Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	church_n	word_n	1,489	5	3.9514	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50296	A missive of consolation sent from Flanders to the Catholikes of England.	Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655.	1647 (1647)	Wing M1322; ESTC R19838	150,358	402

tribulation and the kingdome and patience in Jesus Christ Ego frater vester particeps in tribulatione in regno patientiâ in JESU CHRISTO For it is a deplorable sight to see our kindred and friends out of that state which as S. Paul saith Operatur tolerantiam earundem passionum quas nos patimur 2 Cor. 1.6 Which worketh the toleration of the same passions which we also suffer For which cause one of our greatest prayers ought to be that as they are partakers of the passion so they may be also of the consolations for Saint Austin saith One may cary all things with him out of the Catholike Church but charitie as baptisme the sacramēts and the resolution of suffering But we know how little comfort S. Paul giveth to those who have all the materiall parts of Christianity and want the formall and animating spirit thereof which is Charity 1 Cor. 13. How much then ought you to praise God in all your Covenants of sufferings to see your selves comprised in the infallible Covenant and contract of reward which is passed to his Catholike Church Rejoyce be exceeding glad wherefore I may properly say to you Gaudete exultate because you are under the best notion of the afflicted in these times when sufferings are so vniversall and the cause of them so little Catholike Upon those words of the Apostle S. Paul Col. l. 24 I accomplish those things that want of the passions of Christ in my flesh for his body which is the Church Adimpleoea quae desunt passionum Christi in carne meâ pro corpore ejus quod est Ecclesia S. Augustine asketh how there can any thing be said to be wanting to his passions who was God and Man and taking vineger for his last tast of this world declared giving up the Ghost that all things were consummate that had been written of him and answereth the question thus that all the passions were compleated that belonged to the head there remained the sufferings of the body which is the Church to render it sutable to the head and the Apostle as a principall member of that body might well say he was to fill up his share of what was required thereof So as it is not the insufficiency of Christs passions that needs a supplement of his Churches pressures but the order of God who hath designed the application of Christs passions and merits to his Church by this her conformity to his passive peregrination through this world And may we not say that to unite his Church the more firmly to him he hath left her fastned to the Crosse upon earth that this his body might seeme to be so much his owne as it might appear rather his naturall body crucified then onely a mysticall signification thereof For his passions being continually iterated upon reall flesh and bloud which have the honour to be called the Temples of the holy Ghost they may seem to have a more then ordinary representation of the passive body of Christ For if all the sacrificed bodies of the Synagogue and all the blood of irrationall creatures effused in the Temple were figures of his naturall body why may not those sacrificed bodies which are themselves Temples of God well be said now to be an admirable manner of somewhat more then representing Christs living body Therefore it seemeth that Christ to have a continuall view of the glory of his suffering body hath lest his Church in a bleeding posture to present God his Father with a perpetuall show not only of a picture or image but as it were a reall exhibition of himself suffering in his Church and no sight propitiateth God to the sonnes of men so much as this of seeing them as it were acting the sons of God under this notion of hoasts and sacrifices In the quotidian unbloody sacrifice of his now impassible body the offering is of more dignity but the object seemeth not so affecting and moving compassion as the torne and wounded figure of his Churches tribulations the body whereof seemeth to be designed to bleed continually for a lively memoriall of Christs merits in the sight of God and for a solicitor of an effusion of fresh graces upon the necessities of this body untill the bleeding and the beatify'd body be both united into one conformity of glory This is the order God seemes to have setled in the continuation of his Churches sufferings the which attract succours convenient at the same time that it may remaine a perfect image of Christs body alwayes grieving and alwayes glorying in a complyance with the designe of God and in the proclamation of the triumph of Christ who when he led captivity captive gave these gifts unto men whom he left to triumph by the same Armes wherewith he had overcome which are Crosses Sufferances and Passions Which consideration may easily induce us to acquiesce to the order of the sufferances of the Catholike Church since the pressures thereof are not only continued memories or imitations of that object which is so pleasing to God the passions of Christ but even accomplishments of what was wanting of his passions according to the meaning of S. Paul before related which was the finishing and consummating the effect of his sufferings by rendring the body so fit for the head as Christ may have glory by the perfection of this work as wel as the Church beatitude by this sutable incorporation Since S. Paul saith Heb. 2.10 That it became God to consummate the Author of our salvation by his passion we must needs conclude it necessary that we who are to be the matter which is to be saved and glorified should be purged and perfected by the same manner and we may well say that to answer to the single bloody sacrifice of such a head the perpetuall sanguinary immolation of the body during to the end of the world is but a decent conformity With good reason therefore as the head of the Catholike Church was once victimated and offered up in bloud to the glory of his head a 1. Cor. 11.4 who is God it is but just that the body should be continually immolated as a bleeding hoast to the glory of his head who is Christ Whereupon Saint Paul expressing the proper state of the Church 2. Cor. 4.11 saith We that live are alwayes delivered unto death for JESUS that the life of JESUS may be manifested in our mortall flesh so as the Church seems appointed a durable sacrifice to manifest and set forth the life of Christ to his Father and himselfe And upon this ground the Church may be said to be in some degree to Christ what he is to his Father that is as he is the mirrour which reflects to the Father his eternall life and being so the Church in her passions reflecteth to Christ his owne mortall life and existence Which figure of Christ upon earth when the Father contemplateth Heb. 1.3

stock you have now in your hands of not onely forgiving but loving enemies For the ruines of your houses and the destroying of your woods afford you matter to make these coaies of charity which I hope you heap upon the heads of your enemies in continuall prayers for their resipiscency and in a preparative disposure of your minds to render good for evill to the extent of your abilities unto all their occasions These are the coales of fire the Apostle saith we should cast upon the heads of our enemies Rom. 13.1 not in order to the aggravation of their faults as some understand it but referred sincerely to the kindling of their charity to God and us And this vertue blazing among you is the most probable way to extinguish the flame of your persecution for this ardent Charity may by the mercy of God fire your neighbours houses and if the love of enemies take hold of them you will partake of the operation of this vertue And thus you may convince them of your undeserving the name of enemies by doing them the offices of friends in this cummunicating to them so excellent a vertue as charity to enemies and while you thus benefit your selves by your oppressions if you infect your adversaries with Charity you may introduce into the nation the good husbanding also of prosperity which oeconomy hath been little practised hitherto in all her secular advantages For alas how truly may it be applyed to our nation what God reproacheth by the Prophet Esay Isa 57 12 Because I am holding my peace and as it were not seeing and thou haft forgotten me Quia ego tacens quasi non videns mei oblita es Wherefore it will be an enterprise worthy your religion to endeavour by the fervour of your Charities to satisfie in some degree for the oblivions of your brethren and thus in honour of the Catholike doctrin of Satisfaction you may render it beneficiall even to the enemies thereof while your abundance of Charity in this present time supplieth their want your virtues defigning to appease God 2 Cor. 8. as much as you feare their violences may incense him against the nation So that if one part be liable to the exprobration of the Prophet in forgetting God by the abuse of prosperity the other may have this claime of the Psalmist to intercede for both At the voice of the upbraider Psal 43.17 18. and the reproacher at the face of the enemie and persecutor all these things have come upon us neither have we forgotten thee and our heart hath not revolted backward When we find our loves then starting or flying backward in the incounters of our enemies let us remember this military discipline and rule That there is lesse danger in fighting then in flying for very often wee overcome evill by contending with good against it and when we fly to evill to bring that into the field against our enemies though we master a Forreigne we raise a Domestique enemy which is the more desperate mischiefe for even the successe of revenge kindleth those passions in our hearts which demand 〈◊〉 lesse their slavery for their pay malice anger and intemperancy remaining instead of auxiliaries to our enmity owners of our hearts So that though it were in your power to overcome vice by vice it were both the nobler and the safer way to vanquish it by vertue and to imploy rather love which is sure to be faithful and to preserve an intrinsike peace then to trust hatred which is very uncertaine of any successe in offending others and alwayes sure of injuring our selves Christ Jesus who had revenge more in his power then his enemies had their provocations would not countenance it by taking the least grain of it in all his life He seemed neerer being angry with his friends that but proposed any resentment then with the strangers for their irritations The sonnes of thunder were reproached of being strangers to his spirit more then the Samaritans for being exercisers of his patience So as in this case Christ seemeth to have provided a cautionary instruction for us against any eager promptitude in revenge under the colour of his quarrell because the edge of our owne nature is so apt to be set upon the weapons we pretend to whet in his cause when we are in a sharp prosecution of our enemies The sword is commonly that of our own spirit and the sheath only the Word of God for we cover familiarly our private animosities with Gods assignations when indeed we rather take God for our second in our owne differences then combat sincerely for his designes This is a pravity so cleaving to our nature as we may note that Christs Disciples who had heard so many inculcations of this designe of Christ to suffer and submit himselfe to all sorts of offences and violations did never comprehend his meaning in this matter and never answered him any thing upon this discourse but as soone as he did but touch upon what sounded like a purpose of vindication and revenge Luke 22. as when he had signified to them the approach of his danger and given them but a little hint of arming themselves they presently answered as if they had been cleere sighted in this proposition Behold here are two swords The Crosse and scourges whereof he had so often acquainted them did not so much as awake their curiosities and having never spoken before of any offensive weapons or instruments he would imploy our nature was as quick in the acceptance at the first notice of this resolution of revenge as it had been heavy in conceiving the frequent intimations of yeelding unto the offences of enemies and persecutors but we see they understood Christs meaning as little in this point as in the other for Christ came not to follow the vitiated nature of man that dictateth with the Scribes Mat. 5. Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine enemy but to make man partaker of the divine nature the which f●rnishes the just and unjust with the same sunne for light and the same clouds for refreshment nay he gave his owne Sonne universally for the whole world even for those he knew would be so unworthy of him as not to accept him Whereupon this Sonne of God this self-sacrificer for his enemies hath good right to impose exact duties upon us in reference to our enemies the which are more his enemies in the very act of being ours So as in this order to us he sheweth the way to this benignity since his command of these succours for them manifesteth his indulgence to them enjoyning his friends those that are conformable to the perfection of his Father these three good offices for his enemies and theirs which are all in order to the reclaiming them and reducing them to a redamancy of him Benedicite benefacite orate These three invitations he appointeth towards the resipiscence of enemies he will have them invited by our