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	receive_v	truth_n	1,611	5	5.9464	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A21050	A treatise of benignity written by Father Francis Arias ... in his second parte of the Imitation of Christ our Lord ; translated into English.	Arias, Francisco.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655.	1630 (1630)	STC 742.7; ESTC S1497	83,775	312

faith as this in Israell And many shall come from the East and from the West and from all the parts of the world out of the nations of the Gentiles and by meanes of faith and obedience to my Ghospell shall sit in company of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the rest of the Patriarches and shall raigne with God and on the other side they who be the children of the kingdom which are the Iewes who descēd from the Patriarchs and to whom the promise of the Messias and of his celestiall kingdome was made shall the most part of them be excluded from that Kingdome and shut vp into eternall torment Christ our Lord praised the faith of the Centurion for the reproofe of the infidelity of those Iewes who belieued not in him at all of the weak faith of some others who belieued in him and to confound them by this example and to mooue them to penance for their fault and to perswade with them who belieued not and to encrease their faith who beleeued And so he was pleased to expresse himselfe to this effect This Centurion being a Gentile and not hauing read the Prophets nor hauing been brought vp in the Lawe of God nor in any discipline but of the warre and not hauing seene my workes and miracles but onely heard relation of mee hath beleeued my truth and my power with so great and so firme a faith and on the other side the children of Israell who are descended from the Patriarches who haue read the Scriptures and know the Prophecies which speake of mee and who were looking for mee and haue seen my miracles and heard my doctrine some of these haue not belieued in mee nor will receiue my truth but persecute the same others haue beleeued it so imperfectly that none of them hath arriued to so great a Faith as this man hath and as he confesseth in honour of mee They I say notwithstanding the many causes motiues which they haue had to beleeue my truth with a perfect faith haue not beleeued it as they ought and this man hauing had so few motiues as he had to beleeue in me hath beleeued with so great perfection that he hath farre outstripped all the rest And therefore this man though but a Gentile and all the other Gentiles also who throughout all the parts of the world shall be conuerted to mee and shall be like this man in his faith and obedience to my word shall be admitted into the Kingdom of heauen in company of the holy Patriarches whom they haue imitated and on the other side the children of Israell who according to the extractiō of flesh blood descend from Patriarches if they doe not penance and reforme their infidelity and disobedience by true and constant faith and reall subiection to my commaundments shall be excluded from the Kingdome of heauen and condemned to eternall torments In this sort did Christ our Lord praise the faith of the Centurion and thereby did he correct the infidelity or at least the weake faith of the Iewes And he did it with much reason for the faith of this man was so great that some of the Saints conceiue that he did truly know and beleeue the diuinity of Christ our Lord and that it was couered with the veile of his sacred humanity For thus saith Saint Hierome The wisdome of the Centurion is discouered in that with the eyes of faith he saw the diuinity which lay hid vnder that veile of humanity And the same doth Saint Augustin confesse saying in the person of the same Centurion If I being a man subiect to others haue yet power to commaund how much more hast thou it ô Lord whom all the powers of the earth obey and serue Wee are to profit by this example of Christ our Lord in praising such seruants of God as liue in a more eminent degree of vertue then the state and condition of their life seemeth to exact at their hands for the admonishing and correcting of others who by reason of their vocation and of the parts and gifts which God hath bestowed vpon them were obliged to greater vertue As when for the correcting of some Prelate who may be straight handed in giuing almes and negligent withall in the gouernment of his subiects we may praise some Lord who being a secular man is yet most liberall in giuing almes and most vigilant in procuring that his seruants and vassailes may be vertuous And as if for the reproofe and amendment of a Religious man who were remisse in making Prayer and doing Penance and were full of tepidity in the exercise of vertue and imperfect in the performance of his Obedience we should praise a secular Cauallier for being much giuen to prayer and diligent in the mortification of himselfe and full of feruour in the exercise of vertue and very obedient to his Ghostly Father For we frame the reason after this manner If a Lord or a Cauallier being a secular man be of so great recollection so great vertue such purity of life such diligence in the doing of good workes his vocation not seeming to bind him altogether to it how much more reason is it that a Prelate make himselfe a possessor of these vertues whom his state obligeth to be a perfect man and a Religious person whom his Religion obligeth to procure to be perfectly vertuous And so to reforme some very wise and learned man who wanteth spirit and deuotion we may praise a man who is wholly ignorant but yet full of the spirit of God and of true deuotion saying If this rude creature hauing so little knowledge of God and of his workes and mysteries and being able to vse so little discourse of reason haue yet so great loue of God and so great feeling of his goodnes and of his mysteries and workes so great gust of diuine things and maketh so great estimation of vertue and spirituall blessings how much more is it reason that a wise and learned man to whom God hath giuen so great wit knowledge for the comprehending of truth both diuine and humane and so great light of reasō to discourse and passe by meanes of visible thinges to the knowledge of such as are inuisible and by the creatures to come to the knowledge and loue of the Creatour haue such deuotion as was said before or at least procure to haue it In this sort did the Apostle S. Paule following this example of Christ our Lord cōmend the Gentiles who were conuerted for the most excellēt vertues which they had and the admirable workes they did and for those most high gifts which God had communicated to them by meanes of their faith to the end that so the Iewes who were in their infidelity might know their errour and be in confusion for their wickednes and might be awaked by the vertue of the Gentiles and encouraged to the incitation thereof This did he signify by saying Rom. 11. For as much as I