. The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow To this short limit the life of man is generally reduced since the flood and though there be some few exceptions yet the general rule is not thereby destroyed The special limit is that proportion of time which God by his own counsel and will hath alotted to every individual person and it is only known to us by the event This we affirm to be a fixed and unmovable term with it all things shall fall in and subserve the will of God in our dissolution at that time But because the general limit is known and this special limit is a secret hid in Gods own brest therefore man reckons by the former account and may be said when he dyes at thirty or forty years old to be cut off in the midst of his dayes for it is so reckoning by the general account though he be not cut off till the end of his dayes reckoning by his special limit Thus he that is wicked dies before his time i. e. the time he might attain to in an ordinary way but not before the time God had appointed And so in all the other objected Scripture It is not proper at all in a Subject of this nature to digress into a controversie Alas the poor Mourner overwhelmed with grief hath no pleasure in that it is not proper for him at this time and therefore I shall for present wave the controversie and wind up this consideration with an humble and serious motion to the afflicted that they will wisely consider the matter the Lords time was come Your Relations lived with you every moment that God intended them for you before you had them O Parents mind this

a shameful thing for a Christian to be reproved for such an uncomely expression by an Heathen It 's enough to make us blush to read what an Heathen said in this case Never say thou hast lost any thing saith Epictetus but that it 's returned Is thy Son dead he is only restored Is thy inheritance taken from thee It is also returned And a while after he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Let every thing be as the Gods will have it 2. Answer It 's no fit expression to say you have lost all in one except that one be Christ and he being once yours can never be lost Doubtless your meaning is you have lost all your comfort of that kind And what though you have are there not multitudes of comforts yet remaining of a higher kind and more precious and durable nature If you have no more of that sort yet so long as you have better what cause have you to rejoyce 3. Answer You too much imitate the way of the world in this complaint they know not how to repair the loss of one comfort but by another of the same nature which must be put in its room to fill up the vacancy But have you no other way to supply your loss Have you not a God to fill the place of any creature that leaves you Surely this would better become a man whose portion is in this life than one that professes God is his all in all 5. Plea O but my only One is not only taken away but there remains no expectation or probability of any more I must now look upon my self as a dry tree never to take comfort in children any more which is a cutting thought 1. Answer Suppose what you say that you have no hope or expectation of another child remaining to you yet if you have a hope of better things than children you have no reason to be cast down bless God for higher and better hopes than these in Isa. 56. 4 5. the Lord comforts them that had no expectation of sons or daughters with this That he will give unto them in his house and within his walls a place and a name better than of Sons or of Daughters even an everlasting name that shall not be cut off There are better mercies and higher hopes than these though your hopes of children or from children should be cut off yet if your eternal hopes be secure and such as shall not make you ashamed you should not be so cast down 2. Answer If God will not have your comfort to lye any more in children then resolve to place them in himself and you shall never find cause to complain of loss by such an exchange You will find that in God which is not to be had in the creature one hours communion with him shall give you that which the happiest Parent never yet had from his children you will exchange brass for gold perishing vanity for solid and abiding excellency 6. Plea But the suddenness of the stroke is amazing God gave little or no warning to prepare for this tryal Death executed its commission as soon as it open'd it My dear Husband Wife or Child was snatcht unexpectedly out of my arms by a surprizing stroke and this makes my stroke heavier than my complaint 1. Answer That the death of your Relation was so sudden and surprizing was much your own fault who ought to have lived in the daily sense of its vanity and expectation of your separation from it you knew it to be a dying comfort in its best estate and it is no such wonderful thing to see that dead which we knew before to be dying Besides you heard the changes ringing round about you in other families you frequently saw other Parents Husbands and Wives carrying forth their dead And what were all these but warnings given you to prepare for the like tryals Surely then it was your own security and regardlesness that made this affliction so surprizing to you and who is to be blamed for that you know 2. Answer There is much difference betwixt the sudden death of infants and that of grown persons The latter may have much work to do many sins actually to repent of and many evidences of their interest in Christ to examine and clear in order to their more comfortable death and so sudden death may be deprecated by them But the case of Infants who exercise not their reason is far different they have no such work to do but are purely passive all that is done in order to their salvation is done by God immediately upon them and so it comes all to one whether their death be more quick or more slow 3. Answer You complain of the suddenness of the stroke but another will be ready to say had my friend died in that manner my affliction had been nothing to what it now is I have seen many deaths contrived into one I saw the gradual approaches of it upon my dear Relation who felt every tread of death as it came on towards him who often cryed with Job Chap. 3. 20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in soul which long for death but it cometh it not and dig for it more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave That which you reckon the sting of your affliction others would have reckoned a favour and priviledge How many tender Parents and other Relations who loved their friends as dearly as your selves have been forced to their knees upon no other errand but this to beg the Lord to hasten the separation and put an end to that sorrow which to them was much greater than the sorrow for the dead 7. Plea You press me to moderation of sorrows and I know I ought to shew it but you don't know how the case stands with me there 's a sting in this affliction that none feels but my self And oh how intollerable is it now I neglected proper means in season to preserve life or miscarried in the use of means I now see such a neglect or such a mistake about the means as I cannot but judge greatly to contribute to that sad loss which I now too late lament O my negligence O my rashness and inconsiderateness How doth my Conscience now smite me for my folly and by this aggravate my burthen beyond what is usually felt by others Had I seasonably apply'd my self to the use of proper means and kept strictly to such courses and counsels as those that are able and skilful might have prescribed I might have now had a living Husband Wife or Child whereas I am now not only bereaved but am apt to think I have bereaved my self of them Surely there is no sorrow like unto my sorrow 1. Answer Though it be an evil to neglect and slight the means ordained by God for recovery of health yet it 's no less evil to ascribe