Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	know_v	2,974	5	4.2147	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88397	Christ's valedictions: or sacred observations on the last words of our savior delivered on the crosse. By Jenkin Lloyd, minister of the gospel, and rector of Llandissil in Cardigan shire	Lloyd, Jenkin, b. 1623 or 4.	1658 (1658)	Wing L2653; Thomason E1895_2; ESTC R209921	53,582	228

Mat. 20.1 by the similitude of the unfruitful Figtree Mat. 22.2 If it be referr'd to the Fault Luk. 13.6 the Prayer was also heard in that relation for by the powerful efficacy thereof was given to many Repentance and Compunction of heart in which number was the Centurion Mat. 27 54 Luk. 23 48 and those who returned striking their guilty brests confessing him to be the Son of God The Persons prayed for are either h●s Manual Executioners those who divided his garments or those who were the effectual causes of his Passion as Pilate who gave the sentence the people who cryed out Crucifie crucifie him the Scribes who falsely accused him or as we may ascend higher the first man Adam and his posterity All were involved in the Sin all are included in the Prayer And thou O my soul before thou hadst a being the Lord foresaw thee also to be ranckt sometimes amongst his enemies and thy self not capable of petitioning he prayes the Father for thee that thy foolishness be not imputed to thee And that his intercession might be acceptable he seems to guild the offences of his enemies with compassionate extenuations as far as it might stand with his omnipotent Soveraignty by adding For they know not what they do For certainly he could not palliate that injustice in Pilate nor that cruelty in the Souldiers nor that envie in the High Priest nor that foolishness and ingratitude in the People nor false Testimonies in the Perjurers this only remained that he might in all excuse their ignorance for as the Apostle sayes If they had known it 1 Cor. 2.8 they had not crucified the Lord of Glory The Schools have made so many divisions and sub-divisions of Ignorance that there goes as much learning to understand Ignorance as Knowledg but their ignorance in condemning the Lord of life was of a very strange and transcendent nature The people knew him to be innocently condemned and Pilate himself sealed it with a publick voice Luk. 23.14 Mat. 27.24 I find no fault in this man c. and I am innocent of the blood of this just man The Integrity of his Life declared him to be Immaculate and sin-less the greatness of his Miracles proclaimed him a God and the whole current of the Prophets testified him to be the Messias and yet they would not acknowledg him to be the Christ the Lord of Glory The reson whereof is delivered by S. John Joh. 12.37 and the Prophet Isaias because their eyes were blinded and thoir hearts hardned that they should not see with their eyes nor understand w th their hearts and be converted and healed But that blindness proceeded from an Ignorance which does not excuse because it was voluntary concomitant not precedent After the same manner are those who sin out of malice they are alwayes infected with some Ignorance which is hatch't with the sin The Philosopher said Every Evil man is an Ignorant man And truly it may be spoken of all sinners They know not what they do For no man covets evil as it is evil because the Object of the Will is a thing not good or ill but only really or apparently Good Therefore they that make choice of evil do chuse it as it represents the Species and forms of goodness yea they apprehend it as the chiefest good The cause of this is a perturbation of the inferiour part which doth so clod and darken reason that it cannot rightly discern the Atoms of goodness in things coveted for he who commits Adultery or Theft would never affect either were it not for the false good of delectation or gain which couches under Adultery or Theft not perceiving the evil of turpitude and injustice which likewise harbour there So that whosoever sins is like the man who desirous from a high Turret to throw himself headlong into some fierce River shuts first his eyes and then commits himself to the mercy of the Waters He that is the Actor of evil hates the light and labours under a pretended darkness which being vincible and voluntarie does no way clear the Action But wherefore then serves the prayer I answer If the words be understood of those executioners that performed only their commanded duties and probably were ignorant as well of his Inocency as of his Divinity or of us who were not then existent or of such sinners who knew not what was then in agitation at Jerusalem the Lord might most truly then Ejaculate these sweet tones of his Compassion but if they be applyed to those grand contrivers and actors of that horrible treason and well knew him to be the Missias and an innocent man then it is to be confest that Christs purpose thereby was only to extenuate the sins of his adversaries in the best manner he could for although their Ignorance could not simply excuse yet it may have the colourable reason of an excuse for if they had wanted all ignorance their offence had been more grievous and certainly if a better and more probable plea could have been found he had willingly presented it even for Caiphas and Pilate the worst of all his enemies 1. Hence may we first learn Christ's charity to be so Supereminent that we may with the Apostle conclude It passeth all knowledge Eph. 3.19 Neither are our tongues able to expresse nor our understandings to conceive the height of it If any of us labour under any cross of grief as the pains of our teeth our eyes or any other member we are so possest with a sense of any of these sufferings that we think on nothing else nor will scarce admit any negotiations or visits of friends whereas crucified Christ wore on his head a Crown of thornes not being able to move without excessive grief nails pierced his hands and feet from whose borings he drew most bitter pains his naked body wearied with unmerciful whippings publickly exposed to ignominy and cold throwing on him new sorrows and new torments yet as though he contemned those cruelties and suffered nothing being only solicitous for the salvation of his enemies and desiring to avert from them an impendant danger he presents to his Father this mournful Obsecration Father forgive them c. If those wicked men had suffered an unjust persecution what would he do if friends if kindred had suffered not enemies not traitors not Paracides His heart amongst so many storms of injurious sufferings as a Rock in the midst of the Sea beaten with unruly waves stood quiet and immoveable after the infliction of so many deadly wounds they deride his patience and triumph at their evil doings he speaks not as an enemy striving with his fierce adversaries but as a Father bemoaning his infants or a Physician his patients strugling with a grievous disease and presents them to an omnipotent hand to cure their odious infirmities This is the force of an upright charity not when one is reputed to have no enemies and have

were received in a glorious and triumphant manner into the highest heavens where now he reigns King for evermore And the reasons why God sometimes withdrawes his presence from his People and deferres their deliverance from afflictions are to humble them throughly to bring them to an utter denial of themselves to learn patience that they might acknowledg whence their deliverance and all benefits they enjoy do proceed namely not from themselves nor any creature but from the All-merciful God and that accordingly they might learn to value and prize his gifts at their deserved excellency for we find this generally verified that benefits easily obtained are lightly regarded and soon forgotten the children of Israel were in captivity about four hundred and thirty yeares in Egypt but after they had expected the salvation of the Lord they were brought safely through the Red sea Exod. 12. by the conduct of Moses David had a promise to be King of Jerusalem and Judea but the Lord exercised him by many and grievous afflictions before he came to the Crown Psal 119.82 in so much that he saies his eyes failed with waiting upon his God Zachary and Elizabeth desired of God both of them in their youth and many years after for issue but their request was not granted untill they were old Luk. 1.18 the Church Militant for some hundreds of yeares after Christs Resurrection seemed to be forsaken and rejected of him when she was so battered by Tyrants and so undermined by Hereticks that she was like to be crushed and stifled in her very cradle she was tryed ten times in the fire by ten several and distinct persecutions wherein God seemed to equal the ten plagues of Egypt and to lay as much on his people for their probation as he had laid upon others on their behalfe More Christian blood effused then in the Sacrifices of the old Law for so we read many a hundred many a thousand made Martyrs in one day a whole City a whole Army destroyed at one time for the Gospels sake so that as the Israelites formerly went through the red Sea towards the land of Canaan these through an Ocean of blood past to a Kingdom of bliss And when the Church had prayed and fasted and suffered so many years God in the end hearkned to the voice of her lamentation took her in his Armes wiped all teares from her eyes took away all occasion of complaint made Kings and Queens to be her Nurses and so made her Glorious in the eyes of man acceptable in his and cheerful in her own sight This ought to work a confidence in all Gods afflicted servants that he will not quite desert them their deliverance will be seasonable enough if they will wait and depend upon him a cloud on the skie may for a while ecclipse the light of heaven but that will soon be dissipated and the Sun will appear 3. We are further taught by this desertion of our Saviour to fear to sin and to bewail our offences the only cause of his great sufferings What Stoick is so void of motion but will be sensible to see a friend suffer for him what he was himself was justly guilty of what Christian so flint-hearted that will dare commit a sin if he does but cast a serious thought on him who suffered so much not for his own but our sins The Passion of Christ if rightly considered may be stiled a Schoole where all Martyrs and Saints are made who would complain of doing too much of suffering too much of being too much abased or despised if he do but behold his Saviour delivered over and abandoned for him to such horrible confusions such insupportable torments O my God my wounded God! as long as I shall see thy wounds Nolo vive te fine vulnere cum te video vulneratum Bonaventum I will never live without a wound who will be clothed with purple and costly silks and used to softness and delicacy and see his Redeemer crowned with thorns and fixed to the Cross who will not withhold his hands from violences and rapines and see Christ's armes distended on the Cross who will not fetter his feet and hinder them from running after the unbridled desires of his heart if he but viewes Christ's feet pierced through with nailes who will not make bitter his tongue in subduing the pleasures of the taste and see Christ have nothing but gall and vinegar to drink who will not contemn the ayerie honours of the world when he beholds him that is able to walk upon the wings of Cherubims take upon him the forme of a servant and creep among us like a little worm of the Earth who can delight in any sinful joy and behold him so sad so pain'd so dejected this then is a sovereign antidote against the venome of our sins to have our Saviours Image dayly in our hearts and to reflect our thoughts upon him Crucified in all our actions When the forty Martyrs were in the frozen lake Basil or●t in 40 mar thirty nine of them had their mindes wholly bent upon the future Crown and one of them unhappily thought of nothing but of his punishment All of them remained victorious except this wretched creature who soiling the glory of his patience came out of the poole to dye presently after in his infidelity So if our suffering Saviour be before our eyes in all our tribulations and temptations we shall be more then Conquerours Rom. 8. but if pleasure or profit be our objects we turn our backs to Christ and shall have no share in the benefits of his Cross MY God My God! in what an extasie is my soul when it contemplates what thou didst in those three houres silence when horrour and darkness involved the universe when thou wert not in a chair of State but on thy Cross full of sorrowes full of sufferings Thou Lord who only knowest the extremities of thy own Passion teach thy servants how much they owe to thee and in a religious dejection of themselves to give thee only the glory of their salvation We know not Lord whether we shall more admire the greatness of thy love or the greatness of thy Passion both exceed our merits both surpass our apprehensions but since thy goodness hath thus acted for us we should be unthankfull if we did not spend some of those houres which thou hast given us in a sweet recordation of those thy blessings and not only so but imprint them in our actions Thou didst not so expostulate with thy Father for relinquishing of thee as not knowing the Cause for of what canst thou be ignorant who knowest all things and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg but that thou mightest exhort us to seek and learn things necessary and profitable for our soules There was no separation between thee and thy God in matter of Essence or grace or affection but only in the point of present

Protection Thy Father left thee O Son of God in that sad Agony that thou mightest the more gloriously triumph he left thee to struggle with Death that thou mightest unsting Death and having overcome the sharpness of it open the Kingdome of heaven to all believers Thou mightest have had a numerous Army of Saints and Angels for thy defence against thy enemies and death it self for all Power in heaven and earth was given unto thee O Lord but thou wert pleased to permit that Divine decree between thee and thy Father and thy Spirit that thou shouldst first suffer all these things and then to enter into thy Glory But tell us we pray thee Thou Lever of Men whether or no did the vehemency of thy sorrowes in that space silence thine heart from thine accustomary devotion for we when we are but toucht with any affliction can scarce lift up a thought to thee or speak of thy praises But O our Saviour it was not so with thee for though thy flesh was weak yet thou didst bear a Spirit prompt to all holy exercises We know that though thy tongue moved not yet with the mouth of thine heart thou didst send implicit ejaculations to thy Father for us neither didst thou only pray in heart but in wounds and blood And as many wounds as were in thy Sacred body so many supplicants there were for us to thy heavenly Father and as many drops of blood so many tongues petitioning mercy for us O our God! we are justly confounded in the Abysse of thy love and mercy to the sons of men O were our sins so great that no sacrifice could at tone thine Anger but the blood of thy Son thy only begotten Son in whom alone thou art well pleased O superabundant love O prodigious Mercy But Lord teach us by his example not to cast cur affections on the pleasures and vanities of this world but to delight in the cup of affliction whereof he drank in an overflowing measure Make us fear to sin for his sake who sinn'd not and yet so highly suffered for our sins and when me fall under the rod of thy displeasure for them correct us not in thy fury lest we should be consumed and brought to nothing Though thou dost eclipse thy savours sometimes from thy dea●est ones yet we are confident thou wilt not totally and finally forsake those who do not so forsake thee Therefore we pray thee be not farre from us O God and though we attribute to thy Justice the glory of our deserved sufferings yet let thy mercy have the glory of our deliverance from them for the Passion of thy son's sake Amen The fifth Word JOHN 19.28 1 Thirst FOr the better explanation of This it is necessary to add the precedent and subsequent words of the Evangelist After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled saith I thirst now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a spunge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth The Lord would have a full Consummation of all the Propheticall predictions of his life and death this only remained according to the Psalmist Psal 69.21 They gave me vinegar to drink Our Lord said I thirst The Prophet foretold it because he foresaw it the prediction or prevision is not the cause of a thing to Come but the thing to come is the ground of either The emission of so much blood could not chuse but provoke an extremity of thirst as I knew a man grievously wounded who called for nothing but drink which notwithstanding he entertained with a patient silence from the beginning of his Crucifixion His flesh had been long unacquainted with any moysture his veines his tongue his Palate and all his Interiours did labour under a miserable dryness but O sad refreshment in stead of giving him Cordials or pleasant drinks they offer him that which might either increase his torments or hasten his dissolution The summ of all is this As a little before his affixction to the Cross they offered him Wine mingled with Gall Mat. 27. so in the last period of his life they brought him Vinegar that from the beginning to the end he might have a continued Passion not mixed with any solace or refreshment The new Testament is for the most part an explanation of the Old but in this mystery of the Lords Thirst the words of the Psalmist may be styled a Commentary on these words of Christ I looked for some to sorrow with me Psal 69. but there was none and for Comforters and I found none they gave me gall to eat and vinegar to drink And of such the Lord here complains and saies I thirst Hence learn first O Man 1. To possesse thy soul in patience in thy afflictions after the great example of our Lord and Master Christ though in the fourth word there shined his humility joyned with his Patience yet here it appeares in its proper place This is it which setteth a seal upon all vertues even the first in the list and last in the triumph It is the Crowned Pomegranate which hangeth among bells in the lowest border of the high Priests robe of the old Law all was imperfect without the Crown of Patience it is the Salt of the Prophet Elisaeus which purifieth the polluted waters and sweetneth all the bitterness of life it is the School of Christianity So learned are we as we have Patience Ambross in Prov. 19 so much do we participate with God as we can endure by his example he hath taken a body to be able to suffer and to make himself the mirrour and reward of sufferours But we must distinguish true Patience from false True patience is that which commands us to suffer the evils of punishment that it may not enforce us to commit the evils of sin such was the patience of true Martyrs who would rather undergo the torments of villanous executions then deny the saving faith of Christ and would rather tolerate the loss of all they had then adhibit any adoration to false Gods false patience is that which perswades us to suffer all evil things that we may obey the law of lust and to loose eternal things to conserve the Temporal such is the patience of the Devils Martyrs who will easily suffer hunger thirst cold heat the loss of a good name and which is to be admired of the kingdom of heaven that they might augment their riches satisfie carnal concupiscence and ascend to the slippery mount of honours It is the innate property of true Patience to continue in a good cause to the end till by working it hath polished us Ja●● 1.1 and made us perfect men and that is it which the Apostle declares in the Encomiums of it other vertues cannot long subsist without it in regard of some difficulties which are found in their actuations which by her assistance are conquered with