Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	judge_v	law_n	1,465	5	4.9712	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A08025	Iacob's ladder consisting of fifteene degrees or ascents to the knowledge of God by the consideration of his creatures and attributes.; De ascensione mentis in Deum per scalas rerum creatorum opusculum. English	Bellarmino, Roberto Francesco Romolo, Saint, 1542-1621.; Isaacson, Henry, 1581-1654, attributed name.; H. I., fl. 1638.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1638 (1638)	STC 1839.5; ESTC S122555	138,468	472

which are stronger in many beasts then in Man but by the mind indued with reason and will that is not by that which he hath common and alike with them but by that by which he is distinguished from them and made like unto GOD. Rowse thy selfe then and frame thy selfe after thy patterne and consider that all the good thou receivest by this Image consists in the likenesse and resemblance thou hast to it Thy patterne is GOD whose beauty is infinite Light in whom there is no darknes whose beauty the Sun and Moone admire And that thou mayst the more easilie imitate thy patterne on which thy whole perfection profit honour joy rest and indeed thy whole good depends conceive the beauty of GOD thy patterne to consist in wisdome and holinesse For as the beauty of the body ariseth from the just proportion of the members and sweetnesse of the colour so in the spirituall substance the pleasantnesse of the colour is the light of wisedome the proportion of the members is sanctitie and righteousnesse not any particular justice but universall which conteyneth all other vertues and therfore that may be said to be the most beautifull spirit whose mind shineth with the light of wisedome and whose will hath the greatest measure of perfect righteousnesse GOD then thy patterne is that Wisdome and that Righteousnes and in respect thereof is beauty it selfe And because both these Attributes of GOD are specified in Scripture under the name of sanctity it is that the Angels in Esay cry unto him Holy Holy Holy is the LORD GOD of Hosts and GOD himselfe cryeth to his Images Be holy for I am holy and our Saviour in the Gospell Bee perfect as your Father which in Heaven is perfect Wherefore if thou desirest to be like thy patterne thou must love Wisedome and Righteousnesse above all things True Wisedome which is one part of spirituall beauty is to judge of all things according to the supreme cause and the most high cause is the divine will of GOD or his Law which manifests his will to Man If therefore thou love Wisedome thou must not lend thine eare to what the Law of the flesh shall dictate what thy sences shall judge to be good what the World shall approve of what any Man shall insinuate to thee but stop thine eares to them and marke onely what the will of GOD thy LORD is and account that most profitable and above all things to be desired which shal be most conformable to his will and Law This is the wisedome of the Saints of which the wiseman wrote I loved her above health and beauty and purposed to take her for my light for her light cannot be quenched All good things therefore came to me with her The other part of this spirituall beauty is Righteousnesse and this containes all vertues which adorne and beau●ifie the will the chiefe whereof is love the mother of all graces which not onely comprehends all the rest as St. Augustine speaketh but indeed as St. Paul affirmeth is the fulfilling of the Law and on the other side He which keepeth his word that is his Law in him is the love of GOD perfect indeed as St. John They therefore which would be made like to the Divine patterne must hearken to and obey this counsaile Be ye followers of GOD as deare children and walke in love The Son is the image of his Father and all the good which ariseth from this image as is before said is to become like to the patterne Oh if thou wouldst fully understand these things and that being made like unto GOD by the beauty of true Wisedome and Righteousnesse thou much pleasest him what peace wouldst thou enjoy how joyfull wouldst thou be how easily wouldst thou despise all the blandishments of this deceitfull world Againe if thou wouldst consider how highly GOD wil be displeased when he shall see his image wanting the light of wisedome and the robe of Righteousnesse to be polluted defiled and darkned and that Man being placed in such honour as to be like to GOD to be now compared to the beasts that perish certainely thou wouldst be amazed and tremble neither wouldst thou be at rest untill by floods of teares springing from bitter contrition thou shouldst wash away all thy spots and steynes and returne to the likenes of thy most beautifull patterne But because in the meane time while thou walkest away and wandrest from GOD and that thou walkest by Faith and not by sight thou continually wantest his aid and assistance aswell that thou mayst abide in that likenes which thou hast as that daily thou mayst become more like that is more beautifull and clearer mourne heartily and pray to him and say O holy Lord and most mercifull whom it hath pleased to make this my soule thine Image make perfect I beseech thee thy worke increase my Wisedome increase my Righteousnesse hide my soule in the secret place of thy Tabernacle that it be not defiled with the mud of carnall concupiscence nor with the smoke of secular honour nor the dust of earthly thoughts The last quaere remaines to be resolv'd which is Whereto or for what Man was brought into the World The end of his Creation This end was no other then GOD himselfe But because there is a double end Internall or Inward and Externall or Outward We will consider them apart briefly The Internall or Inward end is the perfect state or condition of any thing to which the same may attaine as for example a Palace or any other structure is then and not till then accounted perfect and finished when nothing is wanting which is requisite to the building of it So the inward end of a tree is the perfect state thereof and then it is said to have attayned his end when after the full growth it beareth fruit A Man therefore who is created to a most high end may then be said to have obtayned his end when his mind shall see God as he is and by seeing him shall know all things his will shall most ardently love and enjoy that chief good and happinesse and his body being becom immortall and impassible shall live in perpetuall peace and joy And because the essence of this finall beatitude is the vision of GOD by which we the Images of GOD shall come to a perfect state and perfect similitude with our divine patterne therefore it is that St John saith Now are we the Sons of GOD but yet it is not made manifest what we shall be and we know that when he shall be made manifest we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Oh! if thou couldst imagine what this is that we shal be like him for we shall see him as he is how quickly would all the clouds of earthly desires be dispersed GOD is most blessed and therefore most blessed because he alwaies sees himselfe as he is and enjoyes

Kingdome for he raigned over all Kingdomes from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistims unto the border of Aegypt and they brought presents and served Salomon all the daies of his life he had besides so great wealth that he had 40000. stalls of Horses for his Charriots and 12000. Horse-men besides his Ships trading to Ophir brought such store of gold and precious stones that silver was nothing esteemed in his daies and was given by him as stones in Jerusalem His pleasure also he tooke after such an unlimited manner that delighting in Women he tooke to him 700. Wives princesses and 300. concubines And yet heare what he saith of himselfe after he had reckoned up these pleasures and many more as you may read at large in the Booke of the Preacher after he had well look'd into them behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit and there is no profit under the Sun Therefore you see he found no true rest either in his riches honour pleasures or wisedome nor could he have found any had they beene many more because the mind of Man is immortall and these things are mortall and of no continuance nor it cannot be that the mind capable of infinite good should be satisfied with finite good For as the humane body cannot rest either in the ayre though it be large or in the water though it be deepe because the earth and not the water or ayre is its center so the minde of Man can never rest in ayrie honour or watry riches which are sordid pleasures but in GOD onely who is the true center of the minde and the onely place of rest for it and proper to it How divinely and wisely then did his Father King David cry out after he had gone into GODS Sanctuary and understood the end of the wicked in their prosperity Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none that I desire in earth in comparison of thee GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Consider this then and thou wilt confesse that GOD is the Rocke upon which thou most rest and relye other things are but vanitie and vexation of spirit which are not things in true existence but in false apparaence they comfort not but torment being gotten with labour kept with feare and lost with sorrow and griefe Despise therefore if thou beest wise all tran●itory things least they snatch thee away with them and set thy rest on GOD alone cleave to him with the bond of love who remaines the same for ever Lift up thy heart to GOD in Heaven least it putrifie in Earth Learne true Wisedome by the folly of many in whose persons the wiseman speaketh Therefore we have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined unto us and the Sun of understanding rose not upon us We have wearied our selves in the way of wickednesse and destruction and we have gone through dangerous waies but we have not knowne the way of the Lord. What hath pride profited us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a Post that passeth by Againe this foundation the Earth is an Embleme of GOD in another respect which CHRIST himselfe hath explained unto us in the Gospell by his similitude of a house built upon a Rock which though the raine fell upon it the winds beat upon the side of it and the floods attempted to undermine it y●t stood firme and unmovable but the house built upon the sand could resist none of them but fell So the mansion of mans soule which consists of many vertues and graces as of so many roomes and chambers if it be founded upon GOD as upon a Rocke thatis if it stedfastly beleeve him if it put its whole trust and confidence in him if it be rooted and founded in the love of him it may say with the Apostle Who shall separate us from the love of CHRIST The soule so founded may be secure because neither spirituall wickednesses which are above it nor carnall concupiscences which are beneath it nor domesticall enemies our kinsmen and acquaintance which are about it shall at any time prevaile against it Great I confesse are the forces and subtilties of spirituall powers but greater is the power greater is the wisedome of the Holy Spirit which is ruler and president over the house which is built upon GOD. Very much and earnestly doth the flesh fight against the Spirit and concupiscences have overcome many strong Men but the love of GOD easily overcometh the love of the flesh and the feare of the LORD the feare of the World Lastly Mans homebred enemies many times draw them by evill example and conversation to the perpetrating of sinne but the soule whose confidence is that it hath GOD to Father and friend easily shakes such friends off and will say with the Apostle I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities no● Powers nor things present nor things to come nor any other creature shal be able to separate me from the love of GOD which is in CHRIST JEsus our LORD The second property of the Earth consists in this that it is as a good nurse to Men and other living creatures in bringing forth herbs fruits and other sustenance in plentifull manner for their preservation And this property ●eads us to the Creator who is the true Nurse For it is not properly the Earth but GOD by the Earth which produceth these good things For so the holy Spirit speaketh by the mouth of David He bringeth forth grasse for the cuttell and greene herbe for the service of men and a little after These all wayt upon thee that thou mayest give them meat in due season When thou givest it them they gather it and when thou openest thine hand they are filled with good and our Saviour in the Gospell Behold the foules of the ayre for they sowe not neither reape nor cary into the barnes yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them and the Apostle Saint Paul in the Acts Neverthelesse he left not himselfe without witnesse in that hee did good and gave us raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse Yet is that true which GOD commanded at the Creation Let the Earth bud forth the bud of the herbe that seedeth seed and the fruitfull tree which beareth fruit according to his kind but it is by the power and vertue which GOD hath given it and GOD himselfe by the Earth producing increasing and preserving these things And for this cause it was that King David inviting all creatures to praise the LORD among the rest calls upon fruitfull trees to doe the same and that the three Children in Daniel sang All things that grow on the Earth blesse ye

and the ordinance of love 1. The light of wisedome which makes a man truly wise and which no man can use amisse and bringeth us to the fountaine of wisedome scituate in the heavenly Countrey is that which teacheth the contempt of temporall things and to esteeme highly of spirituall it teacheth not to trust in uncertaine riches but in the living GOD. It teacheth us not to account this exile of ours as our Countrey nor to love our pilgrimage but to endure it Lastly it teacheth to live here in patience being full of perills and tentations and to dye in desire because Blessed are the dead that dye in the LORD 2. The Ordinance of true love what is it but to love GOD without end without measure he being the end of all our desires to love other things in such measure and meane as will be sufficient to bring us to our end that is beatitude Surely there is not any man that in the cure of his body inverts order so that he loves his health but with an ordinary measure and a bitter potion without all measure seeing that he knoweth that the first is the end and the latter but the meanes How then cometh it to passe that so many that would be accounted wise men confine themselves to no moderation in heaping up riches in hunting after the pleasures of the flesh and attayning to the degrees of honour as it these things were the end of mans heart and are contented to streighten themselves in loving GOD and seeking after eternall f●licity as if these were but the meanes to the end and not the end of all meanes without doubt this is the cause that they have the wisedome of this world and not that which is from above and cometh from the Father of lights and that they have not ordinate love nor that which is true love but are full of inordinate desires which are not of the Father but of the World Wherefore while thou travailest from thy Countrey and a●t among enemies which oppose true wisedome and love and suggest craft for wisedome and inordinate desires for love make thy moane and bewaile thy case to the Father of lights desiring him earnestly to give thee these good and perfect guifts of true wisedome and regulated love and to inflame thy hear● with them so that being fitted with them thou mayest so runne the wayes of his Commandements without stumbling that thou mayst come to that Countrey where thou mayst drinke of the pure fountaine of wisedome and live with the pure milke of love 2. I come now to the time of the night wherein the heaven doth frame and erect one step for us to ascend to GOD by the Moone and Starres for so speaketh David I will consider the heavens the worke of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast ordayned If we could see heaven it selfe the Prophet had not said by way of explication of that which he had set down before The Moon and the Starres which thou hast ordayned and truely if our sences could pierce to heaven it selfe or that we could finde out the nature and qualities of it by any certaine reason without doubt we should have an excellent degree of ascent to GOD thereby We know that there have been some who out of the motion of the Starres have defined the nature of heaven to be a quintessence simple incorruptible and perpetually moving in its Orbe And that there are others who will have heaven to be the Element of fire that is not moved in its Orbe neither is incorruptible according to its parts but it is not our intent to looke after these opinions but to seeke out the certaine knowledge and Doctrine of Faith thereby to raise an ascent to GOD. The Moone hath two properties which may fitly serve to this purpose I The first is the neerer it approacheth to the Sun the more it shineth and is enlightned in its upper part towards heaven being darkned at the same time in the lower part of it towards the earth and when it is wholly subject to the Sun and is in full conjunction with it it is altogether light towards heaven and darke towards the earth On the other side when it is in opposition to the Sun it is seen cleare of the earths inhabitants and hath no light in the upper part towards heaven This p●operty of the Moone may be a good document or example to us mortalls to make us sollicitous of our neere conjunction to the true Father of lights GOD himselfe The Moone signifieth Man and the Sun GOD when the Moone is in opposition to the Sun then by the borrow●d light from the Sun it onely shines and lookes towards earth and after a sort turnes its back to heaven whereby it shewes beautifull to the Inhabitants of the earth and most deformed to the Citizens of heaven So every mortall●hat ●hat goes farre from GOD as the Prodigall which went into a farre Countrey abuseth that light of reason which he received from the Father of lights onely to respect the earth and forgetting GOD thinkes onely upon the earth onely loves it and is wholly taken up with desire of the goods thereof for which by the children of this generation they are esteemed wife and happy but by the heavenly inhabitants they are accounted poore naked blind deformed wretched and miserable On the contrary when the Moone is in conjunction with the Sun and is perfectly subject to it it shineth wholly on the upper part respecteth heaven onely turning its backe to men vanishing cleane from their sight So is it with the wicked when he begins to leave his wickednes and by his full conversion is become truly subject to GOD the true Sun of the sou●e in humility and is joyned to him in love then he fulfills that which the Apostle warneth he seeketh those things which are above and savours of heavenly not earthly things and then is he despised by fooles and accounted by them as if he were dead but indeed he is dead to the World and his life is hidden with Christ in GOD and When Christ his life shall appeare then shall he also appeare with him in glory And this is the cause as St. Augustine observes why the Passeover aswell in the old Law as in the new could not rightly be kept but after the full Moon that is when the Moon which in the full is in opposition to the Sun begins to returne to the conjunction with it to shew that man in opposition to GOD by sinne should begin to be converted to him and to hasten to the union and grace of GOD by the merits of JESUS CHRIST Therefore if thou find thy selfe by the assistance of Gods grace to be subject to the Father of lights by true humility and to be joyned with him by ardent love doe not imitate fooles who are changed as the Moone but follow the wise who continue unchanged as the Sun for the Moone

and in what state it shal be found at the departure from the body in the same it shal be judged either to raigne eternally with GOD or everlastingly to be tormented with the Devill nothing ought to be more carefull to thee then to flye sinne and follow that which is good Take heed therefore that to the losse of body and soule thou beest not seduced by the enticements and allurements of the flesh but erucifie it with the desires and concupiscences of it that hereafter not onely thy soule may live in blessednesse but thy body may rise in glory and remaine together in eternity with God But although the soules of the blessed and of the holy Angels shall be partakers of that most sublime and happy union with GOD by his beatificall vision and love which union not onely shall have no end but shall ever stand firme and unmoveable yet the thoughts and affections may change and alter diverse waies and therefore they shall admire and behold above them the eternity of God in whom there shall bee no change of minde will or place and yet nothing shal be wanting to him but shall possesse all things ever which he might have gotten to himselfe by diverse alterations from eternity Wherefore to conclude this point the length of Gods eternity is an infinite thing and no lesse proper and agreeable to him then the bredth of his immensitie The height of Gods Essence comes next to our consideration in respect whereof it is said of GOD Thou onely art the most highest And GOD is onely the highest by the dignity of his nature 1. For things the more pure and more abstract from matter are ever the more noble and higher This we see first in corporall things water is more higher then earth because more pure and by the same reason ayre is higher then water because more pure and the fire then the ayre and heaven then fire Againe we see it in spirituall things the understanding is higher then sence because the sence hath a corporall Organ which the understanding needs not and the Angelicast understanding is higher then mans because a man hath need of the office of imagination and phantasies which an Angell need not and among the Angels they are highest who understand most things by fewest species GOD therefore who onely is pure act and wants nothing without himselfe neither Organ nor imagination nor species nor so much as the presence of any object without himselfe but his owne Essence is all things to him and can have nothing that he had not in act and for him to have in act is to be alwaies pure act and uncompound therefore I say is his nature the most transcendent highest and sublime neither can it by any meanes be equall'd Hee then which said I will be like the most high was suddenly thrust downe to hell and as our Saviour saith I saw Satanfall downe from heaven like lightning 2. Secondly GOD is most high in another respect because he is the 1 first highest efficient 2 exemplary and 3 finall cause of all things 1. He is the first highest efficient cause because there is no created thing which hath any power of making but that which it hath received from GOD but GOD hath that power from none 2. Againe there is no cause which can exercise its power unlesse it be moved by GOD but GOD is moved of none 3. Lastly those are called higher causes amongst created things upon which particular causes depend and which are universall as the heavens and Angels which move the heavens but GOD made both heaven and Angels And therefore he is the onely first and most highest efficient cause 2 He is also the first exemplary cause because he made all things according to the formes and idea's which he hath in himselfe 3 Lastly he is the first finall cause because he created all things for himselfe that is to manifest his glory as the wiseman speaketh But it is very properly said that GOD is the most highest because he sitteth in the highest throne I saw saith Esay the LORD sitting upon a high throne and lifted up Now because sitting or seates have two uses one for judicature and the other for peaceable governing we will consider them apart 1. GOD hath the highest seat because hee is supreme Judge for Abraham said to GOD Shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right and David He is a Iudge among the Gods that is GOD judgeth even Iudges themselves who in Scripture are called Gods but St. Iaemes most plainely There is one Lawgiver and Iudge that is GOD is properly the onely Lawgiver and Iudge and GOD is Iudge himselfe saith David againe GOD is the Iudge and Esay The LORD is our Iudge the LORD is our Lawgiver he onely gives Laws to all men and receives of none he judgeth all men and is judged of none 2. Againe GOD is not onely a Iudge but is also a King and in this regard judgeth not as a Iudge appointed by the King but as King and chiefe Prince of which he is stiled King of Kings and a great King above all Gods and he is terrible to the Kings of the earth because that when he pleaseth he translateth Kingdomes and Empires from one Nation to another and when he pleaseth he taketh away the spirit of Princes 3 Lastly GOD is not onely the supreme Iudge and King but is absolute Lord which is the greatest title of all GOD is properly and truly stiled LORD for all things serve him and he none and can if he will reduce all things to no●hing because he made all things of nothing Consider then what feare what reverence is due by us wormes of the earth to him who sits upon so high a seate as that he hath nothing above him If I be LORD saith GOD by Malachie where is my feare And if those supreme Princes of heaven doe stand by him with such feare and trembling what ought we to doe who are mortall and fraile and dwell upon the earth with beasts But this seemeth strange that the highest GOD loves not creatures like to himselfe that is high and sublime but humble and poore for so GOD speakes by the Prophet Esay To him will I looke even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my words and King David Though the LORD be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly And yet I will not say but GOD loveth high things and in this respect like to himselfe so they be truly high not which seeme so and are not and therefore it is that GOD loveth not the proud who are lifted and puffed up and are not to be called sublime but he loveth the humble and those which tremble at his words because that they the more they abase and deject themselves are the more exalted by him and they which are exalted by him are truly high