Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	father_n	love_n	son_n	2,602	5	5.6520	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09674	The triall of a Christians sincere loue vnto Christ. By Mr William Pinke, Mr of Arts late fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford	Pinke, William, 1599?-1629.; Lyford, William, 1598-1653.; Pinke, William, 1599?-1629. Tryall of our sincere love to Christ. aut	1636 (1636)	STC 19944; ESTC S114275	71,570	262

heauen in fiery Chariots had beene nursed and brought vp amōgst the Saracens vnlesse God had vouchsafed them a miracle for their conversion we cannot imagine but they would haue beene Saracens Suppose the deuoutest Saint of God at this day breathing had beene trained vp at the feet of some Iewish Rabbin if we looke no higher then ordinary meanes we must needs conceaue that with the hellish mallice of a Iew he would haue defied that blessed Sauiour of his whom now he worships day night I mentioned not that therefore to shew the weakenesse of the person but of such reasons of his Christianity as changing only the scene of his nativity and education might haue made him hotter against it thē now he is for it So that the only fundamentall reason why such a Christian is rather a Christian then a Iew Turk or Idolater is because Christianity bespoke him as soone as hee came into the world and permitted not those madde superstitions either to speake with him at all or not till it selfe had prevented them and gotten possessiō For we may obserue that albeit generally in the world errour keepes truth out of the soules of men by anticipation damming vp all the passages by which shee should enter with base preconceipts and odious prejudices yet in some corners where divine providence hath been pleased to allow truth an authorised setled residency it gets the start of errour and prevailes as much by prepossession here as errour doth in other places beating that away with the same clamours and out-cries by which it selfe is elsewhere baffled But this to speake more punctually is not a fight betweene truth and errour though by the vndiscerning vulgar it be mistaken for it but a kinde of blindfold combate betweene prejudice and prejudice or of custome against custome For in these cases though truth blocke vp errors way and so keepe that from stealing into the soule yet doth not she presently enter in her selfe but stands as it were before the dore displaying her resplendent rarities and admirable perfections and if for their sakes alone shee bee not earnestly invited to come in and importun'd to take vp her lodging there she vouchsafeth not to enter but at last flings away in disdain Men may imagine shee is gone in because they cannot heare or see heresie or superstition stirring with in but for certaine sauing truth never presseth into any soule vpon the bare advātage of being the first commer but for her owne singular worth shee lookes to be wooed importuned and with some violence haled in as the blessedst guest that could possibly haue come first or last But here may some demand if the summe of all this that hath beene spoken bee true to wit That our loue vnto Christ and his Gospell be not gotten by our birth and education amongst Christians what benefit is it to bee borne within the visible Church What prerogatiue to bee bred in the light of the Gospell I answere that it 's an advantage of inestimable value for which we all owe more thanks and praises vnto the Lord then our shallow braines and narrow hearts can possibly conceaue But we must wisely consider the proper end and vse for which it hath pleased the Father of lights to afford vs this blessed priviledge which is not that it should bee a cause but a meanes not a ground but an occasion of our loue vnto his beloued Sonne In our commō friendship we can easily distinguish betweene the contingent occasions of our acquaintance with a man and the immediate reasons of our affectionate loue vnto him those are accidentally offered frō without these are some speciall excellencies apprehended by vs to bee inherent in the person we affect those are but meanes to bring vs to the knowledge of these Even so in our spirituall loue vnto Christ Iesus blessed for ever the Lord hath gratiously planted vs within the sound of the Gospell given vs education in Christian rites and fashions and provided vs the testimony of the Church to tell vs that there is such a Saviour come into the world and to bring vs joyfull newes what vnvaluable treasures of mercy and glory hee hath brought with him to enrich all such as shall come vnto him pinched with the sense of their spirituall poverty Those are the meanes appointed to giue vs notice of these but these onely must bee the grounds of our affection vnto him To conclude this discourse albeit our loue vnto Christ be gotten by our naturall birth education be nothing worth in it selfe yet is it the ordinary rode which leades vs to the sight and sense of those transcendent perfections in him which will ravish vs with a more transcēdent loue of him Happy are we if that base vulgar loue be in time swallowed vp in a loue more celestiall and divine if that which can doe our soules no good while we rest vpon it become a manuduction vnto that which will certainely make vs blessed Had not the Samaritans beleeued at first vpon an insufficient ground the alarum of the woman they had not come to beleeue vpō the true their owne knowledge experience Had not the faithful soule which is now most sicke of a spirituall loue vnto her Saviour first loued him vpon heare-say and custome she had never felt in all probability those heavenly trances and vnvtterable ravishments with which now she is transported All that loue which wee professe vnto Christ betweene our first birth and the first pangs of the second is a loue arising only from nature and custome is tolerable in vs while wee are children being not so properly an errour as an introduction vnto truth I say it 's a hopefull preparation in children which are not yet come to that ripenesse of their naturall faculties that the ordinary means of grace the preaching of the Gospell may worke vpon on them But after they haue attained to maturity of reason and should beginne to haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speakes their senses exercised to discerne betweene good and evill if they proceed still in such childish conceits of Christ Iesus drowsie affections vnto him as they sucked from their nurses breasts their loue beginnes now to be grossely sinfull and whensoever it shall please the Lord to thunder them out of that sleep of death wherein now they enjoy some cōtenting dreames they must penitently bewaile it amongst the other sinnes of their vnregeneracy I haue done with my discovery of the false ground of loue vnto Christ by naturall instincts of religion restrained to Christianity by birth and education Before I proceed to an application of this discourse I will insist vpon some opposite places of holy Scripture which will adde both light strength vnto the precedent discourse and I hope prepare your hearts to the ensuing application And first wee haue an excellent place Cant. 5. v. 9 where the Spouse that is the faithfull soule hath this interrogatory

bee moued to more tender passions by a Tragicke fable created by the braine of a Poet cannot sympathise with his Sauiour in that passiō which should haue beene his cannot by his serious cōpunction share with him in those agonies which should haue been all his owne cannot take these mercies so deepely to heart as with the earnest pangs of yerning affections to desire to bee crucified with Christ as S. Paul speakes of himselfe Gal. 2. 20. and to liue the rest of his life in the flesh by the faith of the Sonne of God who loued him and gaue himselfe for him questionlesse that man offers his Sauiour the most cutting iniury and does him the most villanous spight that it 's possible for a mortall wretch to offer vnto the Lord of Glory That mans ingratitude is more painefull vnto Christ Iesus then all the thornes were in his head and wounds him more deepely then the nayles did his hands and feete and therefore wee cannot imagine a lighter curse then Anathema Maranatha to bee due vnto him For by his sottish neglect of that death of which his sins aswel as any mans else were a cause he becomes guilty of the murther of the Sonne of God yea one of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I vnderstang 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and English it who crucifie as much as in them lies the sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and expose him like a● malefactour to publique shame Heb. 6. 6. 3 Lastly whosoever instructed in the Gospell doth not in earnest loue Christ Iesus hee vexes grieues the third person in Trinity the Holy spirit whose chiefe businesse here below is to worke our our hearts vnto the loue of Christ and as I said before to solicite the match betweene him and our soules And this is one reason why our saviour being to leaue this world speakes so much in Saint Iohn of what the comforter should doe for him after his departure He shall testify of me Iohn 13. He shall glorify mee 16. 14. Whosoeuer therefore makes the Holy spirit to labour in vaine not suffering his perswasions to make any impressions vpon his heart or to get thence any glory for him whose agent hee is but thinkes hee does Christ Iesus kindnesse enough in that he suffers himselfe to be called a Christian rather then a Iew or a Mahumetan or Protestant rather then a Papist In what a fit of discontent in what a chafe may we thinke doth that man send or rather driue away the spirit of Grace All that I haue said in this second consideration is comprised in that terrifying place Hebr. 10. 28. 29. which I know is there applyed vnto Apostates but wee must note that all hypocrites are Apostates in Gods fight and therefore what wee may apply vnto an Apostate in particular because hee discouers the rottennesse of his heart in the sight of men wee may apply vnto hypocrites in generall because there is in them the same evill heart of vnbeliefe though wee cannot so particularly smell them out the words are Hee that despised Moses Law died without mercy vnder two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose yee shall hee be thought worthy who hath troden vnder foote the sonne of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the blood of a common man or a malefactor not as the blood of a sacrifice and hath done despight vnto the spirit of grace Applic. You see the fearefully accursed estate of those professors of Christianity who deale falsely with their Saviour and loue him not at the heart you see vpon what slippery tearmes wee stand betweene the greatest curses and the greatest blessings If wee haue indeed made Christ Iesus our portion if wee haue beene so feelingly affected with his favours towards vs that now with the Spouse in the Canticles wee are even sicke with loue of him If as the Apostle prayes for the Ephesians Wee are so rooted and grounded in loue that we can bring good proofes that with a constant resolution we preferre the intellectuall pleasures which issue from his reconciled countenance before whatsoeuer else is most pretious and deare vnto vs O then we may hugge our selues as men over-joyed for as sure as God is God all his rich promises in Christ Iesus shall be yea and Amen vnto vs. But on the contrary if those heauenly raptures and glorious trances of sweetest entercourse betweene Christ and our soules sound as Phantastique dreames harsh Paradoxes vnto vs if wee stupidly content our selues with an empty profession of his name and heartlesse conformity vnto the outward garb of the Gospell never striuing either to expresse or to feele the inward power of it if wee goe on in a heavy sluggish dull manner never retiring vnto our Saviour but in some melancholy moodes which wee are quickly weary of blindly presuming of much from him and caring not how little hee hath from vs O then we most grossely delude our selues for the curse of curses Anathema Maran-atha doth most certainely belong vnto vs I presume almost there is not any man in this assembly but would thinke himselfe much wronged if one should seriously tell him hee did not loue Christ Iesus Not loue Christ Why we imagine wee all doe it naturally wee take it as the custome of the country to say so It is not my purpose to dishearten any man would to God that the least sparke of loue vnto Christ in any mans heart here were a glorious flame But yet I would haue no man to deceiue himselfe in this point then which nothing more easy nothing more dangerous God is not mocked he requireth truth in the inward parts and the exactest kinde of loue that can be imagined Doe you thinke beloued but that the Iewes in our Saviours time were confidently perswaded that they loued God they persecuted our Saviour indeed because they could not apprehend him to be the sonne of God but for God himselfe they made full account that they and none but they loued him aright Here was I dare say as strong a perswasion of loue to God if confidence would beare out the matter as in the greater part of Christians of their loue vnto Christ But behold how miserably they were deceaued Joh. 5. 42. our Saviour expressely tels them But I know you that yee haue not the loue of God in you The like grosse deceit of the Iewes may be observed in the same chapter about their loue vnto Moses why they were 〈◊〉 and naile for Moses The Law and name of Moses was the glory of their nation for which no doubt but many if they had beene put to it would resolutely haue lost their liues in our Saviours time as their ancestors had done before or their posterity since so that one would haue thought hee might haue sworne they loued Moses but yet when the matter