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A49761 An history of angells being a theologicall treatise of our communion and warre with them : handled on the 6th chapter of the Ephesians, the 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 verses / by Henry Lawrence ...; Of our communion and warre with angels Lawrence, Henry, 1600-1664.; Milton, John, 1608-1674. 1649 (1649) Wing L660; ESTC R12895 135,420 210

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goodnesse have form'd you ablest to pardon me in any thing vvherein I shall neede it And of all I have knovvne of either Sexe I have mett vvith fevv more diligently inquisitive or pertinently reasoning of things of a raised and abstracted nature especially vvhich might have influence into the good of another life then your self To which I adde That I professe to have infinite ingagements to avovv my self before all the vvorld Most honoured Mother Your most obedient Sonne Most Humble servant HENRY LAWRENCE A Treatise of our Communion and warre with Angells Ephes. 6.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18 Put on the vvhole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the vviles of the Divell For vvee vvrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against povvers against the Rulers of the Darknes of this vvorld against spirituall vvickednesse in high places c. THE great externall cause of all our evills is the Divell who hath such a kinde of relation to our sins as the holy Spirit hath to our graces saving that hee findes a foundation within us to build upon matter out of which hee extracts his formes whereas the holy Spirit doth that worke as well as the other and is put to the paine of foundation worke as well as building I call him the externall cause in opposition to the working of our owne corruptions which are our owne properly and most of all within us In other respects hee may be sayd to be the internall cause also for hee mingles himselfe with our most intimate corruptions and the Seate of his warfare is the inward man Now because hee hath a greater influence into us then perhaps wee consider of and the knowledge of our enemy is of great concernement to the warre wee must have with him I desire a litle to inquire into this mighty enemy of God and man that wee may knowe him and dread him so farre as to fit us for conflict and that wee may knowe him and discover him for hee is a perfect Iugler hee raignes not much when his tricks are discovered and that wee may knowe him and resist him if hee shall embolden himselfe to stand his ground as often hee doth The Apostle from the beginning of the 4 Chap. had taught them how they should live in generall first among themselves then with relation to those that are without ver 18. Then hee condiscends to particuler duties of Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants and last of all before hee concludes returnes to that which hee had mentioned in the 3. Chap. ver 16. where hee beggs of God as the most desireable thing in the world that they might be strengthened according to the riches of his grace in the inner man Heere hee turnes his prayer into an exhortation wherein hee provokes them to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might ver 10. That is to say though you have all faith and all knowledge and worke well yet you must persevere yee must goe on and you must doe it with strength It is a great matter to come into the lists but it is great to runne also and to fight when you are there for you shall meete with those that shall oppose you and conflict with you therefore be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that is with the Lord by his Spirit which is his mighty Agent shall worke in your hearts Be not strong in your owne strength in your owne purposes in the freedome of your owne wills so was Peter who got nothing by it but in the Lord his Spirit can strengthen can raise can confirme you Ver. 11. Put you on the whole Armour of God God is able to preserve you but hee will doe it by your fighting and your Armour must be sutable to the hand that wields it which is the Spirit of God in you and the enemy it conflicts with which is the Divell Againe it must be the whole Armour if you want any one piece that place will be exposed to danger also All for offence and defence that you may save your self by destroying your enemy that yee may bee able to stand against the wiles of the Divell that is that yee may hold your ground though you should receive wounds and thrusts yet that you may not give way as ver 13. that yee may withstand in the evill day The day of temptation is an evill day a day of trouble a day of tryall and often in respect of the event evill therefore deliver us from evill And having done all to stand that is if you doe all in this fight God commaunds you and omit nothing by the vertue of God you will stand but there is no dallying with such an enemy your standing must be a fruit and result of doing all The wiles of the Divell the word is Methods that is the divell like a cunning fencer hath his faints knowes how to take his advantages and like a great commaunder hath his stratagemes by which hee doth as much as by fine force and these are well laid there is a Method in them to make the worke the surer one thing depends upon another and all contribute to make the result firme For wee wrastle that is de conflictu est sermo non de ludo we speake of conflicts not of play or sport not against Flesh and Blood that is that which wee have onely in our eye is flesh and blood wicked men that wounds us and persecute us where note that God calls all wicked men all the enemies of his Church but flesh and blood now they are the most perishable things when God will blowe upon them for all flesh is grasse though the enemies be never so great and mighty they are but as grasse and stubble Or secondly flesh and blood by which may be understood your carnall lusts the concupiscence of the flesh and the boyling and ebullition of the blood to anger and all passions it is not so much or it is not especially against these you wrestle but rather against him that acts them and makes use of them to your ruine and dis-advantage which is the divell and this hee may perhaps speake against the opinion of the Heathen who understood not the operation of the divell but thought all our conflicts was against internall passions But against Principalities hee seemes to describe the divels heere which are our enemies first from the principality of their nature by which the eminency and raisednes of their nature in respect of this visible world is set forth that as the state of Princes differ eminently from other men so the nature of divells as Princes excells the nature of men and of all visible things Against Powers hee calls them Powers simply without any addition to shewe the eminency of their power aswell as of their natures that as they have a nature farre above flesh and blood fitted for great things so they have a power
comes next to have an influence upon rationall creatures Secondly God doth it for our very great comfort and consolation what a happines is it that a haire of our heads cannot fall to the ground without Gods notice that they are all numbred that God knowes and mindes all our wayes but now when God shall raise up such powers for us when wee see the chariots and horses this addes to our courage and assurance as it did to Iacobs God hath said hee will never leave us nor forsake us But when wee see corne and wine when wee see him compassing us about with meanes sutable to our necessities this confirmes us as being a helpe proportionable to our neede wee see our good and our desires not onely in the remote cause but in the next and immediate God hath formed the Angells for the effecting many great workes about us and upon us though wee little consider it now when wee see mighty creatures fitted for those services wee ought to have strong consolation but the Angells are framed ministering spirits Heb. 1.14 God indeed doth all things yet hee speakes by men and teacheth also by his spirit there is a forme above men Angells which hee useth also they beare us in their armes and pitch their tents about us and doe much for us Thirdly God useth the Angells for their good and honour whom hee vonchsafeth to use as fellow-workemen with himselfe and his son this was Pauls honour that hee wrought together with God Now the Angells which are deare to God are used in great imployments as God is wont to serve himself of those hee loves to some imployment or other Fourthly that there may a love and acquaintance grow betweene us and the Angells with whom wee must live for ever and whom wee must be like Now love growes by mutuall offices as is seene in the love of mothers to their children which increase by fostering and tending on them It s good to be a Saint that yee may have the tutelage of Angells This honour have all the saints and none but they The wicked have no Angells to looke to them to take care of them particularly though they may fall perhaps under some generall charge and care as they doe also of God that they may be preserved to their condition God takes care of them so farre and so may the Angells but they are properly Guardians and ministering spirits to the saints they are particularly ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation It s good to be a Church for the same reason there being to Churches a superadded deputation to that of Saints for to Churches also Angells seeme to be destined to which purpose that place mentioned before is not inconsiderable 1 Cor. 11.10 because of the Angells on which place Peter Martyr sayes wee ought to thinke that they have a care of our Churches aswell as of the Iewes for sayes hee it is said Dan. 12. that Michael the Prince stood for the children of Israel and that this place is meant of the Angells and not of the Ministers you have also the authority of Calvin who observes the word Angell is never appropriated to Ministers without some addition as to the Angell of Ephesus c. besides There would have bene more reason to have said that the women should have had power of their heads in respect of their husbandes or the whole congregation then the Ministers onely and to improove this further let this consideration worke upon you least the Angells be provoked to withdraw as I told you they would this is common to Churches and Christians both for as the holy Angells rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner and in our right order so they are offended and chastice according to their commission given them from God when wee doe otherwise Thirdly that since the happines of these blessed Angells lies in working as it doth for it was given as one reason of their charge that they might worke with him so ours also and though the services wee are imployed in may seeme much belowe us yet if they be Gods and in reference to that order hee sets in the world and much more if they be in order to the saints and their good and advancement then be not ashamed of the services which Angells performe and be not weary of working which is the best improvement of the holy Angells Fourthly let us so walke both as Christians and members of Churches that the Angells may discharge themselves of their worke with joy and not with griefe for that will be unprofitable for us Thus you see in generall their charge you are fairly weited on you have particular Angell Guardians and in case of need you may have whole legions Next wee will come to consider of their power over our bodies and mindes where it will be requisite to consider first of the knowledge they have of things after of the excercise of their power and then proceed to the evill workings of the evill Angells which is that principally intended Wee have already made this corrolary that wee should so walke as the Angells might discharge themselves with joy at the last day But that which seemes to be the proper use of the foregoeing point is that wee should leade heere Angelicall lives if the Angells guard us and accompany us wee should savour of their converse Men are knowne by their company they are not idle attendants such as great men have for a parade and a shew nor is their speciall influence upon our outward man as wee shall shew hereafter mee thinkes wee should not keepe such company in vaine but should savour of a spirituall abstracted communion that as they tooke bodies to themselves in their apparitions not for any pleasure they had in them but for our need so wee should use outward and bodily things for the needs of the bodies and should please our spirits and the good Angells with whom wee converse and who are about us by gaining ground as much of the flesh and corruption as is possible and bring the body as neere as may bee into a spirituall frame by possessing it in sanctification and honour and by making it serviceable to our minde using it and not being used and commaunded by it This will gratify the good Angells which the Scripture expects at our hands 1. Cor. 11.10 But this onely by way of addition to what was said before That wee have next to speake of is the power of the Angells then how it is excercised and put forth towards us And because a great peece of their abilitie lies in their knowledge wee will consider that That they are indued with an excellent knowledge as being the highest of all intellectuall creatures is without all question and will appeare in considering what their knowledge is And first Austen and the school-men which follow him give unto the Angells a knowledge which they call Cognitio matutina vespertina a morning and
of the patience of Iob Jam. 5.11 and might boast of us as of those induring Saints Heere is the patience of the Saints behold it Reu. 13.10 In all these respects ye have need of patience yea and that patience should have its perfect work as James saith Jam. 1.4 That it should possesse our soules that it should be fitted for every condition and hold out to the utmost to the extremitie as you see those who are betrusted with forts and strengths they had need of patience And yet must hold out to the utmost extremity by the law of warre now then you see the need wee have of patience but it must be the patience of hope 1. Thess. 1.3 The Apostle gives there the effects and their causes the work of faith saids hee the labour of love and the patience of hope the effect or great product of hope is patience patience is a grace which hath no shine or glitter with it it is sweet but darke and obscure and hath nothing in it of violence and having mighty enemies it defends it self in suffering wee gaine the victory often in loosing our lives it scarce complaines of what it indures so as it passeth often amongst ignorant men for stupidity and dulnesse Now this sweet and low grace in respect of its condition and the manner of its operation would be opprest a thousand times under the victory of its enemies if it were not animated by the livelinesse and activity of hope if the hope of salvation the hope of glory for so it is called did not continually set before its eyes the greatnesse of the reward yee can never have a better instance then of our Master Christ himself while hee was in the conflict of patience and that was his life hee was ever in the lists of sufferings conflicting with sorrowes and woes for the joy that was set before him which was made sure to him by faith received and enjoyed by hope for hee came by his comforts even as wee this made him to endure the crosse and despise the shame and wee are commanded to runne with patience the race that is set before us looking to him Heb. 12.2 3. That is use our patience as hee did and relieve our patience as hee did by the joyfull sights of hope patience without hope is the deadest thing in the world for why doe I deprive my self of good why doe I suffer so many things in vaine if they be in vaine and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted that the patient continuance in well doeing hath some thing to relieve it namely a lookeing after glory and honour and immortality c. Rom. 2.7 without which animation and enlivening of hope patience were dead and deadly more fit to be the property of a stone or a blocke then the grace of a Saint thus yee see your selves armed by hope against the great enemies of God and man against the great troublers of Israel pleasures and paines by having your joyes and your patience acted by hope which is your Helmet But hope thirdly is proper for doing aswell as suffering having a great influence as I told you upon our simbolicall head our intentions and scopes and end and this peece aswell as our shooes the shooes of the preparation of the Gospell of peace inables us for acting and the truth is while wee doe nothing good wee are not secure against doing ill But if hope serve to any thing it serves to incourage to labour and worke wee use to say in a proverbe take away hope and take away endeavour no worke is done or can be done without hope hee that ploweth should plow in hope and that hee that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hopes 1. Cor. 9.10 A man would be loath to plow the ground or thresh the corne without hope you will not doe actions of the lowest forme without it Againe as you can do nothing without hope so ye attempt the greatest things by hope the hopes of victory the hope of successe the hope of gaine whither doth it not ingage men our strength depends upon our hope and therefore Jeremy complaines my strength and my hope is perished Lam. 3.18 No more hope no more strength they stand and fall together they are alike in their birth and death On the other side when Paul was to give an account to Agrippa of his actions Acts 26.6 7. I am judged sayes hee for the hope of the promise made unto our fathers unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come Doe you wonder why they served God with that instance and intensenesse day and night why they doe that which none of the world doe besides they hope to attaine the promise of God that is the thing promised that ingageth them to a continuall and a most intense labour so the Apostle when hee gives in a very few words all that is to be forborne and done for God and our good makes hope to be the rise of all his courage and activity Tit. 2.13 lookeing for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our saviour Iesus Christ compared with the former verses 11. and 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts wee should live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world And Christ when hee bidds us doe any thing hoping for nothing againe Luk. 6.35 Lend hoping for nothing againe hee doth not meane wee should have nothing or be without hope but tells us immediately that our reward shall be great in heaven and wee shall be the children of the Highest and presently suggests matter of hope which hee affixeth to the lending of a penny or the giving a cup of cold water yee shall not loose your reward But to what workes doth hope animate us to all for the least shall be considered shall not loose its reward and the greatest shall be considered proportionably Hee that overcometh and hee that followes mee heere shall sit upon twelve Thrones There is nothing so great that hope cannot expect for it is the hope of salvation And therefore there is no worke so great that hope cannot put you upon for it workes from hope to salvation Captaines when they harrang their Souldiers tell them of the butin of the prey tell them of honours and advancements and Christ when hee incourageth his speakes Crownes as freely as any but spirituall crownes assured by faith and enjoyed for the present by hope it is a shame that our hopes should not carry us toward working as farre as ever any worldly hath done in all the particulars of worke I will insist onely upon one which the scripture particularly annexeth to hope and is proper for us all Hee that hath this hope that is of seeing God of salvation hee purifyeth himself even as hee is pure 1. Joh. 3.3 The reason of the action
evening knowledge or a day or a night knowledge They call that the morning knowledge which respects the things in its cause and that the evening knowledge which respects the things in its effects the one is a cleare knowledge the other obscure So as the morning or cleare knowledge is that by which the Angells see all things in the warde that is in the sunne by whom they were created The evening or darke knowledge is that by which they see the same things in themselves or in their owne natures As the knowledge of a line or circle by a Mathematicus description is a right knowledge in the beauty and proportion of it but the knowledge of it as made in the dust is to know it with many imperfections But the knowledge of the Angells may be distinguish't either into a naturall knowledge of which in a great measure the good and ill were partakers for so it is said that some stood in the truth and others fell from the truth Joh. 8.44 Hee was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth Therefore there was a truth and knowledge which some adhered to and some not The second is by revelation so to the Angell in Daniel was revealed the mistery of the 70 weekes so the Angell revealed to Iohn the things hee knew not before and of such things are they the messengers to the sonnes of men A third is by experience so they see the manifold wisedome of God in the Church and this is of great use to the good and evill Angells for the same way men have to grow wise they have also A fourth is a supernaturall knowledge with which the elect Angells were indued not in the creation for then it would have bene a naturall knowledge but afterwards And this answers a great objection why some Angells stood and some fell when as they all sawe God and I have formerly in another discourse affirmed that when wee shall see God face to face it will be impossible to sinne or to turne away from that vision The truth is the reprobate Angells never saw God as the elect did for the will of the good Angells would never have bene firmer if their understanding had not bene other wise enlightened for it is the light of the understanding that hath the great influence upon the will as wee see so wee effect and moove Now of the elect Angells it is said that they alwayes behold the face of the Father which of the reprobate is not said now yee know what it is to see God face to face that is to see him evidently clearely as hee is to be seene without a straitened and modificated vision which is the great happines of men You see now what kinde of knowledge the Angells have the last of which namely supernaturall was peculiar to the elect Angells and stood them in such steade as it kept them from falling away when others fell to their owne perdition If you aske mee how or in what manner the Angells know Wee must consider how wee our selves know wee know a thing as wee see it for the eye of the body hath a kinde of resemblance to the eye of the minde now to seeing there is required first a power of seeing in the eye Secondly a light through which wee see if the eye be blinde or there be a hurt or wound in it that there be not a facultie of seeing you see not though you have light and there must be light aswell as an eye or you see not neither Thirdly the species or image of the thing you see this altogether makes vision So in the understanding there is in like manner the power of the understanding by which wee are made able to judge then a light by which the minde is enlightened to perceive its object and then the species or image of the thing out of the understanding by which the thing is made present to the understanding The two first are common to us with the Angells to wit the power of knowing and the light by which wee know they know more but the way is the same The question is onely of the last whether they understand as wee by species or images received from things or otherwise It is certaine they know not all things by their owne essence as God doth for God containes all things in himselfe and is himselfe the likenes and copie of all other things and therefore knowing himselfe as hee doth most perfectly hee knowes every thing els of which hee is the copie Something 's they know by their owne essence as the eye sees the light by it self not by any image of it so the Angells know themselves by their owne essence but of things without them they know them by species and representations not which they take of from the things but such as are put into them by God Wee take of the image of God first by our outward sences as the eye takes of the image of what ever it sees then by our fancy and lastly wee forme a kinde of intelligible species sutable and proportionable to the things wee would know But the Angells which have not either outward or inward sences have not this way of knowing things and therefore know them by species put into them by God One thing more is considerable that is whether the Angells know by reasoning and dividing and compounding as wee know by drawing consequences from principles already acknowledged It is certaine they apprehend things quickly as appeares by the comparison of a learned and wise man with one who is not give a wise man any ground or principle hee will make out of that many conclusions So in matters of numbring and account an accountant will tell you that in a quarter of an hower that another would be a day about And though they doe know things by the effects and by reasoning yet it is with that quicknesse and certainty that our greatest understanding is darknesse to it Another question is whether the Angells know particular things and what ever is done heere First it is granted that they know one another so as there is no Angell in heaven which is not knowne by his fellow Without which they would not enjoy one another and so not be lesse happy Even as wee shall know the enumerable company of Angells and the spirits of just men nor is there any Divell in the ayre or seas or under the earth which the good Angells know not for how could they els resist them on our behalfe Secondly it must needs be granted that the good Angells know not onely the severall kindes and species of things the humane nature and all the kindes of creatures in heaven and earth and sea with their properties and natures perfectly and exactly for men in a great part know these things how much more powers so much superiour but also they know particular things that as God knowes all things by one image and likenes which