Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	adam_n	death_n	sin_n	5,480	5	6.3830	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09490	The first part of the consideration of humane condition vvherin is contained the morall consideration of a mans selfe: as what, who, and what manner of man he is. Written by I.P. Esquier.	Perrott, James, Sir, 1571-1637.	1600 (1600)	STC 19773; ESTC S114574	45,485	68

is such as it vvill not suffer vs to indure troubles vvith patience This that hath beene said may in some sort suffice to shevv though not fully and perfectly hovv paineful hovv tormenting and hovv ful of cares the course of this life is serveth fitly to stirre and mooue thee to consider and vveigh vvell vvith thy selfe vvhat thou art in enioying of so short so vncertaine so painefull a life as this is CHAP. 8. The Consideration what thou arte in thy death and manner of dying THe last Consideration of this first part is concerning thy death vve meane not here to discourse but cursorilie of the difference betvveene corporall and spirituall temporall and eternall death best beseeming the pens and paines of great and graue Divines but only to speake of the death of the body most familiar and best knowne to all men It is an old saying very true that as sure as man is borne so sure he is to die Some said that death is three folde but rather might haue said and that more soundly and more truely that it hath three degrees the first Naturall the second Criminall the thirde Iudiciall For the first vvhich is Naturall or the dissolution of nature this as is said before as it is common to all men and no man is exempted from it so it hath in it many things seeming very fearefull and procuring much amazement vvhich yet ought not to bee feared at all as vvhen death dravveth neere sending before him his habinger Sicknes he presenteth vnto the sicke man a gastfull countenance and leane bones vvithout flesh yea hee doth offer to his remembraunce the losse of all his goods and honors his departure from his friendes the sequestring of his soule from his body and the seperating of himselfe from the vvorld from all things in the vvorld hovv deare and delightfull soeuer vnto him vvhereby the senses are all over-loaden and burthened vvith sorrovv according to the saying of the Poet Mille modis lethi miseros mors vnafatigat that is A thousand kindes of deathes and moe Death hath at hand to vvorke mansvvoe All vvhich behelde of the meere naturall man in the grimme visage of death as it vvere in a looking glasse seeme very dread full but of these chiefely the loue of this life maketh him most of all to feare death and yet to him that is truly vvise the sadde sight of death yeeldeth no such hideous aspect or discontentment but rather mooueth him to remember and make good vse of that excellent saying of Seneca Sen. epist 62. Before olde age I had care to liue vvell that I might in olde age die well that is vvillingly For to die vvillingly is to die vvell vvhich if a man vvould consider and put in practise then needed he not to feare this naturall death of the body Full vvell said the Heathen Philosopher Cice. in som Scip. that vnlesse God should free man from the keepers or from that prison of the body there could be no passage into heauē Though death doe dissolue this temporall and momentary life frō the body yet if a good death follow a good life it addeth a longer life vnto this temporall and transitory life and it taketh away all cares and calamities from the body and life of man in so much that such a death may aptly be called the end of labours the conservation of victory the gates of life and the entraunce into euerlasting felicity Thus may the vertuous discreete and considerate man learne to know what he is concerning the first degree of death vvhich we cal naturall or the dissolution of nature As touching the second degree of death vvhich vvee call Criminall or the death of offence this vnto many men seemeth nothing fearfull although it ought more to bee feared then the first The first degree of Naturall death every man must yeelde vnto and paye vndoubtedly as a due debte to Nature or rather to the Creator of Natures vvorkes but the seconde degree of death vvhich is the death of offence as it begonne and brought in that first death vvhich vvee tearme Naturall so is it or it ought to be much more feared then the same For one of the Fathers saith Aug. sup Gen. that Adam and Eue beganne to dye in the same day that they did receiue the lavve of death that is vvhen they offended first and that by one mans offence death came vnto all men This death of offence vvhich is cause first of the Naturall then of the Iudiciall death ought therefore most of all to be feared yet wee see and that to to commonly hovve men make small reckoning of this death and doe least dreade it else vvoulde they not be so proane and ready to runne on head-long and to committe those offences that doe procure death and perpetuall destruction This death of offence or the offence it selfe vvhich causeth death ought to be very much feared For though men while they liue doe lightly and little regard it yet it bringeth with it to torment them vvhen they are a dying shame horrour and confusion The last degree of death or the last effect of it is the death of Iudgment this hath three stepps or staires by which it mounteth either to eternal happines or else descendeth vnto endlesse paines and torments For Iudgment is saide to be of three sortes the first is of our selues the seconde is of men and the third is of or by the Creator of man For the first Iudgment of our selues concerning our deathes and of our desertes of death this is invvarde and contained in the Conscience of everie man vvhich Conscience vvhen it giueth iudgment against a man it makes him feele the paines of death in life and it figureth vnto him the perpetuall paines vvhich he shall endure after death An heathen Philosopher could say that a guilty conscience is like to an vlcer in the body Plut de animi tranquillitate For it leaueth sorrowe and griefe wounding him and feastering in his heart and minde continually When reason can relieue the minde moued otherwise to sadnesse nothing can ease the galling and torture of a guilty Conscience Ovid lib 1. de Ponto Eleg. 1. which caused the comfortlesse Poet to confesse and say Paenitet o si quid miserorum creditur vlli Paenitet et facto torqueor ipse meo that is I doe repent if any wretched wight Might credit haue or be beleud in this It grieveth me and galleth day and night My woefull hearte that I haue done amisse This is the fruite and onely ease I finde A guilty deede yealde to a galled minde Therefore this Iudgment of our selues in our owne consciences that we haue not onely deserued this temporall but an eternall death is without it be eased by perfect Penitence a double death vnto vs. The second steppe of ludgment is the Iudgement of men whereon death also doth depend As the iudgmēt of our selues is internall and

for assistaunce As touching the partes of Prudence which are reakoned to bee Reason Vnderstanding Circumspection and the like as they are good helpes to furnish and set foorth the praise of Prudence so are they but seldome seene to some concurre altogither in one or if any one doeth attaine to that excellency of Prudence so as he doe possesse al the parts thereof yet doth it serue but to set before him heapes of cares and Labyrinthes of difficulties so that the workes of Prudence and humane Pollicy may very well be compared to the Spyder vvho taketh great paines and vseth great arte in her kinde to vveaue her webbe which when it is finished doth serue to no other vse but to catch some few little fearefull flies as for the great flies they either goe by the weake webbe or through it without any danger at all and many times after all the paines taken therein either the violence of windes or of some other fowle weather on the soddaine doth deface and destroy that well-wrought web So falleth it out ful often with the workmāship of humane Pollicie For when a man by Prudence and humane Pollicie hath fashioned some cunning fine or artificial web faire to the outwarde appearance of the worlde and that withall the devises that a curious and a painefull conceipt can frame yet in a māner it is but as if it vvere a vvorke to catch flies in the aire or in deede fooles with vaine allurementes vppon the land as for the greater flies which are as strong and cunning as the Spider her selfe they will catch the Spider as sone or rather then the Spider shall intercept or intangle them Admitte thou oh worldly Politique man whosoeuer thou art that thou hast wouen thy webbe with the threede of Prudence very strongly procuring thy selfe great patrimonies honorable alliaunce preferments many and high advancements yet perchance on the suddaine and when thou thinkest least of it some suddaine stormes of ill fortunes will fal vpon thee and so tumble thee in thy well-wrought webbe of Prudence and Pollicy that it wil be all to rent and torne in pieces or what thou dreamest least of the last Conquerour Death he commeth and as an vnplacable enemy breaketh in pieces thy whole web so prudētly wrought and so politiquely finished to thine owne content to the greate ioy of thy friends to the wonder admiration of most men But least we should be thought to sette aside all estimation and to make no accoumpt of Prudēce or humane Pollicy which in worldly matters carrieth so great a stroke amongst men it were not amisse to examine the partes of Prudence and to estimate thereby the value thereof and they are reakoned by some to be Reason Circumspection Counsaile and the like Macrob. in Com. somn Scip. Nowe Reason as it is a part of Prudence for Reason sometimes is taken for the principal facultie of the soule so it is the subiect of Prudence and other Intellectual Vertues is the discourse of the vnderstanding by which the vniversall principles of thinges that may be done are applied vnto particular things which are to be done though diverse vncertaine And so Reason Vnderstanding are not distinguished as two diverse povvers but as two diverse actes of the same power For to reason is to proceede from one vnderstanding vnto another yet every kinde of Reasoning is not that part of Prudence which we speake of in this place because if wee take Reasoning largely in that sense as it is a proceeding from principles vnto conclusions as in Syllogismes and in the Arte of arguing either Rhetorically or Logically this is rather to bee reackoned as an Arte of Reasoning then Reason it self For if Reason did consist in speaking eloquently or in disputing subtilly then the idle Rhetoriciā and the subtile Sophyst should be most possest and best indued with Reason and consequently shoulde enioy chiefly that part of Prudence Isidorus saith that Discretion is the provident fore-seer in iudging the causes of things Isidor in Sin the reason of moderating mens mindes according to which application Reason is applied or defined by him to be the order of doing things proceeding from their cause as what in what place and how thou shouldest doe speake and vnderstand Next vnto Reason Tho Agu. Sec. 2. Circumspection claimeth a place in the effectes and operation of Prudence which is defined to bee the attention of circumstances in morall matters and if it be an attention of circumstances then it must consider what doth belong vnto place person and time and not so much to followe the time in all things For that were irreligious although some Politicians prescribe that as a good rule very requisite to be obserued of prudent men but to yeelde vnto necessity is a rule which both Reason and Circumspection doth teach vs because we are not thereby constrained to forsake the boundes and law of honesty In this Coniecture comes in as an harbinger to lodge the Circūstances of our Circumspection and to prepare the way to Election as what when and how things ought to be done neither may there be too much Circumspection vsed for that it often-times turneth to iealousie or suspition without cause as the Comoedian concludeth Plaus in Cap. he that is most circumspect least he be deceived is scarce circumspect mough when he is most circumspect and this provident man when he is most carefull is most commōly caught After Circumspection commeth Counsaile bringing with it the Conclusion of Prudence For after Counsaile there is nothing to be performed but the execution thereof which is the end event of thinges Cic. lib. 1. Rhet. Jdem lib. 2. This Counsaile is called the inquisitiue appetite of doing things thought vpon with Reason and the same author saith that it is the subtile foreseeing of the minde in causes to be examined or governed to the attaining wherof Seneca giveth singular precepts Senecatract de virtute saying if thou desire to be prudent intende and extend thy foresight to future things and ponder what may come to passe let those things that must needes be done of thee be as it were before thee alwaies and in thy sight For he that is wise saith not I thought this could not be he doubteth not what shall happen but expecteth and looketh for it he doth not suspect it but he doth looke and provide to prevent it seeke therfore saith he if thou wilt proue wise in deed the cause of every thing having foūd the beginning consider and bethinke with thy selfe what may be the end thereof These preceptes that concerne Counsaile though they are excellent yet notwithstanding are easier to be given then to be followed or put in practise and accomplished this is the substance of all difficult matters and such as haue neede of Consultation vvherein we finde by common experience that every man can more readily and with words more liberally advise another