Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	faith_n	lord_n	1,391	5	3.9699	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02087	Meditations and disquisitions upon the Lords prayer. By Sr. Richard Baker, Knight	Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.	1636 (1636)	STC 1223; ESTC S100533	121,730	220

him without more a doe This day thou shalt bee with me in Paradise Wherefore O my soule observe here first what thou promisest God to observe Forgive them that trespasse against thee I doe here therefore forgive all the world If any man have done me wrong if any man have intended me evill I doe freely and fully from my heart forgive him And then observe what Christ teacheth thee to observe seeke all meanes to be reconciled to thy neighbour I doe here therefore desire forgivenesse of all the world if I have done wrong to any man if I owe any thing to any man which I am not able to pay I am infinitely grieved and heartily sorry and humbly from my heart entreate him to forgive me And when thou hast done this thou hast yet a City of refuge to flie unto God and to him confesse thy sinnes and desire forgivenesse I doe here therefore prostrate my selfe before thee O God I confesse and acknowledge the heynousnesse of my sinnes and I most humbly from my heart entreate thee to forgive me This done O my soule thou mayst rise from the earth and take comfort and mayst be bold to say The Lord is my helper I will not feare what man shall doe unto mee For thou mayst be sure that God will use eyther hisauthority to the world to make it forgive thee or his prerogative over the world and forgive thee himselfe But is it not strange this petition should come in so late which one would thinke should have beene the first For how can we expect a donative before a pardon that any thing should be given us unlesse our sinnes be first forgiven us Is it not that the foure first petition are very ancient and were sayd of our first parents even in Paradise and in them we alter nothing but the tunes for they were to them songs but are to us supplications They were to them Himns but to us are Dirges but the two latter are wholly new and come but now in and therefore take their place as they come For they are indeed the meere reparations of our first Parents ruines and had both of them beene altogether needlesse if they had not both of them beene altogether gracelesse And yet there appeares another reason For wee have asked to hallow Gods Name and that his Kingdome may come and that his Will may bee done and that he would give us bread to eate and now it seemes by our asking for temporall things which is the last care of a Christian man that Christ would have made an end of the Prayer heere if it had beene possible but it would not be For our hallowing Gods Name is but imperfect his Kingdome comes to us but in part his Will though it bee done as it is in Heaven yet it is done in earthen Vessels and therefore after all this there is no remedy we must needs come to this at last and aske forgivenesse or else all that went before will not serve the turne for which this Prayer is intended And may it not be another reason why this petition comes in so late and is placed amongst the last to shew that Repentance comes never too late so it come at last and therefore Christ makes this one of our last petitions as washing the Disciples feete was one of his last acts the very embleme of this petition Yet wee may observe how dangerous a thing this late repentance is for though Peter no doubt had often sayd with David Wash mee thorowly from my sinnes yet when it grew so late before Christ came to wash him indeed hee would have put it off if Christ had not put him on with an extraordinary motion But may we not seeme here to be at a stand For here are many petitions but wee can see none of asking for faith as Christ prayed for Peter That his faith might not faile and the Apostles prayed O Lord increase our faith and is it not strange that in this principall prayer we should not pray for that which is the principall that all our petitions should be for workes and none of them for fayth Is it for some such reason as Moses had who describing the creation of the world and the making of all creatures yet speaketh nothing of the making of Angels though of all creatures the principall Or is it that Christ makes this a Prayer not a Catechisme and a prayer for the Faithfull not for Infidels for He that comes to God must believe that God is and that hee is a rewarder of them that seeke him Or is it that wee cannot pray for fayth but it must bee needs eyther without cause or without effect and so be eyther needlesse or fruitlesse For if we have favth already it is needlesse to aske it and if we have it not it is in vaine to aske it seeing what we aske not in fayth St. Iames tels us we shall not obtaine and if we aske it in fayth wee then have faith to aske it before wee aske it But will it not bee better not to looke out reasons why wee doe not aske it but rather to shew reasons that we doe aske it and aske it we doe indeed not verbally but really For doe we not pray for fayth when we pray for the hallowing of that which cannot be hallowed but by the tongue of fayth the Name of God Doe we not pray for fayth when wee pray for the comming of that which cannot come but upon the feete of fayth the Kingdome of God Doe wee not pray for fayth when we pray for the doing of that which cannot bee done but by the strength of fayth the Will of God Doe we not pray for fayth when we pray for the having of that which cannot bee had but by the hand of fayth forgivenesse of our finnes Certainely seeing we pray for the causes and the effects for the roote and the fruits of fayth it is not the want of naming fayth that can bee a reason to make us doubt that we pray not for fayth no more then the want of naming Christ in this prayer is any reason to prove that wee pray not here in the Name of Christ. It is proper to this petition that where all the other are absolute this onely is conditionall and where the other are onely contemplative this is both contemplative and active for it is to be done as well as to be layd And where all the other petitions looke God in the face and expect to receive something at his hands this only with the Publicane presumes not to looke up to Heaven neyther aspires to taste of Gods bounty but onely of his mercy And yet as dejected as it seemes it hath greater spirits at least speakes greater words then all the rest for where the other doe but onely sue for grace to be enabled to doe good workes this undertakes to doe good workes at its owne perill and where the other expect Gods

worth then they who have the Spices and precious Stones of both the Indies For they have as David saith most truely more true contentment and joy of heart then they whose Wheat and Wine doth most abound And to say the truth these Riches and Honours are things of which wee may say Sic Nos non Nobis wee have them more from others and for others then from or for our selves For if there were no others but our selves there neyther could be any having of Honours nor would be any desiring of Riches And what have wee to doe with others Indeede in civill duties wee have both to obey the Magistrate and to doe good offices amongst our neighbours but when it concernes the mind and contentment of spirit what have we to doe with others we shall never have any true contentment and joy of mind untill wee can reduce our selves to the solitarinesse that Adam was in when there was none in the world but he and Eve for these two in true account are but as one and this perhaps made St. Paul professe that hee was crucified to the world and the world to him there was no more relation betweene the world and him then betweene the living and the dead betweene things that are and things that are not As therefore the Disciples tooke Christ walking upon the water for a Phantasme or Ghost so we may justly take all that walke in the world for Ghosts and Phantasmes as if there were none other really in the world but Christ and our selves And why should not I so wholly intend to God as if there were none in the world but himselfe and I seeing he so wholly intends to me as if there were none in the world but my selfe and hee For untill wee can doe this wee shall never come to walke with God in the Garden of Eden There will be no quietnesse of minde untill we can be at home with our selves and no such being at home unlesse wee can bee free from others There will bee no happinesse untill wee can bee united to God and no such uniting unlesse wee can bee divided from the world Let it therefore never trouble thee when thou seest a man grow rich and his house to prosper for this were but to take up Davids errours when he himselfe hath cast them off for after when hee entred into the sanctuary hee understood their end For these causes this life of ours is justly compared to a stage-Play where the matter is not great what part the Player acts whether of a begger or of a King all the matter is what share hee shall receive when the Play is ended Lord let mee bee a sharer with thy Saints in the life to come and let me act in this life what part it pleaseth thee to impose upon me When Christ therfore bids us to aske only for bread what is it but to put us in mind that we rest our selves upon this bare sufficiency and never care to please others or seeke to bee thought great in others estimation by having the pomps of excesse O Lord God as thy wisedome hath set a bound to this petition so let this petition set a bound to our desires that esteeming riches not for shew but use valuing Honours not by others breath but by our owne feeling wee neither have our soules confined to our bellies as beasts have nor our felicity layd upon our backes as the Gentiles have but Contenting our selves with the diet of thy providing and with the garments of thy making wee may count it our best foode to feede on Christ which is the doing of his will and our best cloathing to put on Christ which is the comming of his Kingdome and the hallowing of his Name The three former petitions were delivered in tearmes Indefinite as being more like to Alleluj●hs or as when we make acclamations to a Prince Vivat Rex but now we are come to petitions in their usuall termes and seeme more properly to be within the verge of charity for charity is Diffusiva sui and askes as well for others as for our selves and though it begin at home yet it tarries not at home but dilates and spreads it selfe If therefore any mans charity be so wedded to keepe home that it meanes not much to stirre abroad what should he doe using these spreading termes of Us and Our bread but rather speake plainely as his meaning is Give me this day my daily bread Or if at most hee thinke it charity sufficient and that he gives the words their full extent to understand them of himselfe and his family or of himselfe and his friends onely let him then consider in what latitude he hath used the word before For when he sayd Our Father did he intend it as though God were the Father of him and his family onely or rather of him all the faithfull together and certainely as far as the word Our reacheth in saying Our Father so far it is very likely to reach in saying Our bread which yet excludes not a civill propriety though it seeme to include a Christian community And as when Mary poured her boxe of Spikenard upon the head of Christ it was then better bestowed then to have given it to the poore So now that wee have Christ in the flesh no more amongst us and that we cannot poure our Spikenard upon his head It will bee as acceptable to him if wee poure it upon the poore which are his Feete In all the petitions of this prayer but most apparently in this we have need to looke backe to our Grammar againe for Grammar teacheth that the Imperative Mood biddeth and commandeth and why then doe we use the Imperative Mood here as though wee commanded God Grammar indeed teacheth that the Imperative Mood biddeth and commandeth but it teacheth as well that it prayeth and demandeth It is as well the Mood that preferres the petition as it is the Mood that signes the bill When Christ granted the Centurions suite hee did it in this Moode Fiat tibi Bee it unto thee as thou beleevest So when the Centurion presented his suite he did it also in this Mood Dictantum say the word onely Indeed God lookes not to the Mood in which our prayers are made but he lookes to the Mood in which wee are that make them For if wee pray in an humble Mood and a lowly minde wee may command any thing at Gods hands but if we come to God in a lofty Mood and a high looke wee may command but we are sure to goe without for God resisteth the proud and where God resisteth it is neyther praying nor commanding that will prevaile O my soule canst thou thinke much to be humble that hast God for a patterne who suffers thee to command that art not worthy to intreate and no sooner thou openest thy mouth to aske blessings but hee as soone openeth his hand and filleth thee with blessings And as a ball the harder