Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	die_v	sin_n	7,620	5	5.8816	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26871	Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unananswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1689 (1689)	Wing B1195; ESTC R2643	73,886	164

his Conscience But you may as wisely think to conquer pain and death But whatever you do with your own if we should leave our obedience to God to obey you or any men we know not what we should do with our own Consciences nor how to quiet them God hath brought us out of that Darkness and Lethargy which quieted them in sin heretofore And we cannot now be ignorant of that duty to God that self-interest that danger to wilful sinners and that evil of sin which would begin Hell in us here And are not your scorns and threatnings easier than this 22. Do not most men at death see the madness not only of enmity but of neglect of a holy life and wish that they might die the death of the righteous and that their last end might be like his Had you rather die a Dives or a Herod or a Lazarus or a Paul Is it not a shame to your devilish cause and you to see men live in one mind and die in another And scorn hate and persecute serious Godliness till the Sentence of death is past upon them and then to wish they were such themselves Or if you be more hardened to the last you are the more hopeless But how quickly did such another change his note and cry Father Abraham send one to my five brethren to warn them that they come not to this place of torment If you mock at these words you mock at Christ that spake them and sure you look not to be saved by a derided Christ. And it 's base Hypocrisy to deride him and yet call your selves Christians and go to Church as if you served him Live as you would die and be judged for you shall be judged as you live and die Either hold to the mind that you will never change or change it quickly before it be too late 23. If you know what a man is you know that his Soul is better than his corruptible flesh And if you think your Throats and Guts and Fancies worth all the Cost and Care and Labour which you bestow on them in the world shall not we think our Souls worth more What Godly man that you think makes too much a do for Heaven doth bestow more time and words and labour for it than you do for the Flesh and World Do we not see how men will labour at land and venture through dangerous Seas and Fight in Wars and Plot against all that stand in their way and this all day from year to year and all for Provision for Flesh and Fancy And do those that you accuse do more for their Salvation If you know not now you will shortly know which makes the better choice and bargain 24 What harm doth Godliness and Conscience do you in other men Had you not rather have a son that takes Disobedience Whoredom Gaming and Drunkenness for sin than one that makes no Conscience of them Had you not rather have a Wife whose Conscience restrains her from Scolding and Adultery and a Servant that makes Conscience of robbing or deceiving you than one that doth not Sure unconscionable Servants and Debtors are more troublesom than they that fear God and believe that injustice is a damning sin But the truth is most wicked men are for so much Conscience and Religion in others as restrains them from wronging or hurting them but no more nor for that much in themselves which may restrain them from hurting others But if you resolve rather to be damned than to be Sober Just and Godly and obey God against the flesh Why cannot you bear with other men that make a wiser choice What hurt doth their praying do you or their preaching while they are responsible for any ill Doctrine What if they be reading the Scripture or hearing Directions for a holy life while you are Drinking or Gaming or reading a Romance or Railing Libel doth their Piety hurt you What if they dare not Swear and Drink as you do doth this do you any harm What is it but the Serpentine enmity that maketh you hate those that never hurt you 25. If you will believe God it is for the sake of Godly men that God preserves the World from ruine He would have saved Sodom had there been but ten such persons in it He will not destroy the world till he hath gathered all his chosen out of it And do they deserve to be most hated 26. How exceeding dear a love hath God and our Redeemer exprest to all holy obedient believers God calls them his Jewels his Treasure in whom he delighteth He gave Christ specially for them He sealeth them to Salvation by his Spirit he justifieth them and will glorify them in Heaven Christ calls them Flesh of his Flesh his Friends his Spouse they are united to him he washeth them in his blood and feedeth them with his Flesh and will make them equal to the Angels and will condemn their Enemies And are not you devilish enemies to God and Christ who cull out those for your malice and Enmity whom God chooseth out to magnify the wonders of his Love on them for ever 27. The Angels of Heaven rejoyce at the Conversion of a sinner Luke 15. 10. And rejoyce to be Christ Servants for their defence continually And is it not Devils then and their Servants and Souldiers that are against them Take heed Gods Angels that smote a Herod may do execution on you ere long 28. The Holy Ghost saith 1 Cor. 6. That the Saints shall judge the world and even the Angels that is the evil ones Did you believe this you would be afraid to hate and persecute them now 29. Even Heathens are for much honouring and worshiping their Gods yea many offer them too costly Sacrifice What praises doth Iulian give to the Sun and what strictness of life doth he Command his Priests What great contempt of the Body and the World did the Platonists the Stoicks and the Cynicks profess And shall profest Christians hate those that are obedient to the true God yea to shew that the War between Good and Evil goeth on in all the World even among Heathens those that were for true virtue were despised and hated by the sensual 30. And is it not a self-condemning thing in those that accuse Gods Servants as making too much adoe in obeying the Law of God and yet make as the Church of Rome doth abundance more Laws or Canons of their own and require precise obedience to them all Yea will burn men at a Stake for breaking their Laws Doth God make too much work in the Judgment of them that think it not enough without much more as if Gods Law were too narrow and insufficient Yea learn by the Church of England whose Canons 5 6 7 8. ipso facto excommunicate them that do but affirm any thing to be repugnant to Gods word in their Liturgy Ceremonies or Church Governing Offices And can you think that obeying God deserveth hatred when

hate you as it hated me because you are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World Marvel not if the World hate you As many as will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer Persecution c. Who do you think all this is spoken of It is not of you that are fleshly worldly ungodly men Who Persecuteth you for righteousness sake Who hateth revileth or imprisoneth or fineth you for living godly in Christ Jesus Do you suffer as much for reviling Preachers as we have done for Preaching What suffer you for all the Oaths that be sworn daily in Streets and Taverns and the horrid prophaneness Atheism Sadduceism Infidelity that men are guilty or If you did suffer for Whoredom Drunkenness Blasphemy is that for Christ or righteousness When the Holy Ghost saith As he that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now is it such as you that he meaneth When Peter saith They speak evil of you and falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3. 16. whom meaneth he When he saith 1 Pet. 4. They think it strange that you run not with them to all excess of ryot lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatry who do you think he meaneth And when he saith 1. Pet. 2. 9. Ye are a chosen Generation a royal Priest-hood a holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light who is it that he meaneth You 'll say It is Christians True But is it Hypocrites Is it those that will say at last Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name and Eat and Drunk in thy presence to whom Christ will say Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity I know you not Sure false Christians are worse than Heathens 39. The way which you take against Religious persons doth shew who it is that sets you on work and what it is that is the root of your enmity As Gods Image is in the understanding will and executive power of man so is Satans and he is accordingly described by Christ to be 1. A Liar and Deceiver 2. A Malignant Hater of Goodness or Holiness and a cause of sin 3. A hurtful murderer or destroyer And these are the three ways by which Godly people are prosecuted in the world 1. Belying them is grown so common with their enemies that there is nothing scarcely so notoriously false which they will not affirm of them and it 's well if some will not preach it print it or swear it And they make one another easily believe it Till experience proved it I did not think that humane nature had been liable to such impudent monstrous lying 2. The daily business of many is by wit and diligence to draw men to hate Religious men on false pretences As plainly as Christ preacheth and urgeth Love as his great Commandment so plainly do these press and urge men to Hatred But of this before 3. And Hatred tends to Hurtfulness What plotting and labouring is there in the world to ruine and destroy each other The malignant spirit is blood-thirsty It 's strange how the unclean Devils thirst to draw or suck some blood from Witches Nothing more alienates me from the Papal Kingdom than that it lives like Leeches upon blood To read over the History of the Inquisition and of their Massacres would make Men take Toads and Adders and mad Dogs and Wolves for harmless things in comparison of some Men. If any would requite them or others with the like I hate it in Protestant or Papist The Turks conquered the Greek Empire partly by the mutinous divisions of the Christians and partly by promising them Liberty of Religion And when the Christians thought they should have that they yielded up the Empire with the less resistance And that which was so advantageous to the Infidels might well used and limited be more advantageous to the Christian Truth and Church But though good things may be used in an ill cause it is a sign of a bad cause which needeth bad means That cause which is carried on by Lying Perjury and Deceit by malignant Love-killing endeavours and by cruelty and hurtfulness and blood is thereby made suspicious to all wise men It is a wonder of impudency in Baronius Binnius and other Papists to justifie Martin a Canonized Saint for renouncing Communion to the death with the Synods and Bishops who perswaded the Emperor to draw the Sword against the Gnostick Priscillianists and themselves to defend a thousand-fold greater cruelties and murders in their own Church on the account of Religion But sin is mad self-contradiction 4. I conclude with this great truth They that hate and oppose Godly mens obedience to God do seek to silence the chief Witness of Christ and to cast out Christianity from the Earth Christianity cannot be proved to be true but by the Spirit which is its Seal and Witness This Witness of the Spirit was not only extraordinary in Languages and numerous Miracles but also ordinary in the work of Sanctification This Seal is set on all that shall be saved in all times and places The Lord knoweth who are his And let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity He redeemed us to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ Tit. 2. 12 13 14. By this healing work Christ is known to be indeed our Physician the real Saviour that saveth his people from their sins As man generateth man and the Father is known by the similitude of the Child and as he is known to be a good Artist that can make others such This is Christs standing Witness in all times and places And when you would turn this into scorn and cloud it with slanders or the charge of Hypocrisie and would have such judged an odious people and have them driven out of the world what do you in effect but spit in the face of Christ and crown him with Thorns and call him a Deceiver and crucifie him afresh and seek to expel Christianity from the Earth What reasonable man could believe Christ to be Christ the Saviour of the world if he did not sanctifie men and make them much better and fitter for Heaven than other men So that in this you directly militate for the Devil the World and the Flesh against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost against the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints and the Hope of Resurrection and life everlasting which if you did openly under the name of Infidels or Heathens or rather as the profest Souldiers of the Devil it were less disingenuous and hypocritical than to do it in

Christs Apostles did If this be their horrid wickedness that makes them unworthy to live out of Prison say so and pretend no other But if it be Heresie false Doctrine Perjury Fornication Robbing Treason Sedition or any other crime why are they not accused of these before the Judges And why are those charged with them that never were so accused and proved guilty Will not all wise men take those persons for malicious Liars who by their published accusations thus odiously charge multitudes and never offer to prove it against them at the Judicatures Their accusation shews they want not will therefore their not prosecuting them for any such sort of crimes shews that it is truth that is wanting 13. And if they be such wicked persons whence is it that they are charged meerly with Hypocrisy by such as say that they live soberly and justly and demurely but they are at the heart as bad as others Their accusers commonly confess that they are most free from all immoralities and have an outward shew of righteousness but these heart-searchers see that their hearts are bad And do they not by this confute their own accusations 14. And why is it that they that know them best can see none of the wickedness which you accuse them of beyond those humane infirmities of which they most accuse themselves As I have oft done I again solemnly profess as one that cannot be far from my account before the judge of all the the World that having now lived to the 68th year of my age and been most familiar since the age of sixteen or seventeen with that sort of men whom the Vulgar then called Puritans described by Mr. Bolton and such other Conformists though I have met with many that had their mistakes and frailties and troublesome differences in lesser things and some Hypocrites intruded among them yet I never knew any other sort of men comparable to them in Christian Knowledge Faith Obedience to God Hatred of sin Care of their duty to God and man Sobriety Temperance Chastity Truth Heavenly desires endeavours and hopes And that they so far excelled the rest of my acquaintance as made their grace amiable to me and confirmed my belief of the Sacred Scripture Yea more if I had not had the happiness of knowing such a sort of men that in holiness Justice and Love excelled the rest of my acquaintance or at least credibly heard of such I could not have believed in Christ as a Saviour of men whom he made no better than Turks and Infidels Nor could I have believed a Heaven for men no better prepared for it And that now near my end I see so great a difference in Holiness Justice and Charity between those commonly reviled for worshiping God but as the Apostles did and those that hate and persecute them as greatly helps me in believing that there is a Saviour and Sanctifier and Heaven for the faithful and a Devil that deceives the rest and a hell that will receive them which is even visibly begun on Earth Accus But say they it is not for their Godliness or Sobriety that we accuse them but for their sin and wickedness Ans. Still this is but General and signifieth nothing But 1. What is that odious sin 2. It 's Gods merciful Providence that keeps sin in general under such shame as that the actors of it speak against it even in their slanders 3. But if this be the true cause why do you cull out those that have least sin to fasten your accusations of sin upon If there be a conformable Minister that is more Holy Charitable and Zealous against sin than the rest he is one of those that is called a Puritan and accused of sin Why do we hear none of your furious charges against the common Drunkards Revellers Gamesters Whoremongers Persecutors Profane Blasphemers Lyars and the Families that call not upon God shew no serious regard of any Religion at all You can live among these and Swear and Drink and Play with them and never cry out against them as bad men Accus But religion being the best thing the Corrupters of that are worse than Drunkards and Swearers and Adulterers Ans. Such corrupters there may be as are worse indeed But what is it that they corrupt Religion in They subscribe to all the Bible and the ancient Creeds And if need be to the English Articles of Religion Is not all that enough Their many large published writings tell the world their Judgment in Religion Such as Mr. Arthur Hildershams Mr. Perkins Mr. Greenhams Dods Anthony Burges Richard Alleins and abundance such What errors are in these 2. Why are they not these twenty years accused of Preaching false Doctrine and proved guilty and punisht for it if they are such 3. If it be not in Doctrine what is it Accus They worship God contrary to the Law in not using the Common-Prayer book Ans. 1. Those that constantly joyn in the Parish Churches in the Common-Prayer are as much hated Reviled and Prosecuted as the rest Therefore this charge is but hypocrisy 2. What do they that for matter or manner is positively contrary to Law in Gods worship They read Scripture Pray Preach Praise God with Psalms Communicate in the Lords Supper Doth the Law forbid any of this 3. Not using the rest of the Liturgy is a Negation and no Act at all and therefore no act of worship and therefore no unlawful act no more than silence is He that is silent and he that omits the rest of the Liturgy worships not God by using it but he doth nothing contrary to it or forbidden by it 4. If Peter and Paul were unknown in England and worshipt God but as they did on Earth would you therefore call them Rogues or Rebels or lay them in the jail Did they worship God in an odious intolerable manner Did the Holy-Ghost by them write an infallible Rule for all things necessary in Religion and yet are they unsufferable rogues that worship God but according to that rule 5. Are they wiser men than they that have made us another rule or worship or have they more of Gods Spirit and more authority in religion 6. Do not the Imposers say that all which they add is no part of Religion but things indifferent And are they odious corrupters of Religion who omit no part of Religion but only humane indifferent things 7. Do you not reverence the Church for some hundred years after Christ which imposed no Liturgies but left every Pastor to use his own Prayers 8. Do you not harden the Papists that call our Religion new and ask where it was two hundred years ago if you make the Liturgy as now formed and imposed our Religion when it is not two hundred years old 9. The Godly Bishops of England have ever owned the other Protestant Churches and their Communion who have none of our Liturgies nor any like it 10. If this be the odious crime why do you