Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	old_a	youth_n	youthful_a	57	3	10.5763	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77759	Midnights meditations of death: with pious and profitable observations, and consolations : perused by Francis Quarles a little before his death. / Published by E.B.; A buckler against the fear of death.	Buckler, Edward, 1610-1706.; Benlowes, Edward, 1603?-1676, attributed name.; Quarles, Francis, 1592-1644.	1646 (1646)	Wing B5350; Thomason E1164_3; ESTC R208713	41,632	130

That thirstie drie and barren land did yawn And gape to heav'n-ward for a draught of drink Just so whene'r Gods favour is withdrawn From a soul it doth distresse her Ne'r earth thirsted more for rain Then doth she for God again To relieve her and refresh her Have you not seen a mothers wofull tears Embalm the carcase of her onely sonne How to all comfort she stops both her eares Wrings both her hands and makes a bitter moan Fain in sorrow would she swim Or be drown'd it is so deep She hath heart enough to weep Heaven full up to the brim But this is nothing to that matchlesse anguish That breaks in pieces ev'rie pious heart And makes the soul with darkest sadnesse languish If from 't a sense of Gods good will depart O how strangely David 's troubled When God hid away his face Though but for a little space See how his complaints are doubled How long for ever Lord wilt thou forget me How long wilt thou thy gratious visage hide How long be angrie wilt thou never let me Enjoy thy face again shall I abide Thus for evermore bereft Of all comfort joy and peace Shall my soul ne'r dwell at ease Hast thou Lord no mercy left O once again be pleas'd to turn and give My soul a relish of thy wonted grace There 's nothing can my sadded heart relieve If thou dost hide thy comfortable face Thou in tears thy servant drown'st Thou dost fill my cheeks with furrows And my soul with ghastly sorrows Whensoever Lord thou frown'st The world doth value at a precious rate Things here below Some highly prize their sport Some jewels some a plentifull estate And some preferments in a Princes court But for life we so esteem it Above whatsoe'r is best That with losse of all the rest We are ready to redeem it But none of these Gods children do regard So much as Gods love by a thousand parts Feel they but this to entertein 't is spar'd The best and highest room in all their hearts They affect no wordly pelf In comparison of this Kindnesse yea to them it is Better farre then life it self Have they no reason for this eager thirst After Gods love and friendship sure they see Gods favour and his kindnesse is the first And chiefest good all other friendships be Most deceitfull trustlesse vain When the pangs of Death do seise us Mortall favours cannot ease us God can rid us of our pain But grant he do not yet these pains shall send Our souls to him that loves us to enjoy A painlesse life that ne'r shall see an end He whom God loves can on a death-bed say I know my Redeemer liveth For me there 's laid up a crown When this clay-built house is down God a better mansion giveth I 'll never woo the smile of man whose breath Is in his nostrils by sinister wayes 'T will not advantage at the houre of Death All my supportment on these carnall stayes At the length will but deceive me 'T is to have a friend above 'T is Gods favour and his love Or else nothing must relieve me Lord make thy graces in my soul appear My heart from ev'rie lothsome blemish cleanse That I may clearly see thine image there For that 's an undeceived evidence Of thy favour which when I Once am certain to obtein I 'll not faint for any pain Nor will care how soon I die Sect. 5. Youth cannot protect us from the stroke of Death A Young man may die but an old man must This may die quickly that cannot live long Often are graves fill'd full with youthfull dust Though youth be jocund lustie merrie strong Yet is it subject unto Death-bed-pains 'T is mortall bloud that runnes along their veins In all appearance old mens halting feet are Mov'd to the grave-ward with the greatest speed Like that disciples which did outrunne Peter But sometimes younger men step in indeed And peradventure twentie years or more Sooner then those that looked in before Graves gape for ev'rie sort The butcher 's seen Often to kill the youngest of the flock Some long to pluck those apples that are green Death crops the branches and forbears the stock Children are wrapp'd up in their winding-sheets And aged parents mourn about the streets Jobs children di'd before himself for after The death of ten he liv'd to get ten other We sigh out Ah my sonne or Ah my daughter As oft as Ah my father or my mother The first that ever di'd resign'd his breath Nine hundred yeares before his fathers death Yea many times Deaths gripings are so crucl Before the groning mothers child-birth-pain Is past the infant 's buri'd like a jewel But shewn and presently shut up again Perhaps within a minute after birth Is forthwith sent to cradle in the earth Perhaps he is not born at all yet dies And dies a verie thriftie Death to save Fun'rall expenses he in 's mother lies Entombed both lodg'd in a single grave And with him lies in one poore narrow room His swadling-clouts nurse mother cradle tomb Meditation 1. SOme sinnes there be as holy writ doth teach That interrupt the current of our dayes He that 's found gultie of them cannot reach That length of life which he that 's free enjoyes Sinne you know and Death are twins Or Death is Sinnes progeny Many of us if we die In our youth may thank our sinnes One sinne is disobedience to that pair Which did beget us If I shall despise My parents lawfull precepts if my care Be not to do what 's pleasing in their eyes If I willingly neglect Any thing which I do know Is a duty that I ow I may Death betimes expect Another sinne is unprepar'd receiving That blessed Supper which doth feed and heal And in and to a soul that is believing A full release of sinnes doth freely seal Where that body and that bloud Is presented on the table Which are infinitely able To do hungri'st sinners good If I come hither an unworthie guest Or if before my heart I do not prove Or if I come as to a common feast Or come without Thanks Knowledge Faith and Love If I carrie any crime Thither with me unlamented Or go ere I have repented Death may take me hence betime Another is Bloud-thirstinesse when we To do a mischief are so strongly bent That we sleep not unlesse our projects be Contrived to insnare the innocent When we are so like the Devil Everie way satanicall That tongue brains heart hands and all Are imploy'd in what is evil These sinnes and others like them do procure Untimely Deaths Lord purifie my heart From everie sinne but chiefly Lord secure My soul from these that I may not depart Hence too soon Lord my desire Is not to live long but I Onely pray that I may die In thy favour not thine ire Meditation 2. THere is a sinne that seldome doth escape A rich mans heir yet 't is a foul transgression For

That I could wish What I would have him be God is Would I be compassed about With mercie find relief in miserie Would I by his Spirit be led And have all my sinnes forgiven And hereafter go to heaven All this God hath promised So free that to deserve that promis'd glory I nothing have but what his mercie gave me 'T is gratis rather then compensatorie Whatever God doth to convert or save me And if any good I do 'T is done by supplies Divine So Gods work and none of mine Grace begins and ends it too What if by nature I was made a sheep And by corruption I am gone astray Whether I think or speak or do or sleep Or wake do ever wander from the way I was set in and am toss'd So by lust that my soul wanders Into many by-meanders Like a sillie sheep that 's lost Yet God 's my shepherd When his mercy spi'd me Wandring it brought me home and ever since It doth watch over feed defend and guide me And ever will do so till I go hence And hereafter in the even When my latest sand is runne And my pasture here is done It will fold my soul in heaven The Sonne doth comfort 'T was his errand down To preach glad tidings to the meek and turn Their wo to ease to earn a glorious crown For sinners and to comfort those that mourn Broken-hearted ones to bind And to set at libertie Pris'ners in captivitie And give eye-sight to the blind There 's comfort in his wounds His sacred stripes Do heal our leprous souls of all their sores 'T is nothing but his pretious bloud that wipes Our guilt away and cancelleth our scores Six times did he shed his bloud And sure out estate did need it That so many times he did it And each drop was for our good Those circumcision-drops of 's infancie Those drops that 's anguish in the garden vented Those drops when he was scourged Jewishly Those drops when 's head with sharpest thorns was tented Those drops when his limbs were nailed To the crosse those when the fierce Souldiers spear his side did pierce Each drop for our good prevailed There 's comfort in his crosse That vile old man That hangs about us to our dying day Is crucified with him that it can Not exercise half of its wonted sway Lessened is its kingly power Surely sinne it struggles so Hath receiv'd a mortall blow And is dying everie houre There 's comfort in his death For us he dy'd For us he felt his Fathers heavie wrath And his impartiall justice satisfi'd And us his alsufficient passion hath Pluck'd from Satan vi armis And his meritorious pain Freed us from sinnes guilt and stain And whatever else might harm us There 's comfort in his resurrection too He rose again that we might be accounted Righteous and just This no man else could do And that our sinnes whose number farre surmounted All the starres that shine in heaven All our hairs and all the sand That lies scattered on the strand For his sake might be forgiven And God the holy Ghost doth comfort bring By speciall office it is his imployment To settle in the soul a lively spring From whence doth issue such a sweet enjoyment Of divine heart-pleasing blisse As the world will not believe Nor can any heart conceive But the heart wherein it is It is this blessed Spirit that doth seal Assurance to my conscience of a share In what God in and through his Sonne doth deal To needy sinners that converted are It assures me of Gods love In the free and full remission Of my sinnes and exhibition Of those joyes that are above Let now the world that 's wont to tell a storie Of strange delights shew me but such a pleasure As to be sure of God and Christ and glory And then I 'll hug it as my choicest treasure Thus each Person of the three Is imploy'd if I do live Holy as I ought to give Joy and comfort unto me Grant a man once to be in Christ and he On sublunarie pleasures soon will trample And yet for pleasures who shews best will vie With all the world give him but one example What gets pleasure and what feeds it Whatsoe'r mongst earthly things To the mind most pleasure brings He can shew what farre exceeds it Can learning please he is a man of parts Me thinks sure at his very fingers end He hath exactly all the liberall arts At least he hath such arts as will commend Any man a great deal more And will sooner bring to heaven Then will any of those seven On which learned men do pore His Logick is so scientificall His Syllogismes are in so blest a mood A thousand arguments his heart lets fall That rightly from good premises conclude Him a child of God on high And a member of his Sonne And an heir when 's race is runne Of a blest Eternitie His Rhetorick excells He can perswade More then those well-penn'd sweet orations which Demosthenes or Tullie ever made Doth he that prayer-hearing God beseech Presently his eare he gains For fine words it is no matter Let him like a swallow chatter Or a crane yet he obtains And for Arithmetick his numeration Is of his dayes this makes the man applie His heart to wisdome that in any station He may perform his dutie prudently And those sinnes to make them hatefull Which his conscience most do cumber Everie day the man doth number And Gods blessings to be gratefull And for Addition 't is his diligence Vertue to adde to faith to vertue knowledge Love godlinesse peace kindnesse patience One to another that his soul 's a Colledge Filled with divinest graces And not one grace idle lies But all do their exercise In their severall turns and places When he subtracteth 't is not from the poore As most men do not from the King nor Church But from sinnes monstrous bodie More and more He weakens the old man that lies at lurch In each of his faculties And his master-sinne the strongest Lust that hath been harboured longest In his soul he mortifies He multiplies not as in many places Men do his riches but he multiplies And doth augment his saving gifts and graces If not in habit yet in exercise He divides his goods he feedeth Hungrie bellies and relieveth Such as are distress'd and giveth Unto everie one that needeth When he reduceth 't is his conversation In ev'rie point from what it was by nature He moulds his life into another fashion And shews himself to be a new-made creature And for such a mans Progression He 's not fixed in his place Like a statue but in grace Grows to credit his profession He ever worketh by the Rule of Three That do above in heaven bear record The Golden Rule whereby his actions be Squar'd and directed is their written word Though sometimes he work by Fractions Gives God broken services 'Cause he 's flesh in part yet is He

And if they die my grief shall be the lesse A childs death 's a precious savour In thy nostrils that was here Taught to live Lord in thy fear For he dieth in thy favour Meditation 4. IF youth it self may drop into the grave When children die methinks they should bequeath Surviving parents comforts Sure they have No cause were not affection strong to grieve Overmuch as many do For Death is impartiall By his stroke all ages fall Both the old'st and youngest too Think duly on 't Why should your eyes runne o'r For what you have no way to remedie If you should heav'n eternally implore It would not send them back But you 'll replie 'Cause there 's no way to be found That may help us to recover Them again our eyes runne over And our tears do so abound Nor ever will your highest floud of sorrow Transport them back into the world again Your selves may follow them before to morrow Those deep-fetch'd sighs are smok'd out all in vain So are all those drops you mourn Shed in vain hap'ly you may Soon go after them but they Are too happie to return Is it your love that doth produce such grones How easily alas is love mistaken Methinks you cannot love and grieve at once To love were to rejoyce that they have shaken Hands with miserie to dwell In a world of blisse above Grief at this is farre from love It seems not to wish them well Or is 't because that they are dead you weep I do not think that when they were begotten You dream'd them death-free or had hopes to keep Them here for ever that they would be rotten In their graves you could not choose But consider for a span To be quickly ended can Never go for any news Nor with good reason can you lay the blame On Death at all but on your selves that did Beget them mortall for the very same Matter wherewith they were begot and fed Fits them for an alteration By the hand of Death If you Grudge that Death hath ta'n his due You may blame their generation Or do you grieve because they di'd so soon If wayes be foul and journeys perillous Who taketh up his lodging e'r 't be noon Is best at ease 'T is like God loveth those Whom he takes betime away Sad experience lets us know That the happi'st here below Have a miserable stay Or is your onely child deceas'd that passion Doth domineer so here I could allow Methinks your tears a free immoderation But that on better ground then Jephtha's vow I remember what was done By that parent who is penn'd Down for great Jehovah's friend In case of his onely sonne Ev'n when 't was dead a miracle did fill His Sarahs womb but it was fill'd but once Isaac was all Yet Abraham must kill This all himself God did it for the nonce That he might his graces prove Yet the man made no denyall But did by so strange a triall Manifest his faith and love This case must needs strike nearer to the heart Then yours yet he doth presently submit Love I confesse is very loth to part With what it loves but grace doth put a bit Into natures mouth that she May not grumble nor repine At what 's a decree Divine But subscribe it chearfully Just like the Autumn-sap of fruitfull trees So love descends and it is ardent when Dispersed but by infinite degrees More ardent when it is contracted men That have but an onely sonne If Death take him hence their losse Is a great one but this crosse Must be born Thy will be done Is what your selves do pray for every day And when this will of God 's declared you Greatly offend if you do murmure May Not God and Sinne and Nature claim their due Very ill you do behave you If you give not heav'n leave Thankfully for to bereave You again of what it gave you Lord if thou please to stock my table round About with children yet I will be glad Nor shall my sorrow overmuch abound Though I do see them in their grave-clothes clad For the sooner are they blest And within the shortest space Whom thou help'st to winne a race They the sooner are at rest Meditation 5. VVE do not die by chance nor yet by fortune But how and when the Lord will have us die He numbers all our dayes we cannot shorten Nor lengthen them a minute Destiny Neither spinnes nor cuts the thread God a certain period sets No man shorter falls or gets Further then the bounds decreed If God vouchsafe to number out the hairs That do adorn and cloth our sinfull heads Who doubteth that his providence forbears To count our dayes If not a sparrow treads On the earth 's face thus or thus But his providence awaketh For to note it sure he taketh Greater care by farre of us If any godlesse wits so curious be To talk of Hezekiah's fifteen years His sentence God did change not his decree The answer is yet Esay 's tongue appears To speak not a jote the lesse Truth 't was with a supposition God doth threaten with condition Either tacit or expresse When Pestilence that lothsome dreadfull hag Bepatch'd with botches wanders up and down And into ev'ry houshold drops the plague Scarce any Turk in an infected town But will wife and friend afford Daily visits and imbraces They flie no contagious places Nor fear either bed or bord Their reason is Gods providence doth write Their fortunes on their foreheads neither can Their day of life be longer nor their night Of Death come sooner then God wills it Man Must yield 's ghost when God will haveit For health and life if God will Save it 't is not plague can kill If not 't is not they can save it Such block-heads have not brains enough to think That as the time so God withall decrees The means of life as physick meat and drink Clothes recreations and what else he sees Needfull They themselves destroy And are to their safety strangers That runne into mortall dangers And not shun them when they may Howe'r imploy'd Lord grant I may have leisure Religiously to meditate that thou My dayes dost number and my life dost measure And make me think Lord that this very now That this twinkling of an eye Is the period thou hast set Lord grant I may ne'r forget That this moment I may die PART III. Of Deaths suddennesse THough sometimes Death doth stay till it be late At night untill our most decrepit years And when he comes doth like a King in state Send harbingers before yet Death appears Sometimes unlook'd for early in the morning And takes us up before he gives us warning When at full tide our youthfull bloud doth flow In every vein and when our pulses dance A healthfull measure when our stomachs know No qualms at all as we would say by chance Snatch'd are our bodies to their longest homes And Death is past before a sicknesse comes How