Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	father_n	son_n	spirit_n	3,162	5	5.7919	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36908	Dunton's remains, or, The dying pastour's last legacy to his friends and parishioners ... by John Dunton ... ; to this work is prefixt the author's holy life and triumphant death : and at the latter end of it is annext his funeral sermon.	Dunton, John, 1627 or 8-1676.; N. H., Minister of the Gospel. Funeral sermon.; Dunton, John, 1659-1733.	1684 (1684)	Wing D2633; ESTC R17002	124,862	318

Foolishness the more Arguments he will find to shew me Mercy at least I will make tryal of his Clemency I will humbly prostrate my self before him I 'le embrace those Knees that Educated me I 'le lick the dust of that Threshold which I contemptuously forsook I 'le own my fault and take shame to my self and so both magnifie his Mercy if he receive me and justifie his proceedings if he reject me I know my Father is subject or obnoxious to no body who shall blame him for Pardoning or set limits to his Mercy nay who can tell the measure of a Fathers Bowels It may be too there is irresistible Eloquence in Misery and the spectacle of a Sons Adversity may have Rhetorick enough in it to carry the cause where a Father is Judge Or if he provoked by my Folly at first and Extravagancies since will no more own me as a Son perhaps he may receive me as a Servant for if my Rebellion hath extinguished in him the peculiar Affections of a Father yet it hath not destroyed the common Passions of Humanity Mercy and Pity if he will receive me in that lower quality I am now broken to the condition of a Servant and shall think his Yoke easie hereafter having been inured to so sharp and heavy an one I will chearfully submit my Ear to be boared to his Door-post and be his Servant for ever Or Lastly if he will not trust a Runnagate nor believe that he will ever prove a constant and perpetual Servant that hath once deserted his station let him be pleased to take me as an Hired Servant whom he may turn off at pleasure make tryal of me and admit me only upon good Behaviour But if all fail and he should utterly cast me off which yet I hope he will not I can but perish and that I do however Well this being resolved he casts a longing look towards his Fathers House and puts himself on his way thither But no sooner was he on his way though yet a great way off but his Father spies him Those lean and wan Cheeks and the hollow sunken Eyes his Extremity had reduced him to had not so disfigured him nor those Rags unable to cover his Nakedness so disguised him but his Father knew him and the memory of his former Disobedience had not so Cancelled the Interests of a Son or shut up the Bowels of a Father but that the sight of his present Misery kindled his Compassion And whilst the Son partly through that weakness which his Vices and his Sufferings had conspired to bring upon him and partly through a combination of shame and just fear of his Fathers Indignation with difficulty makes towards him the Father prompted by Paternal Affection and transported between Joy and Pity runs to meet him falls on his Neck and kisses him And now see what Entertainment his Father gives him being come into his Presence He calls for a Robe yea the best Robe and so Cloaths him for a Ring to adorn and beautifie him for Shoes for his Feet that stones might not annoy nor hurt them for the fat Calf to feed and refresh him and whatsoever is wanting he bestows upon him Now had the Father fit time and his Sons sins deserved it that he should rip up unto him his former faults and call to remembrance the Offences of his Youth and welcom him home after this manner Ah Sirra are you now come is all spent amongst your Whores and Harlots Return unto them let them provide for you come you no more within my Doors But behold the love of this his Father he useth no such thundring speeches he threatneth not to cast him off nor yet doth he cast him in the teeth with his former Courses he remembreth not any old Reckonings the Offences of his Youth are not spoken of But he seeing this his Riotous and unthrifty Son return home with an humble Heart presently offers himself to his Child and before he had made an end of his Confession or could beg a supply of things needful his Father intercepts him by his hasty calling to his Servants Bring hither the best Robe the Shoes the Ring let the fat Calf be killed make a Feast send for Musick let all be forgotten that is past let my Sons old Courses no more be remembred And here further we may fancy the Joyful Father thus bespeaking his returning Child Viz. Welcom my Son thrice welcom is' t not meet Thou shouldst be welcom'd with embraces sweet Thou who wert lost and now art found again Thou who wert dead dost now alive remain Long have I long'd for this thy safe return Whereat my bowels of Compassion yearn Why shak'st thou then why blushest being poor Thy fear is past thou shalt have Rags no more Revive my Son be chearful then my Child And cease thy sorrows I am Reconcil'd Oh! let those Tears be taken from thine Eyes They stir the Fountain where Compassion lies Come taste my Dainties I have choicest Fare And sweetest Musick to delight thy Ear This is my Pleasure I will have it done In spight of Envy for thou art my SON The Son though astonished at this condescention and surprized with the unexpected benignity of such a Reception yet could not but remember what his Fathers Joy made him forget namely his former Dis-ingenuity and Rebellion And therefore humbly falls on his knees again and with shame and remorse makes his contrite acknowledgment after this manner Father for so this admirable goodness of yours gives me encouragement to call you more than the Blood and Life which I derived from you I have I confess forfeited all the Interest the Priviledges of my Birth might have afforded me in your Affection having become a Rebel both towards God and you had I not first neglected him I am sure I had never grieved you and having forsaken you I have not only violated the greatest Obligation I had upon me save that to his Divine Majesty but also despised and affronted a goodness like to his whatsoever therefore I have suffered was but the just demerit of my folly and contumacy and whatsoever Sentence you shall pass upon me further I will willingly submit to and here expect my doom from you I condemn my self as no more worthy to be called your Son be pleased to admit me but into the condition of your meanest Servant and I have more than my miscarriages give me reason to hope for Whilst the Son was going on at this rate the Fathers Bowels yearned too earnestly to admit of the delay of long Apologies and therefore chuses rather to interrupt him in his Discourse than to adjourn his own Joys or the others comfort And because he thought words not sufficient in this case he makes deeds the Interpreters of his mind commanding his Servants forthwith to bring out the best Robe and to put it upon his Son together with a Ring on his Hand and Shoes on his Feet i.e. in all points to

Solomon a foolish Nabal a holy Isaac a prophane Esau of what sort soever he must be Deaths Prisoner Nay let there be a concurrance of all in one let Samuel be both a good Man and a good Minister c. and have as many Priviledges as are incident to a man yet can he not procure a Protection against this Officer his Mother may beg his Life but none can compound for his Death Speak we this according to men saith not the Scripture as much Wise men die saith David and Fools die Rich men die and poor too and therefore he calls both upon the Sons of Nobles and of the Earth to mind the Lesson indeed the Heathens could compare the Sons of Adam to Counters Chess Stage-plaies in reckoning Counters have their several Place and use for a time but in the end they are all jumbled on a heap in a Game at Chess some are Kings some Bishops c. but after a while they go all into the same Bag on the Stage one is in his rags another in his Robes one is the Master another the Man and very busie they be but in the end the Play ends the bravery ends and each returns to his place such and no other is the state of man We wear death in our faces and bear it in our bones we put it upon our backs and into our mouths and cannot be ignorant of it Yea the dead proclaim this Lesson go to the Earth and they that make their Beds in darkness and sleep in the dust will tell you that it s neither wisdom nor power nor strength nor friends nor place nor grace nor any thing else that can exempt from this Tribute of Nature Our deceased Brother here before us speaks this to all this vast Assembly If greatness of Spirit feature of Body gifts of mind chastness of life soberness in diet diligence in a calling Prayers of the Church would have given any advantage against death darkness and blackness had not at this time covered us That there is no Prescription against Death appears by these Reasons The first of which is taken from the Decree of God it s a Statute enacted in that highest Court the voice of Heaven that man should once die No man as yet hath breathed but he hath had his death or translation no man is yet to come but he must either see death or an alteration so hath Heaven concluded it and who can possibly reverse it The second is taken from the matter whereof all men are made the Scripture compares man to a house whose foundation is laid in the dust whose walls are made of Clay the whole is but a Tabernacle and that of Earth and that of mans building as Paul after Job tells us this is the estate of man of all men some are more painted than some but all earthen Vessels some more clear than some but all Glasses all built of earth all born of Women and therefore all short of continuance as Job infers The third is taken from the proper cause of Death Sin Sin is Poyson to the Spirits Rottenness to the Bones where it comes and where doth it not come And therefore now what 's to be done Vse 1. Surely as men that must travel stand not to dispute but Arm themselves for all Weather So must we die we must that 's already concluded young and old good and bad c. Whatsoever we be now we must be dead anon You will think strange perhaps of my pains in this kind whilst I perswade a Mortality For howsoever we can all say in the general we are Mortal nothing so sure as Death yet when it comes to our own particular we dream of an Immortality in Nature we never set any bounds to Life we do not resolutely conclude I must die shortly I may instantly this day may be the last that I shall see this hour the last that I shall spend this word the last that I shall speak this deed the last that I shall perform this place the last that I shall breath in and so live by the day by the hour But it is our duty daily to consider what it is to die what goes before it what comes with it what follows upon it For first before we come to the very Gate of Death we are to pass through a very strait long heavy Lane Sickness first tameth us which many times is worse than Death it self that renders us unfit for all Religious Services Prayer Repentance c. as being a time not of getting but of spending that cleaves the Head and pains the Heart and wounds the Spirits and leaves us so distressed that Meat is no Meat the Bed no Bed Light no Light to us that makes us catch at Death for help But alas what help in Death if not fore-thought of Oh the Misery of a poor Creature that is so pained that he cannot live so unprepared that he dares not die he goes to Bed but cannot sleep he tastes his Meat but it will not down he shifts his Room but not his pain Death saith the Conscience would end and amend all wert thou prepared for Death but to die before were to lose those Comforts one hath and to fall under those Curses that are unsufferable Ah beloved we may intimate somewhat of his Misery but it falls not within our thoughts to conceive what his fears be who hangs between Life and Death Earth and Hell thus forthwith ready to drop into flames at every stroke of Death and to sink down down down till he be gone for ever And yet this is not all When I am dead saith the Carnal wretch all the World have done with me He saith truth all the World and all the comforts of the World have done with him indeed he shall-never laugh more he shall never have a moments ease more But though the World hath done with him yet God hath not done with him he sends for his Soul having first taken order that the Body be forth coming convents that and dooms that and casts that from him with greatest indignation into such a place such a company such a condition as would make the Heavens sweat and the Earth shrink to hear it Ah beloved therefore without all delays as a man that is now dying as well as he for whom the Bell tolls though not haply so near to Death set upon two things First set your House in order next your Souls For the first you have your persons and things to look unto To begin with Persons so live with your Wives being Husbands with your Servants being Masters with your Children being Fathers as becomes dying Men exercise such wisdom kindness faithfulness mercy every day as thou wouldest do if thou knowest it to be the last day And for things mark me well hearken not to Satan who disswades all seasonable wills because he would administer the Goods by being timely in this Errand thou shalt not shorten thy days but