Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	great_a	soul_n	2,575	5	4.9117	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27153	The journal or diary of a thankful Christian presented in some meditations upon Numb. 33:2 / by J.B., Master of Arts, and Minister of the Gospel at Barnstone in Essex.	Beadle, John, d. 1667.; Fuller, John, b. 1640 or 41.	1656 (1656)	Wing B1557; ESTC R20752	111,367	248

bloody Amalekites and fiery Serpents were in their way So falls it out with any Christian who though whilest he walked in the broad way that leads to more then an Aegyptian darknesse and bondage he had no cause of complaint but all went well with him yet when he set his face to heaven and walkt in that narrow way that leads to life then found that his wants were many and his temptations great The best even in the midst of their abundance have their just complaints and he that hath most hath not all One man hath wealth but no honour he is under a cloud another hath wealth and honour but not a dayes health scarce in a moneth a third hath all these but not a childe The life of the best is like a shuttle-cock kept up a while betwix● two battle-dores and at the last falls to the ground Betwixt prosperity and adversity good dayes and evill light and darknesse our lives run on and at the last we are laid in the grave The Germanes have a proverbiall saying of the three Princes Electors that the Pal●sgrave hath the honour Brandenburg the land but the Duke of Saxony the money No man hath all Even Adam in Paradise was taught to want something he must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill Moses one of the five grand favourites of heaven called in one chap. five times the servant of the Lord. And to be a servant of God is a great honor Deo servire regnare est To serve God is to reign And yet Moses must not go into the Land of Canaan though he begg'd hard for it Let it suffice thee saith God to him speak no more to me of that matter I know no man that enjoys that abundance of all good things but I may say to him as our Saviour to the young man in the Gospel One thing thou lackest If the possession of many things make us proud God knows how by the want of one thing to keep us humble Oh be sure that one thing be not that one thing necessary namely faith by which we may see God in all enjoy God with all and love God above all 3. In the midst of all our wants reckon how many wayes those wants are supplyed with other comforts God usually makes us a good amends as David said to Abisha when Shimei railed on him It may be God will requite me for this cursing this day If Adam may not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden yet of the fruit of every tree in the Garden besides he might freely eat If Moses may not goe into the Land of Canaan yet his body shall have the most honorable buriall that ever man had the Lord buried him and no man knows of his sepulchre unto this day and his soul went to heaven which was far better If we be straightned in outward comforts and enlarged with spirituall graces if we be weak in body and strong in the Lord if poor in the world and rich in faith if forsaken of friends and God stands by us we have no great cause to complain Travellers into forain parts will tell you that those Countreys that are most Paganish are most stored with gold and silver and that those lands that are without those rich mines have more of the knowledge of Christ and his wayes One man hath little to live upon but his labours but he hath a very strong and healthy body Many times the poorest men have most children which some esteem a great blessing though others look upon it as a burthen and put it into the bill of charges Even Haman when he boasted before his wife and friends of his great wealth and honors reckons the multitude of his children amongst his great preferments If one childe be a blessing then ten children are ten blessings Children of youth saith the Psalmist are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them And certainly many a man would willingly part with half his estate for the fruit of the loyns and wombe If God send mouths he will provide meat Ashur's blessing was children but God will provide for him and them Ashur shall be blessed with children saith Moses but let him be acceptable to his Brethren and let him dip his foot in oyl his shoes shall be iron and brasse and as his dayes be so shall his strength be His bread shall be fat saith Jacob and be shall yeeld royall dainties Every childe that cometh into the world commonly hath two breasts The like may be said of any other wants and the several wayes by which God is pleased to supply them very graciously to his yea sometimes to those that are without It is said of Galba the Emperor of Rome that he had a crooked body but a good head insomuch that one said of him Galbo's great wit had but an homely habitation Aesop was much deformed but very wise and Erasmus a plain man but a great Scholar Such a man and blessed be God there are many such is but one story high in the world but a very godly man and high in Gods favour and esteem of all his people To conclude could any man live the dayes of Methuselah and should all his way lie by Weeping-crosse God reconciled in Christ with the enjoyment of heaven at the last would make amends for all 4. Take great notice of the singular peculiar excellency of all Gods dispensations towards you above the world Your waters are become wine your gleanings are better then the vintage of the world God dealeth with you as with Sons the Servant shall have his wages and it may be a livery but the Son shall have better He is the Saviour of all but especially of them that believe Every passage of providence towards you if you be the Lords hath something more speciall in it God hath choyce mercies for a chosen generation peculiar favours for a peculiar people hidden comforts for his hidden ones that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into a carnall heart to conceive See this made good in three passages 1. Such have ever what the world hath and something more an overplus the meanest Christian may vie comforts with the greatest men of the world as Paul sometimes with the false Apostles Are they Hebrews So am I. Are they Israelites So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham So am I. Are they Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant c. So a gracious heart Are the men of the world honorable So am I that am a Son of God and a partaker of the divine Nature Have they friends So have I that have union to and communion with Jesus Christ and his members Are they rich So am I that am rich in faith and an heir of heaven as poor

of his dear Son that he may be Governor amongst us that he may rule in us and reign over us even he that is the Prince of peace that came into the world with a song of peace that going out of the world left us a legacy of peace whose government is a government of peace whose Ministers are Embassadors of peace whose wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all whose paths are peace He unite our hearts together in the unity of the Spirit with the bond of peace That God that could find out a way to make peace betwixt himself and mankind He that can never come too late in any danger that can never be to seek in any straight heal our wounds that grow so deep repair our breaches that grow so wide He in his good time give us one heart and one way that we may fear him for ever for the good of us and our children after us Amen CHAP. III. What personall and private passages of Providence those are which ought to be recorded in our Journall or Diary THus far of our National and more publick concernments that are to be remembred I come now to shew what Personall and private occurences are to be recorded And they are these five that are most observable 1. Let every man keep a strict account of his effectuall calling and of his age in Christ and if it may be set down the time when the place where and the person by whom he was converted I know every one cannot relate it as Paul could in all the circumstances It came to passe as I made my journey and was nigh unto Damascus about noon suddenly there did shine from heaven a great light round about me and I fell to the ground and heard a voyce c. But yet some can with the same Apostle say I was a persecuter a blasphemer and injurious but I obtained mercy Or with the blinde man whom Jesus cured One thing I know that whereas I was blind now see I was an ignorant proud profane ●erson and without God in the world bue by his grace I am that I am There are some ●uestionlesse that can most punctually set down the severall circumstances of their ●onversion It was a prophesie of the times under the Gospel It shall be said of some ●n Babylon that they knew God and this and that man was born there and of Zion this man was born in her Yea The Lord himself shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was born there Onesimus could tell that Paul was his Father he could tell the time when and the place where he was converted for he begat him in his bonds Cyprian had wont to call Caecellius novae vitae parentem his spirituall Father St. Paul could say that Andronicus and Junia were in Christ before him There is a seniority amongst the Saints God hath his elder and his younger children It is good to know our age in Christ Polycarpus could say Thus many yeers have I served my Master Christ and hitherto hath he dealt well with me Remember this day saith Moses to the Israelites What day was that The day that they came out of Aegypt from the House of bondage So I say Remember the day wherein God took you not from toyling in brick and clay but from the slavery of sin and Satan not from following the sheep as he did David whom he made a King but from following the world and your own unruly lusts You keep an account of the day wherein you were born and why not of the day wherein you were born again You remember your Marriage-dayes and why not much more the day on which you were married to Christ You have your Register-books for the one and why not Diurnalls for the other Would you be perswaded to do thus it might provoke you to say as sometimes Sarah said when Isaac was born Who would have said that knew my age that Sarah should have given children sack Who that knew me in the dayes of my vanity and vilenesse that knew me in the School or at the University or when I was an Apprentice when my life was as full of disorder as a toad was of poyson who would have said that Christ should ever have been formed in me But by his grace I am that I am and God hath made me laugh Some acts of God are acts of common providence and so he feeds us and cloaths us he doth as much for the creatures for he feeds the Ravens and cloaths the Grasse Some acts of God are acts of speciall priviledge and thus he gave Abraham a childe in his old age and made David of a Shepherd a King Some acts of God are acts of pattern and thus he shewed mercy to Manasseh and Mary Magdalen Paul For this cause saith that Apostle I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering ●or a pattern to them that should hereafter believe ●n him to life everlasting Some acts of God are acts of wonder It ●s a wonder that any soul is saved I am sure it is a wonder that ever God should ●hink of me look after me strive with me wait upon me that he might be gracious to ●e nay it is not onely matter of wonder ●ow but will be cause of admiration unto ●ll eternity Who am I and what am I that God hath brought me hitherto It is the ●ords doing and it is wonderfull in mine ●yes Amongst many things that Beza in his last Will and Testament gave God thanks for ●his was the first and chief that he at the age of sixteen yeers had called him to the know●edge of the Truth Let every one that can know his age in Christ set down this in his ●ournall 2. Take speciall notice of all divine assistance and that either in the performance of the duties that are required of us or in ●earing those evills that are inflicted upon us For the first we know that all our sufficiency is from God all our fresh springs ●re in him and therefore all our full streams of prayse should run to him It is our sin and should be our shame that though the ●xe knows his owner and the Asse his Masters ●●th as the Prophet saith that is by a common instinct of Nature they acknowledge that as all their provision is from him 〈◊〉 all their strength to draw or bear is due t● him Yet we do not consider that is we do not so know God as to acknowledge th● as we have all from God so all is due t● God He it is that giveth power to the ●ai● and to them that have no might he encreas● strength But the youths shall faint and be we●●● and the young men shall utterly fall If Dav● will go out in the Name of the Lord in th● strength and by the assistance of God 〈◊〉 shall return a victor over the