Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	lord_n	6,936	5	3.8165	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59194	Daniel Sennertus his meditations setting forth a plain method of living holily and dying happily / written originally in Latin, and now translated into English.	Sennert, Daniel, 1572-1637.	1694 (1694)	Wing S2536; ESTC R19038	74,434	198

that our first Parents fell from that primitive Holiness and Righteousness and so lost the Image of God for after that by the perswasion of the Devil they had entertained a love of themselves contrary to God and to the love of their Creator preferring their own Glory and Delectation before the love and glory of God and desiring to be equal with God himself their understandings were presently overspread with ignorance and blindness instead of Wisdom Their Wills grew Refractory and Disobedient to God and all their affections were perverse irregular and out of order so that now the thoughts of man from his infancy are evil and thus man not only fell from that eternal life for which he was Created but also became obnoxious to eternal Damnation Thirdly 'T is firmly to be believ'd that God took pitty on fallen Mankind and sent his Son to take upon him Humane Flesh and being made Man did by suffering and dying satisfie for us and deliver us from eternal death And did by his Merits relied on by a true Faith again make us Heirs of that blessed life which by our sins we lost and restored in us the decayed image of God and made us his and Sanctified us by his Holy Spirit that we might serve him in Righteousness and Holiness all the days of our life From whence it plainly appears who Christ is and what is the duty of a Christian viz. Christ is our Redeemer who reconciled us unto his Father and by his Merits made us his Brethren and Coheirs of his Kingdom when we were enemies to God defiled with sin and deserved to be punished with eternal death And a Christian who derives his name from Christ is one who acknowledges that he was indeed created by God in Righteousness and Holiness but by the Wiles of Satan fell from and rebelled against God and so being polluted by the stains of Original Sin and contaminated with many actual Transgressions he became liable to the wrath of God and everlasting punishment from which he is freed and redeemed by the alone Merits and Righteousness of Christ which by Faith is imputed unto him so that now he is to undertake such a way of living as may be well pleasing not to the Devil but unto God and therefore he is to avoid all sins from which he is redeemed by the pretious Merits of Christ and to serve God alone in an holy and religious life And from hence arises a threefold duty of a Christian The first is to acknowledge himself a sinner and to bewail his sins Secondly To believe Christ to be his Redeemer and to trust only in his Merits Thirdly To obey his Laws to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit not to relapse into sins from which by the death of Christ he is redeemed but to love God above all things and his Neighbour as himself Or to comprize all in a word the life of a Christian is a continual Repentance For since he is defiled with Original Sin and even the Just Man falls seven times Prov. 24.16 He will therefore be always sorrowful for his sins and sly to the Merits of Christ and serve God in true Righteousness and Holiness In sum 't is the Duty of a Christian to believe in Christ and to live holily which if he doth for Christs sake he will be acceptable unto God and shall in the end inherit eternal life But if he shall be deprived of this happiness if he is not in favour with God although he should possess the Riches of the whole World although he were Monarch over all the Earth although he were wiser than the best Philosophers yet would all be in vain and to no purpose Vanity of Vanities Eccles 1. all is Vanity except to serve God and to please him There are indeed many things to be done which are allowed of God but there is one thing necessary None shall be Condemned in the last Day that they were not rich that they were not in high places that they did not enjoy great honours that they were ignorant of many nice Subtilties of Nature But they alone shall be Condemned who do not believe in Christ and who are not the Children of God The Prayer GRant O Lord Jesus Christ that I may never forget those Vows wherewith I have obliged my self unto thee in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism but that renouncing the Devil and all his Works I may obey thy Commandments with my whole Heart and confessing my self to be a Miserable Sinner I may confide in thy Merits and serve Thee in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of my life Amen CHAP. XI That we must repent And first of sorrowing for our sins FOR as much as the Christian knows that he is conceiv'd and born in sins and that in this corruption of Humane Nature no body can sufficiently resist the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil that there is no Man which sinneth not 2 Chr. 6.36 Prov. 20.9 for who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my sin and that even the Just man falleth seven times Prov. 24.16 therefore he hates and bewails his sins and confesseth that by them he hath provoked Gods anger against him so that he justly deserveth the eternal pains of Hell But the Christian must bewail his sins seriously and from his heart 2 Cor. 7.10 For that is godly sorrow which worketh Repentance unto Salvation not to be repented of that is a true sorrow for sins joyn'd with faith Now this grief and sadness the Holy Ghost excites in us as also doth the Consideration and Meditation of Christs Passion As if a Man considers who he is whom he hath offended who it is that is angry with him and that his sins were the cause of his Saviours Passion For Man from himself is nothing but he is Gods Creature and whatever any one hath he hath it from God But God is the Creator of all things the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Omnipotent Immense most Wise most Good and most Great insomuch that between Man and God there is no proportion And yet Man by his sins rebell'd against God and deliver'd himself up into the Bondage of Satan and so provoked the infinite anger of his God against him Now the Passion of Christ is the Mirrior of the Divine anger And whoever considers with himself the reasons that mov'd the Son of God to become Man to suffer and to die and confesseth that it was the sins of the World which could no other ways be atton'd for than by the Death and Passion of the Son of God himself he who shall consider that Man who is Dust and Ashes fell away from his Creator the great and good God and listed himself under the Devils Banner and so by his sins provoked Gods anger enough to have thrown him headlong into Hell and withal shall confess it to be in part his own fault that the

Lusts and Desires of the Flesh and to hinder us from treating it with softness and delicacy let us often consider that a little while hence our Bodies will become stinking Carkases For what is our Flesh how finely soever it be treated and cloathed and fed and pampered but food for Worms Luxury chiefly comprehends Lust and Drunkenness Against Lust a Christian ought diligently to fortifie himself The prize of Chastity is of all the most difficult the Conflict is perpetual but the Victory rare Remember therefore what St. Paul says Flee Fornication 2 Cor. 6.18 every sin that a Man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body Our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Tabernacle into which is received the Holy Body and Blood of Christ Take therefore the Advice of Ecclesiasticus Cap. 9. v. 7 8. Look not round about thee in the Streets of the City neither wander thou in the Solitary places thereof Turn away thine Eye from a Beautiful Woman and look not upon anothers Beauty Drunkenness which is the other part of Luxury is amongst other Vices more especially to be avoided because now a days it is by many thought no sin but rather accounted praise-worthy although there be no plague more dangerous to Christianity and nothing more severely forbid than this Isa 5.12 For the Drunkard regardeth not the work of the Lord neither considers the operations of his Hands 1 Cor. 6.10 Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Wine and Drunkenness captivates the Heart of Man so that the Holy Spirit will no longer reside in him It is very dangerous even to be once Drunk For our Saviour adviseth us to take heed to our selves least at any time our Hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting and Brunkenness but to be sober and to watch unto Prayer because the hour is uncertain when the Son of Man will come we therefore ought always to keep our selves free from this sin because we must appear before the Tribunal of Christ in the same state as we were in at the hour of Death let every one therefore consider what a terrible thing it would be for a Man whilst he is Drunk to be taken on a sudden out of the Land of the living by some unexpected fall by the Sword or some other Violence or by a fit of an Apoplexy and withal let Drunkards consider how many poor Christians there are in the World who would think themselves happy if they might have their fill of Bread and small Drink whilst they so unjustly and lavishly wast the pretious gifts of God let them beware least at last it happens to them as it did to that Rich Glutton who when he had fared Sumptuously every day and denied poor Lazarus the crums that fell from his Table he was buried in Hell where not so much as a drop of water would be allowed him to cool his Tongue in those infernal flames And because Idleness administers the greatest fuel to Luxury therefore more especially avoid idleness Be always intent about something or other Meditate Read Write Pray Work or follow diligently the business of your particular Callings and by these means the love of Pleasures will be more easily damp'd and exstinguished Another sin we are to arm ourselves against is Envy which is a divelish Vice and according to some was the cause of Satans fall and which made him endeavour the overthrow of Mankind Against this let us consider that all the good things we enjoy are not from our selves but are dispenced and distributed amongst us by the great Lord of all as he sees best Why then O Man shouldst thine Eye be evil because he is good and kind to thy Neighbour It is rather thy Duty when thou seest all things succeed well with thy Neighbour to give thanks unto God and to think that thou art not worthy of such prosperity or that it would not be profitable unto thee Why shouldst thou envy another those things he possesseth without thy loss or hurt When as if he had them not thou wouldst not have them Is it not a property of the Devil when thou art by the just Judgment of God under any Misery or Trouble to wish that others were miserable also Lastly consider what good envy doth most certainly thou canst not by it transfer thy Neighbours goods unto thy self Thou hurtest thy self only whilst thou breakest thy Heart with Vexation and Languish thou art only thy own Tormentor and Executioner After all the most present Remedy for Envy is to be Humble to avoid Pride and Covetousness from whence Envy generally proceeds For whoever lives contented with his own condition never envies the Honours and Riches of other Men. And to name no more the Christian ought to fortifie his mind against Anger Enmity and Hatred Slandering and false accusation by considering that all the while a Man is out of Charity with his Neighbour so long he is unacceptable to God insomuch that such an one under the Old Testament could offer no Sacrifice to God and under the New cannot say that Prayer which our Lord hath taught us For thus our Saviour Admonisheth us Mat. 5.23 24. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift And in the Lords Prayer we Pray Mat. 6.12 Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors which is farther enforced at the end of the Prayer by this reason for if ye forgive Men their Trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you vers 14 15. But if ye forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will your Father forgive you Let us also reflect on those severe words of our Saviour Mat. 5.22 But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell fire and in another place Luk. 6.27 Love your Enemies do good to them which hate you verse 28. Bless them that Curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you verse 31. And as ye would that Men should do unto you do ye also to them likewise verse 32. for if ye love them which love you what thank have ye For sinners also love those that love them verse 35. But love ye your Enemies and do good and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil verse 36. Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful verse 37. Judg not and ye shall not be Judged Condemn not and ye shall not be Condemned Forgive and ye