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	think_v	time_n	3,167	5	3.3852	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59550	The government of the thoughts a sermon preach'd before the King and Queen at White-Hall, the 4th of March, being the 2d Sunday in Lent, 1693/4 / by ... John, Lord Arch-bishop of York.	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1694 (1694)	Wing S2977A; ESTC R17053	14,261	18

should rather be advised to look after their Bodies and by the help of good Prescriptions to get rid of those Fumes and Vapours which occasion these Fancies When the Cause is removed the Effect will soon cease I do not in the least doubt whatever these People may think of their own Case but that this is as properly a bodily Disease as a Feaver or fits of the Falling-sickness In the mean time while they are in this Condition whatever Rules are proper to be given to other Persons for the Government of the Thoughts of all People living those Rules do the least concern them For those Thoughts which they complain of do not at all fall under Regulation or Government because they are suggested to their Minds whether they will or no. And for my part I think it a great deal more advisable if it could be to neglect and despise them than to be perpetually struggling and disputing with them and vexing themselves about them But you will say If Men be such Slaves to their Thoughts and are thus necessarily passive under them where is the Freedom of Thoughts To this I answer In the Fourth Place out of these Three Cases I before-mentioned we have Liberty of Thinking and may chuse our own Thoughts And that Liberty and Freedom we have in Thinking doth to my apprehension mainly consist in this viz That all of us who are not in the Circumstances I have been hitherto speaking of can if we please apply our Minds more vigorously to one sort of thing than to another and accordingly as we do thus apply our Minds so will the most of our Thoughts be It is in our power among the multitude of Objects which present themselves to our Mind as for Instance GOD Vertue Holiness Heaven Wealth Power Greatness Preferments Fine-cloaths Splendid-equipage Sensual-pleasures Recreations Divertisements Knowledge Learning Arts and the like I say that among all this Multitude of Objects that present themselves to our Minds it is in our power to determine our which of them we will dwell upon and make a Business of And accordingly when at any time we have pitched upon any of them as a Business it is in our power to mind that Business either more or less diligently And if it be such a one as that we mean in good earnest to concern our about it it will then so fill our Minds as that by attending to that we shall either prevent in a great measure other Thoughts from coming into our Heads or if they do come in they will not long stay there but will very speedily give place to that which is our main Business at that time And the Reason of this is plain Because our Natures are of that make that two things at once cannot well possess our Minds and therefore if we be intent about one thing we cannot have much room or leisure for Thoughts of another Nature But then Fifthly and lastly Though this that I have said be the true Nature of that Power we have over our Thoughts as to the directing them to a particular Object Yet there is another power we have over them that ought here more especially to be consider'd because in it are laid the very Foundations of Vertue and Vice and upon account of it all our Thoughts become either morally good or evil That which I mean is this Tho' we cannot in many Cases think always of what we would nay tho' we cannot hinder abundance of Thoughts from coming into our Minds against our will yet it is always in our power to assent to our Thoughts or to deny our consent to them And here it is that the Morality of our Thoughts begins According as we Assent or Dissent to the motion that are made in our Mind so will our Thoughts have the Notion of vertuous or sinful Thoughts When any Temptations are presented to us from without we cannot perhaps as I said before avoid the Feeling an irregular Passion or Motion or Inclination stirring within us upon occasion thereof But yet at that very time it is in our power whether we will comply with those Passions and Inclinations or not whether we will consent to them or not whether we will pursue them further or not Now if we do not consent to them but endeavour to stop and stifle and resist them as soon as we are aware of them there is yet no harm done Our Thoughts how undecent or irregular soever they were are rather to be accounted the Infirmities of our Corrupt Nature than our Sins properly so called And thus it is likewise as to our Wandering Thoughts in our Prayers If we strive against them and endeavour to keep our Minds in a Devout composed Temper and attend as well as we can to the Duty we are about I say if we do this I hope those Distractions and Wanderings will never rise up in Judgment against us And as for the frightful Blasphemous Fancies which as I told you some even Pious Persons are tormented with As to them I say they of all other irregular Thoughts have the least danger of Sin in them tho' they be not so solemnly and formally disputed with and contested against Because indeed they are so terrible in their own Nature that no Man in his Wits and that hath any sense of GOD or Goodness can be supposed to consent to them They are indeed great Infelicities but by no means any in any farther than we approve of them and to approve of them for any tolerably good Man is impossible But then on the other side If we consent to any wicked motion or Inclination that we feel in our let it come in how it will never so suddenly never so unexpectedly if we close with any Thought that prompts us to Evil so as to be pleased with it to delight in it to think of pursuing it till it be brought into Action in that Case we are no longer to plead our Original Corruption for in that very instant we become Actual Sinners Actual Transgressors of the Law of GOD the Obligation of which reaches to our very Hearts and Thoughts as well as our Actions Tho' yet we are not so great Transgressors so long as our Sin is only in thought or desire or purpose as if it had proceeded to outward Action All this is taught us for true Divinity by no less an Author than St. James in the first Chapter of his Epistle Ver. 13 14 15. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringing forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Which Passage of the Apostle doth plainly contain these Three Propositions First That no Man is drawn to commit Sin by any State or Condition that GOD hath put him into no not by any Temptation either outward or inward that