Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A02170
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Meditations and disquisitions upon the one and fiftieth Psalme of Dauid Miserere mei Deus. By Sr. Richard Baker, Knight.
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Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.
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1638
(1638)
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STC 1231; ESTC S100560
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42,166
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82
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be spoken of so unspeakable But having said Cast mee not off from thy presence it may seeme superfluous to say Take not thy holy Spirit from me seeing this of necessity followes upon that for how can Gods holy Spirit be but where hee is himselfe and how can it tarry with mee if I tarry not with him They both indeed grow upon one tree yet are severall fruites Gods presence brings with it a passive influence his holy Spirit an active although therefore O God thou barre mee of thy presence and leave me inglorious yet take not away thy holy Spirit from me to leave me prophane Thy holy Spirit is the sanctifier and wilt thou leave me to impiety and prophanenesse Thy holy Spirit is the Directour and wilt thou leave mee without a Guide in the most dangerous passages of this wicked world Thy holy Spirit is the Comforter and wilt thou leave mee Disconsolate in my manifold miseries If thou take thy holy Spirit from me what spirit will be left mee but a spirit of errour a spirit of uncleannesse a spirit of despaire and canst thou for pitty leave me a prey to such outragious spirits O Lord though my sinnes be as great as Cains yet suffer mee not to despaire like Cain though my sinnes be greater than Sauls yet suffer me not to distrust thee like Saul but as it is a benefit so let it be a pledge of thy presence and of thy holy Spirit that I can pray unto thee for thy presence and for the continuance of thy holy Spirit When I remember the sweet comforts I have sometimes found in the motions of thy holy Spirit and when I thinke of the joy I have conceived of thy salvation Oh how my heart seemes to leape within me and how am I ravished with extasies of delight and now to thinke this comfort should be taken from me this joy should be bereft mee Oh what torment what death what hell can be so grievous But how can God cast mee off from his presence though hee would Is not God every where and am not I somewhere and must I not then be needs where he is and in his presence God indeed hath a presence of Being and this is every where and he hath a presence of Power and this is every where but he hath a presence of Grace and favour and this is not every where His presence of Power is as well in the Ant as in the Elephant yet it maketh not the Ant an Elephant and therefore this is not the presence that I desire his presence of Being is as well in hell as in heaven yet it makes not the hell a heaven and therefore neither is this the presence that I desire but his presence of grace and favour is not as well in the wicked as in the penitent for if it were it would make the wicked penitent and therefore this is the presence which I so much long to keepe which I so much feare to lose But why should I feare least God should cast me off from his presence Is not his delight amongst the children of men and am not I one of that Generation And why should I feare lest hee should take his holy Spirit from mee was it not hee that gave it mee at first and is he one that will give a thing and then take it away againe Yet my sinnes make mee that I cannot but feare for why should hee not cast me out of his sight who hath wrought so much wickednesse in his sight why should he let his holy Spirit stay there where it is so much grieved for what doe my grievous sinnes but grieve it Oh vile sinne of what cause thou art the effect I know not but this I know thou art the cause of most vile effects for thou onely art the cause that God is like to cast me off from his presence thou onely the cause that God is like to take his holy Spirit from me and seeing in Gods presence there is fulnesse of joy for evermore alas in being cast out of his presence what is left mee but the fulnesse of misery for ever more But seeing thou hast not cast me off from thy presence but onely removed thy presence from me because thy pure nature could not endure to stay in a polluted heart yet now that I am new made and that thou hast created a cleane heart within mee Now thou maiest returne and restore to me the comfort of thy presence the joy of thy salvation and by this thou shalt shew thou didst not take it away to keepe it away but to make it more precious in restoring thou shalt shew thou didst not leave mee to forsake mee but to make thy selfe more welcome in returning But though some things are of such condition that we finde their goodnesse more by wanting than by enjoying as sicknesse makes us more sensible of health yet this needed not in the comfort of thy presence seeing of this there can be no satiety and wee can never so well learne to desire thee by wanting thee as we are taught to embrace thee by enjoying thee Although the fuites I make to thee O God be many yet they are all so subordinate to one another that if thou deni'st me one it were as good for me thou should'st deny them all For what good will it doe mee to have a cleanâ— heart created in mee and thy blessed presence removed from me What good to have a right spirit renued and thy holy Spiriâ— to be taken away as if thou should'st supply mee with props and take away foundations The feare of this lest thou should'st cast mee out of thy presence and take thy holy Spirit from mee hath so deeply wrought upon me and brought me so low that I find no Physicke now so necessary for me as a Restorative Oh therefore Restore to mee the joy of thy salvation for this Restorative exceeds not onely all the simples of Nature but all the compounds of art for what Alchermes what Gellies what Aurum potabile can be comparable to this Restorative The joy of thy salvation But had not this beene a fittâ—r sute for Nabuchodonofor from whom God tooke away at once his Sense Reason and his Kingdome than for David from whom God never tooke any thing that wee know of but onely his childe begotten in adultery yet David will hardly be drâ—wne to thinke so for heare the moane be makes Alas O Lord I live now as it were cast out of thy presence which is more to me than for Nabuchodonosor to be cast out of his Kingdome I feede now upon the bread of sorrow which is more to mee than for Nabuchodonosor to feede upon the grasse of the earth I sit now as a Sparrow upon the house top desolate and disconsolate which is more to mee than for Nabuchodonosor to have no compauions but the beasts of the field and yet O Lord onely Restore to mee the joy of thy salvation and it
also wilt graciously accept the humble service of the convertour and even thy selfe shalt receive a benefit in thy glory by the benefit which I receive by thy pardon for as there have beene many scandalled by my sinne so there shall be many reclaimed by my repentonce and they who loved thee not for thy Iustice shall feare thee for thâ— mercy and theâ— who feared thee not for thy mercy shall love thee for thy justice and thy Name shall bee great amongst all Nations O happy conversion that is not barren and ends in it selfe which was a curse in Israel but as a fruitfull mother continues a race of conversions and shall therefore make the Convertour â—hine in Heaven as a Starre of the greater Magnitude But am I a fit man to teach thy waies to the wicked who have walked all my life long in the waies of wickednesse Am I likely to be a meanes for converting of sinners who have hitherto beene occasion of perverting the godly Thou O God that tookest Amos from among the Heard-men of tekoa to make him a Prophet thou also canst take me from among the wicked of the world to make me a converter of sinners I take not upon me to teach the godly who may better teach me I teach onely the wicked None but sinners are for my Schoole I am not a Shepheard to tend the fold but to fetch in strayers The title of my profession is Dux conversorum A guide of converts all my Doctrine is onely Repentance and if any such be that need no repenting they need not my teaching nor belong to my Schoole But if any man thinke repentance a lesson so easie that he can take it out and learne it without a teacher let him but heare the lesson read which I have learned and he must if he will be a convert Let him see my eyes swolne with the floods of my teares and so must his be Let him see me lie groveling under sackcloth and ashes and so must hee doe Let him see my knees brawned with kneeling at Prayer and so must his be Let him see mee goe fasting with bread and water and so must hee doe Let him see my backe goared with stripes of contrition and so must his be Let him see my breast torne with sighings and groanings and so must he doe and if all this be not enough to make a hard lesson let him see my heart broken and shivered with sorrow and so must his be And now let flesh and blood tell me if this be a lesson to be learned without a teacher But if Repentance be so hard a lesson to learne how can David be so confident of his teaching to say that sinners shall be converted by it Indeed when Kings become Schoolemasters no marvell if sinners become converts For who knowes not the force of Regis ad exemplum But is David then the only Phoenix in this kinde Have wee not amongst us at this day and long may we have a King like David who though hee teach not the same lesson that David did for his lesson was onely Repentance yet his whole life is a Lecture of Piety and opâ—ghtnesse a lesson so much better than Davids as to be in the first For me of Vertue is farre more worthy than to be but in the second But Oh the the uâ—quier stare of a guilty conscience David was much troubled at first about procuring his cleanenesse and now hee seemes as much troubled about 〈◊〉 his foulenesse Iâ— it the Malus genius of sinne that is never without feare and therefore creeps into all corners Or is it the Bonus genius of Repentance that is never without care and therefore searcheth all corners David had asked God forgivenesse for his iniquitie his sin his offences his transgressions corners enow to meete with any sin of what kinde soever but is it enough to confesse our sins and to aske forgivenesse in generall termes and never to make mention of any sinne in particular Indeede where sins be infinite it were an infinite labour to mention them all and with all our labour could never be done but yet where there are eminent sinnes sinnes like Saul higher than their fellowes by head and shoulders not to mention such sinnes were a kinde of concealing them as if wee meant to hide them in the throng that they might passe unperceived and there must be no concealing if we looke for cancelling Behold then O God an eminent sinne a sinne indeede like Saul so high above his fellowes that I dare not say what it is without saying Deliver mee first Deliver mee from blood guiltinesse O God thou God of my saluation and blame mee not for doubling the Name of God here seeing it is a deliverance that requires a double proportion of Gods assistance For though every sinne may be said a sin of blood as whereof the wages is death yet this actuall shedding of blood is a sin of the most scarlet-die and stands in neede of the greatest measure of God free Spirit to free it But what neede David pray God to deliver him from blood-guiltinesse For what blood had hee shed much no doubt in warre but that was lawfull and left no guiltinesse and therefore needed no deliverance But what blood did hee shed unlawfully No more did Ahab No more did Iezabel yet as guilty of blood as if they had shed it When Magistrates command a thing to be done they doe it When a malicious person imprecates a mischiefe to be wrought hee workes it When a man plots a villany to be acted he acts it and in all these waies though David actually shed no blood yet he was as guilty of blood as if he had shed it Peralium here is as much as Perse and therefore David knew hee had cause enough to say Deliver me from blood guiltinesse O God But is there any hope that this sin of blood may ever be remitted seeing God hath spoken it peremptorily he that sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed and can I looke that God will breake his Word to doe me a pleasure But is it not that Gods threatning is ever with condition For was it not so in Ninive Forty daies and Ninive shall be destroyed Yet forty daies came and Ninive was not destroyed Was it not so to Hezekiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt die of this sicknesse yet Hâ—zekiah died not of that sicknesse but lived fifteene yeeres after I know indeede that the condition of Gods Will there though noe expressed was yet intended Vnlesse they repented but what may be the condition of his will here No doubt Repentance too but with ths Codicill annexed His blood shall be shed unlesse hee can finde some other that will shed his blood for him And alas if this be the condition What am I the neere For where can I finde out any that will shed his blood for me and if I could finde one willing where can I