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	motion_n	soul_n	1,821	5	5.5524	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56708	A treatise of repentance and of fasting especially of the Lent-fast : in III parts.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1686 (1686)	Wing P857; ESTC R26184	77,506	248

to what the Wise man saith iv Ecclus 21. There is a shame that bringeth sin and there is a shame which is glory and grace No man hath reason to blush if he come from his Corporal repast to partake of the Spiritual A sober hearer though he have Dined is not unfit for this Assembly As on the contrary a listless and careless though he remain Fasting gets no good thereby I do not speak this to unloose you from the strictness of Fasting God forbid for I much approve and praise those who are Fasting but I would have you to understand that you should come after a sober manner and not merely out of Custom unto Spiritual things and that it is not Eating but negligence disorderly passions and affections and lusts uncurbed that make men unfit for our Sermons For beloved if by reason of the weakness of thy Body thou canst not continue all the day Fasting no wise man will reprove thee for it For we serve a gentle and merciful Lord who exacts nothing of us beyond our strength nor doth he simply require Fasting and Abstinence of us and that we should remain Fasting till this hour but that throwing away all cares for the things of this life we should bestow all our leisure in Spiritual imployments And if we order our life with a sober mind and whatsoever leisure we have be imployed in Spiritual things and we Eat merely for necessity and so much as needs and no more bestowing all our life in some good work or other there is no need then that we are in of that help which is received from Fasting Which was not ordained for such kind of men but because humane nature is negligent and delights in pleasure and seeks for ease and liberty therefore our most merciful Lord like a tender hearted Father devised this medicine of Fasting that delicacies and making much of our selves might be cut off and we might translate our thoughts about the things of this life unto Spiritual imployments If therefore there be any here present whom the infirmity of their body will not permit to continue Fasting without their Dinner I exhort such both to refresh their bodily infirmity and not to deprive themselves of this Spiritual instruction but having taken their bodily repast to be so much the more studious of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For there are certainly there are ways by which far wider doors of confidence towards God may be opened than by mere Abstinence from Food He therefore that takes some Food being unable to Fast let him give larger Alms let him send up more fervent Prayers let him be more forward and show greater alacrity in hearing God's Word In those things his bodily infirmity can be no hindrance to him Let him be reconciled to his Enemies let him drive all remembrance of injuries out of his heart and if he hath done these things he hath kept the true Fast which the Lord requires of us For he commands us to abstain from Meat for these things sake that we should check the wantonness of the Flesh and make it obedient and tractable to fulfil his Commandments Wherefore knowing these things I beseech you who can Fast that you intend and increase as much as is possible this your good and laudable forwardness for the more the outward man decays the more your inward man is renewed Fasting brings under the Body and bridles its disorderly motions It makes the Soul also more clear and bright giving it wings also and making it light and ready to sore aloft As for our Brethren who cannot Fast do you exhort them that they would not for this cause refrain from their Spiritual Food Tell them what I now say and let them know that not he who Eats and Drinks moderately is unworthy of this Auditory but he that is lazy and dissolute And tell them also what the Apostle saith in that Oracle of his that both he that Eateth Eateth to the Lord and he that Eateth not to the Lord he Eateth not and giveth God thanks In like manner let him that Fasteth give thanks to God who gives him strength able to support the labour of Fasting and he that Fasteth not let him also give thanks that nothing of this nature can do him hurt nor hinder him from minding the Salvation of his Soul if he be pleased to attend it For it cannot be told how many ways our most merciful God hath provided by which if we will we may attain the highest confidence in him These things I have said for the sake of the absent that occasion of shame might be taken from them and they might know there is no reason to be ashamed on this score For to have Eaten doth not bring confusion upon us but to have done an ill thing Sin is a great shame which if we have admitted we ought not only to blush but to hide our selves for shame and like condemned persons bewail our selves as miserable wretches and yet not then to despond but to make the more haste to Penitence and Pardon For he is such a gracious Lord that he requires no more when by negligence we fall into sin but that we acknowledge our Errors and proceed no further nor return again to the same offences I omit the rest for he repeats the same thing often over in that Sermon In the conclusion of which after he had expounded a portion of Holy Scripture he excuses himself for holding them so long which yet he tells them was not without reason but that they who were present might be able to teach those who were absent the forenamed Lesson which he desires them to carry home with them and instruct their absent Neighbours in it And the next day but one he begins his Sermon with the very same Lesson again having also in his Sermon upon the day between these two told them that two days Hom. xi in a week were allowed unto all wherein to intermit their Fasting Which he compares to the resting places and Inns which are upon the Rode that weary Travellers may turn in and refresh themselves a while to enable them to go on their journey the more chearfully and to the Ports and Havens on the Sea-shore into which the Mariners may run their Vessel when they have been tossed with the Waves and there wait for the opportunity of a fair Wind to carry them forward Such Shores and Havens saith he such Rests and stays hath God granted us for two days in the week in this course of the Lent Fast that the labour of it being a little remitted and they that travel in it refreshed may afterwards go on with the greater alacrity Of the same Opinion was his great Friend S. Basil in his Book of true Virginity * Tome 1. p. 717. Where he saith we may apply to Fasting those words of the Holy Scripture Turn not to the right hand nor to the left For as it is dangerous to