Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	scripture_n	word_n	1,385	5	4.3491	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51576	A letter sent to Thomas Taylor, Quaker, in the year 1664 in answer to many blasphemous sayings of his in several pieces of paper and in the margent of a book ... / by Lodowick Muggleton.	Muggleton, Lodowick, 1609-1698.	1665 (1665)	Wing M3044; ESTC R28839	13,397	17

This man would have God to do that which he cannot do as I said before so he would have God to be more cruel then he is to condemn children who have done neither good nor evil which the Scriptures doth no wayes justifie for though God doth say He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated before they had done good or evil And that saying The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head And of that saying The election of God stands sure All these places of Scriptures doth not reach that children should be damned although the seed of the serpent is For this is to be minded that the Scriptures were spoken to men and women capable of understanding for God did not say to children I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy it was to men that understood what Moses said Likewise the Apostles spake to men and women and not to children else why should the Apostles exhort the people to make their calling and election sure It would have been a vain thing to give exhortation to children And as for the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent it is in relation to men and women for doth not men and women that are the seed of the woman who have faith in their hearts by their patient sufferings break or bruise the head of the serpentine men and women who are the seed of the serpent who doth rage and rail and persecute the innocent so that children have nothing to do in this matter And as for that saying of Jacob and Esau the one being loved of God and the other hated when they were both in the womb To that I say though Jacob was in Gods decree beloved and Esau in Gods decree hated or reprobated yet this I say they were decreed and appointed to live to mans estate so that they might both be capable of election and reprobation and not to die in their childehood And this I say further that if you T. T. had died in your childehood you should have been saved though I know you are of the seed of the serpent but you being appointed to be damned to eternity you were appointed to live to despise the living God and blaspheme against the Doctrine of the true God declared by those Messengers whom he hath sent And as for that saying of yours As the tree is so is the fruit Your meaning is if the serpent be damned the children that are his seed must be damned also Here you shew your gross darkness and ignorance in the Scriptures because the Scripture saith A good tree bringeth forth good fruit and an evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit therefore you conclude that children are fruits of the serpent he being that evil tree 5. To this I answer That the meaning of the Scriptures in those words aforesaid is not meant that children that are begotten and born I say they are not counted the fruits of the serpent for we see by experience and by the Scriptures that sometimes reprobate men and women who are both of the seed of the serpent yet the childe that is begotten by them is of the elect this I know by experience since I came to know the Scriptures and could distinguish between the two Seeds Likewise it is clear by Scripture that a faithful man and woman they being both of them the Seed of Faith that is the Seed of the Woman for there is but two Seeds spoken of in Scripture that hath begotten reprobates as that of Isaac and Rebecca they being both of the elect Seed yet they begot Esau which the Scriptures brands for a Reprobate So that sometimes two reprobates may get an elect childe one or more and two of the faithful seed may beget one or more reprobates so that children are not called in the Scriptures fruits of the Serpent tree for children are trees themselves if they live to maturity of age 3. But those motions and actions which these trees bring forth in their lives and conversations are called in Scripture fruits of the tree if good motions and actions then called a good tree if evil and sinful motions then called an evil or corrupt tree for the good tree bringeth forth good fruit even the fruits of the Spirit which is patience meekness love and faith in God and such like fruits which good trees which are men and women do bring forth So likewise the evil tree is men and women also and they bring forth evil fruits even the fruits of the flesh which is envy unbelief persecution blasphemy against the true God these and such like fruits proceed from the evil tree of the reason in man and the good fruits proceed from the good tree which is the faith in man for there is but two trees spoken of in Scriptures to wit the Tree of Life signifying the Tree of Faith and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil signifying the tree of reason so that all men good and bad are ranked under these two trees and those men that bring forth fruits of Faith as aforesaid may be said to bring forth good fruit and those men that bring forth fruits of reason as aforesaid may be said to bring forth evil fruit as you have done So that what fruits man or woman bringeth forth in their life being come to age is counted by the Scriptures good or evil fruit and so said to proceed from a good tree or an evil tree and not with any relation to the fruit of the womb that is generated and begotten as children Therefore when John Baptist said The axis laid to the root of the tree he meant wise and prudent men who were wicked persecutors he did not mean that their yong children should be hewen down and cast into the fire So likewise when the Apostle speaks of the fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the flesh he tells what they both are so that children are not called the fruits of the serpent-tree though they be of the same seed for seed is one thing and fruit is another so you erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for I never knew any Quaker give any Interpretation of Scripture but speaks the words as they lye which is the cause of their gross mistake of the meaning of the Scriptures and run into those and such like errors that God fills heaven and earth from these words they believe God is so big as to fill heaven and earth And of that saying Know you not that Christ is in you except you be reprobates From these words they ground their faith that Christ is within them and so will admit of no body or person of Christ without them nor in heaven above the stars and so of other sayings in Scripture As that that Christ enlightneth every man that cometh into the world but will admit of no interpretation themselves because they cannot but are angry