Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	world_n	worthy_a	yield_v	23	3	6.3794	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45182	Christ mysticall, or, The blessed union of Christ and his members also, An holy rapture, or, A patheticall meditation of the love of Christ : also, The Christian laid forth in his whole disposition and carriage / by J.H. D.D. B.N.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1647 (1647)	Wing H374; ESTC R16159	67,177	294

stranger to us there is nothing wherewith we are so well acquainted yea we feel continually what it is and what it produceth It is that from whence all sense action motion floweth it is that which gives us to be what we are All this is Christ to the regenerate man It is one thing what he is or doth as a man another thing what he is or doth as a Christian As a man he hath eyes ears motions affections understanding naturally as his own as a Christian he hath all these from him with whom he is spiritually one the Lord Jesus and the objects of all these vary accordingly His naturall eyes behold bodily and materiall things his spirituall eyes see things invisible His outward eares hear the sound of the voice his inward ears hear the voice of Gods Spirit speaking to his soul His bodily feet move in his own secular ways his spirituall walk w th God in all the ways of his Commandements His naturall affections are set upon those things which are agreeable thereunto he loves beauty fears pain and losse rejoyces in outward prosperity hates an enemy his renued affections are otherwise and more happily bestowed now he loves goodnesse for its own sake hates nothing but sin fears onely the displeasure of a good God rejoyces in Gods favour which is better then life His former thoughts were altogether taken up with vanity and earthed in the world now he seeks the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Finally he is such as that a beholder sees nothing but man in him but God and his soul finde Christ in him both in his renued person and actions in all the degrees both of his life and growth of his sufferings and glory My little children saith Saint Paul of whom I travell in birth again untill Christ be formed in you Lo here Christ both conceived and born in the faithfull heart Formation follows conception and travell implies a birth Now the beleever is a new-born babe in Christ and so mutually Christ in him from thence he grows up to strength of youth and at last to perfection even towards the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ And in this condition he is dead with Christ He is buried with Christ He is alive again unto God through Christ he is risen with Christ and with Christ he is glorified Yea yet more then so his sufferings are Christs Christs sufferings are his He is in Christ an heir of glory and Christ is in him the hope of glory Dost thou not now finde cause my son to complain of thy self as I confesse I daily doe that thou art so miserably apt to forget these intimate respects between thy Christ and thee art thou not ashamed to think how little sense thou hast had of thy great happinesse Lo Christ is in thy bosome and thou feelst him not It is not thy soul that animates thee in thy renued estate it is thy God and Saviour and thou hast not hitherto perceived it It is no otherwise with thee in this case then with the members of thine own body there is the same life in thy fingers and toes that there is in the head or heart yea in the whole man and yet those lims know not that they have such a life Had those members reason as well as sense they would perceive that wherewith they are enlived thou hast more then reason faith and therefore maist well know whence thou hast this spiritual life therupon art much wanting to thy self if thou dost not enjoy so usefull and comfortable an apprehension Resolve therefore with thy self that no secular occasion shall ever set off thy heart from this blessed object and that thou wilt as soon forget thy naturall life as this spirituall and raise up thy thoughts from this dust to the heaven of heavens Shake of this naturall pusillanimity and meane conceit of thy self as if thou wert all earth and know thy self advanced to a celestiall condition that thou art united to the Son of God and animated by the holy Spirit of God so as the life which thou now livest in the flesh thou livest by the faith of the Son of God who loved thee and gave himself for thee See then and confesse how just cause we have to condemn the dead-heartednesse wherewith we are subject to be possessed and how many worthy Christians are there in the world who bear a part with us in this just blame who have yeelded over themselves to a disconsolate heartlesnesse and a sad dejection of spirit partly through a naturall disposition inclining to dumpishnesse and partly through the prevalence of temptation For Satan well knowing how much it makes for our happinesse chearfully to reflect upon our interest in Christ and to live in the joyfull sense of it labours by all means to withdraw our hearts from this so comfortable object and to clog us with a pensive kinde of spirituall fullennesse accounting it no small mastery if he can prevail with us so far as to be reave us of this habituall joy in the holy Ghost arising from the inanimation of Christ living and breathing within us So much the more therefore must we bend all the powers of our souls against this dangerous and deadly machination of our spirituall enemy and labour as for life to maintain this Fort of our joy against all the powers of darknesse and if at any time we finde our selves beaten off through the violence of temptation we must chide our selves into our renued valour and expostulate the matter with our shrinking courage with the man after Gods own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Neither is here more place for an heavenly joy then for height of spirit and raptures of admiration at that infinite goodnesse and mercy of our God who hath vouchsafed so far to grace his elect as to honour them with a speciall inhabitation of his ever-blessed Deity Yea to live in them and to make them live mutually in and to himself What capacity is there in the narrow heart of man to conceive of this incomprehensible favour to his poor creature Oh Saviour this is no small part of that great mystery wherin to the Angels desire to look and can never look to the bottome of it how shall the weak eyes of sinfull flesh ever be able to reach unto it When thou in the estate of thine humane infirmity offeredst to goe down to the Centurions house that humble Commander could say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof What shall we then say that thou in the state of thine heavenly glory shouldst vouchsafe to come down and dwell with us in these houses of clay and to

As God gave them to him and to the world by him so his chief care is that they may be begotten again to God that they may put off that corrupt nature which they took from him and be made partakers of that divine nature which is given them in their regeneration For this cause he trains them up in all vertuous and religious education he sets them in their way corrects their exorbitances restraines their wilde desires and labours to frame them to all holy dispositions and so bestows his fatherly care upon and for them as one that had rather they should be good then rich and would wish them rather dead then debaucht he neglects not all honest means of their provision but the highest point he aims at is to leave God their patrimony In the choice of their calling or match he propounds but forces not as knowing they have also wils of their own which it is fitter for him to bow then to break Is he a son he is such as may be fit to proceed from such loins Is he a servant he cannot but be officious for hee must please two masters though one under not against the other when his visible master sees him not he knows he cannot be out of the eye of the invisible and therefore dares not be either negligent or unfaithfull The work that he undertakes he goes through not out of fear but out of conscience and would doe his businesse no otherwise then well though he served a blinde master He is no blab of the defects at home and where he cannot defend is ready to excuse He yeelds patiently to a just reproof and answers with an humble silence and is more carefull not to deserve then to avoid stripes Is he a subject He is awfully affected to Soveraignty as knowing by whom the powers are ordained He dares not curse the King no not in his thought nor revile the Ruler of his people though justly faulty much less dare he sclander the footsteps of Gods anointed He submits not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake to every Ordinance of God yea to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake not daring to disobey in regard of the oath of God If he have reacht forth his hand to cut off but the skirt of the Royall robe his heart smites him He is a true paymaster and willingly renders tribute to whom tribute custome to whom custome honour to whom honour is due and justly divides his duties betwixt God and Caesar. Finally in what ever relation he stands he is diligent faithfull conscionable observant of his rule and carefull to be approved such both to God and men He hath fully informed himself of all the necessary points of religion and is so firmly grounded in those fundamentall and saving truths that he cannot be carried about with every winde of doctrine as for collaterall and unmateriall verities he neither despiseth nor yet doth too eagerly pursue them He lists not to take opinions upon trust neither dares absolutely follow any guide but those who he knows could not erre He is ever suspicious of new faces of Theologicall truths and cannot think it safe to walk in untroden paths Matters of speculation are not unwelcome to him but his chief care is to reduce his knowledge to practise and therefore he holds nothing his own but what his heart hath appropriated and his life acted He dares not be too much wedded to his own conceit and hath so much humility as to think the whole Church of Christ upon earth wiser then himself However he be a great lover of constancy yet upon better reason he can change his minde in some litigious and un-importing truths and can be silent where he must dissent His discourse is grave discreet pertinent free from vanity free from offence In secular occasions nothing fals from him but seasonable and well-advised truths In spirituall his speech is such as both argues grace and works it No foul and unsavoury breath proceeds out of his lips which he abides not to be tainted with any rotten communication with any slanderous detraction If in a friendly merriment he let his tongue loose to an harmlesse urbanity that is the furthest he dares goe scorning to come within the verge of a base scurrility He is not apt to spend himself in censures but as for revilings and cursed speakings against God or men those his soul abhorreth He knowes to reserve his thoughts by locking them up in his bosome under a safe silence and when hee must speak dares not be too free of his tongue as well knowing that in the multitude of words there wanteth not sinne His speeches are no other then seasonable well fitted both to the person and occasion Jigges at a funerall Lamentations at a feast holy counsell to scorners discouragements to the dejected and applauses to the prophane are hatefull to him He meddles not with other mens matters much lesse with affairs of State but keeps himself wisely within his own compasse not thinking his breath well spent where he doth not either teach or learn He is so perpetually resident in heaven that he is often in every day before the throne of Grace and he never comes there without a supplication in his hand wherein also he loves to be importunate and he speeds accordingly for he never departs empty whiles other cold suiters that come thither but in some good fits of devotion obtain nothing but denials He dares not presse to Gods foot-stool in his own name he is conscious enough of his own unworthinesse but he comes in the gracious and powerfull name of his righteous Mediatour in whom hee knows he cannot but be accepted and in an humble boldnesse for his onely sake craves mercy no man is either more awfull or more confident When he hath put up his petition to the King of heaven he presumes not to stint the time or manner of Gods condescent but patiently and faithfully waits for the good hour and leaves himself upon that infinite wisdome and goodnes He doth not affect length so much as fervour neither so much mindes his tongue as his heart His prayers are suited according to the degrees of the benefits sued for He therefore begs grace absolutely temporall blessings with limitation and is accordingly affected in the grant Neither is he more earnest in craving mercies then he is zealously desirous to be retributory to God when he hath received them not more heartily suing to bee rich in grace then to improve his graces to the honour and advantage of the bestower With an awfull and broken heart doth he make his addresses to that infinite Majesty from whose presence he returns with comfort and joy His soul is constantly fixed there whither he pours it out distraction and distrust are shut out from his closet and he is so taken up with his devotion as one that makes it his work to pray And when he hath offered up