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	hear_v	word_n	1,549	5	4.7559	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27472	A mirror that flatters not, or, A looking-glass for all new-converts to whatsoever perswasion, Roman-Catholicks, Conformists, or Non-conformists : that is, certain sermons of St. Bernard translated into English ... : together with a preface of the translator to all new-converts ...; De conversione ad clericos. English	Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 91-1153.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1982; ESTC R5454	46,594	72

as we have sinned so greatly and so grievously let us weep and lament for our sins To a deep wound let a long and careful Cure not be wanting let not our pennance be less than our fault Doest thou think that thou canst be able presently and forthwith to appease Almighty God whom with perfidious words thou hast denied before whom thou hast preferred thy Patrimony whose Temple thou hast sacrilegiously violated Doest thou think that he will easily have mercy on thee whom thou hast said that he was none of thine It behoves thee to pray unto him and to beseech him with all earnestness to pass the day in mourning and to spend whole nights in watching and tears to fill all time with doleful lamentations to make ashes thy bed to roll thy self in dust and haircloath and since thou hast lost the garment of Christ now thou shouldst desire to have no garment at all after the food of the Devil thou shouldst desire fasting zealously busy thy self in such good works whereby sins are purged give frequent Alms by which souls are delivered from death what the Adversary would have taken away from thee let Christ receive nor ought that Patrimony to be kept or loved by which one has been deceived and overcome The sad ezperience of frequent and easy relapses into bewailed wickednesses shew us how vain and frivolous that Repentance was by which they were pretended to have been abolished The sad wounds caused in our souls by our sins as is manifest by their so speedy breaking out again were only covered not cured As the Clergy of Rome complains of certain Priests Ep. 31. ad Cypr. who by a false sweetness precipitated the Reconciliation of Sinners How say they can they be cured in receiving the Grace of Absolution and the Indulgence of the Church if the Chirurgeon himself cut short the Pennance and make himself indulgent to their ruine and destruction if he cover only the wound and will not expect till the Remedies which have need of time close it Assuredly this is not to cure souls but if we will speak the truth 't is to kill them In fine let us make it our business to experiment in the inmost of our spirits this Repentance o● Conversion so excellently and fully described in the following Divine Sermons of St. Bernard and this is in one word to say all By this if we can attain it we shall fully appease our incensed God for our sins past perfectly secure our weak frail selves from relapsing into the same our repented sins and abundantly edify whomsoever we may have justly offended by our former unchristian Conversation FAULTS PAge 3. blot out line 18 and 19. p. 52. l. 16. for despair read desire p. 55. l. 24. for she r. he A SERMON Preached to the CLERGY Concerning Conversion CHAP. I. That no body can be converted to God unless he be prevented by the Will of God and by his Voice crying unto him within YOU are met together as I believe to hear the Word of God for indeed there does not occur to me any other cause of this your so fervorous a concourse By all means I approve of this your desire and congratulate with you for your laudable zeal For blessed are they which hear the Word of God but provided also that they keep it Blessed are they that remember his Commandments but to the end that they may do them For he has the words of Eternal Life and the Hour is come and would to God it were now when they shall hear his voice and they that shall hear it shall live For life is his will And if you desire to know it his will is our Conversion In fine hear himself Is the death of the impious my will says the Lord and not rather that he should be converted and live Ezek. 18. v. 23. By which words we evidently see how that true life is not to be had by us but by Conversion nor can we enter into it any other way Our Lord telling us plainly Vnless ye be converted and made like little ones ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 18. v. 3. And with good reason do little ones enter for the little Child conducts them who for this end was born and given us I ask then what voice is that which the dead hear and when they have heard it live for perhaps it is necessary to Preach the Gospel even to the dead And opportunely there occurs a short word but a full one which the mouth of the Lord has spoken as his Prophet testifies Thou hast said says he speaking without doubt to the Lord his God Be converted O ye sons of men Jer. 3. And indeed deservedly does Conversion seem to be required from the sons of men to wit absolutely necessary for sinners For to the supernal Spirits that praise which becomes the just is rather commanded the Prophet singing Praise thy God O Sion Psal 147. And in that the Prophet says Thou hast said in my judgment it is not carelesly to be passed over nor heedlesly to be heard For who dare compare what God has said to the sayings of men Verily the Word of God is lively and efficacious and his Voice is in magnificence and power In fine he said it and all things were made He said Let there be light and the light was made He said Be ye converted O ye sons of men and they were converted So it is indeed the conversion of Souls is the work of God's Voice and not of man's Simon the Son of John a Fisher of men although called and constituted for this very purpose by our Lord yet in vain shall even he labour all night and catch nothing until by the word of our Lord casting his net he shall be able to inclose in it a great multitude of Fish And I would to God we could also to day in this Word cast the net of the Word and experience what is written Lo he shall give to his Voice a Voice of power Psal 67. If we speak a lye it 's plain that 's of our own But perhaps even then also our words will be judged to be our own not our Lords if we seek our own Concerns and not the things of Jesus Christ Moreover although we speak the truth of God and seek the glory of God we must even then from him alone hope the effect and of him ask it that he would please to accompany his own Voice with a Voice of power To this internal Voice therefore I exhort you to listen with the ears of your heart and that you would make it your business rather to hear God speaking within you than man speaking without you For that is a voice of magnificence and power searching the deserts making to tremble the deserts shaking off the stupid torpor of Souls CHAP. II. That God's Voice offers it self to all and presents it self to the Soul that 's unwilling to hear it NOR need