Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	death_n	sin_n	2,635	5	5.2185	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65319	A lawyer's advice to the devil's agents: or, Some strokes at the unfruitful works of darkness, tending to their destruction made with a weapon taken out of the armory of the Most High. By William Watson, student in law.	Watson, William, student in law.	1693 (1693)	Wing W1150A; ESTC R220895	26,435	71

resists these Solicitations to Vice should be addicted to Covetousness it cannot properly be said to be that which keeps him from this Sin neither can he in the least be said to be guilty of it by abstaining from it for he only is the Covetous Man who when it is his part to receive receives more than he ought and when it is his part to disburse disburses less than he ought and desires that which of right belongs not unto him and through Oppression and Injustice encreases his Substance and not he that refuses to waste what is justly his own in sinful Extravagancies And as we ought not to speak or think evilly of or envy those that by their honest Industry and refraining the wastful Conversation of the Uagodly improve what they have but to praise and commend them and endeavour to imitate them so neither ought we to envy those that enrich themselves by Oppression or choose any of their ways as the Wise Man says Prov. 3.31 Envy thou not the Oppressor and choose none of his ways And here those evil-minded People that are apt to envy their Neighbours because they live in better Reputation and grow richer than they may see their Folly and Sin in disobeying God's Command For if they get them fairly and justly they are the Blessings of God and 't is his Pleasure they should have them because he knows if they will imploy them to a good use and he that is angry and through envy repines at this repines at the Mercies of God and is in effect angry with God tho' he may level his Anger only at the Man envied and vainly think it terminates in him because he gives Riches and Honour to that Person which he is unwilling should have them as if he knew better how to bestow God's Gifts than he himself does and this is no small Reflection tho' perhaps he thinks not of it upon God's Omniscience and by consequence a most heinous Sin And on the other side if they get them through Dishonesty and Injustice we are under the like Obligation not to envy them for tho' God may suffer them to flourish for a while yet when he sees fit he can soon stop their sinful Progress either by extending his pardoning and preventing Grace if they reform and sincerely ask for it or by exerting his Power and Justice if they presevere and continue obstinate in their wickedness and casting them down into Destruction And the thoughts of this soon made the Prophet David understand his errour in envying the Prosperity of the Wicked when he went into the Sanctuary to know the reason of it Psal 73.16 17 18 19. v. When I thought to know this it was too painful for me Vntil I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into Destruction How are they brought into Desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrours And moreover a Man cannot envy others without vexing and disquieting himself he carries a Tormentour in his own Breast and therefore the Holy Spirit of God so severely declaims against this Sin in Sacred Writ because he would not have Men so foolishly sinful as to afflict and punish themselves Prov. 24.19 20 Fret not thy self because of evil men neither be thou envious at the wicked For there shall be no reward to the evil Man the candle of the wicked shall be put out Secondly We must not converse with the Wicked because we shall not only defile our selves and help to strengthen and confirm them in their ungodly Courses but entice others by our evil Examples to do the like for evil Examples will be sooner imitated if we may credit daily experience than good ones especially amongst such People as this Prophane Age abounds with which have naturally so strong a Tendency and Inclination to wickedness For if ever we had occasion to take up the Prophet Hosea's Complaint Chap. 4. Ver. 2. Now is the time for by Swearing and Lying and Killing and Stealing and committing Adultery they break out and Blood touches Blood The word in the Original for Blood is spoken plurally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bloods to express the great quantity that was spilt And what was the cause of all this Blood-shed but the Sin of the People And has there not been of late and is there not still a great deal of Blood spilt amongst us that call our selves Christians from the same cause when such Multitudes fall by the Sword Which we report only as matter of News little considering that our wickedness is partly the occasion of their violent and sanguinary Deaths and that so far as we by our Sins have been accessary to their Deaths so far without a speedy and sincere asking of Pardon and Forgiveness we shall be obliged to answer for them And how can we ever expect that God should bless our Forces with Success abroad if we lie thus shamefully wallowing in wickedness at home But we are so foolishly favourable to our selves as to overlook this and attribute these Wars and Commotions to other Causes we know and find there are as in times past tyrannizing and persecuting Princes and Potentates in the World and we fansie they are the sole Causes of them to satisfie their Ambition in enlarging their Dominions and rendring themselves more absolute 'T is true they are the Cause of Wars and Devastations but 't is only the Instrumental not the Efficient Cause that is Sin Wicked and Ambitious Princes and Rulers are the Instruments of doing mischief and making confusion in the Earth but 't is the sin of the People as well as their own that sets them on Work For God suffers wicked men to bear Rule that they may declare themselves Enemies to the Inhabitants of the Earth and punish them for their Iniquity And whensoever a potent Enemy or Enemies begin to disturb the Peace and Tranquillity of a Kingdom or Common-wealth they may assure themselves whatever other Reasons they may imagine there are for it that their ways are not pleasing to God For if they were he would force them to be at Peace with them Prov. 16.7 When a Man's ways please the Lord he makes even his Enemies to be at Peace with him God draws such a Line of defence about good Men that live 〈…〉 and Service that their most inveterate Enemies have not power to hurt them 1 Pet. 3.13 And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good But wicked Men lie open to the Wrath of God and the fury and malice of their Adverfaries and must never expect any real peace and comfort unless they return from the errour of their ways if the Scripture be true for God says plainly there they shall have no peace Isaiah the 57th at the teo last Verses But the wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up mire and

Persons called by them for they neither occasion their offending neither can they restrain them from it And whereas mention is here made of the sick's being saved and raised up and his sins forgiven through the Blessing of the Lord upon the Prayer of Faith we must understand that the Elders in the Apostolical Days were endued with miraculous Gifts as the Apostles themselves were so as to be able through the strength of their Prayers and Exhortations to heal the sick and take away the principal cause of Distempers from them which was their sins by procuring for them the forgiveness of them And the anointing with Oyl was used as the sign of this miraculous Gift of healing and obtaining the forgiveness of sick Men's sins by their Prayers which our Church has very judiciously laid aside as not necessary seeing healing the thing signified by it as well as all other miraculous Gifts ceased when the end for which they were designed which was a Confirmation and Establishment of the Gospel sufficient for its support encrease and further propagation without them was accomplished which was as some Church-Historians tell us about the end of the third or shortly upon the beginning of the fourth Century which is about thirteen hundred years since And those superstitious persons that still make use of this anointing the Sick with Oyl as the Elders in the Primitive times did unless they could in the like miraculous manner perform the ting signified by it and restore them to Health and obtain the Remission of their Sins without the use of other means as they did do but shew their folly and render themselves obnoxious to Ridicule and Derision amongst People of Understanding that have not renounced their Senses and imprudently yielded themselves up to fraudulent persons Impositions and captivated their Belief to the Conduct of Impostors and Deceivers which are forced to pretend to these and such like wonderful performances to bear up their Reputation amongst those they have so far deluded as in part to satisfie their Ambition and Covetousness by making Merchandize of them as the Apostle foretold of them 2 Pet. 2.3 And through Covetousness shall they with feigned words make Merchandize of you but let them read the remaining part of the Verse and see how fast Judgment and Damnation are coming upon them for it whose Judgment now of a long time lingers not and their Damnation slumbers not And these are the evil Men that by grosly abusing their power in the Church have made the People unwilling to allow the Reformed Churches so much power as Christ has given them and will scarce be induced to believe that they ought or that 't is to any purpose for them if their Consciences are loaded and disquieted through any grievous Crimes they have been guilty of to make confession of them to their Pastors and Teachers and ask their Advice and desire them to put them in the best and most effectual method towards the getting of their Grief removed and their sins pardoned and that they would help and assist them by bestowing their servent Prayers upon them towards the doing of it although the Apostle expresly commands us to confess our Faults one to another and pray for one another that we may be healed Jam. 5.16 and them gives an encouraging reason drawn from the powerful effect of Prayer The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man avails much And if we are obliged to confess our faults one to another and pray one for another towards the healing of them much rather to the Minister that he may pray for us towards the healing of our Offences Nor does the true and faithful Minister's power end here in hearing the Confessions of his people and praying for them but it extends further and authorizes him when he finds the Offender has performed those acts of Repentance which God's Holy Word requires to apply the merciful Promises of God to repenting Sinners in the forgiveness of their sins unto him and declare his Crimes pardoned through the great Mercies of God and the Merits of his dear Son Jesus Christ and so reconcile him to God as having received from him the Ministery of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 And all things are of God who has reconcited us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the Ministery of Reconciliation Thirdly Some of you think them burdensome and that their allowance is too great and above their Deserts and hereupon argue that Tithes are not of Divine Institution and that you are no where commanded to pay them in the New Testament But in what part of the same Testament are you forbidden to pay them And although they are not ordained in express words in the Gospel by Christ yet he has ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of it 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple And they which wait at the Altar are partakers with the Altar Even so has the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And can you find out any better way of raising wherewithal they may live upon than by giving of them Tithes And this I may say for the Lawfulness and Authority of them that our Saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees that they ought to pay them which I suppose he would not have done if he had intended to abolish them and that they should not have been paid under the Gospel Matt. 23.23 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay Tithe of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone And here observe that this Woe is not denounced against them because of their exactness in paying Tithes even to the very Herbs but because of their Hypocrisie in not being as exact in things of greater concern as making right Judgment in deciding of Controversies shewing Mercy and relieving the oppressed and being as faithsful in the performance of their Promises as they were in paying of Tithes both which ought to have been done with the like exactness And this may serve to admonish us as well as let us know that our Saviour allowed of paying Tithes in his time against the folly and errour of such Hypocrites as will be very exact and careful in things of less moment and remiss and careless and apt to pass over those things that are of far greater concern And the reason of the Apostle's not requiring Tithes may be this because they would not hinder the progress of the Gospel by giving them the least occasion of thinking they preached it more for their own profit and advantage than for their Good And hereupon the Apostle says he wrought with his own hands that he might not be chargeable to any of them not but that he had power to forbear