Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	3,554	5	6.8839	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36771	The true nature of the divine law, and of disobediance thereunto in nine discourses, tending to shew in the one, a loveliness, in the other, a deformity : by way of a dialogue between Theophilus and Eubulus / by Samuel Du-gard ...	Dugard, Samuel, 1645?-1697.	1687 (1687)	Wing D2461; ESTC R14254	205,684	344

with those of others to be less in them merely because they bear the Name of his Children will strongly imagine themselves to be Gods Children that so their Sins though great they be and are like never by true Repentance to be less may not be the Spots of wicked Men. These much wrong the Righteousness and Purity of God. These make Faith in Christ which worketh by Love to be the spurious Issue of their Fancy and by thus untowardly thinking their Sins to be the Sins of God's Children they the more surely make them the Sins of the worst sort of wicked Men. Theoph. Your Discourse Eubulus hath been very satisfactory unto me I yet could wish that some others had with me been partakers of it because I think they thence might have learn'd to make a better Judgment of their Spiritual State than now they seem to do Eubul Would Men from such things as these deal impartially with themselves some dangerous Mistakes which they are willing enough to foster might be corrected And what Theophilus if they should seriously ask themselves these or such like Questions viz. Are we contented and well enough pleas'd with our Original Sin and the Imperfection of our Nature Are we at no time affected with sorrow at it as being our Sin and do we never with a relenting Eye account it our Unhappiness as being our Punishment Can we sit idle under it and not endeavour to correct it by purging our Understandings of their Ignorance our Wills of their Pravity and our Affections of their Corruption Doth the sense of it never encline us to Humility And are we never thereby excited to pity others who are thus polluted and unhappy as well as we Or yet worse than so Do we encrease the Defilements of our Nature and studiously promote and stir up our vile Affections which otherwise would have been more quiet And then for Outward Actions Are our Lives almost wholly liv'd out in Sin Can we proceed from one Wickedness to another and do Evil with both Hands earnestly Or else if outward Shame hinder us from Evil Practices openly and in the Sight of this Sun do we Clandestinely Act them Or is our behaviour Plausible and Civil merely that we may the more surely and with less Suspition carry on Evil Actions and Designs Or if there be none of these outwardly notorious bad Actions nor secretly Wicked Designs yet are the chief Ends nothing look'd unto in what we do Is the Glory of God justled out by the Under-Aims of Earthly Profits or Pleasures And doth the Salvation of our Souls through Unbelief or Carelesness weigh little or nothing with us in respect of Advantage or Reputation among Men Have the particular Obligations by Almighty God laid upon us not been minded or not taken notice of by us to any good effect Have our greater Knowledge and Abilities been improved to no higher Services than the Ignorance and Weakness of the meaner Sort have been Have the stronger Motions from Gods Holy Spirit fallen Fruitless upon us And those Suggestions which at some times we in a more than ordinary manner have had and in which the Hand of God hath peculiarly been have they been refused and not complied with In the Sins which we have committed hath there been no Unfained Sorrow No Indignation at ourselves for making such ill returns to so Gracious a God and Father Have our Devotions been none or very Faint and Cold ones after our falling into Sin Have our former Faults begot in us no Resolutions of not Sinning knowingly and Presumptuously for the time to come Do we when tempted to commit a Sin not only yield to it but continue in it Are we never after it more earnest persuers of that which is Good And do the Frailty and Weakness of our Natures and the Sins which while we are in the Body we shall never be free from at no time prompt us to long for that Happy Day when we in Heaven shall do Gods Will without Carefulness Drowsiness and Imperfection If Theophilus they should thus question themselves and should find it no otherwise with them than what might be reducible to some or more of the particulars now mention'd they might make a Judgment whether their Sins are such as belong to the Worse or less Evil Sort of Wicked Men but would have no reason to think them only the Failures of Good Men. Theoph. Indeed Eubulus should Men thus be Judges of their own Misdeeds they would not be more than what they well might Some of their Sins possibly which cannot so well bear the being look'd into least their Pollution and Deformity should be discovered might be apt to say ye take too much upon you and who made you Rulers and Judges over us But certainly Men have a Power over their own Doings and may search their own Hearts and Examine the Rise and Progress and Design of their own Actings and need not fear that any should say unto them Why do ye thus Eubul And this they may the rather do Theophilus because they are the better able in many respects to make a Judgment of their own Sins than other Men are For they can see those things in their own Breasts which are hid from Mens Eyes abroad And it may be they can also conceive those deep Deceits there which they cannot by their Words so well express and give account of to others Well surely it would be that in those things which they are unknown in unto Others they should not be unknown to Themselves Theoph. It is I confess not the least part of Learning for Men to know Themselves The being skill'd in the works of Nature and in the Arts and Sciences The seeing into future Times and understanding all Mysteries and all Knowledge would be of small avail with them without the Knowledge of their own Sins For where these are not known there is very small hope that a Cure and Amendment will be wrought And what would it profit a Man to be otherwise in all respects accomplished and yet to go out of the World with his Sins unknown and so not repented of Eubul I am persuaded Theophilus that the great reason of so many Mens continuing in their Sins is because they are not willing to search into them Let them be throughly look'd into and the Cover taken off from their Deformity and they will find few that will not loath them When David had considered his ways i. e. had found the Spots and Defilements which his Sins carried in them he turned his Feet to Gods Testimonies He made hast and delayed not to keep his Commandments And would Men generally do as He did I have no cause to doubt but through Gods Blessing there would be the same good Issue to Them as to Him there was Nay I am sure if Pollution and Deformity will Create a Loathing they would perfectly Loath the Disobedience they have so long Indulged Theoph. Happy it would be if Men from the Motives of Fear or Shame would cease to be Disobedient but surely the Defilement and Deformity which Sin casteth upon them should prevail with them most And where they from this Consideration chiefly shall abstain from Iniquity they will be if I may so speak the more generously Innocent Eubul They by so doing will turn those Spots that mark'd them as wicked Men into the Spots of God's Children And at the last when their Bodies shall be raised Spiritual and Incorruptible they will leave even these Spots also behind them Ascending up into the Heavenly Jerusalem where nothing shall in any wise enter that defileth and where they will be for ever arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white the Righteousness of the Saints To which Heavenly Purity Theophilus and Inheritance Vndefiled GOD of his infinite Mercy bring You and Me and Them through the Blood of Cleansing even that of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST FINIS An Advertisement of Books sold by Joseph VVats at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard SPeed's Maps Folio Cowley's Poems compleat Folio The Confession Prayers and Meditations of Lieutenant John Sterne and George Borosky Published by Dr. Burnet and Dr. Horneck Folio The Tryals of Thomas Walcot William Hone William Lord Russel John Rouse and William Blagg for High ●eason Folio That the Bishops may and ought to Vote in Cases of Blood Folio Pierce of Gods Decrees especially of Reprobation Quarto Perinchief against Toleration Quarto Parson's Sermon at the Funeral of the Earl of Rochester Quarto Dr. Jane's Sermon before the Commons Quarto Cave's Sermon the 30th of January Quarto Beverley's Disquisition upon Tythes wherein the whole Case is impartially stated and resolved Quarto Stubb's Justification of the Dutch War both Parts Quarto Horneck's Best Exercise Octavo Lassell's Voyage through Italy Octavo Smyth's Unequality of Natural Time with its Reason and Causes With a Table of the true Equation of Natural Days Octavo Reformed Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two Parts the second Edition At which place all Persons may have most sorts of Acts of Parliament Proclamations Declarations Orders of King and Council Speeches in Parliament c. Pamphlets of all sorts viz. Pamphlets relating to the State Sermons Controversies Tracts of Divinity and other Miscellaneous Tracts Also Tryals Narratives and Gazettes FINIS

Words are not to be thought properly to agree unto him Thus doth he in a favourable Sense Isai 45.11 Concerning the Work of my Hands Command ye me Sovereignty we know Essentially belongs unto Him and He can as soon lose his Being as He can That But that He may the more win upon us He thus expresseth Himself as if He had said you shall not find me Lofty towards You But so far condescending as in your Reasonable Requests to serve you Thus also he is said to be Angry to Repent to be pressed with Mens Sins as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves Not that there can be in Him any such thing as the Passion of Anger or of Repentance or of Grief for then there would be some alteration and change in God Which cannot be to the better because he is infinitely Blessed nor to the Worse because then He would lose of his Perfection And so no alteration can there be in Him at all and therefore the expressing himself thus in Scripture is the more to prevail with us The intent of what I have said is this To wit That God may be said though not properly yet after the way of Human Speech to be made to serve by Mens Disobedience And those his Words in Isaiah are as much as if he had said Thou hast done what in thee lies to make me serve by thy Sins Which way of Speech is highly moving by shewing that could he have been brought under and made to serve they by their untoward Carriages had done enough to effect it Had he been a Man this would have been the fruit of his Favours to Them this their Gratitude to Him. And truly Wicked Men do in a sort effect that the most High shall serve them even in his Person by putting him off from time to time and causing Him to attend their Leisure Thus when He as St. John speaks stays at the Door and Knocks earnestly calling upon them to turn unto him that they may Live they are not yet at Leisure with Felix they are apt to say Go thy way for this time when we have a Convenient Season we will send for Thee After so many years are past or when such businesses are done or such designs accomplished or such Sins acted then it may be they will hearken unto him and is not this a making him Serve when he must thus wait their Motions as if their Wills were Superiour unto his and he were rather to observe Them then They Him Theoph. It is abundantly sufficient for the setting forth the hatefulness of Disobedience that it tends to invert the Universe and to reduce Him into Servitude whose very Being it is to be Supream of the World. Neither is the Violation of the Sacred Laws the less odious because it doth not actually effect this The Perfection of Gods Nature which cannot in reality suffer the least Diminution doth not render the Nature of That the less Foul which were it possible to do it would trample upon his Majesty and make him Serve Eubul But I think Theophilus that God's being made to Serve by Mens Sins may have a more proper Signification if we consider Him not as to his Person and Nature but as to his Name and Works The former as hath been said cannot be more or less Glorious than they are but the later may be Exalted or Deprest among Men had in Honour or Vilified in their Words and Practice And after this manner God in Sacred Writ is said to be magnified though in himself he be so Great that his Greatness can admit of no Addition O Magnifie the Lord with me saith the Psalmist that is as the next Words have it Let us exalt his NAME together And thus Exalted and Magnified he may be by being had in Reverence inwardly of those who draw near unto Him and outwardly by being celebrated in a Religious Manner in the Hearing and View of Men. Thus likewise may he be Less'ned or brought Lower for while we are call'd upon to Magnifie and Exalt the Lord it would be a fruitless Exhortation unless it were possible that God should be thus Undervalued and Vilified among Men. He is brought under when Men do use his Holy Name for the promoting those Designs which are contrary to his Infinite Purity and Righteousness He is also made to Serve when his Works are prest for the carrying on of Evil Actions contrary to that of Job 36.24 where we are bid to remember that we Magnifie his Works Theoph. I acknowledge what you say to be so But should more cheerfully do it would you insist somthing largelier on these Things Eubul As for his Holy Name Theophilus how do they make the Almighty to Serve their Turns only when they use it for the appearing in some Actions to be Religious not that they may bring any true Glory unto God but that they may advance their Secular Interest or their Reputation among Men Or yet worse when they shall pretend Piety for the more secure acting of Wickedness abusing the Holy One into a Mist as it were which they 'l throw before Mens Eyes that they may not be discerned in their shameful Deeds And the same thing do they when for the obtaining their own unjust Cause they shall procure others to Swear that which is not so or when they shall lend their own false Oaths for the advantage of their Friend or the Damage of their Enemy Or when in some Evil Actions which they have been Guilty of they shall make dreadful Imprecations that God would Exemplarily punish them if they be not Innocent as to the Thing they are charged with presuming it will not be unto them according as they have Cursed Add to this The frequent Vsurping of Gods Sacred Name upon almost every trivial occasion to Vows or Oaths or to a Vain swaggering and the shameful Credit of not appearing to be strict and religious When that Great Name the Reputation of which God stands so much up for and which is the greatest Argument in our Exigences for our prevailing with Him for Aid What wilt thou do to thy Great Name when that which should establish all Truth in the World is hal'd to the confirming the quite contrary When that at which the Devil trembles shall be forced for the carrying on of his Hellish Service do they not bring the Great and Holy God into the worst of Slaveries into that which his Soul doth perfectly loath Theoph. By what Stains can we sufficiently conceive the Foulness of Disobedience I have small reason to think that what is so deform'd in relation to God's Name will be any jot the better in relation to his Works Eubul Altogether as odious is it in These as in the Other Look we first Theophilus upon Men who as they are Men are the Chief of God's Works on Earth his Image being lively imprest upon Them only and we shall find that the transgressing of the Divine Precepts doth debase Them