Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	nature_n	spirit_n	1,729	5	5.0066	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66401	Sermons and discourses on several occasions by William Wake ...; Sermons. Selections	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1690 (1690)	Wing W271; ESTC R17962	210,099	546

Administration of them The best Men now being oftentimes the most Unfortunate and the most Profligate Miscreants the most happy in the Enjoyments of the Good things of this Life Either therefore we must deny that there is a God altogether or that the world is Govern'd by Him Or we must say that he is not Just and Good and therefore minds not what becomes of those that are so which is in effect to say he is not God Or else that he is Impotent and Ignorant either does not know how things pass here below or tho' he does know yet is not able to redress them and this again destroys the very Notion of a God which includes an Infinite Perfection in Power and Knowledge no less than in Goodness and Justice Or lastly If there be a God and that God does take care of the Affairs of men and is Good and Just and has such a Knowledge and Power as we say he has then it must remain that there shall be a future Judgment in which all these uncertain irregular Dispensations of his Providence as they appear to us shall be cleared and set right and the Good and Bad receive the just recompence of what their Actions here have deserved Seeing then we cannot with any reason doubt either that there is a God or that this God is Just or that his Providence does indeed superintend over the Affairs of the World and yet 't is plain that things now are not order'd with so exact a Justice as a Divine Providence does require It must remain that neither can we with any reason doubt but that there is to be a Judgment to come in which God will make a perfect Demonstration of his Goodness and Justice to every man according to what he has done in the Body and of which our Consciences as we have before shown shall then render a most exact account Which being so I shall not need say much to shew II dly That then it cannot be doubted but those who live Wickedly now must expect to be hereafter in a most wretched and deplorable condition This is the plain indeed the necessary Consequence of the foregoing Reflections For if the very End of this Judgment be as we have said to make a great and Eternal Demonstration of God's Justice in his Dispensations towards the Children of men then in the words of St. Paul Rom. ii 6 He must render to every man according to his works To them who by Patient Continuance in will doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that does Evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile For there is no respect of persons with God If the present Administration of Affairs in this Life be not exactly according to the strict rules of Equity and Justice God permitting the Righteous man to struggle under the Pressures of an Adverse Fortune and the Wicked and Vngodly to Prosper in their Wickedness yet may this be very well Reconcilable with his Justice both because he may have other excellent Ends to serve by such an Irregularity and for that he has yet an Opportunity remaining in his hands abundantly to recompence all the sufferings of the One and to Punish all the Wickedness of the Other And instead of concluding from these Promiscuous events now that God is not Just or does not regard the Affairs of this World that he knows not neither understands how things pass here below nor has power sufficient to Govern them as in Justice he ought to do I have already shown that we ought rather to infer That this Life is only a State of Tryal that the great time of Retribution remains in another World when all these Irregularities shall be set right and the Goodness the Justice the Power of God be made known in a most severe and exact Sentence which shall then pass upon every man in the day when he shall judge the World in Righteousness But if God not only suffers the Wicked to Flourish now but shall hereafter also let them go Vnpunish'd if he permits them to enjoy the Fruits of their Sins in this present World and will take no Care to avenge himself upon them in the next How then shall the Judge of all the Earth do right Or what is there more remaining whereby to justify God in his doings who thus apparently connives at Sinners and neither asserts his Cause in their ruine here nor will call them to any account for all their Wickedness hereafter It remains therefore that as certainly as that God is Just and therefore must some time or other render to every man according to his works the Sinner shall one day receive a dreadful Sentence of Horror and Misery from that God neither whose Knowledge he can escape nor whose Power he is able to withstand Who sees all his most secret Villanies now and will hereafter bring him to Judgment for them But now what or how great that Punishment is which remains for Sinners in the other World this is what we cannot pretend by any Natural way of Reasoning precisely to define And yet thus much I think even our own Reason may suggest to us I st That it must be some very great Punishment which a long Life of Sin and Impiety and that too heightned with all the Aggravating Circumstances of being committed against Knowledge against the checks of our Consciences to the contrary it may be against Vows and Resolutions of doing better nay possibly against many special means and methods of God's Providence to bring us to Repentance must deserve and therefore in all probability shall receive 2 dly That as there are different Kinds and Degrees of Sinners now All men do not rise up to an equal pitch of Wickedness nor begin so soon nor continue so long in their Evil doings nor it may be have it in their Power to do so much mischief as other Sinners do so in all reason we may believe that there shall also be different degrees of Punishment suitable to all these and some be condemned to a much more Severe and intollerable infliction than others To both which remarks I cannot tell whether I may not add 3 dly That seeing the Soul is a Spirit in its own nature capable of Immortality having neither any dependance on the Body nor being exposed to any of those Casualties that are the Causes of the Corruption of all other things which we see Decay and Perish here and there being no Declaration any where made to us that it is the Will of God ever to extinguish them after they are gone out of the Body We may I think have some cause to fear whether our Souls being capable of an Eternal existence the Puishment also which in that last Judgment they shall be doom'd to may not be for all Eternity And all this the Principles of Natural Reason and the Dictates of our Consciences direct us