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
B07590	A winding sheet. Wrapped vp in a letter from an onely liuing brother, sent to his few suruiuing sisters. Denouncing vnto them the sad sentence of death and directing them how to bee prepard for the happie entertainment of it..	I. E.; D. W.	1626 (1626)	STC 7434.4; ESTC S126067	24,155	109

stand our eternall Blisse or Misery namely to bee ready for Death and to dye in the LORD How doe wee forget our selues then that letting this lye by the walls wee passe away our liues as a Dreame and employ the most and best of our time and strength in walking the Streets on the gawdy Toyes of the world and hunting after the profits and pleasures of it which at the last cast when wee shall most need comfort will stand vs in no stead but rather adde to our griefe and misery This is an errour which holy DAVID doth blame in mens courses Psal 39.7 Doubtlesse Man walketh in a shadow or amidst shadowes and doth disquite himselfe in vaine hee heapeth vp riches and cannot tell who shall gather them They are but fleeting shadowes and emptie shewes of good things rather then things truely good with which men are deluded pursuing them with much sweat and toyle and vexing their soules with many feares and cares about them but alas all in vaine For as they haue onely shadowes when they haue got them so they cannot hold them nor yet leaue and bestow them to whom they would But there is a Wisedome which MOSES the man of GOD doth desire that hee might set his heart vpon Psal 90.12 LORD teach mee so to number my dayes that I may apply my heart vnto Wisedome And wherein standeth this but in preparing our selues for Death And to say truth this is the onely true Wisedome one dram whereof is more worth then all the carnall Prouidence and worldly Wit that is of such account with men though it fill our Coffers with Gold and bring in worldly wealth aboue our hearts wish The more that wee apply our hearts to this wisedome and employ our time about it the more wise and prouident shall wee proue to haue beene for our best good and the sooner wee doe see about it so much the safer worke shall wee make for our Soules Our Life is heere assigned vs to make ready for Death which if it were much longer and more certaine then it is were yet at the shortest for such a businesse how much more in this shortnesse and vncertainty thereof This worke then cannot bee too earely begun nor earnestly followed which is of that great importance for our Eternall good or ill and for which so short a time and that vncertaine is allotted vs. Heere then I desire you to goe along with mee and wee will consider what is the best course to fit our selues for Death and gather out of GODS Word which onely can instruct vs with this wisedome some Obseruations which by GODS assistance may giue vs all some helpe and furtherance in this matter First then it is a good step of preparation vnto Death thoroughly to vnderstand that wee are fraile and mortall Creatures with the cause from whence it springeth that is Sinne and the consequent thereof namely Eternall happinesse or miserie MOSES doth take his rise heere and fetcheth this wisdome of making ready for Death from a serious apprehension of our Mortalitie LORD teach mee sayth hee so to number my dayes c. Psal 90. What is this numbring of our dayes but to haue a right vnderstanding and to take a serious notice of our life how short and fraile it is Let vs know this and ponder vpon it with the circumstances therof and it will excite vs to an industrious and constant care of Dying in the LORD whereof while wee haue little right knowledge lesse thought wee are both vnready and carelesse to make ready for Death It is a speciall part of that waking which our SAVIOVR doth pronounce Blessed Luk. 12.37 Blessed are those Seruants whom the LORD when hee commeth shall finde waking A man that is fallen into a sound sleepe doth not for the time know what his estate and case is much lesse scanne and ponder it with himselfe It is the waking man onely who can and doth vnderstand the condition of his health credit and abilitie and employ his thoughts about them to maintaine or amend the same Wee may bee sure then that wee haue well shaken off that drowsie sleepe wherein by Nature wee lye knowing little and minding lesse our mortall state sinfull condition GOD and the future Life when wee begin duely to vnderstand deepely apprehend and earnestly minde among other Spirituall things our fraile and mortall Nature our sinne which hath brought vs vnder the dominion of Death and the issue of it which is as I said Eternall woe or happinesse It is not a common thing thus to awake and rare is the man that is endued with this vnderstanding of his Mortalitie It is a mysterie not learned but in GODS Schoole and that by the teaching of GOD himselfe onely Wherefore else doth MOSES craue it of GOD but that he was the onely teacher of it LORD teach mee to number my dayes c. Psal 90. And DAVID likewise LORD let mee know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is Psal 39.4 By humaine Arithmeticke men attaine to rare skill in numbring they learne to diuide multiply adde and substract they are able to cast vp great summes and euen account infinite numbers Geometrie doe teach men to measure Lands to take the distance of Places the height of Hills and Towers yea by Art men aduenture to define the Compasse of the Earth the breadth of Heauen the height and magnitude of Starres and Spheares But there is no Art or skill that can teach vs aright to number our Dayes or measure our Life but the Heauenly arithmeticke taught vs in Gods word no Master hath any faculty to instruct vs hereunto but GOD himselfe who must open this mysterie vnto vs giue vs wisedome to apply our heart vnto it Nature and Reason can giue vs but a slender view and shallow vnderstanding of this thing What therefore is more common with vs then to take a false measure of our life who of vs truely doth number his dayes We imagine all our life to bee of many elles length which is but of an hand bredth Wee conceiue not perhaps that wee shall liue euer nor doe wee duely consider that wee may shortly and suddenly that wee must certainely Dye and that to our euerlasting torment if we preuent it not Children for want of discretion vnderstand nothing of their Mortalitie Young men who are in the floure and prime of their yeares thinke that Death cannot yet bee neere them and that it were but lost labour for them to thinke on it Men of more mature age encumbred with multitude of worldly businesse haue not leysure to consider of it And of Old men none is so aged who is not perswaded that hee shall or may liue yet a Yeare a Moneth a Weeke or at least a Day longer It will heere bee said that Heathen men haue worthily discoursed of our Mortalitie And who doth not acknowledge that he is Mortall I grant it and cannot but admire the speeches

which I finde in Heathen men wanting the knowledge of GOD and of his Word touching this subiect But how speake they hereof Much as a Grammer scholler writing or declaiming on a Theme which hee doth not well vnderstand vttereth many things wittily and pretily to the purpose but they are such things as hee hath gathered out of some Authors or haue suggested vnto him by others or fell from him at vnawares more by hap as wee say then by cunning Amongst many shafts shot by a blind man it chancheth that some flye toward the marke Wee haue read of some ignorant man who in a trance or sleepe haue spoken Latine and Greeke made Verses and talked of wonders which for the present they minde not nor when they awake are they able to call to minde Such like is the Discourse of learned Heathen men concerning Mortalitie which they learned rather by Ocular obseruation then Diuine instruction and of which they let fall some true and graue speeches but without thorough apprehension or full vnderstanding of the point For they had but a darke glimpse of that future state which ensueth Death and knew nothing of the true cause of this our vanitie and frailtie which they pored after in the warre and contrarietie of the Elements whereof our Body is framed but was truely in sinne that hath put emnitie betweene GOD and vs and cut vs off from GOD which was our Life And for the vulgar knowledge of our Mortalitie what is it but a fleeting fancie and swimming conceit that maketh no deepe impression nor constant apprehension of Death and the issue of it in our hearts It is with vs as with a man viewing himselfe in a Glasse as Saint IAMES speaketh in another case who for the present doth see what his face and figure is but vpon the turning of his backe doth forget it Euen so if some spectacle or speech of our mortalitie bee offered wee entertaine some slight thought of it of the nature and sequell thereof but in a moment it doth vanish and is shlipped out of memory ere it can take any firme footing in vs. Finally there is a naturall knowledge of our Mortalitie gotten from experience of what wee see daily from the principles of nature and literall instruction of the word A carnall man doth attaine to this but with no benefit while it doth shew to him onely the out-side of this mysterie and giue him but a slight view thereof that doth neuer enter his heart nor enlarge it to a serious meditation of his fickle state And there is a spirituall knowledge also of this thing which doth lay open our Mortalitie with the circumstances of it to the full and doth present to our mindes with such a cleere and constant view thereof that wee cannot but thinke vpon it and lay it to our heart An Image of it doth still stand before our eyes and a silent voyce euer whispereth in our eares that wee dwell in houses of Clay haue our foundation in the dust and perish from the Morning vnto the Euening Job 4.16.19 20. Whosoeuer hath gotten this vnderstanding hee hath learned it of GOD who awaking him out of the spirituall sleepe that oppresseth carnall men hath giuen him eyes and senses to see beyond them and pry more exactly into the mysterie of Mortality then they can do who doe but superficially know and more slightly lay to heart their mortall case with the cause and issue of it This then wee may resolue for certaine that wee are in a good way of readinesse for Death if once wee bee come to a thorough vnderstanding of these things and doe deeply ponder them There is none of common sense that doth know and take speciall notice of the comming of a friend or foe and their intent therein that it is for his singular good or vtter vndoing but will looke about him to bee in some readinesse to receiue the one and resist the other Euen so if the LORD haue once well enformed our mindes of these things I meane the certaine comming of Death the vncertaine time thereof together with the blessed issue of a good end and miserable of a bad it will at once in some degree make vs ready for Death and awake vs to a speciall care more and more to prepare our selues See touching this a worthy passage in CALVINS Institutions Lib. 3. cap. 9. sect 2. A second thing which will further vs in this worke is to watch for and against this houre of Death If wee will not haue the day of the LORD come on vs as a Thiefe in the night saith blessed PAVL Thes 5.8 let vs not sleepe as others doe but let vs watch and bee sober And blessed is hee that watcheth saith the Holy Ghost Reuel 16.15 Watching is a word of larger sense in these and such places of Scripture But by Watching I heere meane which sense is also in them included an expectation of Death and such a one as that wee looke for it euery moment and make account that wee may nay that wee shall meete therewith wheresoeuer wee bee The flocke is quickly wearied of the Woolfe and the House is soone broken vp and spoyled of the Thiefe if the Shepheard and Good-man of the house keepe not good watch against them The Watch not well kept hath oft giuen an opportunitie to the Enemie to enter and sacke a Towne to surprize an Armie and cut the throates of the Souldiers sleeping but the Enemie which is well Watched doth much the lesse hurt Thus wee must make sure reckoning that Death will take vs at some aduantage and ouertake vs at vnawares to our vnspeakeable hurt if wee set not a good and continuall spirituall Watch against him As then the carefull Sentinell doth expect the Enemie all the night long suspecting that if hee come not at one houre hee may come at another if not one way yet another and dareth not let sleepe to seaze on his eyes no not for a moment so are wee to bee in a like watchfull expectation of our Death at all times and places Make wee account that if hee haue vs not by the backe in our Child-hood hee will in our Youth if hee baulke vs in youth that wee shall heare of him in our riper Age if not then yet surely in our Aged yeares Doth hee spare you at home expect him abroad Are you layd in your bed looke for him there to disease you Feed you at your boord looke for him there to bee a guest with you Bee it day or night bee you alone or in company in the field or in the Towne at your sport or about businesse let this bee your thought heere may Death come and arrest me This hath beene the ruine of many men that as sometime carelesse Souldiers stragling abroad without order or armour presuming not to meete with any Enemy haue beene caught in an ambush and cut off when they least expected so they not looking for Death then and