Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	lord_n	see_v	3,997	5	3.2299	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A72208	A fruitful and Godly sermon containing necessary and profitable doctrine, for the reformation of our sinfull and wicked liues, but especially for the comfort of a troubled conscience in all distresses. By M. Richard Greenham pastor of Drayton.	Greenham, Richard.	1595 (1595)	STC 12319; ESTC S124961	28,758	90

or else if they haue not this griefe they fall into voluptuousnesse and drawe such a thick skinne vppon their heartes as will cause the most strongest denouncing of Gods just judgements to redownd be they driven on never so harde And sure it is the sinne of this world when men being controwled in their owne heartes and Consciences and that whilest they are a praying do feele a secreete charge laide against them to make them to beware of falshoode in bying and selling for either they haue these checks lesse and lesse and so they grow too prophane or else afterwarde they are woonderfullie wounded that they haue beene so worldlie so greedilie pursuing earthly things and so coldly purchasing heavenly things thus even our privie thoghts not profited by are breeders of farther trouble Nowe the remedie against this trouble is willingly and wittingly not to cheerish sinne to wish that the minister should touch our most privie and secreet sinnes to be glad privatlie to be admonished to profit by our enemies when they do reproch vs rather to desire in such a cause to be humbled than to suffer our selues to be flattered This trying of our selues must yet stretche it selfe further not only to the committing of evill but to the omitting of good as when after some good working and feeling of the spirit we beginne to fight and conflict with our own consciences saying though I must pray I must haue time also to prouide for my Family If I go to heare the word surely I shall be in danger to lose this profite If I thus attend vpon this exercise of Religion I shall be cut short of the vse of my pleasures Wherefore it shall be good to search our heartes both in the careles not vsing the means saying to our selues in this manner I haue heard a Sermon but alas without any feeling or working of my afflictions I haue bene praying but with no power of the spirit I haue receiued the Sacraments but without those joyes glorious and vnspeakable which I was wont to taste of I sawe the Discipline of the Church executed but without any feare of sinne in my selfe or compassion of the members censured And heere I dare for my owne observation assuredly affirme that outwarde sinnes haue not bene sometimes so grievous to Gods children as that they haue sometimes vsed the meanes with little reverence and with lesse fruite and no marvell for we shal see that many men are sometime not so much grieved for their sicknesse it selfe as for that they haue either willinglie neglected the meanes which might haue preserued their health or they haue abused the Phisicke which might haue restored their health to them againe In like maner I say it fareth with them who either vnreverently haue refused the meanes which should keep their souls from forgetting or else vnthankfully haue abused those helpes which might haue recovered them againe From hence it commeth that some men are as much grieved for not vsing their good giftes to the benefite of Gods Church as others are troubled for pestering of the Churche with vnprofitable corruptions As wee shall see a rich man sometimes as much humbled for not giving money to the poore which hee might haue done As for heaping vp riches falsely which hee ought not to haue done And thus many hauing received good giftes and graces from the Lord are received and sanctified by affliction wherby they are taught to put their giftes in vre and to offer their service vnto Christ and others are feared to hide their gifts who cannot be without some decay of Gods glory without any offence to the weake without the losse of many saints which otherwise might be woone to the Gospell and without the strengthening the hand of the aduersarie to slaunder our dumb and dark profession all which things will in the end bring terrour of minde because if the Lord cannot worke vpon vs by taking away goods freinds credite wife children or such like to bring vs to repentance hee will surely whip our naked consciences he will enter even into our very entralls pearce our secreete bowels As we must examine our souls thus for sinnes past and sinnes present so must we loose this practise in sinnes to come and this is very needefull for were it that our life were such as neither before nor after our callings men might justly accuse it yet the hidden corruptions of nature may threaten som hainous downfall in time to come which hath made men of very good report and conversation to hang downe their heades and feare their secreet hypocrisie as that which may break faith to the shame of all the former in time to come But because we forget to speak of them that in the examining of their liues past were much grieved for the want of sinceritie and privie vaine glory in themselues Let vs before wee go to the searching of our heart in sinne to come to speak somwhat of this men traveling for this privie pride are either touched or not touched If the vale of sinne was so great in them that it hidde Christ from them it is the good will of God that by this sight of the most secreet sinnes they should come to see that righteousnes that is in Christ Iesus and so they shall the better be kept from being justiciary Pharisies for being a long time well brought vp and leading a ciuill life the devill woulde perswade vs of some inherent righteousnes in vs It is the wisedome of our God to touch vs with the conscience of most hidden corruptions as also to terrisie and make knowne vnto vs that euen from our birth there was ever secreet seed of sinne in vs which without the Lord watching over vs wold surely haue broken forth to his dishonour As for them that haue had some working in them and yet are often plagued with sore diseases this trouble commeth to them for two special causes either for some hypocrisie that they did more in shewe than in trueth wherefore the Lord bringeth them backe againe to see their corrupt proceeding and that they may knowe all their Religion to be but hypocrisie all their righteousnes to be vnrighteousnes or for the abusing of their knowledge in that they made it but a mask to jugle in and that they made their affections to fight with their dreamy judgment wee must remedie this by not thinking of our selues aboue that which is meet and by laboring to imbrace the truth in truth And heere lette vs note that many of Gods children accuse themselues of hypocrisie when indeede they offend not in it for the most righteous persons are their owne greatest accusers and yet that accusation doth justly arise of some fault of their partes for though they haue done things in truth yet because with trueth they laboured not to see their secreet corruptions in some other matters they sustaine this trouble of minde so that there is nothing harder than to sift and search our

as yet to be raised vp so the sugered consolations may for a while over heale the Conscience and abate some present griefe but so as afterward the smart may be the sorer the griefe may growe the greater Heereof ensueth this effect that comfort seemeth to cure for a while but for the wante of wisedome in the right discovering of the cause men minister one medicine for another and so for want of skill the latter fit grindeth them sorer than the former Some there are that without all precepts and practise will be their owne Phisitions and these so soone as the fitte commeth vpon them thinke it best to chastise chase away their sorrowe by drinking at Tavernes by minstrilsie in merry companies by purgeing melancholies in taking phisick all which may seeme to weare away the paines for a while but yet after it biteth more deeplie when the burning feaver of their spirites shaketh them with the second recourse and for that they were not before trulie searched purged seared and launced it comes to passe that the second relapse is the more dangerous To come to our purpose we must knowe that all griefes are either confused or distinct and sure it is that the mind is appalled either for some cause knowne to vs as certaine or for something vnknowne to vs and vncertaine to them which are troubled with such blinde griefes whereof they can see no reason As oft it hapneth to Gods children in secreet election who either neuer knowe God or else had but a generall knowledge of him I answere that as I deny not phisick to be ministred if in any parte it proceede of a naturall cause so I require the word especiallie to shewe the principall and originall cause to beginne in the soule I do the rather because I would haue wisedome both in the considering the state of the bodie if need so require and in looking chieflie to the soule which fewe thinke on If a man troubled in Conscience come to a Minister it may be he will look all to the soule and nothing to the bodie If he come to a Phisition he onlie considereth of the bodie and neglecteth the soule For my part I woulde neither haue the Phisitions counsell seuered nor the Ministers labour neglected because the soule and bodie dwelling together it is convenient that as the soule should be cured by the word by praier by fasting by threatning or by comforting so the body should be brought into some temperature by phisick by purging by dyet by restoring by musick and such other like meanes provided alwaies that it be done so in the feare of God and wisedome of his spirite as we think not by these ordinarie meanes to smother and smoke out our troble but as purposing to vse them as preparatiues wherby both our souls and bodies may be made more capable of the spirituall meanes to follow after As wee require these thinges to be the matters of our ministerie in such a perplexitie so we would wish the persons ministring to be men learned and of sound judgment wise and of godly experience meek and of most loving spirits for when the troubled patient shall be well perswaded of our knowledge discretion and therewithall shall perceiue vs to come in loving and tender affection I think an entrance is made and all prejudice taken away so as we may more freely worke vpon that conscience First bring them to the sight of sinne as to some cause of their trouble wherein we must labour to put away al confusion and blindnes of sorrowe by wisedome to bring the parties wounded to some certaine object and matter of their troble and so draw out of them the confession of some speciall secreet and severall sinnes I say secreete and severall sinnes because I knowe howe that many through a palpable blindenes or disordered discerning of sinne talke nothing so much as of sinne and yet either they cannot descrie severall sinnes or they will not be brought to acknowledge their secreet sins whereof the one proceedeth of the ignorance of the Lawe of God the other of selfe-loue which maketh vs loth even in our trauell of minde to shame our selues Now that confession of particular sins is requisite it may appeare by the 32. Psalme wherein being a Psalme of instruction concerning the forgiuenes of sinnes the Prophet by his owne experience teacheth vs that he could finde no reliefe of his sicknes vntill hee had remembred and made confession of his sinnes What shall we think of the Prophet of God which taught so wonderfully by the word and by the spirit and did not see his sins before be it far from vs rather let vs knowe that he had not severally and particularlie ripped vppe his sinnes before the Lord in a severall confessing of them which though the Lord knowes farre better than wee our selues yet such kind of sacrifice is more acceptable to him Nowe in this trouble the persons humbled cannot come to this particular sight of sinne in themselues It is good to vse the helpe of others to whome they may offer their hearts to bee gaged and searched and their liues to be examined more deeplie by hearing the several articles of the Law laid open before them whereby they may square the whole course of their actions For as we said before the grossest hypocrite will generally complaine of sinne and yet deale with them in particular pointes of the particular precepts and proue them in the applying of things to bee done or vndone to them to their owne conscience and we shall see many of these poore souls tossed to and fore nowe fleeting in joyes nowe plunged in sorrowes not able to distinguish one sin from another Now when we shall see the wound of the spirit to arise of any certaine and knowne sinne it is either for some sinne already committed wherein wee lie or else for some sin yet not committed but whereunto wee are tempted For the former it pleased God often to bring old sinnes to minde when we haue not throughly repented of them before so as it nowe representing them to vs a fresh we may fall into a more misliking of them and yet herein is not al to mislike our selues for some particulars although it bee good to be occupied about some speciall sin for as it is not sufficient for the avoiding of hypocrisie to see sin generally so it is not ynough to eschew the damnablenes of the heart ever to bee purring in every particular and to be forgetfull of the great and generall sins and lette vs learne by the particulars to passe to the generalls When any such one sinne doth pursue the rest not onely therein but say thus rather vnto thy selfe O Lord is this our sinne so grieuous and doth my God punish this one so sorely howe great should be my punishment if thou shouldest O Lord so deale with me for all my other sinnes Let vs labour to haue a sence both of particular and generall