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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	author_n	sin_n	will_n	1,685	5	6.8791	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60175	Sarah and Hagar, or, Genesis the sixteenth chapter opened in XIX sermons / being the first legitimate essay of ... Josias Shute ; published according to his own original manuscripts, circumspectly examined, and faithfully transcribed by Edward Sparke.	Shute, Josias, 1588-1643.; Sparke, Edward, d. 1692.	1649 (1649)	Wing S3716; ESTC R24539	246,885	234

that suffer wrong Psal 146.7 If thou seest in a country saith Solomon Eccles 5. the poor oppressed wonder not at it that is be not too much discouraged in that regard There is one higher then the highest of them that regardeth it and he will judge both the just and the wicked A man that in some Court is overswayed against right yet is not out of heart while he hath an higher Court to appeal unto of the equity whereof he is perswaded and so hath the oppressed they have a Court of heaven to appeal to and there we shall be sure to have justice for us according to the equity of our cause I know this is difficult and puts a man to it but we must bear saith the Apostle Be ye patient till the coming of our Lord. But now before we leave this verse curiosi quaerunt A Question touching Gods Permission saith Jerome the curious start a Question here Why God foreseeing and foreknowing what kinde of persons Ishmael and his posterity would be would suffer such to be brought forth into the world or did not as soon as they were born dash these children of Babylon against the stones Observ 3. Gods permission of evil both persons and actions vindicated by manifold good ends and reasons from being any ways occasion of them or prevent these Cockatrice eggs from growing to be fiery flying serpents He is the God of peace and love and mercy and he loveth a sweet correspondence of men in their several societies Nay to suffer such as should be cobling-stones in a wall that would neither head nor bed well nay such fire-brands of the world as Hecuba dreamed she went withal men whose hands should be against every man and every mans hand against them such as should be the pest of the place and the calamity of the times wherein they lived such disorderly ones as would spoil that comely method and order into which God had digested things nay may not a man think that God is the author and cause of the sins of such men when foreseeing them he doth not prevent them Oh in the fear of God first let us take heed of this conceit Better saith Saint Chrysostome an hundred to be slain Chrysost 23 Hom. super Acta Apost then that our God should hear such a word from us That he is the cause of sin to us Saint Augustine calleth it detestandam abominandam opinionem a detestable and abominable opinion for saith he Fieri non potest S. Augustine ut per quem á talibus surgitur per eum in talia decidatur it is impossible that he by whom men rise from sins should be the occasion of their falling into them And Fulgentius saith Far be it from us to think Fulgentius that God is autor quorum est ultor author of those sins whereof he is revenger His Prescience and foresight of sin doth not make him the cause of it Non ideò peccat homo quia Deus eum peccaturum praescivit saith Saint Jerome a man doth not therefore sin S. Jerome because God foreknoweth his intention to sin no more then the Astronomer is the cause of the Eclipse which he foretelleth or a Physitian of the disease which he foreseeth a man will fall into or the Prophets of the calamities which they foretold or a wise man of the ruine of another which he foresees in his wicked courses No our destruction is from our selves as God told Israel Hos 13. Hos 13.9 and the least aspersion may not be cast upon God whose pure eyes can behold none iniquity But then for the Quare Why God doth permit such wicked men to be born Eccles 7.10 and to live in the world I might say as Solomon Eccl. 7. in another case Thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this or I might answer as my Author doth in the words of the Apostle Rom. 9. Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that repliest against God! hath not the potter power over the clay may not God do as he pleaseth And dare any man say unto him Why dost thou so His will may be secret but it cannot be unjust But yet to give some satisfaction in this Point it is a true speech of Saint Augustine August in 11 of his Enchirid. Deus non sineret aliquid mali nisi usque adeo esset omnipotens bonus ut benè faceret etiam de malo God would not suffer any evil to be done in the world but that he is so good and omnipotent as that he can bring good also out of that evil and make all things work for the best c. Now God suffereth wicked men to be born into the world and to live in the world First to let the world see how much mans nature is depraved and corrupted by his fall God made him upright but he transgressing fell in the dirt S. Bernard saith Saint Bernard and not onely defiled himself but wounded himself so that he became from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot nothing but swellings and putrified sores This first sin was the Trojan-horse the fruitful womb of all those mischiefs that have infected the world of all those murthers and cruelties oppressions that have stained the souls of men of all those judgments with which God hath justly plagued the sons of men This corrupt nature of man is fierce and driveth furiously like Jehu the son of Nimshi it breaks out desperately it is like the raging sea that casteth out nothing but mire and dirt it rusheth into sin as the horse into the battel and committeth sin with greediness Now all this sheweth in the practice of wicked men as in a glass the woful condition of our Nature 'T is intended for mens humiliation and that they should bethink themselves from whence they are fallen and seek the repairing of Gods image in them Secondly God suffers such fierce and cruel ones to be in the world for the exercise of the graces of his children as first their thankfulness to God that he is pleased to restrain that corruption in them which so breaks out in others When thou seest a man wallow like a beast in his own vomit dart out blasphemies against heaven revile the Gospel of salvation tear the blessed Name of God in pieces with horrid and hideous oathes when thou hearest of Cain murdering his brother Judas betraying of his master Ananias lying to the holy Ghost Lucian mocking the Lord Jesus as a crucified impostor Julian darting of his blood against heaven in hatred of Christ the Scribes and Pharisees blaspheming the Spirit of God when thou observest men of an unquiet and turbulent spirit that like Salamanders cannot live out of the fire that are of a provoking carriage and apt at every turn to be injurious unto their brethren yea even thirsting after their blood and shedding it Then thank God that his grace keeps thee

bowels so a mans destruction is from himself as the Prophet speaks If a man had no violent hand to kill him yet he hath that in his body that will be his bane So in the soul if there were no men to tempt him no Satan to inject evil motions into him if he were abstracted from men and should live in a wilderness yet he should have enough mischief wrought by himself and should have reason to say with that holy man that had retired himself that he might be free from temptation Omnia reliqui cor autem non reliqui I have left all things but not my heart behinde me This heart of ours is deceitful above all things it will ever be bubling up in untoward motions and if we cannot trust our selves but may be drawn away by our concupiscence we may justly fear temptation from all others Certainly we had need walk wisely and circumspectly and fear wheresoever we are and blessed is the man that so feareth always For Qui pavet cavet qui cavet non cadet He that feareth bewareth and he that is wary will not fall Where this fear standeth Sentinel we are not easily made a prey to our adversaries Preached May 12 1641. THE THIRD SERMON GEN. 16.2 It may be I may obtain children by her And Abraham hearkned unto the voice of Sarah WE come to the third cause of the marriage of Abraham and Hagar It was the hope that she might have a childe by her Why will some say what was she the better if Hagar were with childe by Abraham Yes she being her handmaid or bond-woman the childe that she should have was reckoned as the mistresses When Rachel had no children Gen. 30.3 she said to her husband Gen. 30. Behold my maid Bilhah go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees that is what she shall bring forth I will educate upon my knees that I may also have children by her And so did Leah in the same case give Zilpah her maid to her husband making account that the children she should bear should be hers she would adopt them for her own Observ 1. Concerning Jealousie with the causes and effects and remedies thereof Now here both Pareus and Musculus do observe how free Sarah was from jealousie she feared him not that he should lay siege to the chastity of her maid for here she offereth her to him A rare and a strange thing as Saint Chrysostom noteth upon this place that a wife should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a wife should do thus and advise her husband thus and give such liberty of her bed to her maid Now though we cannot justifie her in this fact yet we cannot but commend her with the former expressions that she was free from jealousie Zelotypia according to the School-men est vehemens motus amantis in rem amaram Aquin. 1 2. q. 28. ut non patiatur consortium in re amata Jealousie is a vehement passion or affection of the minde towards a beloved object not suffering any rival or co-partnership in the thing affected Jealousie in it self simply is not reprovable God himself is said to be a jealous God in the second Commandment 2 Cor. 11.2 and Saint Paul saith to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11. that he was jealous over them with a godly jealousie And who can blame him that loveth his wife heartily if he be fearful of any that would share with him But the jealousie that is reprovable is when husbands or wives upon light and slight grounds nay oftentimes upon no grounds but their own conceits and apprehensions grow suspitious of each other and so make their condition uncomfortable for the most ingenious malice could never invent such a torment as this They that are vexed with this ill spirit can take no delight in any thing sometimes they grow mad and desperate but too too often fall upon revenge and even wound the innocent Tully telleth how Thebe the wife of Alexander Pheraius Pertinent Histories slew her husband because she suspected him of incontinency And Zonares tells how Eudoxia a worthy woman and wife to Theodosius the younger having received of the Emperour her husband an apple of an incredible bigness she gave it to Paulinus a learned man Paulinus not knowing from whom the Empress had received it giveth it as a rare gift to the Emperour Hereupon the Emperour sendeth for his wife and asketh her what she had done with the apple She because he did so earnestly enquire after it fearing that if she had said she had given it away he would have been displeased answered that she had eaten it He urging her to tell the truth she swore she had eaten it Whereupon the jealous Emperour slew innocent Paulinus and hated his wife his jealousie was stirred and he broke out into this unreasonable revenge This is that which Solomon saith Prov. 6.34 35. Jealousie is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance he will not regard any ransom neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts And some have made Jealousie to be a compound of Love Fear and Anger a man loveth and therefore he fears partnership and therefore is enraged even out of the suspition of it if he dare not revenge he pineth away and eateth up his heart in a secret discontentment For the Use of this First Application let it teach man and wife to take heed of giving way to idle and vagabond phancies and suspitions not to think because they are fair they are like to be false or to judge an affable and chearful carriage to be an ensigne of lewdness or every look cast upon another to be a broker for lust or to be in company of such a one unless they are dishonest This is rash judgement nay this is not judicium but vitium this is not judgement but vice and passion contrary to true love that as the Apostle saith hopeth all things believeth all things and is ready to interpret doubtful things to the best this is to wrong thy yoke-fellow and Satan purposely casteth in and fomenteth such suspitions meerly to sowre this sweet condition and this is to make way for thine own torment this is not tollere crucem to take up thy cross when it is laid upon thee but creare crucem to make a cross and to lay it upon thy self But now in the second place Use 2 it should teach man and wife so to walk as that they give not to each other occasion whereby this ill spirit may be raised in them for it cannot be denied but some are too free and prodigal of themselves in this kinde sometimes in their speeches sometimes in their gestures sometimes in their too frequent conversing with others and seeming to take delight in their company that they stir up a suspition and because they are conscious to themselves perhaps of their own honesty and loyalty they

their deliverer The Application of this point is to stirr us up Application to put this that I have said in practice in those evils of punishment that befall us we are not to rest in the secondary causes but to mount higher even to God for there is none evill in the city which the Lord doth not Amos 3. Understand it de malis poenae non Culpae of the evils of punishment not of those of sin David knew that God had a hand in Shimei's cursing him the Lord hath bidden him curse saith he 2 Sam 6.11 2 Sam. 16. So Iob in his losses had an eye not so much to the Caldeans and Sabeans or to Satan himself as unto God non ad manum percutientem sed ad manum permittentem saith Saint Augustine Augustine he looked not at the hand that smote him but higher to the divine hand permitting it The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away Iob. 1. Iob. 1.21 Saint Paul doth instruct the Corinthians that when they were judged they were chastned of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.32 Isai 9.13 1 Cor. 11.32 and it is taxed as a great fault when men turn not unto him that smiteth them Isai 9.13 So in blessings received we should not stick in the meanes but acknowledg God to be the Author and prime efficient and that inferiour causes are but his instruments for as in evils of punishment if we do not rise in our thoughts as high as God and make account they are from him we shall never be patient under the rod nor profit by it so in good things received if we look no further then second causes we shall never be truely thankful nay we shall be unjust by shifting the debt from the true creditor And yet how frequent a fault is this in the world In Victories how apt are men to thank the strength and the power they brought into the field and to forget him that is the Lord of hosts and God of victory Nay Adrian and Verus of old and Selimus and Ferdinand of later times did erect monuments of Victory to their Horses So for honour and dignity men thank their friends or their money or their own acts not remembring that of the Psalmist Psal 75.6 that promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but it is God that pulleth down one and setteth up another So for wealth men look no further then their own labour or industry or else what hath been cast upon them by the donation of friends not remembring that of Solomon The blessing of God is that which maketh rich The returns at Sea are attributed to a strong ship and the Skill of the Pilot. The Fisher as the Prophet speaketh sacrificeth to his net and drag The Husbandman thanketh his dung-hill for his Crop and neglecteth God that giveth the increase Yea some are so presumptuous and so irreligious as to thank themselves and their own works for their salvation they will have not onely a congruity but a condignity in them and say that God is tied upon terms of strict justice to reward them never thinking of God who worketh all their works for them saith the Prophet that worketh both the will and the deed saith the Apostle Some in special comforts received either by preaching or otherwise idolize the Ministers and are not thankful as they ought to God Isai 48.17 who maketh them to profit Isai 48. and giveth the tongue of the learned to his servants to minister a word in due season to them that be weary And 50.4 Isai 50. Now what wrong is here done to God that he must be robbed to pay the instrument How must this needs provoke him He is not against some praise and thanks to be given to the instrument The sword of the Lord and the sword of Gedeon But when he observeth us to give more unto the means then to the author then he is jealous and is more justly offended then Saul was with the womens song Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands Let the keeper of the vineyard have his two hundred but let Solomon have his thousand Thank we our friends and think well of the means but let God have the fat of the sacrifice as without whose blessing no means could have been available for our comfort If we do otherwise as we are unjust and unthankful for the present so we lay up a judgement for after time It is reported of Timantes of Athens who reckoning up his Victories coming to one said Hoe Fortunae meae debeo This I owe unto my Fortune You must know he meant by Fortune the Deity but he never prospered after When in mercies received we forget to acknowledge God the prime agent and to be thankful it is the next way to make all means for after-time unsuccessful Let us learn of Hagar here Thou Lord seest me I have had great comfort from the Angel but I know he was onely but thy mouth Thou art the fountain of all my consolation It is thou thou Lord alone that seest and regardest me We come to the next clause Have I here also looked after him that seeth me Of which there be almost as many interpretations as there be words in it That a man is as Nazianzen saith Nazianzen in another case in a garden where there is variety of curious flowers he knoweth not which to pluck first Some make the meaning to be this Have I here also looked after him That is I have onely seen the back-parts of the Angel and not his face Musculus thinketh that she was so fearful and modest that all the while the Angel spake to her she looked not upon him onely in his going away Observ 3. The imperfection of our knowledge here and dulness of our apprehensions Exod. 33.10 she had a sight of his back-part And from hence some would gather that our knowledge even of Angels in this life is imperfect and if of them much more of God who said to Moses Exod. 33. Thou shalt see my back-parts but my face canst thou not see and live The Apostle telleth us 1 Cor. 13. We know but in part and Chap. 12. 1 Cor. 13.9 We now see thorow a glass darkly hereafter we shall fee more clearly we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. and yet even then Qualis est non quantus est 1 Joh. 3.2 saith the Father his indulgence to us rather then the essence of himself for that is too strong liquor for any created nature to contain he is incomprehensible our eyes are too weak to gaze against such a Sun Others expound it thus Various Expositions Have I also here looked after him that seeth me that is I have seen that Angel here after I have seen him in my masters house And some would make this the Tutelar or Guardian Angel of Abrahams family and that he was