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	soul_n	spirit_n	3,520	5	5.4686	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18917	An epistle discoursing vpon the present pestilence Teaching what it is, and how the people of God should carrie themselues towards God and their neighbour therein. Reprinted with some additions. By Henoch Clapham.	Clapham, Henoch.	1603 (1603)	STC 5339; ESTC S115088	13,894	26

that walketh in darknesse nor the plague that destroyeth at noone-day For walking in his way that is in the way God hath called him vnto and leaning vpon the Lords promise what neede is there of locall flight or couer Secondly for their phisicall experience I thereto make this answere Sinne being the cause of the maladie as also of euery maladie it is for none to make physick their staffe nor yet their first meane lest they sinne the sinne of Asa much lesse seeke to Idol-wizards which was the sinne of Achaziah Besides they see many preserued in the midst of the plague who haue vsed no phisicall meanes what will they make the cause of their deliuerance No other thing but the diuine pleasure of God who hath forbid his Angell to smite them Is Phisicke then in this and all other plagues to be auoyded No as Hezekiah howsoeuer hauing promise of recouerie did meane time suffer a lumpe of drie figs to be applied to his boyle hauing in nature to heat mature and digest so we are not to neglect such naturall means as reason and experience haue found out to auaile against naturall infirmitie Deo non obstante the Lord not crossing nature Otherwise we shal be found tēpters of God leauing our way rather then faithfull keepers of our way Reason of vsing naturall meanes where God barres them not vp is this Whether the ayre be infected without vs there neuer wanteth infection within vs which is readie to take an head against our heart if the Lord do not bridle it As God smiting vs with other maladies threatned in the lawe so wel as Pestilence doth not only say Let it be wherevpon the maladie growes but also hath that his word working vpon preiacent corruption effected by our sinne so hee looketh that his word be satisfied by humbling our selues in prayer and fasting and that naturall corruption haue the power preuented or destroyed by naturall means he ●ffording them To say I shall liue so long as God hath appointed though I neuer vse phisicke it is as good as this I shall liue so long as God hath appointed though I neuer eate nor drinke As meate and drinke is for the hungry so is phisicke for the diseased for to the necessitie of naturall phisicke our Sauiour alludeth when as for establishing his spirituall phisicke he saith They that are sicke need the Phisition God hath created the Word Prayer and Fasting for repelling and killing sinne the Materiall cause of Gods anger and he hath created phisicall creatures for preuenting and curing naturall corruption the materiall cause of our maladie and naturall sicknesse So both be the good creatures of God and both to be vsed to his glory The first for helping and healing our soule the second for helping and healing the body God sometimes blesseth the first without the second to shewe that he is not tyed to meanes And he sometimes blesseth the second without the first to shew that we ought not neglect the meanes But as we haue both sinfull soules and corrupt bodies so we should vse both for benefiting both Addition to the third Section IN the Pestilence there falling out a two-fold consideration as afore the first Supernaturall the second Naturall it so followeth that the supernaturall cause be salued by that which is spirituall the other by that which is naturall Hezekiah did both in Isa. 38. First he in all truth of spirit did humble himselfe in prayer and secondly did applie a lump of ●igges the second becomming effectuall when God in the first place had accepted of teares and mournings Our Naturians should neuer therefore promise or insinuate health and life by the second but by putting people in the minde that they must labour with God for satisfaction for the first That this is our Churches iudgement also let it be considered first in that the Magistrates and Ministers haue appointed publike and vniuersall fasting and prayer by way of humiliation before God for sinne secondly in that also they haue published naturall meanes in respect of naturall corruption How vntollerable wicked then haue they béene who priuatlie and in Gods most holy place haue giuen out that Clapham hath béene herein singular and odde by himselfe They be rather odde that vnderstand not themselues SECTION IIII. BVt seeing the Lord promiseth deliuerance from the plague to all such as rest vnder his wings and walke in his way it may be asked how comes it to passe that some Beleeuers die of the pestilence and some vnbeleeuers scape it I answere the Lords promise being euer fast to the Beleeuer for he is faithfull that hath promised there is in Beleeuers so dying a want of faith for apprehending this particular deliuerance this temporary mercy Though they haue not lacked faith for their eternall iustification finall saluation by vertue whereof their flesh resteth in hope of an happie resurrection and their spirit is gone in comfort to God that gaue it yet hath euerie one perishing on the pestilence bene found not to apprehend this particular promise To say that the psalme speaketh only of a spirituall plague and a spirituall promise is to conclude the same of Leuit. 26. Deut. 28. and of all the like places Then the which what can be more absurd vnder literall promises and mercies menacies and curses spirituall things are also entended but not onely The first shadoweth out and leadeth to the second And because still there is the same vse the outward euils so well as the second are still abiding When we haue receiued Christ by faith we haue promise of all things also promises of this world of the world to come But when by faith we haue apprehended the greater loe we are often found to doubt of the lesser In not doubting of the eternall we should not doubt of the temporarie But doubting of the lesser and loosing it by doubting we see what we should do in the greater if God should leaue vs to our owne standing That manie wicked escape in midst of strongest pestilence first it is not because they haue any promise but because it pleaseth God both to them and vs to be in manie things manie times better then his promise teaching them and vs therein how good he would be to vs in all things walking in his way and vndoubting the promise Secondly the wicked so escaping are ordinarily such as haue walked boldly through the sicknes bragging of their faith in God touching deliuerance from pestilence shewing plainly that they had a faith in God for apprehending promise of deliuerance Though they haue not had faith for apprehending things spirituall and eternall yet for laying hold on this particular temporarie And such a faith is ordinarily countenanced with such a mercie as that temporary repentance of Ahab Manasses and Niniuets was graced with particular flitting mercies God teaching such therein how much more he would draw neare vnto them in all goodnes if so they had

AN EPISTLE DISCOVRSING vpon the present Pestilence Teaching what it is and how the people of God should carrie themselues towards God and their Neighbour therein Reprinted with some Additions By Henoch Clapham LONDON Printed by T. C. for the Widow Newbery and are to be sold at her shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Ball. 1603. TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull Sir Baptist Hickes Knight all necessarie sauing gifts from aboue GOod Sir before I returned last into England I did publish a certaine Epistle wherein I noted how certaine amongst vs had laide the groundes of Brownisme while theyr zeale beyond knowledge had laboured our Churches reformation That comming into the hands of some of them here in and about the Citie they welcomed me home with an aduisement giuen to some theyr disciples that I should neither be heard Preach nor priuatly conferred with nor haue any of my bookes read of them Theyr reason was that Cl. would bring people to all the corruptions of the English Church and finally to Romes church But when there was some extraordinary cause of opposing to Romish platformes let the Traytor W. Wat. speake of his conscience if the Accused did not rather oppose to such wickednes then his Accusers As they bgun to malice without grounde for now they shame to meddle with theyr dombe Presbyterie and halfe faced Deaconry with some other things not to be maintained so they haue not therewith stinted the bitternesse of their spirits but now must please them whom otherwise But some will say that meate and drinke Chirurgene and Phisicke helpeth and doth good to many who neuer call vpon the name of the Lord specially in the name of Christ Iesus I answere The liuing God is a Sauiour of all men specially of them that beleeue His mercie is vpon all the creatures Not the vilest Barbarian but he suffreth his comfortable Sunne and Ayre to shine and breath vpon When the mercies of God are called into question euery mouth shall be stopped But howsoeuer he is a Sauiour of all men yet he hath a speciall saluation for the faithfull as S. Paul teacheth Timothie Howsoeuer he affordeth blessings to all yet in a speciall forme he blesseth the Beleeuer For as they call for his sauing fauour in the vse of all his creatures so they haue it in their much and little in their health and sicknesse in their life and death These vse the Creature with assurance of a peculiar blessing when the other eate drinke and apply it with a peculiar curse Now we are not to labour for the temporary blessing sauced onely with a common mercie for then we goe no further then the dogge in his eating of grasse for easing his stomacke but to labour with the Lord by prayer for his speciall blessing our conscence in the vse of these creatures leauing the issue tempotarie to his will which is holy in all things A true Christian walketh thus in common diet and vsuall infirmities how much more doth it stand him in hand to looke to his carriage towards God in respect of this Pest or Pestilence A theists meere Naturians and other ignorant persons do hold it to be a natural disease proceeding from naturall causes onely as from corruption of ayre caused by vnseasonable Planets aboue or else from carrionly stinking smelles here belowe Who while they looke not higher then the earth or not higher then the Planets do sticke in the Creature forgetting the Creator called the Lord of hostes who commaunds or forbids sends out or stayes the course and operation of creatures and corruptions As God is the Lord of Hostes so Hee maketh a flaming fire his ministers sometimes for consuming sometimes for preseruing For by it Nebuchadnezzers executioners were destroyed when the three young Nobles of Iudah were in midst thereof preserued Addition expository and Apologeticall to the first Section GAlenistes So called of Galen a Gréek Heathen Physitian This kind of Plague or Pestilence is of him tearmed Loimos respecting onely Bodies bursting out in corruption which may be cause sometimes of corrupting other bodies specially such as are inclinable to and capable of such corruption And this is it that some Christians vnderstand when they say that the Pestilence is as a Candle and bodies as strawe some wet some dry more or lesse capable of taking fire And this is true but not all the truth nor yet in the first sence which is Diuine whereof I shall speake somewhat after To stick therfore in this consideration is to speake rather after the manner of Naturalls then of Diuines And who dare speake rather after the maner of man then after the vncontrowlable forme of the Holy Ghost The dead creature can giue to him no life Because the dead creature cannot of it selfe vinifie the bodie therefore the Christian is taught to looke vp to God the Author of life who as he hath promised to euerie Belieuer the thing that is good calling for it by prayer so such a praying belieuer ought to expect the veritie of his promise séeing he is faithfull that hath promised for Godlines is profitable to all things which hath promise of the life present and of that is to come 1 Tim. 4 8. without Godlines many are partakers of some Spiritual and all sorts of Corporall giuings without diuine direct promise and therefore such giuings do finally turne into bitternes vexation of spirit and the iust heaping vp of iudgement SECTION II. THe word Plague is originally a Greeke word for Plege it is termed in Reuelation 16. 9. and of the Latines Plaga in English valuing a blowe or stripe Which as it may haue a more generall vse so it is not applyed to this particular disease of the Pest otherwise then because it is a blowe or stripe inflicted on mankind By whom By God although mediately by spirit or corruption or both The language of God Adam in the old Testament doth terme it Deber as in Exod. 3. 3. Deu. 28 21. Psal 91. 36 2. Sam 24. 13. of Dabar to speake whether it be a speech of life or death And so it is termed I doubt not because it is an effect of the Lords Word for sinne according to his threatning in Deut. 28. 21. Let the word be so considered in the two sacred languages of the old and new Testament and the Plague is no other maladie then a speciall blowe inflicted on mankinde for sinne I speake not of it as it seizeth on beasts seeing it commeth to them by Mankindes sinne Sinne is the cause why the Lord according to his word smiteth Mankind whether corruption be in the way or not Doth God send out a Spirit to smite as Dauids people in 2. Sam. 24. were smit by a good Angell but Iob before with a bad the Spirit smiteth not but vpon the Lords word smite or touch in which respect it is called Negagn in Psal 91. 10. of Nagagn to touch Although the terme Negagn may well