Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	spirit_n	young_a	youth_n	82	3	7.9265	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29380	A vvord to the aged. By Mr. Will. Bridge, sometime fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and late preacher of the Word of God at Yarmouth. I commend this to be reprinted as a profitable and serious discourse. James Allen.	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.	1679 (1679)	Wing B4475; ESTC R214754	12,516	21

never so many and great yet you have a peculiar honour that is twisted with your infirmity for it is called the Crown of old age In times of the old Testament they were to rise up and to bow before the Ancient yea it is our duty to honour them for this honour is joyned and commanded with the fear of God Lev. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old Man and fear thy God saith the Lord. The fear of God and honouring the old Man is commanded with the same breath linked together in the same sentence 3. Though you be very aged yet you may be very good was not Eli very good Yet very aged was not David very good yet he was very old when he said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace was not Anna very good Yet she was very aged who doth not know what a good man Paul was Yet saith he Paul the aged good John was aged John Possibly then you may be very good though you be very aged labouring under much infirmity 4. And though your flesh be weak yet the Spirit may be willing the flesh indeed is weak said Christ when his Disciples slept through natural infirmity for it was late at night and they were full of grief but the Spirit is willing said he also and where the Spirit is willing he will pass by the weakness of the flesh and accept the willingness of the Spirit 5. These infirmities of old age are such as are not the fruit of our own sin the more any infirmity is caused by sin the more affiictive it is for sin is the sting of death I confess indeed they may be sometimes for the sins of youth do sometimes bite sore in age I eat so much of the forbidden fruit said a good man when I was young that God was fain to give much wormseed to kill the worm But the infirmities of old age are generally the decays of nature not of grace 6. They are good warnings of our change approaching and by them we dye daily that at last we may dye graciously and comfortably 7. And who are those that God doth reveal himself unto but to his old friends those he will acquaint with his secrets make known his mind unto Job 12. 12. with the Ancient is wisdome and in length of dayes understanding 8. And though your legs be weak yet they may be strong enough to carry you to Heaven that better Country wich you are now going to and are very near indeed your own present Country is a good Country but the Country you are now going to is a better Country Heb. 11. 6. 1. Better in regard of buildings whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. 2. Better in regard of Inhabitants where no unclean thing doth enter Rev. 3. Better in regard of quietness and freedome from trouble where all tears shall not only be wiped from our cheeks but out of our eyes as the Greek word bears it Rev. 7. insomuch as the eye shall never breed a tear again nor be the womb of tears 4. Better in regard of riches where you shall have an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away 5. Better in regard of pleasure for saith the Psalmist at thy right hand there are rivers of pleasures and that for evermore 6. Better in regard of largeness for if the whole Earth be but as a pins head in comparison of the Heavens then surely there is room enough in Heaven for every one to enjoy a greater Kingdome then all England doth amount unto 7. Better in regard of self subsistence here one Country doth depend on another but Heaven is that Country alone which doth depend upon no other Country 8. Better in regard of our freedome from needs and necessities It was Augustines Prayer Deliver me O Lord from my necessities It is a great mercy now to have bread to eat when we want it but it is a greater mercy to have no need of it A great mercy it is to have a good bed to lye on and so to sleep quietly but it is a greater mercy to have no need of bed or sleep This is the state of that Heavenly Country where you have not these blessings but where you have no need of them 9. Better also it is in regard of continuance where every mercy and blessing grows upon the stalk of Eternity and if it be a good thing to have a Lease of a good house and Land for one hundred years what a blessed thing then is it to have a glorious Mansion and Inheritance lying in the Fields of Eternity When you come to a great Palace and see fair Barns and Stables and out-houses you say then if the out-rooms and Stables be so costly and sumptuous how costly and glorious is this Palace within why lift up your eyes and behold that spangled Cannopy of the Heavens that is over your head Are not the Sun and Moon and Stars glorious Yet these are but the out-houses of Heaven and if these out houses be so glorions how glorious is the Palace within Yet this is that Country that better Country that you are going and drawing nigh unto and your passage thither is very short for no sooner do ye step out of this World but if godly gracious and in Christ you step immediately into that Country there is no sleeping of the Soul after death some have dreamed of such a sleep but Solomon tells us that the body upon death goes to the dust the Spirit unto him that gave it Ecclesiastes Christ said to the Thief this day shalt thou be with me in Paradice and the Apostle Paul tells us that Paradice and the third Heaven are one and the same thing 2 Cor. 12. Yea saith paul I am in a straight betwixt two not well knowing whether I should desire to dye for mine own injoyment or to live for the Service of the Churches Phil. 1. 22 23 24. whereas if the Soul did sleep in the Grave with the body he needed not to have been in that strait I desire said he to be disiolved and to be with Christ If with Christ presently How can the Soul sleep with the body in the dust But we know faith he 2 Cor. 5. 1. That if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens What then though your turn house now be ready to fire into a F●aver with every spark of distemper is there not enough in that house above to pay for all surely there is Why then should ye not lift up your heads ye old men and be of good comfort under all your natural in firmityes 2. And as for your moral infirmityes if you would strengthen your self against them and root out these weeds there 1. Be sure that you study and think much on Christ crucified who alone is our

their Relations 7. Then let the old man take heed of all those evils that may and will stayn the glory of his old Age. All sins do leave a blot and stain behind them but youthful sins do especially stain old age For the sin is the greater as it is more contrary to the sinner It is an evil thing for any man to be unjust but worst for a Judge to be so because there is a special repugnancy betwixt the sin the sinner now there is a special repugnancy betwixt old men and youthful sins Give me a young man indued with an old mans virtue Wisdome Give me an old man indued with a young mans grace Zeal But ● young man vitiated with an old mans sin Covetousness or an old man defiled with a young mans sin Wantonn●ss are an abomination both to God and man and are ●ained d●eply and greatly A certain Lacedemonian being asked Why he suffered his Beard to grow so long To the end said he that looking on my white hairs I may be put in mind not to do any ●●t ●nbeseeming my hoary whiteness 8. Then it is their duty also to prepar● for death their great change and dissolution it was the complaint of Caesar Borgius When I lived I provided for every thing but death now I am ready to dye I am not provided to dye Such providers in the world there are very many but shall I provide for a Journey and not for this great Journey This is every mans work but the old mans especially For though the young mans Candle may go out the old mans will and shall Quest But what should the old man do that he may be fit to dye Resp God will give dying grace upon dying ground yet 1. He must be sure to do the work of this present day the only way to be fit for the work of the Morrow is to do the work of the present day 2. Then let him examine himself and make his reckonings even with God that when he comes to dye he may have nothing to do but to dye 3. Then let him resign and give up himself and will to God afresh Thus Christ did as soon as he drew nigh to death If it be possible said he let this cup pass yet not my will but thy will be done which he did again and again at his first approach unto death and this he did in his last words Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit 4. Let him long after Heaven and not be afraid to dye for if he be in Christ death it self is his All things are yours saith the Apostle life and death for ye are Christs and who is afraid of his own The Child is not afraid of the great Mastiff but puts his hand into the Dogs mouth and if you ask him why so For he is our own Dog saith the Child Now if a man be in Christ this great Mastiff Death is his own and therefore why would he be afraid thereof Yea why should he not be willing to dye was Eliah unwilling to go into the fiery Chariot Is the Child unwilling to ride home because it is a trotting horse that he must ride upon No what then though it be an hard and a sore sickness that you must ride on yet if it carry you home to your Father why should you be unwilling to dye Now the only way to be willing to die is to get assurance of our interest in Christ and of our own Salvation For what is the reason that men are unwilling to dye but because they cannot tell where they shall land after death True sayes one I am lanching forth into the Ocean of Eternity but on what shore I shall land God knows O that I might live one year more one moneth more yea one hour more till I had assurance of Salvation And when that comes then the soul having thereb● clasped about gotten Christ into his arms cryes out and says Lord now let test thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation 5. Then also let him set his house in order make his Will and leave his Legacies to his Children Friends and Posterity Shall Achitophel when he hanged himself set his house in order before he dyed and shall not an ancient Christian set his house and heart in order make his Will and leave his Legacies unto his Friends and Posterity GHAP. IV. The OLD MANS Will and Legacies Qvest But what good thing should the old man leave or give unto his posterity by his last Will Reas 1. Why first he must be sure to give his Soul unto God while he lives for if a man gives his Soul to the world and devil while he lives what right hath he to give it unto God when he dyes If I give away an house or Land while I live can I justly give it to another when I dye and if I give away my Soul to sin world or devil while I live how can I justly give it unto God when I dye it being a Maxime in the common Law that Vendens candem rem duobus falsarius est 2. Then let him leave a good example unto his posterity a good Example is a great Legacy thus a man speaks when he is dead as Abel doth Heb. 11. 3. And if he would leave some good thing unto his posterity then let him leave his experiences an old man is or should be rich in experience an ancient Christian is or should be an experimental Christian when therefore he comes to dye it is his work and duty to leave those experiences unto his Posterity 4. Yea then let him leave some good exhortations and admonitions with and upon his Posterity saying Come O my Son or Daughter or Friend I am now going the way of all flesh when I am gone 1. Be sure that you fear the Lord and keep his Commandments for if you keep Gods Commaddments you shall have the comfort of his promises 2. Be sure also O my Son that you give your first and best unto God for God is the first and best of Beings and if you honour the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your encrease then shall your Barns be filled with plenty and your presses shall burst forth with new Wine Prov. 3. 10. And why should you not give your first time and best of your All unto God who hath given his best and only Son unto you If you serve God while you are young God will bless you when you are old and if you come unto him when you are young you may build on it that he will not forsake you when you are old Thus David argued Psal 71. 18. For sake me not O God now I am old and gray-headed Why ver 17. thou hast taught me from my youth ver 5. for thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youth God is engaged it seems by this argumentation to