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	suffer_v	suffering_n	2,047	5	9.4271	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86527	Heautonaparnumenos: or A treatise of self-denyall. Intended for the pulpit; but now committed to the presse for the publike benefit.	Hooker, Thomas, 1586-1647.	1646 (1646)	Wing H2649; Thomason E336_8; ESTC R18443	63,517	71

our Saviour tells us in the verse behind our Text Verse 25. almost in so many words He that seekes himselfe shall indeed finde himselfe but to his owne Destruction But he that Denyes himselfe shall indeed be rid of himselfe but to his owne salvation Then what profit will it bee to thee to gaine thy selfe yea the whole world if thou must loose thine own soule what Recompence canst thou give for it the whole World will not be sufficient nor any thing in the World but Him that overcame the World for thee If it be grievous to Deny thy Self Luke 12.9 Matth. 7.23 what will it be to be Deny'd of Christ when He shall say I know you not If thou canst not finde in thine heart to say Depart from me Iniquity how shalt thou finde in thine heart to heare that Thunder-clap Depart from Me yee workers of Iniquity Esay 33.14 If thou art not able to abide with this consuming fire how wilt thou be able to Dwell with everlasting Burnings It may bee now on the contrary there will be found to whom this duty of Self-denyall is so farre from being grievous they are sorry they have not now as those in the Primitive times had occasion to expresse it fully They could willingly resist that is patiently yeeld themselves though it were to bloud were it as those Martyrs did for the Cause of Christ But to suffer for the Circumstantialls onely not the Substantialls of Religion yea to suffer for those Morall Duties which a Heathen man would suffer for this they esteeme not worth the while not worth the Denying of their Estates Honours Ease at least their Lives and therefore they easily perswade themselves they are not hereunto obliged or if they be to neglect such Duties is but a Peccadillo a small sinne they can cry God mercy for it and so gilding the Pill o're a little they swallow it downe smoothly without any Remorse at all Hence it is that others to get the Reputation to themselves of no lesse then Martyrs for the Truth strongly flatter themselves they suffer for Christ that they doe when yet even in their owne pretence it is but for His Garment but in the judgement of Humbler Men is not for that neither but their owne Wills then which nothing can be more contrary to Christ or Suffering for Him and therefore to Self-denyall But to the first I ans That even in this it appears they are not Self-denyed men that they take upon them to prescribe to God Almighty As if he knew not by calling them to what Sufferings they should glorifie Him and benefit themselves most For in true Self-denyall we ever part with our own Election our own Will and submit it to anothers Now this he cannot do that will beare no other Crosse but what is of his owne choosing But then especially does this Election fight with our Self-denyall when it pitches upon such Crosses onely as are more Glorious such as were those of the Primitive Martyrs For in such Sufferings we seek our owne Things not the Things of God wee seek our owne Repute our owne Reward not our owne Abjection Vilenesse Contempt and Nothing But this in some degree must be done in the true Denyall of our Selves and this we must know may be done as well if not better by Suffering for small as greater matters For the lesse Motive our Sufferings have from without themselves 't is a signe they have the more from within that they proceed meerly from a Conscience of our owne Duty and Abjection But now the Meaner that is we suffer for if we suffer for it with equall Patience as for a Greater matter the lesse is our Motive from without and and so must argue the greater Conscience of Duty from within which is so farre from disparaging it sets a Price upon our Self-denyal Againe what we shall suffer for when and where is not in our Election but in God's Providence calling us thereunto So is not our Willingnesse and Cheerfulnesse in suffering for that by the Grace of God is this therefore is to be reckoned to our Praise that rather to our Recompence Now it pleas'd the All-wise God to call the Primitive Christians to be Witnesses to His more Fundamentall Truths that being done abundantly it pleases Him now to call Vs to be Witnesses to His Truthes of inferiour Nature What then shall we despise these Meaner ones as not worth our Suffering for let us take heed of that None of them but are God's None but in the Sequell are of infinite concernment None but are more worth then all we are or have yea then the whole World it selfe None but which in suffering for we suffer for Christ Himself who calls Himselfe the Truth If then we suffer for Christ in suffering for His Meanest Truth John 14.6 we ought to be so far from excusing ourselves or declining such suffering as which were Interpretatively to Deny Christ that we ought rather to comfort our selves in this behalfe that we are thought worthy any wayes to suffer for Him But much better it is wholly to wave the Cause of our Sufferings leaving that to God's Providence and reflecting upon our Selves look to the Quality of our suffering take thought not how great but how good Sufferers we are with what Willingnesse what Love of God and Resignation of our Selves we suffer For thus wee may equalize if not out-goe those Primitive Christians If they suffer'd for more weighty matters we may suffer with more obedient Affections if their Sufferings were more Glorious ours may be more Vertuous If they suffered for the justifying of our Faith why may not we be call'd to suffer for the justifying of Suffering it selfe of the Scandall of the Crosse of the Necessity of Self-Denyall For my part I judge we are Our Sufferings therefore seeme the more Arduous and Difficult of the two by how much more difficult it is to contest with Ignominy then with Errour to renounce our owne Wills then our owne Vnderstandings But here it may be some will say It cannot be deny'd though but that the Sufferings of Christians now are farre inferiour to those of the Primitive Martyrs which were most horrid I cannot tell whether that also may be allow'd or no. For so it may be that one may Deny himselfe much by suffering in a small matter and on the contrary may Deny himself but little by suffering in a greater for all goes as the Mind is sets a price on that we suffer in Our Self-denyal receives its value from our Interest in things Now our Interest lyes in things not ever according to their Worth but most-what according to our Apprehension Love of them which by reason of our Blindnesse since our Fall is seldome proportioned to the just Worth of any thing Hence it comes to passe that as the Schooles tell us we often stampe a high price on those things amore intensivo by our affectionate

Self-denyall Matth. 7.14 which our Saviour calls a strait entrance into a spacious Kingdome In handling of them therefore I shall not be so presse as to insist strictly on the Words lest doing too much honour to the Cabinet I prejudice the Jewel But I shall take some liberty to my selfe and though I neglect not the Words yet shall handle them Common-place-wise and so insist upon this Method First shew the Nature and full Meaning of this Precept Secondly its Possibility or Peisablenesse Thirdly its Congruity in Reason Fourthly its Necessity in Religion Fiftly its Excellency above any Precept of the Law whatsoever And lastly its Vtility to all those that shall obey it To shew then the Nature of this Precept we must let you see first what is meant here by our Selves Then what is meant by Denying Lastly what by Denying our selves By ones Selfe here He meanes that which the Stoicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather that which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.3 That is those Principles and Opinions which by Nature now corrupted are in every one and encline him to establish his own Independencie of any other whatsoever yea even of God Himselfe and to crook every thing toward himself so making himselfe the sole end of his thoughts words and actions In a word Our Selfe strictly taken is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas-Resp Interrog sextae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our owne Will to be or have any thing contrary to the Will of God Our being any thing may well be styl'd our Selves there is no doubt of that So may our having any thing too for as much as we have and owne nothing but what we adhere unto and becomes a part of our selves by Love which Love does interesse us therein But that we may the better understand the true Nature of our Selves as contradistinct from God wee must consider that the whole Systeme of Ens consists but of two parts God and the Creature as it were of the Sunne and its radius its Beame or Ray. That God is of and by Himselfe or to speake more properly not of nor by any other Therefore that He alone claimes Selfnesse as I may terme it to Himselfe Exod. 3.14 because He alone is what he is His Essence and Existence are both one He is his owne basis and foundation Then we must consider that the Creature is no wayes of it selfe but wholly of God because Existing eminently and radically in Him God therefore He cannot possibly Deny Himselfe as the Apostle tells us but as for the Creature that cannot but Deny it selfe 2 Tim. 2.13 if it act as it should doe But then surely you will aske How comes it to passe there is any Selfnesse in the World beside that of God alone that our Saviour should speak here of the Creatures Selfe For this wee must know that indeed and in truth there is no such thing in rerum naturâ as the Creatures Selfe contradistinct from God but onely in Corrupt Opinion and Desire And so even now I intimated deriving its true Originall from our owne proper Will And so much our Saviour intimates here to us commanding our act of Denyall to attend it the proper Adjunct of Non ens of that which in very truth is nothing Now this Opinfonate affected Propriety or Selfnesse comes about thus God having in the Beginning created the whole World for Himselfe and therein manifested His Power in making all things to serve and feare Him as their Lord would also manifest his Goodnesse and therfore made some things to love Him too that is to serve Him as a Father no lesse then as a Lord. This that He might doe 't was fit His Service should be Rationall Rom. 12.1 that is proceed from a rationall Appetite to wit the Will informed by the Vnderstanding So then He made such a Creature as was capable of such an Appetite and therewith He endu'd it Now 't was necessary this Appetite should be free so that it might love or not love God's Goodnesse freely The Reason is Because God is a Perfect Good and so requires Perfect Love to attend it But now Perfect love as it casts out Feare according to the Apostle 1 John 4.18 so it casts out Force too as which would argue Imperfection in the Good it loves that it could not of it selfe without the aid of an Extraneous force attract love proportionable thereunto For this cause He made the Apperite of the Will free as by His Assistance to continue in Obedience to His owne Will so by its owne mutability to deflect from that to desire an Independent subss istence of it selfe and thereto to bend its whole Activity Being thus enfranchised it made use of its owne Freedome to the worst part and so rebel'd against God its Maker forgetting Him and directing all things to it selfe For so to omit the Sin of the Angels not revealed to us we finde that Adam not content with that Condition wherein he was set by God brake that Law wherein he was to acknowledge his Dependence and Obedience by which act of his he did interpretatively renounce God his Maker and directly sought and set up himselfe Here now came in our Propriety Self-love Self-will into the World and therewith sinne the Originall of all evill as well of that which is simply such sinne as of that which is such to some things onely and in some respects misery For so we finde in the story that Adam thus seeking himselfe found himselfe indeed but to his owne Destruction Or rather to speak more truely did not sinde but quite lose himselfe as will appeare out of God's words concerning him For when hee had done that for which hee was so asham'd and afraid together that hee was faine to hide himselfe God comming into the Garden askt Adam where art thou Not but that He knew very well where he was but that Adam knew not what he had made himselfe and so God askt the question meerely to shew he was no where or Nothing at least in His Account This loe had Adam gotten by his late Prevarication that he who by Creation was newly made like God Himselfe by Sinne and Rebellion became the next degree to Nothing And by this we have already deliver'd may sufficiently be perceiv'd what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this same Selfe is which our Saviour here speaks of that not our Selfe onely that which here is to be deny'd but the immediate consequents of it Sin and Death are indeed nothing in the World to be sure not of God's making but if any thing Creatures of our owne and therefore evill wholly evill and that continually But now more dictinctly to unfold the Nature of this Selfe we have brought into the world we may observe three sorts of things wee are bidden to Deny in Scripture and in them a three-fold Selfe They are either such things as are absolutely