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
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

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

the creator alone and if so we are spirituall adulterers and adulteresses James 4.4 and God is a jealous God Exo. 20.5 who discovering a decay of our love that we might love him better will take away the impediment betwixt him and us which was as a curtain or screene to intercept our sight and the heate of our hearts towards him As a discreet Lady if she should perceive that her Waiting-woman stole any part of the Nuptiall affection of her Husband from her would find some meanes to put her away And God very well knoweth that our hearts are narrow our love but little and faint a great deale too little for himselfe if it went all one way and therefore if he love us he will take away that which steales away our affections from him that our love being set upon him more intentively he may returne more kindnesse to us againe and so his end may be to crosse us in our way that he may blesse us in the end that he may doe us the more good at our latter end as is promised Deut. 8. v. 16. Thirdly Gods intent in taking away may be in favour to the deceased parties to set them safe out of perill the Righteous is taken away from the evill to come Isa 57.1 and of this the cause is so evident in reason that he that never saw the Bible nor read that sentence of the Prophet could say who knoweth that God hath not taken away in favour to man-kind from the evill to come So * Plutarch consolat ad Apo●on pag. 528. Plutarch in his Consolations to Apolonius And this cause is especially considerable in these times wherein many good people have of late been taken away and we may have cause to conceive from the evill to come there may come much evill without any preface or premonition at all but we see nothing but dismall clouds gathering in our horizon and as it were preparations for terrible stormes Our sinnes doubtlesse are come to a very great height and who knoweth whether their guilt be not more clamerous for vengeance then our prayers are importunate for pardon We see things grow worse and worse with us a few grow better and better to pacifie Gods displeasure by due reformation And therefore for such of the better sort as are taken away in those times as this vertuous Matron after the course of an holy life on earth wee may conceive it is done that they may live in rest and peace and joy and glory with God for ever There is cause then to give thankes to God for their happy change since they are set up so safe that they shall never feele nor feare the evill to come and to mourne not for them but for our selves that we are left below in a state of subjection to all sorts of sorrowes which may the sooner overwhelme us because they are taken away as Lot out of Sodome for whose sakes haply hath the judgement been suspended hitherto And hitherto having had your presence and I hope your attentions also to what I have delivered I shall now commend you to the gratious favour of the Lord of life and death Deut. 32.29 beseeching him to teach you to number your dayes that you may apply your hearts unto wisedome Psal 90.12 and to give you wisedome to consider your latter end Deut. 32.29 and all the while that you are in the way unto it that you may by an holy life get sound assurance to your soules that when your mortall bodies are laid asleepe in the dust of the earth they may be received to a most happy conabitation with God in Heaven in his presence to be possessed of the fulnesse of joy and of the pleasures at his right hand for evermore Ps 16.11 Amen FINIS