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	faith_n	grace_n	1,407	5	5.8253	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49761	An history of angells being a theologicall treatise of our communion and warre with them : handled on the 6th chapter of the Ephesians, the 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 verses / by Henry Lawrence ...; Of our communion and warre with angels	Lawrence, Henry, 1600-1664.; Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1649 (1649)	Wing L660; ESTC R12895	135,420	210

of the patience of Iob Jam. 5.11 and might boast of us as of those induring Saints Heere is the patience of the Saints behold it Reu. 13.10 In all these respects ye have need of patience yea and that patience should have its perfect work as James saith Jam. 1.4 That it should possesse our soules that it should be fitted for every condition and hold out to the utmost to the extremitie as you see those who are betrusted with forts and strengths they had need of patience And yet must hold out to the utmost extremity by the law of warre now then you see the need wee have of patience but it must be the patience of hope 1. Thess. 1.3 The Apostle gives there the effects and their causes the work of faith saids hee the labour of love and the patience of hope the effect or great product of hope is patience patience is a grace which hath no shine or glitter with it it is sweet but darke and obscure and hath nothing in it of violence and having mighty enemies it defends it self in suffering wee gaine the victory often in loosing our lives it scarce complaines of what it indures so as it passeth often amongst ignorant men for stupidity and dulnesse Now this sweet and low grace in respect of its condition and the manner of its operation would be opprest a thousand times under the victory of its enemies if it were not animated by the livelinesse and activity of hope if the hope of salvation the hope of glory for so it is called did not continually set before its eyes the greatnesse of the reward yee can never have a better instance then of our Master Christ himself while hee was in the conflict of patience and that was his life hee was ever in the lists of sufferings conflicting with sorrowes and woes for the joy that was set before him which was made sure to him by faith received and enjoyed by hope for hee came by his comforts even as wee this made him to endure the crosse and despise the shame and wee are commanded to runne with patience the race that is set before us looking to him Heb. 12.2 3. That is use our patience as hee did and relieve our patience as hee did by the joyfull sights of hope patience without hope is the deadest thing in the world for why doe I deprive my self of good why doe I suffer so many things in vaine if they be in vaine and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted that the patient continuance in well doeing hath some thing to relieve it namely a lookeing after glory and honour and immortality c. Rom. 2.7 without which animation and enlivening of hope patience were dead and deadly more fit to be the property of a stone or a blocke then the grace of a Saint thus yee see your selves armed by hope against the great enemies of God and man against the great troublers of Israel pleasures and paines by having your joyes and your patience acted by hope which is your Helmet But hope thirdly is proper for doing aswell as suffering having a great influence as I told you upon our simbolicall head our intentions and scopes and end and this peece aswell as our shooes the shooes of the preparation of the Gospell of peace inables us for acting and the truth is while wee doe nothing good wee are not secure against doing ill But if hope serve to any thing it serves to incourage to labour and worke wee use to say in a proverbe take away hope and take away endeavour no worke is done or can be done without hope hee that ploweth should plow in hope and that hee that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hopes 1. Cor. 9.10 A man would be loath to plow the ground or thresh the corne without hope you will not doe actions of the lowest forme without it Againe as you can do nothing without hope so ye attempt the greatest things by hope the hopes of victory the hope of successe the hope of gaine whither doth it not ingage men our strength depends upon our hope and therefore Jeremy complaines my strength and my hope is perished Lam. 3.18 No more hope no more strength they stand and fall together they are alike in their birth and death On the other side when Paul was to give an account to Agrippa of his actions Acts 26.6 7. I am judged sayes hee for the hope of the promise made unto our fathers unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come Doe you wonder why they served God with that instance and intensenesse day and night why they doe that which none of the world doe besides they hope to attaine the promise of God that is the thing promised that ingageth them to a continuall and a most intense labour so the Apostle when hee gives in a very few words all that is to be forborne and done for God and our good makes hope to be the rise of all his courage and activity Tit. 2.13 lookeing for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our saviour Iesus Christ compared with the former verses 11. and 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts wee should live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world And Christ when hee bidds us doe any thing hoping for nothing againe Luk. 6.35 Lend hoping for nothing againe hee doth not meane wee should have nothing or be without hope but tells us immediately that our reward shall be great in heaven and wee shall be the children of the Highest and presently suggests matter of hope which hee affixeth to the lending of a penny or the giving a cup of cold water yee shall not loose your reward But to what workes doth hope animate us to all for the least shall be considered shall not loose its reward and the greatest shall be considered proportionably Hee that overcometh and hee that followes mee heere shall sit upon twelve Thrones There is nothing so great that hope cannot expect for it is the hope of salvation And therefore there is no worke so great that hope cannot put you upon for it workes from hope to salvation Captaines when they harrang their Souldiers tell them of the butin of the prey tell them of honours and advancements and Christ when hee incourageth his speakes Crownes as freely as any but spirituall crownes assured by faith and enjoyed for the present by hope it is a shame that our hopes should not carry us toward working as farre as ever any worldly hath done in all the particulars of worke I will insist onely upon one which the scripture particularly annexeth to hope and is proper for us all Hee that hath this hope that is of seeing God of salvation hee purifyeth himself even as hee is pure 1. Joh. 3.3 The reason of the action

goodnesse have form'd you ablest to pardon me in any thing vvherein I shall neede it And of all I have knovvne of either Sexe I have mett vvith fevv more diligently inquisitive or pertinently reasoning of things of a raised and abstracted nature especially vvhich might have influence into the good of another life then your self To which I adde That I professe to have infinite ingagements to avovv my self before all the vvorld Most honoured Mother Your most obedient Sonne Most Humble servant HENRY LAWRENCE A Treatise of our Communion and warre with Angells Ephes. 6.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18 Put on the vvhole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the vviles of the Divell For vvee vvrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against povvers against the Rulers of the Darknes of this vvorld against spirituall vvickednesse in high places c. THE great externall cause of all our evills is the Divell who hath such a kinde of relation to our sins as the holy Spirit hath to our graces saving that hee findes a foundation within us to build upon matter out of which hee extracts his formes whereas the holy Spirit doth that worke as well as the other and is put to the paine of foundation worke as well as building I call him the externall cause in opposition to the working of our owne corruptions which are our owne properly and most of all within us In other respects hee may be sayd to be the internall cause also for hee mingles himselfe with our most intimate corruptions and the Seate of his warfare is the inward man Now because hee hath a greater influence into us then perhaps wee consider of and the knowledge of our enemy is of great concernement to the warre wee must have with him I desire a litle to inquire into this mighty enemy of God and man that wee may knowe him and dread him so farre as to fit us for conflict and that wee may knowe him and discover him for hee is a perfect Iugler hee raignes not much when his tricks are discovered and that wee may knowe him and resist him if hee shall embolden himselfe to stand his ground as often hee doth The Apostle from the beginning of the 4 Chap. had taught them how they should live in generall first among themselves then with relation to those that are without ver 18. Then hee condiscends to particuler duties of Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants and last of all before hee concludes returnes to that which hee had mentioned in the 3. Chap. ver 16. where hee beggs of God as the most desireable thing in the world that they might be strengthened according to the riches of his grace in the inner man Heere hee turnes his prayer into an exhortation wherein hee provokes them to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might ver 10. That is to say though you have all faith and all knowledge and worke well yet you must persevere yee must goe on and you must doe it with strength It is a great matter to come into the lists but it is great to runne also and to fight when you are there for you shall meete with those that shall oppose you and conflict with you therefore be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that is with the Lord by his Spirit which is his mighty Agent shall worke in your hearts Be not strong in your owne strength in your owne purposes in the freedome of your owne wills so was Peter who got nothing by it but in the Lord his Spirit can strengthen can raise can confirme you Ver. 11. Put you on the whole Armour of God God is able to preserve you but hee will doe it by your fighting and your Armour must be sutable to the hand that wields it which is the Spirit of God in you and the enemy it conflicts with which is the Divell Againe it must be the whole Armour if you want any one piece that place will be exposed to danger also All for offence and defence that you may save your self by destroying your enemy that yee may bee able to stand against the wiles of the Divell that is that yee may hold your ground though you should receive wounds and thrusts yet that you may not give way as ver 13. that yee may withstand in the evill day The day of temptation is an evill day a day of trouble a day of tryall and often in respect of the event evill therefore deliver us from evill And having done all to stand that is if you doe all in this fight God commaunds you and omit nothing by the vertue of God you will stand but there is no dallying with such an enemy your standing must be a fruit and result of doing all The wiles of the Divell the word is Methods that is the divell like a cunning fencer hath his faints knowes how to take his advantages and like a great commaunder hath his stratagemes by which hee doth as much as by fine force and these are well laid there is a Method in them to make the worke the surer one thing depends upon another and all contribute to make the result firme For wee wrastle that is de conflictu est sermo non de ludo we speake of conflicts not of play or sport not against Flesh and Blood that is that which wee have onely in our eye is flesh and blood wicked men that wounds us and persecute us where note that God calls all wicked men all the enemies of his Church but flesh and blood now they are the most perishable things when God will blowe upon them for all flesh is grasse though the enemies be never so great and mighty they are but as grasse and stubble Or secondly flesh and blood by which may be understood your carnall lusts the concupiscence of the flesh and the boyling and ebullition of the blood to anger and all passions it is not so much or it is not especially against these you wrestle but rather against him that acts them and makes use of them to your ruine and dis-advantage which is the divell and this hee may perhaps speake against the opinion of the Heathen who understood not the operation of the divell but thought all our conflicts was against internall passions But against Principalities hee seemes to describe the divels heere which are our enemies first from the principality of their nature by which the eminency and raisednes of their nature in respect of this visible world is set forth that as the state of Princes differ eminently from other men so the nature of divells as Princes excells the nature of men and of all visible things Against Powers hee calls them Powers simply without any addition to shewe the eminency of their power aswell as of their natures that as they have a nature farre above flesh and blood fitted for great things so they have a power