Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	direction_n	young_a	youth_n	30	3	8.0835	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92883	A funeral gift: or, a preparation for death With comforts against the fears of approaching death: and consolations against immoderate grief, for the loss of friends. By the author of The devout companion.	Seller, Abednego, 1646?-1705.	1690 (1690)	Wing S2452A; ESTC R215121	60,167	186

I S●…tse A FUNERAL GIFT Iob 34 15 All flesh shall perish together man shall turn again unto dust A Funeral Gift OR A PREPARATION FOR DEATH WITH Comforts against the Fears of approaching Death And Consolations against immoderate Grief for the loss of Friends By the Author of the Devout Companion All the Days of my appointed time will I wait till my Change come Job 14.14 LONDON Printed for Henry Rhodes next Bride Lane in Fleet-street 1690. Price bound One Shilling TO THE TRULY HONOURED The LADY J. C. Madam YOur vertuous Requests to which your Merits gave the force of a Commandment oblig'd me to send my Devout Companion into the World and Madam since it hath met with so Candid a reception by your Ladyship whose early Piety proves so exemplary a Second Obligation presents it self wherein I esteem it a kind of Sacriledge to defraud you of being a Patroness to that which you may so justly challenge Prayer and Meditation are the Golden Rules towards a good Life and we can never miscarry in this dark World if we walk by the Light of a sincere Conscience For with these Holy Guides we implore the Almighty to cleanse our Hearts from all vain and unlawful Thoughts our Mouth from all foolish and idle Words and our whole Lives from all wicked and unprofitable Deeds That which I offer now Madam to your Divine Consideration is Mortality a Theme which some never care to hear of others are negligent in preparing for it and many use their utmost endeavours to put it as an Evil day far from them but all their Strategems are in vain for Death is so potent and bears such sway that none can resist his invincible Power none is exempted from the silent Grave nor none knows how soon they may be called Well-complexion'd Nature indeed may struggle here for a time but at last must yield it self to that pale Messenger Our chief Business here is to trim our Lamps and be vigilant to sow the immortal Seed of Hope and expect hereafter to reap the increase To deprecate the Almighty not to cut us off in the midst of our Folly nor suffer us to expire with our Sins unpardoned But to make us first ready for that Celestial Kingdom and then to receive us into eternal Glory This Madam is the only intent of this ensuing Treatise and may these short but plain Directions have that influence on those Persons which stand in need of these Divine Truths is the hearty and earnest Prayer of Madam Your humble and Faithful Servant in Christ Jesus E. S. A FUNERAL GIFT OR A PREPARATION FOR DEATH Meditation I. Vpon remembring our Creator in the Days of our Youth TO remember thy Creator was one of the choicest Expressions in the Royal Preacher's Sermon For who is he that is Young knows whether he shall live to be Old and yet that voice which sounds those words so loud to the whole Universe is scarce audible in the Ears of many II. This is one of the Divine Chanter's most harmonious Lessons and yet the sordid World is not pleas'd with the Tune 'T is a wonder that the best of School-Masters should have so few Disciples being his Rhetorick is so Divine and Excellent and yet it is a Text which though they will neither hear nor read they cannot chuse but see for the whole World upon it is a Commentary every Creature we behold Preaches this Doctrine which we supinely sleep out with our Eyes open III. Nature wears this Memento in her Forehead the very brute Beasts in this can reason with us and Man could not so soon forget his Maker did he but remember himself But alas Youth loves not to be put in mind of a Heavenly Being 't would clog his Memory and make him think of his Prayers too often IV. Piety will but cool his Blood Religion makes him look Old the thoughts of Heaven and the other World will create in him a greater Gravity than becomes his years his Sanguine Complexion informs him he is not in a fit Temper to study Divine things he may serve God time enough when he is at leisure V. Thus these temporal Objects of Pleasure drive away our thoughts from Celestial Dignities and those purer Joys which attend it We can spend the Beauty of our years in Vice and think to please God well enough with the Deformities of old Age We can revel away our Piety and Time in vain Delights and Pleasures and think our selves strong enough to force Heaven and become Religious when we are withered with infirmities and have nothing left us but Repentance and a Tomb. VI. We are so well satisfied with the sweetness of Sense that we are careless of any other Felicity and so much delighted with the Happiness of Sinning freely that we could willingly be of that Religion where Vice is most tolerated VII We place our Devotion with the Epicure in Natures riots Sportful meetings are our Religious Exercises and a Sermon is as tiresome to us as a Funeral to hear of our end in the midst of our Jollity sounds like the Lecture of Death and the unwelcome Echo of the Grave Let the Preacher exhort us never so well to remember our Maker we had rather follow Satan's Doctrine to enjoy the World as long as we can and think of Heaven when we have nothing else to do The Prayer O Lord shall the Lusts of the World be greater in my Soul than the love of thee Shall the temporary Delights of Sin drown the memory of thy Glory my Life is but a Span and yet I beseech thee shorten that rather than it should be spent in a neglect of thee better this earthly Tabernacle should be dissolved than become a Theatre for Sin to revel in II. Let me pay Nature her due Debt sooner than perhaps she would call for it rather than run in Score with thy Justice 'T is better I should die and be lost in the Memory of the World than ever forget thee thou formedst me from nothing not to sin but to serve thee and hast imprinted in me a Ray of thy self that I might not seek my own but thy Will nor pursue the World but Heaven III. Make me therefore to see the solid and ravishing Consolation that is in serving thee and that joy which accompanies thy Grace that so I may no longer follow my Sense but my Saviour it is none of the least Sins of our Youth that we are careless and forgetful of thee our Creator and no wonder we are so insensible of the joys to come that live in such a constant and continued neglect of Heaven IV. Make me therefore O my God to Consider that had I the Fruition of all that I can wish or long for here I should not only be satisfied but in the end find how miserable he is that setteth his Heart on any thing but thy self teach me therefore so to enjoy the World that I lose not thee nor the

this a desperate Patient The Prayer DO thou therefore O Lord elevate our Souls and withdraw them from these beggerly Elements to purer and more Celestial Addresses Let thy Kingdom be not our refuge only but our Choice and the perfect Resolution of our Souls to despise the Flatteries of the World for that Glory which nothing but our Sins can deprive us of II. And as thou hast made us for thy self O Lord enable us so to continue that as we have received all that we have from thy Bounty we may sacrifice all our Desires to thy Glory knowing that as nothing in this Life can make us Happy without thee so nothing can make him miserable that hath thy Kingdom for his Inheritance Meditation X. Of Man's Original being born to die IT is demonstrably prov'd we must one day die because we did one day begin to live All that is Born of a Woman is both mixt and compounded after the Image of the Woman of whom it is born not only mixt of the four Elements but also compounded of Matter and Form and all things compounded must be dissolved into the very same Principles of which at first they were compos'd II. Hence are those pangs and yerning of the Flesh and the Spirit of the Appetite and the Will of the Law in the Members and the Law in the Mind the one inclining towards Earth from whence 't was taken and the other towards Heaven from whence 't was sent III. The truth of this had been apparent if it had been only taken out of Aristotle's School but we have it confirmed out of Solomon's Porch too for in the day when Man goeth to his Long Home when the Grinders cease and the Windows be darkned and all the Daughters of Musick are brought low when the Silver Cord is once loosed and the Golden Bowl broken so as the Mourners are going about the Streets then the Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12.3 4 5 6 7. IV. When God himself was pleased to be born of a Woman he submitted to the Conditions of Mortality and had but a short time to live for he expired by Crucifixion before he was full thirty four years of Age. V. Man hath a short time indeed as he is born of a Woman for he cometh forth as a Flower and as a Flower he is cut down He flyeth also as a shadow and continueth not And therefore Epictetus did fitly argue the very great fickleness and frailty of Worldly things First because they were made and therefore had their beginning next because they are made ours and therefore must have a speedy end VI. For if we will be but so just and so impartial to our selves as to Arraign our Bodies at the Tribunal of our Reason they will be found by Composition no more than well complexion'd Dust Dust thou art said God to Adam Gen. 3.19 Dust and Ashes I am said Abraham to God Gen. 18.27 He knoweth saith the Psalmist Whereof we are made he remembreth we are but Dust Psal 103.14 VII Were it not that the Spirit of Man goeth upward whilst the Spirit of a Beast goeth downward to the Earth there would be no Preheminence of the one over the other for all go unto one place as to the Centre of the Body All are of the Dust and all turn to Dust again Eccles 3.19 20. VIII Which shews the Vanity and Sickness of those Mens Souls who erect such strong and stately Sepulchres for their Bodies for fear the poor Mans Dust should fully their's as if they did not remember that Man is born of a Woman and that his very Foundation is in the Dust Job 4.19 he may have the more Vanity but not the more Understanding for being in Honour and may the sooner be compar'd to the Beasts that perish Psal 49.12 IX The Protoplast was formed of the Dust of the ground Gen. 2.27 and however his Posterity hath been distinguish'd by issuing out from that Fountain through several Chanels yet their Original Extraction must needs be vile if any thing can be vile which is of God's own making for all Men descended out of the very same Eve and so by Her out of the very same Adam and so by Him out of the very same Earth The Prayer WE know O Lord that thou created'st us after thine own Image and designed'st us for to die as soon as we were born but thou hast sweetned the Bitterness of it to us by first tasting of it thy self and hast taken away the Sting of it that when ever it comes it will prove to us an advantage II. Dust we are O Lord and to Dust we must return High and Low Rich and Poor from the Swayer of the Sceptre to the Drawer of Water must one day appear before thee O then in thy tender Mercy and Compassion have Pity upon poor Dust and Ashes Let not those many failings we are guilty of in this World any ways hinder thy Mercy in sealing our Pardon but receive us graciously III. Bring down and subdue in us every vain Thought and every proud Look that exalts its self against thee mortifie in us all sensual Lusts and vile Affections and bring our Souls and Bodies under the Discipline of true Obedience to thee and thy Holy Will that having learned to deny all ungodliness and worldly Lusts we may live Soberly Godly and Righteously in this present evil World and at last arrive to thine Heavenly Kingdom to live for evermore Amen Meditation XI Memorials hourly necessary upon the four last things Death Judgment Hell and Heaven MOst freely went that Blessed Father St. Augustine to work when he expressed himself in this manner I inherit sin from my Father an excuse from my Mother Lying from the Devil Folly from the World and Self-conceit from the Pride and arrogant Opinion of my self Deceitful have been the Imaginations of thy Heart Crooked have been thy ways Malicious thy works And yet hast thou taken the Judgments of God in thy mouth desiring nothing more than to blind the Eye of the World with a counterfeit Zeal II. But all such Hypocrites God will judge and will not be mocked For as the Devil has his Sieve with which the good escape and the bad remain So God hath his Fan which scatters the wicked but retains the Godly And when he shall separate the Goats from the Sheep the Wheat from the Tares when the Just and the Wicked shall appear before him and every Man shall be put in the Ballance I fear O my Soul thou wilt then be found many Grains too light III. Thy only Remedy then is this proper Medicine to prepare thy self against that great and terrible Day and to furnish thee with those Directions that may make thee a true Convert of an impenitent Sinner Recal to mind those four last Remembrances Memorials hourly to be thought and so necessary to be retained in thy

Memory as the Christian use of them may prepare thee before Death summon thee and in this vale of Misery fit thee for thy Heavenly Voyage to Eternity IV. And yet whilst I entertain thee with these Precepts I find thy Condition to be dangerous For if thou seriously ponder them in thy mind and lay them home to thy Heart the very thoughts of them cannot chuse but startle thee and if thou neglect them which are so useful for thy Salvation thou wilt stand amazed when they encounter thee The Prayer O Lord remember me in thy Mercy and so prepare my Memory that these four necessary Remembrances may never depart from me Let me be prepar'd for Death before it come that it may never surprize me unprovided whensoever it shall come Let me think of that dreadful day of Judgment and judge my self before I am judged that I may not when I am weighed in the Ballance be found wanting II. Let not me forget there is a Hell for the damned and consider that it is better by timely fearing to avoid it than by never dreaming of it to fall headlong into it Lastly let me think of Heaven that it is the Habitation of the Blessed and that none but those that are of a clean Heart shall dwell in it O cleanse thou my Heart that I may be prepared for it and with piritual Joy be received into it Meditation XII On Death IT is strange that Death should be such a Stranger to thee when he so daily visits thy Neighbours Thou hast been familiarly acquainted with many whose Habitations are not now to be found which have enjoyed the Pleasures of Sin freely others who have inlarged their Barns and Store-houses carefully others who have in a splendid manner arrived to Honours highest Pinacle and could deliver their Commands with Grandeur and Magnificence And now behold All these have endured Death's Arrest and were forced to obey his grim Command II. And now consider having made their Beds in the dark They have left their Houses unto others they are gone unto their Graves and must not return again their Substance they have left unto others and Strangers are become their Heirs They are rooted out from the Face of the Earth and now they consider the Vanity of their Desires How they who laid Land to Land while they were here are now content with a small scantling in their return to their last home III. Poor Shell of Corruption what dost thou think of these things I am certain that great Revenues swelling Honours smiling Pleasures are dangerous and pernicious Eye-sores to a dying Man He looks back upon his Honours and enquires of them if they can relieve him but like false hearted retainers they fly from him and present their Service to another so quickly have they forgot their dying Master IV. He looks back then upon his Revenues those Goods of Fortune his inchested Treasures and asks of them if they cannot Ransome him But alas they have no such Commission they reserve themselves for his Prodigal Successor or succeeding Rioter for they were so poorly used and employed by him that they have quickly forgot their dying Master At last he looks back upon his unhappy Pleasures which now torment him more than ever they did delight him and he would be inform'd of them if they can allay or any ways mitigate his Pain But alas they soon leave him for they find nothing near him that can give them Entertainment V. An easie farewel then have these taken of their dying Master But thou poor Sinner hast no Honours to transport thee no Fortunes to detain thee no Pleasures to ensnare thee For the first the Countenance of Greatness never shone upon thee for the second Worldly Wealth could never yet so burden thee And for the last though thy Youth might affect them the infirmities of Age have now estranged them from thee VI. And yet the voice of Death is more terrible to thee than the loud Report of a roaring Cannon No Note more doleful or Summons more fearful in this thou art in some measure excusable because Death is fearful to all Flesh Plant not thy hopes so upon Earth as if thou intendedst never to go from Earth or to return to it from whence thou wast taken If thou canst find nothing on Earth worthy to entertain thee thou art in the unhappiest Condition that may befall thee VII O think then of that time even now while thou hast time when thy poor languishing Soul finding thy Eyes shut thy Mouth closed and all those Senses of thy Body perished by which she used to pass forth and be delighted in these outward things wherewith she was affected shall return unto her self and seeing her self all alone and naked as one afflicted and affrighted with exceeding Horror shall through Despair fail and fall under her self O whither wilt thou fly in hope of Succour to comfort thy poor Soul in such a time of Danger The Prayer EVen to thee will I fly O God of my Salvation for thou wilt not suffer my Soul to descend to Corruption such is thy loving kindness as thou hast promised to make all my Bed in my Sickness And because nothing is more certain than Death nothing more uncertain than the hour and that the pale Messenger may appear less fearful unto me send thy Holy Spirit to Comfort me that being inwardly armed by thee against the Assaults of Death and fury of my Ghostly Enemy I may fight a good Fight and with Fortitude cry out O Death where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy Victory Meditation XIII Upon Judgment I Tremble to think of that dreadful day and yet know not how to avoid it Judged I must be and who will answer for me An infallible Witness I have within to accuse me Sins of Omission and of Commission to impeach me Sins of Ignorance Knowledge and of Malice to convict me though any one of these were sufficient to condemn me II. But perhaps thou wilt be upon the Enquiry to know for what thou art to be brought to Account for And the occasion of thy appearing before the great Tribunal Seat of Judgment Solomon will furnish thee with a ready Answer and informs thee it is even for all thy Thoughts Words and Works For God will bring every Work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be Good or whether it be Evil Eccles 12.12 III. And that it may appear that thou shalt be accountable for all these First touching thy Thoughts of these thou shalt be judged For froward Thoughts separate from God Wisd 1. and He shall judge the secrets of Men. Their Conscience also bearing Witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another Rom. 2.15 IV. Next thou shalt give an Account of all thy Words Of every idle Word that Men shall speak they shall give Account in the Day of Judgment Mat. 12.36 Thirdly thou shalt be accountable for all thy Works For