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	lord_n	see_v	5,118	5	3.3465	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60521	The character of a weaned Christian, or, The evangelical art of promoting self-denial being an essay, alluding to the severities and advantages of infant-weaning, both pleasant and profitable / by S. S., ...	Smith, Samuel, 1620-1698.	1675 (1675)	Wing S4164; ESTC R19902	63,054	160

wander after the Allurements of the World by a short Gratification of their Senses yet they soon check their folly repent of it lay a solemn Charge on their deluded Souls that they should return to the Lord as their Genuine Rest by compleat Satisfaction in Him alone They beg to be establisht by the Magnetick Power and the most endearing Obligations of Divine Love They exercise on themselves all the Rules of Spiritual weaning with the greatest strictness and severity Their Self-denial holds Pace with their gradual discoveries of the Lord's Excellencies The motion of their Souls Heavenward mounts up sutably to their Acquaintance with their Heavenly Father Their Spiritual Light and Life are commensurate The weakest Babe in Christ digests his Knowledg into studious sincere Obedience although he be not swift upon the Wing because a dull Earthly Body clogs his Generous Soul Yet That Divine Nature which he hath received will grow up to a stronger Constitution till it cast and work out all those Obstructions of sensual Passions which at present damp his Spiritual Zeal and Comfort There is such an implanted principle of a Divine Life displaying it self in every New-born Christian that the estimation of the Lord 's lovely Beauty and infinite Worth Preponderates the excellencies of the whole Creation If the Weakest of Christ's Weanlings were put to his Choice whether he would lose an Interest in God or the Creature he would rather reject with the greatest abhorrency the the Worlds softest and tenderest Imbraces than those purest Delights which endear his heart to the Lord in the midst of all Temporal wants and losses If the Lord should say to a truly weaned Saint thou shalt be freed from Hell twelve Princes shall proceed from thee but I will not by Covenant bestow my self upon thee this very Restriction would be an Hell For it is only Propriety in God himself which can satisfy a Gracious heart It will deny it self to enjoy an Interest in God but if the Lord deny his Loving-kindness which is better than Life all other Enjoyments will be Joyless a weaned Saint will write upon them all The Glory is departed Then will Worldly Men believe that you are in good earnest in Professing your selves to be Pilgrims on Earth that there is a Kingdom which cannot be shaken which you are Expectants of and Candidates for when you most deny and debase your selves that God may be All in All. Weaned Saints will descend by Humility when they are advanced to the pitch of Heavenly-mindedness or the greatest Communications of the Lords Grace and Favour Then they see most cause of abasing themselves by constant Dependency on the Lord. Creatures the more excellent they are in their Being and Operation the more frail and brittle they would become if left to a Self-subsistency Even the Spirits of Just Men made perfect modestly and chearfully acknowledg that they shine with a Precarious Excellency borrowed from that Fountain of Light who Enamels their Crowns with Stars of Glory therefore they cast them down at the Foot of the Lamb. These Celestial Favourites applaud not their own perfections but while they sun themselves in the Rays of Christ's Divinity they pay a grateful Homage of Adoration to the Archetype of their Blessedness The perfect Vision of the God of Glory begets perfect Transformation in a Glorions State Yet the Saints Satisfaction is only in his Union with and Enjoyment of the Lord Himself as the Essential and Infinite Object of Happiness In the mean time as Sojourners upon Earth they tread all sublunary Vanities under their Feet Weaned Christians who wait upon the Lord are compared to Eagles Isa 40.31 This King of Birds hath a strong Wing a swift Flight a quick piercing Eye and is usually secure from the stroke of Thunder Heavenly contemplative Souls while such are above the reach of Satan's Temptations It is for Batts and Owls to flie near the foggy dull Earth But the Soul of a weaned Christian is of too Noble an Original to stoop so low as to think it can be beautified by the accession of any worldly accommodation They affect Earthly Conveniencies no further than they may be Advantages in seeking Heavenly Graces By an Art of Spiritual Chymistry they can sublimate the unrighteous Mammon into true Charity Honour into Humility and Worldly Pleasure into a Recreation of Divine Joy becoming the New-Man They Spiritualize all the dross of the Creature they make a Divine improvement on that very indifferent Comfort which Satan would Convert into a Snare They account a weaned State to be the Life of Heaven upon Earth Thus they take a Survey of the Holy-Land and enter Paradise in their thoughts before they take possession in their Persons Little do Worldlings know what transporting Delights weaned Saints enjoy in their secret Retirements from the World These Doves which seek Solitude for Holy Meditation have the fullest discoveries of Heavenly Glory How are their Wings covered over with Golden Apparitions in clear Revelations from the Spirit of Truth when their Judgments are not clouded with the gross Fumes and Vapors of Terrestrial Delights nor their Affections clog'd by sinking in the Bogs of Sensuality The very Vices of Worldlings are improved by Christ's Weanlings unto a Religious Imitation Covetous Men like Nero cruelly dig into the Bowels of their Mother-Earth to search for Veins of Gold and Silver which the God of Nature hath on purpose hid lest they should prove Traitors to his Majesty by winning over our Affections unto Vanity Yet such is their folly that like Antaeus or Consumptive Persons they think to recover the strength of Contentment by smelling to and embracing of the Earth But weaned Saints dig into the Rich Mines of the Scriptures thereby to discover and possess themselves of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Divine Wisdom and the unseen Joys of Celestial Contemplation Yet are they not inquisitive by a bold Curiosity where God would have them Ignorant Weaned Saints being mindful of their Divine Original make every Creature-Comfort a distinct round in Jacob's Ladder whereon they climb to Heaven that they may obtain fuller Communion with the Father of their Spirits to beget sweeter and more satisfying Tastcs of Divine Love and Bounty They count it Honor enough to be New-born from Above and esteem it a Chiefer part of their Felicity that they are made meet and fit for Heaven than that their Names are engraven on their Celestial Mansions before they take the Triumphant Possession of them They are highly Ambitious even in their Pilgrimage yet 't is only to please the Lord in their Conversation which is carried on in a Mystery toward the World They constantly Lye sucking In pure Delights from the Ocean of Immense Felicity with more than Epicurean grediness When they obtain the Choicest and Richest Effusions of Divine Love they are Covetously restless and Impatiently thirsty after more of the Invigorating Influences of the Holy Spirit They Bathe their Dove-like Minds not in the Lethean Lake of Sensual Pleasures but in the Chrystal Streams of Truth and Righteousness They Prune their Wings viz. the discomposed Affections of their Souls by Heavenly Circumspection and Curiosity Their hearts are impregnated with Zeal by the Spirit of Life and Righteousness yet are they not puft up with Pride nor a conceited Self-Sufficiency under their highest attainments in Holiness or in Comfort Other Creatures may forget and forsake the Damme when weaned but every Self-denying Christian more cleaves to and waits upon the Lord as not able to subsist Alone nor lead a Separate Life from the Fountain of pure Joy when most incompast with the Enjoyments of the World or the Comfortable quickning influences of the Holy Spirit Even in Heaven they shall Most and Best admire yea Adore the Infinite Perfections of God in Christ They shall Eternally Acknowledg and Complacentially Descant on that Divine Power which subjected them to a weaned Estrangement from the World or any Confidence in a Self-Righteousness according to that Assertion of the Prophet Isa ch 45 v. 25. In the Lord shall all the Spiritual Seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory Thus they shall rejoycingly Acquicsce not so in the State of their Personal Salvation as Triumph in the Lamb of God who Redeemed them by his Blood from Worldly Allurements and all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit To this Author and Finisher of our Faith to this Pattern of Self-Abasement who humbled Himself to the Death of the Cross that he might wean us from doting on Earthly Vanities and raise our hearts to admire and chuse the ever-Blessed Deity for our Al-satisfying Portion be ascribed as is most due All Honour Adoration and Glory both Now and to all Eternity Amen Amen FINIS

to the full and will add no Sorrow with it Together with the Confluence of Creature-Comforts grow up greater Cares our Table many times proves a Snare and our Supplies our Surfeits But in the Complacential Love of God is no danger no fear of Excess or of making any forfeiture Here is no occasion of Repenance for misplacing of our hearts Other Delights cloy and satiate but do not satisfy But Spiritual Joys yield fresh sweetness without Satiety When we settle our Affections upon the Lord and his Excellencies we transplant them from Earth to Heaven to ripen in a better Climate We lose not but only exchange our Joys for more solid durable refined Comforts Regeneration Adoption to an Heavenly Inheritance and the Kisses of Christ's Spirit Sealing Communion with God through Christ is a greater Cause of Glorying than the highest Preferments in the World Therefore let poor Saints rejoyce that they are exalted in being weaned even to a Contempt of gilded Vanities and let Rich Saints Glory in this that they are Spiritually abased and made vile in their own Eyes as considering that Man is altogether Vanity in his best Estate For when his Gracious endowments are improved to the highest pitch of excellency they would yet fade away as the Beauty of a Flower were they not rooted and preserved in Christ Jesus What Hypocrites become by the Art of dissimulation appearing to Be that and Do that which they neither Are nor Act in Truth Such should Saints become by the right Art of Spiritual weaning In the prudent regulation and composure of their Natural passions they should carry it so as if they were not Men but Acted like Angels while they walk in the pathetick strains of Nature They must so contrive to bound and conceal their Passions for the want or loss of the Creature as if there were no reality in their weeping Yea in the highest Spring-Tide of prosperity they must rejoyce as if they rejoyced not Yet in the Exercise of Holy Duties they must so express reality as if they were All Affection made up with nothing else They must so weep for Sin as if their Head were a Fountain of Tears and so rejoyce in the Lord and his Image drawn out upon their Hearts as if they were Joy it self They must so Commerce and Trade with Heaven as if they were a Flame of Zeal an Holy-Covetousness and Emulation it self Yet Saints are so weaned from Ostentation by humility that though they be full of Holiness they pursue after more eminent Degrees as if they had none at all In point of Self-denyal he mourns for Sin as if he mourned not because he counts it no Compensation to Divine Justice He rejoyces in the Acting of his Graces as if he rejoyced not because though they be admirable endowments of the New-Creature yet they Eannot Create a Title unto Heavenly Glory as the Meritorious Cause thereof He trades with Christ in Holy Duties as if he traded not because he attributes no success to his own skill and industry yea his Spiritual gains or advantages are reaped and possest without observation by Carnal Persons towards whom his Conversation in Heaven while himself remains a Pilgrim on Earth is altogether a Mystery and a Riddle A weaned Self-denying Saint is silent and reserved in driving on secret Communion with the Lord yet is he not slight and remiss but sincerely fervent and fruitful in all the ways of Righteousness Thus Saints being weaned from their own Credit and Applause make the fittest and most active Projectors for Christ's Honour and the Propagation of his Kingdom But here it may be Objected by Christ's weak Babes I fear I am not Spiritually weaned because I cannot affirm that my Delight is fixed in the Lord. How little is my Mind Abstracted from Conversing with empty shadows and how deeply Immersed in sensitive feculent Delights How seldom do the discoveries of the Lords infinite Excellencies transform me into a God-like Life To this I Answer thus in the General I intended That foregoing Character of weaned Saints rather for the Imitation of Babes in Christ than to assert it to be the minimum quod sic the least Essential qualifications or Constitutive Properties of sincerity in Evangelical Weanlings Christians who falsly argue for a Nullity of Grace in themselves from its Impotency must consider that the right Art of Spiritual weaning is not easily learnt and practis'd because it is a Sacred Mystery Yet New-born Saints are under the Conduct of Christ's Spirit who safely and tenderly leads them through the Labyrinth of the Worlds Perplexing Cares and Temptations that they may not be devoured by the Minotaur of a Flesh-pleasing Sensuality Christ's very Babes have a supernatural Sagacity and Instinct to foresee their Dangers and being conscious of their own Infirmity to resist Temptations they have so much strength as to cry out incessantly Abba Father succour me with thy preventing assisting Grace that I may carry on that Weaning-Design to which by Baptism I stand obliged They can and do claim spiritual Kindred with God himself nor will they desist from pleading their spiritual Interest in his Wisdom Power Love Goodness and Faithfulness to shield them from Temptations and to promote their Self-denial to the Pitch of Heavenly-mindedness They will creep as well as they can into the Presence of their Father when they cannot run the way of his Commandments with inlargment of Affection answerable to their desire They testifie their Love and Gratitude their Prowess and Resolution against sin Satan and the World as they are Able therefore they shall though weakly weaned divide the Celestial Inheritance equally with the Angels who Excel in strength Take a really weaned Saint at the lowest Ebb of his Affections Godward yet he is to be preferred before the most Zealous Hypocrite because as the World and his Lusts are the Joy of his Soul so the Creature is the Soul of his Joy and his Joy only the Blaze of the Creature But the Newly weaned Christian doth not so eagerly intermeddle with worldly concernments as quite to Degenerate and Degrade himself from his Spiritual Constitution by becoming One Spirit with Sensitive Objects of a Base alloy He never so mixes his Heart with nor lifts it up to Creature-Vanities as quite to lose the Sagacity of his Soul in not apprehending any quick touch of the Divine Greatness or not relishing the sweetness of the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. Still there is a more potent supernatural Principle within him drawing off his heart from a Pursuit of the Dunghil-Profits and besotting-Pleasures of the World So that as the Needle in the Mariners Compass he is still restless till he Center in the Increated Perfections of the Supream Being and Original Source of All things Still he prays wean me and I shall be weaned for thou art my Praise that is the superexcellent Object of my Love and Delight If at any time Christ's weaned Babes wonder at the Grandure and