Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	hear_v	word_n	1,549	5	4.7559	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11377	Dorcas: a true patterne of a goodly life, and good end With a pithy exhortation to the practice of faith and good works. In a sermon preached at Totnes in Deuon, Ianuary 14 16[...] at the funerall of Mrs. Mary Bab, widow. By Thomas Saltern, sometimes lecturer there; and preacher of the word at Bradford. And now published, at the request of sundry godly persons.	Saltern, Thomas, b. 1579 or 80.	1625 (1625)	STC 21636; ESTC S112139	17,242	24

contentions doe not mis-apply my words I speake in generall termes and to forreiners from abroad as well as to the inhabitants of this place all whom I would haue to examine their owne soules who take exception at what I speake doe but bewray their owne guiltinesse and thinke a great deale worse of themselues then of me they can O consider and so I will conclude this point that it is panis esurientium quem tu diuoras c. the bread of the hungry which is deuoured in gluttony the drinke of the thirsty that is swilled in intemperately the garments of the naked that men strut in so flauntingly who some of them as St. Ambrose speakes parietes vestiunt auro pauperes nudant vestimento doe array their walls with cloth of Arras of silke of siluer of gold and leaue bare if not make bare also the backes and armes of the needy and the money of the poore peaceable ones which is cast away in malitious sures and controuersies Let euery thing be placed in his due place cause not the leane checkes to become lanker yet make not the needy eyes to wait long and bee euen ready to fall out of their sockets with waiting defraud not the poore of their due almes though it be giuen vnto them it is but lent vnto God and he will repay it and in due proportion too as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 9.6 He that soweth sparingly shall reape sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reape bountifully as of this godly matron in my Text it is said that she sowed bountifully for she was full of good works and almes which she did Concerning which words it is noted that fulnesse here doth commend her good workes and almes for three good qualities sincerity generality constancy sincerity in respect of the root and fountaine generality in respect of the streames and branches and constancy in respect of the growth and current her goodnesse proceeded from her heart did spread it selfe farre and wide and did continue and last vnto her end And now Beloued that in the midst of our fulnesse in other kinds fulnes of pride fulnes of idlenes fulnesse of knowledge and fulnesse of good words wee would be full of good workes also as she was If we do good is it not grudgingly or for worldly and temporal respects where is our fulnesse of sincerity then Is it not mincingly and with that great personages limitation in the booke of the Kings God be mercifull vnto vs in these and these cases where is our fulnesse of generality then Or is it not wearisomely and with great fainting where is our fulnesse of constancy and perseuerance It is this being full of goodnesse that bringeth glory vnto God for herein is my Father glorified saith our Sauiour Christ that you beare much fruit Ioh. 15.8 It bringeth assurance to our consciences of our happy estate here for he that abideth in me and I in him saith Christ the same bringeth forth much fruit Ioh. 15.5 and of the reward of blessednesse laid vp for vs in heauen therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 6.9 Let vs not be weary in well doing for in due time wee shall reape if wee faint not if not now while we liue and indeed their case is the worst of all of whom it may be said they haue their reward yet assuredly when death commeth as it did to this good woman in my text and is the second generall thing I must speake of concerning her the death of Dorcas with the immediate forerunner thereof her sicknesse And it came to passe in those daies that she was sicke and dyed Now the word that is here read it came to passe is sometimes read it fortuned or happened both well in diuers respects the one in respect of God vnto whose prouidence all things being subiect and gouerned by it it is said in regard thereof that things come to p●sse and yet to chance or happen in respect of vs vnto whom God thinkes not fit to reueale and open those future euents which hee mindeth to kepe in his owne hands Whence the point collected is that which you all know that there is nothing can befall man in this world be it cloudy weather or cleere sunshine or full of stormes but it is all subiect and subordinate to the wisdome and prouidence of Almighty God There be other names vsed among men as fate and destiny and the like but heare what St. Austin saith de ciuit Dei l. 5. c. 1 Qua si propterea quisque fato tribuit c. If any man attribute the things that come to passe vnto fate or destiny and say that by it he meanes the will and prouidence of God Sententiam teneat linguam corrigat let him keepe his opinion but let him alter his phrase of speech because many when they heare these words fate destiny and the like are moued to beleue the some thing inferiour vnto Gods prouidence is meant as the cause or procurer of the things that happen and the lesson hence arising is in a word this that in all the changes and chances of this present life we lay vp our rest vpon Gods prouidence and next after our honest and lawfull endeauors refer the successe of all to him in time of health and prosperity not lifted vp with pride and presumption nor murmuring and repining when wee see the hand of God vpon vs though we see the hand of men or the Deuill there also in case of crosse and aduersity but alwaies resoluing as old Ely did 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good It came to passe that shee was sicke yea sicknesse is the suburbs through which ordinarily wee doe enter into the gates of death and for this purpose hath God placed in mans body deaths armory his fort of munition wherin hang a thousand shields wherewith the Lieutenant and his Captaine the messenger and his master morbus and mors sicknesse and death doe but come and then ouercome man Mans head and heart and stomacke and lyuer and lights and lungs and other parts of his body what are they but so many seuerall cells wherin sicknesse and death haue seuerall swords to wound and kill man with when God will haue it so Nay man saith Bernard is alwaies sicke of one disease or other generally of three aboue other the one in his beginning and entrance into the world and that is full of infirmity and vncleannesse the second in his progresse through the world and that is full of iniquitie and peruersnesse the third in his going out of the world not without paine and perill and nasci in corpore mortali aegrotare est to be born into the world is to be thrust out into a Spittlehouse And if we consider almost the whole course of a mans life how it is spent we shall finde it composed of nothing else but infirmities remedies maladies and medicines sicknesses and their physick and the physicke

and remedies many times more troublesome then the diseases themselues whē a man is hungry he is not well till he eat labor killeth without rest after it the comfort of the one to cure the paine of the other and yet ofttimes eating makes as sicke as hunger did the rest of the body yeelds no rest to the mind and the time of quiet proues the most vnquiet time of all It came to passe that she was sicke What this godly and charitable matron yea and no maruaile at it the Lord chasteneth whom he loueth and afflicteth with some kind of crosse or other euery sonne whom he doth receiue and qui excipitur è numero flagellatorum excipitur è numero filiorum They that are altogether without correction are bastards and not sonnes Heb. 12.8 But it proues in Gods children though harsh to flesh and blood as the clay by our Sauiour Christs power did to the blinde man Ioh. 9. an excellent meanes to open those eyes which were shut by sinne and make a man see both Gods power and his owne weaknesse which in time of ease and freedome he did not so well discerne for the fruit of wisdome groweth on the tree of trouble and the schoolehouse of affliction is the schoolehouse of instruction But if iudgement be executed on the house of God where shall the wicked and sinners appeare the one are corrected in the world that they may not be condemned with the world and the other let alone oft-times to spend their daies as oxen in fat pastures of purpose to be reserued for a more grieuous slaughter O then if you will that death shall not be terrible when it comes though the Philosopher calls it of all terrible things the worst learne first to bid the forerunners of death welcome learne to entertaine as ye ought sicknesses patiently the sicknesses of the body and crosses patiently the crosses of the minde and losses patiently losse of goods losse of friends losse of liberty if God doe so order it these are anteambulones the prodromi the footposts the messengers the harbingers of death bid I say these welcome and death shall come well vnto you when it comes as come it will perhaps as neere to the heeles of sicknesse as the words in my text doe come close together she was sick and dyed Or if not as not alwaies yet are there two wormes the two daughters of Time Day and Night which continually bite and gnaw at the root of the tree our very life and hart-blood while we prodigall of that whereof to bee couetous is the onely couetousnesse that is honest viz. our time doe so long feed on the honey-combes that hang ouer out heads desiring to satiate our selues with the pleasures of this life till this tree of our life bee bitten through by those two worms and we fall into that pit whence there is no redemption She was sicke and dyed Yea this is the ordinary effect of sicknesse that sooner or later it will end in death she was sicke and dyed and man is sicke and dyeth saith Iob c. 14.10 but what meanes Iob so immediately to the former words man is sicke to adioyne those other and man dyeth why doth he so Is it to aggrauate the miseries to which poore man in this world is subiect by the whole scope of the text it should seeme it is and yet how can it be so for man is sicke and dyeth is no more then man hath gone a long and a wearisome pilgrimage and hath finished his course or man hath laboured and wearied himselfe al the day long and is set him downe to rest or man hath ouer-watcht himselfe and is falne asleepe this is man is sicke and dyeth death indeed the remembrance of death is bitter to the man that is at rest in his possessions that hath nothing to vexe him but hath prosperity in all things whose brests are yet full of milke and his bones of marrow who may wash his plants with butter and whose rocks powre him out riuers of oyle O how would the newes of death make him startle and his knees smite each other with trembling as it fared with Foelix when Paul reasoned of the iudgment to come Act. 24.25 But when a man shal long for death as a seruant doth for the shadow an hireling for the end of his worke and a woman in trauell for her deliuery when he would seeke for death if hee knew where as a man would seeke for treasures and reioyce if he could finde the graue whose cheekes are gummy with weeping and the picture of death sits in his eyes who neuer eates morsell with pleasure but is still dying in the bitternes of his soule to such a man how acceptable would the iudgement of death be and to dye after sicknesse no degree of misery Indeed if wee consider death as adioyned to that world of miseries which in this world of misery we are subiect to then is death a more excellent medicine then all the Art of man can prescribe to cure all diseases but if in the cause of it which was sinne and in the nature of it euen the dissolution of nature then doth flesh bid away to death though it be the ordinance of the Lord ouer all flesh yea all The words of Iob doe shew the Pedigree of all mankind I haue said to corruption thou art my father and to the wormes thou art my mother and my sister Iob 17.14 And if King Dauid said personally of himselfe prophetically of his Lord and ours I am a worme and no man what man is there that is not a worme also This we know well enough all of vs euen so well that the Deuill himselfe cannot make vs beleeue the contrary he dares not say to vs as he did to our first parents ye shall not dye they had seene none dye before them wee haue had millions yet see how easily he makes fooles of vs hee chokes vs with the same bait as he did them but with this difference he gaue them the bait whole and they swallowed it he giues it vs by peeces as that we shall not dye yet not this day or this weeke or this moneth or perhaps not this yeare and so quickly perswades vs so to liue as if we were immortall neuer dreaming either of deaths certainty or hells misery or heauens felicity The due consideration of which things euen of death alone would serue to humble vs as it did those Ancients who made their often casting ashes on their heads a monument and memoriall of their mortality it would serue to worke repentance in vs as it did in the Niniuites and that excellent resolution which it did in Iob when hee said Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Lord giueth and the Lord taketh away liuing as well as life and life as well as liuing blessed be the name of the Lord for all Iob 1.21 It would bee auailable