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	sin_n	9,880	5	5.5192	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45553	A looking-glasse of hvmane frailty set before us in a sermon preached at the funerals of Mris. Anne Calquit, late wife of Mr. Nicholas Calquit, draper, who died on the 7. day of April 1659 and was interr'd the 19. of the said month, at the parish church of Alhallows the Less in Thames Street / by Nath. Hardy ...	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1654 (1654)	Wing H729; ESTC R333	18,668	40

so much the more bitter and not at all longer 2. Besides though God be the efficient yet we are the meritorious cause of the abbreviation of our dayes God at first made our dayes of such a bredth as could not be measured nor should our life have knowne death if we had not known sin It is very observable what Hezekiah saith to this purpose I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse acknowledging it to be his own act as well as Gods yea as the order imports therefore Gods because his Had not we our selves cut short our lives God would never have cut them short and therefore let us so acknowledge our deservings as to clear divine justice and submit to his dispose 2. Since God hath made our dayes as an hands bredth let us so account them No arithmetick in numbring nor Geometry in measuring our dayes better than that which God himself teacheth But alas it is an usuall practice to make our dayes far longer in our imaginations than they are in reality It was the injustice of that Steward to his Lord who when the debt was an hundred measures of wheat bid the debtor write fourscore and when an handred measures of Oyle to write down fifty but such is our injustice to our selves that when our dayes are not fifty we write down fourscore and whereas they are but an hands bredth we fancy them to be of a far larger size Indeed as the deceitfull hour-glasse having the sand up on both sides maketh a man thinke there is a good deal of the hour to run out whereas by reason of an hollownesse in the middle it sinketh presently so do our dayes by reason of strength and health promise us to be many and on a suddain by reason of some ill humour seizing on the vitals in the middle of the body they prove to be few It is a saying in the Civil Law Praesumitur quilibet vivere centum annos Every one is presumed to live an hundred years the rise whereof is that fond opinion in the mindes of most men whereby they flatter themselves with apprehensions of long life Oh let us remember it is the property of a good man according to the Greeke Fathers phrase {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to esteem his life as a Pilgrimage of a short continuance And this especially for four ends 1. To hasten our repentance for our sins The measure of our dayes is the space of our repentance since it is narrow let this be speedy that cannot be long extended let not this be long deferred One of the dayes of thy life must be the day of repentance and if one whynot this day especially considering the measure for ought thou knowest may be at the utmost extent and this day may prove thy last It is true At what time soever a finner repents from the bottome of his heart God will do away his offence but then he must repent whilest he hath time At what time the winde serveth the Mariner he may saile to the Haven but then he must saile while the winde serveth which will not be alwayes nor long and therefore let us be so wise as to take time whilest it is afforded 2 To lessen our affections towards this world Whenas the measure of our dayes is contracted to an hands bredth why should the earthy desires of our hearts be so much enlarged Could we at our pleasure add day to day and year to year it were good policy to joyne house to house and field to field but to what purpose are many goods when with the rich fool in the Gospel we have perhaps but a few hours whilest thou livest thy dayes are but as the bredth of thy hand when thou diest thou shalt have no more ground than the length of thy body why so greedy in grasping large revenews and vast possessions 3. To lengthen our patience under the afflictions of this present life our dayes are of a narrow bredth a short length and afflictions can last no longer nor be extended broader than our dayes Why should not our patience be as large and long as our afflictions One Greek reading of this clause is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} dayes of strife and misery such were Davids at this time and many times are ours but the comfort is they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} only an hands bredth Man that is born of a woman sath Job is of few dayes and full of trouble True our dayes are full of trouble I but withall they are few the fewnesse of our days would be a trouble were it not that they are full of trouble and the fulnesse of their trouble might be a griefe were it not for their fewnesse Neither on the one hand should the pleasure of our dayes much elevate us nor on the other the sorrows of them perplex us when we consider that those though sweet are but short and these though sharp are but few very few no more than will make up as it were an hands bredth 4. To quicken us in the practice of good works They say of the Birds of Norway that they fly faster than others not because Nature hath given them more or swifter wings but because the dayes are shorter there than elsewhere they make the greater haste Oh that the consideration of the short measure of our days might accelerate us in our race to heaven so as with great speed and diligence we may learn to worke out our salvation It is said of the Devil he is come down to the Inhabitants of the earth having great wrath because he knoweth his time is but short how should we bestir our selves with great zeale in Gods service since we know our time is short Take in the whole life of man it is but as the bredth of four singers sure we had not need to lose any of them He that having but four acres to sow with corn all which is little enough to supply his family and should only sow one and let the rest overrun with weeds will he not deservedly be branded for a fool Oh why then are we so foolish to mis-spend the greatest part of our dayes in doing nothing or worse than nothing when as all our dayes are but four fingers bredth Nature or rather the God of nature hath not given us to use Seneca's expression so large a time of life as to trifle away any part of it yea he that spends it best will still have cause to say with David in the close of this Psalm O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen 2. You have heard the brevity of mans life exemplified in David by an absolute assertion under the metaphor of an hand bredth go we on to the comparative proposition mine age is nothing before thee The subject of this proposition is variously rendred By

A LOOKING-GLASSE OF HVMANE FRAILTY SET BEFORE US IN A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERALS OF Mris. ANNE CALQUIT Late Wife of Mr. NICHOLAS CALQUIT Draper Who died on the 7. day of April 1659. and was interr'd the 19. of the same month At the Parish Church of Alhallows the less in Thames Street By NATH. HARDY Minister of St. Dionys. Backchurch Psal. 144. 4. Man is like to vanity his dayes are as a Shadow that passeth away Qui aeternitate Dei perspecta breve poenè ad puncti instar humanae vitae spatium cogitaverit ante aculos suos semper habebit interitum c. Hieron. London Printed by R. D. for Joseph Cranford at the Sign of the Castle Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. To his highly esteemed Friend Mr. Nicholas Calquit IMuch fear lest the perusal of this Sermon prove the reviving of your sorrow and cause that wound which the death of your Deare Consort hath made to bleed afresh But I hope with all that as your love hath prompted you to desire a perpetuation of her memory so your prudence teacheth you to moderate your griefe for her dissolution That which especially concerneth you and whereof I trust you are not forgetfull is 1. Diligently to enquire into the deserving cause wherefore God hath deprived you of so great a comfort so soon that the showre of your tears for her may be swallowed up in the river of godly sorrow for sin 2. By this sad experience to be so effectually convinced of the uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments that it may be a curb to all inordinate affection 3. Finally when you contemplate her dust so to remember your owne death that it may be a spur to a speedy and constant preparation So shall you have just reason to say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted That these white flowers may through Gods grace spring from the black root of your dolefull Losse That that wise Providence which hath made this sore breach would be pleased to make it up That what was I hope in love denied to her may be and that in mercy confer'd on you namely a long life on earth and that which is I trust already confer'd on her may at length be given to you namely an aeternal life in Heaven is the hearty Prayer of him whom you have by many favours obliged to be Your affectionate Friend NATH. HARDY A LOOKING-GLASSE OF Humane Frailty Psalm the 39th verse the 5th Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand bredth and mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity Selah THere are two evils to which the children of men in this world are subject namely of Sin and of Affliction the former whereof calls for Poenitence the later for Patience of both these David giveth us a pattern of the one in the fore-going and the other in this Psalm that being as St. Ambrose hath well observed forma poenitentiae a Psalm of Repentance for his Sins and this forma poenitentiae a Psalm of contentation under his sufferings The two great duties of Gods servants under afflictions are a silent submission and a sanctified use of them The former of these maketh afflictions still-born children in as much as it shuts the mouth and represseth all clamorous cries This the Psalmist learnt when he said I was dumb and opened not my mouth The other maketh afflictions pregnant mothers in as much as they inable us to the exercise of many excellent graces Among the several influences which sanctified troubles have on us it is not the least that it openeth our eyes Schola crucis schola lucis is a known and experienced saying the schoole of the Crosse is very lightsome and though bitter to the taste is a singular salve for the eye Apollonius writeth of a People who see nothing in the day but all in the night In the day of prosperity we forget in the night of adversity we remember both God and our selves as his Soveraignty so our own frailty Alexander who was flattered by the people as a God having received a wound in his body confessed himself to be mortal This holy man whom you find fancying a stability in the time of his prosperity I said my mountain is so strong it cannot be moved being now under a crosse acknowledgeth his brittle fragility in the words of the text Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand bredth c. Though there is no parcel of holy writ which doth not deserve our serious view yet some Scriptures have as it were asterisms annexed to them to intimate that they ought to be more especially pondered by us and such is this which I am now to handle The truth is there is no lesson more substantiall than the nothingnesse of our substance or age no meditation more serious and weighty than that of mans lightnesse and vanity nor would any Doctrine be more closely laid to heart than this that our dayes are as an hand bredth That this transitorinesse of our lives might not be slightly passed over in our mindes whereas some Scriptures have one asterisme either in the beginning or end and others two to wit both in the beginning and the end this verse hath three notes of attention in the beginning in the middle and in the end The first word we meet with is a Behold which argueth it to be rem seriam a serious lesson the word in the middle of the verse is verily which speaketh it to be rem certam a certain truth and the last is Selah which intimateth it to be rem magnam a momentous Doctrine Behold is a note of attention Verily of asseveration and Selah of meditation Behold cals upon us to take notice Verily requireth us to believe and Selah willeth us to consider it I hope there will need no more to quicken your hearts and ears whilst I shall with all possible brevity discuss this delineation of the shortnesse of life Thou hast made my dayes c. The Text you see consists of three clauses The subject of the first is dayes and those dayes measured and the measure short Thou hast made my dayes as an hands bredth The subject of the second is age and that age being weighed in the ballance found light very light a meer nothing mine age is nothing before thee The subject of the third is man and that considered not in his autumn but spring who is found to be very vain every man in his best estate is altogether vanity For our more methodicall proceeding observe in the text a particular exemplification of one and the same Doctrine The Doctrine is no other than life's brevity which is Particularly exemplified in David himself and that two wayes Absolutely in the first clause thou hast made my dayes as an hands bredth Comparatively in the second mine age is as nothing before thee Generally amplified in