Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	city_n	great_a	people_n	1,556	5	4.4120	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17510	The vvidovves ioy. Or Christ his comfortable saluation to a comfortlesse widow being obseruations no lesse profitable then comfortable for the losse of our deceased friends. By W.C.	Cragge, William, 1595 or 6-1636.	1622 (1622)	STC 4323; ESTC S114181	18,275	52

THE WIDOWES IOY OR CHRIST his comfortable SALVTATION To a comfortlesse Widow Being Obseruations no lesse profitable then comfortable for the losse of our deceased friends By W. C. LONDON Printed for IOHN HODGETS 1622. LVKE 7. vers 13. When the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and sayd vnto her Weepe not THE Prophet Dauid tels vs that heauinesse may endure for a night but ioy commeth in the morning and our Sauiour himselfe pronounceth a blessednesse to them that mourne for they shall be comforted which comfortable doctrine hee hauing immediatly in the Chapter going before deliuered in words he doth now here by his deedes make good on the behalfe of a poore Widow miserably mourning and lamenting for the losse of the staffe and comfort of her life her sonne her onely sonne now vpon the Biere carying to the place of buriall Whom when the Lord saw he had compassion on c. The Lord This shewes vnto vs his power saw her here is his prouidence had compassion here is his mercy power prouidence and mercy meete all together to comfort this comfortlesse Widow Weepe not His power was seene in raising her dead sonne his prouidence in that hee saw her his mercy in commiserating her griefe her griefe and the death of her sonne worke both together for her comfort for the Lord seeing her hath compassion on her And thus are we brought into the Text. Which I may fitly terme a Comedy it begins with sorrow and ends with ioy acted by two persons which I make the two parts of my Text 1 a miserable woman her 2 a mercifull comforter The Lord. The woman is a Widow the comforter is Christ The woman acting a mournfull Tragedie Christ making it end with a ioyfull Plaudite In the one there is great misery in the other endlesse and boundlesse mercy Great miserie for here is a voyce heard of mourning weeping and great lamentation a Widow weeping for her onely sonne and could not be comforted because he was not greater mercy for Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puts on the bowels of compassion and without any intreaty restores miraculously life to her sonne and vnexpectedly comfort to her selfe First of her the woman and her misery Touching the historie it standeth thus Christ hauing finished his Sermon in the Mount he came downe vnto the citie of Capernaum where hee healed the Centurions sicke seruant and the next day he went vnto Naim of which city this woman was an inhabitant as he was entring into this citie there met him a great multitude carrying a Coarse and this woman the mother attending it with weeping eyes whose misery and cause of sorrow will appeare to be iust and great if we doe weigh these subsequent passages First this her this woman was not of the meanest or inferiour sort of the people of the Citie whose daily wants and necessities so inures and accustomes them with patience to beare many crosses and miseries insomuch that vnto them they seeme lesse burdensome for mali consuetudinem mali amaritudinem adimit And as they that are alwaies accustomed to liue in marish and fennie places are not so much offended with noysome foggie smels as are they that liue in a more delicate and pure tract of ayre So they whom their meanenesse of estate and condition must many times make to want yea in their greatest aboundance to be full of wants goe more lightly away with the burdens of miserie and misfortune then such as haue these outward blessings of the world in greater aboundance This woman I say was not like in any probabilitie to haue beene of the meaner and inferiour ranke for then shee might haue beene better able to haue passed this sorrow as necessitie had made her subiect to many a former but shee was of good esteeme and account in the Citie which may bee gathered by this circumstance that she went not alone or with some few vnto the graue but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great troupe and multitude which we know is either out of honour and loue to the deceased or out of respect vnto the liuing it could not bee altogether out of honour and respect to the dead for hee was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very young man and not as yet of any desert in the Citie and therefore we may more then probably coniecture that it was done as an honour vnto this VVidow the mother of this young man being some honorable and wel-respected Matron yet this woman shee loseth her sonne she feeleth the smart of misery To teach vs this lesson That there is no sexe no age no estate or condition whatsoeuer which is or can bee exempted from sorrow and miserie not onely the poore begger that hath but from hand to mouth but euen the greatest Potentate or Prince that euer liued must haue his cares and causes of griefe Crosses and afflictions are not tyed or limited to any climate or countrey to any family or kindred age cannot priuiledge a man wisedome cannot protect policie cannot preuent riches cannot purchase immunitie but as God causeth the Sunne to shine ouer all the world on the vniust as well as on the iust so doth he send crosses and causes of vexation and sorrow as well to the honourable and rich as to the poore and ignoble Wee will looke no farther then to Salomons censure of this I sought in my heart to enioy whatsoeuer was had by any of the sonnes of men I haue made me great houses c. and whatsoeuer mine eyes desired I with-held it not from them Then I looked on all the workes that my hands had wrought and on all the trauell I had laboured to doe and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit All those his delights and pleasures riches and treasures could not giue him so much content as to counteruaile the sorrow anxiety and vexation of spirit which he was continually subiect vnto And therefore Lawyers define life by weeping The crying of children is a lawfull proofe of their liuing to possesse the miseries of this world and at our going out God is said to wipe off teares that is to take away labour and sorrow together Whereby is iustly reprooued the wonderfull sottishnesse of worldly men that dote so much vpon the momentary and sinfull pleasures of this sinfull world and looke for no other content then what they make vnto themselues in the enioyment of worldly things Oh show wonderfully haue men their hearts glued to euery small contentment they finde heere and thinke if they haue gotten much goods and store of treasure and haue laded themselues with honour and dignitie that then they are out of the reach of crosses No let no man thinke these outward things to be any better then Adams figge leaues to hide our nakednesse and to shelter vs from those crosses which are incident vnto vs. Let no man put their trust in these for they will prooue like vnto a Reede on which if a

man leane it will runne into his hand Secondly as this woman was wealthy and of good esteeme so shee was a widow shee had beene before a married woman and as shee had participated of those blessings which attend VVedlocke so shee had many times felt those cares which are incident vnto those who haue the care and charge of a Family and being made a mother felt no doubt the trueth of Gods sentence I will greatly encrease thy sorrow in sorrow shalt thou bring foorth thy children and yet to adde more vnto her griefe and which may seeme the greatest griefe of all her husband one halfe of her selfe dyes and that not in his old and decrepit age when all his pleasure was gone and life it selfe growne to be but labour and sorrow but in the flower of his youth and not long after his mariage which probably may be gathered by this that hee left but one onely sonne and this our Sauiour calles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yong Stripling all which must needs make her widow-hood the more grieuous widow-hood in it selfe beeing a crosse great enough insomuch that the Prophet Dauid reckoneth and puts it among his Imprecations and curses on Gods and his enemies Let his children bee Psal 109. fatherlesse and his wife a Widow So the Prophet Ieremie Lam. 1. 1. Lamenting and bewailing the miserable estate of Ierusalem speaketh thus How doth the citie remaine solitary that was full of people Shee is as a widow And Chapter 5. 5. Wee are fatherlesse without fathers and our mothers are Widowes yet all this while she beares these crosses manfully she yeelds not vnto thē shee breakes not into open weeping but comforts her selfe calling to minde those many and sweet promises and comforts made by God vnto VVidowes for God hath promised to defend the fatherlesse and widowes The Lord your God is God of gods which doth right vnto the fatherlesse an Widowes And Psalme 146. 9. The Lord keepeth the Stranger he releeueth the fatherles and Widowes Yea the Lord commits the care of them vnto Magistrates charging them and all others Ex. 22. 22. You shall not trouble the widow nor the fatherlesse childe yea the Lord out of his loue and care towards them appoints part of the Tythe for their reliefe Deut. 14. 29. Hee would haue them to bee remembred in their Feastes Hee menaceth a curse against him that Deut. 27. 29. wrongeth the widow Cursed be hee that hindreth the cause of the stranger the fatherlesse and VVidow And Ieremie 5. 25. hee reckoneth the neglecting of the widow one cause of the destruction of the people VVith these and many other promises which shee found in Scripture no doubt but shee did continually comfort her selfe in her widow-hood that though shee were yong yet she did not affect a second marriage and besides shee tooke it as a pledge of Gods great fauour vnto her that hee had giuen her a sonne to bee a stay and a comfort vnto her in her widow-hood But see to adde yet more vnto the complement of her miserie God who knowes how to giue vs tearesto drinke in measure and knoweth best when he hath laid sorrow affliction enough vpon his children leaues not the widow thus As not shee so neither are wee worthy to know whereunto wee are reserued This her yong sonne dyes who was the light of her eyes and the ioy of her life To shew vnto vs thus much by the way that not onely old men must but the yongest that is may die wee are no sooner come into the world but wee hasten out of the world The pace of death is soft and sure and euery man is a dying man till he be dead And therefore wee must so set our mortality before our eyes as to thinke euery day our last day and labour carefully to redeeme the time ill past because so vncertaine is the time of our abode But what had this yong man done thus vntimely to bee cropt off in the budde of his yeeres Hee was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very yong man as his tender yeeres could not patronize good counsell and want of grauitie giue authoritie to his person to be a president of vertue so it is likely he was not yet misled by the errors of youth much lesse could hee haue beene a ring-leader vnto euill Or why should we lay sinne to his charge when the holy Ghost layes none but rather charitably yea confidently perswade our selues that hee that was now about to doe so much for his body had before done much more for his soule Happily God tooke him away that hee should not see the euill to come And truely if the mother had rightly considered this it had beene a cause rather to mitigate then any way to exasperate or aggrauate her griefe that God had so timely thus well prouided for her son that though she had lost a sonne yet heauen had found a Saint and though hee had beene neuer so deare and precious in her eyes yet to haue reioyced that shee had layd vp her treasure in heauen Had hee beene an vnnaturall Cain a prophane Esau a proud aspiring Absolon an vsurping Adonijah this might haue redoubled her griefe to consider that from her loynes a chip should haue beene hewen to make a fire-brand in hell But to haue a godly yong Iosiah to be taken away in his tender yeeres that he might not see the euill to come might cause her rather to magnifie his mercie then to whine vnder the rod of correction And heereof should all parents make a comfortable vse when at any time God shall deale with them in the like case by remoouing their hopefull yong plants from out of his nursery of grace heere and transplanting them into his Orchard of glory in heauen there to flourish as Palmes for euermore But had this her sonne bin taken away in his infancy her sorrow had been the lesse shee had sustained paine and sorrow in bringing him into the word care and feare in his nurture and education and now that shee thought to haue receiued some comfort in him for whom shee had often both wearied and disquieted her selfe behold he dyes Thus it pleaseth God many times to deale with his dearest children to lay affliction after affliction putting into all their cups of comfort and contentments bitter drams of sorrow griefe Whence wee may learne first how vncertaine a thing it is to expect any certaine comfort in this world we are all subiect to vicissitude change and alteration We must not expect any perpetuity of felicity here lest wee should forget to looke after any other heauen then heere on earth Doe not we see by experience that kingdomes haue their declensions and Crownes and Scepters their crosses and shall priuate and particular persons expect greater stability Secondly it must teach vs how to entertaine comforts when God sendes them euen as the Apostle bids vs the world so to vse them as though