Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	child_n	good_a	parent_n	1,888	5	8.6795	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48315	A monitor of mortality, the second sermon Occasioned by the death of Mrs. Harpur, a grave and godly matron (wife to Mr. Henry Harpur of the city of Chester) and of the death of their religious daughter Phœbe Harpur, a child of about 12. yeares of age. By Iohn Ley minister of Great Budworth in Cheshiere.; Monitor of mortalitie.	Ley, John, 1583-1662.	1643 (1643)	Wing L1884A; ESTC R216672	26,028	38

of her Sex and that age within the compasse of my acquaintance Her piety and charity were commendable in any age admirable in one so young as she was I will give a briefe touch of both since they are the principall qualifications of a Christian and the rather because though * In Chester here she was borne and lived to honour God with a singular example of sanctity for one so young yet here she dyed not and therefore had not here that commendable mention made of her which in this place was due unto her whereof I will give you such a report as is like unto an Eccho resounding back a few sillables for many words of her ¶ Preached at Alderley where she dyed and was buried Funerall Sermon and this for yours and your childrens sakes that they may be induced to become godly betimes and feare not the saying a young Saint an old devill for that is one of the old devills Proverbs and prophecies as false as himselfe who never speakes truth but to make way for beliefe of a lye and the contrary is regularly true A young Saint an old Saint a young Devill an old Devill First for her Piety it was such for a child as must needs argue her the child of God and by such evidences as these First she set her selfe an holy and daily taske for prayer and reading of the Scripture wherein if by any occasion she were interrupted she was very much troubled and this she did not formally but affectionately which may appeare by these particulars 1. By her serious enquiries and questions of the sense and meaning of that she read 2. By her constant care to keepe close to the rules of it for feare least in any thing she should doe contrary unto it 3. By her scruple and trouble of mind if in any thing she digressed from her duty to God or man commanded in the word Fourthly if any doubt or case of conscience arose where in favour to her selfe and honour to God by way of competition came in for preheminence as whether she should abridge her selfe of lawfull liberty on the Sabbath day or make a breach upon it by a prophane imployment of any part of it she was much more ready to be injurious to her selfe then sacrilegious to God Wherof I shall relate unto you a strange but a true Story which I know very well for it was in a passage of conference betwixt her and me yet in the presence of divers others who may yet remember it It was thus Upon some speeches against the violation of the religious rest of that day by carnall recreations she shewed her dislike of dancing on the Sabbath so farre as to say she would rather die then doe it I told her with commendation of her Christian care and zeale to keepe it not only holy for the manner but wholly for the measure that so she might make her selfe more guilty of the breach of the sixt Commandement by her rest then of the fourth by her motion for if her dancing were not an exercise of delight unto her selfe but done as a worke of mercy for preservation of her life and so professed to such as would compell her to doe it it was no breach of piety but an act of charity as lawfull as the labour bestowed to lift up an Oxe out of the pit least he should die there Luk. 14.5 which is allowed by our Saviour and so much more warrantable as the life of a Christian is of more worth then the life of a beast Against which though she could say little I found somewhat to doe to free her from the fetters of her former opinions so deeply did Doctrines of selfe-deniall sinke into her heart though she were yet but of that age which useth to make scruple of nothing and to deny nothing to it selfe which hath any savour of sensuall delight 2. Secondly for her Charity let her Piety stand for an abridgement of the first Table and her charity will serve for the same in the second she was kind and courteous towards all tender hearted to the distressed desirous if any breach were made betweene any of the family to make it up quickly by hearty reconcilement And to the poore she was exceedingly pittifull interceding for them giving of her own unto them For which purpose she got a little stock before hand for her Parents seeing she was so well-minded would not suffer her to be empty handed and that stocke sometimes she adventured all at once as goods in a weather-beaten Barke by way of loane to some poor person in extreame necessity where may we find so much upon record of Iacobs Beniamin On these two points Piety and Charity hang all the Law and the Prophets and these two were so habitually setled in her that in the exercise of both so farre as others could judge she took much delight How could it be but a delight to any godly Parents to have such a child How but a great griefe to be deprived of her who was like if she had lived to have been an excellent patterne to both Sexes and every age to which she attained And the better she was the more lovely in the eyes of God and of all that are good and her goodnesse doubtlesse was that which so united the soule of her good mother to hers that they could not part but as Iacob and Beniamin with the perill of life By this child you may make some conjecture of her Mother for children especially in their minority owe much unto their Mothers for their godly education so did King Lemuel to his Prov. 31.1 and Timothy to his Mother and Grand-mother both 2 Tim. 1.5 And though grace be of God it is regularly conferred by meanes and religious instruction of children and exemplary conversation of their Parents is a meanes which God many times blesseth with gracious effects So that wheras most make boast of their Parents as * Iosephus in the beginning of his life written by himselfe Iosephus of his Know therefore that I am not basely but nobly descended being both on the Fathers and Mothers side derived from the line of the Priests in reason there is cause rather for Parents to glory in good children since God many times maketh them usefull instruments of their goodnesse But seldome on the contrary is the Parents goodnesse effected by any means either of example or instruction of their children Howsoever she this grave Matron I meane had not bin so happy as to be the Mother of so religious a daughter she was in her self well worthy both of our commendation and of others imitation First as a Woman Secondly as a Wife Thirdly as a Mother Fourthly as a mistresse Fiftly as a friend Sixtly which is the chiefest of all as a Christian Under these particular Titles we might make discourse for a whole houre but I will wind up all as many long threds into a little clew First as a

a man and bring downe a storme of vengeance from above upon him From this sinne we shall be disposed to keepe a further distance if we consider the Law in case of killing Deut. 21. from the first verse to the ninth inclusively where we reade That if a man were slaine in the field and the Man-slayer were not knowne the Elders of the next City to the slaine man which if it were not apparent otherwise must be tryed by measure from the place of the dead round about must offer Sacrifice ver 4. And though neither their hands did shed the bloud nor their eyes see it vers 7. by which is meant that they were altogether innocent and ignorant of it yet must they deprecate the imputation of the bloud-shed in this manner Be mercifull O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent bloud unto the people of Israels charge and the bloud shall bee forgiven them ver 8. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent bloud from among you when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord v. 9. Secondly If by the killing of one man a whole City though neither consenting to it nor knowing who did it must thus farre professe their clearnesse from it and yet offer Sacrifice and pray that they may not be accounted as guilty of it how deepe is their guilt how dangerous their State who make no scruple to make a * Parisiensis horrenda la ●iena in nuptijs Henrici Regis N●varrae Luc. Osia●d Epit. Cent. ●600 l. 3. c. 69. part alt p. 832. City a Shambles of bloud-shed And thinke it their greatest glory when they wade deepest in blood not of Turkes and Infidels but of Christians especially of those whose bloud next unto the bloud of Christ is most precious in the eyes of God wherein they revell with such a bold and boundlesse bloud-guiltinesse as if they might and meant to heare some comparative acclamations of themselves and some other man of bloud and Beliall like that in the first of Samuell the 18. Saul hath slaine his thousands and David his ten thousands verse 7. But most unlike it in this for that Davids valour was exercised upon the enemies of God their violence rageth against his dearest favourites for whose security he hath entred a Caveat in the Courts of Kings Psal 105. He suffered no man to doe them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes ver 14. saying Touch not mine annoynted and doe my Prophets no harme ver 14 15. which they that dare disobey When he maketh inquisition for blood he will remember them and not forget the cry of the humble Psal 9.12 whose bloud will cry as Abels did Gen. 4.10 for vengeance against theirs and God will heare it and avenge it too Rom. 19.2 and his vengeance will be such as if they did apprehend it as God will inflict it would put them into the extremity of Belshazzar when he saw the fingers of a mans hand-writing the doome of his ruine upon the plaister of the wall which made his countenance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled the ioynts of his loynes to be loosed and his knees to smite one against another Dan. 5.5 6. but it may be Hee that was a murtherer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 whose slaughter-men they are and a jugling impostor too who blindeth the minds of them that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 will not suffer their blood-shotten eyes to see the guilt of their cruell hearts and hands untill they feele the weight of Gods revenging hand upon them After this Observation of the words taken together wee must take them apart and so take notice of two remarkable examples The one is of Iudahs care of the life of his Father Iacob The other of Iacobs danger of death by the losse of his son Beniamin The former I shall dispatch in briefe intending more copiously to prosecute the latter as being more pertinent to our present purpose noting it as a disposition worthy of praise in him fit to be a patterne for the practice of Children towards their Parents viz. to be charie of their lives and so was Joseph as well as Judah and having more power he sheweth it more then Judah did or could do and in that wherein Judah might have equalled him hee suffered Joseph to go beyond him the five last Chapters of Genesis conteine an excellent story which may both instruct Children in their filiall duty and if they marke it as they ought will much induce them to performe it for which the grounds are laid in nature and upon them may be built considerations of Religion For that Children should be chary of the lives of their Parents is Natures immediate instinct without any exercise of reason or discipline of Religion and thus all the world over the bruite creatures not excepted yea some of them are noted for example of very kind and tender love and care of their parents for the young Storkes as * Plin. nat bist l. 10. c. 24. Pliny observeth will keepe and feed them when they are old as they themselves were nourished by them when they were young Secondly The dictate of naturall reason requires it that Children should be carefull to prolong the lives of their Parents for First They are under God the meanes of the beginning of life and being unto them Secondly They are under God againe the meanes of the continuance of their life and well-being And for Religion God calleth for this care in the fifth Commandement where under the word Honour all filiall duties are commanded and under the prohibition of killing in the sixt whatsoever may tend unto it is forbidden and the contrary is virtually injoyned that is whatsoever may conduce to the preservation of life especially of those to whom by divine and humane law we are most obliged Applic. This I could wish Children would apply unto themselves whether their Parents be dead or alive if they be dead to examine their own precedent carriage towards them whether they have not given them any cause or been an occasion to hasten their deaths and if they have to mourne more for their own sinnes in secret then they seemed to doe at their Parents funerall in publike if they have them yet alive seriously to recount what causes they have to desire their life and to doe their best indeavour to prolong their dayes cherishing them in their old age as they were cherished by them in their infancy so did good Joseph by his aged Father Jacob for he nourished him and his bretheren and all his houshold for his sake with bread or as some reade the words as a little child is nourished Gen. 46.12 or according to the Hebrew even to the mouth of the little one that is from the greatest to the least or with such tendernesse as that wherewith a Nurse feedeth her little one or with as little care or pains to Jacob