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A05169 A sermon preached before his Maiestie, on Wednesday the fift of Iuly, at White-hall At the solemne fast then held. By the Bishop of S. Davids. Wm. Laud. Laud, William, 1573-1645. 1626 (1626) STC 15303; ESTC S102878 20,162 56

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cause is at triall But what cause of his is it that 's particularly meant in this place For if it bee Gods 't is worth the knowing what ere it bee And no cause of his can be heere but Men owe it as well as him some duty And therefore necessary to be knowne that due may be performed vnto it Now the Cause of God meant heere though it bee proposed as Causa vna one cause yet 't is very large and comprehends many particulars vnder it Some directly concerne God and some only by reflex But God is so tender of his Iustice and his Honor that nothing can so much as touch vpon him but 't is Gods cause presently In as much as yee haue done it or not done it to one of these little ones you haue done it or not done it to mee S. Matt. 25. And so goes the Text Gods Cause all and but one whether it be directed against him or reflected vpon him Whether it bee the Reproach which the Sonne of God suffered for vs Or the troubles and afflictions which we suffer for him 't is Gods Cause still and accounted as one As one And yet I find three things agreed vpon to bee principally contain'd in this Cause of God First the Magistrate and his Power and Iustice. And resist either of these and yee resist the power and the ordinance of God Rom. 13. There 's Gods cause plaine And the Eye of nature could see Aliquid diuinum somewhat that was diuine in the Gouernours and Orderers of Common-wealths In their verie Office In as much as they are singled out to be the Ministers of diuiue Prouidence vpon Earth And are expresly called the Officers of Gods Kingdom Sap. 6. And therfore the Schoole concludes that any the least irreuerence of a King as to dispute of his Iudgements And whether wee ought to follow and obey him Sacrilegium dicitur is iustly extended to be called Sacriledge And since all Sacriledge is a violation of some thing that is Holy it is euident that the Office and Person of the King is sacred Sacred and therefore cannot be violated by the Hand Tongue or Heart of any Man that is by deede word or thought But 't is Gods cause and hee is violated in him And here Kings may learne if they will I am sure 't is fit they should That those Men which are sacrilegious against God and his Church are for the very Neigbour-hood of the sinne the likeliest men to offer violence to the Honour of Princes first and their Persons after Secondly the cause of the Church in what kinde soeuer it be Be it in the cause of Truth or in the cause of Vnity or in the cause of Right and meanes 't is Gods cause too And it must needes be so For Christ and his Church are Head and Body Ephes. 1. And therefore they must needs haue one common cause One cause And you cannot corrupt the Church in her Truth or persecute her for it nor distract her from her Vnity nor impouerish and abase her in her meanes but God suffers in the oppression Nay more no man can wilfully corrupt the Church in her doctrine but he would haue a false God Nor persecute the profession of the Church but he would haue no God Nor rent the Church into Sects but hee would haue many Gods Nor make the Church base but he would plucke GOD as lowe Were God as much in his power as the Church is And therefore the Churches Cause is Gods Cause And as Eusebius tells vs when by Stephen Bishop of Laodicea the state of that Church was much hazarded it and the meanes of it were mightily vpheld by God himselfe And Elias Cretensis goes full vpon it in the generall 'T is Gods cause any controuersie that he debates against his Enemies Now this euer holds true in whatsoeuer the Church suffers for the name of God and Christ. And therefore if either State or Church will haue their cause Gods the State must looke their proceedings be iust and the Church must looke their Deuotions Actions be pious Else if the State be al in vvorme-wood Iniustice if the Church sauour of impurity and irreligion If either of these threaten either Bodie neither can call vp God then For sinne is their owne and the diuells cause no cause of Gods who punishes sinne euer but neuer causes it Thirdly 'T is Gods cause which is directly against himselfe when Iniustice that he will not or weakenesse that hee cannot Arise and Helpe are most vnworthily nay blasphemously cast vpon him The very Text you see calls it no lesse then Blasphemie And as S. Basil tells vs 't was audacter effusa most audaciously cast into the face of God But how I pray How why they persecuted the Church of Christ with great extremities and then because God did not alwaies and in all particulars deliuer it Deum vt infirmum traducebant they accused God of Impotencie Rabsaches case before Christ in the flesh which of the Gods haue deliuered the Nations that serue them that the Lord should deliuer Ierusalem 4. Reg. 18. Pilates case to Christ. Haue not I power to crucifie thee and power to loose thee S. Ioh. 19. Iulians case after Christ. For while he raged against the Christians hee turn'd the contumely vpon God And charg'd omnipotence with weakenesse So you see the Cause of God what it is and withall that it is many and but one Many in the circumference of his creatures which fill vp the State and the Church and yet but one in the point of that indiuisible Center which is himselfe Well we haue found Gods cause as 't is tumbled vpon the earth But what is it the Prophet would haue God doe to it What Why that followes Iudica Pleade it Iudge it Maintaine it Lord. For the King and the State For thy Church and Seruice For thy selfe and thine honours sake Thou hast made their cause thine owne therefore maintaine it as thou doest thine owne Now this God is neuer wanting to doe nor neuer will be So far as Iustice and Religion make the cause his hee will Pleade it first and Maintaine it after But yet hee doth not this alwaies with a Iudgement that is visible to vs. Nor with such a one as will make enemies confesse that Gods maintenance is on our part And therefore as Ruffinus thinks these words are not only a Prayer that God would Arise and maintaine his cause but that he would so plead it that hee would make the Iustice and Right of it appeare to Enemies and Opposers and the maintenance euident to friends and defenders of it So maintaine thy Cause is as much in effect as make the world know 't is thine and thou wilt maintain it That from Gods maintenance the cause may haue safety And from our hope of maintenance we may receiue Comfort Why but why should God pleade iudge and
is to make their Cause all one with Gods And that is done by vpholding his and conforming theirs Our safety then is when our cause is one with Gods Our danger when they differ But what is it that puts the difference betweene them What why that which put the first Enmity betweene God and Man Sinne. And therefore if wee will quit the Enmity and bee made friends the onely vvay to reconcile vs with God and our Cause vvith his is by Faith and Repentance to banish Sin The sooner this is done the sooner we are safe vvhich cannot be till our Cause be one with Gods One and yet vvhen 't is one the preheminence is still vvith Gods Cause vve must not suffer ours to step on before him For our Cause as 't is spirituall and concernes our soules if it be neuer so good neuer so close ioyned vvith Gods yet God's is to haue the precedence For be ours neuer so good I must begge of your humility to Remember that Gods Grace did both preuent and follow to make it so And therefore we are to put his cause first and to pray chiefly for the maintenance of that which gaue worth to ours And for our cause as 't is tempor all and concernes this life onely Our safety life and liuely-hood Gods cause is to haue the precedence of that much more Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and Sisters Life and all must be accounted as nothing to Gods Cause S. Luke 14. And it hath euer been a signe that the Soule of a Man goes right That a vvhole People keepe vpon Gods path when they seeke first the Kingdome of GOD and the righteousnesse thereof and leaue God to minister and maintaine the rest S. Mat. 6. When they are more tenderly affected to the Cause of God and more sensible of the Reproach or Blasphemy of his Name then of any calamities that might or malice can bring vpon their persons And yet our giuing Gods Cause the precedence in our loue to it and our Prayers for it is no exclusion of our own Cause Nay the preferring of Gods before our owne And the making of our owne conformable to Gods Is the way to make God as iealous of our safety from all extremity as he is to vindicate his owne honour from Reproach and Blasphemy And therefore though the Prophet heere as Theodoret obserues doth not say Arise O God and maintaine Causam meam my cause but thine owne Yet the same God that will haue vs preferre his cause will haue vs pray for our owne like wise And so the Prophet did For though he be heere all for Gods cause yet vvee haue hime very earnest for his owne too Pleade thou my cause O Lord with them that striue with me and fight thou against them that fight against me Psal. 35. And defend my cause O God against the vngodly People Psal. 43. 1. Well then Thy cause O God and my Cause O God But the Rule of Practise goes heere Gods cause must leade that ours may follow it vnder the protection of God As we haue therefore now begun so let vs pray on as the Prophet did That God euen our Gracious Father will bee no longer like vnto one that sleepes That hee will Arise and blow ouer these feares from vs. 'T is but his Breath and he can drie the Cloudes that they drop not Rottennesse vpon our Haruest 'T is but his Breath and he can cleere the Ayre of Infection as well all ouer the Kingdome as he hath beyond admiration done it in our chiefe City And 't is but the same Breath and he can shake our Enemies to peeces in the Sea That God being Arisen and come neere in prouidence will pleade first and after maintaine his owne Cause His owne in the hand of the King His owne in the heart of the Church And his owne in the Holinesse of his Name That he will giue this State and Church and euery Member of both such grace that our cause may bee his and his Maintenance ours That he wil remember and that 's enough that if his Cause bee ours our Enemies are his That we may so order our liues by his Grace that if these or any Enemies will Blaspheme it may not bee Him for our sinnes but Vs for his seruice That our Enemies and his how-wise soeuer in other things yet in their plots and practises against vs may be written in the Text-Letters FOOLES That we being preserued from them and all other Aduersity may take warning in time to mend our liues and so heereafter liue to honour and serue him that the world may see he hath beene mercifull and wee labour to be Thankfull That after the maintenance of his and our Cause heere we may in our seuerall times be receiued vp to him in Glory Through Iesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. FINIS * In Octau Indaeorum Deum suisse Rom. numinibus vna cū gente Captiuum Verse 5. Verse 6. Hom. 14. in Ep. ad Hebr. Verse 13. Haeres 59. Verse 14. Verse 20. Psal. 50. 15. Esa. 17. 11. Esa. 7. 20. S. Iacob 4. Iud. 9. 33. Mat. 17. 21. Mat. 5. 6. Esa. 58. 5. 3. Reg. 18. 27. Psal. 121. 4. Psal. 44. 23. S. Basil in Psal. 23. S. Ierom in Habac. 3. Uelut ad dormientem loquimur Verse 12. Psal. 127. 2. S. Mat. 3. 17. Rom. 6. 9. S. Aug. in Psal. 129. S. Mat. 8. 28. Ver. 14. S. Iacob 4. 6. Psal. 99. 5. 1 Thes. 5. 3. Sen. Ep. 53. Min. Foel in Octau S. Ioh. 5. 17. Tho. sup q. 88. A. 1. Psal. 73. 12. Verse 16. Lib. 20. de Ciuit. Dei cap. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Psal. 51. 4. Rom. 3. 4. S. Mat. 25. 45. Caluin 4. Inst. 20. §. 23. Rom. 13. 2. Arist. 1. Eth. c. 2. Sap. 6. 4. Tho. 2. 2. q. 99. A. 1. Primū Ephes. 1. 22. 23. Lib. 7. Hist. cap. 32. In. G. Naz. Orat. 4. Ibid. 4 Reg. 18. 25 S. Ioh. 19. 10 Elias Cret in Naz. Orat. 4. Ibid. Iudg. 5. 23. Iudg. 4. Tacit. Lib. 1. Anal. Cal. 3. Inst. c. 23. §. 2. 4. Reg. 19. 19. 2 Chron. 32. 6. Verse 20. Verse 5. 1 S. Pet. 5. 8. Verse 21. Epist. Fabio de 42. Mans. Ma. 3. Elias Cret in Naz. Orat. 4. S. Iohn 14. 1. Iosuah 1. 7. 17. Homil. 14. in Epist. ad Hebr. Verse 24. Ibid. Verse 11. 19. Ibid. Tho. 2. 2. q. 13. A. 1. c. Psal. 14. 1. Verse 9. Ibid. Cal 3 Inst. c. 23. §. 2. Psal. 83. 13. 1 Cor. 1. 20. 2 Sam. 17. 14. Ibid. Verse 20. Verse 23. Verse 24. S. Iaco. 5. 16. S. Hierom in Thren 5. Ose 1. 6. Ibid. Innocen 3. 〈◊〉 L. 2. Mist. Miss c. 6. Psal. 130. 3. S. Luke 14. 26. S. Mat. 6. 33. Ibid. Psal. 15. 31. 1. Psal. 43. 1.