Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	affliction_n	great_a	sin_n	1,620	5	5.2580	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47086	A trumpet blown in Zion, or, An allarm in God's holy mountain containing an exposition of that metaphorical Scripture, Matth. III, 12 : lately delivered in two sermons ... / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1694 (1694)	Wing K102; ESTC R17228	65,082	74

the Gospel by the Cunning Craftiness of Men being ready to receive any strange Notion or close in with a New Scheem of Religion some turning to Judaism and add Moses to Christ or joyn to the Gospel their own Works they are commonly corrupt either in Principles or Practices or in both making a stir about the Mint Annis and Commin i. e. about the smaller matters of Religion as concerning Meats and Observation of Days as if in such things lay the great stress of Christianity how many are there who like those false Teachers and deluded People in the Primitive Times plead for Justification some other way than by Faith only and bring in their own inherent Holiness and sincere Obedience and add that to the Merits of Christ in point of Justification before God or exalt the Power and Will of the Creature to the Eclipsing the Doctrine of Free-Grace Sirs tho' I will not deny but many sincere Christians may be shaken by the wind of false and corrupt Doctrine or drawn away through the subtilty of men yet no doubt chiefly they are the Light Formal and Chassy Professors which are carried away and Tossed too and fro with every wind of Doctrine and this because of the want of Grace a sound Judgment and a good Understanding in the Mysteries of the Gospel A good understanding saith David have all they that do his Commandments Moreover such who seem unsetled in their places in Gods House or particular Churches where they are Members being uneasie and every little difference that may arise in a Congregation is ready to turn them away or seem to be moved and disturbed at the Charges the Interest of Christ or which the House of God calls for these I say give cause to fear they are but Chaff or under great Temptation if Sincere Secondly By Chaff may also be meant Sin Filth and Corruption which cleaveth to the Hearts and Lives of true believers which Christ by the Fan of his Word Spirit and Afflictions as you have heard purges out He shall purify the Sons of Levi and purge them as Gold and Silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness This is spoken of Jesus Christ whose Fan is in his hand It shews his Work and Office namely to refine and fan his People not only Members but Ministers also signified by the Sons of Levi that they all may offer acceptable Service unto God Besides our Lord Jesus sometimes makes use of wicked Men as a Fan in his hand to purge his People and thus he did of old fan Israel by the Babylonians and by the Assyrians I will send unto Babylon Fanners as I have sometime fanned and scattered my people by them so will I fan them by the Medes and Persians who shall empty the Land of them After Christ hath fanned or purged away the Chaff and Filth of the Daughter of Zion he will fan their Enemies and they being all Chaff the wind of his Indignation will drive them away Let this be noted that Christ hath many ways to fan and purge his People yet still it is for their good and they shall lose nothing but their chaff their Sin and Corruptions thereby Quest Fourthly Why are the Saints compared to Wheat Answ I answer for many Reasons 1. Wheat is a choice Grain the best Grain so true Believers are a choice People in Christ's sight The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour they are called the excellent in all the Earth God calls his People his Jewels or choice Treasure they are men of a high and heavenly Birth of a high sublime and excellent Spirit they are espoused by an excellent person act and are influenced by excellent principles and have glorious Ends and Aims in all they do and from hence may be compared to Wheat 2. Wheat hath much pains used with it the ground must be made good it must be well plow'd and manured before the Wheat is sown so the hearts of poor sinners must be first made good and by spiritual Convictions be plowed up before the seed of Grace is sown for like as Believers are compared to Wheat so is also the Grace of God Wheat must be weeded as well as gathered into the Barn and also Threshed fanned and well Purged Believers may be compared to Wheat upon this respect Christ takes much pains to speak after the manner of men with his own Elect not only by Plowing Manuring but by sowing watering weeding fanning and Purging them like Wheat 3. Wheat will endure cold Frosts and Snow and all manner of bitter and sharp Weather better than any other Grain Sow Barly before Winter and you will find but little of it will live but Wheat will live in the sharpest Winter that can come what a good Harvest had we here in England after the last great Frost alas the Wheat was not destroyed thereby but was made better the Weeds and Worms being killed which is found to hurt and annoy it oft-times Even so sincere Christians who are Christs Spiritual Wheat abide faithful under the greatest Trials Persecutions and Afflictions they can meet withal they endure the Frosts and bitter North-Winds of Tribulation and furious Storms of the Wrath of wicked men which kills the false-hearted Professor they die and wither away they can't live and maintain their seeming hope and Confidence when true Believes can a Hypocrite is but Summer Corn or rather Weeds or Tares that spring up with the Wheat tho' they look like it yet are only the product of Natural Conscience or the common Influences of the Sun or Gospel of Jesus Christ 4. An Ear of Wheat when it is near ripe doth hang down its head the Corn being full and weighty when light and empty Ears hold up theirs commonly a light and chaffy Ear stands strait upright in a lofty manner So a true gracious Christian is of an humble Spirit he hangs down his head as it were and is ashamed of his best Duties and Services seeing so great weaknesses and Infirmities to attend him he abhors himself yea loaths himself he knows he hath nothing to glory in but in the Cross of Jesus Christ he sees himself nothing Unto me who am less than the least of all Saints is this Grace given saith Paul what an humble Person was he what a full and weighty Ear of choice Wheat was this Apostle If you see a Man or Woman proud or of an haughty and conceited Spirit being lifted up you may conclude they are but empty Ears no true Grace being in their hearts 5. Wheat hath its Chaff cleaving oft-times close to it yea it will stick and cleave so to it that it is not easily separated So it is with Christs Spiritual Wheat the filth or Chaff of internal Corruption is very subject to cleave to them and hard it is for them to get rid of it When I would do good Sin is present with me for the

as it were to Ashes and thus he will pour out his Wrath on Babylon and she shall be burned with fire 6. The Wrath of God also Seiz●th on the Souls of some men whilest they are in this World as when they are left or given up unto hardness of Heart Unbelief and blindness of Mind indeed this is most dreadful of all What can be a greater Token of Gods Divine Wrath it is the begining of that Future Vengeance that shall be poured forth upon them to Eternity Thus the Almighty dealt by the Jews for their Sin in rejecting of Jesus Christ and putting him to death by wicked hands for this he gave them up to an hard unbelieving and an impenitent heart and then let in the Romans upon them who utterly destroyed their City and Temple and so scattered them on all the face of the Earth and hence the Apostle saith that Wrath was come upon them to the uttermost 7. The Wrath of God like Fire sometimes also seizeth on the Consciences of men by which means they are fearfully tormented for their horrid Blasphemy Prophaness Atheism Apostacy c. We have had two Examples of this sort viz. Mr. Francis Spira in the last Century and Mr. John Child in this It is enough to make all who read those Naratives to Tremble at the very thoughts of the incensed Wrath and Anger of an offended God Who can stand before his indignation when his wrath is poured out like fire on the Souls and Consciences of Men O how doth he seem to Tear them into peices even to such a degree as they seem to be in the very torments of Hell while in the Body And not knowing but that a faithful reciting of some Passages concerning the inward Horror of the said Spira and Child may be of some use to Caution all to take heed of such like sins which they fell under I shall tho' more briefly then I intended compare their States Circumstatces inward Anguish and Horror of their Spirits together SOME PASSAGES Of the Fearful Estate of Francis Spira SPira having received the Light of the Gospel became a Teacher of the Blessed Truths thereof amongst his Friends and familiar Acquaintance and says the Narrative in comparison seemed to neglect all other Affairs much pressing this main point of Doctrine viz. That we must wholly and only depend on the free and unchangable Love of God in the Death of Christ as the only way to Salvation As to his natural and corrupt Inclination I was saith he excessively Covetous of Money and accordinly applyed my self to get it by Injustice corrupting Justice by doing it c. As touching Spira's Sin and his grand fall it was thus viz. The Popes Legate Resident at Venice was stirred by the malice of the Papists to accuse Spira to him and by the Craft and Policy of the Legate and through slavish Fear Spira first fled and afterwards renounced his Testimony to the Truth before which it appears he reasoned thus within himself thro' the Suggestion of the Devil viz. Be well advised fond Man consider Reasons on both sides and then judge how canst thou thus overwean thine own sufficiency as thou neither regardest the Examples of thy Progenitors nor the Judgment of the whole Church dost thou not consider what misery this thy Rashness will bring thee into thou shalt lose thy Substance gotten with so great Care and Travel thou shalt undergo the most exquisite Torments that Malice can devise thou shalt be counted an Heretick of all and to close up all thou shalt die shamefully What thinkest thou of the lothsom stinking Dungeon the Bloudy Ax the Burning Faggot are they delightful be wise at length and keep thy Life and Honour Go to the Legate Weak Man and freely Confess thy Fault c. And upon these thoughts he goes to the Legate and salutes him with this News viz. Having for these divers years entertained an Opinion concerning some Articles of Faith contrary to the Orthodox and received Judgment of the Church and uttered many things against the Authority of the Church of Rome and the universal Bishop I humbly acknowledge my Fault and Error and my Folly in my misleading others I therefore yeild my self in all Obedience to the supream Bishop of Rome into the Bosom of the Church of Rome never to depart again from the Traditions and Decrees of the Holy See I am heartily sorry for what is past and I humbly beg Pardon for so great an Offence The Legate at this commanded him to return to his own Town and there to confess and acknowledge the whole Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be holy and true and to abjure the Opinions of Luther c. After this he signed an Instrument of Abjuration and then fell under horrid Despairation And he thought he heard a direful Voice saying Thou wicked Wretch thou hast renounced the Covenant of thy Obedience thou hast broke thy Vow henc Apostate bear with thee the Sentene of thy Eternal Damnation He trembling in Body and Mind fellinto a Swound Now began some of his Friends to repent too late of their Rash Council not looking so high as to the Judgment of God laid all the blame on his Melancholly Constitution that over-shaddowing his Judgment wrought in him a kind of Madness and directed him to the use of Physicians c. To which Spira replyed Alas poor men how far wide are you do you think that this Disease is to be Cured by Potions believe me there must be another manner of Medicine it is neither Plaister nor Drugs that can help a fainting Soul cast down with the sence of sin and the Wrath of God 't is only Christ that must be the Pysician and the Gospel the Souls Antidote Amongst others that come to visit him was Pani●● Vergerius and Mattheus Gribauldus principal Labourers for his Comfort they found him about 50 Years of Age. Neither affected with Doteage nor with the unconstant head-strong Passion of Youth but in the strength of his Experience and Judgment in a burning heat calling for drink yet his Understanding active quick of Apprehension Witty in Discourse above his ordinary manner they forcibly infused some liquid Sustenance into his Month most of which he spit out again and in a fretting mood said As it is true that all things work for the better to those that Love God so to the wicked all to the contrary for whereas a plentiful Off-spring is the Blessing of God and his Reward being a stay to the weak Estate of their Aged Parents to me they are a cause of bitterness and vexation they do strive to make me tire out this misery I would fain be at an end I deserve not this dealing at their hands Oh that I were gone from hence that some body would let out this weary Soul My sin said Spira is greater than the Mercy of God nay answered his Visitors the Mercy of God is above all sin God