Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	merry_a	young_a	youth_n	21	3	8.0600	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25250	Ultima, = the last things in reference to the first and middle things: or certain meditations on life, death, judgement, hell, right purgatory, and heaven: delivered by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes in Lancashire.; Prima, media, & ultima. Ultima.	Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.	1650 (1650)	Wing A2970; ESTC R27187	201,728	236

dreadfull of hel yet coveting death in a continuall torment yet his own tormentour consuming himself with grief and horrour impatience and despair till at last he ended his miserable-miserable life And now beloved if such be the departure of a sinnfull soul O who would live in sinne to come to such a departure For my part I dare not say these parties thus miserable in their own apprehensions are now among Devils in hell I find the Authours themselves to incline to the right hand besides what am I that I should sit in Gods Chair onely this I say that their miserable deaths may verie well give warning to us all nor need you think much at me for uttering these terribilia terrible stories for if sometimes you did not hear of Gods judgements against sinne a day might come that you would most of all crie out on the Preacher To this purpose we have a story of a certain rich man who lying on his death-bed My soul said he I bequeath to the Devil who owns it my wife to the Devil who drew me to my ungodly life and my Chaplain to the Devil who flattered me in it I pray God I never hear of such a Legacy from any of you sure I had better to tell you aforehand to prevent it then not telling you to feel it And let this be for my Apologie in relating these stories Vse 2 But for a second Use give me leave I pray you to separate the precious from the vile Now then to sweeten the thoughts of all true penitents the souls of Saints are not required but received Rejoyce then ye righteous that mourn in Sion what though a while ye suffer death is a Goal-delivery to your souls not bringing in but freeing out of thraldome Here the good man finds sharpest misery the evil man sweetest felicity therefore it is just that there should be a time of changing turnes The rich mans Table stood full of delicates Lazarus lacks crums but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16.25 Wo unto you that laugh for you shall mourn Luke 6.25 Luke 6.25 Blessed are you that mourn for you shall rejoyce Matth. 5.4 Matth. 5.4 Happy Lazarus who from thy beggary and loathsome sores wert carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome happy Thief who upon thy true repentance and unfeigned prayer wert received from the Crosse to the Paradise of thy Saviour happy are all they that suffer tribulation Death shall lose their souls from bonds and fetters and in stead of a Bayliff to arrest them shall be a Porter to conduct them to the gates of heaven There shalt thou tread on Serpents trample on thine enemies sing sweet Trophies were not this enough thy Conquests shall be crowned by the hands of Seraphims triumphed with the sound of Angels warbled by the Quire of Spirits confirmed by the King of Kings and Lord of Hosts Happy Soul that art not required by Devils but received by Angels and when we die Lord Jesus send thine Angels to receive our Souls You see now Deaths Arrest and what remains further save to accept of some Bail But what Bail where you have the Kings Commandment from his own mouth this requiring is not of any other but himself of no suretie but of thee saith God must thy Soul be required Of thee ONce more you see I have brought this rich man on the stage his doom is now at hand and Death Gods messenger summons him to appear by Requiring of his soul but of whom is it Required had he any Sureties to put in or was any Bail sufficient to be taken for him no he must go himself without all help or remedie it was he that sinned and it is he must pay for it Of thee it is required How of thee Sure Death mistakes we can find thousands more fit none more fearfull there stands a Saul near him his armour-bearer behold a Judas such will outface deaths fury nay rather then if fail in its office they will not much question to be their own Deaths-men but this Of thee who art at league with hell in love with earth at peace with all is most terribly fearfull Stay Death there stands a poor Lazarus at the gates like Job on his dung-hil his eyes blind his ears deaf his feet lame his bodie struck with Boyls Job 7.15 and his Soul choosing rather to be strangled and die then to be in his bones were not this a fit object for deaths crueltie would he spare the rich he should be welcome to the poor but Death is inexorable he must not live nor shall the Beggar beg his own death for another Of thee it is required But Death yet stay thy hand here 's a better surety what needs death a presse when he may have volunteers there stands an old man as ready for the grave as the grave for him his face is furrowed his hairs hoary his back bowing his hammes bending and therefore no song is fitter then old Simeons Luke 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Youth is loath but Age is merry to depart from misery let Death then take him that standeth nearest deaths-door No the old must die but the young may he must die soon yet be sure thou shalt not live long Of thee it is required Cannot this serve let death yet stay his hand there stands a servant waiting at this rich mans beck as if he would spend his own life to save his Masters he can make a Pageant of Cringes act a whole speech of flatteries every part owes him service feet to run hands to work head to crouch and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of a Mistris so the eyes of his servants look unto the hands of their Master but where be these attendants when death comes was ever any Master better then Christ were ever any servants truer then his Apostles yet see their fidelitie must their Saviour die one betrayes him another forswears him all run from him and leave him alone in midst of all his enemies what then is the trust of servants the rich man may command and go without if death should require them they would not or if they should desire death hee will not his arrest concerns not the servants it is for the Master himself he that command others now death commands him Of thee it is required Will not all do Let death but stay this once there stands a friend that will loose his own to save his life Greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour when any man bestoweth his life for his friends John 15.13 John 15.13 Riches may perhaps procure such love and get some friend to answer deaths quarrel which he ows this man Jonathan loves David David Absolon and sure it was a love indeed when Jonathan preserves the life of David and David wisheth a death to himself in the stead of Absolon O my sonne Absolon 2.

and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone Psal 90.10 Psal 90.10 Here is halfs of halfs and if we half it a while sure we shall half away all our time nay we have a custome goes a little further and tells us of a number a great deal shorter we are fallen from seventie to seven in lifes leases made by us Nay what speak I of years when my text breaks them all into dayes Few and evil have the dayes been so our former translation without any addition of years at all and if you mark it our life in Scripture is more often termed dayes then years the book of Chronicles which writes of mens lives are called according to the interpretation Words of dayes to this purpose we read David was old and full of dayes 1 Chron. 23.1 1 Chron. 23.1 and in the dayes of Iehoram Edom rebelled 2 Chron. 21.8 2 Chron. 21.8 So in the New Testament In the dayes of Herod the King Matth. 2.1 Matth. 2.1 and in the dayes of Herod the King of Iudea Luke 1.5 Luke 1.5 In a word thus Iob speaks of us our life is but dayes our dayes but a shadow we know nothing saith Iob and why so our dayes upon earth are but a shadow Iob 8.9 Job 8.9 Lo here the length of our little life it is not for ever no Adam lost that estate he that lived longest after Adam came short of the number of a thousand years nay that was halfed to somewhat lesse then five hundred and that again halfed to little more then two hundred Iacob yet halfs it again to a matter of seven score and Moses halfs that again to seventy or a little more nay our time brings it frō seventy to seven nay Iacob yet brings it from years to daies few and evil have the dayes of the year of my life been Vse 1 Teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome Psal 90 12. Moses Arithmetick is worthy your meditation learn of him to number pray to God your teacher think every evening there is one day of your number gone and every morning there is another day of miserie coming on evening and morning meditate on Gods mercy and your own miserie Thus if you number your dayes you shall have the lesse to account for at that day when God shall call you to a finall reckoning Vse 2 But miserable men who are not yet born again their dayes run on without any meditation in this kind What think they of but of long dayes and many years And were all their dayes as long as the day of Joshuah when the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven yet it will be night at last and their Sun shall set like others True God may give some a liberall time but what enemies are they to themselves that of all their dayes allow themselves not one 1. Pet. 3.10 If any man long after life and to see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile How live they that would needs live long and follow no rules of pietie many can post off their conversion from day to day sending Religion afore them to thirty and then putting it off to fourtie and not pleased yet to overtake it promise it entertainment at threescore at last death comes and allows not one hour In youth these men resolve to reserve the time of age to serve God in in age they shuffle it off to sicknesse when sicknesse comes care to dispose their goods loathnesse to die hope to escape ma●tyrs that good thought O miserable men if you have but the Lease of a Farm for twenty years you make use of the time and gather profit but in this precious farm of Time you are so ill husbands that your Lease comes out before you are one penny worth of grace the richer by it Matth. 20.6 Why stand ye here all the day idle there are but a few hours or dayes that ye have to live at last comes the night of death that will shut up your eyes in sleep till the day of doom You see now the term of our Lease our Life lasts but Dayes and although we live many dayes Luke 19.42 Matth. 6.12 yet in this thy day saith Christ and Give us this day our daily bread say we as if no day could be called thy day but this day if there be any more we shall soon number them my text tells you they are not many but few Few and evill have the dayes of my life been Few OUr Lease is a Life our Life is but Dayes our Dayes are but Few The Phoenix the Elephant and the Lion fulfill their hundreds but man dieth when he thinks his Sun yet riseth before his eye be satisfied with seeing or his ear with hearing or his heart with lusting death knocks at his door and often will not give him leave to meditate an excuse before he comes to judgement Is not this a wonder to see dumb beasts outstrip mans life The Phoenix lives thousands say some but a thousand years are a long life with man Methushalem you saw the longest liver came short of this number and yet could we attain to so ripe an age what are a thousand years to the dayes everlasting If you took a little mote to compare with the whole earth what great difference were in these two and if you compare this life which is so short with the life to come which shall never have end how much lesse will it yet appear As drops of rain are unto the sea Ecclus 18.9 and as a gravell stone is in comparison to the sand so are a thousand years to the dayes everlasting But will you haue an exact account and learn the just number It was the Arithmetick of holy men to reckon their dayes but Few as if the shortest cut were the best account The Hebrews could subduct the time of sleep which is half our life so that if the dayes of men were threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 here 's five and thirty years struck off at one blow The Philosophers could subduct the time of weakness which is most of life so that if vivere be valere that onely a true life which enjoyes good health here 's the beginning and the ending of our dayes struck off at a second blow The Fathers could subduct all times not present and what say you to this account were the dayes of life at noon man grown to manhood look ye back and the time past is nothing look ye forward and the time to come is but uncertain and if time past and time to come stand both for ciphers what is our life but the present and what is that but a moment Nay as if a moment were too much look

fearfully out of this miserable world I know not what you have seen but there is very few which have not heard of many too many in this case What were Judas thoughts when he strangled himself that his bowels gushed out again What were Cains visions when he ran like a vagabond roaring and crying Gen. 4.14 Whosoever findeth me shall slay me What are all their affrights that cry when they are a dying they see spirits and Devils flying about them coming for them roaring against them as if an hell entred into them before themselves could enter it I dare instance in no other but this wretched miser What a night was that to him when on a sudden a darknesse seized on him that never after left him Thus many go to bed that never rise again till they be wakened by the fearfull sound of the last Trumpet and was not this a terrour whose heart doth not quake whose flesh doth not tremble whose senses are not astonished whilest vve do but think on it And then vvhat vvere the sufferings of himself in his person He might cry and roar and vvail and vveep yet there is none to help him his heart-strings break the blessed Angels leave him Devils still exspect him and novv the Judge hath pronounced his sentence This night in the dark they must seiz upon him Yet this was not all the horrour it was a night both of darkness and drowsiness or security in sinne He that reads the life of this man may well wonder at the fearfull end of so fair beginnings walk into his fields and there his cattel prosper come nearer to his house and there his barns swell with corn enter into his gates and there every table stands richly furnished step yet into his chambers and you may imagine doun-beds curtain'd with gold hangings nay yet come nearer we will draw the curtains and you shall view the person he had toiled all day and now see how securely he takes his rest this night he dreams golden dreams of ease of mirth of pastime as all our worldly pleasures are but waking dreams but stay a while and see the issue just like a man who starting out of sleep sees his house on fire his goods ransacked his family murthered himself near lost and not one to pitie him when the very thrusting in of an arm might deliver him this and no other was the case of this dying miser at that night while his senses were most drowsie most secure death comes in the dark and arrests him on his bed Awake rich Cormorant what charms have lulled thee thus asleep Canst thou slumber whilest death breaks down this house thy bodie to rob thee of that jewell thy soul What a deep dull drowsie dead sleep is this O fool this night is thy soul assaulted see death approaching Devils hovering Gods justice threatning canst thou yet sleep and are thine eyes yet heavie Behold the hour is at hand and thy soul must be delivered into the hands of thine enemies heavie eies he sleeps still his care all day had cast him into so dead a sleep this night that nothing can warn him untill death awake him That thief is most dangerous that comes at night such a thief is death a thief that steals men Latro hominis which then is most busie whilest we are most drowsie most secure in sinne Heark the sluggard that lulls himself in his sinnes Yet a little more sleep a little more slumber is not his destruction sudden and poverty coming on him like an armed man Prov. 6.11 Prov. 6.11 Watch saith our Saviour for you know not when the master of the house cometh at even or at midnight at the cock-crow or in the morning lest coming suddenly he should find you sleeping Mark 13.35 Mark 13.35 36. Was not this the wretchednesse of the foolish virgins how sweetly could they slumber how soundly could they sleep untill mid-night they never wake nor so much as dream to buy oyl for their lamps imagine then how fearfull were those summons to these souls Behold the Bridegroom go ye out to meet him Matth. 25.26 Sudden fears of all others are most dangerous was it not a fearfull waking to this rich man when no sooner that he opened his eyes but he saw deaths uglinesse afore his face what a sight was this at his door enters the King of fear accompanied with all his abhorred horrours and stinging dread on his curtains he may read his sinns arrayed and armed in their grisliest forms and with their fieriest stings about his bed are the powers of darknesse now presenting to his view his damnable state his deplorable miserie what can he do that is thus beset with such a world of wofull work and hellish rage his tongue faulters his breath shortens his throat rattles he would not watch and now cannot resist the crie is made the mid-night come God sounds destruction and thus runs the proclamation This night so drowsie thy soul must be taken from thee And yet more horrour it was a night of drowsinesse and sadnesse How is he but sad when he sees the night coming and his last day decaying Read but the copy of this rich mans Will and see how he deals all he hath about him he bequeaths his garments to the moth his gold to rust his body to the grave his soul to hell his goods and lands he knows not to whom Whose shall these things be Here is the man that made such mirth all day and now is he forced to leave all he hath this night It is the fruit of merry lives to give sad farwels You that sport your selves and spoyl others that rob God in his members and treasure up your own damnations will not death make sorrie hearts for your merry nights a night wil come as sad as sadnesse in her sternest looks and then what a lot will befall you O that men are such cruell Caitiffs to their own souls Is this a life think ye fit for the servants of our God revelling swearing drinking railing what other did this miser he would eat and drink and revell and sing and then came fear as desolation and his destruction on a sudden as a whirl-wind If this be our life how should we escape his death Alas for the silly mirth that now we pleasure in you may be sure a night will come that must pay for all and then shall your pleasures vanish your griefs begin and your numberlesse sins like so many envenomed stings run into your damned souls and pierce them through with everlasting sorrow away with this fond Prov. 14.13 foolish sottish vanitie The end of mirth is heavinesse saith Solomon Prov. 14.13 What will the sonnes and daughters of pleasure do then all those sweet delights shall be as scourges and Scorpions for your naked souls Then though too late will you lamentably cry out Wisd 5.8.9 What hath pride profited us or what profit hath the pomp of riches