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	power_n	will_n	1,439	5	6.6180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59601	Immanuel, or, A discovery of true religion as it imports a living principle in the minds of men, grounded upon Christ's discourse with the Samaritaness : being the latter clause of The voice crying in a wilderness, or, A continuation of the angelical life / mostly composed at the same time by S.S.	Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1667 (1667)	Wing S3038; ESTC R35174	154,749	423

is the hand that pulls this wandring Bird into her own Ark from whence she was departed it settles the Soul upon its proper centre and quenches its burning thirst after happiness And for this reason it is called Water in Scripture as appears from Isa 58. 11. The Lord shall satisfie thy Soul in drought and of Isa 45. 3. I will pour Water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground compared with John 7. 37. Jesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Religion is a taste of infinite Goodness which quenches the Souls thirst after all other created and finite Good even as that taste which honest Nathaniel had of Christs Divinity took him off from the expectation of any Messiah to come and made him cry out presently Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Joh. 1. 49. And every religious Soul hath such a taste of God even in this life which though it do not perfectly fill him yet doth perfectly assure him where all fulness dwells But of this I shall have occasion to discourse more largely when I come to treat of the consequent of true Religion I proceed therefore to the second phrase whereby our Saviour describes the nature of true Religion It is a Well a Fountain in the Soul Shall be in him a Well of Water From which phrase to wave niceties I shall only observe That Religion is a Principle in the Souls of men The Water that Christ pours into the Soul is not like the Water that he pours upon our Streets that washes them and runs away but it becomes a cleansing Principle within the Soul it self every drop from God becomes a Fountain in man Not as if man had a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in himself or were the first spring of his own motions towards God I find not any Will in the natural man so divinely free God hath indeed given this to his natural Son his only begotten Son to have life in himself Joh. 5. 26. but not to any of his adopted ones If you ask me concerning man in his natural capacity I am so far quickning power a principle of life in himself that I must needs assert the contrary with the Apostle That he i● dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. so far from thinking that he hath in himself a Well of Water that I must call him with the Prophet Isa 44. thirsty and dry ground As for the Regenerate man I will not enter into that deep controversie concerning the co-operation of mans Will with the Spirit of God and its subordination to that in all gracious acts or what a kind of cause of them this renewed will of man may be safely called only I will affirm That Repenting and Believing are properly mans acts and yet they are performed by Gods power first Christ must give this Water ere it can be a Well of Water in the Soul Which is enough I suppose to clear me from siding with either of those parties whether those that ascribe to God that which he cannot do or those that ascribe to Free-will that which God alone can do But I fear nothing from these Controversies for that way wherein I shall discourse of this matter will nothing at all border upon them This then I affirm That Religion is a living Principle in the Souls of good men I cannot better describe the nature of Religion than to say it is a Nature for so does the Apostle speak or at least allows us to speak when he calls it a participation of a divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. no●hing but a Nature can partake of a Nature a mans Friend may partake of his Goodness and Kindness but his Child only partakes of his Nature He that begets begets a Nature and so doth he that begets again The Sun enlightens the World outwardly but it does not give a Sun like nature to the things so enlightened and the Rain doth moysten the Earth and refresh it inwardly but it does not beget the nature of Water in the Earth But this Water that I give says our Saviour becometh a Well of Water in the Soul Religion is not any thing without a Man hanging upon him or annext to him neither is it every something that is in a man as we shall see anon but it is a Divine Principle informing and actuating the Souls of good Men a living and lively Principle a free and flowing Principle a strong and lasting Principle an inward and spiritual Principle I must not speak of all these distinctly in this place for fear of interfering in my discourse When I say Religion is a Principle a vital Form acting the Soul and all the powers of it an inward nature c. Saith not the Scripture the same here a Well or Fountain of Water And elsewhere a new man the hidden man of the heart the inward man Ephes 4. 24 1 Pet. 3. 4. As the Soul is called an inward man respective to the Body 2 Cor. 4. 16. so Religion is called an inward man respective to the Soul it self Rom. 7. 22. It is a man within man The man that is truly alive to God hath in him not only inward parts for so a dead man hath but an inward man an inward Nature and Principle Again It is called a Root Job 19. 28. or if not there yet plainly in Mark 4. 17. Where temporary Professors are said to have no root in themselves And this is by the same propriety of speech whereby a wicked principle is called A Root of bitterness Heb. 12. 15. Again it is called a Seed the Seed of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. where this Seed of God is called an a biding or remaining principle In the first Creation God made the Trees of the earth having their seed in themselves Gen. 1. 11. and in the New Creation these trees of Righteousness of Gods planting are also made with seed in themselves though not of themselves it is said to be the Seed of God indeed but remaining in the godly Soul Again it is called a Treasure in opposition to an Alms or Annuity that lasteth but for a day or an year as a Well of Water in opposition to a Dish of Water and a Treasure of the heart in opposition to all outward and earthly treasures Matth. 12. 35. It is a treasure affording continual expences not exhausted yea encreased by expences wherein it exceeds all treasures in the World By the same propriety of Speech Sin is called a treasure too but it is an evil treasure as our Saviour speaks in that same place Do you not see what ● stock of wickedness sinful men have within themselves which although they have spent upon ever since they were born yet it is not impaired nay it is much augmented thereby And shall not the second Adam bestow something as certain and permanent upon his Off-spring as the first Adam conveyed to his