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	spiritual_a	1,721	5	6.6792	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26870	A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and wife of Richard Baxter ... : there is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughters request, called, The last work of a believer, his passing-prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1194; ESTC R1213	62,400	127

just advice And that I will speak my reasons and heart-risings against any thing that is propounded to me which I judg unmeet And I resolved when I saw my duty cheerfully to do it and keep a sense of the sweetness and obligations of Gods love and mercy III. I resolved to pray and labour for a true sense of the sins of this Nation in general and in particular of the sins of my Relations and of my own And that till it please God to give me cause of rejoycing on the behalf of my Relations and of my own souls recovery and spiritual welfare I will continue with humiliation to supplicate the Lord. And though I would not shut out a greater duty by a lesser yet I will avoid all manner of Feastings as much as I well can and all noxious sensual delights and when I must be present I will use some mortifying restraint And this I would do in my habit and all other things but that I would lay no snare on my self by renouncing what occasions may oblige me to but by all means I would strive to keep upon my heart a sense of my friends danger and my own IV. I resolve if Providence concur to go to London as soon as I can after the day of Thanksgiving for the reasons mentioned in another place § 9. What these reasons were I find not This following fragment of hers hints something of it I begin already to be sensible of my misusing the helps which God had given me I know now how I should love Ordinances and means of grace and to what end not to break my heart when Providence removeth them from me or me from them but I should love them for God and use them for him and expect my greatest comfort from him and not from men and means themselves This is no more than what I thought I had known long ago but I never knew it indeed till now And now I do but begin to know it When I felt my heart ready to sink under a burden of sorrow God was pleased to ask me what I ailed Was my condition worse than ever Had I less hopes of his love than heretofore if not why do I mourn more than when I lay under that curse What is it that I have chosen for my hope and happiness is that lost and gone Am I left in such a place or case as God cannot be found in if I truly seek him or that God cannot sweeten with his presence if not why do I not contentedly thank God for what I have already had I cannot say it 's better that I had never had it than now to leave it no I must be willing to submit to God and be humbled in the sense of my abuse of mercy so far as it may quicken me to diligence for the time to come And if ever God more trust me with such treasure as once I had I will strive to shew that I better know the worth of it than I did before My thoughts often tell me that if I were but in a condition in which I had opportunity to serve God with more cost to the flesh than I here do it would either shew my hypocrisie or give me more assuring evidence that I am indeed sincere § 10. And it is a useful note that I find added to this by her If my trouble be for my sin 1. My care will be more for the removing of my sin than of the affliction 2. And if God should take away the affliction it would not content me unless sin be taken away and my heart amended 3. If it be sin that I am troubled for it will be my great care not to sin in my trouble 4. And if it be my sin that troubleth me I have the more cause to submit to Gods hand and silently bear the punishment of my iniquity it shameth murmuring when we truly look on sin the cause though it bring the wholsome sorrow of repentance 5. And if I mourn for fear lest God be departing I should seek him and cleave the closer to him and not depart from God and then he will not depart from me § 11. I will conclude this Chapter with a Countrey Poem of her honest Kinsman Mr. Eleazer Careswell of Sheffnall in Shropshire whom I never knew to Poetrize but now that tender love and passion taught him it signifieth these though it want the flowry part Her danger of death so near to her conversion was very grievous to him MARGARET CHARLTON Anagram Arm to later change The prudent soul refin'd from earth doth ever Arm to her later change and fears it never Those glittering Monarchs who seem to command This Ball shall be by deaths impartial hand Put out and doom'd to an eternal state No mortal sinner can decline this fate Death conquers Scepter-swaying Kings but I Shall conquer Death being now arm'd to dye Arm Soul for this one change and wed thy heart To Christ and then no death shall ever part Your joined souls and thou because that He Hath Life of Life shalt still possessed be Death will but this snarl'd knot of Life untie To unite Souls in a more blessed tie When Faith renewing grace repenting tears Hath cleard the soul from filth and she appears Unspotted holy pure invested in Christs milk-white snowie Robes quite freed from sin Wholly deliver'd from this fleshly thrall And Hells black Monarch and adorn'd with all Gods perfect grace Triumphantly these sing Death and Hell conquer'd are by Christ our King Faith Hope and Love such Souls now fortifie And armed thus why should we fear to dye Tho' Death divorce those long acquainted friends And lodg earth in the earth the soul ascends To those high glorious Regions where she With Christ and blessed souls shall ever be Soul troubling sin shall then molest no more Which clog'd which wounded her so long before Poor souls go fetter'd here with flesh and sin Death doth her great deliverance begin Thy soul renew'd by grace shall quickly see How blest a change that day will bring to thee Death shall those weeping eyes dry up and close And pained weary flesh to rest repose The grave will be a safe and quiet bed To that frail body when the soul is fled This aking head shall there be laid to rest Whilst thy glad soul of glory is possest As banisht griefs end in that quiet sleep Thy dust is holy it thy Lord will keep Till the last trumpet sound and he shall raise The just and unjust at the last of days Then the refined body shall again It s late dislodged soul re-entertain And re-united chant well-tuned lays Unto the Lamb whose soul-enamouring rays Shall ravish Saints with blessed perfect joy Freed from whatever would their rest annoy Where they with flaming love and pleasure sing Holy melodious praise to God their King Rise then my soul thy thoughts from earth estrange The first is wrought Arm to thy later change Thus the good

your daily study and let me in writing see some fruits of your labours before I go hence and be seen here no more Be not wanting to your own Comforts and you cannot displease God nor your Mother who longs more after your Eternal Good than I can now utter My Love to you all and Prayers for you all I continue Your most tenderly Loving Mother M. H. § 22. In another to Oxford 1657. ALL will work for good to them that love God I hope you are one of those The Lord direct your paths that you may work out your Salvation with fear and trembling in your Youth and not let time slip till Age which will come or Death before it on all flesh and an account must be given of the precious Time which we now neglect I have more to say but when I see you it will be done with more ease The Lord keep you all and make you faithful to the Death that you may receive the Crown of Glory which is the Prayer of her that tendreth the good of your Soul M. H. § 23. In 1659. In another she writes thus MY dear Child My greatest Trouble is that I can have no better account of your health of Body yet surely the cure of the Soul is of far more worth Therefore I faint not Else I could not subsist under the heavy stroke which I have justly deserved Who knows but my sins may be some cause of thy distress of Soul However let us return to the Lord and he will heal all our breaches and will bind up all our Sores and will give us a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens where we shall never be forc'd asunder and all Infirmities shall be left behind and we shall take up all pleasure in the enjoyment of our Heavenly Redeemer In the mean time let us with courage and confidence press hard toward the mark for the price of that calling which was set before us For the things which are seen are temporal but the the things which are not seen are eternal I can go no further but cannot forget to be Thy truly Loving Mother M. H. This was written to her in her sickness when for better Air she lay at Old Mr. Richard Foly's house at Stourbridge § 24. I have transcribed these to shew the mind and care of the good Gentlewoman and what cause I and my Neighbours had of comassion to her in her Sorrows when she was separated from an only Son whose welfare she had prosecuted with so strong affection and long labour and patience and began to have much comfort in this Daughter whom she had formerly least valued and thought she must so suddenly leave her Let those that think these too little matters to be told the World remember that Neerness Love and Sorrow may be allowed to make things greater to me than they seem to those that are not so concerned in them And that Mr. Fox in his Book of Martyrs publisheth a great number of as mean Letters as any of these even some of women and some written to the Martyrs as well as those written by them And while I say that I will add that though for Nineteen years I was so seldom from her that she had few Letters of mine yet those which she had I find now among her reserved Papers And that you may see what it was that I' thought she most desired and what she her self most valued I will here add one of them not venturing to trouble such with more as are affected little with any matters but their own which is the case of most I recite this rather than others partly also as an act of repentance for those failings of her just expectations by the neglect of such helps as I should have given her which I had here mentioned For though she oft said that before she Married me she expected more sowrness and unsuitableness than she found yet I am sure that she found less zeal and holiness and strictness in all words and looks and duties and less help for her soul than she expected And her temper was to aggravate a fault much more in her nearest and dearest friends than in any others and to be far more troubled at them But this use she made of my too cold and careless converse and of all my impatiency with her impatience and of all my hasty words that she that had long thought she had no grace because she reach 't not higher than almost any reach on Earth and because she had many Passions and Infirmities perceived by me and many other esteemed Teachers that we were all as bad as she and therefore grace doth stand with more faultiness than she had imagined and that all our teaching much excelled the frame of our souls and lives and was much more worthy to be followed and therefore that God would also pardon such failings as her own THough I have received none from you but one by Mr. H. I will not be avenged on you by the like I have nothing of News or business to communicate but to tell you that we are all here yet as well as you left us excepting what your absence causeth And yet I must confess I find that it is easier to be oft speaking to God when I have no body else to speak to than when there are other Competitors Expectants or Interpellators Just as I can easier now fill my Paper to thee with some speech of God when I have nothing else to put into it than I can when many other matters are craving every one a place It is our shame that the Love and Glory of God doth not silence every other Suiter and even in the midst of crowds and business take us up and and press every creature and occasion for their service But while we are weak and compassed with flesh we must not only consider what we should do but what we can do It is our great fault that we are no skilfuller and faithfuller in helping one another that we might miss each other on better reasons than meerly from the inclinations of Love I hope God will make us better hereafter that when we are asunder each of us may say I miss the help for Watchfulness and Heavenliness for true Love and Thankfulness to God which I was wont to have But O! what an enemy is a naughty heart which maketh us unable for our duty alone and makes us need the help of others and yet will not suffer us to use it when we have it When we are alone it maketh us impediments to our selves and when we are in company it maketh us impediments to others Yet is there none no not the weakest of Christians but there is much in them that we might improve But we are so bad and backward at it that Satan too commonly hath his end in making us unprofitable to each other If a good Horse or a good House be a valuable mercy how much more

expectations and preparations for death as made the case of her soul less grievous to me as no way doubting of her salvation and knowing that a distracting Feaver or a Phrensie or an Inflamation or disturbance of the Animal Spirits or Brain or an Impostume may befal the best as soon as the worst I thank God that she was never under any Melancholly which tempted her to any of those doleful evils which many Score I think that have been with me of several ways of education have been sadly tempted to She near 19. year lived with me cheerful wise and a very useful life in constant Love and Peace and Concord except our differing Opinions about tri●●al occurrences or our disputing or differing mode of talk § 10. She was buried on Iune 17. in Christs-Church in the Ruines in her own Mothers Grave The Grave was the highest next the old Altar or Table in the Chancel on which this her Daughter had caused a very fair rich large Marble-stone to be laid Anno 1661. about 20. years ago on which I caused to be written her Titles and some Latin Verses and these English ones Thus must thy flesh to silent dust descend Thy mirth and worldly pleasure thus will end Then happy holy souls but wo to those Who Heaven forgot and earthly pleasures chose Hear now this Preaching Grave without delay Believe repent and work while it is day But Christs-Church on earth is liable to those changes of which the Ierusalem above is in no danger In the doleful-flames of London 1666. the fall of the Church broke this great Marble all to pieces and it proved no lasting Monument and I hope this Paper-Monument erected by one that is following even at the door in some passion indeed of love and grief but in sincerity of truth will be more publickly useful and durable than that Marble-stone was CHAP. X. Some Vses proposed to the Reader from this History as the reasons why I wrote it IF this Narrative be Useless to the Readers it must needs be the sin of the publisher for idle writing is worse than idle words But I think it useful with that which followeth to all these ends to considering men § 1. It may help to convince those that are inclined to Sadducism or Infidelity and believe not the testimony of the sanctifying spirit to the truth of the Word of God but take holiness as it differs from Heathen-morality to be but fancy hypocrisie custom or self-conceit A man that never felt the working of Gods special Grace on his own heart is hardly brought to believe that others have that which he never had himself And this turneth usually to Diabolical malignity inclining them to hate those and revile or dispise them as deluded proud Fanatick hypocrites who pretend to be any better than they are or to have that which they take to be but a conceit All their Religious thoughts they take for the Dreams of crazed or proud persons and their holy discourse and Prayers but for canting or vain babling But acquaintance if intimate with gracious persons might convince them of their mortal error and true History methinks may do much towards it § 2. I confess with thanks to God that having these Forty years found that all our holiness and comfort depends upon our certain perswasion of the life of Retribution following and that our certainty of this depends upon our certain belief of the Holy Scriptures and we being here in the dark and too apt to doubt of all that we see not there are several sensible or experienced present certainties which have been a great succor to my Faith to save me from temptations to unbelief and doubting and confirm my assurance that the Scripture is Gods Word I. In that I undoubtedly by see and hear that through all the world there is just such a pravity in humane nature as the Scripture describeth for original sin which cannot be the state of mans integrity when his reason is much convinced of much of the duty to God man and himself which he will not do and of most of the great sins which he will not forsake II. I see the Scripture clearly verified in mentioning the common enmity and War between the Serpent's and the holy Seed It is notorious through the world in all Ages and Countries an enmity which no Relation or Interest reconcileth III. I feel and see the Scripture verified which describeth all the temptations of Satan and the secret War within us between the spirit and the flesh IV. And I feel and see the Scripture fulfilled which promiseth a blessing on Gods Word and his Ordinances V. And I feel and see the Scripture fulfilled which describeth the renewing work of the Holy Ghost and the spiritual difference of the sanctified from all others This is not only in my self but in others O how many hundred holy persons have I known the witness of Christs Truth and Power and as Ioshua's and Caleb's bunch of Grapes to assure me of the land of Promise and Gods Truth which I see fulfilled in them Can I doubt of holiness when I feel it and see it in the effects VI. Even as it perswadeth me the easilier to believe that there are Devils when I see their very nature and works in Devils incarnate and see what a Kingdom he plainly ruleth in the world and to believe that there is a Hell when I see so much of Hell on Earth § 3. It may teach us that the state of Godliness is not to be judged of by the fears and sorrows in which it usually begins A mans life is not like his Infancy at his birth The fears and penitent sorrows which foolish fleshly sinners fly from do tend to everlasting peace and joy and perfect love will cast out all tormenting fears unless it be those of a timerous diseased temper which have more of sickness than of sin and will be laid aside with the body which was their cause A life of peace and joy on earth may succeed the tremblings of the new-born Convert but a life of full everlasting joy will certainly succeed the perseverance and victory of every believing holy soul. § 4. It may warn all to take heed of expecting too much from so frail and bad a thing as man My dear Wife did look for more good in me and more help from me than she found especially lately in my weakness and decay We are all like Pictures that must not be looked on too near They that come near us find more faults and badness in us than others at a distance know § 5. It should greatly warn us to take heed of small beginnings even a spark of affection honest in the kind may kindle a flame not easily quenched How great a matter may a little fire kindle almost all sin beginneth in a seed or spark which is very hardly known to be a sin or danger § 6. Yea it should warn all to keep all the thoughts affections