Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	begin_v	great_a	time_n	1,599	5	3.2122	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70654	Threnodia, the churches lamentation for the good man his losse delivered in a sermon to the Right Honourable the two Houses of Parliament and the reverend Assembly of Divines at the funerall of that excellent man John Pym, Esquire, late a Member of the Honourable House of Commons : preached in the Abbey-Church of Westminster / by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1644 (1644)	Wing M794; ESTC R17869	27,959	53

spirit of His was accompanied with three admirable properties wherein he excelled all that ever I knew and most that ever I read of First such singlenesse of heart that no by respect could any whit sway him no respect of any Friend He regarded them in their due place but knew neither Brother Kinsman not Friend Superior nor Inferior when they stood in the way to hinder his pursuit of the publike good Magis amica Respublica And he used to say Such a one is my entire friend to whom I am much obliged but I must not pay my private debts out of the publike stock Yea no self-respect no private ends of His owne or family were in any degree regarded but Himself and His were wholly swallowed up in the care of the publike safety insomuch that when friends have often put Him in mind of his family and Posterity and prest him that although he regarded not himself yet he ought to provide that it might be well with his Family a thing which they thought he might easily procure his ordinary answer was If it went well with the publike his family was well enough Secondly such constancy and resolution that no feare of danger or hope of reward could at any time so much as unsettle him How often was his life in danger vvhat a World of threats and menaces have bin sent Him from time to time Yet I challenge the Man that ever saw Him shaken by any of them or thereby diverted from or retarded in His right way of advancing the publike good nor could the offers of the greatest promotions vvhich England could afford in any measure be a block in His way in that He was as another Moses th' only man whom God went about to bribe who desired that Hee and his might never swim if the cause of God and his people did ever sinke His spirit was not so lovv as to let the whole World prevaile with Him so far as to hinder his vvork much lesse to be his Wages Thirdly such Vnweariablenesse that from three of the Clock in the morning to the evening and from evening to midnight this vvas his constant employment except only the time of his drawing nigh to God to be some wayor other helpfull towards the publike good burning out his Candle to give light to others Who knows not all this to bee true who knevv this Mans conversation not onely since the time of this Parliament but for many yeers together hath He beene a great pillar to uphold our sinking frame a Master workman labouring to repaire our ruinous house and under the weight of this worke hath the Lord permitted this rare Workman to be overthrown and that 's all I meane to say of His Life And as His life such was His Death enjoying all the time of his sicknes the same evennesse of spirit which he had in the time of his health with an addition of a more cleare evidence of Gods love in Jesus Christ and most ready subjection to Gods will to live or dye at Gods choice professing to my self that it was to Him a most indifferent thing to live or dye if Hee liv'd Hee would doe vvhat service He could if Hee dyed Hee should goe to that God whom He had serv'd and who would carry on his worke by some others And to others He said that if his Life and Death were put into a paire of ballances He would not willingly cast in one dram to turne the ballance either way This was his temper all the time of his sicknesse but as He drevv nigher to his end the swifter His motion was to God-wards enjoying more abundant comfort in His spirit more frequently pouring out His heart in prayer and whereas formerly his Soliloquies and private devotions were only betwixt God and his own Soule now out of the abundance of his heart his mouth was compel'd to speake and that so audibly that such of his Family or Friends who endeavoured to bee neere Him lest he should faint away in his weaknesse have over-heard Him importunatly pray for the Kings Majesty and his Posterity for the Parliament and the Publike Cause for Himselfe begging nothing but that if His worke were done He might bee received into his Masters joy And a little before His end being recovered out of a swound seeing his friends weeping about Him he cheerfully told them hee had look't death in the face and knew and therfore fear'd not the worst it could doe assuring them his heart was filled with more comfort and joy which hee found and felt from God then His tongue was able to utter and soon after whilsta Reverend and godly Minister was at prayer with Him He quietly slept in the Lord It may bee some of you expect I should confute the Calumnies and Reproaches which that generation of Men who envied his Life doe already begin to spread and set up in Libels concerning his Death ' as that hee dyed Raving crying out against that Cause wherein he had beene so great an instrument Charging him to die of that loathsome Disease which that accursed Balsack in his Booke of slanders against Mr Calvin charged him to dye of But I forbeare to spend time needlesly to wipe off those reproaches which I know none of you believe And this will satisfie the World against such slanders that no lesse then eight Doctors of Physick of unsuspected integrity and some of them Strangers to him if not of different Religion from him purposely requested to be present at the opening of his Body and well neere a thousand people first and last who came many of them out of curiosity and were freely permitted to see his Corps can and doe abundantly testifie the falshood and foulnesse of this Report the Disease whereof he dyed being no other then an Imposthume in his Bowels But now to leave this tell me all you that passe by the way have we not great cause of Mourning in the fall of such a Man May I not say as David to the People Rent your Clothes and gird you with Sackcloth and mourne before Abner Verily when I consider how God hath followed us with breach upon breach taken away all those Worthy Men I before mentioned and all the other things wherein the Lord hath brought us low and now this great blow to follow all the rest I am ready to call for such a Mourning as that of Hadadrimon in the valley of Megiddon But mistake me not I do not meane that you should mourne for Him You his deare children You Right Honourable Lords and Commons who esteeme him little lesse then a Father I mean not that you should mourne for Him his worke is done his warfare is accomplished He is delivered from sin and sorrow and from all the evils which wee may feare are comming upon our selves Hee hath received at the Lords hand a plentifull reward for all his Labours I beseech you let not any of you have one sad thought

the evil to come So it proved in this place The good man is perished the vile are left behind then followeth vers. 4. The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation commeth now shall be their perplexity It 's true as I said before to them who are godly the Fountaine remaines when the Pipes are cut and there is ten thousand times more cause of joy in their God who lives then of sorrow for their friends who die but to others it 's a sad prediction that when God makes up his Jewels and carries them away he hath a day comming that shall burne as an Oven and all the wicked shall be as stubble that it shall leave them neither root nor branch And indeed they are the very {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the onely meanes to keep off wrath and judgement from the places where they live Every mercie saith to such a people as Elisha to Jehoram Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehosaphat I would not looke toward thee nor see thee and the devouring judgements say to these godly ones as the Angel said to Lot We are come to destr●y this place up get thee out hast thee escape hence for we can doe nothing till thou art gone When the Husband-man thus p 〈…〉 s up the fence and gathers in his crop it is a signe that shortly you 'll have wild beasts in the field This Jeroboam and his whole family found to be true who had Abijah one child in his family in whom some good thing was found toward the Lord and as soone as he was taken away the judgements of God broke in upon his house and cut off him that pist against the wall and him that was shut up and left in Israel and took away the remnant of the house of Ieroboam as a man takes away dung till it be allgone This the old world found true in Noah and Sodome with the rest of the Cities in Lot this the Iews found true when the Christians admonished from heaven left Ierusalem fled to Pella soon after their departure the enemies made a trench about them and laid their City even with the ground and their children with them not leaving one stone upon another Thus fared it with the City of Hippo in Africa where Saint Augustine was Bishop which as soone as ever he was dead was taken and sackt by the Goths and Vandals Luther was no sooner translated to a better life but the Smalchaldick war begun in Germany wherein all the Protestants were almost wholly wasted No sooner was old Paraeus taken away from Heidelberg but Spinola entred the Towne These and many other instances of Gods wrath breaking in upon the departure of godly men abundantly manifest that we have cause to weep and lament not for them who thus dye but for our selves and our children because of the miseries which we may then justly feare are comming upon us Take a briefe Application of this Lesson and I have done my Sermon First Would God have his people thus to mourne when usefull men decay and faile how sadly then doth this reprove our generall stupidity the Lord hath made many great and lamentable breaches amongst us in this kinde he hath broken all our carnall confidences our Parliament is weakned our Armies wasted our treasure is exhausted our enemies increased and of those few able hearts heads and hands who abode faithfull to this great cause and worke in hand it might even stab us to the very heart to thinke how many of them the Lord hath even snatcht away in the middest of their worke and our greatest need That excellent spirited Lord the Lord Brooke that rare man Master Iohn Hampden that true-hearted Nathaniel Master Arthur Goodwin pardon me I beseech you though I mention them amongst these friends who cannot thinke of them without bitterness● How are these mighty men fallen in the midst of the ba●tell ana the weapons of warre perished the beauty of our Israel is slaine in the high places Whose heart wou 〈…〉 not b●eed and cry out as David at Ionathan his death Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of ●skelon lest the daughters of the Philistins reioyce lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph But now which of us laies these things to heart who considereth the bitter things which God writes against us No we are rather like that wretched people who when the righteous perished and mercifull men were taken away though it were from the evil to come were so farre from laying it to heart aright that they banished all serious thoughts from them every one looking to their owne way some to their gaine others to their pleasure Come ye say they I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant and this even when the righteous perished Verily this is our carriage the Lord deprives us of these excellent men and we it may be for a moment bewaile their losse in some passionate expression saying There is a brave man lost I am sorry such a man is dead c. and then every one goeth on againe in his owne way As I have seen a Hen pardon an homely similitude goe clocking and scraping in the midst of her Chickens then comes the Kite and snatcheth away first one then another then a third till all are gone and the Hen brustles and flutters a little when any is snatched away but returns instantly to her scraping and picking as if she had lost nothing Even so doe wee presently forgetting our great losses but no man sitting alone by himselfe to enquire What God hath done and what He meanes to doe with us or what we have done to provoke him thus far against us thrusting such thoughts far away from us passing by on the other side of the way as the Priest and Levite did by the wounded man as if it nothing concerned us O Beloved this wofull security and regardlesnesse of ours is one of the saddest tokens of Gods purpose still to bring us lower It was the Prophet Hósea his complaint against Israel a little before their utter ruine Strangers have devoured his strength and he knew it not gray haires were here and there upon him and he regarded it not The losse of good men was one of his gray hairs which argued his declining and his not-regarding it was the saddest evidence of his incurablenesse the Lord in mercy make us sensible of these heavie strokes before it be too late lest we prove like them of the old world who did eat and drink marry and give in marriage and would know nothing untill the flood came and swept them all away Secondly but how exceedingly doth this discover the wickednesse the divellishnesse of the spirits of a generation of men amongst us who are so far from bemoaning and lamenting the losse of