Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	strength_n	young_a	youth_n	110	3	8.1512	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87089	Death's alarum: or, Security's vvarning-piece. A sermon preached in S. Dionis Back-Church, at the funerall of Mrs. Mary Smith (daughter of Mr. Isaac Colfe, formerly minister of Gods Word at Chadwell in Essex, and late wife of Mr. Richard Smith of London, draper) who dyed the 9th. day of Novemb. 1653. and was buried the 16th of the same moneth. By Nath: Hardy, Mr. of Arts, and preacher to that parish.	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1653 (1653)	Wing H714; Thomason E725_4; ESTC R206763	23,164	36

it is very hard to intertaine thoughts of going out of the world If the Mountaine be strong even David is ready to say I shall never be moved no mervail if presumptuous Babylon being in her chaire of state say I sit a Queene and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow But yet very frequently this is the houre wherein Christ cometh so the threatning runneth against both literall and misticall Babylon Evill shall come upon her in a moment in one day and so it was verified in the rich Fool who bidding his soul to take its ●ase by reason of his worldly abundance had that very night his soule required of him and carryed to torment 3. The houre of bodily health and strength is a time in which men cast the thought of death behind them whilst they have colour in their faces agility in their joynts appetite in their stomacks health in their bodies How rare are their Meditations on Death Go preach your Lectures of Mortality say they to the weake and the lame and the sick as for us wee have no reason to trouble our selves with such melancholly thoughts What do you tell us of dying and rotting in the grave whilest our bones are moystned with marrow We feel no infirmity and therefore feare not mortality And yet how often doth Christ come by death in such an houre one dyeth saith Job in his full strength being wholly at ●ase and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moystned with marrow How many valiant and stout men hath death laid upon their backs on a sodaine tripping up their heeles Have you not sometimes seene a sturdy Oak quickly blown downe by a violent winde a strong and tall Vessell presently sunke by a leake So are oft-times men snatched away in the strength and vigour of their body by death 4. The houre of Youthfull age is a time wherein few make account of dying It is soone enough say young men to thinke of our death in the day when desire shall faile to look for a grave when they that looke out at the windowes are darkned and to feare the approach of both when the keepers of the house shall tremble these gravecloths are too sad for the freshness of our life we are young and may see many a fair yeare passe over our heads before death cometh and therefore think not that like the mad man in the Gospel we will spend our life among the tombs But alas how frequently even in this houre doth the Sonne of Man come In Golgotha saith the Hebrew Proverb there are soules of all sizes and our weekely bills for the most part afford a greater numbers of dead Children than aged men The Poets have a fable that Death and Cupid lodging together at an Inne exchanged their arrowes whereby it hath since come to passe that many times Old men dote and Young men dye The truth is death doth not summon us according to our yeares even the blossome is subject to nipping as well as the flower to withering That threat which Almighty God denounceth by the Prophet Amos is very often in this morall sense made good I will cause the Sun to goe downe at noone nay not onely so but even in the morning of youth doth the Sunne of many a mans life goe down To apply this let it then be the care of every one of us that Christs coming may not be to us in an houre wee think not of and to that end let no houre at least day of our life passe without a serious thought of the day and houre of our death Larkes in Theocritus are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} because they carry the forme of a Sepulchre upon their heads Such should all Christians be having permanent impressions of death not on but in their heads and hearts The Indian Gymnosophists were so much in love with these thoughts that they caused their graves to be made before their gates so as both at their going out and coming in they might be put in minde of their death and truly however the most men in the days of their vanity account a life spent in meditation of death to be a miserable life a death rather than a life yet when the time of their death approacheth they will change their note and say as dying Theophilus did of devout Arsenius Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculoshabuisti They are happy men who set death daily before their eys Indeed by this meanes the coming of Christ as it will not be altogether sodaine so neither terrible to us nor can any man so use S. Cyprians words receive comfort at his death who did not before make account of dying A late writer hath in this respect piously fancyed that Clocks were invented to minde us not so much of the Sunne 's motion in the Heavens as the passing of our life here on Earth Since the sounding of the clock telleth us that the past houre is as it were dead and buried which at some time or hour of some day or other must be our lot Oh then what ever our present condition is let us still entertaine thoughts of our latter end Art thou in health and strength remember a wise and good man even then as Gregory Nazian. saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will looke both upwards to heaven and downewards to his grave Doest thou enjoy the pleasures of life learn of Joseph of Arimathea to make a tombe in thy garden and season thy delights with thoughts of thy dissolution Finally art thou advanced to an high estate in this world forget not how low thy highnesse must come ere long and what one was appoynted to have in his hands at the inauguration of the Graecian Emperours namely in the one a burning firebrand presently consumed and in the other a vessell full of ashes and dead mens bones have thou in thy heart by renewed meditations of thy mortality To close up this part It is reported concerning the Maids in the Isle of Man that the first thing they spin is their winding-sheete which they weare about them as a girdle at their feasts well were it if we would in the midst of all our enjoyments gird our selves about with our winding-sheets fixing our thoughts upon our end that so by this meanes we may not have cause at last to sigh forth the foole's words Non putaram I did not think my death had been so neare Blessed is that man whom Christ when he cometh by death shall finde not as Jaell did Siserah asleep but as Jonathan's arrow came to David standing in the field and looking for it yea so looking as to bee fitting himself which leads to the Preparednesse required in every Christian for this coming Be you therefore ready For the better and clearer dispatch of this I shall endeavour both to unfold

require us To cleare this more fully in two particulars 1. We must begin betimes to make our selves ready It is an undoubted maxime in re necessaria non d●u deliberandum where the matter is clearly necessary to dispute much or deliberate long about it is both needlesse and dangerous nothing of more needfull concernment or greater importance to every one of us than the being ready for Christs coming surely then just it is we should set about it presently and make it our first businesse Almighty God in his sublime speech to Job saith concerning the warlike horse that he smelleth the battell afarre off what nature teacheth him let grace us to smell that encounter we must have with death afarre off long before at least in probability it will come and that is in the dayes of our youth The life of man is not without good reason compared to a night Now among the Jewes there were foure watches in the night the first was called Conticinium when all things are silent the second Intempestum the unseasonable time of midnight the third Gallicinium which began at the Cock crowing the last Antelucanum about break of day by these foure watches of the night are morally resembled the foure ages of mans life Child-hood Youth Man-hood Old age and it is worth our observation that when Christ speaketh of our being ready for his coming he mentioneth onely the second and the third watch Thophilact's reason I confesse is most probable because the second and third watches are as it were the dead time of night when most men are in their soundest sleep so that he that is wakefull in those watches may be presumed not to sleep in the first and fourth and so to be ready in the second and third is as much as to be alwayes ready but there may be another apt allusion to our particular purpose as for the first watch he mentioneth it not because Child hood is in no capacity of performing this duty though even then it concerneth Parents to make their Children ready by bringing them to the Holy Sacrament of Baptisme and as for the fourth watch of Old age he specifieth not that neither because Rarissimi sunt qui ad extremum vitae differentes bene operari inveniuntur ita facientes They are very rare who are found ready at Christs coming and yet have not begun before the fourth watch Let it then be our care to begin at the third watch of Man hood nay sooner at the second watch of Youth to prepare and provide for Christs coming Happy is that man who fitteth himself for dying so soon as he cometh to know that he liveth and consecrateth the beginning of his rationall life to a religious Meditation of his mortall end 2. We must hold out to the end of our dayes in this ready posture daily endeavouring greater measure of preparation Those two excuses will be found alike invalid whensoever Christ cometh Fuisse futurum esse I resolved to be ready hereafter and I was ready heretofore since it is neither what thou wouldst be nor what thou hast beene but what thou art when death cometh Unbend not then the bow of thy pious endevor till the string of thy life break cease not running the race of piety till thou art put out of breath be alwaies preparing to meet Christ till he come to thee It is to this purpose well observed what a difference there is between the other life and this as to that life it will be sufficient bene incipere to begin well if we can but enter into that joy of our Lord it is enough he that is once entred into a possession of that blisse shall goe no more out but as to this present life the great care is bene finire to end well since incassum bonum agitur si ante vitae terminum deseratur That work is begun to no purpose which is left off before it is finished no● can this work of preparation be finished till life be ended But it may perhaps and not improbably be objected even by good Christians Alas the practise of this duty in this extent is impossible who is there that can at all times so order his conversation as to be ready for his dissolution We meet with many remora's to stop us in many avocations to turne us aside from this work the labour of our callings the care of our families lawfull recreations many worldly businesses take up our time so that we cannot alwayes be at leisure to thinke of and so provide for Christ's coming To resolve which doubt be pleased to take notice of a double preparation for the coming of Christ to wit habituall and actuall Actuall readinesse consists in the exercise of those spiritual graces and practise of those religious duties which are fit for us to be conversant in at the time of our death such as are selfe examination penitent humiliation believing invocation charitable condonation and the like and truly thus to be alwayes ready is not possible nor requisite It is not possible for our natures which at best are but in part renewed to be wholly taken up with divine performances nor indeed is it requisite since God hath given us time for secular as well as spirituall businesses yea for recreation as well as devotion and if Christ shall come by death to us when about our civill callings or lawfull refreshings our condition were not therefore to be adjudged desperate Indeed on the one hand because death may come at such times it should be our endeavour as much as may be to carry about us heavenly hearts in our earthly employments and on the other hand because the best of us are too deficient in this kinde we may nay ought to beg of God if it be his will that death may rather finde us praying than playing in our chambers than in our shops about devout exercises than worldly businesses In this respect that prayer of the Church From sodaine death good Lord deliver us which by our arrogant novelists among other passages of the lyturgie is causelesly denyed is fit to be made not onely by the worst but by the best of men to whom death may be and many times is so sodaine that they cannot be in an actuall readinesse for it and therefore if it be as doubtlesse it is a very desirable thing to have space before our death of renewing our faith repentance and charity yea and of expressing all these for the comfort and benefit of others that belong to us it must needes be a fit request for all Christians to put up that they may be delivered from sodaine death But besides this actuall there is an habituall readiness which referres not to the action but the disposition the exercise but the state of the person so that he who is by faith engrafted into Christ and by the spirit regenerated to a lively hope and so in a state of grace is

habitually ready for the coming of Christ according to this sense Brugensis with others giveth the interpretation of this text Paratus est qui semper eo statu consistit quem dominus requirit qui semper eum vitae tenet statum qui deo gratus He is ready who is in that estate which is required by and will be acceptable to Christ when he cometh to call him And thus it is our duty to be alwayes ready not daring to live in a state of impenitency yea to give God and our selves no rest till we have in some measure made our peace with him through Christ Looke as when we are enjoyned to pray continually the meaning is not that we should be alwayes upon our knees in the continued exercise of that duty but that we should be frequent in the work and have a minde disposed to pray upon all occasions so when we are enjoyned to be alwayes ready for death it is not that we should be continually in the practise of those duties which are proper for a dying man but that we should every day set some time apart for those exercises and alwayes be in a regenerate condition having the graces of faith and repentance really wrought in our souls By this time I hope you see what the duty is which here our blessed Lord calleth upon his Disciples to perform what remaineth but that I now after Christs example endeavour to presse the practise of it upon you And indeed so much the rather because it is that wherein I feare the most of us are miserably deficient It was Tertullian's Character of the Christians in his time that they were expeditum morti genus a sort of people prepared for death and that not onely naturall but violent and so in that sense which S. Paul speaks of high concerning himselfe when he tells his disconsolate friends that he was ready not onely to be bound but to die for the name of Jesus Act. 21. 13. But alas of how few Christians in our dayes can this be truly said and that in the lowest sense the most being so farre from a readinesse to lay down their lives in suffering for Christ that they are not in a readinesse to meet Christ if he should come in an ordinary way to take away their lives Alexander cashiered that souldier who had his weapons to sharpen when he was to goe to fight But Lord how many Christians in name have the worke of preparation to begin when their lives are almost at an end never thinking of doing good till the opportunity of doing it be past Suppose beloved our Lord Christ should now come against this City as he did once against Hierusalem to take vengeance on it and destroy it in what an unprepared condition should he finde the greatest part of the inhabitants some sporting with their wantons others burying themselves in their chests of gold some quaffing in their riotous bowles others belching out blasphemous oathes the most wallowing in some wickednesse or other Nay to come nearer suppose Christ should come by death to any of us here present this night this evening this houre are we ready for him could we give up our accounts with joy and look him in the face with comfort I feare the most of our Consciences tell us we should not be able to doe it Receive then I beseech you a seasonable word of advice and think for so indeed it is that what Christ here saith to his Disciples he saith to all Bee you ready And which should render this duty so much the more acceptable to us it wants not a therefore to enforce it indeed there are many and those weighty motives which may very well inferre the performance of this duty as not onely usefull but needfull to be done and that at all times For consider 1. The Son of Man will certainly come at some houre or other Bee you therefore ready In other matters we provide for those things whereof we have at most but a probability no certainty The Husbandman plougheth and tilleth and soweth his ground against the next yeare when yet he is not sure to reap the fruit of his labour Parents lay up Riches purchase Lands build Houses for their Children though they are not sure they shall enjoy them shall we provide for what onely may be or at most is but likely to be and take no care to prepare for what shall certainly be That rich man in the Gospel might well be called a foole when as he took so much care to build large Barnes and lay up Goods in those barns as a provision for the uncertaine years of his life but regarded not to make ready for his grave which he knew to be certain and proved to be so near Oh let not us incur this brand of folly by the like incogitancy 2. At what houre the Son of Man will come you cannot certainely know Bee you therefore ready nay alwayes ready It is true Christ will come nay he hath told us he will come no doubt for this reason that being praemoniti we may be praemuniti having notice of we may provide for it but when he will come he hath concealed from us and doubtlesse for this cause that we might alwayes stand upon our guard and be ready for him If thy enemy shall say to thee at such a time in such a place I will meet you it were enough to be ready at that time but if he say where or whensoever I meet you I will set upon you it concerneth to be alwayes armed for him Such indeed is both the wisdome and goodnesse of our blessed Lord that he hath forewarned us of the thing not of the time that knowing he will come and not knowing when we may be continually prepared It was the policy of Julius Caesar never to acquaint his Army before-hand with the time of their march Ut paratum momentis omnibus quò vellet subito educeret that they might be ready to march upon all occasions Such is the wise dealing of Christ with us and that for our good not revealing to us the time of our death that we may never be secure And therefore to use Aulus Gellius his comparison as a fencer not knowing at what part of his body the Antagonist will aime composeth his body and holdeth his weapon so as he may readily defend any part so must we not knowing in what day of our life Christ will come so order our wayes that we may be fitted whensoever he shall come unto us 3. There is no houre of your life wherein you can assure your selves that the Son of Man will not come Indeed as no place can exempt from death's approach it may come to thee in the Church in the Street in the Shop in the Field as well as in the Bed so no time can priviledge from death's arrest in the night as well as in the day in youth and manhood as

well as old age Christ may send it to seize upon thee Hast thou not need then to be every where and at all times prepared Consider this oh vain man whoever thou art that puttest off thy preparation in hope that Christ will delay his visitation thou purposest to be ready when thou art old I but what if Christ come whilest yet thou art young Thou promisest to prepare thy self to morrow but what if thou diest to day Oh beware that thy promises beare not a date far longer than thy life It is storied of ambitious Archyas that having by fraudulent and unjust courses at length compassed the government of Thebes he with his complices kept a riotous feast in the midst of his intemperance a messenger cometh to him with a letter from a friend importuning him speedily to peruse it but he slighting the admonition and putting it under his pillow said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} serious things to morrow when as the thing which the letter concerned was effected that night to wit deprivation at once both of his life and dignity by a combination of the Citizens This this my Brethren is I feare the dolefull case of too many who purposing to be serious and pious hereafter are snatched away before that hereafter come Couldst thou oh man assure thy selfe the continuance of thy life for a day a moneth a yeare thou mightest with more pretence of reason defer thy preparation so long but Cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum saith the heathen Orator truly who can assure himselfe he shall live till evening nay who can justly promise to himselfe the next moment Be not then so foolish nay mad nay bruitish as ●o live an hour a moment in the estate wherein thou wouldst be loath to dye 4. That hour in which men make least account is commonly the time of the Son of Man's coming Be ye therefore ready Whilest the Croc●dil being asleep openeth his mouth the Indian Rat getteth in and cateth up his bowells whilest the Theban Centinel was nodding Epaminondas came and thrust him thorow when men are secure in their sins death stealeth upon them unawares At what gate there is the least guard smallest strength the besieger maketh his onset and endeavoureth entrance Oh feare lest in that day death approach to thee wherein thou art most regardlesse of death 5. All the time alotted you before Christs coming is little enough for this great work Be you therefore alwayes endeavouring to make your selves ready Tota vita discendum est vivere said the Philosopher we scarce learne to live well in the whole space of our lives nay Totâ vitâ discendum est mori saith the Divine our whole life is scarce sufficient to learne the art of dying well Were a short prayer or a single sigh a God forgive me or Lord have mercy upon me a valid preparation for Christs coming the work were easie and a little time might dispatch it but be not deceived God is not mocked This great work is not so facile a taske Doe but ask the servants of God who have taken much paines and spent many yeares in this work and you shall hear them complain that to this day notwithstanding all their prayers teares fastings watchings and struglings they finde themselves very unready for death and is it not a wretched presumption in any man to think he can fit himselfe for death as it were at an houres warning 6. When the Son of man cometh there will bo no opportunity for the doing of this work Be you therefore ready Likely it is at the approach of death many men w●ll be earnest suiters in Davids words Oh spare me a little one moneth one weeke longer but in vaine their request cannot be granted nor the time delayd Very apt to this purpose is the story of S. Gregory concerning ond Chrysorius a man as full of sin as he was of wealth who on his dying bed in a bitter agony of spirit cryed out Inducias vel usque mane inducias vel usque mane Truce but till the morning stay but till to morrow but with these very words he breathed his last Christ may sometimes stay long before he cometh but when he comes he will not stay {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. Basil excellently learne to be wise by the foolish Virgins example for whom the Bridegroome being come would not stay a moment and onely they that were ready went in with him to the Marriage 7. Your preparation for will be no acceleration of Christs coming and therefore be you ready It is the fond conceit of many that if they think of and prepare for death death will presently come to them upon which ground it is that they put off the setting both their house and soule in order but let not vain feares beguile thee thy death is not the nearer but onely it will be the sweeter graemeditati mali mollis ictus the blow will not come the sooner but it will be the easier nay indeed by being ready to die thou art the fitter to live and both thy life and thy death will be the more comfortable 8. Finally the Sonne of Man's coming will be most dismall and exitiall to all unprepared persons Be you therefore ready S. Chrysostom upon these words conceiveth that Christ representing his coming under the resemblance of a thief checketh our ●luggishness who are less carefull to be ready against Christs than the Housholders is against the Thiefe's coming whereas the Housholder's danger is onely the loss of his goods or money or jewels but ours of our precious souls Oh my Brethren if Christ when he cometh by death finde us unprepared wo to us that we were born our case will be like that of the foolish Virgins against whom the doore of Heaven was shut and no intreaty could prevaile for the opening of them nay like that of the man whom when the King came in he found at the feast without a wedding garment who was bound hand and foot and cast into utter darknesse yea like that of the evill servant in the end of this chapter when his Lord coming cut asunder and appointed him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And oh that any or all of these considerations might awaken our security and quicken our industry This Son of Man hath been pleased to call upon us often for the performance of this duty perhaps he will come to some of us before the next call Oh then delay no longer but be we ready whilest it is called to day and whilest this day he vouchsafeth to call upon us It was an excellent saying of an ancient when his corrupt heart tempted him to procrastination I will make use of the day to repent in and leave the morrow to God so do thou say Christ may come to morrow I will be