Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	efficient_a	faith_n	instrumental_a	2,644	5	11.5403	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45640	The divine physician, prescribing rules for the prevention, and cure of most diseases, as well of the body, as the soul demonstrating by natural reason, and also divine and humane testimony, that, as vicious and irregular actions and affections prove often occasions of most bodily diseases, and shortness of life, so the contrary do conduce to the preservation of health, and prolongation of life : in two parts / by J.H ...	Harris, John, 1667?-1719.	1676 (1676)	Wing H848; ESTC R20051	75,699	228

they are not winged with zeal and importunity It is the importunate Beggar that getteth an Alms They that faint in their prayers have such a faint heart as never winneth a fair blessing And therefore as a Corroborative against such faintings let us consider how oft we use a Medicine for the Body before it can be whole how many stroaks on Oak must have before it will fall how over and over again we plough our Lands and delve our Gardens before we can have our expectation and also how frequently Earthly Kings must be attended upon before Suiters can obtain their suite Surerely favours and mercies even from the King of Kings would be slighted and undervalued if fetched with a faint word And therefore let us vis unita fortior join force to force prayer to prayer and so by a holy violence of zeal besiege the Kingdom of Heaven and in time it will surrender its self to our lawful desires and requests For saith the Apostle the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much James 5. 16. Indeed if our prayers be without life or come out of fained lips or be distracted with wild and wandring thoughts or if they be tainted with hypocrisie pride or incredulity we can look for no favourable audience from Heaven For God heareth not sinners but if a man doth his will him he heareth John 9. 31. God heareth not Sinners that is wilful presumptuous and impenitent Sinners But if a man doth his will by active and passive obedience him he heareth that is either explicitely by granting the individual or particular thing requested or interpretatively by granting that which is aequivalent or far better Now if a righteous Man prayeth for health and a prolongation of his temporary life and God still continueth him upon his Bed of sickness and within a short time by death giveth him Eternal life in exchange for his temporary herein is no severe repulse or denyal but a more favourable audience more satisfactory concession and more Princely donation But you will urge that this last way of granting Requests doth not fully answer the scope of the present Point Hereupon I must reply that though the return of our most faithful prayers must be determined and their success limited by the will of our Heavenly Father according to the words of Christ Jesus Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Matth. 26. 39. yet we must understand that it is the will and usual favour of the Almighty to grant the very things we desire and stand in need of commonly by means and herein chiefly and principally by faithful prayer which without Natural means is often found more effectual then Natural means without it And to encourage us to make trial of such excellent means we have a promise from Truth its self I say unto you whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11. 24. And this brings me to propose or prescribe In the Third place Faith as an excellent means conducing likewise to the health of Body and consequently prolongation of life and this in a super-natural way also There was a Woman vexed with an uncomfortable Disease twelve years She suffered many things of Physicians Mat. 9. 20. some torturing her with one Medicine some with another none did her good but much hurt She had spent all her living upon them Luke 8. 43. and herein saith Erasmus was Bis misera Her sickness brought her to weakness weakness to Physick Physick to beggary beggary to contempt Thus was she vexed in body mind and estate yet Faith healed her Her wealth was gone Physicians gave her over but her Faith did not forsake her Daughter be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole Mat. 9. 22. There was a Woman bowed down with the Spirit of infirmity eighteen years Luke 13. 11. yet loosed There was a Man bedrid eight and thirty years John 5. 5. 9. a long and miserable time when besides his Corporal distress he might perhaps conceive from that Eccl. 38. 15. He that sinneth before his Maker let him fall into the hand of the Physician that God had cast him away yet Christ restored him But may some say it is not mentioned that either of th●se two last were cured by Faith I answer that doubtless Christ saw the seed of Faith in them though it were but as a grain of mustard-seed and so rewarded them accordingly Again we may instance in the Samaritan whose Leprosie though hard to cure yet Faith was able to do it Thy faith hath made thee whole Luke 17. 19. But may some say it was not properly his Faith but Christ's vertue that cured him Why then doth not Christ say Mea virtus and not Tua sides My vertue not thy Faith hath made thee whole True it is his vertue only cures but this is apprehended by Man's Faith The miraculous Cure was attributed to Mans Faith not as to the efficient cause for that was Christ's Divine vertue but as to the instrumental cause or means by which he apprehended and applyed to himself that Divine power by which he was healed Thus in the afore-mentioned place or instance in the 9th of Math. it is written that the Woman which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment For she said within her self if I may but touch his garment I shall be whole And in Mark 5. 30. we read that when that diseased Woman had touched him Jesus knew in himself that vertue had gone out of him and he turned him about in the press and said who touched my clothes Yet speaking to the Woman he mentioneth not his vertue but her Faith Daughter thy faith hath made thee whole Mark 5. 34. Object But here some may object that the gifts of Healing with other miraculous Gifts are ceased in the Church and so consequently Prayer and Faith must needs be ineffectual to the Cure of bodily Distempers without the conjunction of Natural means Answ. To which I answer 'T is true the Doctrine of the Gospel having been long since sealed and confirmed by so many Miracles in the Primitive Church there is now the less need of them more particularly of the gift of Healing and therefore I shall not urge those Miracles which the Church of Rome boasteth of as wrought of late times by some of her Sons or with her extend the promise of our Saviour Mark 16 17 18. to all future times and Ages of the Church yet thus much I may avouch that as God is still able to work Miracles so he hath sometimes even in this latter Age wrought miraculously for the convincing the present times of Atheism and the further confirmation of our Faith in the Gospel And this Mr. Valentine Greatraks in his Printed Letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq maketh appear Wherein he giveth an Account of divers strange Cures by himself

But I shall now proceed to something more proper and adaequate unto the present purpose and that is to lay down a Plat-form of the succeeding Argument In the next Chapter I shall demonstrate in general and particular that vertuous and regular actions and affections are in a super-natural sense conducing to the preservation of health and prolongation of life and in the third Chapter shall shew you that such actions and affections do in a Natural sense conduce to the same end of health and long life and in the fourth Chapter prove that the same means through the blessed influence of Divine Providence do become occasions of the same Natural effects and in the last Chapter shall answer some Objections briefly and then conclude the whole CHAP. II. Shewing in general and particular that vertuous regular actions affections are in a super-natural sense conducing to the preservation of health and prolongation of life IF we search the Scriptures we shall find a great Cloud of witnesses and testimonies ushering in this truth viz. that a life led in Religion vertue and the fear of God doth conduce much to the health of Body and also length of dayes As for instance it is written Ye shall serve the Lord your God and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Exod. 23. 25. Also long life is promised as a blessing unto them that keep the Commandments in these ensuing words That he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom Deut. 17. 20. Also in these That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes Cap. 30. vers 20. Again health is promised upon like conditions Be not wise in thine own eyes saith Solomon fear the Lord and depart from evil It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones Pro. 3. 7 8. Thus Jesus Christ the grand Exemplar of innocency and integrity was without sin and therefore without sickness More particularly these blessings are held forth as temporal rewards of sundry Moral Civil and Religious acts and duties and this may appear both by Divine and Humane Authority First then in respect of obedience to Parents we find long life promised as a motive to it in the fifth Commandment Honour thy father and thy mother that thy dayes may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Exod. 20. 12. Which the Apostle calleth the First Commandment with promise Eph. 6. 1 2. viz. the first affirmative Commandment or the first in the second Table or the first of all the Ten with promise in particular to them that keep it Which promise sheweth that a more plentiful blessing in this kind followeth from our obedience to this than to the other Commandments And yet I confess obedience in general meets with the same blessing as the Psalmist doth denote unto us What man is he that desireth life and loveth many dayes that he may see good keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile Depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it Psal. 34. 12 c. However there lieth a special Emphasis upon the particular observance of the aforesaid Commandment by an express and particular promise of long life But doth this promise alwayes hold Yes surely it holdeth generally and for the most part in comparison of the wicked who do not live out half their dayes Psal. 55. 23. and if it fail it is but rarely and then in exchange for the better that as the Prophet saith The righteous may be taken away from the evil to come Isay 57. 1. I say but rarely it fails for to say otherwise were to make the promise of no effect and the tenor of the Commandment very ambiguous But do not the disobedient live long also truly they have no promise for it and commonly they are cut off by an untimely death or if some of them be reprived until old age they are but comparatively few being reserved only as so many examples of God's mercy and forbearance as the rest being many are soon cut off as examples of his justice Long life then is most commonly the reward of obedience and piety to Parents And it must needs be so when Divine Providence which is more then a Wall of brass to encircle and secure us taketh such especial care in the protection and preservation of such as are endued with that eminent vertue as appeareth by what Aristotle telleth us viz. how that from the Hill Aetna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout yet in the midst of those fearful flames God's especial care of the Godly and obedient shined most brightly For the River of fire parted it self and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged Parents and pluck them out of the jaws of death Ipse dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de mundo cap. 6. If Providence then wrought so much in a miraculous way for the preservation of the lives of Heathens to reward their duty shewed towards their Parents surely Christians the Children of God whose obedience to Parents springeth originally from their obedience to their Heavenly Father may with much more confidence depend upon the same Providence for the like preservation and so by consequence the prolongation of their lives as a reward of the same duty Now though I have insisted upon the afore-mentioned Commandment in a literal sense yet by the rules of extension requisite for the interpretation thereof we are to understand there not only our Natural Parents but as Spiritual Fathers 1 Cor. 4. 15. as Ministers and political Fathers Gen. 45. 8. as Magistrates and oeconomical Fathers 2 Kings 2. 12. 5. 13. as Masters and matrimonial Fathers as Husbands Eph. 5. 22. to all which a respective obedience may I suppose claim a share or portion in the promise of long life In the Second place devout and zealous Prayer in a super-natural way procureth bodily health and so by consequence length of dayes to enjoy the same Sick Abimelech was sent to Abraham a Prophet to be healed by prayer Now therefore saith God restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee c. Gen. 20. 7. So Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech v. 17. So then Abimelech was healed by God as the supream and efficient cause by prayer as the instrumental Hence it is the Son of Sirach adviseth us My son in thy sickness be not negligent but pray unto the Lord and he will make thee whole Eccles. 38. 9. And also soon after sheweth us that the good success of Physicians depends upon something beyond the Sphaere of Natural means and that is prayer unto the Physician of Physicians the

and folly in Israel but also of their abettors the Benjamites who lost above twenty-five thousand Men in the slaughter through that occasion Thus the first voluntary lust of the Levite's Wife was most justly punished by a second rape amongst the lustful Gibeonites whose lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was finished brought forth death Amnon one of the Sons of King David was so strongly enchanted with the love of his Sister Thamar that to the end to fulfil his lust he traiterously forced her to his will But Absalom her natural Brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his Sister invited him two years after to a Banquet with his other Brethren and after the same caused his Men to murder him for a fare-well 2 Sam. 13. The same Absalom that slew Amnon for incest with his Sister committed himself incest with his Fathers Concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsel of Achitophel But it was the fore-runner and occasion of his overthrow and untimely death 2 Sam. 16 18 chap. Rodoaldw the eight King of Lumbardy being taken in Adultery even in the fact was slain without delay by the Husband of the Adulteresse Anno 659. in like sort John Maletesta slew his Wife and the Adulterer together when he took them amidst their embracements Chron. Phil. Melancton So did one Lodewick Steward of Normandy kill his Wife Carlotta and her Lover John Lavernus as they were in bed together At Naples it chanced in the King's Palace as young King Frederick Ferdinand's Son entered the privy Chamber of the Queen his Mother to salute her and the other Ladies of the Court that the Prince of Bissenio waiting in the outward Chamber for his return was slain by one of his own Servants that suddenly gave him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many Spectators Which deed he confessed that he had watched three years to perform in regard of an injury done unto his Sister and in her to him whom he ravished against her will Bemb lib. 3. Hist. Venet. The Spaniards that first took the Isle Hispaniola were for their Whoredoms and rapes which they committed upon the Wives and Virgins all murdered by the Inhabitants Benzoni Milan Infinite are the Examples that might out of History be collected to this purpose But to avoid prolixity let it suffice only to add hereunto that for these and the like sins many thousands in the World in every Age have either by the rage of jealousie in the Persons wronged or by the revenging Sword of the Higher Powers punishing wrong suffered the condigne punishment of death Thirdly and lastly To summ up all further Addition that might be look'd upon as necessarily relating to this Chapter consider in few words that immoderate Anger Envie Hatred Malice Self-murder unlawful Duels Treason Murder of others Despair Rebellion Theft Ambition Covetousness immoderate Grief Atheisme Blasphemy Witchcraft and such like do either immediately by themselves or mediately by other sins accumulated and a succession of unprosperous events attending them prove accidental causes sometimes of Diseases but most commonly of an untimely death And so I proceed to the fourth Chapter as followeth CHAP. IV. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are supernaturally occasions of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life THis Chapter may seem to have some relation to the First and so it hath in genere but in regard it differs from it in specie I have here placed it as one of the chief Corner-stones to adorn strengthen yea as a Top-stone to finish and complete the four-square building of this First Part of my Discourse But before I descend to particulars give me leave here to lay down somewhat in general terms as praeliminary to the present design Though God be the proper efficient and super-natural cause of Diseases yet as sin is the immediate cause of God's wrath and anger and a provocation of his vindictive Justice in this respect it may be termed a principal though not immediate cause or occasion of Diseases more especially of such as depend not upon the ordinary chain of second causes but being above the Sphaere of Nature are inflicted by the almighty and unlimited power of God And this the great Secretaries of Nature as Philosophers and Physicians should do well to observe according to the advice of Hippocrates who would have a Physician to take special notice whether the Disease came from a Divine super-natural cause or whether it follow the course of Nature How this place of Hippocrates is to be understood Paracelsus is of opinion that such Spiritual Diseases for so he calls them are spiritually to be cured and not otherwise But of this by the way in general I shall now descend to Particulars whereof I shall make demonstration de facto And First of the abuse of the Ordinances of God viz. the Word and Sacraments Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certain things out of the Writings of Moses into his prophane Works and so to abuse the sacred Word of God was striken with a Frensie and being warned of the cause thereof in a dream by prayers made unto God recovered his senses again Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. This Story is recorded by Josephus as also another of Theodectes a Poet that mingled his Tragedies with the Holy Scriptures and was therefore striken with blindness until he had recanted his impiety In a Town of Germany called Itszith there dwelt a certain Husband-man that was a monstrous despiser of the Word of God and his Sacraments He upon a time in the midst of his Cups railed in most bitter terms upon a Minister of God's Word after which going presently into the Fields to over-look his Sheep he never returned alive but was found there dead with his Body all scorched and burnt as black as a coal the Lord having given him over into the hands of the Devil to be thus used for his vile prophaness and abusing Holy things Dr. Justus Jonas in Luther's Conferences reporteth this to be true If you shall despise my Statutes saith the Lord or refuse to hearken unto my Law I will visit you with Consumptions and burning Agues and heaviness of heart Lev. 26. 15 16. Moses for neglecting the Sacrament of Circumcision which is much the same see Rom. 4. 11. Col. 2. 11. 12. in a Spiritual sense with that of Baptisme was struck immediately by the Lord and fell so sick by the way that it was thought he would have died And it came to pass by the way in the Inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him Exod. 4. 24. Which words are by some Elucidators Bishop Hall c. thus understood viz. that the Lord appeared visibly unto him and sensibly afflicted him with some sudden and violent disease which he knew to be done in regard of his neglect of his Sons Circumcision Eutychus for sleeping at the Sermon fell down so