Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,408	5	4.8951	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81852	The evangelical history: or, The life of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ comprehensively and plainly related. With practical inferences and discourses thereupon. In four books. I. Of the birth of John the Baptist. Of the conception and birth of Jesus Christ; with an account of what passed to his entrance upon the ministerial function. II. The history of the acts and miracles of our Saviour, in the first two years of his ministry. III. A relation of his acts and miracles, in the third year of his preaching. IV. An account of his acts and preaching, from the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Of his Crucifixion, Resurrection, apparitions, and glorious ascension into heaven. With a large practical introduction, by way of preface. Written in French by the learned L.E. du Pin, and Englished by a divine of the Church of England, with additions. Adorn'd with copper cuts.	Du Pin, Louis Ellies, 1657-1719.	1694 (1694)	Wing D2641A; ESTC R229041	170,749	286

Parents Blessed are they that are persecuted for Righteousness sake for their is the Kingdom of Heaven He adds further to his Disciples Blessed are ye when Men shall hate you and persecute you for my sake and load you with Injuries and Reproaches Rejoyce then for great is your reward reserved in Heaven And after he hath thus shewn that there is no happiness in this Life but in the contempt of Riches Honour and Pleasures and in the love of Religion Peace and Mercy Purity of heart and Patience by which we may render our selves worthy of that Eternal Life which God hath reserved in Heaven for us He pronounces a Wo against Riches against those who live in Plenty Mirth and Worldly Honours because they that place their Happiness in all these things shall one day find that their Pleasures Honours Comforts and Plenty shall end in Eternal Wailing and Sorrow XVI What are the Truths which Jesus Christ teacheth in this Sermon upon the Mount Matt. 5 13-48 Lu. 16 27-36 He next teacheth his Apostles that they were the Salt and Light of the World to reform their corrupt Manners and to illuminate their darkne● Minds that they ought therefore to be Pure and Holy themselves and not to omit any occasion of dispersing the Light of their Doctrin because they are set on a Candlestick i. e. preferred to the Ministry of the Gospel for that end That he came not to destroy the Law of Moses but to fulfil it and to bring it to its utmost perfection by teaching his Disciples a Righteousness far more compleat and excellent than that of the Scribes and Pharisees and without which no Man can be saved Indeed the Old Law forbids several Sins and regulated the exterior Actions But the New Law which Jesus Christ gives in this Discourse aims at the Reformation of the Heart and to suppress Sin in its very Source and Original For it was said to the Jews in the Law Thou shalt not kill But Jesus Christ commands every Man to curb in his Anger and not to utter the least affront or abuse of his Brother and if there be any differences not to offer any Sacrifice to God before they are reconciled The Law forbids Adultery Jesus forbids with the same strictness all Lascivious Glances and commands Men to pluck out the right Eye in which they are i. e. to deprive themselves of that pleasure of the Sight which excites irregular desires in the Heart The Law commands us to avoid Perjury Jesus Christ will not allow us to Swear at all and Teaches us that when we are obliged to confirm our Words with an Oath that very Oath tho' not sinful in it self yet proceeds from a bad Cause viz. as St. Austin says from the Custom of Lying and dealing falsly so much used among Men that they dare not trust to their bare Words The Law regulates Revenge and requires that the punishment do not exceed the Offence on which it is inflicted But Jesus Christ is so far from allowing us to revenge our selves that on the contrary he teacheth us not to resist evil not to go to Law but to give to those that ask and to yield our Cheek to those that smite us i. e. to bear all things rather than lose Charity The Jews believed that the Obligation we have to Love our Neighbour did hinder us from hating our Enemies But Jesus Christ will have us to love those that Hate us and to do good to those that Persecute us that we may excell the Heathens in well-doing and imitate Himself who makes his Sun to rise upon the Evil as well as upon the Good and so deserve the Honourable Title of the Children of God From Sins he passes to Good actions and to make them pure Mat. 6 1-34 he teacheth us to purify the Motives and causes of them shewing us that the Intention is such to the outward Actions as the Eye is to the whole Body and that they are pure or sinful according as the Intention is good or Evil after the same manner as the Body is either Light or in Darkness as the Eye is either Clear or Blind Wherefore he teaches us that we must not perform our good Works as Alms Prayers or Fasting that we may be praised of Men but of God who will reward them He lays down rules for Prayer that it should be made with a full Trust in the Divine Bounty with perseverance and with a mind full of Peace and Love to our Brethren knowing that he that will neither give to nor pardon others deserves neither the Mercies nor Pardon he petitions of God He makes the force and excellency of a Prayer not to consist in a multitude of Words as if God had need of our Words to manifest our Wants to him and that we may know what we may desire and request of God he hath taught us to pray after this manner Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us and Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil Amen In the next place he endeavours to make the Souls of his Disciples contemn the good things of this World by teaching them not to lay up Treasures upon Earth but in Heaven where neither Thief nor any other danger is to be feared that they cannot love God and Mamon i. e. Riches at the same time and that instead of being sollicitous for the necessaries of this Life since God who nourisheth the Fowls and adorns the Lillies will not cease to take care of Man who is far more precious in his sight than Flowers or Beasts We should first seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof above all other things and then we may hope that God will give us all other things as an Overplus of favour to us He forbids rash Censures and Judgments Matt. 7 1-29 Lu. 6 37-42 and condemns those Hypocrites who cannot see the Beam which groweth in their own Eyes but would cast out the Mote out of their Brothers Eye He teaches them to distribute Holy things prudently saying We must not cast Pearl before Swine He summs up our whole Duty to our Neighbours in this short Precept Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them He assures us That the way which leads to Life is streight but that which leads to Hell is bread and many there be that go in it He teacheth us to beware of false Prophets who come in sheeps-cloathing yet are ravening Wolves That we must not Judge of them by their Words but by their Works And altho' they may do some Miracles yet God will reject them one day as a People he never knew In the same manner will he also treat all those who content themselves to say Lord

by the Reader who will think them rather too few than too many But considering that unless we well understand the design of our Saviours coming into the World we cannot read the History of his Life with any real advantage for since he did spake and suffered nothing but with a tendency to that end we can never have a true notion of them unless we know the true motive and the end which he himself aimed at I judged it necessary to propound a short History of the Fall of Man and the Wounds which Men have received by it before I present them with the Medicine to heal them and teach them in a few words the happiness of that Estate wherein God Created them the lamentable Miseries into which they have faln by Sin and the means which Gods infinite goodness makes use of to save them The Discovery of these Miseries will make them more desirous to know what Christ hath done to deliver them and by how much they perceive themselves more obnoxious to Gods Justice by so much they will the more eagerly lay hold upon Jesus by Faith to save them from it II. Mans Creation and Fall by Sin When God created the Heaven and the Earth in six days he being desirous not only to provide a Governour for all his Corporeal Creatures but to put some other Beings into the places of the faln Angels in Heaven Created a Man and Woman whom he called Adam and Eve which signifies the Mother of all Living God formed them in his own Image i. e. gave them an Immortal Soul endowed them with abilities to know and love him which are two of the most noble Actions of the Rational Creature which make up the whole Life and happiness of God which is to know and love himself from all Eternity Wherefore he filled their Minds with Knowledge and their Will with Love He Created them perfect and upright their Souls in perfect submission to God and their Body to their Soul There was no darkness or trouble in their minds because God was their Light and Peace and nothing in there Bodies which might make them ashamed because there was nothing disorderly for which reason it is that the Holy Scripture saith That they were Naked Gen. 2.25 and were not ashamed In this Holy and Happy Estate they had a sound Judgment and perfect freedom of Will furnished with all Graces necessary to do that good which God required of them and to purchase that Glory which should be the reward of their Virtue which is to have a clear Vision of God They knew so much of God as Creatures are capable of and if they made a good use of this knowledge upon Earth they should be Translated to the full fruition of God in Heaven Their Innocency exempted them from Death and all other Evils which are the effects of Sin And their privileges were not only for themselves but their Posterity to whom they should communicate not only their Nature but Innocency and all the priviledges of it For the continuance of all these Temporal favours and obtaining that eternal happiness which he hath promised them God required nothing but an entire submission to his Will which that he might have tryal of he gave them a Command to abstain from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil which was in the midst of Paradise threatning them with Death if they dared to Touch it Nothing was more easy than the observation of this Commandment but they kept it not long for the Devil envying their Happiness came to Eve under the Shape of a Serpent perswading her to Eat the Fruit which was forbidden and telling her that they should be so far from dying that they shall become as Gods By these promises she suffered her self to be seduced eat of the Fruit and gave it to her Husband who thro' a wicked Compliance made himself guilty of the Womans Sin As soon as they had thus broken the Command of their God they were made sensible of their Fault by the fearful Change in themselves for they perceived they were Naked and were filled with confusion because they felt in their Bodies the disorderly Motions of their Concupiscence God shewed himself to them no longer as a Father whose presence was their Joy and Happiness but as an offended Lord who reproved their disobedience and as a severe Judge to punish their Rebellion He Condemned the Man to Toil and Drudgery for his necessary Food the Woman to Pains in Child-bearing and drave them both out of the Terrestrial Paradise in which he had placed them he subjected them to all the miseries of this Life and passed the sentence of Death upon them which he had threatned condemning them not only to a Temporal Death of the Body but to the Second Death which is more terrible than the former the Death of the Soul which is to Live eternally with the Devils in Hell and be banished from the only cause and foundation of all Happiness God A just punishment saith St. Austin for their fault in disobeying so easy a Law of so great a God! All the Race of Adam being corrupted in him as in their Fountain and Root by his Sin was also lyable to the same punishment for as if he had continued in his Innocency all his Posterity had inherited it by their Birth and all the Advantages of it after the same manner since he hath sinned all Men naturally inherit his Crimes and all the Plagues which are consequent upon it This is the Sin which we call Original because we are guilty of it from our Original and Birth and this is the Sin which brings upon us all those Evils which we feel either in our Souls or Bodies for the darkness of the Understanding the corruption of the Heart the proneness of the Will to Evil and Opposition to Good the disorderly Motions of Concupiscence the turbulency of our Passions the excessive Love of our selves forgetfulness and Aversion to God all the Sins which we commit Hunger Thirst Weariness Griefs Death and Lastly Eternal Damnation are the sad Consequences and just punishments of this Sin which we come into the World with and which make us as St. Paul saith the Children of the Wrath of God Eph. 2.3 III. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ Out of the miserable condition into which Man had plunged himself and Posterity by Sin there was no way of Recovery had not God in his infinite Mercy been pleased to find out a way which none else could do He had compassion on his Creatures and contrived this means to save them the Word i. e. the Son of God the Second Person of the Holy Trinity was made Incarnate assuming a Body and Soul like us and united to his Divinity in his own person the Humane Nature which he intended to redeem He became Man still being God and took upon him all the weaknesses and Infirmities of Man Sin and Ignorance only excepted He undertook

our Crimes By it we see how much our Offences displeased God since he punisheth it with Eternal Death and for the Pardon of it requires no less satisfaction than the abasing Tortures and Death of the Son of God Nor let us say that if God loved Men so tenderly he might have saved them without exacting of them so great a Satisfaction as Jesus Christ made but let us think rather that if God notwithstanding the love he hath for Man would not save Man any other way than by the Death of his Son God-Man he must need have an irreconcilable hatred to Sin and of all Evil that is most odious to him This is none of the least advantages which we may gain by the Incarnation of the Son of God to raise in our selves a hatred of Sin and a fear of losing the benefit of our Reconciliation with God by our fresh Sins by considering what it cost to redeem us viz. as the Apostle St. Peter says We are not redeemed with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold 1 Pet. 18. but with the precious Blood of the Lamb of God without spot i. e. by the Blood of the only begotten Son of God IV. Of the Life of Jesus Christ Heb. 12.14 Since without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord we cannot reasonably desire that God should make us happy So long as we remain in our Sins enemies to him by our wicked Works it is absolutely necessary in Order to salvation that Men should be converted from their Sins and return to him by a sincere and unfeigned Love of him Now to effect this great Work saith S. Austin God thought not fit to make use of Violence and Force Aug. de ver Rel. c. 16. but rational inducements and perswasions and of all those gentle Methods which could be possibly made use of by infinite Wisdom for that end as fit and proper for effecting this design none was thought so suitable as the Life and Converse of Jesus Christ with the Sons of Men by which not only all the obstacles of our Conversion are removed but all the sweetest allurements imaginable are tendred to us We are ignorant what we ought to do to please God and being blinded with the false Idea's of Good and Evil are not sensible that the only real Good of the Rational Soul is the enjoyment of God and the only real Evil is the loss of this Chief Good All Men are involved in this Error and therefore 't was in vain to expect a better information from any mere Man or if any had those true notions of Mans happiness yet either Mans natural pride or the differences of the Wise about it would make us either slight our Teachers or deny our assent to what they Instruct us in as dubious and uncertain That therefore we might be Instructed in this Truth without fear of being deceived the Truth it self came to dispel our Darkness and enlighten our Ignorance and hath tendred himself to us as a Master whose Disciples we need not be ashamed to own our selves because this Master is our God He was made Man and dwelt among us He hath proved to us by his admirable Miracles That he was a Teacher sent from God to Instruct us that he is Gods only Son Lastly that he is Wisdom Light and Truth and having proved himself to be God he hath dispersed the Rays of his Doctrin and Taught by his Preaching what is our true Happiness and what we must do to attain it But he did not content himself to teach us but joyned Example to his Instruction He perswaded us to the practise of those Truths by his Actions which he delivered in his Sermons He prescribed them fit Remedies for their Distempers but because they were bitter and unpleasant troublesome and nauseous for Men to take he first took them himself altho' he had no need of them that the sick person might be more willing to take them after their Physician We must be humble that we may be saved and this was the way he took to perswade the Proud to it God might have commanded his Creatures to be humble crying out from his Caelestial Throne Matth. 18.3 in Jesus 's Words Except ye humhle your selves and be converted ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But God did not make choice of this way to bring Men to embrace this Virtue Aug. Ep. 42. but made use as St. Austin saith of a more effectual and taking way more sweet and pleasant he had rather root Pride out of our Hearts by perswasion than force and invite us to Humility by the example of the Son of God who being humble and of no Reputation saith unto us Learn of me Matth. 11.29 for I am meek and lowly in Heart What arrogance can withstand such words as these supported by infinite Dignity and profound Humility of the Speaker And who will not think it now a greater shame for him to be elevated with Pride after the manner of Men than to be humble and meek in imitation of the Son of God And the same may be said of all the Virtues necessary for Mans Conversion which I have said of Humility for whereas there is nothing more prevalent with Men than Example Jesus Christ hath made himself an exact Pattern for them and for this cause hath propounded his Life to us that he lived upon Earth as an exact Pattern of our matters Sin hath separated us from God and setting us at a distance from him puts us out of a possibility of returning to him We are carryed by our Affections which are so far from leading us to Happiness as we suppose that they hurry us headlong into our own Ruin and Destruction Who can discover the Depth of Gods admirable Wisdom in making choice of Christs Incarnation and Life to redeem Man out of this miserable condition God who is the end at which we ought to aim and from which we naturally go farther and farther is come himself to seek us We had lost the sight of him he hath made himself visible He thought it not sufficient to propose the most absolute and compleat good to their sight in his own Person as the only fit object of their Love but he would shew them the way they should go in to come to the full possession of it He became himself their Fellow-Traveller and Guide and appeared himself as a Person at a distance from God that he might carry us to God with him He went before us and restored all our Defects by his perfections i. e. he hath reform'd all our Sentiments and all the affections of our Souls by the affections and motions which he shewed in the Human Narure which he assumed for our Salvation We were not sensible what we ought to Love or Hate Desire or Fear Follow or eschew but he hath Instructed us by his Example to Order and regulate the whole course of our Lives with a

to whom he said That if they would continue firm in the Observation of his Word then they should be his Disciples indeed That they should know the Truth and the Truth should make them free The Jews reply'd that they never were Servants but free as being the Children of Abraham He answers them That every one that commits Sin is the Servant of Sin and that they could not be truly free unless he made them free That they were indeed Abrahams Children according to the flesh but that in rejecting the Truth and seeking to Kill him who had told them the Truth they did not do like Abraham but made themselves the Children of another Father by following his Example and imitating him They maintain'd that in that sense they had no other Father but God but Jesus tells them again That if they were the Children of God they would hear God's Word and Love his only begotten Son whom he hath sent That Murther and Lying being the Works of the Devil those People who sought to destroy a Man whom they could not prove Guilty of any Crime and who had told them the Truth had the Devil for their Father They made no reply to this but by railing at him Calling him a Samaritan that hath a Devil Jesus answered them plainly I have not a Devil but honour my Father adding that there is another that will do him Justice because he seeketh not his own Glory Afterwards he saith That he that keeps his Word shall never dye which he means of Eternal Death But the Jews who understood it of the Death of the Body took occasion to insult over him asking him Whether he was greater than Abraham and the Prophets that he could preserve them from Death that keep his Commandments which these great Men could not avoid and therefore desire him to tell them what manner of Man he would have them to take him for He answers them again That he honoured not himself but derived all his Honour from his Father whom they worshipped as their God but know him not That as for Abraham whom they were always bragging of he had earnestly desired to see the Coming of him whom they contemned which he saw and was filled with great Joy They replyed Thou art not yet Fifty Years Old and hast thou seen Abraham He answered them Verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am Upon this they took up Stones to cast at him but he hid himself and went out of the Temple escaping the Fury of his Enemies for that time that he might expose himself to all their Malice and Rage when his time appointed by his Father for him to suffer was come XXII Jesus gives sight to a Man born Blind Jesus as he passed the Streets of Jerusalem John 9 1-41 saw a Man sitting in the Streets who was Blind from his Birth and his Disciples asked him whether it was his own or his Parents Sin that was the cause of his Blindness He answered them that he was not made Blind for any Sin that either himself or his Parents had committed but that God might manifest the more the wonderful Works of his Power He adds that it is his Office to do these Works in the time allowed him for it and that so long as he is in the World he is the Light of the World After this answer He spat on the Ground and having made Clay with the spittle he rubbed the eyes of the Blind Man with it and sent him to wash them to the Pool called the Pool of Silom where as soon as he had washed he saw clearly His Neighbours and all those that knew him when he was Blind and sat in the Streets begging could not believe what they saw but doubted whether he was the same Man or one like him But he told them all that it was he himself And further related to them That a Man called Jesus had restored his sight They asked him where he was but he saying that he could not tell they carryed him to the Pharisees who also themselves examined him and he related to them how the thing happened It was the Sabboth-day on which Jesus healed this Blind Man which was the cause that some of the Pharisees said This Man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabboth But others could not believe that a Wicked Man could do so great Miracles so that there was a great Division among them Then they asked the Blind Man what he thought himself He answered that he looked upon Jesus as a Prophet All these things much astonished the Jews and they would not believe it till they had called the Father and Mother of the Blind Man of whom they enquired Is this your Son whom ye say was born Blind how then doth he see clearly But they fearing the Jews and knowing the Resolution that they had made to put every Man out of the Synagogue who should acknowledge that Jesus was Christ answered freely We know that this is our Son and that he was born Blind but we are ignorant by what means he seeth or who hath opened his Eyes He is of Age ask him he shall answer for himself Wherefore they called the Blind Man the second time and said unto him Give God the Glory we know that this Man is a Sinner and a Wicked Man He answered them I cannot tell whether he be a sinner but this I know that whereas I was Blind I now see clearly They asked him again how he had received his sight And he answered them I have already told and ye did not mind it why would you hear it again Are you desirous to be his Disciples Then were they enraged against him and reproaching him said unto him Thou art one of his Disciples but we are Moses 's Disciples For we know that God spake to Moses but as for this Man we knew not whence he is The Blind Man reply'd That it was very strange that they should not know that a Man who hath so Miraculously opened the Eyes of one Born Blind a thing the like to which was never heard of since the World began must needs be from God At this they cast him out of their Assembly with disgrace saying Thou wast altogether born in Sin and dost thou undertake to teach us Jesus heard that they had thus expelled him and meeting him he said unto him Dost thou believe on the Son of God He answered him Who is he Lord that I may believe on him Jesus saith unto him Thou hast seen him and it is he that speaketh to thee He answered him Lord I believe and immediately fell down at his Feet and Worshipped him as the Messias Jesus adds that he came into the World to exercise an amazing Judgment that the Blind may see and they that see may become Blind i. e. that they whose Pride hinders them from acknowledging their Spiritual Blindness may be blinded so as not to see the Truth for some