Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	sin_n	wage_n	12,499	5	11.2125	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85783	The Christian in compleat armour. Or, A treatise of the saints war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickednesse, and chiefe designe he hath against the saints. A magazin open'd: from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual armes for the battel, help't on with his armour, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole warre. The first part. / By William Gurnall, Minister of the Gospel in Lavenham. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1655 (1655)	Wing G2251; Thomason E824_1; ESTC R207679	343,381	430

a spiritual war you shall reade of and that not a history of what was fought many ages past and is now over but of what now is doing the Tragedy is at present acting and that not at the furthest end of the world but what concernes thee and every one that reades it The stage whereon this war is fought is every mans own soul Here is no Neuter in this war the whole world is engaged in the quarrel either for God against Satan or for Satan against God It was a great question some yeares past Who are you for The not giving a good account to which hath cost many a life O my dear friends think solemnly what answer you meane to give to God and conscience when they in a dying houre shall ask every one of you Who art thou for 'T is an incomparable mercy that you are yet where you may choose your side It will not be ever so may be not a day to an end If once in another world you must then stand to your colours yet you may run from the Devils quarters and be taken into Christs pay The Drum beats in the Gospel for Voluntiers O the Lord make you willing in the day of his power I know you all would be on the surest side O what can you be sure of while under the devils Ensigne but damnation The curse of God cleavs to him and all that takes part with him O let not the little plunder spoil of sinful pleasures and pelf bewitch you still to follow his Camp What is that souldier better for his booty he gets in a fight who before he can get off with it is himself slain upon the place so many have been served in these wars if reports be true 'T is that thou must certainly look for The piece is charg'd and aime taken at thy breast which will be thy eternal death if thou persistest Gods threatenings will go off at last and then where art thou where but in hell where thy wedge of gold and Babylonish garment thy wages of unrighteousnesse will do thee little stead O Neighbours I am loath to leave you in the way where Gods bullets flie but I must have a word for you my Christian friends who have espoused Christs quarrel and are in the field against Satan My heart is towards you who have thus willingly offered your selves among the Lords people to his help against the mighty He can destroy him without you but he takes your love as kindly as if he could not God hath sent me as Jesse did David with this little present to you and the rest of my Brethren that are in his Camp May it be but to the strengthening of your hearts and hands in fighting the Lords battels and I shall blesse God that put it into my heart thus to visit you O hold on dear friends in your Christian warfare let none take the crown from you Whet your courage at the throne of grace from whence all your recruits of soule-strength come Send faith oft up the hill of the Promise to see and bring you the certain newes of Christs coming to you yea for you and assured victory with him Reade the exploits which Christs Worthies by faith have done and in their Conquests reade your own for in them he spake with us as the Prophet of Jacob. Be thankful for every victory you get and let not the houling wildernesse yet before you put the song of your praises for temptations past out of tune yet rejoyce with trembling as those who are still in your enemies countrey and must keep by the sword what you get by the sword Be sure you stand in close order amongst your selves These times give us too many sad examples of such who first fell from communion with their Brethren and then into the devourers hand straglers are soon snap't you will finde you are safest in a body Take heed of a private spirit let not only your particular safety but of the whole Army of Saints be in your eye and care especially that company in which you march Congregation I mean that souldier which can see an enemy in fight with his brethren and not help them he makes ●t but the more easie for the enemy to slay himself at last Say not therefore Am I my brothers Keeper God would not keep him that cared not to keep his brother Watch over one another not to play the Criticks on your brothers failings and triumph when he halts but to help him up if he falls or if possible to keep him from falling by a timely rescue as Abishai came to Davids succour Keep your rank and file We see what advantage Satan hath got in these loose times since we have learnt to fight him out of order and the private souldier Christian I mean hath taken the officers work out of his hands Harden your selves against the scandals which the cowardize and treachery of false brethren hath given you He is the right souldier that is not discouraged by those that run from or that are slain in the battel but still presseth on to victory though he goes to it over the backs of others that are killed upon the place In a word Disintangle your hearts what you can from the love of and distracting cares for this present world No man that warreth intangleth himself with the affaires of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a souldier 2 Tim. 2.4 If it behoves any to have their Will ready made and their worldly interests set at some stay then surely the souldier if any souldier then the Christian Get but once your hearts mortified to the world and care rolled upon God for name estate and relations here and then you are fit to march whereever Christ will lead you The want of this hath made many run home to save their own private stake there when they should have been in the field for Christ And now my Christian friends march on not in the confidence of your Armour but in the power of his might who hath promised shortly to subdue Satan under your feet I have done only I must crave pardon of you for rending this part of the Treatise from the other which neither my little strength or leisure would suffer me to grasp at once But this having first put forth its hand in preaching can make no great breach upon that though it get the start a little in printing Let me therefore dear friends if God shall make this imperfect birth any way serviceable to your faith humbly desire that you would as continue to strive at the throne of grace for a blessing on my poor Ministery among you so also lift up a prayer that strength may be given to bring forth what of this yet is undeliver'd I do not send you thither where I intend not to meet you but shall desire grace to be found faithful in striving with you and for you that amongst

must deliver thee up when that comes Even when thy strength is firmest and thou eatest thy bread with a merry heart that very food which nourisheth thy life gives thee withal an earnest of death as it leaves those dregs in thee which will in time procure the same O how unavoidable must this evil day of death be when that very staffe knocks us down to the grave at last which our life leans on and is preserved by God owes a debt both to the first Adam and second to the first he owes the wages of his sin to the second the reward of his sufferings The place for full payment of both is the other world so that except death comes to convey man thither the wicked who are the posterity of the first Adam will misse of that full pay for their sins which the threatening makes due debt and engageth God to perform The godly also who are the seed of Christ these should not receive the whole purchase of his blood which he would never have shed but upon the credit of thar promise of eternal life which God gave him for them before the world began This is the reason why God hath made this day so sure in it he dischargeth both bonds The third branch of the point follows That it behoves every one to prepare and effectually to provide for this evil day which so unavoidably impends us And that upon a twofold account First in point of duty Secondly in point of wisdome First in point of duty First it is upon our allegiance to the great God that we provide and arme our selves against this day Suppose a subject were trusted with one of his Princes castles and this man should hear that a puissant enemy was coming to lay siege to this castle yet takes no care to lay in armes and provision for his defence and so 't is lost how could such a one be clear'd of treason doth he not basely betray the place and with it his Princes honour into the enemies hand Our souls are this castle which we are every one to keep for God We have certain intelligence that Satan hath a design upon them and the time when he intends to come with all his powers of darknesse to be that evil day Now as we would be found true to our trust we are obliged to stand upon our defence and store our selves with what may enable us to make a vigorous resistance Secondly we are obliged to provide for that day as a suitable return for and improvement of the opportunities and meanes which God affords us for this very end We cannot without shameful ingratitude to God make waste of those helps God gives us in order to this great work Every one would cry out upon him that should basely spend that money upon riot in prison which was sent him to procure his deliverance out of prison And do we not blush to bestow those talents upon our lusts and Satan which God graciously indulgeth to deliver us from them and his rage in a dying houre what have we Bibles for Ministers and preaching for if we mean not to furnish our selves by them with armour for the evil day In a word what is the intent of God in lengthening out our dayes and continuing us some while here in the land of the living was it that we might have time to revel or rather ravel out upon the pleasure of this vaine world Doth he give us our precious time to be employed in catching such butterflies as these earthly honours and riches are It cannot be Masters do not use if wise to set their servants about such work as will not pay for the candle they borne in doing it And truly nothing lesse then the glorifying of God and saving our soules at last can be worth the precious time we spend here The great God hath a greater end then most think in this dispensation If we would judge aright we should take his own interpreration of his actions and the Apostle Peter bids us count that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 which plate he quotes out of Paul as to the sense though not in the same forme of words which in Rom. 2.4 are these Or despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance From both places we are taught what is the minde of God and the language he speaks to us in by every moments patience and inch of time that is granted to us It is a space given for repentance God sees as we are death and judgement could bring no good news to us we are in no case to welcome the evil day and therefore mercy stands up to plead for the poor creature in Gods bosome and begs a little time more may be added to its life that by this iudulgence it may be provoked to repent before he be called to the bar Thus we come by every day that is continually superadded to our time on earth And doth not this lay a strong obligation on us to lay out every point of this time unto the same end 't is begged for Secondly in point of wisdome The wisdom of a man appears most eminently in two things First in the matter of his choice and chief care Secondly in a due timing of this his choice and care First a wife man makes choice of that for the subject of his chief care and endeavour which is of greatest importance and consequence to him fools and children only are intent about toys and trifles They are as busie and earnest in making of a house of dirt or cards as Solomon was in making of his Temple Those poor bables are as adequate to their foolish apprehensions as great enterprises are to wise men Now such is the importance of the evil day especially that of death that it proves a man a fool or wise as he comports himself to it The end specifies every action and gives it the name of good or evil of wise or foolish The evil day of death is as the end of our dayes so to be the end of all the actions of our life Such will our life be found at last as it hath been in order to this one day If the several items of our life counsels and projects that we have pursued when they shall then be cast up will amount to a blessed death then we shall appear to be wise men indeed but if after all our goodly plots and policies for other things we be unprovided for that houre we must be content to die fooles at last And no such fool as the dying fool The Christian goes for the fool in the worlds account while he lives but when death comes the wise world will then confesse they mis-call'd him and shall take it to themselves We fooles counted his life to be madnesse and his end to be without honour But how is he now numbred among the

if they be not worth sending this messenger to Heaven truly they are worth little Thirdly consider that although the Christian be secured from a total and final apostasy yet he may fall sadly to the bruising of his conscience enfeebling his grace and reproach of the Gospel which sure are enough to keep the Christian upon his watch and the more because ordinarily the Saints back-slidings begin in their duties As it is with tradesmen in the world they first grow carelesse of their businesse often out of their shop and then they go behinde-hand in their estates So here first remisse in a duty and then fall into a decay of their graces and comforts yea sometimes into wayes that are scandalous A stuffe loseth its glosse before it weares The Christian the lustre of his grace in the lively exercise of duty and then the strength of it Secondly take heed of abusing this doctrine unto a liberty to sin shall we sin because grace abounds grow loose because we have God fast bound in his promise God forbid none but a Devil would teach us this Logick It was a great height of sin those wretched Jewes came to who could quaffe and carouse it while death look't in upon them at the windows Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die They discovered their Atheisme therein But what a prodigious stature in sin must that man be grown to that can sin under the protection of the promise and draw his encouragement to sin from the everlasting love of God Let us eat and drink for we are sure to live and be saved Grace cannot dwell in that heart which drawes such a cursed conclusion from the premisses of Gods grace The Saints have not so learn't Christ The inference the Apostle makes from the sweet priviledges we enjoy in the Covenant of grace is not to wallow in sin but having these promises to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 'T is the nature of faith the grace that trades with Promises to purifie the heart Now the more certain report faith brings of Gods love from the promise to the soule the mote it purifies the heart because love by which faith works is thereby more inflamed to God and if once this affection takes fire the room becomes too hot for sin to stay there SECT VI. The fourth note and last is That it will abundantly recompence all the hardship and trouble the Christian endures in this war against sin and Satan that he shall be able when the war is ended to stand In mans wars all do not get by them that fight in them the gaines of these are commonly put into a few pockets The common souldiers endure most of the hardship but go away with little of the profit they fight to make a few that are great yet greater and are many times themselves turn'd off at last with what will hardly pay for the cure of their wounds or keep them from starving in a poor Hospital But in this war there is none loseth but he that runs away A glorious reward there is for every faithful souldier in Christs Camp and that is wrapt up in this phrase Having done all to stand Now in this place to stand imports three things which laid together will clear the point First to stand in this place is to stand Conquerours An Army when conquered is said to fall before their enemy and the Conquerour to stand Every Christian shall at the end of the war stand a Conquerour over his vanquish't lusts and Satan that headed them Many a sweet victory the Christian hath here over Satan But alas the joy of these Conquests is again interrupted with fresh alarms from his rallied enemy One day he hath the better and may be the next he is put to the hazard of another battel much ado he hath to keep what he hath got yea his very victories are such as send him bleeding out of the field Though he repulses the temptation at last yet the wounds his conscience gets in the fight do overcast the glory of the victory 'T is seldome the Christian comes off without some sad complaint of the treachery of his own heart which had like to have lost the day and betrayed him into his enemies hand But for thy eternal comfort Know poor Christian there is a blessed day coming which shall make a full and final decision of the quarrel betwixt thee and Satan Thou shalt see this enemies Camp quite broke up not a weapon left in his hand to lift up against thee Thou shalt tread upon his high places from which he hath made so many shots at thee Thou shalt see them all dismantled and demolished till there be not left standing any one corruption in thy bosome for a devil to hide and harbour himself in Satan at whose approach thou hast so trembled shall then be subdued under thy feet he that hath so oft bid thee bow down that he might go over thy soule and trample upon all thy glory shall now have his neck laid to be trodden on by thee Were there nothing else to be expected as the fruits of our watching and praying weeping mourning severe duties of mortification and self-denial with whatever else our Christian warfare puts us upon but this our labour sure would not be in vain in the Lord. Yea blessed watching and praying happy tears and wounds we meet with in this war may they out at last end in a full and eternal victory over sin and Satan Bondage is one of the worst of evils The baser an enemy is the more abhorred by noble spirits Saul feared to fail into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines and to be abused by their scornes and reproaches more then a bloody death Who baser then Satan what viler tyrant then sin Glorious then will the day be wherein we shall praise God for delivering us out of the hands of all our sins and from the hand of Satan But dismal to you sinners who at the same time wherein you shall see the Saints stand with crowns of victory on their heads must like fettered captives be dragg'd to hells dungeon there to have your eare bored unto an eternal bondage under your lusts And what more miserable sentence can God himself passe upon you Here sin is pleasure there it will be your torment Here a sweet bit and goes down glib but there it will stick in your throats Here you have suitable provision to entertain your lusts withal Palaces for pride to dwell and strut her self in Delicious fare for your wanton palates houses and lands with coffers of silver and gold for your covetous hearts by their self-pleasing thoughts to sit brooding upon but you will finde none of these there hell is a barren place nothing grows in that land of darknesse to solace and recreate the sinners minds You shal have your lusts but want the food they long for O what a torment must

people stand gazing as those who have lost the sight of their Preacher and at the end of the Sermon cannot tell what he would have Or those who preach only truths that are for the higher forme of Professours who have their senses well exercised excellent may be for the building up three or foure eminent Saints in the Congregation but in the mean time the weak ones in the family who should indeed chiefly be thought on because least able to guide themselves or carve for themselves these are forgotten He sure is an unwise builder that makes a Scaffold as high as Pauls steeple when his work is at the bottom and he is to lay the foundation whereas the Scaffold should rise as the building goes up So Paul advanceth in his doctrine as his hearers do in knowledge Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection Let us It is well indeed when the people can keep pace with the Preacher To preach truths and notions above the hearers capacity is like a Nurse that should go to feed the childe with a spoon too big to go into its mouth We may by such preaching please our selves and some of higher attainments but what shall poor ignorant ones do in the mean time He is the faithful steward that considers both The Preacher is as Paul saith of himself a debt or both to the Greek and to the Barbarian to the wise and to the unwise Rom. 1.14 to prepare truths suitable to the degree of his hearers Let the wise have their portion but let them be patient to see the weaker in the family served also Fourthly a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people when through the scandal of his life he prejudiced his doctrine as a Cook who by his nastiness makes others afraid to eat what comes out of his foule fingers Or when through his supercilious carriage his poor people dare not come to him He that will do any good in the Ministers calling must be as careful as the Fisher that he doth nothing to scare soules away from him but all to allure and invite that they may be toll'd within the compasse of his net Vse 3 Is the ignorant soul such a slave to Satan Let this stirre you up that are ignorant from your seats of sloth whereon like the blinde Egyptians you sit in darknesse speedily come out of this darknesse or resolve to go down to utter darknesse The covering of Hamans face did tell him that he should not stay in the Kings presence If thou livest in ignorance it shews thou art in Gods black bill he puts this cover before their eyes in wrath whom he means to turne off into hell 2 Cor. 4. If our Gospel be hid it is to those that perish In one place sinners are threatened they shall die without knowledge in another place they shall die in their sinnes John 8. He indeed that dies without knowledge dies in his sinnes and what more fearful doome can the great God passe upon a creature then this better die in a prison die in a ditch then die in ones sinnes It thou die in thy sinnes thou shalt rise in thy sinnes as thou fallest asleep in the dust so thou awakest in the morning of the resurrection if an ignorant Christlesse wretch as such thou shalt be araigned and judged That God whom now sinners bid depart from them will then be worth their acquaintance themselves being Judges but alas then he will throw their own words in their teeth and bid them depart from him he desires not the knowledge of them O sinners you shall see at last God can better be without your company in heaven then you could without his knowledge on earth Yet yet 't is day draw your curtains and behold Christ shining upon your face with Gospel-light hear wisdome crying in the streets and Christ piping under your window in the voice of his Spirit and Messengers How long will ye simple ones love simplicity and fools hate knowledge Turne you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you and make known my words unto you What can you say sinners for your sottish ignorance Where is your cloak for this sinne the time hath been when the Word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision not a Bible to be found in town or Countrey when the tree of knowledge was forbidden fruit and none might taste thereof without licence from the Pope happy he that could get a leaf or two of the Testament into a corner afraid to tell the wife of his bosome O how sweet were these waters when they were forced to steal them but you have the Word or may in your houses you have those that open them every Sabbath in your Assemblies many of you at least have the offers of your Ministers to take any paines with you in private passionately beseeching you to pitie your souls and receive instruction yea 't is the lamentation they generally take up you will not come unto them that you may receive light How long may a poor Minister sit in his study before any of the ignorant sort will come upon such an errand Lawyers have their Clients and Physicians their Patients these are sought after and call'd up at midnight for counsel but alas the soule which is more worth then raiment and body too that is neglected and the Minister seldom thought on till both these be sent away Perhaps when the Physician gives them over for dead then we must come and close up those eyes with comfort which were never opened to see Christ in his truth or be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water and anoint them for the Kingdome of Heaven though they know not a step of the way which leads to it Ah poor wretches what comfort would you have us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terrour Is heaven ours to give to whom we please or is it in our power to alter the lawes of the most High and save those whom he condemns Do you not remember the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the blinde to wander out of the way Deut. 27.18 what curse then would be our portion if we should confirm such blinde soules that are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging you to go on and expect to reach heaven at last when God knows your feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death No 't is written we cannot and God will not reverse it you may reade your very names among those damned soules which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on who the Apostle tells us are such that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.8 And therefore in the feare of God let this provoke you of what age or sexe rank or condition soever in the world to

own Thus do thou consider what thou standest engaged to thy worldly credit profit slavish feare of God and selfish desire of happinesse and when thou hast allowed for all these see then what remaines of thy feare of God love to God c. if nothing thou art nought if any the lesse there be the weaker Christian thou art and when thou comest to be tried in Gods fire thou wilt suffer losse of all the other which as hay and stubble will be burnt up SECT V. Every soule clad with this Armour of God shall stand and persevere Or thus true grace can never be vanquish't The Christian is borne a Conquerour the gates of hell shall nor prevail against him He that is borne of God overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 Mark from whence the victory is dated even from his birth There is victory sowen in his new nature even that seed of God which will keep him from being swallowed up by sin or Satan As Christ rose never to die more so doth he raise soules from the grave of sin never to come under the power of spiritual death more These holy ones of God cannot see corruption Hence he that believes is said in the present tense to have eternal life At the Law that came foure hundred years after could not make void the promise made to Abraham so nothing that intervenes can hinder the accomplishing of that promise of eternal life which was given and passed to Christ in their behalf before the foundation of the world If a Saint could any way miscarry and fall short of this eternal life it must be from one of these three causes 1. Because God may forsake the Christian and withdraw his grace and help from him Or 2. Because the believer may forsake God Or lastly because Satan may pluck him out of the hands of God A fourth I know not Now none of these can be First God can never forsake the Christian Some unadvised speeches have drop't from tempted soules discovering some fears of Gods casting them off but they have been confuted and have eaten their words with shame as we see in Job and David O what admirable security hath the great God given his children in this particular First in Promises He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Five negatives in that promise as so many seals to ratifie it to our faith he assures us there never did or can so much as arise a repenting thought in his heart concerning the purposes of his love and special grace towards his children Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance even the believers sin against him their froward carriage stirs not up thoughts of casting them off but of reducing them For the iniquity of this covetousnesse I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal them Isa 57.27 28. The water of the Saints failings cast on the fire of Gods love cannot quench it Whom he loves he loves to the end Secondly God to give further weight and credit to our unbelieving and mis-giving hearts seals his promise with an oath See Isa 54.9 10. With everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer this is as the waters of Noah unto me for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should not return over the earth so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee Yea he goes on and tells them The monntaines shall depart meaning at the end of the world when the whole frame of the heavens and earth shall be dissolv'd but his kindnesse shall not depart neither shall his Covenant of peace be removed Now lest any should think this was some charter belonging to the Jewes alone we finde it v. 17. setled on every servant of God as his portion This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord. And surely God that is so careful to make his childrens inheritance sure to them will con them little thanks who busie their wits to invalid and weaken his conveyances yea disprove his will if they had taken a bribe they could not plead Satans cause better Thirdly in the actual fulfilling these promises which he hath made to beleevers to Christ their Attourney As God before the world began gave a promise of eternal life to Christ for them so now hath he given actual possession of that glorious place to Christ as their Advocate and Attourney where that eternal life shall be enjoyed by them for as he came upon our errand from heaven so thither he returned again to take and hold possession of that inheritance which God had of old promised and he in one summe at his death had paid for And now what ground of feare can there be in the believers heart concerning Gods love standiog firme to him when he sees the whole Covenant performed already to Christ for him whom God hath not only called to sanctified for and upheld in the great work he was to finish for us but also justified in his Resurrection and Jayle-delivery and received him into heaven there to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high by which he hath not only possession for us but full power to give it unto all believers A second occasion of feare to the believer that he shall not persevere may be taken from himself He has many sad feares and tremblings of heart that he shall at last forsake God The journey is long to heaven and his grace weak O saith he is it not possible that this little grace should faile and I fall short at last of glory Now here there is such provision made in the Covenant as scatters this cloud also First the Spirit of God is given on purpose to prevent this Christ left his mother with John but his Saints with his Spirit to tutour and keep them that they should not lose themselves in their journey to heaven O how sweet is that place Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them He doth not say they shall have his Spirit if they will walk in his statutes no his Spirit shall cause them to do it But may be thou art afraid thou mayest grieve him and so he in anger leave thee and thou perish for want of his help and counsel Answ The Spirit of God is indeed sensible of unkindnesse and upon a Saints sin may withdraw in regard of present assistance but never in regard of his care as a mother may let her froward childe go alone till it get a knock that may make it cry to be taken up again into her armes but still her eye is on it that it shall not fall into mischief The Spirit withdrew from Samson and he fell into the