Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bear_v	end_n	witness_n	1,467	5	8.8451	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58850	The method and means to a true spiritual life consisting of three parts, agreeable to the auncient [sic] way / by the late Reverend Matthew Scrivener ... ; cleared from modern abuses, and render'd more easie and practicall.	Scrivener, Matthew.	1688 (1688)	Wing S2118; ESTC R32133	179,257	416

understanding to the Wisdome of God. Oh how naturall how sweet and allmost how necessarie it is for man to have his own will And yet in truth how monstrous is this unruly appetite It ariseth from a root worse than ordinarie Idolatrie as much as to make ones selfe a God is a much more heinous sin than to worship any other false God. And what is that whether we mean it or not mean it that impells men so passionately to desire and so violently to contend for their will and as much of it as is possible but that they would be great thereby they would be supreame they would rule and govern not so much themselves for they are the worst at that of all men but others and because they would be admired and worshipped and that more and in an higher degree than they dare openly own When men have given themselves up to this misleading and mischievous temper they would have no bounds prefixed them God himselfe shall not escape their murmures if open accusation and expostulations Every thing is uneasie to them that is not projected by their own witts and managed by their wills And whereas according to St. Paul 1 Corinth 13. Charitie that Divine grace made up of meeknesse humilitie love of God and that which in any manner resembles God beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things the Idolizer of his own will on the contrary can bear nothing believe nothing hope nothing endure nothing contradicting this his humour Reason he will by no means professedly affront or oppose but then he counts it all the reason in the world that matters should be carried as he judges and willeth otherwise the power and effects of his impatience shall be his remedie Whereas there is nothing more unworthy of a wise man and nothing more inconsistent with a good Christian than to desire to have more wills under him than his own for in trueth he never is master of his own will who would tyrannize over others For this may be but one sin in forme and appearance but it is the parent of many if not of all to strive to have our wills 4. For what is Pride but an appetite of our unmortified wills pushing us forward to be great Ruling admired followed not to be led by any What is Anger but a desire of satiating our lust of revenge What is Avarice but to have all and part with nothing but what Justice and Necessity extorts And what is Lust properly so called but a furious will of carnall pleasure He therefore that will ever obtain any command of himselfe in any of these things or the like must lay the Ax of Reformation to the root of all these trees the generall lusting after a mans own will and the satisfaction thereof naturally inclined For though there may seem such a distance outwardly between one sin and another as that there should be no consanguinitie between them yet in the practice they like persons at domestick difference or civill dissensions will joyn against a common and forrein Enemie and help one another according to the observation of that mortified Father mentioned in Ecclesiasticall History who deliver'd it for a trueth That a man can never observe the rule of Chastitie unlesse he subdues the Lust of Anger For surely if we shall give leave to our corrupt wills to take their swing in one thing they will take leave to excurre into other evills against our more advised judgements and wills Therefore let us a little insist upon the reasonablenesse of such affectation of our carnall wills 5. But first it is to be observed that Religion it selfe is not of that morosity or indeed tyrannie under colour of mortification that it should denie us the libertie wholly of that naturall facultie of desiring and loving for that God himselfe hath placed in us For then we could not love God himselfe nor choose the good or refuse the evill as himselfe commandeth It is not the rooting up of that Vine which Gods own hand hath planted in the heart of man but the pruning and dressing it to bear generous branches and bunches It is to cut off those Suckers to destroy that Nature which is become such and not made so by God. It is according to the ancient Philosophie for our earthie Spheare and inferiour and smaller Orb to be ordered by the first mover of all and to say and to pray as Christ hath taught Thy will he done in earth as it is in heaven to live in this world as Christ came into it and lived and died in it As appeares by the historie of his holy and humble Life which tells us John 18. 37. To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the trueth every one that is of the trueth heareth my voice And this was the holy Gospell he taught and left us And his bearing witness was to make himselfe of no reputation as great and as good as he was to be obedient unto the death even the death of the Crosse and to appear as it were without a will of his own or which is a greater victory and glory to have a will allwayes obsequiously included in the Will of his heavenly Father as it was when in great Agonies and conflicts of Soule he prayed to God Luke 22. 42. Neverthelesse not my will but thy will be done demonstrating what he before affirmed for a trueth John 5. 30. I can of my selfe doe nothing as I hear I judge and my judgement is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which is in heaven And as the Disciples said most loth to hazard so precious a Vessell of honour and service as St. Paul amongst Jewish Barbarity Acts 21. 14. The Will of the Lord be done And what better or wiser resolution can any good Christian take than what he saw Christ to practice before him and the most Heroicall Christians did to have no will stirring but the Will of God and Christ For this is to be what St. Paul exhorteth to Rom. Chap. 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye allso your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is content to be directed by the Wisdome and acted by the pleasure of God alone So that we may say as that good old Father in his Cell having relinquished the world who when one came to him and brought him the tidings that a ●…ere Kinsman of his was at the point of death and therefore he should doe well to repair to him and take possession of what descended legally to him made answere And would you have me inherit his Estate who have been dead a long time before him And this I intended for one distinct argument to denie our own wills either wholly impeding the Will of God to be done in us or the perfecter conformity to that and the Example