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	nature_n	power_n	1,617	5	4.8157	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26810	Spiritual perfection, unfolded and enforced from 2 Cor. VII, 1 having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1699 (1699)	Wing B1128; ESTC R4307	200,199	485

his impendent Suffering exprest a great perplexity Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The fearful expectation of the just and heavy punishment due for our Sins perplex'd his Holy and Humane Nature he address'd a Request to God Father save me from this hour but it was with a Revocation but for this cause came I to this hour it was subordinate to his main desire Father glorifie thy Name When he was seized by his bloody Enemies and Peter struck with his Sword one of them he repress'd his rash Zeal with that Consideration The Cup which my Father has given shall I not drink of it He regarded his Soveraign Will in giving it and with Submission drank of the dregs of it How instructive is this to us to take the hottest and bitterest Potion that God our Father and Physician prepares for us 2. Prayer is an Effectual Means to obtain an increase of Spiritual Blessings 'T is the Law of Heaven that Blessings are to be obtain'd by Prayer for this is most Honourable to God and Beneficial to us 'T is the Supreme Act of Religious Worship discover'd by the Light of Nature to the Heathens Prayer is the Homage due to his Eternal Greatness the most glorious acknowledgement of his All-sufficiency that he is Able and Willing to relieve our Poverty from his immense Treasures notwithstanding our unworthiness for we are less than the least of his mercies and deserve the severe inflictions of his Justice 'T is the setting our Seal to his Truth that he is a God hearing Prayer 'T is very beneficial to us for it engages us to receive his Benefits with Adoration and Thankfulness and prepares us to receive new Favours and by our obtaining Blessings in this way we have a more Clear and Comfortable Sense of his Love that gives the sweetest Tincture and Relish to them 'T is true Prayer is not requir'd to inform God or to incline him to be Gracious and sometimes from his exuberant Goodness he prevents our desires but we cannot regularly expect his Blessings without the Sense of our Wants and Prayer to supply them Now all Blessings are originally from God but some are immediately from him As the Sun inlightens the World by its presence in the Day and the Moon and Stars inlighten it in the Night by Light borrowed from the Sun St. James tells us Every good and perfect gift descends from above from the Father of Lights All Blessings in the order of Nature the Qualities of the Body Beauty Strength Health or the Endowments of the Mind Knowledge Wit Eloquence are his Gifts all Temporary Talents Riches Power Dignity are from him by the mediation of second Causes but there are more precious and perfect Gifts that come from him immediately as the Father of Lights Sanctifying Graces and Spiritual Comforts by the Illumination and Infusion of the Holy Spirit The first sort of Blessings we are not to pray for absolutely for they may be pernicious by our abuse of them to our Souls and are often bestowed upon Reprobate Sinners But the other kind saving Graces deserve our most ardent desires As the hart pants after the water-brooks our Souls should seek after the Favour of God and Sanctifying Grace the infallible Testimony and effect of it We must pray for them unsatisfiedly not content with any thing else nor without excellent degrees of them David breaks out his ardent desires O that my wayes were directed according to thy Statutes O that my Soul may be baptiz'd with the Holy Ghost as with Fire to purifie and refine me from all my dross that as Gold taken from a vein of Earth receives such a lustre from the Fire as if it were the sole product of Fire so my renovation by the Spirit may be so intire that all Carnality may be abolish'd Our Prayers should be for our perseverance in well-doing Perseverance is a most free Gift of God a new Grace superadded to what we have received without it we shall forsake God every Hour God promises to give the sanctifying Spirit as a permanent Principle of Holiness in his People to cause them to walk in his Statutes and declares for this I will be enquired of by the house of Israel We must imitate Jacob who wrestled with the Angel and would not let him go till he had blest him This is an Emblem of fervent Prayer wherein we strive with the strength and sinews of our Souls and as it were offer violence to the King of Heaven to bestow Spiritual Blessings upon us Carnal Men are intemperate greedy and passionate in their desires of Temporal Blessings tho' Reason Religion and Experience of their Vanity should regulate them They are impatient and insatiable and will bear no denial nor delay but with regret and reluctancy But how remiss and cold are their desires for spiritual and eternal Blessings they invite a denial Their Prayers are defective in the Principle they do not understand the value and their want of them Divine Grace the gift of God's saving Mercy the dear purchase of the Sufferings of Christ the precious fruit of his Holy Spirit are of little price in their esteem Our Saviour tells the Samaritan Woman If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that asks thee Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water We are encouraged to be earnest and resolved Suppliants for the Graces of God's Spirit because we are assur'd he is most willing to bestow them Our Saviour sometimes encourages us from the resemblance of a Father who cannot so unnaturalize himself and devest his tender Affections as to renounce his own off-spring to deny a Child necessary Food for his subsistence Will he give him a stone for bread or a serpent for a fish If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask it Sometimes he excites us to pray and not to faint from the Parable of an incompassionate Stranger a Judge that was overcome by importunity to afford relief to one in distress God delights to hear and answer those Prayers that are for his best Blessings When Solomon prayed for Wisdom to Rule his People God was so pleas'd that he gave him Wisdom in an Eminent Degree and as an accession Riches and Honour If we imitate Solomon in his Prayer we shall have his Acceptance St. James directs us If any man wants wisdom let him ask it of God who gives liberally and upbraids no man the Wisdom to manage Afflictions that may be for his Glory and our Spiritual Advantage He gives Liberally which either respects the Affection of the Giver or the Measure of the Gift or the repeated Acts of Giving and upbraids not neither with their unworthiness nor the frequency of their Addresses Liberality among men is a costly Vertue and but

Government of the VVorld his VVord is as Powerful Lift up your Eyes on high and behold who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might for that he is strong in power not one faileth He is not only the God of the hills but of the valleys There is nothing so inconsiderable but is under the immediate disposal of his Providence A Sparrow worth but half a farthing does not fall to the ground nor a hair of our heads without his disposal All the Casualties and Contingencies in the World are order'd by him The Arrow shot at a venture was directed by an Invisible Eye and Hand to smite the King of Israel between the Joynts of his Harness and wound him to Death The most arbitrary and free Causes are under his determining Influence The Hearts of kings are in his hands and are turn'd by him as rivers of waters which a Gardiner turns into several Channels for to make his Ground fruitful Sin that is directly contrary to his Law is not only permitted and restrain'd but order'd as a means to illustrate his Providence Justice and Goodness Joseph's malicious brethren sold him into Egypt but God sent him to make provision for the Family of Jacob in a time of extreme Famine He permitted the lying Spirit to deceive Ahab by inspiring his false Prophets to encourage him to go to Ramoth Gilead that he might Fall in Battle He gives Riches and Honour to his Enemies who presumptuously break his Laws of the greatest Consequence and foresees they will abuse them and prodigally perish It was an incredible Conception to the Heathen that One God was able to govern the World But his Power and Understanding are truly infinite and 't is more easie to him than for a Man to lift a Feather The Accidents in this World are innumerable but cannot distract an infinite eternal Mind nor cause weariness in the Almighty Every Agent must be united by active Power with the Objects upon which it immediately works The Power of God is his Essence not a separable quality he is intimate and present with all things One Sun is sufficient to measure Times distinguish Seasons and to preserve an intire World of living Creatures the meanest Worm or Herb is cherish'd by its Heat as if all its Influences were confin'd for their preserving And is not an infinite God sufficient to support and dispose all things 3. Divine Providence is more special and tender towards God's peculiar People The Eyes of the Lord run to and ●ro through the whole Earth to shew himself strong in behalf of those whose Hearts are perfect towards him His tender Mercies his extensive Attribute is over all his Works But more eminently exercised according to their degrees of Goodness and his Propriety in them Our Saviour inferrs by the clearest Consequence that the Divine Providence that reaches to the falling of a Sparrow is much more concern'd for his People accordingly encourages his Disciples Fear not ye are of more value than many Sparrows God is the Saviour of all Men especially of those who believe Now as when the reason of a Command has a direct aspect upon us it more strongly binds us to obey God so when the reason of a Promise has a peculiar respect to us it engages God more strongly to preserve us God has a Right to all Mankind by a general Tenure but a special Interest in the Godly He is the King of Nations and the King of Saints 'T is his dearest Title above all the Titles of Majesty ascribed to him They are precious in his esteem his Treasure his Jewels the most valuable part of his Treasure the Jewels of his Crown the most radiant and rich Jewels Propriety and preciousness engage his powerful and propitious Providence for their Good They are exposed to many Evils for their Relation to him their Heavenly Father and for his Image shining in them For thy sake we are killed all the day long They are like a flock of Sheep among Wolves and Tigers unable to defend themselves His compassionate Love excites his Power for their preservation The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this His Love inclines him and his Promise ingages him never to leave nor forsake them When they are ready to despair he is ready to deliver Now the firm belief of the universal Providence of God and his special Care for his People is like a Rudder to a Ship without which 't is constrained to yield to every Storm but guided by it sails with every Wind to it s design'd Port. When God enter'd into a Covenant with Abraham he assures him I am the almighty God walk before me and be perfect Every deflection from our Duty proceeds either from the hope of obtaining some temporal Good or the fear of incurring some temporal Evil These Passions are very forcible in Mens Breasts We see how powerful they are in sensitive Creatures even in a Grey-hounds coarsing a Hare Hope adds Wings to the Feet of the one and Fear adds Wings to the Feet of the other Men without Faith in God will break through his Laws when Temptations work on their Hope or Fear for they are under the dominion of Sense But the belief of God's All-sufficiency that he is a Sun to supply us with all truly desirable good things a Shield to secure us from all destructive Evils confirms our Dependance on him and ingages our Obedience to him This conduces to our present Peace and future Blessedness There are secret springs of Providence that work sometimes in an extraordinary manner for the preserving his People Joseph was raised from a Prison to a Principality The poor Prophet was fed by a Raven when the wicked King was like to starve in his Palace The malicious design of Haman to destroy the whole Nation of the Jews was frustrated and reflexively pernicious to himself by a strange concurrence of Circumstances ordered by Divine Providence The faithful Companions of Daniel who resign'd themselves to his Will and Wisdom were rescued from the Furnace and Fury of the proud King by an Angel But many times the Saints of God are involved in common Calamities Inundations Earthquakes the Pestilential Air Sword Famine make no difference between the innocent and the guilty The Sun rises upon the evil and the good the Thunder falls on the good and evil Nay as our Saviour tells his Disciples They shall weep and lament when the World rejoyces But he comforts them with the assurance that their Sorrow shall be turned into Joy The Apostle declares We know all things work together for good to them that love God There are mysterious depths in the Oeconomy of Providence that the short Line of our Reason cannot sound But we may rely upon the Promise of God who can bring Light out of Darkness We have an illustrious proof of his