Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	adam_n	death_n	sin_n	5,480	5	6.3830	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74676	Quatuor novissma: Or, Meditations upon the four last things, delivered in four common-place discourses: by Thomas Longland ...	Longland, Thomas, 1629 or 30-1697.	1657 (1657)	Wing L3002; Thomason E1633_2	52,017	143

no part in the first Resurrection THIS is the dregs of the fury of the Lord the Cup of his sorest indignation which requireth eternity to drink it to the bottom This is the gnawing worm and unquenchable fire the sense whereof doth cause them on whom it is inflicted to meditate terror for ever THESE are the sparks which the wicked have kindled from the fire of their own lusts and wherein God will cause them to lye down in sorrow THIS is that Devouring fire who among us shall dwell with it Who among us shall dwell with these everlasting burnings Every one shal thus die for sin who is before dead in sin The next Question I am to resolve is Quare sit Wherefore it is which will be answered by inquiring Vnde sit Whence it is And there is a threefold rise of Death 1. Satan 2. Man 3. God The first by Temptation The second by Consent The third by Infliction 1. SATAN is the grand contriver of mans destruction and therefore is the Author of it not by a Physical but moral causality He is the Father of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam 1.15 Sin the parent of death He who is the Antient of daies tells us the Devil is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A murderer from the beginning And through mans cowardise in consenting to iniquity he who at the first did but usurp hath now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of death and is not to be overcome but by Christ who is stronger then he And blessed be God that the Author of Death is overcome by him who is the Prince of life Heb. 2.14 15. and the Author and finisher of that faith against which the gates of hel shal not prevail But 2. Man consenting This is another cause of death to prove this see that remarkable place Rom. 5.12 Hic enim duo concurrunt tentator et obtemperator Zeged loc● commu As by one man sin entered into the world Death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned We were no sooner children of Adam but we were sons of Death Our first Father Adam we in him did eat of that apple the core whereof doth yet stick in our throats and will at length choak us one by one Sin is our own work death is the Wages of sin which brings me to the third cause God inflicting If man by his sin saith he will die God by his decree saith he shall die so that man shal have his will though it end in his woe If Adam will needs entaile an hereditary curse upon his posterity God will so ratifie it by his supreme Act in heaven that it shall never be cut off it shall be inevitable seeing he hath appointed for men once to die And thus we have the resolution of these three Questions I shall only answer an objection and so proceed to use Object But is this true It is appointed to men men indefinitely to all men to die What is the reason we read of some persons who did not of some who shall not taste of Death Answ I. Answer Particular exceptions destroy not the verity of general rules because some go out of the backdoor we doe not therefore cease to say that the gate is the ordinary way out of the house and because some hath not seen death or others shall not we need not cease to affirm It is appointed for men once to die for men are said to die either properly and really or by way of aequivalency when they ungergo a Change equal with death Thus did Enoch when he was translated Elijah when carried to heaven in a fiery Charriot and this shall they undergo who shall be found alive when Christ shal come to judgment The essence of Death or rather its nature not consisting in cinerefaction but as I have before affirmed in a separation of life from its subject which in Gods people is accompanied with a blessed dis-union of sin from their soul They are no longer subjects of sin when once vessels of eternal glory The next thing in order of method will be to make some inference from what hath been said and let me premise this it will be wisdom for us to look this King of Terror in the face and to consider whether we are able to encounter with him or no and what Nero did when he heard he was sentenced by the Senate as an enemy to the Publick Weale to be punished More majorum despairing to live he tried the points of the Ponyards wherewith he had resolved to dye to feel their sharpness before he sheathed them in his bowels So it would be wisdome in us by serious reflection upon our frailty to die daily that so the day of our death may not surprize us unawares Storms are most terrible when they surprize us suddenly and without a shelter Death will then be most unwelcome when it overtakes us unprepared or unresolved to grapple with it I shall now endeavor to apply this Doctrine If this be true That death is inevitable Vse 1 then let us live as such who are to die Because death is an evil to nature let us not hasten it because it is a necessary consequent of our sin Let us endeavour that though it separate our souls from our bodies yet it seize not on us in such an estate which will separate both from God Because by Christ it is overcome and proves a friend to Grace by hasting its consummation in Glory let us not be afraid to encounter with it But alas how few of us make this improvement of the necessity of death How many by intemperance and disorder do dig their graves with their own teeth How many are there whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilest they are Somno vinoque sepulti before their passing-bell hath tolled and even whilest their bones are full of marrow Job 20 11. their souls are replete with the sins of their youth These are such who put far from them the evil day They consider not the daies of darknesse neither think of them any more then as the Prophane proverb is Their dying day Their inward thought is that not only their houses Psalm 49.11 but they shall abide for ever not considering there is a God in whose hands are their life breath and all their waies that their breath is in their nostrils and their life ere long may be as water spilton the ground that it will lay the greatest Prince leveld with the poorest Peasant Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres Hor at lib. 1. Od. 4. that Death regards not the scepter of a mortal Prince nor compassionates the sad estate of any nor will be bribed to give a release from natures bonds that the grizly hand of death will cover many a naked brest which formerly hath been the looking-glasse of lust and pride with a

should be loth to decide what Infinite Wisdome hath left in doubt neither do I profess my self to understand what the Angels of heaven nor any man doth know but the Father onely Mat. 24.36 Proud desire of knowledge may do hurt where humble ignorance of what God is pleased to conceal doth not suppose a fault Let me leave this therefore irresolved as the former and apply what hath been already said It may inform us in the words of the Apostle Vse 1 Rom. 14.12 So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God for therefore is this Judgement appointed that God may exercise Distributive Justice in the World by rewarding the righteous punishing the wicked absolving the one condemning the other which actions suppose a scrutiny in mens lives And although God who knoweth all things might without further witness pass to give Sentence yet he will give the sinner leave to plead his own Cause and then out of his own mouth will condemn him or else so clear shall be the testimony of his own Conscience that it shall leave him speechless without excuse And thus the sinner shall justifi God when he speaketh and shall clear him when he judgeth Thus they who would not confess their sin here to give glory to God shall will they nill they then confess it to take shame unto themselves Neither is this account less strict than sure there are no shifts to avoid it we cannot blinde the eyes of this Judge with gifts nor scare him with our frowns nor appeal from his Tribunal to a higher Bench nor hide our selves from his Omniscience or fly any where from his Presence His Serjeant Conscience will Arrest the proudest Prince and bring him before the King of kings where devested of his Royal Pomp he shall equally stand to receive his Doom with the meanest Peasant and shall there exchange his Scepter for a Crown of Glory his Royal Ornaments for the White Robes of the Saints or else be environed with greater shame Each creature will own the Summons at that day which the last Trump shall proclaim The Earth shall give up its dead the Sea likewise it s that so each person contained in them may give an account of himself to God Secondly If God hath appointed a Day wherein to Judge the World Then learn that 1 Cor. 4.5 Therefore judge nothing before the time untill the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart Let no man anticipate God or take his Office out of his hand by judging his brethren Exact knowledge is requisite in a Judge Si judicas cognosce Sen. Med. but the eyes of man are too dim to judge of the actions of others because they cannot see them in the heart their Root and Fountain for God alone searcheth hearts Hence it is that holy men in this life are oft judged as hypocrites when as on the contrary the glistring gloworm of Morality in this dark night of the world goeth under the notion of Holiness and Integrity Thus the righteous are condemned and the wicked are justified by those who judge after the sight of their eyes according to appearance and not righteous judgement To those God doth speak Who art thou that judgest another Iam. 4.12 And also Gods people say as to Moses was once retorted by the Israelite Who made thee a Prince Exo. 2.14 and a Judge over us Produce thy Commission thou that art so forward in censuring or condemning the rest of thy brethren If thou hast none what is thy plea for this inordinate practice Is it that in the Psalmist Psa 12.4 Our lips are our own who is Lord over us And therefore thy tongue walketh through the streets Hast thou not read that God is ready to judge both the quick and the dead to acquit whom thou condemnest to condemn whom thou approvest Or readest thou not that of the Apostle Jam. 5.9 Behold the Judge standeth before the door execute not then thy malice till God hath delivered his Sentence It is not hatred of sin but desire of revenge which doth inflame mens tongues with a love to blame and condemn not amend and correct the faults of others or rather as S. Austin doth notably observe De Serm. Dom. in Mont. lib. 2. cap. 18. in Mat. 7.1 Such do labour with Pride or Envy which cause their hearts to swell against the persons and names of their brethren Whilst I thus inveigh against judging another I do not say but we may say A sin is a sin Gal. 5.19 for the works of the flesh are manifest and therefore fall under our censure But in judging we must avoid these three things First We must not we may not judge our brethren about the use or abstinence from those things which in their own nature are indifferent In this case the Apostle puts the question Sunt quaeiam facta media quae ignoramus quo an mo siam qaia bono malo si●r possunt de quibu temerarium est judicare maxime ut condemnemus Aug. de Serm Dom. in Mont. l. 2. c. 18. Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth And for the abstinence from such things the same Apostle saith Let no man judge you Calvin in loc and that is as one explains it make guilty of Judgement or Condemnation to wit for the omission of such Ceremonies as were abolished by Christ his death Secondly Our Suspicions must not serve us to condemn our brethren for those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those secret things of the heart it is Gods work to bring them to light 1 Cor. 4 3. Suspicions are no Proof and therefore not a sufficient foundation of a Legal Sentence No nor every Report is sufficient to raise a mist whereby to darken the reputation of our brethren for we know SI SATIS FVERIT ACCVSASSE NEMO ERIT INNOCENS If it were sufficient to accuse none should be innocent We must therefore in this case take Gods counsel and imitate his practice First We must take his counsel Deut. 13.14 They were not upon a bare report to destroy them who said Let us go and serve other gods But minde thou shalt inquire make search and ask diligently and behold if it be truth and the thing certain then do thus and thus Again see Gods Practice Gen. 18.21 There God who is Omniscient saw their sin the cry thereof came unto heaven yet speaking to our capacity and suggesting our duty I will go down now saith he and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know This is the second thing we must avoid then in judging we must not condemn our brother for what we suppose or suspect before sound search after and clear knowledge of the fact Thirdly and