Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	life_n	see_v	3,263	5	3.5236	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61500	Three sermons preached by the Reverend and learned Dr. Richard Stuart ... to which is added, a fourth sermon, preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, Samuel Harsnett ...; Sermons. Selections	Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651.; Harsnett, Samuel, 1561-1631.	1658 (1658)	Wing S5527; ESTC R20152	74,369	194

it out of some more ancient the best way to mortifie thy rebellious works is to behold these Spectacles of mortality For what dares flesh and bloud be proud when she considereth her Beauty to be but Rottennesse sh●ll parentage make that man swel that must say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother Iob 17.14 These sights may serve to strangle ambitious thoughts for see how little room containes a man to correct thy Covetousnesse for is it not a madnesse to live poore that thou mayest die rich Look wretch Doth this Corps possesse any thing Death affording such variety of Instruction I wonder what moved the Belgiqu● Fathers to banish these Discourses For so they decreed Can. 5. de Exercitiis Ecclesiasticis Conciones Funebres nunquam intr●ducendas ubi in usu sunt commode tollendas censet Synodus Was it therefore because they have been sometimes formerly abused and made to commend those Lives that were as full of Scandall as Vice By this reason they might have forbidden the Lords Supper too For what more gross abuse then when Rome of a Sacrament had made an Idoll If some Luxuriant wits have beene offensive upon these occasions Vitium hoc Hominum non Concionum this Custome should not have been abrogated but such Preachers check'd I dare say they know not the true use of Funerall Sermons who thinke these Discourses must still be Panegyrick Nay the Dead serve to the increase of Faith and must the Sermon needs tend to nothing but vaine glory Yet where there is Desert I hope the Synod intends not to forbid commendations For God himselfe hath spoken it The name of the just shall b● had in everlasting remembrance and what fitter place to execute h●s D●cr●e then the Pulpit Nay that little good we find in bad men deserves a Register David himselfe penned Saul an Epicaedium Saul and Ionathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided Ye Daughters of Israel weep over Saul who cloathed you in scarlet with other delights c. as you may read 2. Sam. 1.23 I have a Warrant then to mention and where I see Reason to commend the Dead I may preach these circumstances what we find in the Text it selfe you need not doubt but it may become the Sermon The manner of my Discourse I 'le take from Corinth my Speech shall resemble their Cerimonies it shall be plain and simple meer Water Let more happy inventions Imbalm the Dead it shall suffice me to wash him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Amen A SERMON Preached at S. PAULS Cross in London the 27. day of October Anno Reginae Elizabethae 26. by Samuel Harsnet then Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridg but afterwards Lord Arch-Bishop of Yorke The Text EZEKIEL 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the death of the wicked THere was a conceit among the Iews as appeareth by the verse going before my Text that when they sinned they sinned of necessity so that they could not but sinne and so when Almighty God did send unto them his Prophets early and late calling and inciting them to Repentance they thought he did but dally and mock with them for it was his pleasure they should sinn● and die therein Almighty God was much offended with this their conceit it being against his Iustice and fidelity both and therefore bids his Prophet here protest unto them and bind it with an Oath no less then his Life that they did him wrong As I live saith the Lord I do not delight in the death of the wicked The Text then I have in hand Right Honorable Worshipfull and Beloved is a solemn Protestation made by Almighty God in his owne cause to cleare himselfe of Infidelity and Injustice that the Iudg of this world doth not delight to see men sinne and then punish them with Death because of their si●ne As I live saith the Lord c. The forme of the Protestation is in the nature of an Oath As I liv● saith the Lord c. and in it I consider these three things 1. The Oath it selfe that it pleased God to swear 2. The manner of the Oath he swears y his life As I live saith the Lord 3. The Matter of the Protestation is an absolute Negative made unto the Iews avowing that it was all false they charged God withall I do not delight in the death of the wicked And in this Negative God doth avow five simple Negatives every one upon the credit of his Oath as 1. I do not delight in death 2. I delight not in the death of man 3. I delight not in the death of a sinfull man 4. I delight not in the death of wicked sinfull man 5. I delight not in the death of any sinfull man Of these by your patience as God shall assist me For the first that the Phrase of speech As I live is an oath I shew it plainly out of 1. Sam. 28.10 where it is said that Saul did swear and he used no other words then these As the Lord liveth This form then of speech As I live saith the Lord is an Oath By the life of the Lord S. Austin upon the 94. Psalm saith Magnum est loqui Dominum quanto majus jurar● Deum It is a great thing that the Lord should speak and so it i● indeed for at the first word he spake he made a world Dixit et factum est he spake the word and it was done but he that could make the world with a word could not find c●edit in the world for his word but he must needs bind it with an Oath so that it cost him more to be believed in the World then it cost him to make the World it selfe Durum est saith Vincentius cum non tantum tribuamus Deo ●uantum viro honesto It 's hard when we will not give so much credit to God as we do to an honest man for we will give credit to him upon his Word but we will not believe God though he swear Sed durum est cum non tantum tribuamus Deo quantum Diabolo It is very hard when we will not trust God so far forth as we trust the Devill for we took his word in Paradice At non moriemini Ye shall not die being the Father of lies and we will no● trust God on his word At cupio ne moria●ini I desire you should not die I the God of truth but we must have this Oath As I live c. There are two bonds H●b. 6.18 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Gods Word and his Oath and the slighter of these two doth hold all things in the world Man only excepted The Sea rageth and roareth terribly saith the Psalmist 95.11 yet Gods word is his band and in his greatest rage he never passed it Prov. 8.29 The Sun riseth

Image of his Father and he was so delighted in his Image that he would needs have an Image of his Image and so he made Man after his own Image If any other then God had ●ade Man or if he had not been made after the Image he eternally loved it may be he would not have cared so much for him but being the workemanship of his owne hand● and made after the Image he so tenderly loved if he had not loved him for his VVorkmanship sake yet he must needs love him for his sake whose Image he bare and loving him could not delight to spoile him Nature God's Nurse had bred in us such a fond desire of our Image that it brought Idolatry into the world and when we cannot have a lively image we will have an Image though it be but of colours and clouts and if we be Kings then none must paint th●t Image but Apelles and when it is drawn it must have a Curtaine and if it be the Ingraven Image it must go for currant then who so dishapes or defaces that Image the Prince takes it as done unto himselfe and it is Capitale a matter of Life and Death Tu Domine fecisti saith S. Ierome O Lord we have this love though not this fond love from thee for thou tookest the blotting of ●hine Image in Paradise as a blemish to thy selfe and thou saidst to the blotter Quia fecisti because thou hast don it on thy belly shalt thou creep and dust shalt thou eat all the daies of thy life Gen. 3.14 The H. Fathers are wonderfull in the ●ontempla●ion of mans excellency at the first Cedrus Paradisi Imago Coeli Gloria terrae Dominus mundi Delici● Domini The Cedar of Paradise was too good wood to be cut into Chips for Hell fire The Image of Heaven was not made to b● the Vizard of Hell the Glory of the World the Dungeon of Darknesse the Lord of the World the bond-slave of Satan the Darling of the Lord of Heaven the scorne to all the Fiends of Hell When the Holy Ghost had accounted the Genealogy from Christ to A●am Luk. 3. at the last vers● he brings up Adam to hi● Father and calls him by the name of the Son of God Can a man live to delight in the death of his Son David a man after Gods own ●eart denies it 2 Sam. 19. O Absolon my Son would to God I had died for thee ●y Son Absolon my Son my Son And ●f David could have forgotten Absolon his Son yet God could not forget Adam his Son for he saies not to him Would I ●ad died for thee my Son but I die for ●●ee my Son nay that 's too little I have died for thee before thou wer 't that when thou wert thou mightest not die and so I may safely swear by my Life that I do not delight in the Death of man When Vlysses playd the Mad-man because he would not go with the Grecians to the siege of Troy and getting a plough he ploughed and marred all that came in his way It was Palimedes wise counsel that they should lay his young Son in his way which when ●hey had don and that the plough came to it he tooke it up would not let it hurt his Son and so ●hey discovered that he was but counterfeitly mad but if he had ploughed up his Son they would have accounted him perfectly mad indeed If God had made the world like the man of Crete and put Death in as the Minotaure was put into the Labyrinth there and reserved all creature● as meat for his jaws yet when it had come to the lot of man to be cast in with the rest if he had not spared Man being his Son the Grecians wise account of our Gracious God would have been much like after the account of their Vlysses There is a conceit in the world beloved speakes little better of our gracious God then this and that is That God should designe many thousands of soules to H●ll b●fore they were not in eye to t●eir faults but to his own absolute will and power and to get him glory in their damnation This opinion is growne huge and monstrous like a Goliah and men doe shake and tremble at it yet never a man reacheth to Davids sling to cast it downe In the name of the Lord of Hosts we will encounter it for it hath reviled not the Host of the living God but the Lord of Hosts First it is directly opposite to this Text of holy Scripture and so turns the Truth of God into a Lye For whereas God in this Text doth say and swear that he doth not delight in the death of man this opinion saith that not one or two but millions of men should fry in Hell and that he made them for no other purpose then to be the children of death and Hell and that for no other cause but his meer pleasure's sake and so saies that God did not only say but swear to a Lye for the Oath should have run thus As I live saith the Lord I do delight in the death of man Secondly it doth not by consequence but directly make God the Author of sin For if God without eye to sin did designe men to Hell then did he say and set downe that he should sin for without sin he cannot come to Hell And indeed doth not his opinion say that the Almighty God in the eye of his Counsell did not only see but say that Adam should fall and so order and decree and set downe his fall that it was no more possible for him not to fall then it was possible for him not to eat and of that which God doth order set down and decree I trust he is the Author unless they will say that when the Right Honorable Lord Keeper doth say in open Court We order he means not to be the Authour of that his order Thirdly It takes a way from Adam in his state of innocency all freedome of will and liberty not to sin For had he had freedome to have altered Gods desigment Adams Liberty had bene above the designment of God And here I remember a little witty Solution is made that is if we respect Adam's will he had power to sin or not to sin but if God's Decree he could not but sin This is a silly solution And indeed it is as much as if you should take a sound strong man that hath power to walke and to lie still and bind him hand and foot as they do in Bedlam and lay him downe and then bid him Rise up and Walke or else you will stir him up with a Whip and he tell you that there be chains upon him so that he is not able to stir and you tell him againe that that is no excuse for if he look upon his heal●h his strength his legs he hath power to walk or to lie still but if upon his chains indeed in that

the Innoce●t bloud and had laid his hands his bloudy hands upon himselfe when he had so done the Holy Ghost saith Acts. 2.25 Abiit in locum suum he went to a home not of Gods but of his owne providing The fearfull doome at the last day is Ite non Auferte Goe your waies not Carry them away goe the way your selves have chosen And it is to the sheep Venite benedicti Patris mei Come ye blessed of my Father and to the Goats Ite maledicti in ignem paratum Goe into the fire ye ●ursed but it is not Ite maledicti Patris Goe ye cursed of my Father God intitles himselfe to the blessing only And the fire is prepared but for whom Non nobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus Not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither Death nor Hell for damned men This last branch of Gods protestation I delight not in the death of any sinner I resolve into six Consequences as Links depending on this Chain 1. God's absolute will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the childe of Hell so as by God's Grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth and wisheth every living Soul to be saved and to come to the Kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his Sonne to save every Soule and to bring it to the Kingdom of Heaven 5. God's Son offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of Heaven 6. The neglect and contempt of his Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Counsel or determination of God These six I will breifly discuss and so commend you to the Grace of God For the first Almigty God at the Creation when he tooke a view of all his Creatures as men use to do that have newly drawne an Image they view and pry to see what is amisse in it it seemes when he looked upon them he found they were Good and when Man was made behold They were very Good Gen. 1.31 Now if God had cast a way man before he had sinned not in eye to sin but in absolute judgment the malicious would have cried the Kingdome of God is worse then the kingdome of Satan For Satan is not divided against Satan Belzebub the Prince of Devils doth not cast out Devils Matt. 12.26 But by this Device Ipsa bonitas Goodnesse it selfe is divided against goodnesse the Goodnesse of the Creator against the Goodnesse of the Creature God is at defiance with his owne Creature and Image the Fountaine of Goodnesse that God did see in Man what was it but Radius divinae bonita●is a beam of that Goodnesse which issueth from the Fountaine God himselfe Secondly God's Hate does not arise as his Love doth for his Love ariseth of and from himselfe For being all beautifull and glorious which cannot be but all lovely and amiable within and seeing himselfe cannot but love and like himselfe ●o that he hath in him to move him to Love but he hath not in him to move him to Hate but that commeth from without and there is nothing from without which God hateth but sin The man of sin had so much goodnesse as to say Odi quia Inimicus I have hated him because he is my enemy Now sin only is the sworne enemy to God Enemy to his Goodnesse being badnesse it selfe Enemy to his Majesty being baseness it self Ene●y to his Glory being Ignominy to his lightnesse being Darkness to his Beauty being Deformity to his Justice being Iniquity to his Pity being Cruelty to his Life being Death to his very Being it selfe having no Being Sin was an intruder into the World and had not where to lay his head So that God cannot hate any thing but sin and what he hates he hates for the sake of sin The second consequence is No man is of absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by God's grace he may not avoid it And this is a sprig of the former Branch For if God cannot hate any man but for sin and himselfe cannot delight in sin then can he not delight that any man should go to Hell but he that delighteth himselfe to die in sin Let us look back to the Garden from whence wee came God planted in the Gardan of 〈◊〉 a Tree of Life and it was 〈…〉 to be found as the Tree of Death A●am with the same ease might have reached out his hand to the Tree of Life and saved all as to the Tree of Death and marred all So that it was not absolutly necessary that any should goe to hell When Adam had erred in making choice of the wrong Tree and had barred himself from the Tree of Life God put him out into the open field of the World and in it planted a Tree of Lif● better then the Tree in the Garden of Ed●n a Tree that came downe from heaven Apocal. 2.7 and caused his Herald to proclaim before it This is the Tree of life that came downe from Heaven whosoever tasteth of this Tree shall not die but have ●verlasting life The Tree which was in the Garden of Eden did never seek men and reach forth fruit unto them but man was to seek and to reach forth his hand unto it and so taste it But this Tree seeketh us and reacheth forth fruit unto us Nay God himselfe plucketh off the fruit and followeth us with it as a Nurse doth follow her child with meat Psal. 81.11 Aperi os tuum late Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it And if w● will not be at the 〈…〉 our mouth that we may be 〈…〉 Heaven Death will be at the paines to o●en her jawes that we may feed him in hell They lie in hell and Death knaweth upon them Psal 49.14 The third consequence is God simply willeth and wisheth every living soule to be saved and to praise God for his goodness among the Angels in heaven And this Truth the Holy Ghost hath taught us by the mouth of holy Paul 1. Tim. 2 4. Deus vult omnes salvos esse God would have every man living to be saved and none to die eternall Death And here the Genevian conceit hath delt with this gracious bounty of God and this blessed saying God will have all to be saved as Hanan did with the Ambassadors of David he cut off their Garments to the hips and this hath curtailed the grace of God at the stumps for it saith It must not be meant that God would have every living soule to come to Heaven but one or two out of every Order and Occupation to come unto heaven As if our gracious God were fallen out of liking with Christian souls and suddenly fallen in love with Orders and Occupations And yet I feare me beloved it were as easie to bring up all Christian souls unto heaven as it is to