Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	young_a	youth_n	649	4	8.7145	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61859	Lessons moral and Christian, for youth and old age in two sermons preach'd at Guildhall Chappel, London : chiefly intended for the use of this city / by John Stryp ...	Strype, John, 1643-1737.	1699 (1699)	Wing S6022; ESTC R33818	27,625	134

heed now to themselves that they preserve themselves in Sobriety and Virtue that they may not afterward have such severe Reckonings and lay a Foundation of so much Trouble and Sorrow to imbitter their future Days 4. On the other hand consider the Comforts that will arise to Age from an innocent well-spent-Youth When we come to Years and begin to grow Gray and our Age puts us in mind of our Mortality and that we must not can not tarry much longer in this World then we begin I trust to think seriously what sort of Entertainment we are like to meet with in the other World and how God will look upon us when we come to dye and how it is like to fare with us to all Eternity And this will put us upon thinking on our past Lives And our Thoughts will run back to our early years how we led our Lives then how God was sought and served by us from our Youth And if after this Search we find that God's Grace restrained us from youthful Follies and that we remembred our Creator in the Days of our Youth that we were just and honest sober and clean then there cannot happen a greater comfort to us It will mightily strengthen our hopes that we are among the Number of God's Elect and that our Lot is among the Just. Besides the Comfort of our Youth spent soberly and well appears in this that a Man hath kept up his Credit and Reputation throughout his whole Life that from his Youth to his Old Age he hath constantly walked as became a good Man that he hath never stained nor bespotted his Life with deliberate and habitual Sins and Evils that his Life hath been all of a piece and his Youth hath not shamed his Old Age. What a Comfort and a Rejoycing will this be There were two Sorts of Old Men among the Jews One Sort were such as had lived loosly in their younger days and afterwards took up and grew Sober and Wise. But there was another sort among them whose Youth and Old Age both were well spent They began well and so they continued These two Sorts of Old Men in one of the great Feasts at the Temple used to stand in one of the Courts and pronounce these Words The former sort said thus Blessed be our Old Age that hath made amends for the Sins of our Youth But the latter said with more Comfort Blessed be our Youth that hath not shamed our Old Age. For indeed there is a Shame belongs to a Man as long as he lives for the Intemperance and Vices of his younger Years But when any of us have had the Grace to spend our young days well it will be a Reputation and Honour unto our Old Age. And the Consideration of it as it is matter of Thankfulness to God that hath given us such Grace in our Youth so it is matter of Peace and Comfort unto us that we have kept up a fair Name in the World all our Days 5. Young Men are subject to Death as well as the Elder Nay sometimes the younger are taken off when those that are gone further into Age and Years remain behind And therefore ought not they to be Sober that whensoever they dye they may not be taken unprovided It is a foolish thing to put off the Purposes of a good Life on this Score that Men are young and may have many years more to live because nothing is so uncertain as the Life of Man And we see Thousands of Instances of Men young in Years strong in Body vigorous in Health cut down suddenly by Fevers or some Accident or other And they dye and go to their long home as well as such who have lived to Gray Hairs And what a sad thing would it be for a young Man to suffer himself to be so cheated out of Heaven and Happiness because of the Conceit that he was young and might have lived many years more Oh! it ought to be every Man's Care above all his other Cares to think of Death and to prepare for the main Chance that when he goes out of this World he may pass into a better and leave a good Name behind them And of all the Madnesses of Youth certainly this is one of the greatest that they are so apt to put away the Day of their Death from them and to indulge to all Sensuality as tho they were sure of many future years and to cry that it will be time enough hereafter to grow Sober And then Alas Death comes on a sudden and surprises them with all their Sins and Faults and Follies about them And so they are undone to all Eternity And therefore it is the only wise Course for young Men to take Viz. To Fear God in their Youth and to Depart from Evil at this present Time that in case Death should overtake them as it hath done others as young and flourishing as they it may not endanger their Everlasting Well-being 6. To name no more in order to a sober Conversation let young Men consider some notable Instances of Persons that have been exemplarily good from their Youth For thanks be to God however corrupt the Generality of Youth are and have been yet there have been some admirable Instances of young Men that have begun and held out well in a holy chast wise and Godly Conversation And methinks these Examples should inflame Youth to labour to imitate them and to live and to do as they have done Youth is apt to Aspire and to be Ambitious and to reach after high things Certainly there is no Ambition no Aspiring like that of endeavouring to come up to that Perfection and Glory that some young Men like themselves have done What a brave young Person was Obadiah one of Ahab's Courtiers A wicked Prince and a wicked Court but yet Obadiah was not infected by either but feared the Lord from his Youth when almost all the rest had cast him behind their Backs He would not turn Idolater when the King and every one else did No he feared the Lord from his Youth So he tells Elijah But I thy Servant fear the Lord from my Youth 1 Kin. xviii 11 And that made him do such an adventurous Act to hide God's Prophets by Fifty in a Cave and feed them with Bread and Water when Iezabel had slain so many as she could find and probably had made it Death to conceal them And what a World of Good did that single good Man in those wicked Times And that chiefly because of that Fear of God which possessed his Mind from his Youth and so influenced all his after-Age Again What an incomparable Person was young King Iosiah and what admirable Service did he do for God and his Honour when his Kingdom had been by the Default of former Kings so polluted with Idolatry What a Reformation did he make in Iudah when he was very Young What Zeal for God was he endued withall and how sweet is

of them at once by Bears out of the Wood A Warning to all succeeding Generations of the World that the younger are to respect and reverence the Aged There is in truth a Deference to be given to Years and we do with good Reason require it from the younger Sort. But Alas mere Age without some other Qualifications will reconcile to us little Honour An old Drunkard an old Sot an old Humorist an old Sinner who can honour such who have in that manner dishonoured themselves and treasured up Shame to their Old Age But when Age is accompanied with Gravity and Wisdom and the Fear of God that makes Age to be truly Honourable and all Men will rise up to such an Hoary Head His Hairs are a Crown of Glory to him The Hoary Head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in the way of Righteousness Prov. xvi 31 When a Man walks in the way of Righteousness and holds out therein unto old Age that is the way to make Men revere and honour him and that not only in the Body and the outward Deportment to give them Respect but inwardly to Love and Affect them II. We expect to find Wisdom and Counsel with the Aged Years teach Wisdom and Men that have lived a great while in the World and seen Changes and Vicissitudes in Towns in Cities in Families in Kingdoms make Observations hence and learn much Experience and treasure up to themselves Understanding and are able to give Advice Counsel and Instruction And therefore Princes usually make use of the Aged for their Counsellors to consult with them about their weighty Matters as they do of the younger Sort for Action And surely that Man hath spent his Years to little purpose that is a Child in his Old Age and tho he wears a Gray Head hath still but a Boys Understanding that is rash and foolish vain and frothy still after he hath lived it may be Fifty or Sixty Years What will ye never be Wise Never know how to govern your Tongues and your Appetites Never be Men capable to Counsel and Avise your selves as long as ye live To what purpose have ye spent so many a fair year and seen so much To be Fools at last and to dye as Fools dye in their Sins and Follies We use to say every Man at Thirty Years of Age is either a Fool or a Physitian That is by living so long he hath learned by Experience the State and Condition of his own Body so that he is become in a tolerable sort able to be his own Physitian to know what is good and what is bad for him Or else he is a Fool. But how many are there that have lived to Thirty Years of Age twice told that are very sorry Physitians to their Souls and but mere Fools still void of all Understanding to take the proper Courses for their Souls Welfare To such elderly Fools I may I think cry out as Wisdom doth O ye simple Ones how long will ye love Simplicity Prov. i. 22 How long What to Old Age What to the Day of your Death This ye see O ye Aged Men reflects closely upon your Understanding at this Time of Day For with the Aged we all look for Wisdom and Counsel But III. To pursue this Argument a little further Aged Men and Women have lived long enough to be thorowly convinced of the Vanity of the World and of the miserable Issues of Sin And will they not yet be Sober Grave Temperate First They have seen by long Experience the Vanity of this World So that methinks they should be able to say as David did I have seen an end of all Perfection Psal. cxix 96 And as Solomon I have seen all the Works that are done under the Sun and behold all is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Eccl. i. 14 All these Things that Men are apt to set their Hearts upon to mind too much to the neglect of their Duty to God and to their Neighbours and to themselves to pursue Night and Day by Right and by Wrong Imagining Honour Wealth and these fading Pleasures of the World to be brave things And alas in the End they are but mere Vanity and Vexation of Spirit They are Vanity They are vain they are false they are lying They deceive us they promise us more than they can perform Or else they are Vain they fly away from us and leave us in a Fools Paradise And they are Vexation of Spirit They Vex and Disturb us they gall and chafe us a Thousand Ways and our Spirits find no Rest no Satisfaction in them Doth not every Aged Person that hath lived any considerable time in this World perceive and learn this by the Observations he hath made in himself and in others And therefore is it not time now for him if he hath not hitherto been so to be Sober Grave and Wise considering the long Experience he hath had of these Vanities of the World and how it hath frustrated his Expectations Secondly Aged Men have also seen by long Experience the miserable Issues of Sin and will they still continue in it and never forsake it Have they in their Time seen Hundreds and Hundreds undone and ruined by it and yet will they follow them and take no Warning still Have they in their Days seen Thousands of Sinners fall on their Right Hand and Ten Thousands on their Left by their own Follies and vicious Practices Have they beheld how God hath met with those that have set themselves against him by wicked Works and hath struck them down with his Mighty Hand And this done sometimes in such a manner as if God had intended that all might see it and take Warning Have they not seen how God hath cut off the Posterity of the Wicked and how Riches got by Wrong Knavery and Oppression have not continued Have they not had abundance of Experience of these and the like remarkable Conclusions of Sin and Violation of God's most holy Laws and Precepts What Advantages are these administred to the Aged to make them Sober and Wise to leave those Follies that to their Knowledge others have so smarted for And it ought to be look'd upon by them as the wonderful Grace of God to them that he hath spared them so long to see and be convinced of these things that they may repent and dedicate their Old Age unto God and his Service IV. How many remarkable Providences hath God exercised the Aged with through the long Course of Life they have lived And to what Purpose but to remind them of him to reclaim them from some evil Ways they have chosen to make them recollect themselves repent and amend to grow wise and good It is Religious to look upon all the Notable Accidents of our Lives as peculiarly coming from God for holy and good Ends towards us And it is a great Fault in Men when they have escaped some imminent Danger or obtained some extraordinary Benefit