Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	observe_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	12	3	9.0047	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41017	Thrēnoikos the house of mourning furnished with directions for the hour of death ... delivered in LIII sermons preached at the funerals of divers faithfull servants of Christ / by Daniel Featly, Martin Day, John Preston, Ri. Houldsworth, Richard Sibbs, Thomas Taylor, doctors in divinity, Thomas Fuller and other reverend divines.	Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645.	1660 (1660)	Wing F595; ESTC R30449	896,768	624

he takes care for them he visits and comforts and assists them in their dying he helps them with strength with memory in their understanding their senses c. 2. He takes much delight in their sweet holy calm deaths and resignations of their souls 3. He takes care of their very bodies too to lay them up sweetly to rest in Repositories or Dormitories as the Ancients were wont to call Church-yards and Graves 4. Lastly he entertains their souls immediately when they are breathed forth and places them In Sinu Abrahoe in Abrahams bosome wheresoever that is to possess present joy and quietness And no wonder that he doth all this because he hath bought them and redeemed them unto himself with so great a price as his Suns bloud and hath graced them with so many gifts and priviledges and hath made over unto them as Co-heirs with Christ so great and large benefits We may make this Use of it to serve for the establishment of us in our belief of him and our waiting on his providence If their Death be so pretious their sufferings also in any kind are dear unto him That word in the Text which is Death and which by the Seventy is ordinarily turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is taken in the Scripture sometimes for sickness or any affliction Exo. 10.17 For infection 2 King 4.40 For wounds Prov. 26.18 and sometimes in the Septuagint for the soul The very sicknesses and afflictions and dangers and wounds and griefs of his holy ones are dear unto God But especially their souls their lives their good and safety God writes a Ne perdas Touch not Destroy not as a notable caveat for the safety as of Kings most particularly so also of all that fear him and that trust in his mercy I have hastned over these points that I might come to the testimony that I am to give to our deceased Brother Master John Moulson which I may not omit nor to be particular in it having never such a subject of discourse before such an exemplary man I would not be bought to flatter a prophane and wicked great one but here Gods glory in this his Servant and the edification of you that are present require of me that I speak fully for he was Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine cura He copied out in his life the old way of Christianity and writ so fair after those Primitives that few now can imitate his hand And truly as in a garden in which there are variety of flowers we know not where to pick so in those many commendable parts of his I know not which to choose to present unto you or in what method But you may take notice I. Of his moral parts where I commend four things 1. His Calmness and moderation of affection No passion was observed to be a tyrant in him they had an oequipoise 2. His sober taciturnity an imitable wisdome in this age of talk and pratling 3. His affable carriage and easiness of access by which like another Poplicola he gained reputation and the love of the neighbour-hood where ever he dwelt Some are so hairy and rough like Esau that they may be discerned by their handling and some so churlish as Nabal that a man cannot speak unto them Which sourness and clowdiness of spirit I wish were not a blemish to many that give their names unto religion He honoured it by his sweetness and affalibility 4. His grave deportment and carriage As nothing is more contemptible then a light youthly wanton old man so the gray head and wrinkled cheeks accompanied with sage gravity commands respect from the beholders as that old grave Bishop Paphnutius though he had lost an eye did from the Emperour Constantine Gravity dwelt in the face of this man and his very presence was such as would discountenance the rude and prophane But all these are but mean commendations in respect of the next II. His practice of holiness Where I will observe and commend unto you 1. His unoffensive youth of which they that can remember him since that time are confident to say of him as the Emperour said of Piso Hujus vita composita à pueritia His life was composed and settled even from his very child-hood and then began to sort himself with the gravest company chiesly with that learned and godly Master Christopher Harvy sometime incombent in this Church to whom he was dear He was observed to be so sober and modest in his youth that he was desired to accompany and attend an honourable Nobleman to Oxford where he was very watchful and careful of him and prayed twice a-day with him in his chamber So ready was he to bear the Lords yoak from his youth 2. His unmarried estate which was chast and modest He lived above fifty years unmarried and in that state expressed two vertues his wisdome not to be rash and his care to keep his vessel clean 3. His married estate course of hous-keeping 1. When it pleased God to dispose his heart to marriage he married in the Lord. 2. When God gave him Children he nurtured them and his Family in Gods fear 1. He prayed four times a-day 2. He read three chapters in the old Testament and three in the New every day 3. After dinner he called not for game for digestion but read a Chapter before he rose from table 4. He catechised his children and servants constantly according to some plain form 5. He usually rose early on the Lords day which time he gave to meditation and prayer and what he could remember of the Sermon he usally repeated to his people 4. His exemplary vertues in his whole course of life 1. His meekness and peaceableness of disposition A grace which in the sight of God is much set by and a notable testimony of inward holiness according as it runs Jam. 3.17 pure then peaceable He was not apt to quarrel in matters that concerned him not never being observed to bear a part in any faction a favourable interpreter of things not evident readier to reconcile then to make differences and choosing rather to part with his right then with peace as appeared in a suit known unto many here 2. Though he were meek in his own cause yet he was zealous in Gods He could not endure any thing repugnant to holy Scripture nor would he neglect either seasonably to admonish or reprove the faulty that were within the compass of his admonition or to whet on and exhort others to love and good works 3. Yet his Zeal did not miscarry being allayed and tempered with wisdome as the heart is by the brain and as the conceit is of the Primum mobile with the Chrystalline heaven neer it His wisdome appeared first in his disscreetness in his undertakings and all affairs an argument of which some take to be this That he was never troubled not so much as questioned in any Court concerning any fact Second in

the beavens from this full perswasion did arise this heavenly affection in this we green earnestly But alas how different is our disposition from this heavenly temper how pale how wan is our countenance at the mention of Death at the least summons of our last accounts as vinegar to our teeth as smoak to our eyes as a sudden damp to our lights as an horrid crack of thunder in the middest of our jollities so is the mention of Death If any ask the reason of this it is too manifest Want of judgement what is the true good of the sons of men Want of apprehension of the happiness of the Saints Want of faith in God of Union with Christ our souls never make any holy peregrination from the body and seat themselves with Angels and Archangels and trace the streets of New Jerusalem we anticipate not the joyes of the life to come by devout meditations and contemplations we have not our conversation in heaven from whence we look for our Redeemer Our soul thirsteth not our flesh longeth not after the living God The reason of this is we hang upon the teats of the world like babes and children we suck venome out of it to our souls we walk upon our bellies as unclean beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we jutt against God and offend him our accounts are not streight and even therefore we are afraid at the appearance of our Saviour and of our citation to appear before his Tribunal we groan when we hear of death we groan not that we may die this is our condition and are not these different one unto another Doth not this stain the verdure of our countenances and cover us with shame and confusion to observe so manifest a declination of the fervor of the Spirit That you desire this heavenly temper I doubt not I should offer violence to Charity the Queen of Graces if I should think otherwise For this cause many of you are strict in the perforamnce of holy duties agreeable and convenient to this sacred time That your devotions may attain a happy end let me lend you a helping hand whilst I discourse these words which even now founded in your eares In this we groan earnestly c. Which I will resolve into three Propositions 1. That we are strangers in this life without our house 2. That the Saints desire their true and proper house 3. The intention of their desire In this we grown c. That we are strangers do not the sacred Oracles declare our conversation our polity is in beaven faith the Doctor of the Gentiles Our life it is hid up with Christ Col. 2. We are fellow Citizens with the Saints of the houshold of God Ephes 2. Doth not the chief of the Apostles intreat us as Pilgrims and strangers to abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soul and do not these and the like demonstrate unto us that a Christian lives with men yet above men in earth yet in heaven bound yet free detained with us yet far above us living a doubble life one manifest the other Hid with Christ one contemptible the other glorious one natural the other spiritual that his Parentage is from heaven that his Treasure is in heaven that his heart is in heaven that his root is fastened in the everlasting mountains though his branches are here below that his dwelling is in heaven though his peregrination be here on earth and did not these Oracles tell us thus much yet are there not enforcing arguments to convince us of this Truth Are not they strangers that are out of their proper place and are not Christians while they are here out of their place Is this world made for Man an Ark of travel a School of vanity a Laborinth of errour a Grove full of thorns a Meadow full of Scorpions a flourishing garden without fruit a fountain of misery a river of tears a feigned fable a detestable frenzy and is this the place of man What means the fabrick of our body lifted up to heaven our hands eyes head upward but to shew us as Chalcidius the heathen man observed that our Progenitors are from heaven that our place is in heaven Every place is adequate to the thing placed in it is this world adequate to man are not his desires infinitely extended beyond the same Every place hath a conserving vertue in it Doth this world Preserve man well may it minister a little food to this beast of ours which we carry about us but can it afford the least savory morsell to the soul it were to be wished that it did not poyson contaminate and desile the soul so that the safest way for the soul is to flie from the world as from the face of a Serpent Is this world the place of man why doth our tender Mother the Church assoon as we come into the world snatch us out of the world and as assoon as we breath in the ayre bury us by Baptism in the grave of Christ and assoon as we move in this world consigne us with the sign of the Cross to fight against the the world and all the pomps of the same and are not we strangers Are not they strangers that have different lawes and divers customs and another Prince to rule and command them You have heard of the Prince of the ayre and the Lawes of the flesh of the fashions of the world of the wisdome that is from below and earth-creeping Are Christians guided by these rules have they not the God of heaven and earth the Lawes of the Spirit and the wisdome that is from above and customes that are from heaven whereby to regulate them Who are the men of this world are they not those who have the God of this world to reign in their hearts who are led captive by him whose understandings are darkned their wills obfirmated their hearts hardned their consciences seared their conversation defiled with all uncleannesses their senses open breaches for sin to enter their tongues blaspheming the name of God and are these conversations fit for the Saints and are they not strangers Are not they strangers that are not capable of honours of possessions in the place wherein they live as being not free Denizens of the place and is not this proper to Christians whose duty it is to vilisie riches and honours and pleasures in themselves as much as they that have these do others that have them not to account riches the greatest poverty and pleasures the greatest torments and honours the greatest ignominy and power the greatest weakness not to possesse the world not to enjoy it not to account any thing good that maketh not the owner better not to admit any thing from the world but so far as it may advance the true Nobility of man the purity of the Image of God his restitution to his ancient descent his re-estating him in the possession of heaven and the society of Angels and Archangels to rise

their patience to endure for Gods cause whatsoever man or divel can inflict upon them to part with any limb for their head Christ Jesus gladly to forfeit their estates on earth for a crown in heaven chearfully to lose their lives in this vail of tears that they may find them in the rivers of pleasures that spring at Gods right hand for evermore Here is work for their faith also to see heaven as it were through hell eternal life in present death to beleeve that God numbreth every hair of their head and that every tear they shed for his sake shall be turned into a pearl every drop of blood into a Ruby to be set in their crown of glory To confirme both their faith and patience Christ proclaimeth from heaven that howsoever in their life they seemed miserable yet in their death they shall be most blessed and that the worst their enemies can do is to put them in present possession of their happiness Blessed are the dead c. So saith the spirit whatsoever the flesh saith to the contrary Here we have 1. A proposition De fide of faith 2. A Deposition or testimony of the spirit A Proposition of the happy estate of the dead A deposition of the holy Ghost to confirm our faith therein 1. Saint John sets down his relation 2. A most comfortable assertion 3. A most strong confirmation The relation strange The assertion as strange of a possession without an owner a blessed estate of them who according to the Scripture phrase are said not to be The Confirmation as strange as either by an audible testimony of an invisible witness So saith the spirit Or because this asseveration concerning the condition of the Saints departed is propositio necessaria as the Schools speak we will cloath the members of the division with terms apodictical and in this verse observe 1. A conclusion sientifical whereof the parts are 1. The subject indefinite mortui the dead 2. The attribute absolute beati blessed 3. The cause propter quam the Lord or dying in the Lord. 2. The proof demonstrative and that two-fold 1. A priori 1. By a heavenly oracle I heard a voyce c. 2. A divine testimony So saith the spirit 2. A Posteriori by arguments drawn 1. From their cessation from their work They rest from their labours 2. Their remuneration for their works Their works follow them Where the matter is pretious a decision of the least quantity is a great loss and therefore as the spie of nature observeth the Jewellers will not rub out a small clowd or speck in an orient Ruby because the lessening the substance will more disadvantage them then the fetching out of the spot advance them in the sale Neither will the Alcumists lose a drop of quintessence nor the Apothecaries a grain of Bezar nor an exact Commentatour upon holy Scriptures any syllables of a voyce from heaven the eccho whereof is more melodious to the soul then any consort of most tuneable voyces upon earth can be In which regard I hold it fit to relinquish my former divisions and insist upon each word of this verse as a Bee sitteth upon each particular flower that we may not lose any drop of doctrins sweeter then the honey and the honey comb any lease of the tree of life any dust of the gold of Ophir 1. J there were three men in holy Scripture termed Jedidiah that is Beloved of God Solomon Daniel and Saint John the Evangelist and to all these God made known the secrets of his Kingdome by special revelation and their prophecies are for the most part of a mystical interpretation This Revelation was given to John when he was in the spirit upon the Lords day and if we religiously observe the Lords day and then be in the spirit as he was giving our selves wholly to the contemplation of Divine mysteries we shall also hear voyces from heaven in our souls and consciences Heard with what ears could Saint John hear this voyce sith he was in a spiritual rapture which usually shutteth up all the doors of the sences I answer that as spirits have tongues to speak withall whereof we read 1 Cor. 13.1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels so they have ears to hear one another that is a spiritual faculty answerable to our bodily sense of hearing The Apostle saith of himself that he was in the spirit and as he was in the spirit so he saw in the spirit and heard in the spirit and spake in the spirit and moved in the spirit and did all those things which are recorded in this Book When Saint Paul was wrap'd up into the third Heaven and heard there words that cannot be uttered and saw things which cannot be represented with the eye he truly and really apprehended those objects yet not with carnal but spiritual sences wherewith Saint John heard this voyce A voyce from Heaven The Pythagoreans taught that the Coelestial sphears by the regular motions produced harmonious sounds and the Psalmist teacheth us that the Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work and that there is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard but that was the voyce of Heaven it self demonstrately proving and after a sort proclaiming the Majesty of the Creatour But this is vox de coelo a voyce from Heaven pronounced by God himself or formed by an Angel so Gasper Melo expresly teacheth us Saint John heard a voyce not sounding out wardly but inwardly framed by that Angel who revealed unto him the whole Apocalypse Saint John here heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Write and Saint Austin heard a voyce from Heaven commanding him to Read Tolle lege and most requisite it is that where Heaven speaks the earth should hear and where God writes that man should read There never yet came any voyce from Heaven 〈◊〉 did not much import and concern the earth to hear The first voyce that came from Heaven was heard on Mount Sinai and it was to confirm the Law to be of divine authority and establish our faith in God the Creator A second voyce from Heaven we hear of in Saint Peter on the holy Mount when the Apostles were there with Christ and it was to confirm the Gospel and to establish our faith in Christ the Redeemer A third voyce or sound was heard from Heaven in the upper room where Christs Apostles were assembled in the day of Pentecost and it was to confirme our faith in the holy Ghost the Comforter A fourth voyce that came from Heaven was heard by Saint Peter in a vision and it was to confirme our faith in the Catholike Church and the Communion of Saints and the incorporating both Jewes and Gentiles in one mystical body Lastly a voyce was heard from Heaven by Saint John in this place to establish our faith in the last Article

all foul play towards him justling him on the side seeking to trip up his heels yea sometimes thrusting him forward on the back that so he might fall headlong by his own weight and their violence so often cometh it to pass betwixt rivals in the race of honour and vertue Ill-minded men perceiving themselves quite out strips by some eminent person who hath got the speed of them and despairing fairly to overtake him resolve fouly to overturn him by all means possible contriving his destruction Hence come those many millions of divices and stratagems contrived for his ruin endeavouring either to Divert him from his righteousness or Destroy him in his righteousness If the first takes no effect and if his constancy appears such as without regret he will persist in piety leaving them no hope to byass him to base ends then dispairing to how him from they contrive to break him in his righteousness Thus whilst he hath many enemies which conspire his destruction seeking with power to suppress or pollicy to supplant him The wicked man on the other side hath the generality of men the most being bad as himself to befriend him a main cause of his prolonging himself successful in his wickedness Secondly Righteous men perish in their righteousness because not so wary and watchful to defend themselves in danger being deaf to all jealousies and snspitions over-confident of other men measuring all others by the integrity of their own intentions This makes them lie at an open guard not fencing and fortifying themselves against any sudden surprisal but presuming that deserving no hurt none shall be done unto them Thus Gedaliah Governour of the remnant of the Jews after the captivity twice received the express intelligence of a conspiracy to kill him yet was so far from giving credit that he gave a sharp reproof to the first discoverer thereof Yea when Johanan the son of Kareah tendered his service to kill Ishmael sent as he said from Baalis King of Ammon to slay Gedaliah Gedaliah rejoyned Thou shalt not do this thing for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael His noble nature gave no entertainment to the report till he found it too late to prevent it Whilst wicked men partly out of policy more out of guiltiness sleep like Hercules with their club in their haud stand alwayes on their guard are jealous of their very shadows and appearances of danger a great cause of their safety and success prolonging themselves in their wickedness Thirdly They perish because of a lazie principle which hath possessed the heads and hearts even of the best men who are unexcusable herein namely that God in due time will defend their innocence which makes them more negligent and remiss in defending themselves as the Prophet makes mention of a stone cut out without hands they conceive their cause will without manshelp hew its own way through the rocks of all resistance as if their cause would stand Centinal for them though they slept themselves as if their cause would fix their Muskets though they did it not themselves Thus the Christians in their battels against the Turks having won the day by their valour have lost the night by their negligence which principally proceeded from their confidence that God interested as a Second in every just cause was in that quarrel concerned as a Principle and it could not stand in his justice to suffer it to miscarry Whereas on the other side wicked men use double diligence in promoting their designs If their lame cause lack legs of its own they will give it wings from their signs If their lame cause lack legs of its own they will give it wings from their careful solliciting thereof and will soulder up their crackt title with their own industry They watch for all tides and wait for all times and work by all wayes and sail by all winds each golden opportunity they cunningly court and greedily catch and carefully keep thristily use in a word they are wiser in their generations then the children of light This may be perceived by the parallel betwixt the wife and the harlot many wives though herein they cannot be defended knowing their husbands obliged in conscience to love them by verture of their solemn promise made before God and the congregation at their marriage are therefore the less careful to study compliance to their husbands desires they know their husbands if wronging them wrong themselves therein and presuming themselves to deserve love as due unto them for their honesty and loyalty of affections are the less sollicitous to gain that which they count their own already Whilest the harlot conscious to her self of her usurpation that she hath no lawful right to the imbraces of her paramour tunes her self to the criticalness of all complacency to humour him in all his desires And thus alwayes those men whose cause have the weakest foundation in piety getteth the strongest buttress in policy to support it Lastly the righteous man by the principles of his profession is tyed up and confined onely to the use of such means for his preservation as are consonant to Gods will conformable to his word preferring rather to die many times then to save himself once by unwarrantable waies Propounded unto him a project for his safety and as Solomon promised favour to Adonijah so long as he shewed himself worthy otherwise if wickedness were found in him he should surely die So our righteous man onely accepts and embraceth such plots to secure himself thereby as acquit themselves honest and honourable such as appear otherwise he presently dispatches with detestation destroying the very motion and mention thereof from entring into his hearts On the other side the wicked man is left at large allowing himself liberty and latitude to do any thing in his own defence making a constant practice of doing evil that good may come thereof Yea we may observe in all ages that wicked men make bold with Religion and those who count the practice of plety a burden find the pretending thereof an advantage and therefore be the matter they manage never so bad if possible they will intitle it to be Gods cause Much was the substance in the very shadow of Saint Peter which made the people so desirous thereof as he passed by the streets And the very umbrage of Religion hath a sovereign virtue in it No better cordial for a dying cause then to over-shadow it with the pretence that it is Gods cause for first this is the way to make and keep a good and strong party No sooner the watch-word is given out For Gods cause but instantly GAD Behold a troop cometh of many honest but ignorant men who press to be listed in so pious an employment These may be kild but cannot be conquered for till their judgements be otherwise informed they will triumph in being overcome as confident the deeper their wounds got in Gods cause gape in their