Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	think_v	4,338	5	3.9369	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86324	The advantage of afflictions: a sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Peers, Ianuary 28. 1645. being the day of publike humiliation, in the Abbey Church, Westminster. / By Gaspar Hicks, a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Hickes, Gaspar, 1605-1677.	1646 (1646)	Wing H1837; Thomason E319_9; ESTC R200555	25,203	34

parts very servicealbe for Christs cause but of a timerous disposition apt to be overmuch dejected in difficulties and at that time extremely pensive he was for fear of some sad issues of the great meeting at Auspurg Luth. in Epist ad Spalat Whereupon Luther wishes his friend to exhort and charge him in his name Ne fiat Deus that he make not himself a God he might seem to be farre enough from aspiring to be a God who was cast down below the ordinary pitch of a man But here was his pride his projects must like the counsels of God unerringly and unchangeably stand or the cause as he thinks was lost and his spirit sunke And is it not even so with thee Thou must have thine own minde and thine own will in all things whhich is Gods peculiar or thou art undone If thou hast not as quick and clear returns of thy prayers as much victory over thy lusts as much sweetnesse of grace as much ability for duty c. as thou hast fancied or promised to thy self thou hast nothing at all if the simple gourd of thine own projects or conceits be smitten and wither Iona. 4 ● Thou dost well to be angry to be disconsolate even unto death This pride of thine will keep thee low and cost thee dear till it be truly brought down and mortified 3. Is not thy distance from God occasioned by spirituall decaies They will certainly bring the soul into distressing languishments or faintnesse as the actuall abatements of naturall vigour by age or sicknesse take off the appetites and senses from their edge and delight somenesse about their objects Thou that hast had thy tender meltings and breakings for sin and canst now look upon it and thinke of it and act it with dry eyes yea almost with an unrelenting spirit will God thinkest thou apply healings to thee and pour in refreshments as heretofore Thou that hast been on fire in holy zeal desires and affections but now thy flames are reduced to a few sparks raked up in the ashes will the spirit breathe so sweetly strongly into thee as formerly Thou that hast bin constant and in earnest in holy duties but art now grown formall remisse neglective in them canst thou expect that the Lord should meet thee in them with wonted answers and impressions Briefly thou that hast lost thy first love in any degree or exercise of it though the Lord retain his everlasting love to thee in his own purpose yet how canst thou hope but that thy unkindenesse will interrupt the expressions and blur the evidences of it exceedingly to thy apprehension Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen recover thy self and go on in thy former strength lest the Lord yet depart farther from thee and refuse to be found of thee 4. Have I not yet hit upon thy disease nor discovered the right grounds of it Perhaps 't is nothing Melancholike persons we finde are sad they know not why and some Christians I grieve to name them doe affect a querulous sullen humour whereas there 's nothing that doth better become or beautifie Religion nothing that more encourages weak ones confounds insolent ones nothing that doth more damp temptations and cherish graces then a sweet serenity and composednesse of spirit expressed in chearfull walking with God Strange it is then that when God tenders peace to men beseeches to reconciliation opens his counsels his compassions his heart to them should refuse or suspect all and make it their art to stave off their own mercies to argue against their own good Great cares and great fears and great distractions they pretend when indeed it is not the greatnes of the cause but the greatnes of unbelief that makes them great Non magnitude cause sed in credulitatis Luther Away with such mannerly infidelity such wilfull winking at the light if ever thou wilt finde God upon thy seeking of him 2. To conviction let me add counsell to the sad doubting soul 1. I would advise such an one to be very exact and open in discovering the proper grounds of his distemper If we meet with a friend and finde his countenance changed towards us if we read displeasure in his looks we think thus with our selves Why what 's the matter How have I offended him Surely there 's something amisse we cast up in our thoughts what cause of distaste we have given him So when we perceive the Lord looking strange upon us in any of our approaches or seckings of him should we not ransack our hearts sum up our accounts pry narrowly into our passages till we have found out what offensive thing hath set us at a distance from him When Joshua lay upon his face Iosh 7.10 lift up his cry for the people when they fell before their enemies the Lord told him that that was not the way he must search out the causer of the evil if he would have him to be with them any more I tell thee likewise though thou bury thy soul in the dust of self-afflicting dejections though thou weep out thine eyes torture thy self with continuall anguish 't will be to small purpose till the thief the troubler of thy peace be found out and executed An unskilfull Physician making applications without discerning the cause of the disease doth but irritate the humours that were quiet and leaves that which was peccant untouched whereby the distemper is encreased And though thou feed upon thine own flesh drink down the most bitter potions and yet doest regard lessely or willingly spare the praedominant peccant the ill-affected humour thou dost hereby engender more stirs within and art the farther off from health and soundnesse Oh deal candidly with thy poor soul in this case 't is in vain to dally or dissemble with an awakened working conscience 2. If thy distempers arise rather from conceited then reall grounds when the flesh hatches scruples of it's own or Satan spitefully injects them to disquier thee t is the best way to repell them resolutely and speedily I have met with some pertinacious cavillers who have held it honour enough to them if a man of judgment will design to dispute with them they thereupon harden themselves in their errour and glory in their victory though they be never so soundly confuted Some cavils or distrusts are best solved by a sharp rejection whereas gentle or long debates make them more obstinate We finde David angerly expostulating with his spirit in the like case Psal 42 11. Why are thou cast down ô my soul Why art thou disquieted with in me 'T were good for thee to chide thy self our of spirituall frowardnesse and to shake off groundlesse discontentments with indignation Why wilt thou afflict thy self without a cause and stand of from thy comforts when they are warranted to thee In tantum opus est fide ne causa fidei sit sine fide and pressed upon thee True it is as a pious Divine well notes