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	sin_n	7,176	5	5.3331	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96973	Five sermons, in five several styles; or Waies of preaching. The [brace] first in Bp Andrews his way; before the late King upon the first day of Lent. Second in Bp Hall's way; before the clergie at the author's own ordination in Christ-Church, Oxford. Third in Dr Maine's and Mr Cartwright's way; before the Universitie at St Maries, Oxford. Fourth in the Presbyterian way; before the citie at Saint Paul's London. Fifth in the Independent way; never preached. With an epistle rendring an account of the author's designe in printing these his sermons, as also of the sermons themselves. / By Ab. Wright, sometimes Fellow of St John Baptist Coll. in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3685; Thomason E1670_1; ESTC R208406	99,151	247

sufficient argument why others should not Thus if Jeroboam transgresse he makes an Israel to sinne and if Aaron set up an idol a whole nation will worship it Holinesse then becomes every man wel but best of all publick persons and that not onely for example of good but liberty of controlling ill The snuffers of the sanctuary made to purge others must be of pure gold themselvs Thus Herod feared John not ' cause he was a powerful teacher but a Just man This holinesse casts a more dazleing lustre then any other accomplishment what-ever But let that passe and suppose this Thummim be not with the holy One admit the Priest sinnefull shall the people notwithstanding follow his doctrine his doctrine whose life is not the use his voice whose hand points a contrary way Nothing more for what if the sacrificer bee unclean is the offering so was the glory of Israel the Arke any whit lessened when it came from the Philistines did the breath of the Lord his answers passe by the lesse regarded ' cause a Saul Prophesied Scripture is scripture though the Divell speake it no mans sinns should bring the service of God into contempt nor may good be refused ' cause the meanes are accidentally evill Non ergomerita personarum sed officia sacerdotum considerentur saies Ambrose in his 5 Chapter de iis qui mysteriis initiantur and 't is a grosse dull capacity that can't distiuguish 'twixt the worke and the instrument the weakenesse of the person and the power of the function You know no unclean viands were for the table of an Israelite no birds of prey ●it company for a Prophet yet Sampson made much of his hony though in a putrified Lion and if Ravens are sent to preserv an Eliah he willingly accepts their courtefie and dislikes not the meat ' cause the waiters were black These then of the Law are lesse scrupulous then some of the Gospell who disdaine the graces of God when not served in the pure●t vessels that loath their Mannah if not out of the Tabernacles golden pot all Urim not coupled with Thummim The other part of the Donative Urim is a large word and reciprocal with sapience in Tully the science of humane and divine matters whence it seems the Levites divinity and scholarship are not synonima's at least not this and preaching Lo a vision appeared to me saies Ezekiel a whirlwinde and a fire to ●hew the Prophets of the Lord must have light with them as well as noise understanding as tongue Gods Ministers are Angels and these called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their manifold knowledg I speak this meerely for that there is a generation which square out the Divines studie by the Scripture Canon onely all other rules being crooked and of no use Would you know the reason The lesse learning the lesse stipend and indeed good Letters have not a little pined away since Divinity began to officiate at the tables end for the trencher Now 't is true Scripture was ever the Levites predominant element but if you 'l make him a perfect mixt body the Arts too are necessary ingredients And therefore though Hadrian the sixt in his tract de ver a philsophia cries down humane learning with a noise of Fathers yet he concludes utilem esse scientiam gentilium dummodo in usum christianum convertatur that to shave and par● the captive woman then espouse her was ever held lawfull matrimony Look backe upon the two famous patterns of Jewish and Christian divines Moses learned in all the wisdom of the Aegyptians and S. Paul wise in all the learning of the Grecians a great artist and a good ling●i●● and no lesse may we expect from the rest of the Apostles to whom it was not said ●ollow me and strait way be fishers but follow and I will make you fishers They were to learne ere they were to teach to be Discipls before Apostles No man is born an Ar●isicer his soul coming as naked into the world as his body not having so much freedome as to set up in the meanest-trade without serving an apprenticeship And for that dabitur in illa hora to speake without conning was a promise made to the Twelve when they should be called to the barre not to the pulpit This place how ever some have made it scandalous requires both learning and industry and thus much S. Paul intimated when he sent for his bookes finding as great want of them as his cloak in winter Yet here notwithstanding this Urim is os so large an extent as compassing the whole body of knowledge we must remember that our most acute and clearest illumination is but dull and glimmering and though it be said to be Gods yet 't is not meant of that light which is tanquam lux in lucido sed lumen in diaphano not as the Sun but as the shine And therefore if any in this fraile tenement of flesh shall dare to hope for the masterreach in Gods secrets of state such I mean as put the great Apostle to his gaze with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee mistakes his measure and forgets that his dwelling is in the dust And why should I call for day where God will have night and covet to see that brightnesse whose least ray will instantly blind me it being too strong an object for the weake eye of mans understanding I will rather admire God in his actions and be content to know the Almighty no farther then his Word shall reveal where this light leaves mee I will cease the quest and boast of my ignorance never desiring that Urim that illumination which leades to utter darkenesse nor that Thummim that holinesse which will unholy mee And this points at my last particular the party endowed with this gi●t the Holy One. Wee are all Gods but not all Gods holy Ones This title is proper to the Priests hiraldry a jewel only for Aarons brest-plate And certainly the office being sacred the name must be answerable Now the Levite was thus styl'd from a two-fold holinesse that of his life which you have heard and another of his person For all sanctity is not inward nor is all Thummim perfection that of the soule Gods holy one must be his faire one too without blemish no lesse in body then in mind Thus under the law no monstrous issue no blind seer might offer the bread of his God Levit. 21. And shall the Evengelicall Ministration be worse served then the Legall while the Sacrifice is more noble shall the Priest be lesse onely the fattest in the herd the fairest in the flock were the oblations of the Law and shal the poorest onely of the Tribe the most de●ormed of all the issue be the offerings of the Gospel The Lords house is no hospital neither the sacrifice nor the Priest must be admitted unsound or imperfect and if not a maim'd lambe much lesse a maim'd Levite God of all things will

the Lord foretold them in the 31. of Deuteronomie when saies hee I shall have brought Israel into the land that floweth with milke and honey and they shall have eaten and fill'd themselvs then will they turne unto other gods then and not till then and just so they did for in the very next Chap. at the 15 ver you have Jeshurun which is Jsraell wax'd fatt and kicking and then saies the text hee forsooke God which made him Another end of fasting is to elevate the soul and put her upon the wing of holy contemplation and prayer for it stands with reason that so long as shee is conversant in the kitchin so long as her spirits and faculties are spent in dispersing vapours and exhalations of meats shee her selfe must needs bee l●sse apt and free for heavenly emploiment Full bellies are fittest for ●est and not the body so much as the soule is most active with emtinesse for this reason fasting and praier go together in Scripture and as in Scripture so in our Churches practise solemne praier almost ever takes fasting to att●nd it A third reason of fasting is to ●estify our repentance by our penance the prostration of our soules by the humiliation of our bodies and thus did the primitive times by their course diet and cloathing present their unworrhinesse of the benefits of this life and by casting ashes on their heads speake themselves but dust altogether deserving to be as farre underneath the earth as they were above it and this repentance Christ implied to bee the most reall and unfained of all others when hee told the Jewes That had the mighty works been done in Tyre and Sid●n which were done amongst them they would have repented and is that all no they would have repented sitting in sack-cloath and ashes their very cloaths and haire had done pennance For t●ue repentance is not a bare turning to God but turning with fasting they are Gods own words Turn to mee with fasting weeping and mourning The belly must grieve and sympathize with the heart and the eye be as contrite as the minde Repentance then must together with fasting under the Law in Leviticus it was so their solemne repentance was ever at the time of their generall fast and they which had not the law as Nineve● nature it selfe taught them to take this Physicke as wee use all other fasting and fasting wee must take it if wee would have it worke kindly Nay Saint Basil in his first dejejunto saies it works not at all upon a full stomack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repentance without fasting is idle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meerly idle without any stirring any moving the ill humors atall The meaning is according to S. James As faith without works so repentance without fasting is little better then dead and again As faith without works so fasting too without works is dead and this is another end of our fasts the exercise of our charity alms To keep a fast for a nation and relieve it not is but to repeat that Sarcasme in the 2 d of S. James Depart in peace when they are already destroied by war warm your selves and fill your bellies without fire or meat Could we everimagine how our devotion should rout an enemie or our fasts raise a siege Joshua must sight against Amalek as well as Moses pray it were well then if they would order it that our hands may be lifted up no lesse then our votes and praiers and our Chests lie as open as our Church-doors For this is to fast saies God by his Prophet Isaiah To deal thy bread to the hungrie to bring the poor to thy house Israel was not chid for eating but laying up of their Mannah and therefore saies a Father Ita jejuna ut alio manducante prandisse te gaude as so fast that the poor may fare the better for it let thy Eves be their Festivals thy Lent their Easter And now we have got a fast for our time let us see whether wee can finde a time for our fast a tunc for our jejunabant which is my last part to be handled the circumstance or time of this fast implied in the Adverb then And then they shall fast and then Allowing the thing we can't chuse but allow it a time for there is a time for every thing under the Sun a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourne and a time to dance saies the preacher to dance when the Bridegroom is with us to sit down and mourn when hee is taken away when the marriage feast is at an end and this is that then in my text then shall they fast that is when the Bridegroom is taken away and the Bridegroom is taken away saies our Church Homilie when we are cast down with sicknesse grief of minde or the like As for sicknesse 't is a plain case that takes away the stomack quite and the time of grief is a time of fasting too Thus Hannah when she was upbraided by her adversarie wept and how then and did not eat saies the 1 of Sam. 1. 7. nor drink neither I believe unlesse her tears So Ahab also when he could not obtein the Vineyard mourn'd I that 's granted you 'l say for 't is wine that maketh glad the heart of man and Naboth denied that mourn'd yes and fasted saies the text no meat would down with him he was so vexed And so 't is here while Christ was with the Apostles they could not grieve for they had the fulnesse of joy but when that fulnesse of joy was to be taken away then they shall mourn tunc jejunabunt and then they shall fast mourn and fast all one in the text Another time of Fasting is the time of danger for when men are in jeopardy what pleasure can they take in meat knowing not how soon they may eat their last When the children of Israel saw the Egyptians at their heels they had no time then to think of their flesh-pots and onyons And this then this time of fasting is the most usuall in all the Scripture if a plague famine or Rabshekah bee fear'd sanctifie a fast in all hast put on sackcloath send for the Arke And thus was it with the Apostles Christ was their rocke and sure tower of defence from all danger and the feare of it but when this rocke was removed when Christ was once taken away then they were at St Pauls quotidie morimur every hour in danger to be drawn to the stake tunc jeiunabant and then they did fast Now if for the effect of sin we fast for the cause for sinne it selfe much more and this then this time of fasting for our sinns should wee duely observe our tunc would bee nunc our then would be now and as now ita nunc semper in secula so both now and for ever for should wee live alwaies wee should sinne alwaies and so fast alwaies But this because wee