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	evil_a	sin_n	1,775	5	5.0455	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25421	The right government of thoughts, or, A discovery of all vain, unprofitable, idle, and wicked thoughts with directions for the getting, keeping, and governing of good thoughts, digested into chapters for the ease of the reader : whereunto are added four sermons / by ... John Angel ...	Angel, John, d. 1655.; T. B.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3162A; ESTC R13149	89,280	271

happy times of the Gospel wherein though every one hath not Eagles eyes yet he may see a glorious light risen and shining though through some clouds I suppose in former times such strict observance of our thoughts might have been slacked with lesse sin than now for God winked at those dayes of ignorance but now excuses for evil thoughts are as unpleadable as for evil deeds If now we walk in an evil way in a way that is not good after our evil thoughts God that spreads out his hands unto a rebellious people all the day long Isa 65. 2. will stretch out his arme against a wicked people to punish them because they will not be perswaded to amendment for they that will not be perswaded to rectisie their thoughts by the actions of Gods hand shall be confounded at the last by the force of his arm And now we are come to the Point where we shall first declare the means how we may attain good thoughts into our souls and after that the government of them All that hath been written hitherto may be referred hither And therefore where I shall have occasion to fall upon the same things again I shall either passe them over briefly or enlarge them with variety to avoid tediousnesse and nauseousnesse from the Reader 1. For the getting of good thoughts into thy mind it is needful that thou cleanse the mind of all vain and evil and drowsie thoughts so much as possibly thou canst he that would have good thoughts like the pillars of fire and smoke to lead his actions day and night in this dangerous wildernesse must in some measure cleanse the heart of its native corruption and of its contracted foulnesse for as we have no reason to expect sweet liquor out of a fusty vessel or good water out of a bitter fountain figs from thorns or grapes from thistles so we have as small ground to expect that an unmortified and unchanged heart should send forth a current of clean and purified thoughts The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and the wicked man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things so all fruits are of the nature of the tree whereon they grow Our Saviour who knew how to refer every effect to his proper cause doth affirm That out of the heart cometh thoughts of Murder Adultery Blasphemies and sins of all sorts For the heart is evil above measure and casts into the thoughts continually that poison which either makes them black as Hell or muddles them with mire and dirt of fearful perplexities and worldly cares Wherefore as many as intend to get good thoughts into their minds let them give all diligence that the heart be cleansed from all evil ones But here I admonish him that will set upon this work that it is a work of more difficulty than many account it not so soon done as thought on 'T is not a few sighs and superficial groans 't is not a few proverbial notions nor yet the subduing of some notorious sin which is punishable and shameful in the world but a total and universal change of all the faculties and powers of the soul It is in the words of the Apostle A putting off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiveable lusts and a renovation in the spirit of our minds by putting on that new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4. 22 23 24. And though we cannot attain the full measure and furthest degree of this cleansing at the first nor yet feel such a sensible apprehension of the same as we desire yet let us not give over endeavours nor be discomforted and disquieted in our souls if God give us a first-fruits he will in time give us a harvest Jam. 5. 7. The Husbandman waits with long patience for the pretious fruit of the earth until he receive the former and the latter rain and if we be patient and stablish our hearts God will give unto us hearts cleansed in some measure of all filthy thoughts In this case we are not without a promise After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. And if we be once made masters of some good thoughts God will make us masters over more for him whom God finds faithful over a few things he will make Lord over many things and to him that hath it shall be given and he shall have abundance If any would know how to cleanse and purifie the heart he may consult Authors purposely written upon that Subject There are Treatises written thereof for more ample satisfaction wherein he shal find that God ordinarily in his first appearance to the soul useth the outward ministery of the Word and by his Spirit inwardly gives and applies that which is spoken unto the heart of the hearer whereby the heart sees its own corruption and misery and thereupon loaths and abhors it self and as a stomack surfeited with evil humours would willingly disgorge it self so it desires to be delivered of its sin and eased of its misery Then hearing and attending to the Promises of the Gospel of Jesus Christ it conceives hope by Christ that new and living way not onely to be discharged of sin and misery but also to be received into favour with God and then lies groaning at the foot-stoole of grace till God come in by his Spirit and say unto the poor soul I am thy salvation and thereupon it believes and purifies the heart of all noxious thoughts words and actions and beholding Christ in the glasse of Gods Word it is transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. but this briefly because I would not make too large an excursion if yet it be one out of my way 2. He that would have good thoughts in his mind let him attend the means of grace in Gods several dispensations let him give up his heart unto that form of Doctrine which hath been delivered unto the Saints and subject his soul in all humility unto the whole will of God revealed and openly urged by such as are sent upon his understanding wil and affections in the Ordinance of Preaching which being rightly managed is the power of God unto salvation Here I must admonish them that hear the Word of God that they would be patients to take what God prescribes for the cure of their thoughts That man wil never make a good Disciple and follower of Christ that is not content to deny himself a novice that is proud is not far from the condemnation of the Devil Naaman had almost lost the cure of his Leprosie by despising the waters of Jordan and preferring his own Rivers of Abanah and Parphar We must not quarrel at Gods way or method of cureing our

The Right GOVERNMENT OF THOUGHTS OR A Discovery of all vain unprofitable idle and wicked THOUGHTS With Directions for the Getting Keeping and Governing of good THOVGHTS Digested into Chapters for the ease of the READER Whereunto are added four Sermons By the Reverend JOHN ANGEL sometimes Lecturer at Leicester Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life London Printed for Nath. Ekins and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. CHRISTIAN READER THe Almighty wise God hath in divers and sundry manners spoken unto men that they might know him and his Sonne Jesus Christ and knowing might believe in him and worship him according to his will to the saving of their soules To this purpose we have the Scriptures which are Gods written Rule of Faith and Life unto us the ministery of men not of men but by men as a standing Ordinance in the Church untill Christ come and the writings of godly and industrious men as adjutory helps But men have sought out strange inventions and that naturall imagination bordering betwixt sense and reason which is in all men works out it self in various wayes of opposition to revealed truth This discourse aymes to give a stop to our walking contrary unto God in our first settings out to Sin which on this side naturall corruption begin at our thoughts I have sometimes wondred to see how busie Satan is in his instruments whose Fancies comply with his suggestions to subvert the truth once delivered to the Saints But I check my self again when I consider that he is Satan an adversary to God and Christ and the salvation of men and that mens imaginations are fruitful wombes impregnated by Satan and numerous in their births as the Serpents in their spawne Amongst other his wiles I would immind every good Christian that in nothing to my apprehension the enemy and his party have prevailed more against the truth and with the fancies of men in our late times then by disputing the many doctrines of the Gospel in Pulpit in presse in open and private Assemblies and that in an irregular way betwixt weak defendants and wrangling Sophisters it may be Jesuites or men of Jesuited principles for in an orderly way by them that know how to distinguish and before them that are wise I am no opposer of disputations that the truth may be manifested and not subverted But otherwise these are the Civill warres raised in the Church and fomented by the seditious to divide the Kingdom of Christ against it self and bring it to nothing By this way of contention especially before them that are weak we have seen heaps upon heaps It 's time to grow wise for the cause of Christ and for our selves lest we suffer these stumbling stones to lye so long in the way of weak Christians that at last they be bedded as in their proper place and will not be removed with all our might Ye have sometimes seen a stone cast into a poole move a little Circle at the fall which after multiplies and widens it self to the bank side We sometimes find the original of errour to be very small like a very Center which inlargeth it self to a circumference such as imagination will make it and such strange thoughts are lodged in mens minds by these means that they are haunted ever after with them as some houses are said to be with spirits of the night Sober men wish that some provisions were made for the safety of soules against these spirits its possible if they that are in power would be carefull in such a work their own lives might be bound up in such a provision But Gentle Reader Thou shalt not need to fear any such questions of doubtful disputation in this short Treatise here is nothing but sober and uncontroverted truths such as may administer Grace unto thee by the blessing of God upon thy reading Thou shalt have nothing here leading to a strange God or another worship but that which may be profitable to all Christians though of divided interests whose minds are not blocked up with prejudice against the sober writings of men This tract teacheth the government of thy own thoughts aright a government of principal concernment to all men for hence arise as from their spring-head both words and works of men and the whole frame of Christian Conversation if therefore this fountain be clean the issues will be more pure and if any can so purge himself of all filthinesse of flesh and spirit that his very thoughts are just it must be granted that such an one hath a Virgin-soule and is perfect pro statu viatoris as a travailer to heaven though not as one actually possessed in heaven And for this end I commend this book to thy reading and meditating thoughts Besides it is an argument rarely handled in print for ought I know some indeed have brief and accidental notions upon it but purposed tracts of this subject are few in our English Tongue and therefore let it be thought the rather useful to the Church of God and a subject more fit for that accomplished servant of Jesus Christ to appeare by in the world again now he is absent from the body and present with the Lord. The Authour of this small Tract was Mr. John Angel who had been twenty years together Lecturer at Leicester and approved by all that knew him to be a man mighty in word and doctrine though at last clouded by some malevolent aspects upon him occasioned as it is said not for vice or heresie but non-engagement yet Governments as men have their mortalities and God who knew to use his servant in several places stirred up the hearts of a religious people at Grantham in Lincolnshire to set him up a Candlestick there where he shone as a burning light untill God translated him to shine above as a star for ever and ever Here moreover are no high swelling words to amuse the Reader but a grave and a plain stile suited to all but especially to them that are of lower forms in the School of Christ for the government of their thoughts I commend it therefore to thy reading for the Authours sake and for thy safety in the reading of it as also for the rarity of the subject the general concernment that it is of and for the plainnesse of the matter and method thereof And I leave thee to the Grace of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ By him who is a Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and of all that love him in sincerity T. B. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Containing the Preface Division Interpretation and scope of the Proverb fol. 1. CHAP. II. The Argument or matter subject of the whole that a man ought to have good thoughts and to be the Master and Governour of them 8. CHAP. III. The needfulnesse of good thoughts Eight Reasons 13. CHAP. IV. Of the Errours of

bitternesse The holy man might think with himself What have I done How great is my sin Did I not lately promise never to forsake my Master no not if all men else should forsake him yet I would never leave him And am I the man that denies him so soon I that am so near related to him as his Disciple so eminently preferred by him as his Apostle not compeld by any in authority but frighted to it by the demand of a woman servant Was not my sin great enough to deny him once but have I done it twice and thrice Might I not have denied him barely with sin enough but must I forswear him too I was not surprised at unawares but forewarned and but even now forewarned by my Lord and Master whose words I ought to have remembred c. Thus he called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him and he went out and wept bitterly Now the aggravating circumstances of sin are such as these First the dignitie of the person offending the more eminent the person the more vile the sin Now the dignity is either external or internal external in respect of some high place preferment authority employment or trust whereunto a man is advanced as to be a Magistrate Minister Father Master and should such a man as I fly said that good Magistrate Nehemiah its intollerable in one of my rank or place the Lord will look to be sanctified in those that draw near him in place and digninitie so likewise an internal dignitie of grace or gifts heightens the sin of any person a lighter sin in them whom God hath made his sons by adoption is in sme sot greater then in unregenerate men though Israel play the harlot yet Judah must not offend Hos 4. 15. The second thing that aggravates our sins is the specialties of Gods favour where God is more bountiful the sin is more inexcusable in that he is not drawn with the cords of Gods love and this you may see 2 Sam. 12. 7. Nathan brings in a Catalogue of Gods mercies and favours shewed to David God anointed him King over Israel delivered him out of the hands of Saul gave him his Lords house and his Lords wives into his bosom and thereupon infers the grievousnesse of his sin v. 9. Wherefore hast thou then despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight The third circumstance of aggravavation is outward scandal given by our sins when we have not onely sinned personally but given offence unto others if we sad the hearts of the righteous strengthen the hands of the wicked if we give occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme cause our profession to be evil spoken of corrupting some mens manners indangering others laying a stumbling block before the weak troubling their consciences perverting their judgements subverting them from the truth and these things make our sins scandalous Now this is certain the further corruption spreads and the more the sent thereof poysons others the more odious it is to God and should be more odious unto men no sinnes more damnable then theirs who enter not into the Kingdom of heaven themselves nor by their wills would suffer others to enter who allow others to go to hell which way they will and suffer them not to go to Heaven that way which they should The fourth thing which adds to the weight of sin is continuance and delight in sin unto some sins we give fuller consent of will we please our selves in them more we lye longer in them without repentance such were the sins of David in his murther and adulterie he committed many other sins but these his conscience did not chide him for of a long time these put his soul into a distemper and made such a spoil and havock of his graces that he stood in need of a new Creation a new and fresh infusion of grace Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51. 10. and they stripped him of the joy of the holy Ghost v. 12. Restore me unto the joy of thy salvation Continuance and delight in sin break down the fences of grace and lay all wast so that the whole man is out of frame he cannot set himself upon good duties but lies open unto sinne To these may be added as aggravations of our sin 1. Our own profession that we have made formerly 2. Our covenants and promises made unto God in baptism and many times since upon occasions of deliverance from danger of being heard in our requests of hope of mercy in our low estate this makes our trespasses double iniquity as being not onely sins against Gods precepts but also breaches of our own promises 3. The means of grace received for where grace is offered more plenteously and rejected sin is more sinful Luke 12. 48. these means are partly inward as wit memory knowledge capacitie and the like partly outward as the preaching of the word and other ordinances of God the light of good examples and other restraints from the laws of Christian Magistrates The fourth help to further us in the examination of our sins is to pray unto God to give us his spirit to be our remembrancer to call to our minds those sins which are slipt out of our memories to recal the sins of our youth and other ages which we have attained unto and as he shewed to the Prophet by degrees greater and greater abominations of the house of Israel Ezek 8. 6. 13. 15. even so that he would discry to us by little and little the abominations of our own lives so prayed that holy man Job 13. 23. How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin Thus much of the first head the examination of our sins now follows the second head concerning the examination of our graces The necessity whereof appears First because we must bring grace with us to the Sacrament or else we shall scarsely bring grace from thence we must come to Christs Table to have graces confirmed and enlarged now it behoves us to have them in us afore hand for there is no confirmation of that which is not resident in us Secondly because otherwise we may take the semblance of grace for substance and may be deceived with counterfeit shews and shadows for currant graces Now the principal graces whereof we are to examine our selves are four Knowledge Faith Repentance Charitie We are to examine our knowledge first for the substance of it secondly for the sincerity of it First for the substance Whether we know God whom to know is eternal life John 17. 2. whether we apprehend by faith what we cannot comprehend by reason the unity of the Godhead in Trinitie of persons John 5. 7. Whether we know his essence and essential properties Exod. 34. 6. What we know of Christ in whom we believe what of his natures as God and Man of his Person as the Son of God of his