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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	womb_n	word_n	work_n	13	3	4.6738	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44395	Golden remains of the ever memorable Mr Iohn Hales of Eton College &c.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hollar, Wenceslaus, 1607-1677, engraver.; Pearson, John, 1613-1686.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Balcanquhall, Walter, 1586?-1645.	1659 (1659)	Wing H269; ESTC R202306	285,104	329

and consent unto and confess the truth of them Which way of manifesting his will unto many other gracious priviledges which it had above that which in after ages came in place of it had this added that it brought with it unto the man to whom it was made a preservation against all doubt and hesitancy a full assurance both who the author was and how far his intent and meaning reacht We that are their ofspring ought as St. Chrysostome tell us so to have demeand our selves that it might have been with us as it was with them that we might have had no need of writing no other teacher but the spirit no other books but our hearts no other means to have been taught the things of God Nisi inspirationis divinae internam suaviorémque doctrinam ubi sine sonis sermonum sine elementis literarum eo dulciùs quo secretiùs veritas loquitur as saith Fulgentius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidorus Pelusiota for it is a great argument of our shame and imperfection that the holy things are written in books For as God in anger tells the Jews that he himself would not go before them as●● hitherto he had done to conduct them into the promised land but would leave his Angel with them as his deputy so hath he dealt with us the unhappy posterity degenerated from the antient purity of our forefathers When himself refused to speak unto our hearts because of the hardness of them he then began to put his laws in writing Which thing for a long time amongst his own people seems not to have brought with it any sensible inconvenience For amongst all those acts of the Jews which God in his book hath registred for our instruction there is not one concerning any pretended ambiguitie or obscurity of the Text and Letter of their Law which might draw them into faction and schisme the Devil belike having other sufficient advantages on which he wrought But ever since the Gospel was committed to writing what age what monument of the Churches acts is not full of debate and strife concerning the force and meaning of those writings which the holy Ghost hath left us to be the law and rule of faith St. Paul one of the first penmen of the Holy Ghost who in Paradise heard words which it was not lawful for man to utter hath left us words in writing which it is not safe for any man to be too busie to interpret No sooner had he laid down his pen almost ere the ink was dry were there found Syllabarum aucupes such as St. Ambrose spake of qui nescire aliquid erubescunt per occasionem obscuritatis tendunt laqueos deceptionis who thought there could be no greater disparagement unto them then to seem to be ignorant of any thing and under pretence of interpreting obscure places laid gins to entrap the uncautelous who taking advantage of the obscurity of St. Pauls text made the letter of the Gospel of life and peace the most-forcible instrument of mortal quarrel and contention The growth of which the Holy Ghost by the Ministery of St. Peter hath endeavoured to cut up in the bud and to strangle in the womb in this short admonition which but now hath sounded in your eares Which the unlearned c. In which words for our more orderly proceeding we will consider First the sin it self that is here reprehended wresting of Scripture where we will briefly consider what it is and what causes and motioners it findes in our corrupt understandings Secondly the persons guilty of this offence discipher'd unto us in two Epithets unlearned unstable Last of all the danger in the last words unto their own damnation And first of the sin it self together with some of the special causes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They wrest They deal with Scripture as Chimicks deal with natural bodies torturing them to extract that out of them which God and nature never put in them Scripture is a rule which will not fit it self to the obliquity of our conceits but our perverse and crooked discourse must fit it self to the straightness of that rule A learned writer in the age of our fathers commenting upon Scripture spake most truly when he said that his Comments gave no light unto the text the text gave light unto his Comments Other expositions may give rules and directions for understanding their authors but Scripture gives rules to exposition it self and interprets the interpreter Wherefore when we made in Scripture non pro sententia divinarum Scripturarum as St. Austine speaks sed pro nostra ita dimicantes ut tan velimus Scripturarum esse quae nostra est When we strive to give unto it and not to receive from it the sense when we factiously contend to fasten our conceits upon God and like the Harlot in the book of Kings take our dead and putrified fancies and lay them in the bosome of Scripture as of a mother then are we guilty of this great sin of wresting of Scripture The nature of which will the better appear if we consider a little some of those motioners which drive us upon it One very potent and strong mean is the exceeding affection and love unto our own opinions and conceits For grown we are unro extremities on both hands we cannot with patience either admit of other mens opinions or endure that our own should be withstood As it was in the Lacedaemonian army almost all were Captains so in these disputes all will be leaders and we take our selves to be much discountenanced if others think not as we do So that the complaint which one makes concerning the dissention of Physicians about the diseases of our bodies is true likewise in these disputes which concern the cure of our souls hincillae circa aegros miserae sententiarum concertationes nullo idem censente ne videatur accessio alterius From hence have sprong those miserable contentions about the distemper of our souls singularity alone and that we will not seem to stand as cyphers to make up the summe of other mens opinions being cause enough to make us disagree A fault anciently amongst the Christians so apparant that it needed not an Apostolical spirit to discover it the very heathen themselves to our shame and confusion have justly judiciously and sharply taxt us for it Ammianus Marcellinus passing his censure upon Constantius the Emperour Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem saith he and they are words very well worth your marking Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem anili superstitione confudit In qua scrutanda perplexiùs quàm componenda gratiùs excitavit dissidia pluri●●a quae progressa fusiùs aluit concertatione verborum dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium The Christian religion a religion of great simplicity and perfection he troubled with dotage and superstition For going about rather perplexedly to search the

it like the Prophets of God with quietness and moderation and not in the violence of passion as if we were possest rather then inspir'd Again what equity or indifferency can we look for in the carriage of that cause that falls into the handling of these men Quis conferre duces meminit qui pendere causas Quâ stetit inde favet what man overtaken with passion remembers impartially to compare cause with cause and right with right Quâ stetit inde favet on what cause he happens that is he resolute to maintain ut gladiator in arenam as a Fencer to the Stage so comes he to write not upon conscience of quarrel but because he proposes to contend yea so potently hath this humor prevail'd with men that have undertaken to maintain a faction that it hath broken out to the tempting of God and the dishonour of Martyrdom Two Fryers in Florence in the action of Savonoralla voluntarily in the open view of the City offer'd to enter the fire so to put an end to the controversie that he might be judged to have the right who like one of the three children in Babylon should pass untouch't through the fire But I hasten to visit one weak person more and so an end He whom we now are to visit is a man weak through heretical and erring Faith now whether or no we have any receit for him it may be doubtful For S. Paul advises us to avoid the man that is a maker of Sects knowing him to be damned yet if as we spake of not admitting to us the notorious sinner no not to eat so we teach of this that it is delivered respectively to the weaker sort as justly for the same reasons we may do we shall have a Recipe here for the man that erres in faith and rejoyceth in making of Sects which we shall the better do if we can but gently draw him on to a moderation to think of his conceits only as of opinions for it is not the variety of opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church were we not so ready to anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and not Identitie of conceit which the Holy Ghost requires at the hands of Christians I will give you one instance in which at this day our Churches are at variance The will of God and his manner of proceeding in predestination is undiscernable and shall so remain until that day wherein all knowledge shall be made perfect yet some there are who with probability of Scripture teach that the true cause of the final miscarriage of them that perish is that original corruption that befell them at the beginning increased through the neglect or refusal of grace offered Others with no less favourable countenance of Scripture make the cause of reprobation only the will of God determining freely of his own work as himself pleases without respect to any second cause whatsoever Were we not ambitiously minded familiam ducere every one to be Lord of a Sect each of these tenents might be profitably taught and heard and matter of singular exhortation drawn from either for on the one part doubtless it is a pious and religious intent to endeavour to free God from all imputation of unnecessary rigour his justice from seeming unjustice incongruity on the other side it is a noble resolution so to humble our selves under the hand of Almighty God as that we can with patience hear yea think it an honour that so base creatures as our selves should become the instruments of the glory of so great a majesty whether it be by eternal life or by eternal death though for no other reason but for Gods good will and pleasure sake The authors of these conceits might both freely if peaceably speak their mindes and both singularly profit the Church for since it is impossible where Scripture is ambiguous that all conceits should run alike it remains that we seek out a way not so much to establish an unity of opinion in the mindes of all which I take to be a thing likewise impossible as to provide that multiplicity of conceit trouble not the Churches peace A better way my conceit cannot reach unto then that we would be willing to think that these things which with some shew of probability we deduce from Scripture are at the best but our opinions for this peremptory manner of setting down our own conclusions under this high commanding form of necessary truths is generally one of the greatest causes which keeps the Churches this day so far asunder when as a gracious receiving of each other by mutual forbearance in this kinde might peradventure in time bring them nearer together This peradventure may some man say may content us in case of opinion indifferent out of which no great inconvenience by necessary and evident proof is concluded but what Recipe have we for him that is fallen into some known and desperate Heresie Even the same with the former And therefore anciently Heretical and Orthodox Christians many times even in publick holy exercise converst together without offence It 's noted in the Ecclesiastick stories that the Arrians and Right believers so communicated together in holy prayers that you could not distinguish them till they came to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gloria patri which the Arrians used with some difference from other Christians But those were times quorum lectionem habemus virtutem non habemus we read of them in our books but we have lost the practise of their patience Some prejudice was done unto the Church by those who first began to intermingle with publick Ecclesiastical duties things respective unto private conceits For those Christian offices in the Church ought as much as possibly they may be common unto all and not to descend to the differences of particular opinions Severity against and separation from heretical companies took its beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the stories we shall finde that the Church did not at their first arising thrust them from her themselves went out and as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Ecclesiam quae prosecutionem patitur non quae facit she was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when heresies and schismes first arose in the Church all kind of violence were used by the erring factions but the Church seem'd not for a long time to have known any use of a sword but only of a buckler and when she began to use the sword some of her best and chiefest Captains much misliked it The first law

Parents but granting this I take it to be impossible to judge of what strength it is and deny that it is any such cause why we should take it to be so strong as that we should stand in fear to encounter it and overcome it For we can never come to discover how far our nature is necessarily weak For whilest we are in our infancy and as yet not altred a puris naturalibus from that which God and nature made us none of us understand our selves and ere we can come to be of years to be able to discover it or define any thing concerning the nature of it custom or education either good hath much abated or evil hath much improved the force of it so that for any thing we know the strength of it may be much less then we suppose and that it is but a fear that makes it seem so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome It is the nature of timerous and fearful men evermore to be framing to themselves causless fears I confess it is a strange thing and it hath many times much amazed me to see how ripe to sin many children are in their young and tender years and ere they understand what the name of Sin and evil means they are unexpectedly and no man knows by what means wonderfully prompt and witty to villany and wickedness as if they had gone to school to it in their mothers womb I know not to what cause to impute this thing but I verily suppose I might quit original sin from the guilt of it For it is a ruled case and concluded by the general consent of the Schools that original sin is alike in all and S. Paul seems to me to speak to that purpose when he saith that God hath alike concluded all under sin and that all are alike deprived of the glory of God Were therefore Original sin the cause of this strange exorbitancy in some young children they should all be so a thing which our own experience teaches us to be false For we see many times even in young children many good and gracious things which being followed with good education must needs come to excellent effect In pueris elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times an hope of excellent things appears which in riper age for want of cherishing fades and withers away A certain sign that nature is not so weak as Parents and Tutors are negligent whence then comes this difference Certainly not from our Nature which is one in all but from some other cause As for Original sin of what strength it is I will not discuss only thus much I will say there is none of us all but is much more wicked then the strength of any Primitive corruption can constrain Again let us take heed that we abuse not our selves that we use not the names of original weakness as a stale or stalking-horse as a pretence to choak and cover somewhat else For oftentimes when evil education wicked examples long custome and continuance in sin hath bred in us an habit and necessity of sinning presently Original sin and the weaknes of mans nature bear the blame Ubi per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere nature infirmitas accusatur When through floath and idleness luxurie and distemper our time is lost our bodies decay'd our wits dull'd we cast all the fault on the weakness of our nature That Law of sin in our members of which S. Paul spake and which some take to be original corruption S. Austine once pronounced of it whether he meant to stand to it I know not but so he once pronounced of it Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of sin that carries us against our wills to sin is nothing else but the force and violence of long custome and continuance in sin I know that by the error of our first Parents the Devil hath blinded and bound us more then ever the Philistines did Samson Yet this needs not to make us thus stand in fear of Original weakness For blinde and bound as we are let the Devil build never so strong yet if our hair be grown if Christ do strengthen us we shall be able Samson-like to bear his strongest pillars and pull down his house about his ears Thirdly is it the Devil that we think so strong an adversary Let us a little consider his strength he may be considered either as an inward enemy suggesting unto us sinful thoughts or as an outward enemy lying in wait to afflict us in body in goods or the like First against us inwardly he hath no force of his own From our selves it is that he borrows this strength to overthrow us In Paradice he borrowed the Serpent to abuse us but now every Man is that Serpent by which himself is abused For as Hannibal having overthrown the Romans took their armour and fought against them with their own weapons So the Devil arms himself against us with our own strength our senses our will our appetite with these weapons he fights against us and uses us against our selves Let us but recover our own again and the Devil will be disarm'd Think you that the Devil is an immediate stickler in every sin that is committed I know ye do But take heed least this be but an excuse to unload your faults upon the Devil and to build them upon his back For S. Chrysostome thought otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devils hand says he is not in every fault many are done meerly by our own carelessness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A negligent carelesse person sins though the Devill never tempt him Let the truth of this lie where it will I think I may safely speak thus much that if we would but shut up our wills and use that grace of God which is offered I doubt not but a great part of this suggesting power of his would fall to nothing as for that other force of his by which he lies in wait to annoy us outwardly why should we so dread that Are there not more with us both in multitude and strength●● to preserve us The Angel of the Lord saith the Psalmist pitches his tents round about those that fear him to deliver them And the Apostle assures us that the Angels are ministring Spirits sent forth for those that shall be heirs of Salvation shall we think that the strength of those to preserve is less then that of the evil Angels to destroy One Garcaeus writing upon the Meteors told me long since that whereas many times before great tempests there is wont to be heard in the aire above us great noise and rushing the cause of this was the banding of good and evil Angels the one striving to annoy us with tempests the other striving to preserve us from the danger of it And I doubt not but