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
A97215	Spiritual thrift. Or, Meditations wherein humble Christians (as in a mirrour) may view the verity of their saving graces, and may see how to make a spirituall improvement of all opportunities and advantages of a pious proficiencie (or a holy growth) in grace and goodnesse. And wherein is layd open many errours incident to these declining times, / by Elizabeth Warren, a lover of truth and peace. Imprimatur, James Cranford.	Warren, Elizabeth, of Woodbridge.	1647 (1647)	Wing W960; Thomason E373_7; ESTC R201328	87,311	89

evill who somtimes with the Publican will smite upon their breast and say God be mercifull to me a sinner as conscious to the guilt and weight of their sin but to make men understand that they are in an errour requires the ayd of a divine power that may speak with a witnesse as the Lord did to Job even out of the whirlwind to declare his majesty for hee was in an errour when hee thought hee might expostulate to know the cause of his severe correction or plead with God as a man with his neighbour requiring satisfaction by the rule of equity but when hee saw the errour of his rash request hee was humbled for it even in dust and ashes his deep apprehensions of a dreadfull Majesty Iob 23.5 deterring his soul from that lothed darknesse Iob 42.6 So the folly of his friends and their rigid censure in judging him an Hypocrite was a grievous errour howbeit they thought they had pleaded for God Iob ●2 5 to vindicate his justice in Jobs condigne punishment but the Lord plainly tels them Iob 42.7 8 9. Non fit mare tranquillam nisi cessaverint venti non extinguitur ignis nisi materiam incendii spinarumque sacramenta detraxeris Canes feroces ad ovem vocem irritantur In oculo c●civitium nocte durante coecitatis est sed non asparet nisi luce veniente his wrath was kindled because they spake not the thing that was right and bids them bring sacrifice that Job may pray for them to divert the judgments their sin had deserved I wish the godly in our present times would acquaint themselves to consider such passages that they might beware of erroneous mistakes in contracting harsh censures on other of Gods people for the bitter root of our sad divisions bo●h in Church and State hath by these how much fastned and cannot be pluckt up to end our calamities till darknesse be dispelled by the rayes of pure light sith nothing hath so hindred our happy Reformation not retarded the setling of a pious discipline Diligite homines interfierte erro●e● sine superbia de veritate praesumite sine saevitia pro veritate contendite Atha● as the miserable disturbance both of truth and peace which darkning our counsels have rendred them lost Let this teach us caution in respect of our frailty for errour is incident to man since the fall and also compassion on them that are seduced endeavouring to restore them by the spirit of meeknesse for this would bring balme to binde up the wound not multiplyed contentions to make it bleed afresh if we were lesse confident in maintaining our assertions and more compassionate in reforming others One caution may be usefull in a double regard that we-never extenuate the evill of errour but abhor it as darknesse and be humbled for it as a high provocation of divine vengeance again beware of despising or judging Nolite ergo ante tempus judicare quia fortasse quos vos laudatis Deus reprehendit quos vos reprehenditis ille laudabit Petr. Chrysolog the persons or finall estates of any sith some by their gracious and humble retractations have repaired those breaches they made by their errours witnesse those famous and admired Worthies who sought Gods glory by such selfe denyalls and advanced those truths by ingenious confession they had formerly opposed in the darknesse of errour we may well be ashamed to patronize evill but not to relinquish it when light expels darknesse lest persisting in errour produce its gradation from a failing of infirmity to a fault of presumption Our indulging of errour is one of those sins which the Lord hath visited in our sad castigation Quare nihil melius cavere quam tibi in tempore ne vel minimum quicquam tibi indulgeus qu● à Satana tentaris Quare discamus non alibi quam in Domino fortes esse the greatnesse whereof he that runs may read in the grievous calamities infl●cted upon us yet we have resembled rebellious children or incorrigible servants not bettered by the rod while hardning our hearts and stifning our necks we refuse to return from errours darknesse this hath occasioned our wretched stumbling and fearfull falling into many enormities in that we have doted on indulgent errour not dreading the event which may render us lost Neither have we only mistaken our way Coufusis permix tisque verbis veritatem frequentissimè eludunt medutorum au●esqono capiunt by wandring unhappily in a labyrinth of errour or been wrapt in the mantle of miserable darknesse which hath made us obnoxious unto deadly danger but we have been also misled by others who like blinde guides have deluded poor souls and steered their course like unski●full Pilots on Scylla and Charybdis to wrack us with ruine for the only originall of our multiplyed contentions was illegall tyranny obtruded in ceremonies Per Puritanorum lat●ra orthodoxam vul●erant veritatem in which such successe was atchieved in short time as promised a progresse to their subtill machinations for the enemies of truth then had cause to triumph and glory in the power they received from the Beast in working miracles metamorphosing men into a bruitish stupidity which renders them lost This was the condition of those ignorant souls who liv●d in places where preaching was cryed down Ita alii alios mutuo decipiunt and where the prohibition of a painfull ministery introduced the principles of Atheisticall impiety for men were taught by many of their leaders to dash a commandement out of the decalogue yea to slight Religion and the power of godlinesse as a main opposition of their ayms and ends Grave est non scite quod faceres gravius auté non facere quod scies Thus the leaders of Gods people have caused them to erre the watchmen being blinde and delighting to slumber so that no trumpet being sounded by these Sentinels the Fort might be surprized without any resistance for it was easie for Popery to slide in unawares where prophanesse was porter to induce superstition and affected ignorance entertained innovation which came posting forward in the posture of Jehu Satan quaerit qua parte sep●m facillimè transcendere quibus machinis inclinatum currum possit evertere Sirenum voces Circes pocula nosti But O the misery of our mentall darknesse which leads us by errour into all extreams that as soon as we escape the net of one danger wee fall into another being quickly misled for we doe not ponder the path of our feet nor weigh our gold in the ballance of the Sanctuary but still take up tenents on trust from others who deceived themselves have deluded us also this makes us loath that pure bread of life the delicious banquet of our poore hungry souls which once we prized as incomparably precious hungring and thirsting to be satisfied with it Quare meritò in hanc amentiam projecti sunt ut

quaesitum bonis arribus quandiu exercui● The revolutions which alter mens personall estates have a speciall influence upon their common gifts prosperity and adversity dejection and dignity having their severall effects in the minds and lives of men for as some are elated by their riches and honour so others are cast downe in the sense of their sorrows but vertue is expressed when humble continence and resolved patience still regulates them both Seneca sayth of riches and power that they are a large field for vertue to walk in Natura nihil fru●●a agit where various endowments in their differing expressions may take their turns and not justle one another for here is a spacious and desirable way to discover magnanimity in its utmost extent Quanto regitur tant● magis aestuat ignis in the liberall distribution of those severall gifts as are eyther of the minde the body or estate Now though indigence cannot expresse munificence nor obscurity manifest all mentall vertues yet poverty may illustrate the endowment of patience and limne it to the life in most orient colours and though here be no arme of outward potency to execute the dictates of distributive beneficence yet want cannot suffocate internall excellence but still it will shine in the midst of fortunes malice So valour is bright where apparent dangers and obvious difficulties occur to impede it as in Hercules his labours and Hannibal his marches Quod fuit durum pa●i meminisse dulce est who cut his passages through the rocky Alps for Alexanders atchievments had never been so memorable if he had not vanquished a potent Darius nor had Julius Caesar atteined such eminence if Pompey his Antagonist had been weak or obscure The tedious absence and troubles of Vlysses Si nihil infesti durus vidisset Vlysses Penelope foelix sed sine laude foret Cir. illustrated the constancy of his prudent Penelope and Admetus his misfortune even ministred matter to his chast Alceste to expresse her vertue but contrariwise the height of prosperity and a surfet of pleasures proclaimed the infamy of great Agrippina and imperious Messalina whose vices made them the monsters of our sex Thus they which improved what natures light fit education infused into them have set forth the pulchritude of these common gifts Consummat● est infoelicitas ubi turpia delectant conferred upon them by divine dispensation but they which have quenched the specious sparks of common ingenuity by impudent wickednesse were convinced of their madnesse and irrationall stupidity from those rayes that shined in the lives of others Hence see we that the Gentiles who knew not the law Rom. 2.14 15. did by nature the things cōtained in the law these having not the law were a law to themselves Non decipitur ratio nec decipit unquam the effect of the law being written in their hearts but the other which had the same light of nature and yet did not improve it by like vertuous actions became miserably vain in their imaginations Rom. 1.21 and their foolish hearts were replete with darknesse The use to be made of such informations should teach us the improvement even of common gifts Actus voluntatis à voluntate producitur sed à ratione suadetur wherein many of them made such happy progresse as we come far short of their seeming excellency and have cause to blush at our brutish ignorance who live in the sunshine of Christs glorious Gospel yet have not answered by a holy conversation the sacred means we have sweetly enjoyed If they knew so much then we may know more our light being derived from the meridian of mercy which though they walkt in darknes and the shadow of death hath guided our feet in the paths of peace Sicut ad corporis sanitatem non est satis ut peste quis v●l pleu●itide careat sic ad animae sani at●m requiritur omnium vitiorum abdicat●o Luke 19.20 How should our piety excell their prudence our Christian purity their morall vertues lest they rise in judgment condemn our remisnesse for non improvement even of common gifts which may lie heavy on those slothfull servants who hide up the talent of their Lord and Master bereaving themselves of the use of their endowments which resting in the napkin are rendred quite lost Inquiramus quae sunt illa praesentis vitae praeclara divitiae gloria potentia magnū aestimari ab hominibus videbis nihil illis esse incertius s●cut in rota quae continuò versatur aliqua pars ejus eo quod crebtâ circumferentiâ semper summa fiunt ima ima summa c. 1 Cor. 6.20 Thus much for our common gifts that are mentall our bodily and accessary are now to be considered and they be both so obvious to sence as every one may know the possessours of them for that men are young strong healthfull and active is cleerly conspicuous to themselves and others that they be rich or honourable or in eminent authority is usually engraven in most specious characters but the excellency of spirituall or mentall endowments are not so easily or certainly known for which cause we have laboured with such perspicuity as brevity permitted to paint out their effigies and make them discernable Neyther can wee without the possession of grace enjoy the comfort of these accessary benefits much lesse can wee use them as organs of righteousnesse in giving up our all to God and his service Miserias enim cumulat hominum ingratitudo nam Deū meritò provocat impio contemptu donorum suorum ad horribilem excandentiā Cal. in Act. 2. for these ornaments of nature were not given unto us to gratifie Satan and our own concupiscence but to be subservient to the reasonable soul that the Lord may be glorified in our bodies and spirits shall wee thinke that our wealth our power or authority were given us as weapons to contest with our Creatour that we should with those Gyants which warred against Heaven even fight with our God in abusing his gifts No these are conferred as firm obligations to ingage us more exactly to duty and thankfulnesse in the pious improvement of all our endowments which otherwise employed are even rendred quite lost The transient mutability of our present condition expresseth the decay of all our outward gifts our bodies being tossed like brittle barks on the tempestuous Seas of succeeding calamities for a counterblast of sicknesse in the morning of our youth will quickly wither our beauty and strength and make us sensible of a sad revolution as a monitor to minde us of our certain mortality Solamen miseris so●●es habuisse dolores but if wee live till declining age we are daily infested with severall infirmities which rush in like waves till they ruine nature and resolve us again to our original principles The keepers of the house will begin to tremble and the strong