Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	rest_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	27	3	9.0194	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89235	Miscellanea spiritualia: or, Devout essaies: composed by the Honourable Walter Montagu Esq.; Miscellanea spiritualia. Part 1.	Montagu, Walter, 1603?-1677.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1648 (1648)	Wing M2473; Thomason E519_1; ESTC R202893	256,654	397

precept of dilection of enemies sits but light upon the carriage of the Cross of Christ The sixteenth Treatise Considerations upon the Unsuccessfulness of a good Cause Divided into six Sections §. I. That much Religion is required to assist us in this probation THere is no Argument wherein Natural Reason hath more need of a Supernatural prompter to help us to frame our conclusions then in this of the miscarriage and frustration of pious and just designs especially in publike causes For God hath left us a convenient light whereby to read the right of Causes and our duties to them which is our sincerest and most disinteressed Reason judging by the known Laws of his Will But to discern whether the Success or Defeature of any Cause concur most to the universal end of Gods Providence this knowledge is seated in unaccessible light We may read Gods present Will in Events but not his consequent Order which may require the demolishment of many particular goods to build up the frame of the universal therefore the present ruine of single pieces of Equity doth not derogate any thing from the goodness of their Nature Wherefore the right of Causes ought not to be sentenced by the irregularity of Successes which are always uniform to Gods universal design though disproportioned according to the model of our Reason Surely they who shall seek to penetrate the Divine Providence by the eye of Reason so far as to make a draught of the reasons of all particular occurrences in the variations of Events make such an attempt as one that should gaze upon the Sun to enjoy more light then when he looked upon the Earth For they who press into this light shall quickly be oppressed by the same splendor they design for illumination And yet the infirmity of man is subject to such a kinde of Temptation viz. To study even the decyphering of all Gods characters in which his hand to the Creatures is very often sent For the successes and prevalence of Injustice against Honesty and Vertue may be aptly termed Gods eyphers in which his hand is soon discerned but not his sense Nevertheless we do familiarly take Events for the key of all the characters of Gods Providence and presume to read many of his Secrets very confidently by this key of the present form and figure of Events Nay our zeal is often so ingenious in this art of decyphering as it perswades us that we may even run and read the right of Causes by this light of Successes Insomuch as S. Pauls case in Malta is very familiar in the world for while the Viper is hanging upon the Cause and we are looking when it shall fall down and perish then we make our Judgement to be Gods Sentence and when the Viper is shaken into the fire and that destroyed by us which was expected as our destruction when a cause recovers from this danger then commonly that is cryed up for Gods Cause which before passed for his Curse This is a familiar conclusion with such who as we may say know Gods Providence onely by fight that is by the external marks of Successes and have no acquaintance with the nature and condition● thereof Therefore as it is said of Philosophy That a slight and superficial knowledge of it may incline the minde of man to Atheism for if our minde stay and rest upon second causes which are next to our senses this fixure of our thoughts may keep our minde short of the Supreme cause but if we make a farther advance and progression into the reason of Philosophy it will lead the minde up to Religion as it shews the congruous dependency and subordination of all causes to Divine Providence So in the first rudiments of Religion which present us with a superficial aspect of Gods Justice under the notion onely of rewarding and punishing This first impression may move us to conclude of the quality of causes by Gods present declaration in their promotion or their prejudice but a judicious advance into the farther grounds of Religion will carry us to a reverent suspense of our conclusions upon the present apparences of all Events and apply us to the contemplation of Gods universal Providence which the Psalmist calls Gods great abysse which when it is the most stormy to our Reason when it drowns and desolates in our apprehension the right and justice of Humane actions even then it runs in the proper course of universal Justice and Equity There is also a regularity even in the very wave it seems broken into subverting all Humane order though the concertation of this method falls not within our capacity for the Psalmist himself says when the waves of this Ocean were gone over his head Thy way is in the Sea and thy pathes in many waters and thy steps are not to be traced A profound immersion in Religion covers our Reason with a reference to Gods universal Providence in those cases which seem to be void of his particular justice whereas a looking upon Successes by the first glances of Religion and discoursing on their Reasons by the flashy light of our private zeal to the Cause may easily raise impertinent conclusions upon the present apparences and such hasty judgements are so little capable of giving rest to our mindes as they must needs keep them in a continual vassellation according to the vicissitudes of contrary occurrences Wherefore as meer eagerness and zeal to the mastery and prevalence of any Cause ought not to be the motive of electing our party for in that affection there is always some obliquity from the straight love of Right● and leaning towards the conveniency not an uprightness in our address to Justice so the success of our election ought as little to raise or abate the zeal to our Cause for by this varying of our measures we seem to square our conformity to Gods method as it answereth to the model of our Reason by which we have framed conclusions upon our own suppositions of Equity And this expectation of the Success of our Cause comes nearer oftentimes to the flattering our own judgement then applauding the Divine order and disposition of Events §. II. Motives to constancy after a prudent election of our Cause GOd hath left us sufficient marks by which to discern the right of publike Causes though our mistake of them be very familiar being swayed by some private partiality which looks more upon the beam reflected back on our selves then upon the direct beam as it shines upon the publike good But supposing us mis-led by our judgement I conceive it less blameable to persevere firmly in our first application then to be shaken from our party meerly by the motions of adverse Events In the first case man doth but miss his way in seeking God and in the last he seems to fear God may miss his way in coming to man for we know God is often said to come down to men in several acts of his Providence and

god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that