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	will_n	3,297	5	6.8462	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B01765	Happiness at hand. Or A plain and practical discourse of the joy of just mens souls in the state of separation from the body. For the instruction of weak Christians, and for the comfort of the afflicated. / By J. B. Rector of Finchamsted in the county of Berks.	Brandon, John, b. 1644 or 5.	1687 (1687)	Wing B4250; ESTC R170761	60,226	213

late Metaphysical Pen has laid it down as a Theorem Desiderat Anima separata iterum cum corpore conjngi i.e. The separated Soul desires to be united to its Body Answ As to this I think that of St. Paul to the Coloss may fitly be remembred Take heed lest any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vain Deceit For indeed Some things that go under that Name are sufficiently vain and deceitfull And as to this the Soul's desire to be united to the Body again if meant of the Souls of the Just to me seemeth no excellent Notion nor can I conceive how men should know it if it were so indeed Their Arguments for it I am not satisfied in and I hope it is excusable if I venture to urge one or two against it 1. If a good Christian's Soul when absent from the Body doth actually and properly desire to be joyned to it as a sick man desireth health or a Prisoner Liberty then whilst separate it must wish to be in another condition as the Sick wisheth his health But the separated Soul of a good Christian doth not wish it self at that time any other condition for being perfectly sanctified it is perfectly satisfied in the Will of God who crowneth it with his loving kindness and is better unto it than the Body and all the comforts here below 2. If such a Soul thus desireth to be in the Body then the Being in the Body seems to it a better and more desirable State but that it doth not nor cannot without Delusion for St. Paul tells us to depart and be with Christ is far better Philip. 1. And if in any sense it desires to be joyned to its Body yet it desires this only in God's appointed time for the reason afore given Ob. 4. But may it not grieve a Man to think of leaving his old Friends and Acquaintance and going into that World and State which he never saw nor ever spake with any that did Answ Doubtless this is that which lyeth hid in the hearts of many though they speak not to any such purpose And an evil Heart of unbelief may be much moved by it But how little cause a Godly Christian hath to be unwilling to dye on this Account a few words may suffice to make manifest For 1. He that is such indeed hath his Will in some good measure resigned up to his God whose Will is that He and his Friends should not dwell always together in this World. 2. The Friends that he leaveth at Death are but fellow Creatures and sinfull ones too such Friends as may afflict him as well as comfort him in a word such as may hinder as well as help in the way towards Heaven Nor can their greatest Friendship be firm and constant to him any farther than God's Favour doth make it so nor do them any good without his good providence But by Death the Sanctified Soul is translated into a far better condition to enjoy that most gracious glorious God who was his first and best Friend to whose undeserved goodness he was absolutely beholding for all the kindness that ever any Creature shew'd him In short that blessed God to whom all Nations as the Prophet speaks are as nothing and vanity that God whose Name alone is excellent and his Glory above the Heavens whose Power is Omnipotency whose Time is Eternity whose Bounty is unspeakable and whose Benignity is better than Life Psal 63.3 And touching the other part of the Objection viz. the Strangeness of the State that the Soul doth enter upon nothing but gross infidelity can make it seem of any weight For 1. Strangeness in it self hath no harm in it When the man that was born blind had Sight given him by Our Saviour it was doubtless a Strange thing to him to perceive the Light which he never did before nor could have any Ideas of yet the change was not grievous but joyous unto him How much more must it be so with that blessed Change to a Blessedness that changeth not which a gracious Soul shall find after Death And 2. as to such a Strangeness as consisteth in unacquaintedness I take it to be a strange Fancy without any ground at all in Scripture or Reason yea the contrary seems very evident from Scripture For as to their God the Case is clear in their absence from the Body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 And that it is meant of a more special and comfortable presence with him than before they had may easily be gathered from the Apostle's Scope in that place and is partly proved in a foregoing Section where that most comfortable Text is insisted on And how can they but have a nearer Communion with him when they are freed from Ignorance and Unbelief and all those things that are offensive in his Sight And concerning the Creatures also I humbly conceive that the Souls of such Persons do not want for Acquaintance with them How can we imagine that those Holy Angels should desire to be strange to those Souls in another World that delighted to do them good in this World and rejoyced in their Grace and Repentance Luke 15.10 Will those heavenly Inhabitants chuse to be at a Distance with them when they are most perfectly united to their glorious Lord and Head Jesus Christ the Righteous This let them believe that can for my part I hate the Thoughts of so gross a Solecism And I see no cause to doubt of the spiritual Communion and Converse of Holy Souls with each other in this their State of Separation The knowing one another can be no inconvenience when they are compleated in Grace and perfected in Love. That Charity and Joy are found in the perfected Spirits of the Just is confessed by all that believe them to such and to partake of any Happiness after Death And how can these Affections more properly be exercised among them than in Rejoycing at each others Happiness And how can that be without the Knowledge of each other and of their happy State And to this I shall only add the position of the Learned Maccovius Communicant Animae Separatae c. Separated Souls do communicate their minds to one another De Anima Sep. Cap. 4. Ob. 5. But say some it is not Dying but sorrowfull Dying that we are so unwilling of Alas we are so haunted with horrible Temptations and our Faith and Hope are so sadly shaken therewith that we fear lest we should dye in Despair which also we are the more amazed at because we are told that Despair is a most horrid Sin such as spoileth all at once as we say and stops up as it were the current of God's Mercy towards us Answ This Objection I cannot but think fit to deal with and I am the more willing to do so for the Satisfaction of those whose Religious Friends may have dyed in Doubts and Fears and with no Appearance of comfort For which end I lay down the