Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,408	5	4.8951	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13075	Christian observations and resolutions, or, The daylie practise of the renewed man, turning all occurrents to spirituall uses, and these uses to his vnion with God I. centurie : vvith a resolution for death, &c. / newlie published by Mr William Struther ...	Struther, William, 1578-1633.	1628 (1628)	STC 23367; ESTC S1007	124,060	389

the strictnesse of veritie and secureth them from rigorous censure for that slippe And their hyperbolees doe passe for good coyne But the Complementer doe lie without either libertie or licence And their hyperbolees are none other thing in broad tearmes than lyes in folio Their speaches run vsuallie on three thinges 1. large praises of some excellent worth in them whom they idole 2. Officious offers of seruice as due to it 3. And large wishes of all happinesse to them In the first their idoles know they are speaking false except they be as sensles of flatteries as there flatterers are shamelesse In the second their owne heart giueth them the lie For they think themselues more worthie of seruice than hee to whom they offer it In the third their Conscience checketh them for mocking of God For they pray for that which they desire not to bee granted Yea they would bee grieued if it were granted They are equivocaters minding one thing and speaking another Many doe practise the Iesuits mentall Reseruation who know not their doctrine It must bee a cousening Religion that teacheth practiseth alloweth such cousening I neuer suspect them more than when they double their complements Hee is short and shallow witted who is glosed with these flowrishes Let them paint out their speach and gesture I wil giue lesse credite to so onerous and insidious speach I shall trow the heart and the person so affected as it deserueth An honest meaning simplie expressed hath more weight than all these buskinges and fairdings The heart that God made but they abuse hath the owne meaning I trust that but not the person which they assume and laye downe as soone as they haue spent their borrowed breath The next momēt and the first man they meete with findeth them in another if not in a contrare minde it cannot byde in their heart which bred not in it nor was neuer in it Their wordes are but carcases of language and let the credulous beleeuer looke for no more than carcase of offices Belike they thinke their words either not to bee idle or that they shall not giue an accompt of them at the last day The Soule indeede must bee filled with something but wee may soone choose better substance to fill it withall ●han that wind of frothie complementing While they are feeding themselues with their fancies let the children of Trueth speake the Trueth from their heart Let complementing haue the owne due without a complement It is the birth of an emptie braine the maske of hatred enuy Refined hypocrisie with simulation and dissimulation her twins ingraned the breathing of an euill mind vnder hope of good deede Hee who knoweth it can neither bee moued to offer it nor patientlie admitte it 83. Consciencious Knowledge If our hearts were narrowlie searched Atheisme would bee found in them wee know better then wee doe and we worshippe not God as wee know him Wee can say That God is good and yet neither loue nor seeke him that he is just and powerfull yet wee feare not to offend him That hee is wise yet wee submit not our selues to his Wisedome that hee seeth our heart and thoughts afarre of and yet wee breede and feed wicked thoughts in our hearts which wee would bee ashamed to shew to our neighbour Wee beleeue there is an Hell for euill deedes and yet goe on in the way of sin And that there is laid vp a Crown of glorie in Heauen for well doing yet we are not moued to doe good What is then in our heart for all our knowledge but Athiesme and Infidelitie Our actions giuing our wordes the lye and proclaming to the Worlde that wee beleeue not the thing that wee speake The want of the worke of Conscience is a speciall cause of this fleshly disposition Without that worke Christianitie is nothing but a speculation Wee consider all things in abstract but take them not in our persons and to our heart Wee can abhorre sin in it selfe and in our neighbours but excuse it in our selfe wee magnifie Vertue and Grace in it selfe but yet thirst not for it Papists talke mightilie of the worth of Faith but doe scorne the sense Conscience of it And many Christians will heare and read their owne sinnes convicted by the word of God and yet not thinke themselues particularlie taxed nor byde at the conviction Happie is that man whose Conscience pulleth all to his heart his heart to God who turneth his knowledge to Faith his Faith to feeling and all to walke worthie of God and to liue in Christ as hee learneth him daylie He hath not rest but in walking according to the light of a well informed Conscience when theorie is turned to practise and speculatiō to a consciencious sensing doing then wee are Christians indeed Gods word is his stamppe hee hath deeplie sunke his Image in it but it doth not instamp our heart except some power thrust it vpon vs When the holy Spirit maketh our conscience to set that word to our heart then wee are stamped and take deeplie the impression of his holinesse in the inward habits and expresse it euidentlie in our life and conuersation God hath blessed vs with many meanes of knowledge but they doe no more than propone and open matters to vs They inlighten the minde and goe no further But the Conscience worketh mightily on the heart It letteth nothing abide in generalities but turneth all to our particular and personall respect and that not in the minde alone but most in the heart As it reduceth all dueties promises and threatninges to our persons so it joyneth affection to light and moueth the heart according to thinges knowne And out of all draweth actions that serue to expresse that knowledge and doeth all as in the presence of God When Conscience bringeth Religion to the heart and from the heart to the life then wee are truely religious 84. The wise mixture of mankinde HOw wiselie hath God tempered humane societies All are not of one disposition some hotte and some co●de some harsh and headie in their judgement and violent in their actions other ryper wits calmer in their affections posed in their doings Some againe as grossely senslesse some craue the bridle and some the spurre If a man cast his eyes on a multitude he shall obserue as much diuersitie in their disposition voyces opinions as in their faces If all were of a firie humour the world would fire at once If all were sluggish it would fall downe in the pot Stirring wittes as quickning barme put the dou●nesse of the simple to working and the slownesse of the other tempereth their fordwardnesse and so both these extreamities are brought to mids If either extreame preuaile matters goe wrong but our wise God maketh that counterposing bring the ballance to an equall standing and so tumultuous meetinges bring oft-ten foorth just conclusions There can bee no standing of matters if either witlesnesse or wilfulnesse predomine

of vs in our tyme Hee fulfilled the Law tooke away Sinne satisfied Gods Iustice and so brak the jawes of Death Shall I then feare to follow such a Captaine Hee hath made Death but a carcase of an enemie I haue neither to feare in it Sinne which is pardoned nor Law which is fulfilled nor Iustice which is satisfied It is a Serpent without the Sting a Gyant without bones or armes though it swallow mee vp in a naturall dissolution it shall cast mee out as the Whale did Ionah in an immortall condition when this mortalitie shall bee swallowed vp of life When Dauid had killed Goliah the Israelites ranne as fast to see him as they fledde before from him beeing aliue Doubtlesse they contemned that sometimes terrible Gyant they trod vpon him with their feete and cut him with there swords They did that securelie because hee was dead Hee who was euen now the matter of their feare his lifeles carcase is turned a matter of their contempt and his death a cause of their joye Death may separate thee from this Bodie but neither from God nor his life in thee it shall the more vnite thee to him this Bodie that dyeth by thy departing shall liue in Death It dyeth as a creature the part of such a one but it liueth as a member of Christ and the Temple of the holie Spirit both because it is separate from all spirituall corruption of Sinne and quickened spirituallie by the holy Ghost who departeth not from it and in the Spirit of Iesus who remaineth our Head euen in Death And lastlie because thou my best part shall bee in libertie with God Death may destroy naturall life but not the Spirituall neither in Grace nor Glorie It can sease on no more than I had when I sinned in Adam I got nothing then but a sinfull body but now in Christ I haue a new bodie created to his Image who is Life it selfe so farre is it from either destroying mee or dissoluing my union with him that it both saueth mee setting mee at libertie from sinne and perfecteth mine union absolutelie with him It rusheth indeede furiouslie on mee but grippeth nothing but my shaddow I am in God in Christ as I am beloued and chosen called and sanctified As I am such Death cannot finde nor grippe mee While hee grippeth nothing but this bodie of dust as Potiphars wife laying hold on Ioseph I goe to God and leaue my garment in his hand I am dead to the world and sinne and my life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ my Life shall appeare then shall I in Soule and Bodie appeare with him in Glorie Resent thine owne estate and thou shalt finde what I say Hast thou not dyed to the world and left it before it left thee And hast thou not left the bodie before it leaue thee If thou had not come to God till the world had forsaken thee and the bodie chased thee out hee had found just cause to forsake thee and send thee backe in disdaine to these thy beloued false friends But now since in thy prosperitie thou renounced the worlde and in thine health and strength thou went daylie to God choosing rather to bee in him than in the bodie Surelie hee will welcome thee That is a token of thy liuing in him and his liuing in thee Marke how thou hast euen in this life preuented the buriall of thy bodie Hast thou not with Ioseph of Aramathea hewen thee a Sepulchre in the Rock And cropen in by the holes of that Rocke that was pearced for thee How oft hast thou gone in by these wounds of Christ to his heart by his suffering to his loue and the loue of God in him and washen thy selfe in the blood of his satisfaction Hast thou not also prepared the fine Linnen and wrapped thy selfe in the winding-sheete of his righteousnesse Thy sinnes are buried in the Seas of his mercie and thy selfe is hid in him before euer thy bodie be layed in the dust And hast thou not prouided Oyle for thy Lampe that when thou goest out of this bodie thou wander not in darknesse but enter streight way in Heauen All thy care in this life hath beene to get Oyle and to make it shine to find light and walke in that light The Rock thy Sepulchrie hath inclosed thee the Linnen of his Righteousnesse couered thee and that burning Oyle in thy Lampe shall not waste till thou enter in Heauen Since God euen thy God hath anointed thee with some measure of the Oyle of gladnesse hee hath prepared thee for his Heauenlie buriall and the smell of his Oyntments powred out on thee hath wrought a distaste of all worldlie pleasures Foure speciall thinges bring solemne joyes in this life and if we bee in Christ they all meete in vs at Death Birth Mariage Triumph and Coronation Death is my best Birth day If the childe in the wombe knew that hee were comming foorth to a free light hee would not weepe at his birth but Nature in him taketh his deliuerie for destruction so maketh him mourne at the just cause of his joye My first birth brought me out of the prison of the wombe My second brought mee out of Nature and Sinne This third and last shall bring mee perfectlie out of the world and all miserie It is my Mariage day with Christ mine Husband he hath loued mee with euerlasting loue and betrouthed mee to himselfe in righteousnesse and trueth And our Bandes are daylie proclaimed in his worshippe his Gospel preached is the signification of his loue on his part and our Prayers and desires are the signification on our part since I am glad of the Match and rejoyce at the proclaiming of these Bannes why should I fray at the solemnizing of the Mariage God sendeth out Pastors as Abraham did his seruant to choose a wife to Isaak These Messengers haue found me continuallie about the well of liuing waters The sight of Abrahams riches euen the chose Graces of God haue wone mine heart to Isaak and I haue gladlie condescended to forsake all and goe to him Though I finde him at the Euening and Sun-sette of my life I shall enjoy with him an euerlasting day of heauenlie contentment Esther was not sorrowfull but rejoyced to be takē by Ahashuerosh to wife and should not I rejoyce when the Lambe of God Christ Iesus sendeth for mee It is an glorious triumph Dauid was glad whē he heard the people sing of his victorie ouer Goliah shall I not rejoyce when God hath stramped all mine enemies vnder my feete when the deuils are howling for their defeate and the good Angels● and Spirits doe welcome mee with joyfull Acclamations It is more seemelie that I put in my part with the glorious Spirits in the heauenly harmonie than with the euill ones in howling To bee dashed in Death is to let the present victorie goe out of mine hands Sathan shall then ouercome mee when