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
A64284	Rihgt [sic] thoughts, the righteous mans evidence a discourse proving our state (God-ward) to be as our thoughts are, directing how to try them and our selves by them, propounding schemes of right thoughts, with motives and rules for keeping thoughts right : in two parts / by Faithful Teat.	Teate, Faithful, b. 1621.	1669 (1669)	Wing T614; ESTC R11474	173,501	302

God is never the less conspicuous but indeed so much the more glorious being beheld as the Apostle speaks together with his Severity Rom 11.22 Goodness of God no less conspicuous for his severity as bright colours are the most resplendent when they are heightened from the darkest shadows Behold saith He the GOODNESS and the SEVERITY of God Lo here a Right Theme for Thoughts Behold his Goodness but Remember his Severity Think of his Severity but forget not his Goodness That the Thought of Severity without Goodness may not make thee desperate nor of Goodness without Severity make thee Malepart and wanton but that both together may make thee humble and hearty and dutiful and diligent fearful and yet chearful in all ways of Holiness and new Obedience Objection If God be so good why did he not make all mens condition such Jerem. 2.5 Answer God did so Eccles 7.31 Rom. 7.12 Gen. 2.16 Verse 17. Psalm 8.6 But mayest thou think again if the Lord be so good He might have made all Mens condition to be such 'T is true indeed He might do so and He did so And I may challenge thee yet again in His Name what Iniquity did thy first Father and all his Posterity in him find in God that he went far from him and they with him and walked after vanity and became vain Did not God make man upright and give Him a right Law a Commandment that was Holy Just and Good was it not Just that He that gave man all the rest of the Trees of the Garden should keep One to himself and that He that put all things under mans feet should appoint him a test for his obedience to His Supream Lord And was it not good Gods goodness in the first COVENANT that He gave Him a Law that He might keep and a Principle and Power that might keep it if he would that He forbad Him and forewarn'd Him what would hurt Him and promised Him Life in keeping a practical Law a Commandment that was fair and that was facile proper for Him and profitable for all Mankind in Him Must the great God to shew his goodness to poor man Gen. 1. to 26. Verse 26.27 Chap. 2.17 first build a world as a well furnished House before He brings in his Guest then call a Counsel as it were in Heaven about molding a clod of Earth into an Excellent shape and breathing therein a living Spirit and Imprint thereon a Divine similitude and place Him as his Vice-Roy upon Earth and to hold all as it were but by the payment of a Pepper-Corn the Forbearing of one Tree And when miserable Man after all this hath not made good his Allegiance but broken Faith with his Maker selling Himself and his Posterity for an Apple or some such like thing to the evil first of Sin and so of Suffering shall mans Impudent Posterity presume in their Hearts after all this to call in Question the goodness of God for no other reason but his making his Word good his Threatning good and so his Commandment good in the penal part of it which was that part which he undertook to make good if Man failed to make good the other part of Obedience Ah how truly may it here be said that the foolishness of man perverteth his way Prov. 19.3 and his Heart fretteth against the Lord When He that transgresseth a good Law judgeth that Law and pronounceth it Evil by His disobedience How can He that made that Law vindicate that Law or be good in his place without making of it good by punishing the Transgressor Think therefore vain Man what thou wilt but know that the Lord is well pleased for his Righteousness sake Isaiah 42.21 Gods goodness in rewarding the least good in the wicked and if a man vilify He will magnify his Law and make it honourable Thou wilt grant him to be a good Master that rewardeth the Good though He Punish the Evil Servant produce therefore thy Cause and bring forth thy strong Reasons If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted But and if thou do evil Is it Gods fault that Sin lyeth at thy door Gen. 4.7 An Ahabs Humiliation so good a Master is God though the Man was but an Hypocrite shall have a temporal Reward The Lord is so good As far as he is capable 1 King 21 29● Ezek. 29.18 20. Rewards spiritual good Mat. 10.42 With a spiritual blessing 1 Kings 14.13 that He will not set a Nebuchadnezzar a poor Heathen to work but He shall have his wages A cup of cold water given in his Name shall not want its Reward If any one perform any Spiritual good the good God shall give him a spiritual Reward yea will take great notice even of the least good thing as in the case of young Abijah in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the wicked house of Jeroboam and will remunerate the performances● of outwardly good things with compensations suitable to the persons and performances as the removal of outward Evils and the Donation of outward blessings The Ninevites they Repent them of their Sins though it were but after a fashion as appears after by the Burthen of Nineveh in Nahums Prophesy And this good God Nah. 11 c. Jon. 3.10 He presently Repents him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and did it not till they repented them again of their Repentance Gen. 39.5 Potiphar and Pharaoh make much of Gods Joseph and God blessed their houses for Josephs sake And must God pervert Judgment Justice not derogatory to goodness in a Judge and not punish the wicked that he may have thy good word or be well thought of by thee Is his Justice derogatory to his Goodness Thou canst applaud the sentence of a Judge in Condemning the Injuries that have been done unto thee why canst thou not as well say unto God with the Psamlist Psal 119.39 thy Judgments are good Yea with many He is the best Man that will least bear an Injury but is most vindictive Heb. 10.30 and must not vengeance be the Lords and may not he repay without incurring thy evil thoughts A wrong thought of Gods goodness to think He will destroy none Isaiah 27.11 'T is an evil Thought of Gods goodness that some Ignorant Ones have or at least would fain have that he that made them will never destroy them nor indeed ever would he had they continued what he made them But this good God saith expresly and He knows what he hath to do It is a People of no understanding therefore he that made them will have no mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Sect. XXIX Gods goodness in the NEW COVENANT BUt and if thou thinkest hardly of Gods Dealing with Men fallen under the first Covenant the Covenant of Works O busie thy thoughts

high and lifted up and Seraphims crying one to another Holy holy holy is the Lord God of Hosts which made the holy Man cry out Wo is me I am un lone because I am a man of unclean lips c. and mine eyes have seen the King The Lord of Hosts The Apostle Paul expresly saith that this holy Lord God was God the Holy Ghost I heard the voice of the Lord saith the Prophet and he said go and tell this people here ye indeed but understand not c. now saith the Apostle Acts 28.25 26 27. well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say hearing ye shall hear and not understand c. So one while 't is said the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David Acts 1.16 Chap. 4.24 25 Another while 't is said Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that is in them who by the mouth of thy Servant David hast said c. and so Ananias his lying to the Holy Gho t is called a lying unto God Therefore the Holy Ghost is God Again Scripture and Reason saith that He that built all things is God Acts 5 3 4. Hebr. 3.4 Job 33.9 Now the Spirit of God hath made me saith Elihu and if he made man the Master-piece Man the Microcosme well may it be said Job 26.13 that by him were the Heavens garnished and by the sending forth of Him All things else were Created which Text by the after clause of renewing the Face of the Earth refers to works of Providence Psal 104.30 Therefore the Holy Ghost is God And as he made All things 1 Cor. 2.10 Isaiah 40.13 he knows All things The Spirit searcheth All things yea the deep things of Go● for who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellour hath taught him And as He is Omniscient he is Omnipresent Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit saith David or whither shall I flee from thy presence In a word He that prepared Christ a Body at his coming into the World is God Heb 10.5 for saith Christ a Body hast THOU prepared me then said I Lo I come to do thy will O GOD. But saith the Angel to the blessed Virgin Verse 7. Lu●e 1.35 The HOLY GHOST shall come upon thee and the power of the highe●t shall overshadow thee Therefore also the Inference is most full to our purpose That Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the SON OF GOD. Therefore the Holy Ghost is God Sect. XL. The Holy Ghost called the SPIRIT as to his subsistence Joh. 4.23 24. Hebr. 1.3 Heb. 9.14 ANd as the Holy Ghost is a SPIRIT in respect of his Essence being One glorious God with the Father and the Son for as God the Father is said to be a Spirit the Father seeketh such to worship him as may do it in Spirit and then it follows God is a Spirit and God the Son who is expresly said to be the express Image of his Fathers Person through the Eternal Spirit that is to say his God-head offered up himself So the Holy Ghost is The Spirit in respect of his wonderful Subsistence in the blessed Trinity by way of ineffable Spiration between the Father and the Son Mat. 3.16 17. betwixt whom He carryeth and re-carryeth the mutual and Eternal expressions of Divine delight and complacency which the Father and the Son have naturally necessarily and unchangeably each in other Gal. 4.6 Job 33.4 Rom. 8.9 who therefore said both to proceed from the Father and yet to be the Spirit of his Son and called in the Old Testament the Breath of the Almighty and in the New the Spirit of Christ His Mysterious Subsistence being most nearly shadowed out to our weak apprehensions by our breathing Rom. 3 8. Mat. 3.11 Isaiah 44.3 which is the Going and Coming Efflux and Reflux of our Breath and so he is compared to the three fluid and moving Elements of Air Fire and Water but never to the dul fixed Element of Earth for as the personal property of the Father is to Beget of the Son to be Begotten so of the Holy Ghost John 15.27 to Proceed And now how awful should the Thoughts of Him be unto us who is a SPIRIT in his ESSENCE THE SPIRIT in his SUBSISTENCE in both Uncreated Infinite and Eternal who dictated and Indited the Word built the World garnisheth Heaven furnisheth and reneweth the Face of the Earth made Man Knows all things fills all Places Col. 2.16 and is every where present at all times whose peculiar and stupendious Work it was to Sanctifie the Womb the Fruit whereof was to be the Saviour of the World Mat. 28.16 and prepare him a Body in whom the fulness of the God-head was to dwell bodily 2 Cor. 15.14 in whose Name together with the Fathers and the Sons we are Baptized and whose Communion together with the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ Hebr. 7.4 and the Love of God we do Implore Of whom therefore I may say as the Apostle of Melchisedec Now Consider how great this man was Consider how great this Spirit is Sect. XLI The high Reverence we ow to the Holy Spirit ANd yet Wo is Us What slight and low and mean Thoughts are the Carnal Minds of Men apt to have of the holy Spirit of God which the Scripture foreseeing in Deep wisdom as in Parental Relation the Mothers fear to be most easily and usually neglected and forgotten by Children It sets a special Guard upon it Levit. 19.3 saying Ye shall fear every Man his Mother and his Father though her Order be Lust because the Fear of the Mother is ordinarily too much the least so in the cause of the Third Person whose Order of Subsisting is after the Father and the Son though in Honour he be Co-equal and in Essence Co-Eternal Sin against the Holy Ghost I say It sets a most dreadful Guard upon that Awe and holy Fear that We owe to the Holy Spirit when it saith All manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men Mat. 12.31 32 but THE BLASPHEMY against the HOLY GHOST shall NOT be forgiven unto Men And whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in his world neither in the world to come which last words are no Indication that there is any Forgiveness of any Sin in another world that is not pardoned in this But a vehement assertion that there is no forgiveness for this Sin in any world Luk. 1● 10 Mark 3.29 Therefore where S. Luke saith plainly It shall not be Forgiven S. Mark explains this Phrase of S. Matthews saying It hath never Forgiveness And so in the mouths of

Lord JESUS Gal. 6.17 As 't is said Callis might have been read in Queen Maries heart if it had been ript up And here methinks I could even forget my self and run along in my Thoughts with this sweet Apostle but that I must not forget my Reader for 't is time to be hastening towards a Conclusion III. Motive AGain 3. Motive Keep Right Thoughts and they will keep thee right Consider that to keep thy Thoughts Right is the way to keep Thee so My Life for thine He that keeps his Thoughts Right shall never die Traytour to God or the King Not to the King for Curse not the King no not in thy Thought saith the Rule of Righteousness Not to God for Right Thoughts will yield the Fruits of Righteousness Fruits of the Lips Psalm 45.1 My heart is Inditing a good matter I will speak of the things I have made touching the King Psalm 119.15 my Tongue is the Pen of a ready Writer so saith the Psalmist And the Fruit of good living I will meditate saith He in thy Precepts and have Respect unto thy Wayes and again I have remembred thy Name and have kept thy Law Verse 55. IV. Motive 4. Motive Right Thoughts will yield peaceable Fruit. Mal. 3.16 Verse 17. ANd lastly Consider That Right Thoughts will yield as the Fruits so the Peaceable Fruits of Righteousness For these are thy fair Evidences that thou art in Gods Books as we say proverbially of One highly favoured that Thou art one of his Jewels for a Book of Remembrance was written before him for them that Thought upon his Name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels And how should We count and keep that as Our peculiar Treasure in respect of which God counts Us so And therefore in the II. place to Direct thee I. Practical Rule 1. Practical Rule Repent of evil Thoughts Acts 8.22 THe First Practical Rule for the Keeping of Right Thoughts is Diligent and daily Repentance of Evil Thoughts what saith the Apostle Repent and pray God if perhaps the Thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven Thee And O what cause of deep Humiliation for our thought-Thought-sins is here that the very Thought of a mans Heart may bring a Man to a peradventure or a Perhaps whether ever He may be forgiven Matth. 3.8 What saith John Baptist Bring forth therefore Fruits meet for Repentance and think not to say within your selves c. Hence thus much is Evident that where Fruits meet for Repentance are brought forth Evil Thoughts are expelled and cast forth Now as nothing can banish Darkness but Light so can nothing expel Evil Thoughts but Good Thoughts And as the Ablaqueation and laying of the Roots bare in the time of year is the way to make Trees bring forth Fruit well in their season so the laying Our hearts bare in the sight of God by Confession Compunction Contrition deep Humiliation for our Evil Thoughts is one way to be fruitful and abounding in Good Ones II. Practical Rule 2. Practical Rule 2 Sam. 13.20 Make the evil of thine heart subservient to thy good thoughts NExt as the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his Share and his Colter and his Axe and his Mattock because they would not suffer a Smith in Israel So deal with the Corruption of thy Nature that would not suffer One good Thought in thy Soul Whee thy Thoughts for good by that very Contrariety that is in thee to good For instance Thou complainest that such is the corruption of thy Nature that thou canst not of thy self think one Good Thought Why Think then of the Corruption of thy Nature and even this Thought well followed shall be a Good Thought in Thee and a Good Thought for Thee Thou complainest that thou canst not think of Heaven for the thoughts of Earth and of things below why think of these things onely think of them aright viz. as Gods Word and thy Reason and thy Sense tell thee as what God hath placed under thy feet as the Psalmist speaks Let me tell thee Psalm 8.6 that Right Thoughts of Earth and of things below may help not hinder thy thoughts of Heaven In Nature the ambient Winter-cold makes Springs in the Bowels of the Earth they say the hotter Mans heart is a Spring and Thoughts are its flowings and thus David we have seen waxed hot with musing while the wicked were before him Psalm 39.1 3. God can make Corruption of Nature subservient to Grace as Joshua said of the Canaanites Numb 14.9 they are Bread for us God can make the very Evil of our hearts to be Food and Fewel to our Good Thoughts III. Practical Rule 3. Practical Rule Heave at thine heart Numb 15.20 NExt Heave daily at thine heart for our Thoughts are our Heave-Offerings Lift at thine heart as they do at a great Stone or piece of Timber which is by raising to be laid into the Building Unto thee Psalm 25.1 O Lord do I lift up my Soul saith holy David But not in thine own strength Pray for the Spirit to help thee to right Thoughts John 14.26 But then still Remember that of thy self thou art not sufficient to think any thing aright as of thy self Therefore Pray in aid of the Spirit whose work it is as in Prayer so in Meditation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lift with us and to help us to lift And Pray in Faith of that Promise the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name shall bring All things to your Remembrance that is good Thoughts to your minds And here let me desire thee carefully to Remember this That if Gods Spirit do not Satan will be filling thy heart Acts 5.3 The very First Petition in the Lords Prayer teacheth us to pray for Right Thoughts for by these we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts Isaiah 8.13 1 Pet. 3.15 Luke 11.13 And therein also to pray for the Sanctifying Spirit whom God hath promised to give to them that a●k him Be thankful for right thoughts Psalm 30.4 And further be sure to be thankful to God when he helps thee to be thoughtful of that which is Good in this sense Give thanks at the Remembrance of his holiness even when he helps thee to Remember it Humble thankefulness for what we have is a cleanly way of begging for more Labour for holy affections And that thou mayest alwayes be full of good thoughts Implore Gods Grace to fill thee with those sanctified Affections that carry the Key and command of the thoughts viz. Holy Fear and Love Fear For the first of these even slavish Fear can carry the thoughts before it the Mariners in a storm can easily think of their Danger Jonah 1.5 And shall not an holy and Filial fear they feared the Lord Mal. 3.16 and