Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	die_v	life_n	5,110	5	5.0778	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26753	A sermon at the Warwick-shire meeting, November 25, 1679, at S. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, London by William Basset ...	Basset, William, 1644-1695.	1679 (1679)	Wing B1053; ESTC R13214	18,472	35

and weighty that they both afford good ground for importunity and likewise so warm the affections and move the Speaker that he is usually close and pressing Therefore when the Apostle is putting us upon this great and reasonable part of our Religion viz. the presenting our Bodies a Sacrifice to God he both commands and courts us to it I beseech you that ye present your bodies c. 3. It may be further used where men are not easily brought to comply with the matter proposed There are some things indeed so readily received and so tenaciously held by many men that scarce any thing is able to check their belief or restrain from the practice of them and such be the darling conceits of the lawfulness of resisting the lawful Magistrate and of seeking our own preservation in forbidden and therefore in unlawful ways which must be accounted to proceed from their agreeableness to vile affections and the debaucheries of nature Whereas the clearest truths and indispensable duties though indeed the more they are so the more agreeable they be to natural light and the reasons of men as the resisting and mortifying our own corruptions yet still they are not so easily received and reduced to practice But we have more need of undeniable arguments and an importunate zeal to convince and perswade their reception than others have to put off their false and counterfeit Wares The reason of which is these suit with evil inclinations and therefore are easily received while they are against and for that reason opposed by natural corruptions in the one that enemy of all good helps forward in the other he endeavours to hinder us either in the whole or in part or else in the motive or end of our faith or action Therefore the Apostle might the more earnestly press us to the presenting our Bodies that by such means he might overcome all oppositions and thereupon perswade men to captivate their thoughts to the belief and submit themselves to the practice of so great a Duty I beseech you brethren And lest this should be too little he adds 4. A further inforcement of the same thing By the mercies of God I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God By which he means all those things that the Ancients comprised under those three Heads 1. The Goods of Fortune as our Estates and Enjoyments in the world which make our lives a blessing and without which to live would be at present to be miserable 2. The Goods of the Body as Health Strength Perfection and due proportion of Parts 3. The Goods of the Mind as the use of all our Faculties whereby we are able to reason discourse and distinguish between good and evil and make provision against present and future Exigencies All which are so valuable we know not what price to set upon them and the want of any one of them would necessarily infer the presence of some great evil Nay these Mercies include all those good and perfect gifts which come down from the Father of Lights the Redemption of the World and that by a price of infinite value as the giving his Son and that to all the sinless infirmities of humane nature which speaks the purchase the just admiration of Men and Angels that Omnipotency it self should condescend to be carried in the Arms of a feeble Woman That he who sate on the Throne of Heaven should vouchsafe to lie in a dirty Manger That he whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain should be wrapt up in Swadling Cloaths That he who gave life and being to all things should lay down his life for the worst of Sinners That Love it self should sit on a Thorny Bough dying even for those that killed it and to perfect the wonder that this must be a death the most painful and ignominious in the world That he should ever live as the Scripture speaks to make intercession for us as if it was the sole end of his life to plead our Cause in Heaven And when after all we have lived unsuitable to his Mercies that he should yet continue the means of Grace and Tenders of Salvation and pursue us with all the glorious proposals of Bliss and Happiness That he should strive with us by natural conscience the motions and whispers of the blessed Spirit as if he resolved to take no denyal but would even force himself and eternal Glories on us these are Mercies of the greatest magnitude the most winning endearments that love and kindness can lay upon us Obligations that should make us plyable to all the significations of the Divine Will and to turn our hands and hearts to every duty especially considering the great design of them is both to oblige and also to inable us to a pious and an holy life for which cause the Apostle argues from them to the duty before us I beseech you by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies c. which is the fourth part of the Text viz. the subject of the Discourse That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God This is an allusion to the Law of Sacrifices under the Mosaick Dispensation of which we shall observe some few things that we may the better understand this Phrase and the Duties it requires of us as 1. The perfection of those things that were to be offered to God they must be the best of their kind Levit. 22.19 20 21. Ye shall offer a male without blemish of the beeves and of the sheep and of the goats But whatsoever hath a blemish that shall ye not offer for it shall not be acceptable for you And Mal. 1.14 God lays a curse upon him that shall presume to offer him a corrupt thing Now as these Sacrifices were typical of something that was to be under the Gospel viz. that immaculate Sacrifice of the blessed Jesus which he was once to make for our Sins whence he is called the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the World So the perfection of them taught the purity which God required of them that should offer themselves unto him under each Dispensation That God who would not allow of imperfections in the things offered would by no means suffer the blemishes of Sin in the persons offering For this is a greater provocation than the other for that teaches the necessity of this therefore as such Sacrifices were rejected so were such Sacrificers too And sometimes the spotless Offering was abhorred for the spots of him that offered it Isai 1.11 to vers 16. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination c. The reason of which is vers 15. Your hands are full of blood Now by this allusion the Apostle shews that the Sacrifices under the