Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	meet_v	young_a	youth_n	59	3	7.7577	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02531	Contemplations, the sixth volume. By Ios. Hall D. of D.; Contemplations upon the principall passages of the Holy Storie. Vol. 6	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1622 (1622)	STC 12657A; ESTC S103671	93,503	467

sweet varietie healing the diseased raising the dead casting out the Deuill calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodnesse Euery helpe to our deuotion deserues to be precious So much more as the decrepit age of the world declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of pietie That GOD to whose honour these poore labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his protection I heartily commend you and the right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy wife with all the pledges of your happie affection as whom you haue deserued to be Your truly thankfull and officious friend IOS HALL The Widowes Sonne raised THE fauours of our beneficent Sauiour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurions seruant from his bed then he raises the Widowes sonne from his Beere The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bountie of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sunne were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospell whose errand is vniuersall This immortall seed may not fall all in one furrow The little citie of Nain stood vnder the hill of Hermon neere vnto Tabor but now it is watered with better dewes from aboue the doctrine and miracles of a Sauiour Not for state but for the more euidence of the worke is our Sauiour attended with a large traine So entring into the gate of that walled Citie as if he meant to besiege their faith by his power and to take it His prouidence hath so contriued his iourney that he meets with the sad pompe of a funerall A wofull widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her only sonne to the graue There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flowre in the strength of his age swallowed vp by death Our decrepit age both expects death and solicites it but vigorous youth lookes strangely vpon that grim sergeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather vp with contentment we chide to haue the vnripe vnseasonably beaten downe with cudgells But more a young man the only sonne the only childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grieuous for a well-natu'rd mother to part with her owne bowells yet surely store is some mitigation of losse Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the suruiuing may supplie the comforts of the dead but when all our hopes and ioyes must either liue or die in one the losse of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say Oh daughter of my people gird thee with sack-cloth and wallow thy selfe in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely sonne Such was the losse such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor teares can suffice to discouer it Yet more had she beene aided by the counsell and supportation of a louing yoke-fellow this burden might haue seemed lesse intolerable A good husband may make amends for the losse of a sonne had the root beene left to her intire she might better haue spared the branch now both are cut vp all the stay of her life is gone and she seemes abandoned to a perfect miserie And now when she gaue her selfe vp for a forlorne mourner past all capacitie of redresse the God of comfort meets her pitties her relieues her Here was no solicitor but his owne compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a seruant the Ruler for a sonne Iairus for a daughter the neighbours for the Paralyticke here he seekes vp the patient and offers the cure vnrequested Whiles we haue to doe with the Father of mercies our afflictions are the most powerfull suitors No teares no praiers can moue him so much as his owne commiseration Oh God none of our secret sorrowes can be either hid from thine eies or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of helpe then art thou neerest to vs for deliuerance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercie The heart had compassion the mouth said Weepe not the feet went to the Beere the hand touched the coffin the power of the Deitie raised the dead What the heart felt was secret to it selfe the tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weepe not Alas what are words to so strong and iust passions To bid her not to weepe that had lost her only sonne was to perswade her to be miserable and not feele it to feele and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealement doth not remedie but aggrauate sorrow That with the counsell of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his hand seconds his tongue He arrests the coffin and frees the Prisoner Young man I say vnto thee arise The Lord of life and death speakes with command No finite power could haue said so without presumption or with successe That is the voice that shall one day call vp our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolued and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detaine their dead when he charges them to be deliuered Incredulous nature what dost thou shrinke at the possibilitie of a resurrection when the God of nature vndertakes it It is no more hard for that almightie Word which gaue being vnto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I doe not see our Sauiour stretching himselfe vpon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha vpon the sonnes of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling downe and praying by the Beere as Peter did to Dorcas but I heare him so speaking to the dead as if he were aliue and so speaking to the dead that by the word he makes him aliue I say vnto thee arise Death hath no power to bid that man lie still whom the Sonne of God bids Arise Immediatly he that was dead sate vp So at the sound of the last trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand vp glorious this mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible incorruption This bodie shall not be buried but sowne and at our day shall therefore spring vp with a plentifull increase of glorie How comfortlesse how desperate should be our lying downe if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weake faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficultie he hath alreadie by what he hath done giuen vs tastes of what he will doe The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no

That God whose counsells are secret euen where his actions are open will not be close to his Prophet to his Priest without inquirie we shall know nothing vpon inquirie nothing shall be concealed from vs that is fit for vs to know Who can choose but wonder at once both at Dauids slacknesse in consulting with God and Gods speed in answering so slow a demand He that so well knew the way to Gods Oracle suffers Israel to be three yeeres pinched with famine ere he askes why they suffer Euen the best hearts may be ouertaken with dulnesse in holy duties But oh the maruellous mercy of our God that takes not the aduantage of our weaknesses Dauids question is not more slow then his answer is speedie It is for Saul and for his bloudie house because he slew the Gibeonites Israel was full of sinnes besides those of Sauls house Sauls house was full of sinnes besides those of bloud Much bloud was shed by them besides that of the Gibeonites yet the iustice of God singles out this one sinne of violence offered to the Gibeonites contrary to the league made by Ioshua some foure hundred yeeres before for the occasion of this late vengeance Where the causes of offence are infinite it is iust with God to pitch vpon some it is mercifull not to punish for all Welneere fortie yeeres are past betwixt the commission of the sinne and the reckoning for it It is a vaine hope that is raised from the delay of iudgement No time can be any preiudice to the ancient of daies When we haue forgotten our sinnes when the world hath forgotten vs he sues vs afresh for our arerages The slaughter of the Gibeonites was the sinne not of the present but rather the former generation and now posteritie paies for their forefathers Euen we men hold it not vniust to sue the heires and executors of our debters Eternall paiments God vses only to require of the person temporarie oft-times of succession As Saul was higher by the head and shoulders then the rest of Israel both in stature and dignitie so were his sinnes more conspicuous then those of the vulgar The eminence of the person makes the offence more remarkable to the eies both of God and men Neither Saul nor Israel were faultlesse in other kindes yet God fixes the eie of his reuenge vpon the massacre of the Gibeonites Euery sin hath a tongue but that of bloud ouer cries and drownes the rest He who is mercy it selfe abhorres crueltie in his creature aboue all other inordinatenesse That holy soule which was heauie pressed with the weight of an hainous adulterie yet cries out Deliuer me from bloud O God the God of my saluation and my tongue shall sing ioyfully of thy righteousnesse If God would take account of bloud he might haue entred the action vpon the bloud of Vriah spilt by Dauid or if he would rather insist in Sauls house vpon the bloud of Ahimelech the Priest and fourescore and fiue persons that did weare a linnen Ephod but it pleased the wisdome and iustice of the Almightie rather to call for the bloud of the Gibeonites though drudges of Israel and a remnant of Amorites Why this There was a periurie attending vpon this slaughter It was an ancient oath wherein the Princes of the Congregation had bound themselues vpon Iosua●s league to the Gibeonites that they would suffer them to liue an oath extorted by fraud but solemne by no lesse name then the Lord God of Israel Saul will now thus late either not acknowledge it or not keepe it out of his zeale therefore to the children of Israel and Iudah he roots out some of the Gibeonites whether in a zeale of reuenge of their first imposture or in a zeale of inlarging the possessions of Israel or in a zeale of executing Gods charge vpon the brood of Canaanites he that spared Agag whom he should haue smitten smites the Gibeonites whom he should haue spared Zeale and good intention is no excuse much lesse a warrant for euill God holds it an hie indignitie that his name should be sworne by and violated Length of time cannot dispense with our oathes with our vowes The vowes and oathes of others may binde vs how much more our owne There was a famine in Israel a naturall man would haue ascribed it vnto the drought and that drought perhaps to some constellations Dauid knowes 〈◊〉 looke higher and sees a diuine hand scourging Israel for some great offence and ouer-ruling those second causes to his most iust executions Euen the most quick-sighted worldling is pore-blinde to spirituall obiects and the weakest eyes of the regenerate pierce the Heauens and espy God in all earthly occurrences So well was Dauid acquainted with Gods proceedings that hee knew the remouall of the iudgement must begin at the satisfaction of the wronged At once therefore doth he pray vnto God and treat with the Gibeonites What shall I doe for you and wherewith shall I make the attonement that I may blesse the inheritance of the Lord In vaine should Dauid though a Prophet blesse Israel if the Gibeonites did not blesse them Iniuries done vs on earth giue vs power in heauen The oppressor is in no mans mercy but his whom he hath trampled vpon Little did the Gibeonites thinke that God had so taken to heart their wrongs that for their sakes all Israel should suffer Euen when we thinke not of it is the righteous Iudge auenging our vnrighteous vexations Our hard measures cannot be hid from him his returns are hid from vs It is sufficient for vs that God can be no more neglectiue then ignorant of our sufferings It is now in the power of these despised Hiuites to make their own termes with Israel Neither Siluer nor Gold will sauour with them towards their satisfaction Nothing can expiate the bloud of their fathers but the bloud of seauen sonnes of their deceased persecutor Here was no other then a iust retaliation Saul had punished in them the offence of their predecessours they will now reuenge Sauls sinne in his children The measure we mete vnto others is with much equitie re-measured vnto our selues Euery death would not content them of Sauls sonnes but a cursed and ignominious hanging on the Tree Neither would that death content them vnlesse their owne hands might be the executioners Neither would any place serue for the execution but Gibeah the Court of Saul neither would they doe any of this for the wreaking of their owne fury but for the appeasing of Gods wrath We will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul Dauid might not refuse the condition Hee must deliuer they must execute Hee chooses out seuen of the sonnes and grand-children of Saul That House had raysed long an vniust persecution against Dauid now God payes it vpon anothers score Dauids loue and oath to Ionathan preserues lame Mephibosheth How much more shall the Father of all mercies doe good vnto the children of the