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
A92190	Jacobs ladder, or The protectorship of Sion, laid on the shoulders of the Almighty; in a description of the sufficiency of providence, suitable in these times of tentation. With Jacobs wrestling. / By Francis Raworth of Shoreditch.	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing R373; Thomason E1507_2; ESTC R209489	136,597	367

be as Chaff yet to cover his Wheat and though they be as Straw to bear up his Ears If Paul had not been such a Persecutor Paul had not been such a Professor Josephs Breth●en aimed at his ruin but God Gen. ult aimed at his advancement All things work together for Sions good Rom. 8.28 Before Sion is built here lies a peece of Timber there lies the Brick and there lies the Morter all things seem to be in a confusion but tarry till the Lord hath done and you will see no d●sorder but order no confusion but beauty All things you see not onely work but work together the word in the Greek is compounded Look not onely on Gods way but on his end what God hath joyned together let no man separate The child could blame his Father when he sees him tread the grapes the Father he thinks will mash and mar all but when he comes to years of discretion he knows that the best way to keep the Grapes from withering is to turn them into wine Let man use what means he will against the Church God hath still the security of the end If his Wisdom prevent not disorders his Power can order disorders Men may bend their Bows and shoot their Arrows against God but all in vain for it is impossible that ever this glorious Archer should once shoot over or short the Archer and the Mark being one and the same Man too often puts darkness for light but the Lord onely can and will bring light out of darkness Thirdly This Ladder is conversant about all evils and actions all evil actions personally and publickly 1 This Ladder of Providence reaches as far as sin Providence by which generally I understand the execution of Gods Decrees in time sometimes possibly the Decrees of God and God decreeing is conversant about sin four waies Scivit non sanxit praedixit non praescripsit 1 Providence foresees sin The Lord fore-saw the treachery of Judas and yet simply did not fore-ordain it and yet the prevision of God is infallible Did not Judas may some say then sin necessarily I Answer God fore-saw he would sin as he fore-saw but God fore-saw that he would sin freely therefore in that sense he sinned freely Because we sin therefore our sin is fore-known not therefore we sin because it is fore-known God foretold the infidelity of the Jews to Christ he foresaw their sins not his own The Jews committed a sin which God compelled them not to who is displeased with sin but onely foretold that they would do it because nothing is hid from his fore-knowledge Fore-knowledge in God is as Memory in us Memory presenteth us with things that are past so Prescience presents to God things that are to come Now as Memory is not the cause why things past were done so Gods Prescience is not the cause why future things shall be done God fore-sees and fore-ordains those things that are good but onely foresees but fore-ordains not those that are evill 2 Providence extends further Non fit praeter quod fit contra Dei voluntatem In withdrawing the Influence of Grace Psal 105.25 Deut. 2.30 Rom. 14.22 23. Deut. 29.4 God gave them not an heart to understand now when Providence withdraws its aid the creature falls necessarily and yet freely The Sun is not the cause of darkness for it does not positively infect the Air with darkness but onely removes its Beams So when the Spirit of God who blows where he listeth and is arbitrary in its influence withdraws its influence of light and life the Soul is presently possessed with darkness and sin or as the staff falls to the ground not because it is thrown down by the hand but because it s forsaken by the hand God is the Author of mans condemnation for as a Judge he punisheth transgressions against his Law Multi ne laberentur detenti nulli ut laberentur impulsi but he is not the Author of mans corruption The Nurse lends not her hand the Child presently fals now the cause of falling is not the hand of the Nurse but impotency and weakness in the Child God throweth down none but raiseth up many faln he healeth many woundeth none The principle of our falling James 1.13 is in our selves but the principle of our standing is in God 3 Providence extends further In moving the natural Faculties of man He preserves in man what he hath given to man both Nature which is the principle of natural Actions and the Will which is the principle of voluntary Actions Vulneramur in naturalibus spoliamur spiritualibus by his power determining their motions and freely inclining them to any indeterminate actions Wherefore one and the same Action may be both good and bad according to the difference of principles good in the kind as from God and common Nature but evil in particular as from the inbred Corruption of man for the immediate cause of every sin is the Will of the sinner In every sinful action there are two things the act and the defect God is the Author of the act but not of the defect As in the striking an untuned Harp the fingering is from us but the jarring is from the Instrument In God we move without the aide of Providence Cain could not have stretched out his arm but to turn so good a gift of God to so ill a purpose as to kill his Brother that was the proper sin of Cain God may remove impediments of sinning he may propose objects in themselves indifferent as threatnings preaching of the Law Rom. 7.8 and how easily doth man fall when God goes from him and Temptations come to him 4 Providence extends further about sin God wills that sin be God wills not the nature yet he wills the being of evill To affirm that God is the Author of sin impairs the Justice and Goodness of God for he can no more be the Author of sin than one contrary is the Author of another than light is of darkness or good of evil● It is not the God of the world but the God of this world is the Author of sin and to affirm that God onely permits sin seems to impair the Government and Providence of God Deo sciente sinente fit peccatum non utique nolens sinit sed volens for God doth not suffer sin to be without his will Permissio est quoddam genus voluntatis Judas hath a Will to betray his Master I will not says God stop his design but I will draw a preservative for mans salvation out of that poyson The world shall know that out of the unnaturalest Treason that ever the Sun beheld I can work the most glorious effect God found the will of Judas earnestly running to sin he run of himself God staid not behind but ran with him but to another end Judas and God run as it were in the same Race Judas to satisfie his Lust God to declare his

not to climb to the top Many run that never obtain the prize Many shoot but few hit the mark Gaze not on the Lords Ladder mind your journey to Heaven these are giddy and dizzy times If ever you would not be falling Stars be not Planets not wandring Stars not one in a thousand that is a wandring Star but a thousand to one he proves a falling Star Neither come down Gods Ladder with Demas nor fall off Gods Ladder with Judas in a moral sense or spiritual rather be Angels ascending not descending the falling sickness is much abroad we fall not forward but backward as Ely did and many break their necks The Lord grant you may not be blazing stars for they are portentous nor fallen Angels How soon as the Apostle said are we removed into another Gospel How sad to consider the last year visibly an Angel and this year a Devil yesterdaies Professor is to daies Ranter The Well is deep said the Samaritan and there is need of a Bucket So the Ladder is high and the ascent is great we need Faith Faith and Love are the two hands by which you must climb take good hold Patience and Perseverance your feet Think not to climb with your hands full of dust beware of Covetousness Dream not on Gods Ladder if you would dream come down to the foot of the Ladder you no sooner begin to sleep but you begin to fall Those that stand high had need to stand fast for there is more fear of their falling and danger if they fall Eutichus was asleep Act. 20.9 in an upper Loft and he fell down dead David was high on this Ladder but when he committed folly with Bathsheba he almost brake his neck and so Peter a glorious Professor when he denied his Master Many Graces run in the Race but only Perseverance obtains the Crown Despise not Providences yet be ruled onely by the Word Observe but serve not the time Providence by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I confess is made a stalking horse to all designs and most lay more on its back than it doth willingly bear Providence and Conscience are the greatest Martyrs this day in the world The sufficiency of Providence is no warrant for us to neglect our Callings or the use of means God feeds us but eating God cloaths us but by our industry for though man lives not by bread alone Necessitas decretorum ●●ei non tollit libertatem in creaturis rationalibus nec contingentiam in causis secundis Wollebii Epit. but by every word that proceeds out of Gods mouth yet that mouth that blesseth the bread bids us to labor for it so our labor is to be joyned with the Providence of God and yet nothing is to be attributed to our labor but all to Divine Providence neither is Providence an Apology for the use of unlawfull means We are not to walk acc●rding to the secret but revealed Will of God He that useth lawful means to bring about an unjust end puts God into the Devils service but he that useth an unlawful means to bring about a just end puts the Devil into Gods service though indeed no man sins without Gods Providence yet no man sins without his own proper inclination Man is guilty in practicing but God is not guilty in permitting evil And yet God as he is gracious in his Word so he is glorious in his Providence In the agreement of which I shall conclude It is the greatest folly in the world to follow the dark cloud of Providence without the pillar of fire of the Scriptures It is ignorance the least that can be spoken of it to follow Providence without a Scripture arrant Atheism to follow Providence against Scripture No things can be Orthodox or sound in the Volumes of Providence that are erratas in the Volumes of Scriptures Those that undervalue the Authority of the revealed Word it is to be feared they either have or will manifest they have no other Old Testament but Lucian and no other New but Machiavil Methinks His works are like rich Tapistry Vnfolded all unto a Jacobs eye Our Fathers Image hangeth in this story Embroydered all with Power Wisdom Glory But Providence is neither the first figure In Gods Arithmetick nor yet a cipher They represent the mind of God above In golden Characters but not his love They do not prove a Cause good for to bee Yet make a Cause if good shine gloriously Scriptures declare the Lords approving Will Events his peremptory Will fulfill His Word shews us what he would have us crave His works shew what he would have us to have The royall and unchanged Word 's our Text Whereunto as a Commentary annext Gods Providences be These glosses are But that 's the Copy and Original fair There is a God these Works do plainly tell And out of them Reason his Name may spell Yet read them curiously you cannot smel In them the Rose of Sharon that 's Gospel Indicted by the Spirit from on high Engraven in the Scriptures not the Skie The Sun and Stars do not make a dumb show yet by them A God but not a Father we may know How many Vows in perils do we make And yet from Providence excuses take Against Performances How many now See Jacobs Ladder but forget his Vow To conclude Let Jacob now awake and preach and pray And sleep no longer for hee clearly may Without a Dream see by the Gospel light The Ladder which before he saw by night Let 's draw the Curtains shadows fly away Visions and Dreams be gone 't is break of day FINIS MONOMAXIA JACOB wrestling with the ANGEL OR A sacred Duel fought between God and Man at Peniel with the issue of the Combate Represented as a lively example of Faith and Prayer to all the Israel of God By J.R. of Shoreditch Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa 45.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid Pel. l. 4. Ep. 27. London Printed for L. Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head-Alley 1655. To his endeared Aunt Mris Dorothie Marsh Widow Living at Dover Endeared Aunt I Have much desired an opportunity to express my thankfulness to you for those real Kindnesses you have so long and often expressed to me and though it lay not in my Power to requite yet I would not want Affection to acknowledge your love It is an old observation that they that do a good turn must instantly forget it and they that receive it must constantly remember it you have done the former as for my self I will not deny but my memory hath long been asleep but I would now onely testifie by this publique remembrance of my duty that it is not dead The Lord made you an instrument though not of my natural yet of my spiritual birth you gave me not suck indeed from the Brest but you fed me with the sincere milk of the Word you first taught