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	sin_n	soul_n	4,646	5	5.4196	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48445	Some genuine remains of the late pious and learned John Lightfoot, D.D. consisting of three tracts ... : together with a large preface concerning the author, his learned debates in the assembly of divines, his peculiar opinions, his Christian piety, and the faithful discharge of his ministry.	Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675.	1700 (1700)	Wing L2070; ESTC R12231	207,677	406

any Obligation to it But however God brake not his Covenant with them And therefore the forequoted Place means not that but it speaks of a particular thing In Egypt they were Idolators Ezek. xx 7 Then said I unto them cast ye away every Man the Abominations of his Eyes and Defile not your selves with the Idols of Egypt He brought them out that they might be a People Serving the true God But this Idolatry now committed by them made him turn and give them up to be as the Heathen This was a Critical Business and set the Clock for future Ages in Judgment upon them As Adam's eating the Forbidden Fruit brought Guilt upon his Posterity so did this Not that any particular Person was necessitated hence to Idolatry but that God revoked the Priviledge he intended them viz. That they should be a People not Idolatrous So that in this Necessitatem non imposuit sed Privilegia abstulit i. e. God laid no Necessity upon them but took away certain Priviledges from them God took away that that should have stopped them from falling into Idolatry But might not they say for this as they did Ezek xviii 2 The Fathers have eaten Sowr Grapes and the Children's Teeth are set on Edge No whosoever was Idolatrous afterwards was not necessitated to it God had paled them in with this Priviledge You shall be a Holy People Exod. xix 5. Now therefore if ye will obey my Voice indeed and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar Treasure unto me above all People And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation They broke a great Gap in this Pale and God breaks down all This does not drive them out but if they go out it is of themselves The Words are not He made them Worship the Host of Heaven but he gave them up lest them to themselves whereas till now he had charged himself with them But are they here bound over to Sin to commit Idolatry Does God punish the Sins of the Fathers in the Souls of the Children He does indeed in their Bodies in their Estates in their Outward Concerns but does he also punish the Children in their Souls for their Fathers Faults I answer First God is the Cause of Sin to none Giving up to Idolatry is not the Cause of Idolatry If he were the Cause of this Sin he were the Cause of his own Dishonour which we cannot imagine Secondly God Causeth not these to Sin but suffered them to walk in the Ways of their Fathers Thirdly Their Idolatry is to be look'd on as a Punishment to their Children and not as a Sin to them So that it was a Great but Just Penalty Great because Spiritual Just because he turned from them when they first turned from him He gave them up to what they would be Read both in Psal. lxxxi 11 12. My People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own Hearts Lusts and they walked in their own Counsels And yet he wisheth ver 13. O! that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my Ways Lord thou couldest as easily make them so as wish them so So Luke xix 42 If thou hadst known in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace But Men put themselves out of a Capacity of God's doing for them and necessitate him to do against them if he will maintain his Truth and Justice It is not the Question what God can do for them but what he cannot but do because of his Truth and Justice In the Penalty we may observe 1. The proper Cause Their Sin 2. The Inflicter God 3. The manner of it By giving them up 4. The Being and Nature of it To worship the Host of Heaven But it may be said that it seems not Parity To worship the Host of Heaven rather it should be to worship Cats and Dogs as the Egyptians did But in answer hereunto it is all one as to the thing it self viz. the Worship of the Creature more than the Creator One indeed seemed to be a more noble Deity than the other but the Worship of either was abominable alike in this Regard that either was a worshipping of the Creature The Egyptians worshipped Onyons Garlick c. Israel would have a more noble Idolatry to worship the Sun Moon and Stars But all alike abominable all forsook God alike all worshipped the Creature alike The Cause of Idolatry is Misconception of God So it is Rom. i. 21 Because when they knew God they worshipped him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish Heart was darkned And as there the Gentiles so here Israel is given up upon the like Account Now to make some Observations 1. The Want of the right Knowledge of God is the Root of all Evil. Right Knowledge of God But he is unfathomable will some say past our Apprehension to conceive or understand Nay Things in Nature are so We know not how our Cloths keep us warm much more can we know God But there is difference 'twixt knowing God fully and conceiving of God 2. Observe upon the Sin it self They made a Calf how foolish Man is about the things of God when left to his own Wisdom Here is an Example most Pregnant 3. Upon the Sin and the Punishment together observe that one may sin till there be no Healing no Revocation of Punishment So it happened to Israel and so the Nation of the Jews for the Sins of Manasseh 4. Upon the Word Turned observe that God turns not from Men till they turn from him V. How Israel was given up to Idolatry and yet remained a long while after God's People THAT the whole Nation of Israel was given up by God upon the Sin of the Golden Calf is plain from Acts vii 42 God gave THEM up that is the whole People But here two Things seem strange First That they should be a Covenanted People and yet such a People given up Secondly That they should be given up and yet remain a People still This was at the beginning of the State of the Jews and they continued a People still above a Thousand Years Yet this Fate and Doom appeared all along in them that they were an Idolatrous People Only after the Captivity they were not for then they were given up to Traditions But tho' God had thus given them up yet he spared his Ordinances among them yet he spared them from utter Ruin and that for two Reasons First Because of his Covenant to their Fathers This Reason is given Ezek. xx c. But why Was he in Covenant to do Good to their Children whether good or no whatsoever they were howsoever they carried themselves This were strange Drudgery that God would have bound himself to And yet what say you to that Rom. xi 28 As touching the Election they are beloved for the Fathers

to Die Because I have newly fallen into a Sin and the Lord I see is offended at it and it is worse than Death to me to be taken away in the Lords Displeasure Jacob had newly fallen into the Sin of Distrust upon his Fear of Esau and his Faith was shaken And for this he saw God was come forth against him in Anger And how terrible was it to him to be cut off by God in Anger He wept So did David Psal. xxxix 12 Hold not thy Peace at my Tears And he made Supplication And his Supplication was much to the like Tenor with that of David in the Verse after O spare me a little that I may recover Strength i. e. That I may recover the Strength of my Faith and the Assurance of God's Favour X. An Inquiry into the Reason of Hezekiah's Tears upon God's Message to him that he must Die EZEKIAH is Sick of the Plague and hath Tidings from God that he must Die of it He receives the Tidings with much Bitterness and Passion He turns his Face to the Wall he Prays he weeps he weeps sore And though it be not exprest yet it may very well be conceived out of his Carriage and the Issue upon it that the Tenour of his Prayers and Tears was that God would spare his Life Esa. xxxviii 2 3. Then Hezekiah turned his Face to the Wall and Prayed unto the Lord and said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy Sight And Hezekiah wept sore Why Hezekiah why weepest thou Art thou so unwilling to part with the World No his Mind hath never been upon the World but upon Religion and God Art thou not fitted to Die and meet the Lord Why He was never unprepared Was he afraid of Judgment and that his Lot in the other World would not be good He was secure against that for he fears not to Appeal to God Remember Lord how I have walked before thee Why What ailes the Man that he Weeps so sadly Many and many a Thousand Men of a less gracious Temper than Ezekiah have taken the Tidings of Death with a great deal more Patience and less Passion And what ails him to take it so bitterly Certainly no bare Concernment of his own either in fear of his Soul or of his Body In truth the main Concernment that moved him was the Concernment of God Our Saviour once said Weep not for me but Weep for your selves Ezekiah weeps not for himself but as I may say he weeps for Christ he weeps for God for the Cause Interest and Concernment of God For I. It was sad for him to think that he must Die of the Plague a dreadful Disease that destroys suddenly and fearfully that separates from the Comforts of Friends and that seems to carry with it Tokens of the Anger of God And it might very well be bitter to him to think of being taken away with a stroke that sounded somewhat of God's Anger But this was not all Wicked and Profane Ones would be ready to scoff at his Piety and Reformation if he were taken away by so fatal a Stroke See this is he that hath kept such a Coil in pulling down Altars purging the Temple and setting up of Religion and now behold what is become of him He has God's Tokens upon him Signs of his Anger and dies not the Common Death of all Men but by the fearful Stroke of the Plague It is no wonder if the horror of such Blasphemy as this against Religion set very sadly upon the Heart of the good Man And he was afraid ungodly VVretches would take occasion of such Blasphemings from the fatal manner of his Death And thus it is the Concern of God and his true Religion and not fear of his own Carcase that did stick so much upon this Holy Man's Thoughts under his dangerous condition A very pertinent and needful Desire for every Christian to beg of God that his Death may not be such as to open the Mouths of Wicked Men to Blaspheme God and Religion II It was sad to Hezekiah to Die before he could see Jerusalem and the People of God intirely delivered from their Danger If you well compute the Times of this King you will find that that very Year that Senacherib was so busie and cruel against the Cities of Judah and Jerusalem was the Year of Ezekiah's Sickness And observe that Passage of Esay to him foretelling him of his Recovery and of Fifteen Years added to his Life Esa. xxxviii 6 I will deliver thee and this City out of the Hand of the King of Assyria It appears there was danger abroad and it grieved the good Man to the Soul to be taken away before he saw any Deliverance A very just Cause to beg of God to spare Life And it shews that a Man does it not out of bare love of Life or of the World if he Pray to God with Submission to his Will to prolong his Life that he may See the Good of his Afflicted Chosen and may rejoice with the Gladness of his Nation and Glory with his Inheritance as is the Psalmist's Petition Psal. cvi 5 III. Ezekiah was now but Nine and Thirty Years Old in his Strength and Prime Young in Comparison of the Ages at which divers then Died. And certainly you can hardly fancy a more probable Reason of his Unwillingness to Die that related to him than this that he thought he had not done enough for God He desired to be yet spared that he might Reform more set up Religion more do more for God and his People A Holy and Blessed desire that aimed at God and his Honour and his Peoples Good regarding nothing the bare Life of this World or his own Carcase in comparison of this Much like is that Psal. lxxi 18 Now Lord when I am Old forsake me not until I have shewed thy Strength to this Generation That I may more Praise thee more impart the Knowledge of thee and thy Power to this Generation and those to come DECAD II. I. An Inquiry what Strength that was David requested when he prayed to God to spare him that he might recover STRENGTH Psal. xxxix 13 WHAT David's present Affliction was we cannot tell whether Sickness of Body some Dejection of Spirit or some sore Trouble from his Enemies It seems most likely to be some sore Sickness of Body at which his Enemies would rejoice and so add to his Trouble Imagine it his deadly Palsie in his old Age when he could feel no Warmth either from his wearing Cloaths or Bed-Cloaths Be it which it will do we think he prays heartily for the Recovery and Strength of his Body Doubtless more especially for refreshing and strengthning in Soul before God should take him That which is rendred Recover Strength in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Word is translated by