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	sin_n	will_n	1,889	5	6.7849	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62374	A brief and plain commentary with notes, not more useful than seasonable, upon the whole prophecie of Malachy delivered, sermon-wise, divers years since at Pitmister in Summerset / by William Sclater ... ; now published by his son William Sclater ...	Sclater, William, 1609-1661.	1650 (1650)	Wing S913; ESTC R17140	147,505	246

his meer good pleasure to magnifie his grace upon his own First then Follow not the Multitude for they go the broad way 2. Strive to enter in at the straight gate and let this warne thee to labour and endeavour the more diligently to strive to make thy Calling and Election sure And hated Esau That is Reprobated Esau Now that there is Reprobation appears because there is Election 2. God hath not Mercy on all 3. There are Vessels of wrath prepared to destruction Rom. 9.22 and Jude 4. ordained to this Judgement 4. Effects denyall of means to many for Salvation If any aske what it is Reprobation is an Act of God whereby he determines not to have mercy on some but to leave them to destruction for the glory of his justice For the moving cause of Election that that may be known we are to conceive the Acts of Reprobation to be two 1. A decree not to have mercy this Absolute and hath no other cause but the Will of God And let none say this is injury for God is bound to none Rom. 11.33 therefore Saint Paul refers all to Gods Will and admires the depth of this secret which had been vain if the cause thereof be foresight of sin and disobedience 2. The second Act is ordination into punishment and Damnation this hath some respect unto sin being an Act of Justice in respect of Execution And therefore though it be true that God refuseth to shew mercy only because he will yet he ordaines no man to damnation but for his Sin Judas damned for his sin Comparative why this not that no other cause but Gods Will. Of whom Of the greatest part of the world Ob. Means vouchsafed to all Answ Not so Mat. 11.21 22. and to whom vouchsafed the end is to deprive them of excuse Object Christ ransomed all Answ Not so Joh. 17.9 Inst 1. Pet. 2. Answ The place to be understood of the Power of a Master over his Servant Ob. Then God cause of Damnation Answ Deficient not Efficient being not bound besides betwixt the Decree and Execution comes sin Marvaile not at this That the most part of the world believe not Vse nor are converted God hath armed us against this Temptation 2. See here the endless love of God to us whom he hath chosen that leaving many nay the more part that had deserved as much as we yet chose us and left them Signs 1. Denyall of means finall 2. Cursing of the means unto them Isa 6.10 3. Their own contempt of the means vouchsafed 4. Apostacy finall Heb. 10.26 27. These not known to us wherefore we hope well of all till the Lord discover VER 3 4 5. And I hated Esau and laid his Mountaines and his Heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness Whereas Edom saith we are impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places Thus saith the Lord of Hosts They shall build but I will throw down And they shall call them the border of wickednesse and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever And your eyes shall see and ye shall say The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel 1. GOds Protestation 2. The peoples Exception 3. The Lords Confirmation of what he protesteth by an argument from an effect wherein he appeales to themselves for witnesses De hoc supra Hatred of Esau manifested by a sign their desolation where the Antithesis is understood Wilderness for Dragons that is without Inhabitant as Isa 34.13 Hence observe That externall afflictions are unto Reprobates testimonies of Gods hatred Reason Because no such are freed from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.19 branches whereof even those outward afflictions are Deut. 28. examples are extant Not the least Sickness Infamy Penury Famine Banishment Death all stand unto such in the nature of Curses as the Law propounds them A sign of which is For that they all work together for evill unto such whereas it is contrary in them who love God Rom. 8.28 They do but harden such as Pharaoh or cause blasphemy as in many bringing out into the eyes of men the hidden Corruption of the Heart Object If any shall say They are made testimonies of love Heb. 12.6 Answ So are they to Gods Children not to Reprobates To them they are fatherly Chastisements To these severe Punishments a sign whereof is That they are driven by them the farther from God Hence then it will follow Vse That from Corrections we cannot conclude certainty of Election or of the Love of God No man can thus reason The Lord follows me with crosses therefore he hath chosen me to Salvation For To some men they are pledges and testimonies of his wrath and hatred and as one well terms them Atrium inferorum And therefore vain is that conclusion of many from Corrections to Gods love As How often heare we it from profane men They doubt not they say but God loves them Why Because he follows them with Judgments never without one cross or another in Children Goods good Name Body Mind In summe These Externall things are ever to be measured according to Persons not Persons according to them It is true That Crosses to Gods Chosen are tokens of his love but crosses to a Castaway are Pledges of his hatred And though it be said That whomsoever God loves him he corrects yet is it not convertible That whomsoever God corrects him he loves Saul had his punishment as well as David his Troubles Ishmael Famine as well as Isaac c. Yet neither beloved God What then is to be done in this case for comfort If thou wilt have comfort in a Cross look to this Art thou chosen called c. Then Crosses are Comfortable If no token of Election suspect thy self I might apply this unto our selves unto many amongst us whom the Lord hath long followed with heavy judgments externall robbing of Children or heart-breaking with ungracious Children Beloved I say not where these are there the men are hated but yet where these things are amongst some they are tokens of Gods Hatred What then to be done in outward Crosses First Look to their issue and fruit that they have in thee As 1. If they humble thee for thy sins Jer. 5 3. 2. If they bring neerer unto God Hos 5.15 3. If they make thee feare before God not only while they are felt but after they are removed Pharaoh cries peccavi and promiseth amendment while the Rod is on him Esau howls whilest he is under the hand of God the wicked Jews Ezra 9. crouch whilest the hand of God presseth them but when a little ease is given them they break the Commandements ver 10. God otherwise corrects his own Children Observ otherwise Castawayes I meane in respect of the measure and weight of his Corrections Psal 118.18 So David The Lord hath chastened and corrected me but he hath not given me over unto death Israelites carried Captives as well as Edomites but

stablishing 1. The Fountain of the afflictions of Gods Children Heb. 12.6 Gods Fatherly love not so with the wicked but in wrath 2. In measure See Isa 27.7 8. Ier. 30.11 10.24 3. See the use and end of afflictions 1. To prevent sin Hos 2.6 A hedge of thornes 2. To reduce Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray 3. To subdue Rebellion mans Nature is Rebellious Afflictions tame and subdue 4. To quicken Gods graces in us ease slayeth the foolish Pro. 1.32 Affliction makes grace flourish 5. To prevent Damnation 1 Cor. 11.32 And Beloved if we had the wisdome not to stay in our sence but to turn our eyes to the issue we would never thus reason Argument of love thus disposed If I have chosen you and your Fathers and rejected your Brethren and their Fathers then I love you but I have loved Jacob and hated Esau Ergo. What is meant by his love Paul best expounds Rom. 9. of Election The greatest evidence of Gods love is Election to Salvation There is generall love to all Creatures Observ some token of love to Saul that he was a King but nothing to this that we are elected all nothing without Election Wealth and Honour and Learning and Authority good Blessings but this the depth and height of Gods love to be chosen to Salvation First It is the fountain of all graces Secondly Of all blessings so far as Blessings Thirdly Those only exempt from Condemnation Fourthly Heirs of glory Rom. 8.17 Now then Beloved Vse see we if we would know whether we be beloved of God or no Look hath God elected us to Salvation then indeed he loves us And hence thou mayst soundly conclude God loveth thee and holds thee deare It is no Argument God hath enriched me therefore he loves me Eccles 9.1 Outwardly all things alike God hath advanced me therefore he loved me See Saul called me to be a Preacher therfore he loved me See Judas till thou commest to Election thou hast no sound argument that the Lord loves thee yea what ever afflictions betide thee This then labour to be assured of Two notes are 2 Thes 2.13 1. Faith of the truth I meane not a generall notice or assent to the Truth but beleeving of the truth in respect of thy self when God gives thee this Particularity and Propriety of Assurance that is a token of Gods love and Election 2. Sanctification of the Spirit known by this when thou hast ascended higher than Nature can reach unto Nature attains to civill honesty as were sundry Heathen famous for morall vertues of Temperance Justice c. but when the very inward affections are renewed there is the triall of true Sanctification Signs of it are 1 Hatred of sin because it is sin this a note of a sanctified heart detestation of sin because sin 2. Purging of our selves as well from little as from great sins 1 Thes 5.22 3. Conscionable walking in all Gods Commandements Luk. 1.6 Psal 119. Lastly Hatred of the World and Afflictions for Righteousness sake Joh. 15.19 Mat. 5.11 A second generall thing Observ how the Lord putteth difference in his Election and Love between parties neerliest conjoyned Esau Jacobs brother of the same Parents of the same Birth Conception yet Jacob loved The like we see in many places two in company the one received the other forsaken two in a bed the one received the other refused Father sometimes chosen Children refused as Abraham and Ishmael Isaac and Esau David and Absalom Let no man therefore please himself in this Vse that he is born of a religious Parent or hath religious Kindred as the Jews Joh. 8.33 They had Abraham to their Father See Mat. 3.9 Think not to say we have Abraham to our father Indeed A blessing it is to be born of religious Parents 1. Because within the outward Covenant 2. Benefit of holy Education 3. Vertuous Examples but Ezek. 18. If the Son shall turn from his Fathers vertuous example It is his curse that ever he had such a Father by consequent 4. Temporall mercies thou mayest partake by their means as the Lord speaks of Ishmael Gen. 17.20 Now as touching Election it self for the unfolding of it this order is observable to shew 1. That it is 2. What it is 3. Of whom 4. Why or the Cause Motive For the first that it is Infinite are the places to prove it Mat. 22.14 Few chosen Mat. 24.24 The Elect from the foure corners of the World And it confutes that sottish error of some otherwise learned that will have nothing determined certaine touching mans Election before his Birth but that the Lord made man without determining any thing certain touching his finall estate Object Then vaine Holy life Answ Not so for that is the meane of attaining the right end Heb. 12.14 Object Vaine Exhortations Answ Not so for they also are Means Object Freewill taken away and fatall necessity brought in Answ Necessity of Infallibility only not forced to believe but God that works the wills knows how sweetly to frame and encline them For the second What it is It is an Act of God whereby he chooseth and calleth some out of mankind to be Heires of Salvation Or as Bellarmine well describes it A part of Providence whereby some certaine men are mercifully selected out of the mass of Destruction and directed by infallible means to life eternall But see we the cause moving God thereto False cause Prevision of good works that no cause for we were predestinated to be holy Eph. 1.4 Not because we were holy And 2. Rom. 9. directly excluded 3. The very end of Election crossed which is to shew the works and glory of Gods grace 4. The first cause orders the secondary not on the contrary not good use of free-will foreseen See Ioh. 1.13 Jam. 1.18 Regeneration not caused thereby much less Election Nor could any inclinableness of will be foreseen in perverse man not Faith for that is a fruit of Election Act. 13.48 1 Cor. 7.25 And not cause of vocation but effect much less of Election Not Christ himself Reason is for that Christ as Mediatour falls under decree of Election the end first thought on before the means True cause the good will and pleasure of God Mat. 11.26 even because he would and Rom. 9.15 He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy It teacheth us to ascribe all the glory of our Election Vse Calling and all fruits thereof unto God and still to say that God chose me was his grace not my merit or obedience Of whom Mat. 12.14 Of a few as appears by the fruits as faith sanctification holy obedience Few not in themselves but comparatively as a bag of sand hath a numberless number of sand yet in comparison of all the sands of the Sea even as nothing And let no man say This is hard in the Lord for that any one is chosen is his Free grace and he may do with his own what him pleaseth It is

lawfull divorce is that that is made for lawfull causes Now hereabout is all the controversy What are lawfull causes of divorce Some have assigned many as 1. Infidelity if a believer marry with an Infidell that marriage is ipso jure nullum Answ In the Iewes law it was so Exod. 10. The reason of it was the will of God utterly excluding such from fellowship with his people till they had renounced their Idolatry and were incorporated unto to the people of God but under the new Testament not so 1 Cor. 7.14 The unbelieving wife sanctified to the believer and hope there is of gaining Secondly grievous and capital crimes and thus they reason if for adultery which is the less then why not for Idolatry murther c. Answ It follows not for understanding whereof know we that grievousness of sins in this kinde must be considered especially in respect of marriage it self And though it be true that there are many sins more grievous than adultery yet none that so much is contrary to marriage as adultery Thirdly sterility or barrenness Answ Not so Abraham and Zachary keep their wives though barren it was their cross and affliction but no warrant for divorce Madness or danger of life Answ Neither doth this break marriage In such cases holy means may be used for avoiding the danger but no attempt of divorce permitted perhaps that which they call separation â thoro mensâ but none such as whereby marriage should be utterly dissolved Lawful causes two only 1. Adultery Matth. 19. 5. 2. Malitious desertion Unlawful divorce when as for unlawful causes the contract is dissolved and a new entred as the Jewes for every cause if but a blemish in the body if any dislike for crooked manners c. Our Saviour deales against this Matth. 5 9. His reasons against it are these 1. The Lords ordinance 2. The nighness of conjunction 3. The inferior cannot dispence with the inferiors authority 4. Adultery incurred 5. The Lord hates it vers 16. Moses permitted it Answ By assigning the cause for safety of the wives 2. By recalling to the original institution 3. Corrupt the text Moses commanded not but permitted Now beloved this sin of such divorces is not indeed rife amongst us as amongst the Jews but another of like nature every where rife marriage of new not attempted because not permitted but assuming of strumpets into the room of wives every where seen A horrible sin and such as God every where professeth to plague and punish And let us all beware of it surely it 's a sin that devours to destruction and we know who hath said Whoremongers and adulterers God will judg Heb. 13.4 Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant The Epithets given to wives called our companions let us see then a little what that society is whereinto they enter that are married 1. Mutual interest one to anothers person 1 Cor. 7.4 Eph. 5.31 One flesh 2. Participation in that same herile dominium as Gen. 16. Sarah over Hagar by Abraham's consent 3. In use and right over all things that they have c. in testimony whereof she is taken out of the side not of the feet to teach how neer the conjunction is One caveat by the way though distastful to many it s such a fellowship as must still stand with subjection and acknowledgment of that power that the Lord hath put in the husband over the wife 1. From original Creation 2. From Principality in the womans transgression 1 Tim. 2.13 14. 3. Gifts of wisdom and strength not equal 1 Pet. 3.7 The weaker vessel not ordinarily so wel able to manage things as the husband and by conscience of infirmity the Lord would teach them subjection 1 Cor. 11.10 She carries power on her head that is a sign and testimony of her subjection All one flesh Answ Union may be without equality Christ and the Church one yet must the Church be subject body and soul one yet soul commands head and members one body yet head a Principality Reproved here that over-Lordly carriage of husbands towards their wives and that usage of them as drudges The heathen Philosopher reproved this in the Barbarians and from the name would make the sin odious unto us that held their wives in place of servants and drudges yea more familiarity many times with servants then with wives a great ataxy and disorder in the family VER 15. And did not he make one yet had he the residue of the Spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed c. INtimating thus much Observ That adulterous posterity is not Gods seed and the Lord hath ever set notes of dislike upon them It was his will that a bastard should not enter into the congregation of God to the tenth generation and upon many of them may we see sensible tokens of Gods dispeasure as in Ishmael Howbeit this is withal to be understood that it was not Gods will that such should all and every of them be excluded from salvation Ishmael was circumcised though not admitted to Priesthood yet into the general covenant and an example we have in Iephtha the son of an harlot recorded amongst the faithful Heb. 11.32 This an admonition unto such Vse on whom this infamy is fallen in their birth that they should of all others be most careful over themselves and consider and humble themselves for their fathers transgressions And secondly be our admonition how we break the bond of wed-lock the same use that the Prophet himself here makes hereof in the clause of this text saying therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth VER 16. For the Lord the God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away for one covereth violence with his garment saith the Lord of Hosts therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously The corrupt reading here spoken is thus of the vulgar Latine Cum odio habueris dimitte Here followeth the amplyfication reading corrupt thus better read The Lord of Hostes saith he hates dismission and putting away yet he covers this iniquity with a cloak For the other reading 1. Crosseth the purpose of the Spirit of God the Lord reproves them for dismission and therefore improbable he should here speak of approbation or allowance 2. Implyes an untruth For the Lord never thus said by way of warrant but only Moses permitted for hardness of heart Though the Lord hath protested to hate this sin yet they commit it and cover it with a cloak that is with pretence of know not what liberty permitted them by Moses Now Observ here mark how wicked men commit the most hainous sins many times under colour and cloake 1 Sam. 15. Saul knew well enough disobedience was odious unto God yet having the cloak of a good intention securely commits it in 1 Pet. 2. The libertines in the first Church they took to themselves