Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	eternal_a	good_a	life_n	4,162	5	5.3241	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55301	Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day shewing how Christians are to bear sufferings, and what graces are requisite thereunto : suited for all good Christians in this present time / by Edward Polhil ..., Esq.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1682 (1682)	Wing P2750; ESTC R3431	68,313	156

will his wrath come down upon all Apostates if they are not dumb before men they will be speechless before God if Devils vex not their Bodies they will yet possess their Souls if there be no torments in their Bowels yet there are in their Consciences The miseries which Apostates incur are much greater than those which they avoid by their Apostacies It is therefore highly reasonable that we should prepare for Sufferings lest by Apostacy we make our selves more miserable than any outward Suffering can make us CHAP. III. Preparation for Sufferings considered more generally A Christian that will be prepared for Sufferings must secure to himself three things that is A good Cause a good Heart and a good God Having seen the necessity of Persecution and the necessity of Preparation I come now to the main thing intended to consider how a Christian may be prepared for Sufferings And here I shall first speak in General and then more Particularly In General a Christian that would be prepared for Sufferings must secure to himself three things a good Cause a good Heart and a good God The first will make Suffering honourable the Second will make us us meet for it the third will give assistance and comfort in it 1. The Christian must secure to himself a good Cause he must take care not to suffer as an Evil doer this is not grateful to God nor honorable among Men in it Christ is not imitated but Christianity is shamed Such Sufferers are the Devils Martyrs it cannot be reasonably expected that they should have the gratious Presence of God or any comfort in Conscience their own hearts cry out Guilty and plainly tel them that their Suffering is but the just wages of their Iniquity A Christian must be sure that there be no guilt in that which he suffers for Holy Daniel saith that Innocency was found in him Dan. 6.22 He speaks not of the innocency of his Person as if he were without sin but of the innocency of his Cause for which he suffered His praying against a Law did not merit a Den of Lions he broke the Humane Command only to keep the Divine It highly concerns the Christian to have an innocent Cause it is the Cause not the meer Suffering that makes the Martyr Again the Christian must take care that he suffer not as a Busy-body in other mens Matter he must not have his own Station nor forfeit Gods protection he must abide with God in his Calling and do his own Business God took care of the Bird sitting over her young in her Nest Deut. 22.6 but not of the wandring one The learned Johannes Fancius of a Minister of the Gospel in his Prince's Court turned Minister of State to his Prince and was at last for some evil Counsel condemned to dye and before he suffered he much lamented the leaving of his Calling and left this Distick Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi Et fuge ceu pestem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Learn this of me thine own Office to bear In others meddle not the Plague is there It is very uncomfortable to a Christian when he runs into Sufferings by going out of his own Sphear Moreover the Christian must take care that he suffer not for his own rashness He that defaced the Emperors Edict against Christians and Suffered for it was not accounted a Martyr Bishop Audas demolished the Persian Temple dedicated to the Fire as their Numen and suffered for it but it was reckoned as a Piece of rash and unreasonable Zeal We must not cast our selves into dangers God will keep us in our ways Theod. Hist Lib. 4 cap. 39. not in our Precipices We must take up the Cross that God makes for us but not make one of our selves by our own rashness If we must suffer let it be for that good Conscience which is a continual Feast for that Righteousness which is in Conjunction with Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Let it be for that Jesus who suffered for us for that God who crowns momentary Sufferings with eternal Glory This was the case of the Primitive Christians they suffered but it was in a good Cause Justin Martyr and Athenagoras in their Apologies for them shew That there was nothing amiss found in them no Atheism no Thyestean Suppers no unclean Copulations no unjust Actions the only Crime was Christianity And afterwards Tertullian shews That the name in Christians was condemned but no Crime was found in them towards God or man This is the first thing we are to do we must secure a good Cause 2. We must secure good Hearts It is said of the Children of Ephraim that being armed and carrying Bows they turned back in the day of Battel Psal 78.9 and the reason of this we have in the precedent Verse they set not their hearts aright Unless the Heart be good as well as the Cause men will turn back from God and the pure Religion Corrupt Hearts will fall in with the World and ever be on the Sunny side In Dioclesian's time they can be Pagans in Constantine's Christians in Constantius's Arrians in Julian's Pagans again Purpuram colunt non Deum It is the good Heart only that is sit for Sufferings Now two things are requisite to make a good Heart it must be purged from sin and again it must be furnished with principles of Grace 1. It must be purged from sin from the guilt and power of it It must be purged from the guilt of sin A man that hath inward wounds is unfit to bear outward ones Guilt upon Conscience like a Boyl upon the Back makes one uncapable to bear the burden of a Cross They that are partakers of Christs Sufferings in Martyrdome had need first partake of them for Remission They that wash their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb by suffering for him had need first wash their Consciences in it to take away their Guiltness It is not imaginable that a man can piously embrace a Temporal Death when immediately after it he shall fall into an Eternal one Or that he can patiently bear the wrath of Man when the wrath of God is to ensue upon it It was a very forlorn Case with the Egyptians when they were drowning in the Sea and God looked through the Cloud upon them and so it will be with Christians if the World be as a troubled Sea to them and withal God look with an angry Face upon them Therefore it much concernes them to get a pardon sealed in the Blood of Jesus Christ that when they come to suffer they may have nothing to bear but the single Cross without any pressure of Guilt upon Conscience to aggravate it Again It must be purged from the power of Sin Every Lust is a Dalilah an Exhauster as the Hebrew word signifies it takes away the Heart drains and debases the man makes him vile and impotent and by consequence altogether uncapable of so heroical a thing

thee He knew that his strength was in God only Oh let us labor to have an humble dependance upon God that when sufferings come we may look and be supported wait and renew strength be nothing in our selves and have all in God So we shall be safe and secure from anxious fears dabitur in horâ support and comfort will come in the time of need CHAP. XII The ninth Direction for Suffering is Active Obedience to the will of God it flows from a good and honest heart it respects Gods will and Glory it makes us to grow up into Christ and to be allied to him it encreases Grace and spiritual strength it obtains the gracious Presence of God and it is the way to Heaven THe ninth Direction is this if we would be in a fit posture for Suffering we must labor after an Active Obedience to the Will of God to do in a right manner as he would have us to do It is a notable saying of the Rabbins Marces praeceptum praecepti one Precept is the reward of another He that rightly observes one Precept shall have in the name of a reward such Grace from God as shall enable him to do another and a more difficult Command It is an excellent thing to enure our selves to the doing of Gods will Obedience is the chain about the Spouses neck Cant. 4.9 one link hangs upon another one piece of Obedience draws on another Active Obedience will prepare us for passive the doing of Gods Will will dispose us for the Suffering of it The Apostle prays for the Colossians first that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and then in the next Verse that they might be strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness Col. 1.10.11 Where we may observe that an holy Life goes before and then suffering Graces follow after There are in Obedience six things observable each of which tend to prepare us for Suffering 1. True Obedience flows from a good and an honest heart nay I may adde it flows from the holy Spirit of God It flows from a good and honest Heart many unprofitable hearers that are but the good and honest Heart brings forth fruit It was an high Character which the Apostle gives to the Romans That they had obeyed from the Heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to them or as it is in the original into which they were delivered Rom. 6.17 The Gospel was not only delivered to them but they were delivered and as it were cast into the mould of it and that was the reason that they obeyed from the heart Nay further Obedience flows from the holy spirit it is a choice Promise in the Covenant I will put my spirit into you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 Obedience being a meer supernatural act comes from the holy Spirit as the prime Cause thereof a general Concourse suffices not there must be a peculiar Motion and Impulsion of the Spirit in it which made Gerson say That all spiritual life was founded in miraculo influentiae divinae in the miracle of a Divine Influence We see what are the Principles and Fountains of Active Obedience and the very same will produce Passive too The good and honest heart brings forth fruit with patience Luke 8.15 The words with patience are very remarkable the good and honest heart may meet with Persecutions in the world yet it would blossome and bring forth fruit in the midst thereof The righteous flourishes as the Palm-Tree Psal 92.12 The Palm-Tree is a Symbol of Immortality growing under its burden and the Righteous who hath an Immortal seed in him flourishes under all the pressures of a persecuting World Again the holy Spirit which makes good men do Gods will will enable them to suffer it too St. Paul took pleasure in persecutions because when he was weak then he was strong 2 Cor. 12.10 that is the holy Spirit did strengthen his inward man to bear the Cross The holy Spirit in the Saints is a Well of water springing up to everlasting Life John 4.14 The persesecuting World would fain stop and damme it up but in the midst of all Oppositions it Springs and never leaves springing till the Saints be in Heaven and before they come thither it is as St. Peter speaks a spirit of glory resting upon them 1 Pet. 4.14 it brings down some glimpses of Heaven into their hearts whilst they are suffering for Religion 2. True Obedience hath a pure respect to Gods Will and Glory It hath a pure respect to Gods Will it doth not do the Commands of God upon a by-account as Jehu destroied Ahab's house but it doth them intuitu Voluntatis because it is the will of God it is that which swaies and casts the ballance in a good mans heart and life As in matters of Faith he believes because God hath said it so in matters of Practise he obeys because God hath commanded it Also it hath a pure respect to Gods Glory Mens cujusque id est quisque the man is as his mind is and the mind is as his end is An obedient person will not be a Center to himself nor make God the most excellent Being a medium to any other thing His great design is that God in all things may be glorified His Holiness is but to shine as a beam from the holy one his Mercy is but as a little drop flowing from the Divine Ocean his Obedience is to tell the World that God is supream like his Saviour Christ he seeks not his own glory but his Fathers Such an Obedience as this admirably disposes a man for suffering He that doth some things because they are commanded will take up the Cross too because it is in a peculiar manner commanded in the Gospel The stamp of the Divine Authority is not only found upon the Precepts of Piety and Justice but upon that of Patience too Also he that doth sincerely glorify God in other things will if occasion be glorifie him in pious sufferings Some honour may be done to God in other Duties but in no other thing is there such honour given to him as in bearing the Cross therein a man doth practically declare that he values God above all the World and therefore the Martyrs have as the School-men tell us a greater reward in heaven than others Others have the essential Glory in the Vision of God but for the Martyrs is reserved an Aureola a peculiar Coronet to be added to their Crown of Glory propter victoriam de mundo for their victory over the World 3. True Obedience makes us to grow up into Christ the Head and to be of neer alliance to him It makes us to grow up into Christ the head Eph. 4.15 Obedience being the exercise of all Graces brings us into a neer union with Christ and makes us more and more like to