Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	live_v	young_a	youth_n	255	4	8.1569	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87565	A shock of corn coming in in its season. A sermon preached at the funeral of that ancient and eminent servant of Christ VVilliam Gouge, Doctor of Divinity, and late pastor of Black-Fryars, London, December the 16th, 1653. With the ample and deserved testimony that then was given of his life, by William Jenkyn (now) pastor of Black-Fryars, London.	Jenkyn, William, 1613-1685.	1654 (1654)	Wing J653; Thomason E735_22; ESTC R202634	33,219	57

the quiet grave were not the field stormy and rainy the world boisterous and unquiet The world is too much loved now when it is troublesome oh how much desired would it be were it altogether delightful 2. Secondly a full age is as a ripe shock of corn in regard of the diversity of ages and periods of a mans life 1. First the corn is sown in the ground so the seed is thrown into the womb 2. Secondly the corn doth Herbescere it is green in the tender blade and grows like an herb and this is as our childhood 3. Thirdly the corn doth grow to a stalk it doth adolescere grow and shoot up to some kinde of stature and this is our youthful age 4. Fourthly there is a full ear afterward and that is in the manhood when a man is come to some fulnesse of abilities and endowments to transact his calling to go through his duties and employments 5. Fifthly there is a maturity the corn comes to be ripe sear dry and this is old age Sixthly there is the cutting down of the corn and this is by the sickle of death as this godly man once said the sickle of death will cut down all my diseases and pains and troubles Seventhly after it is cut down it is laid up in the born when we are cut down by death we are put into our grave that is our barn Eightly when it is put into the barn then it is threshed and fanned there will come a day of Judgement wherein there shall be a disquisition a sifting and fanning of all the actions that have been done ini the World Ninthly it is set before the Master upon his table for his use the people of God shall be presented before the presence of glory they shall be Shew-bread in Heaven they are for God and shall be with God for ever I am said Ignatius to be grownd with the teeth of the wild beasts that so I may be as manchet fine bread for my Master Thirdly a full age is as ripe Corn in regard of the cost that is bestowed upon corn before it comes to maturity how much labour is laid out how much pains do men take to raise the expectation of an harvest How much plowing harrowing dunging weeding doth corn require before it be carried in and it may be that though it hath been a yeer or two in the fitting and preparing for a crop it s cut down by 2. or 3. harvest men in a day or two A Parent hath laid out a great deal of cost it may be in the Educating of a Child in the University bringing him up in the Arts nurturing him and polishing him with choisest Education and then death comes and cuts him down with his sickle in a few houres when a man is full of wind and swoln with gifts and knowledge death comes with a little prick as it were of a pin and le ts out all the wind again and all mans thoughts perish Fourthly maturity of age is like the maturity of corn in regard of hopefulnesse the husband-man sowes in hope every one expects a harvest if he hath had a seed-time old age is that which men both covet and expect If Satan and security be a mans teachers he will say I shall live long enough let the Ministers and examples of mortality say what they will No man is so old but he hopes to live one yeer longer and the youngest hopes to live to old age Fifthly a full age is like unto ripe corn in regard of continuation No tooth nor foot of the beast hath cropt or trod it down All the blasts that have befallen it all the storms that have bin cast upon it may make it bend but yet till the harvest comes it is not cut down and destroyed utterly thus it is here till God take us away by death till our time is come nothing shall take us away when that is come presently we are gone our times are not in our enemies hand for if so we should not live long enough they are not in our own hands if they were we should live too long but they are in Gods hands my times saith David are in thy hands Psal 31.15 Sixthly a full age is compared to ripe corn in regard of fitnesse for the barn and for the masters use ripe corn is onely acceptable corn onely good corn onely such as pleaseth the tooth of the feeder they that are ripe in yeers should be ripe in grace they that are full of dayes should be full of Holinesse they should be fit for Heaven if any they that have one foot in the grave should have the other in Heaven they that have white heads should not as the swan which under her white feathers hath a black skin have a black heart In a word we say toward harvest corn ripens night and day it is a country proverb when a man growes old he shouldl grow Heavenward might and day Oh he should live more in one day then heretofore he hath done in a whole yeer A full age is as ripe corn in regard of the certainty of harvest and cutting down The corn which hath stood longest meets at last with a sickle they that have lived longest must die at length and be cut down with deaths sickle the longest Summers day hath a Sun set though thy age be a Summers age yet it must end It s possible corn may be troden down and devoured by the beasts of the field withered with scorching heat or destroyed with floods but should it escape all those dangers to be sure it must meet with a sickle at the harvest Though a man escape a violent death and the many diseases incident to youth and manhood at length he must have a disease whereby he must die A Nestors a Methusalems age must end The sailes of our Times as well as of Time are daily winding up unto all the descriptions of the great age of the Patriarchs before the flood it s added and he died 8. Lastly a full age is as ripe corn in respect of the near approach of its cutting down ripe corn hath not long to stand the young may the old must dîe. How long have I to live said old Barzillai that I should go up with the King Grey hairs are deaths harbingers which with their white strokes mark and take up lodgings for death the King of terrours And thus I have opened both the branches of this second part of my Text the former setting form the season of a Saints coming to the grave properly the second Metaphorically The use that I shall make of this second Part in both its branches put together shall be two-fold I shall apply what I have said 1. To our selves 2. To the occasion Vse 1 For the first there are then these following inferences that I draw from hence if as I have described unto you a full age be here promised and such as is like unto ripe corn I

Old men if godly are spiritual hoarders they have been laying up of grace all their dayes and adding grace to grace day after day and yeer after yeer sermon after sermon ordinance after ordinance and a great many littles have by this time made a mickle And how comfortable is it for a godly old man to recollect that he hath not onely got much grace throughout his long life to himself but instrumentally bestowed much grace upon others Childrens children are the crown of old age saith Solomon Pro. 17.6 but no children are so glorious golden and glistering a crown as those who are spiritual Oh how happy is it for a godly old man to be able to say Lord I am not onely my self thy childe but I have brought forth children to Jesus Christ throughout my life and who now are come to a great number 5. Fifthly it is in some respect the most advantagious time of doing good Levit. 19.32 Dan. 7.13 Prov. 16.31 Prov. 20.29 it s an honourable age as mariage honourable among all men a kinde of resemblance of Gods antiquity who is called the ancient of dayes The gray head is called beauty and a crown of glory Now as our duty to do good so our opportunity of doing it to others follows our receiving or honour from others Besides old age brings wisdom and experience and therefore makes men more able to give wise and wholesome counsel to others It was a good expression of him who call'd an old mans head the house of wisdom Domicilium sapientiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Paed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seris venit usus ab annis Ovid. Met. l. 6. The most prudent Roman Convention the Senate was so called from old age noting that wisdom is commonly the endowment of old men The rash and foolish counsellors of Rehoboam were young men Old men are sometime as eminent for wisdom as young men are for strength And it s as rare to see a young man prudent as an old man strong By grave and good counsel and advice the strength of the head the aged may be more helpful then the yonger may be by their hands A few gray hairs may be more worth then many yong locks and green heads The night is the best time for counsell and so it is best to take counsel of Men in the night of their age when they have past through their troubles difficulties and manifold experiences when as they are quiet and sedate and there is not the noise and hurrying of passions to disturb and distract them And then old age is a fit age for the doing of good in regard of the prayers of old Men I should ordinarily chuse a young mans strength and an old mans prayers to be employed for me I count it a choice blessing to have a stock of prayers going in an old mans heart for me God loves to hear the prayers of his old servants when the hands of old Moses were up his prayers were acceptable though his hands were held up we make much of the words of a dying man and God eminently regards them Hence old men are wont to give their blessings i e. to pray for blessings from God old Jacob blessed Pharaoh c. Sixthly Old age is highly commendable for its safety And old Saint hath passed through those dangerous storms and difficulties that a poor young one is now sailing toward he hath done living almost the other is now going and beginning to live a young Man is happy that doth live well but an old an is happier that hath lived well he is by death beyond the temptations the difficulties the passions that a young man lies ingaged to and this is the fourth Corollary that old age is a blessing Vse 6. Vse 6 Though the coming to the grave in a full age in a age wherein one is like to a shock of ripe Corn be a promise yet is it to be understood rightly all Gods people do not alwayes die in full age in regard either of civill or natural fulnesse but yet if even such a fulnesse be good for them they shall have it and it shall note be bestowed if it be not for their good Honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee that thy dayes may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee Mark that Deut. 5.16 If it shall go well with thee Gods people shall have old age if God see it may make for their welfare God sometime sees that old age would tend to the outward trouble and misery of his servants by war captivity poverty famine so that it would not be a good old age and therefore he in mercy denies it them Josiah was taken away 2 King 22.20 before he was an old man that he might not see the evil that should come upon the place where he lived or much more if God sees by old age that they shall be brought under temptations which it may be they are not able to overcome he will not suffer them to go out to battle in their old age as the people said concerning David as the Lord lives thou shalt not go out to battle lest the light of Israel go out if God sees that thou shalt meet with such great stormes and tempests as thou art not able to withstand he will take thee to himself and shelter thee in the grave In a word if Gods people be taken away before they are old and have a full age they are taken away unto a full age unto the full age of grace and glory in Heaven God will give them an eternall life and is not God in that way as good as his word in promising a long life and are they any losers doth God break his promise in not giving them an old age in this world if he give them an everlasting age in the next If thy father had promised thee an acre or two of Land lying in a barren Heath or Common and afterwards in stead thereof gives thee a thousand acres of rich Meadow doth he break his promises with thee if the Lord promise to give an old age and in stead thereof give thee Heaven and Eternall life doth he not exceed his own promise as well as thy merit That man breaks not his word who having promised ten pieces of brasse gives instead of these an hundred pieces of gold as Herod when he promised half his Kingdom unto the daughter of Herodias if he had given the whole Kingdom to her he had not broke his promise so when God promises not half nor the thousand part of Heaven in promising long life he falls not short but goes beyond his word in bestowing Eternity of blisse Besides God promises no good to his people in this world but that which shall be a furtherance to the obtaining of the chiefest good if it be a bond to binde them to God not if it be a snare to intrap and

stand long the truth is their falling begins as Isidore of Pelusium speaks with their very building and being men they are subject also to the same accidents and casualties with others 2. Sinfull men T is true sin is in them and not in them in them not as their love but their load and vexation And death doth befall them and doth not befall Doth befall them as afflictive to sense as a cure of their woes as a consequent of sin but not as a curse or a wrathfull punishment but yet this repeated addition and he dyed subjoyned to the relation of the long lives of the ancient Patriarchs shewed the immoveable certainty of that threatning of death against Adams sin notwithstanding the deceitfull promise of the devil 3. They are holy men And to the grave they must come First For a resiing place Here is not their rest Rom. 7.24 Rom. 6.7 2 Cor. 5.6.8 1 Thes 4.16 their works at length follow them and they shall not follow their work any more Secondly They must be perfectly freed from sin which till death they cannot be Thirdly They must have their Crown of life and Fourthly Shall for ever be with the Lord who loves his children so well that he will not alwayes suffer them to be abroad and absent from him 2. In regard of others they must come to the grave First Some are unkind and cruel to them and haply they hurry them to the Port of the grave with a blustering storm and tempest of persecution The Saints especially Ministers of Christ are set in the forlorn hope and commonly the bullet soonest hits them Secondly Some idolize them deifie them how many when adored hath God grownde to pouder as Moses did the Israelites Calf and removed them from men when we have made them equall with God It s the great sin of the times either to deifie or nullifie men God loves neither Thirdly The living must prize them and get much good by them in a little time He who hath a book lent him but for a little while makes the more hast to read it over the Prophets and Saints of God live not ever nor are given us to use as long as we please they are but lent us and we must improve them speedily God hath held the candle of a Saints Life and a Ministers Doctrine to many idle professors many a year and he oft puts out this light to punish them for their negligence Since then even the best must come to the grave let them study to do much for God while they live The grave is a place of silence and rest Use 1 The living the living they praise and are employed for God Short seasons require speedy services The nearnesse of death should put us upon holy serviceablenesse during life as for the preserving of a sweet and precious remembrance of our selves in that generation which follows so especially for the transmitting by our examples holiness to Posterity that so a seed of Saints may be continued in the World when we are dead and gone And truely as otherwise we shall die while we live so hereby we shall live when we are dead and be like civet which when t is taken out of the box leaves a sweet savour behind it 2. Let not any settle themselves securely in this World he is a mad man that will go about to build a house upon a quaking quag-mire upon a rotten foundation The longest lived of those long-lived Patriarchs lived not a thousand years God hereby shewing that the longest life of any of the sons of men is not able to reach to that space which in respect of Gods Eternity is not a day Expect not Eternity in this life Vid Rivet in Gen. Let us live as if we were alwayes dying and yet as such as are ever to live Set not up your hopes your expectations here the grave will rub off all our worldly grandeur as a narrow hole sweepes off all the apples that the foolish hedge-hog loads her prickles withall Labour to be taken off from the world before you are taken out of it 3. Thirdly if Saints must come to the grave 3. Joh. 9.4 12.35 get good by them while they live Walk and work by the light while you have it with you Neglect not to get good by the godly in hope to enjoy them longer with you Thou mayst bewail thy over-slipt opportunities when t is too late I will not let thee go except thou blesse me you know it was the speech of Jacob to God O Lord say thou let not not such a Saint go such a Minister die till thou hast blessed me by his meanes let not his light be put out till he hath shewed me the way to heaven better 4. Fourthly if Saints must die you that live stand up in their stead if God take away pillars be not you as reeds Supply their departure by your piety and usefulnesse 5. Lastly must Saints die here is comfort in many respects they shall come to the grave they shall die but their souls shall never die the second death hath no power over them they shall die but secondly the Church shall never die they shall die but thirdly their works shall never die these shall follow them they shall die but fourthly their God shall never die the Prophets of God Do they live for ever but the God of the Prophets lives for ever Lastly they dye and therefore why should not we be willing to dye to fare as they fare Not onely the wicked but Saints dye A godly man was the first who dyed If death were not advantagious it should never be the lot of Gods beloved 2. 2. Branch of the first part This Port or place of the Saints the Grave affords us somewhat more for meditation It is a mercy not only to have a house to hide the head of the living in but to have a sepulchre in which to hide the head of the dead Obs 2 It is a mercy to have a grave Great was Abrahams provident care to purchase a burying-place for his dead God himself buried Moses his dear servant nor was the contention of the Angel about the body of Moses to hinder its burial but onely to forbid the Devil to be present at it When the Kings of Judah are recorded their burials are also frequently mentioned and those of the highest merit were buried in the upper part of the sepulchres of the sons of David 2 Chron. 32.33 Nor was it a small judgement of God inflicted upon Baasha and Jezabel to be buried in the bellies of Dogs Ier. 22 19. Or upon Jehoiakim that he should be buried with the burial of an Asse contemptibly cast into a ditch Or upon the king of Babylon Isai 14.20 that he should not be joyned with the kings in burial Neither was that a slight imprecation Psal 63.11 Let them be a portion for Foxes Nor a small threatning Jer. 14.16 That the

only weapon which Death can use is by the merit and spirit of Christ taken away so that death is now become a stinglesse Serpent and a toothlesse Lion a tame disarmed enemy or rather the bare name and notion of an enemy The unwillingnesse of Gods people to dye is not because they judge that death is not good for them but because they think not themselves good enough for death How unlike to Christians Vse 1 do they then shew themselves who are so loath to dye that they will not come but must be drag'd to the grave yea to the very thoughts thereof who though they cannot live without misery yet neither can they be content with that which as they cannot avoid so will put an end to all misery Oh how unsuitable is this distemper to those who both profess they desire that Gods will may be done that they are pilgrims and strangers upon earth and that heaven is their countrey their fathers house 2. How excellent is the grace of Faith Vse 2 which makes a beleever cheerfully to come to that to which another must be drawn and dragd I mean the grave To a beleever when his faith is on the wing life as Paul speaks of his is not dear and death as he speaks of his is desired Acts 20.24 Phil. 1.22.23 It was as hard to make Paul patient when he thought of living as to make another patient when he expected dying Faith is the alone mantle which divides the waters of death so as that a beleever sees he may go through them dry-shod That grace which throwes the Crosse of Christ into these waters of marah and thereby makes them not onely wholsome but pleasant It s our duty to labour for such a spirit Vse 3 as to be willing to die to Come to the grave If it was Christs desire to die for us should it not be our longing to live with him To this end First clear up thy interest in Christs death the death of thy death the blood of Christ makes pale death look beautifully He was a curse and death is thereby a blessing this horn of salvation dipt into the waters of death makes them not onely poisonless but wholsome death hath left its sting in the sides of Christ He that beleeveth in him shall never die Secondly In looking toward death look likewise beyond it even as far as the benefits which follow it view that blessednesse which is invisible Consider not death as it shews it self to an eye of sence but as its manifest to an eye of Faith not as an enemie to man but as changed by Christ into a friend yea the best friend next Christ himself Thirdly Oft meditate of death let it not surprize thee unawares let it be an acquaintance not a a stranger die before thou diest death onely seems a great businesse to those who are to go through it all at once Fourthly Hate sin the love of sin makes men fear death and he who hates sin must needs love death because thereby sin shall be wholly abolisht The love of sin is the arming of death and an armed enemy must needs be formidable Fifthly Wean thy self from the world Omnia ista nobis accedant ut sine ulla nostra laceratione discedant Sen. ep 74. an empty traveller will sing when he meets with the thief he who looks upon himself as possessing nothing in the world fears not a stripping by death let not the world cleave to thee as a shirt which sticks to an ulcerous body and so pulls skin and flesh away withall The loose tooth comes out with ease but when it stands fast in the head it s drawn out with much pain If the world and our affections be fastned the parting will not be without much difficulty I come to the second part of the text 2. Generall part of the Text. and that is the seasonableness of a Saints coming to the grave and First it is set out properly In a full age Tremelius renders it cum senio with old age Pagnine in maturitate in ripenesse Vatablus in senio The uulgar latine in abundantia in abundance which some expound of abundance of honours and riches others of abundance of years and long life and indeed the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies old age or a full age which stands in the abundance of years and therefore I know no reason why we should by giving other interpretations raise a dust to obscure the sence But yet withall here is imported a happy blessed old age such an old age as is a promise and is in scripture frequently cal'd a good old age and therefore this full age may include a threefold fulnesse to name no more 1. Maturitas civilis Gen. 15.15 1 Chro. 29.28 First a Civill fulnesse or maturity and so a full age is an age full of honour peace and riches so it is said that David died in a good old age full of dayes riches and honour this civil fulnesse being not onely considered actively when men have set their houses in order setled their Estates when they are ripe and fit for death in regard they have made their will and fitly disposed of their goods the neglect whereof for fear of death being a childish folly for death is never awhit the nearer because we place it before our eyes nor the further off because we will not see it but passively also when God hath bestowed upon men a full estate and especially a good name when they go not out in a snuff of disgrace and the sun of their life sets not in a cloud but they are buried with honour and leave a sweetly perfumed memoriall behind them their name living when their bodies are dead In this respect Jeroboams son died in a full age being honoured with the lamentations of Israel and Jehojada who was buried honourably in the chief of the Sepulchers of the Kings of Judah Secondly here may be recomprehended a Religious fulnesse 2. Maturitas spiritualis and that in three respects First when a person is born again hath gotten grace into his soul and an interest in Jesus Christ of whose fulnesse he hath received and grace for grace John 1.16 whereby he hath a meekness to die and thus yong ones may be of full age even before they are one and twenty they may be old young-men as on the contrary old sinners or sinners though of an hundred year old may be cal'd young or childish old-men young Josiah had his full age Aetas immatura pijs matura● est et plus illis est annos decem vixisse quam inpijs centum inercer in loc in this respect before he died and as Mercer well notes on the text a green age is to the godly a ripe age and they live more in ten years then the wicked in an hundred Secondly when a person not onely hath grace but also is beneficial usefull doth much good in his