Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	womb_n	world_n	young_a	38	3	5.4543	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39690	A token for mourners, or, The advice of Christ to a distressed mother bewailing the death of her dear and only son wherein the boundaries of sorrow are duly fixed, excesses restrained, the common pleas answered, and divers rules for the support of Gods afflicted ones prescribed / by J.F.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing F1197; ESTC R26707	66,956	170

I beseech you the time of your childs continuance in the womb was fixed to a minute by the Lord and when the parturient fulness of that time was come Were you not willing it should be delivered thence into the world The tender Mother would not have it abide one minute longer in the womb how well soever she loved it And is there not the same reason we should be willing when Gods appointed time is come to have it delivered by death out of this state which in respect of the life of Heaven is but as the life of a child in the womb to its life in the open world And let none say that the death of children is a premature death God hath waies to ripen them for Heaven whom he intends to gather thither betimes which we know not In respect of fitness they dye in a full age though they be cut off in the bud of their time He that appointed the seasons of the year appointed the seasons of our comfort in Relations and as those seasons cannot be altered no more can these All the course of providence is guided by an unalterable decree what falls out casually to our apprehension yet falls out necessarily in respect of Gods appointment O therefore be quieted in it this must needs be as it is 4. Consid. Hath God smitten your darling and taken away the delight of your eyes with his stroke Bear this stroke with patience and quiet submission for how know you but your trouble might have been greater from the life than it is now from the death of your children Sad experience made a holy man once to say It s better weep for ten dead children than for one living child a living child may prove a continual dropping yea a continual dying to the parents heart What a sad word was that of David to Abishai 2 Sam. 16. 11. Behold saith he my Son which came out of my bowels seeketh my life I remember Seneca in his consolatory Epistle to his friend Marullus brings in his friend thus aggravating the death of his child O saith Marullus Had my child lived with me to how great modesty gravity and prodence might my discipline have formed and moulded him But saith Seneca which is more to be feared he might have been as others mostly are for look saith he what children come even out of the worthiest families such who exercise both their own and others lusts in all whose life there is not a day without the mark of some notorious wickedness upon it I know your tender love to your children will scarce admit such jealousies of them they are for present sweet lovely innocent companions and you doubt not but by your care of their education and prayer for them they might have been the joy of your hearts Why doubtless Esan when he was little and in his tender age promised as much comfort to his parents as Jacob did and I question not but Isaac and Rebecca a gracious pair spent as many prayers and bestowed as many holy councels upon him as they did upon his brother But when the child grew up to riper years then he became a sharp affliction to his Parents for it s said in Gen. 26. 34. That when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith the daughter of Berith the Hittite which was a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca The word in the original comes from a root that signifies to imbitter This child imbittered the minds of his parents by his rebellion against them and despising their councells And I cannot doubt but Abraham disciplin'd his family as strictly as any of you never man received an higher encomium from God upon that account Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Nor can I think but he bestowed as many and as frequent prayers for his children and particularly for his Ishmael as any of you We find one and that a very pathetical one recorded Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee and yet you know how he proved a son that yeilded him no more comfort than Esau did to Jacob and Rebeccah O how much more common is it for parents to see the vices and evils of their children than their vertues and graces And where one parent lives to rejoice in beholding the grace of God shining forth in the life of his child there are twenty it may be an hundred that live to behold to their vexation and grief the workings of corruption in them It is a note of Plutarch in his Morals Niocles saith he lived not to see the noble Victory obtained by Themistocles his Son Nor Miltiades to see the battle his Son Cimon wan in the field Nor Zantippus to hear his Son Pericles Preach and make Orations Ariston never heard his Son Plato's lectures and disputations But men saith he commonly live to see their children fall a Gaming Revelling Drinking and Whoring multitudes live to see such things to their sorrow And if thou be a gracious soul O what a cut would this be to thy very heart to see those as David spake of his Absolom that came out of thy bowels to be sinning against God that God whom thou lovest and whose honour is dearer to thee than thy very life But admit they should prove civil and hopeful children yet mightest thou not live to see more misery come upon them than thou couldst endure to see O think what a sad and doleful sight was that to Zedekiah Jer. 50. 10. The King of Babilon brought his children and slew them before his eyes Horrid spectacle and that leads to the 5. Consid. How know you but by this stroke which you so lament God hath taken them away from the evil to come It is Gods usual way when some extraordinary calamities are coming upon the world to hide some of his weak and tender ones out of the way by death Isa. 57. 1 2. He leaves some and removes others but taketh care for the security of all He provided a grave for Methuselah before the flood The grave is an hiding place to some and God sees it better for them to be under ground than above ground in such evil dayes Just as a careful and tender Father who hath a Son abroad at school hearing the Plague is broken out in or near the place sends his Horse presently to fetch home his Son before the danger and difficulty be greater Death is our Fathers pale Horse which he fends to fetch home his tender children and carry them out of harms way Surely when National calamities are drawing on it s far better for our friends to be in the grave in peace than exposed to the miseries and distresss that are here which is the meaning of Jer. 22. 10. Weep not for the dead neither bemoan him but weep for him that goeth away for he shall return no

A TOKEN FOR MOURNERS OR The Advice of Christ to a distressed Mother bewailing the Death of her Dear and only Son WHEREIN The Boundaries of Sorrow are duly fixed Excesses restrained the Common Pleas Answered and divers Rules for the support of Gods afflicted ones prescribed By J. F. Preacher of the Gospel of Christ at Dartmouth in Devon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transivere patres simul hinc transibimus omnes In coelo patriam qui bene transit habet LONDON Printed for Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange 1674. THE Epistle Dedicatory To his dearly beloved Brother and Sister Mr J. C. and Mrs. E. C. the Author wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends THE double tye of Nature and Grace beside the many endearing passages that for so many years have linked and glewed our affections so intimately cannot but beget a tender sympathy in me under all your troubles and make me say of every affliction which befalls you half mine I find it is with our affections as with the strings of Musical instruments exactly set at the same height if one be touched the other trembles though it be at some distance Our affections are one and so in a great measure have been our afflictions also You cannot forget that in the years lately past the Almighty visited my Tabernacle with the Rod and in one year cut off from it the root and the branch the tender Mother and the only Son What the effects of those strokes or rather of my own unmortified passions were I have felt and you and others have heard Surely I was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoak Yea I may say with them Lam. 3. 19 20. Remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me I dare not say that ever I felt my heart discontentedly rising and swelling against God no I could still justifie him when I most sensibly smarted by his hand if he had plunged me into a Sea of sorrow yet I could say in all that Sea of Sorrow there is not a drop of injustice But it was the over-heating and over-acting of my fond and unmortified affections and passions that made so sad impressions upon my body and cast me under those distempers which soon imbittered all my remaining comforts to me It was my earnest desire so soon as I had strength and opportunity for so great a Journey to visit you that so if the Lord had pleased I might both refresh and be refreshed by you after all my sad and disconsolate daye And you cannot imagine what content and pleasure I projected in that visit but it proved to us as all other Comforts of the same kind ordinarily do more in expectation than in fruition for how soon after our joyful meeting and embraces did the Lord overcast and darken our day by sending death into your Tabernacle to take away the desire of your eyes with a stroke to crop off that sweet and only bud from which we promised our selves so much Comfort But no more of that I fear I am gone too far already It is not my design to exasperate your troubles but to heal them and for that purpose have I sent you these papers which I hope may be of use both to you and many others in your condition since they are the after-fruits of my own troubles things that I commend not to you from another hand but which I have in some measure proved and tasted in my own tryals But I will not hold you longer here I have only a few things to desire for and from you and I have done The things I desire are First That you will not be too hasty to get off the yoak which God hath put upon your neck Remember when your child was in the Womb neither of you desired it should be delivered thence till Gods appointed time was fully come and now that you travail again with sorrow for its death O desire not to be delivered from your sorrows one moment before Gods time for your deliverance be fully come also Let patience have its perfect work that Comfort which comes in Gods way and season will stick by you and do you good indeed Secondly I desire that though you and your afflictions had a sad meeting yet you and they may have a Comfortable parting If they effect that upon your hearts which God sent them for I doubt not but you will give them a fair testimony when they go off If they obtain Gods blessing upon them in their operation surely they will have your blessing too at their valediction And what you entertained with fear you will dismiss with praise How sweet is it to hear the afflicted soul say when God is looseing his bands It 's good for me that I have been afflicted Thirdly I heartily wish that these searching afflictions may make the most satisfying discoveries that you may now see more of the evil of sin the vanity of the Creature and the fullness of Christ than ever you yet saw Afflictions are searchers and put the soul upon searching and trying its ways Lam. 3. 40. When our sin finds us out by affliction happy are we if by the light of affliction we find out sin Blessed is the man whom God chasteneth and teacheth out of his Law Psal. 94. 12. There are unseen causes many times of our troubles you have an advantage now to sift out the seeds and principles from which they spring Fourthly I wish that all the love and delight you bestowed upon your little one may now be placed to your greater advantage upon Jesus Christ and that the stream of your affection to him may be so much the stronger as there are now fewer chanels for it to be devided into If God will not have any part of your happiness to lye in children then let it wholly lye in himself If the Jealousie of the Lord hath removed that which drew away too much of your heart from him and hath spoken by this rod saying Stand aside child thou art in my way and fillest more room in thy Parents hearts than belongs to thee O then deliver up all to him and say Lord take the whole heart intirely and undividedly to thy self Henceforth let there be no parting sharing or deviding of the affections betwixt God and the Creature let all the streams meet and center in thee only Fifthly That you may be strengthned with all might in the inner man to all patience that the peace of God may keep your heart and mind Labour to bring your hearts to a meek submission to the rod of your Father We had Fathers of our flesh who corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live Is it comely for children to contest and strive with their Father Or is it the way to be freed from the yoak

by struggling under it Oh that your hearts might be in a like frame with his that said Lord thou shalt beat and I will bear It was a good observation that one made Anima sedendo quiescendo fit sapiens The Soul grows wise by sitting still and quiet under the rod. And the Apostle calls those excellent fruits which the Saints gather from their sanctified afflictions The peaceable fruits of Righteousness Heb. 12. 11 Lastly My hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may die daily to all visible enjoyments and by these frequent converses with death in your family you may be prepared for your own change and dissolution when it shall come O Friends How many graves have you and I seen opened for our dear Relations How oft hath death come up into our windows and summoned the delight of our eyes It is but a little while and we shall go to them we and they are distinguished but by short intervals Transivere patres simul hinc transibimus omnes Our dear Parents are gone our lovely and desireable children are gone our bosom Relations that were as our own souls are gone the greatest part of us is gone And do not all these warning-knocks at our dores acquaint us that we must prepare to follow shortly after them O that by these things our own death might be both more easie and more familiar to us the oftner it visits us the better we should be acquainted with it and the more of our beloved Relations it removes before us the less of either snare and intanglement remains for us when our turn comes My dear Friends my flesh and my blood I beseech you for Religion sake for your own sake and for my sake whose Comfort is in great part bound up in your prosperity and welfare that you read frequently ponder seriously and apply believingly these Scripture-consolations and directions which in some haste I have gathered for your use and the God of all consolation be with you I am Your most endeared Brother JOHN FLAVEL Luke 7. 13. And when the Lord saw her he had Compassion on her and said to her Weep not TO be above the stroke of passions is a condition equal to Angels to be in a State of Sorrow without the sense of sorrow is a disposition beneath Beasts but duly to regulate our Sorrows and bound our Passions under the rod is the Wisdom duty and excellency of a Christian. He that is without natural affections is deservedly ranked among the worst of Heathens and he that is able rightly to manage them deserves to be numbred with the best of Christians Though when we are Sanctified we put on the Divine Nature yet till we are glorified we put not off the infirmities of our humane Nature Whilest we are within the reach of troubles we cannot be without the danger nor ought to be without the fear of sin and it is as hard for us to escape sin being in adversity as becalming in prosperity How apt we are to transgress the bounds both of Reason and Religion under a sharp affliction appears as in most mens experience so in this Womans example to whose excessive Sorrow Christ puts a stop in the Text He saw her and had Compassion on her and said to her Weep not The Lamentations and waylings of this distressed mother moved the tender compassions of the Lord in beholding it and stirred up more pitty in his heart for her than could be in her heart for her dear and only Son In the words we are to consider both the Condition of the woman and the Counsel of Christ with respect unto it First The condition of this Woman which appears to be very dolorous and distressed her groans and tears moved and melted the very heart of Christ to hear and behold them When he saw her he had Compassion on her How sad an hour it was with her when Christ met her appears by what is so distinctly remark't by the Evangelist in ver 12. where it is said Now when they came nigh to the Gate of the City behold there was a dead man carried out the only Son of his Mother and she was a Widdow and much people of the City was with her In this one Verse divers heart piercing circumstances of this affliction are noted First It was the death of a Son To bury a child any child must needs rend the heart of a tender Parent for what are children but the parent multiplied a child is a part of the parent made up in another skin But to lay a Son in the grave A Son which continues the name and supports the family this was ever accounted a very great affliction Secondly This Son was not carried from the Cradle to the Coffin nor stript out of its Swathing to be wrapt in its Winding cloaths Had he dyed in infancy before he had engaged affection or raised expectation the affliction had not been so pungent and cutting as now it was Death smote this Son in the flower and Prime of his time He was a man saith the Evangelist ver 12. a young man as Christ calls him ver 14. he was now arrived at that age which made him capable of yeilding his Mother all that comfort which had been the expectation and hope of many years and the reward and fruit of many cares and Labours Yet then when the endearments were greatest and her hopes highest even in the flower of his age he is cut off Thus Basil bewayled the death of his Son Filius mihi erat adolescens solus vitaesuccessor solatium senectae gloria generis flos aequalium fulcrum domu saetatem gratiosissimam agebat hic raptus periit qui paulo ante jucundam vocem edebat jucundissimum spectaculum parentis oculis erat I once had a Son who was a young man my only successor the solace of my age the glory of his kind the prop of my family arrived to the endearing age then was he snatcht from me by death whose lovely voice but a little before I heard who lately was a pleasant spectacle to his Parent Reader if this have been thine own condition as it hath been his that writes it I need say no more to convince thee that it was a sorrowful State indeed Christ met this tender Mother in Thirdly And which is yet more he was not only a Son but an only Son so you find in ver 12. He was the only Son of his Mother One in whom all her hopes and Comforts of that kind were bound up For Omnis in Ascanio stat chari cura Parentis All her affections were contracted into this one object If we have never so many children we know not which of them to spare If they stand like Olive plants about our Table it would grieve us to see the least twigg amongst them broken down But surely the death of one out of many is much more tolerable than of all