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	matter_n	soul_n	1,472	5	5.2309	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07200	Christian humiliation, or, A treatise of fasting declaring the nature, kindes, ends, vses, and properties of a religious fast: together with a briefe discourse concerning the fast of Lent. By Henry Mason, pastor of Saint Andrews-Vndershaft London.	Mason, Henry, 1573?-1647.	1625 (1625)	STC 17602; ESTC S120999	101,549	174

lectione nec in Psalmis nec in vigilijs solito quid mimis facias Ieiuniū non perfecta virtus sed caeterarum virtutum fundamentū est c. Hieron ad Demetriad Ep. 8. pag. 72. C You should so fast saith he that you doe not faint and breathe short and haue neede of some body to beare you vp for falling but that subduing the bodily appetite you do not diminish spirituall exercises nor reade or sing or watch or pray lesse then you are wont For Fasting is not a perfect vertue to bee desired for it selfe but an helpe and ground of other vertues The want of this moderatiō Ionathā did rightly reproue in Saul his father who by enioyning too strait abstinence did hinder the people in the pursuit of the enemies (b) 1. Sam. 14.29 My Father hath troubled the Land See I pray you how mine eyes haue bin enlightened because I tasted a little of this honey How much more if the people had eaten freely to day of the spoile of their enemies which they found For had there not bin now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines And so by the same reason if any man doe exceed measure in his religious abstinence we may say of him Hee troubleth his soule and hindreth the worke of Religion and maketh himselfe vnable to doe good duties But this Caueat was necessary in times past now a dayes few men offend that way And therfore I will presse this poynt no further Only out of the former part of this Note where I shewed that fasting is an Afflicting I will draw some short conclusions for our further vse 1. Concl. If a true Fast bee a chastening of the body then Papists haue little cause for their great outcryes and much boasting of their Fasts For as the Pharises said to Christ (c) Mark 2 1● Luk. 5.33 Why doe the Disciples of Iohn of the Pharises fast often but thine eate and drinke so the Pharises of our time say that they and their disciples fast often but Protestants and their Schollers eate and drinke and feast But all this lowd cry is but an empty sound For say they fast often as they call fasting yet what is it that they call a Fast and which they enioyne their disciples to vse Why it is forsooth that at dinner they eate no flesh and that at supper they make not a set and standing meale But at dinner they may take their fill of the best fish and the strongest wines and the daintiest iunkets and what they will beside of rootes and white-meats or any such like And at night they may haue a drinking and eate something beside more or lesse according to the custome of the place and people And they may drinke at any time of the day and any drinke they list Yea and which is abominable to conceiue if a man drinke intemperately and be drunke on their fasting day yet if hee obserue the former rules a Contra temperantiam peccatū erit contra ieiunium non item Azor. par 1. l. 7. ca. 10. q. 7. hee offendeth not against the Law of their Fast This is the scrictnes and hard discipline that the Church of Rome doth lay vpon her children in their frequent and meritorious Fasts Nor may we thinke that the practice can be much better then their precepts are Sure I reade that (b) Polyc. Lyserus praefat praefixâ Hassenmull de ieiunio Iesuit the Princes of Germanie at the times of their publike meetings in the Empire were wont to obserue the knowne fasting-dayes of the Church and then they would goe dyne with the Bishops For as they vsed to say they neuer had greater variety of good cheere nor more dainties then at such times But some perhaps may say that he that reporteth this was an aduersary to their Church Be it so yet that is no reason to discredit the report of a thing so openly knowne And though Lyserus who reporteth this from the Princes mouthes were an aduersary yet Lindanus was their friend and he saith no lesse of their loose fastings a Ieiunia nostra quae et vini copia natant abundantiaque redundant et piscium varietate carnium superant delitias adeoque cum Deo ludere videntur dum pro intercepto qui ex ouis oritur calore olei flammas vini aestum omnisque aromatū generis ignes helluoni infarciunt stomacho veteribus Christianis omnino fuisse non modo incognita sed et intolerabilia atque adeò abominanda pijs omnibus vetera cogitantibus arbitramur notius quàm vt ea de re vlla sint verba profund ēda Lindan Panop lib. 3. cap. 11 pa. 89. That our Fasts saith he which swimme with store of wine and abound with superfluities and outstrip the delicates of flesh with variety of fish insomuch that they may seem to dallie with God while for cutting off the warmth that is caused by eggs they cramme into their gluttonous stomach the flames of oyle the burning heate of wine and the fire of all kinde of spices were not only vnknowne to the ancient Christians but were intolerable and abominable is a thing more euident to them that consider the ancient customes then that we should waste words about it And in the margin he addeth this note b Ietunium Catholicorū passim Epicurea The Fasts of Catholikes all abroad like the feeding of Epicures And this may serue to shew what sore penance our popish people doe vndergoe by their often fasting But if a true Fast be an afflicting of the body as I haue proued and themselues will not deny then though they haue many Fasts in name yet they haue few or none in deed Let them then looke homeward reforme these mock-fasts of their own Church and then let them complaine of the rare Fasts in ours 2. Concl. They make but a friuolous excuse who to free themselues from fasting alledge that they finde hurt by it meaning that it is some paine to endure two or three houres hunger and some trouble to passe ouer the vsuall time of refection Some paine and some trouble Why that is the very cause why we should fast that by chastening the body wee may cherish the soule Nor is it so great a matter now and then to endure such a paine For we reade that Esau was so long in hunting that he fainted and was ready to dye for hunger (a) Gen. 25.29 30 32. as himselfe complained And we may see it now among men that if it bee for pleasure to follow our sports or for profit to increase our wealth or for preferment to aduance our estates there is no man but would finde himselfe able inough to forbeare a meales meate And if the sauing of our soules bee as deare vnto vs as these worldly vanities we will not repine at so small a labour in so necessary a case 3. Concl. They be poore fasters who glut themselues aforehand that so they

of this counsell hee will finde the like euent I doubt not that the men of Samaria did by comming to heare Christ When the woman told them what strange things shee had found in Christ and exhorted them (a) Ioh. 4.29 Come see a man which told mee all things that euer I did Is not this the Christ They giuing some credence to the womans word went to make tryall themselues and after tryall made then they said to the woman (b) vers 42. Non mee beleene not because of thy saying for wee haue heard him our selues and doe know that this is indeed the Christ the Sauiour of the world So if any well-minded Christian vpon the word of so many learned Fathers Writers will but in due manner begin the worke I doubt not but after tryall he will say Now I beleeue the spirituall vertues that this exercise hath not because Basil or Chrysostome or Ambrose or Augustine or any other eyther Father or Doctor or Preacher saith so but because my selfe by experience finde and feele it to be so IIII. A fourth and last vse of fasting is that it serueth for an act or helpe of Repentance and that two wayes For first it is an act that followeth and floweth from repentance And secondly it is an act that breedeth or increaseth our repentance And in both these respects it may well be esteemed as a necessary companion that goeth along with repentance For in the one respect it is as a follower that commeth after and waiteth vpon it And in the other it is as an vsher that goeth before and maketh way for it 1. First it is a necessary companion to follow after and waite vpon repentance and thus it is necessary in two respects 1. That our sorrow may be answerable to our sinne For we sinne not in inward desires only but in outward both speehes and actions or wee sinne in thought word and deede And reason requireth that the plaister should be as large as the sore and so that repentance should spread it selfe as farre as the offence hath done This the Nineuites obserued in their repentance They put on haire-cloth and fasted sate downe in ashes By which behauiour of theirs they seemed to intend thus much saith a Reuerend and learned Writer (a) D. King on Ionas Lecture 36. page 489. We acknowledge before thy Maiestie Lord of Hosts we the vnworthiest creatures that euer thy hands haue formed viler then the sackcloth we weare for if there had beene baser stuffe in the world we would not haue refused it and fouler then the ashes wee are besprent with Wee acknowledge that thou art a righteous God and wee an vnrighteous Nation not worthy our meate drinke cloathing or any other benefits c. And in acknowledgement thereof as guiltie within our selues Whatsoeuer thou hast giuen vs to enioy for comfort for pleasure for seruice or any other vse eyther in our families at home or in our foulds and stalls abroad wee resigne it into thy hands as hauing no right vnto it we lay it downe at the feete of thy iustice and only for thine own sake beseech thee to shew mercy In this maner their repentance as it first sprung in the heart so it sprouted and shewed it selfe in the gestures of the body And so must ours do or else the plaister will be too little for the wound Secondly fasting is necessary as a follower of our repentāce that our outward humiliation may prooue the truth of our inward sorrow For the heart is vsed to expresse his inward affections by outward actions as it expresseth his vncleane thoughts by wanton lookes and vnchaste gestures and vnsauourie speeches and his ioy and inward reioyceing by singing dancing and a cheerefull countenance And this made Salomon to say (a) Prou. 15.13 A merrie heart maketh a cheerefull countenance And our Sauiour to say (b) Math. 12.34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And I may adde by the like reason Yea and the eye looketh and the eare heareth and the feete walke and the hands worke And hence it followeth that if sorrow and repentance be in the heart they will appeare and shew themselues by the body and the acts and behauiour of the body by which repentance and sorrow are shewed are weeping and mourning and fasting and forbearing of the comforts of nature and the delights of the world This we finde true in dayly experience that sorrow whatsoeuer the cause be if it be great it will not let a man eate if it be but moderate yet it chooseth not to eate Thus Ahab when he was denyed Naboths Vineyard (a) 1. King 21.4 layed him downe vpon his bed and would eate no bread And Hannah when she was vpbraided by her aduersary (b) 1. Sam. 1.7 she wept and did not eate And Saul when he had ill newes prophesied vnto him of his owne death and the death of his Sonnes together with the ouerthrow of the people though they intreated him yet he put it off and said (c) 1. Sam. 28.23 I will not eate And Plutarch saith of Caesar that being told of violating of the Law which himself had made (d) Adeo pounituit vt illo die coenam recusaret Plut. apoph in August Caes it so repented him that hee refused his supper Thus sorrow for worldly respects enioyneth abstinence from food And so it doth when it is for sinne Dauid saith of himselfe (*) Psal 102.4 My heart is sinitten and withered like grasse so that I forget to eate my bread The meaning is that sorrow so possessed his heart that he had no minde of his meate And (e) Iocl 2.12 the Prophet taught the people to shew their repentance by fasting and weeping and mourning And nature taught the (f) Ionas 3.5 6 7. Nineuites to doe the like And from hence Saint Basil saith (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de Ieiun Hom. 1. pag. 323. A. Repentance without fasting is idle The meaning is that as S. Iames saith Faith without workes is dead .i. it is no true faith if it bring forth no fruites so if repentance do not bring forth fruites of repentance fasting and mourning and humiliation it may be feared lest it bee a dead and fruitlesse repentance And this made our Lord to say of Tyre and Sidon that they would haue (a) Luk. 10.13 repented sitting in sack-cloth and ashes meaning that they would haue repented seriously and vnfaignedly And sure no man among vs would thinke that that woman did truely sorrow for her husbands death that would thinke it too much to weare a mourning gowne and a blacke paire of gloues at his funerall And as great reason there is to thinke that he doth not greatly sorrow for sinne that will neuer fast and chasten himselfe for sinne And if this be so how great cause haue wee to bee sorry that wee haue shewed so little sorrow and to