Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	death_n	great_a	1,642	5	3.2072	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53117	The fall of man by sinne delivered in a sermon preached at the late solemne fast, Aug. 28, 1644 : wherein these three positions are briefly handled : 1. That all men are miserably fallen from God by sin, and are in a lost condition, 2. That we must see ourselves thus fallen, and utterly lost in ourselves, before we can convert and turn to God by repentance, 3. That formes of prayer may, in some cases be lawfully and warrantably used : published at the request of that truly religious and vertuous gentlewoman, mistris Elizabeth Barnham, wife to the worshipfull Robert Barnham, Esq. / by William Newport, Preacher of the word at Boughton Monchelsey in Kent.	Newport, William, Preacher of the word at Boughton Monchelsey in Kent.	1644 (1644)	Wing N940; ESTC R3278	14,865	30

therefore they were guilty of original sin Looke as ignoble and leprous parents beget none but ignoble and leprous children and as of serpents can come nothing but serpents so of polluted parents come onely polluted children for who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane not one Job 14.4 And this originall filth is called sometimes Lust Rom. 7.7 sometimes the law in the members vers 23. the body of sinne vers 24. and the old man Ephes 4.22 And this is the sourse and fountaine of all our actuall sins and cause of all our fals Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawne away of his owne lust and entised Then lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sinne and si●● when it is finished bringeth forth death James 1.13 14 15. Many put their greatest miscarriages upon the devil the devil owed them a shame and now he hath payed them when as the chiefe cause of all our fals lyes in our own hearts The devill can but suggest and sollicit he cannot compell us to sin if he did not plow with our owne heifer work on our own corruption he could do us no hurt And so long as this seed of all iniquity remaines in mens hearts they would commit sin if there were no devill to tempt them to it Vse 1 This informes of two things 1. Since we have falne and so falne as hath been shewed by our sins this discovers to us our great misery by reason of sinne and iniquity We have falne by it to our undoing to our destruction from God from blisse to misery falne not only to the breaking of our bones with David but to the breaking of our necks with Iezebel faln so as that wee have lost life spiritual life eternal by our fal and are in a lost dead and undone condition without infinite mercy We have deprived our selves of all ability to serve our God and have made our selves slaves to the devil We have made our selves children of wrath and fit for nothing but to fry in hell for all eternity We have plunged our selves from the top of our felicity to the gulfe of endlesse misery We think them unhappy that fall from honor to contempt from wealth to beggery O how unhappy are wee that have falne by our sins from God to the devil from the highest blisse to the lowest infelicity And in this case we are not able to helpe our selves nor to desire helpe nor to see our selves to want helpe unlesse God be pleased to give us eyes Few men though they are thus falne and thus miserable wil be brought to believe it 2. This shewes against the patrons of Free-will and universall grace that man hath no power to see light when presented to him unlesse God give him eyes no power to believe in Christ and to embrace him unlesse God give him an heart no power to do any spirituall work unlesse God give life strength and ability Rom. 7.18 I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Hence David prayes for the opening of his eyes Psal 119.18 Lord open thou mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Law And Saint Paul desires light from God in the behalfe of the Ephesians That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened yee may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.18 And so for the Colossians he prayes That they might be filled with the knowledge of Gods will in wisedome and spirituall understanding Coloss 1.9 And he shewes us that the act of beleeving is Gods gift To you it is given not only to beleeve but likewise to suffer for his sake Philip. 1.29 And that the will to any good is wrought in us by God himselfe 'T is God that workes in you to will and to doe of his good pleasure Philip. 3.13 Not that God doth force the will for then 't were no will but that he doth sweetly incline it ex nolentibus volentes facit of unwilling hee makes us willing to repent beleeve and obey The will is free from coaction or impulsion but not from servitude Men in state of nature sinne freely that is to say they are not constrained to it and yet they sin necessarily too for they cannot doe any thing without sin Quest. But is God just then in punishing men that sin necessarily so that they cannot avoid it Answ I do not say that men are necessitated to commit every particular sin that they are guilty of for from outward acts of sinne and uncleannesse men in state of nature have power to abstaine but this is that which I affirme that they can doe nothing but either materially or formally 't is a sin for they are out of Christ and therefore must needs faile in every act either in matter manner or end Neither can God be charged with injustice in punishing wicked men that sin necessarily because they have voluntarily lost their liberty and drawn this necessity of sinning upon themselves God made us free-men wee made our selves slaves Eccles 7.29 Vse 2 Since we are thus dangerously falne we should be exhorted to labour to rise again by repentance and by faith in Christs bloud This is the Prophets inference here O Israel returne to the Lord thy God for thou hast falne by thine iniquity Since thou hast falne from God by sin therefore returne to him againe by repentance And this wee are moved to on the same ground by the Apostle Ephes 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light And Christ himselfe hath the same inference in his Epistle to the Church of Ephesus Remember from whence thou art falne and repent Revel 2.5 Object But possibly you will say What would you have dead men doe if our fall be such that wee have spiritually slaine our selves by it how can wee raise our selves from this death to life by repentance Answ 1 Though of your selves you cannot repent or beleeve yet you can come to the Word which is the instrument to worke faith and repentance to convert you from sin to God the Law of God is perfect converting the soule Psal 19.7 The Gospell preached is Gods mighty power to salvation Rom. 1.16 Saint Paul was sent to the Gentiles To turne them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26.18 And therefore we should settle our selves under the meanes and bring tractable hearts with us willing to be new formed and new moulded by this Word 2. We should pray to Christ to enliven us by his Spirit for al spiritual life comes from him Hence he is called the life Joh. 14.6 the life causally because he breathes the breath of spiritual life into the soules of his at their regeneration as he did