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	write_v	writer_n	76	3	7.8517	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65809	The practice of Christian perfection wherein several considerations, cautions, and advices are set down, for the perfecting of the saints, and completing them in the knowledge of Christ Jesus / by Thomas White ...	White, Thomas, d. 1682.	1651 (1651)	Wing W1852; ESTC R39071	46,849	191

fasten blessings on him doe thine enemy as much good as thou canst what thou canst not do desire God to do for him It followes That ye may be the children of your Father First it is not meant as if we could love our enemies before we were Gods children or that this is the way to get adoption or regeneration for he calls God their Father when he wishes them to do thus that they may be his children therefore the meaning may be thus First that you may be id est that you may be known to be both to your selves and others as it is said We are justified by works id est our justification is knowne to our selves and others by works or so that you may be children is meant that since two wayes we are the children of God by adoption and sanctification in respect of sanctification we may have the image of God renewed more and more in us and so in a qualified sense may be said more to be Gods children in that sense we may attain to be more the children of God id est more like him Secondly None can be the children of God unless they love their enemies Thirdly That every one should strive both to be and to know himselfe to be the child of God Fourthly That no man by nature is the child of God since no man by nature can or does love his enemy as it follows which is in heaven First We can never love our enemies so long as we are no more then the children of our earthly father Secondly That it is an heavenly thing to love ones enemies and therfore ex diametro an hellish thing to hate ones friends and therfore to hate Gods people 1. Because they are our friends 2. They are heavenly 3. This is the first motive to perswade to love c. And as it follows for he makes his Sun to arise First This is that second motive to the duty id est Gods Example and it stands thus If God who is greater then you does bestow greater blessings upon those that are greater enemies and between whom and him there is a greater distance how much more should you love c Secondly The Sun doth not arise of it selfe that knows not what it does nor is it of necessity that the Sun should arise of necessity it is in respect of the Sun not in respect of God for he makes it to arise so that the Sun cannot choose but arise but God might choose whether he would make it arise Thirdly These common blessings come not by chance as well as not by necessity it is by Gods providence that we enjoy them Fourthly It shews the continuall concurrence and power of God with naturall causes it is not like a clock which when it is once wound up will go of it selfe by the weight but as a pen that writes not without the continuall guidance of the writer so God did not at the first create the World Sun c. and so without his actuall concurrence to every particular act enable them to do it so that the Sun did not arise at the first moment of its creation more immediately by the power and providence of God then it does now this advances Gods goodnesse for as one that hath setled maintenance upon an Hospitall for the poore it argues not so much patience in him to suffer the men there if they abuse him to receive their setled stipend as it does for him daily to feed them with his own hand and to put mony into one of their hands while the other is lifagainst him Fifthly Or may not he make it be taken in this sense that all the creatures of God are enemies to the wicked the earth will not bear them but open her mouth and swallow them the fire will not warme them but consume them the Sunne will not give light unto them as it did once in Egypt while they had light in Goshen but God as it were renuente sole doth make it arise upon the good and the bad it shews the great power of God that not only the things on earth but all the creatures in heaven and earth obey him he that can make the Sunne arise what can he not do Nehemiah 9. 6. As it followes His Sun to arise First à fortiori it is a Motive to us to do good to our enemies Reas. First Because that which we give or bestow on them in respect of God we have no right to we are but his Stewards and what have we that we have not received we have the possession of al those things we have but not the disposing of them in respect of the poor to give them alms is charity in respect of God it is justice But you see here the Sun is called his Sun he hath a ful title to it if he therefore gives that which is his own and is Lord of much more should we deliver that of which we are only Stewards when he that is the Lord commands us Secondly Consider what he gives it is his Sun the greatest of al temporal blessings in the world for we might longer live without food or raiment then without the benefit of the Sun for without his heat all things would immediatly freeze to death nay not only by giving the wicked the benefit of the Sunne they enjoy that heat which is necessary for life but they enjoy the light of the Sunne which is a thing of ornament and pleasure to make their life comfortable Eccle. 11. 7. Therefore if God gives the wicked things of ornament much more give your enemy bread Romans 12. 20. No man not only cannot but doth not offer to lay claime to the Sun and as it follows On the good and the bad some will say how can it be otherwise for if the Sunne shines upon the good how can it but shine upon the bad also since they are in one Kingdome in one Towne in one house but God is not necessitated to bestow this mercy upon the bad though he bestowes it upon the good For de facto God did make it darke in Egypt when it was light for three dayes in Goshen though they were of the same Kingdome the cloud gave light to the Israelites in their March and at the same time was darkness to the Egyptians Exod. 14. 19 20. Besides God can strike all wicked men with blindnesse so that the Sunne shall be in respect of his light as if it was not to them and he might strike them with such a burning feaver as he threatens Deuter. 28. 22. that for its heat the Sunne should be worse to them then if it was not and thousand other wayes known to the Lord Secondly We see that by common and temporal blessings the good are not distinguished from the bad Thirdly It followes that wicked and unjust men are Gods enemies and curse God hate God persecute God and dedespitefully use him or else it would not follow