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
A80798	Captivity improved to spiritual purposes. Or spiritual directions, given to prisoners of all sorts whether debtors or malefactors Principally designed for the use of those who are prisoners in those prisons which are under the jurisdiction of the city of London, as Newgate, Ludgate, the Counters, &c. Though also applyable to others under the like circumstances else where. To which are annexed directions to those who have their maintenance and education at the publick charge, as in Christ-Church hospital, or cure, as in St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, or reducement to a more thrifty course of life, as in Bridewel, or have been happily restored to their former sense[ ] as in Bethleem, alias Bedlam.	Cressy, Edmund.	1675 (1675)	Wing C6889A; ESTC R230962	54,833	136

set Pen to Paper upon this Subject I find within my self a reluctancy of Spirit to proceed any farther as considering within my self the small probability I have of success from any thing that I shall write here upon minds so hardened against all good Counsel but though men will be unmindful of their duty the Ministers of God ought not to be unmindful of theirs but according to the charge given to Ezekiel when he was to Preach to that Rebellious House they ought to speak the words of God unto them whether they will hear or whether they will forbear ch 2. v. 7. and it becomes them to remember that they are spiritual Watch-men whose duty it is to warn the wicked to turn from their way which if they forbear to do the blood of the wicked shall be required at the hand of the Prophet but if they do as they ought endeavour to turn the wicked from their way and they turn not they shall dye in their wickedness but the watchman hath delivered his own Soul ch 33. v. 6 8 9. The Grace of God is always sufficient and sometimes effectual to the recalling of Publicans and sinners as St. Matthew and others Whores and Harlots as Magdalen Idolaters as Manaseh Persecutors and Blasphemers as St. Paul and Thieves and Robbers as Onesimus and the Thief upon the Tree And it is possible with him to whom nothing is impossible to bless what I shall write to the Conversion of the most obdurate sinners and peradventure he may give them repentance which if he should of his infinite grace and goodness do I shall rejoyce that I have been a poor instrument in his hand towards the turning of a sinner from the Error of his way and saving his soul alive But if which I fear my poor labours in this kind should want the desired success I shall content my self with the satisfaction of my conscience in having endeavoured to stop the mouths of wickedness and in having rendred them inexcusable Which I purpose to do in this ensuing discourse But because all sinners are not of the same side nor have arrived at the same degrees of wickedness I shall begin with the lower sorts of Malefactors and before I proceed to those who have either deserved by Law the Sentence of Death or are under it shall say something to those who have committed lesser crimes whose punishment is some shame or disgrace or Corporal infliction whether of whipping or working in the House of Correction or the Like And my first exhortation to these shall be to take notice of these lesser punishments and those sins which are the causes of them and to endeavour heartily to repent of them before they come to that height of wickedness which greater Malefactors have arrived to For that direction is a very prudent one not only in the diseases of the Body but of the Soul too Principiis obsta sero Medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras A Green wound is soon cured with any common Plaster and with ordinary care but when by neglect it grows into a Gangreen no cure for the member so affected and scarce for the Body but by cutting off a part so corrupted for fear of diffusing its venome into the whole Young novice sinners are often reclaimed without much difficulty In them natural conscience is quickly awakened the sense of shame easily revived and the fear of Hell easily impressed upon their minds but when men have broke through all these hardened their hearts stifled their consciences strengthened their foreheads against all shame and their Souls against all fears of damnation it is scarcely possible to reclaim them and as hardly possible to secure the publick from the mischiefs they may receive from their poysonous example but by cutting them off by the hand of Justice as corrupt members use to be from the rest of the Body for fear of spreading their infection into it And therefore before men are arrived at this dreadful height of wickedness it will be their wisdom to watch against those beginnings of wickedness which have already brought them to shame and disgrace and the House of Correction will probably bring them to the Gallows here and unless the grace of God reclaim them to Hell and damnation hereafter To these if to any that exhortation is proper Exhort one another dayly while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 1. It is possible those that are concerned in this exhortation may find the work hard when they first set upon it their long contracted Habits of sin are hard to be removed the thoughts of God are uneasie to their minds it is difficult for them to return from a loose to an Industrious course from a riotous to a sober way of life from the folly of the wicked to the wisdom of the just But the difficulty of the work ought not to be a Plea for our deferring of it but an Argument rather for setting about it without delay for what is hard at present will be harder hereafter when our sinful inclinations by continuance have grown stronger our conscience more seared the Spirit of God by constant resistance less operative in us and the Grace of God weakened and abated by contrary Habits of sin and therefore if we ever desire to repent before we dye as the most obdurate sinners will pretend they do the wisest way is to set about the work betimes before a further continuance in a wicked course of life make our reformation more difficult to us then at present it is There is no man that is well in his wits and considers what he does that would be willing to fill up the measure of his sin to outsin the day of Grace wholly to tire out the long suffering and forbearance of God or to arrive at such a degree of wickedness from whence there is no hope of reclaim by the usual methods of Gods Grace and mercy And if men are afraid of arriving at such a desperate estate the best Counsel that I can give them for the avoiding of it is this That they would seriously take notice of those early discoveries of Gods indignation and displeasure against them the footsteps of which they may in some measure see in their present punishments of shame and disgrace and confinement and drudgery and may more clearly discern in the checks and reproofs of their own consciences unless they have hardened them against all such apprehensions by a constant custom of sinning and this is the first advice that I think proper to give to this sort of Malefactors that they would now endeavour to break off their sins by a timely repentance before they arrive at those degrees of wickedness whose punishment is that of death by the Laws of man and a far worse punishment from the wrath of God revealed against them in the Scriptures My second direction shall be that in