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	effect_n	sin_n	5,950	5	6.1321	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30019	Discourses and essays on several subjects, relating chiefly to the controversies of these times, especially with the Socinians, deists, enthusiasts, and scepticks by Ja. Buerdsell ...; Selections. 1700	Buerdsell, James, 1669 or 70-1700.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5363; ESTC R7240	90,520	247

wrought this Propitiation Not any of these separately nor all of them united how far soever conducing to apply this Propitiation were the thing it self Christ did not propitiate for Sin by barely laying down his Life to confirm or bear witness to that Doctrin in which Remission of Sin was contain'd For this makes the Death of Christ rather a Consequent or an Effect of this Remission than the efficient Cause on Producer of it For the Existence or the Being of any thing is the Cause as well as the Measure of the Testimony and not the Testimony the Cause of the Existence Therefore if Christ's Death was only a Testimony to that in which Remission of Sins is included it has no share in it A Testimony in proportion to the Character and Worth of the Testator may give Light to those who are ignorant or Conviction to those who doubt of any Matter but can contribute nothing of reality to the thing it self But it is plain from Scripture that Christ's Death did really effectively and antecedently work to the Remission of Sins And that we have Redemption in his Blood the forgiveness of Sins That the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin and that without shedding of Blood there is no Remission Therefore this shedding of Blood must be something more than a bare Testimony to the Doctrin in which Redemption Forgiveness Cleansing from Sin and Remission are imply'd must be the very Conveyer of these Blessings to us without which we had been still in our Sins and under an indispensible obligation to Punishment for them For at this rate the Blood of the Martyrs might purify us from Guilt as well as that of our Saviour seeing that that too was spilt as a Testimony to the same Doctrin Nay their Blood was on this account a more full and extensive Testimony to Christianity even than his because when our Saviour died tho' the Morals of the Christian religion were brought to their perfection yet there was something farther to be added as Objects of Faith and Belief which were not yet accomplish'd as our Saviour's Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven Now to these our Saviour's Death could bear no Testimony as being results from it and transacted after it but the Death of the Martyrs still ratify'd and settl'd this fundamental Truth of Christ's being risen again which by being establish'd it self confirm'd all the rest Now Socinus himself freely owns that the Resurrection of our Saviour is a necessary Article of our Belief and an essential Principle of our Religion Nay this is almost the only one of the Socianian Creed which regards our Saviour And Socinus applies Remission of Sins to this rather than to our Saviour's Death because that the Hopes of that glorious State of which our Saviour took possession upon his Resurrection have the strongest Influences to reform our Lives which Reformation is immediately attended with the Remission of Sins So that the force of the Argument will be this That if all that our Saviour did towards Remission of Sin was only giving Testimony by his Death to that Doctrin in which Remission was preached then the Primitive Martyrs who bore witness to this Doctrin by laying down their Lives for it when it was advanc'd to a fuller extent did more abundantly at least equally co-operate to this Forgiveness But since this Remission is never attributed to any Testimony of theirs it follows That our Saviour made his Propitiation by some other act than this of Testifying Moreover as the reason why our Saviour was put to Death was not his preaching Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins but his declaring himself the Son of God so that which he attested by his Death was rather his own Divinity than the Truth of what he had before taught But granting that it might be one of the less principal Designs of our Saviour's Death to give Sanction to his Doctrin by his Blood yet this could not perform it so sutably and so completely as his Miracles did which were fully adapted to this purpose and to which he addresses as to the exact standard by which his Doctrin might be examin'd 'T is true that to die for a Man 's own Sentiments is a bold and a gallant appeal and a sufficient warrant that he himself believes what he says but this is not security enough for me to assent to his Tenents because he may be mistaken in the Truth of that which he himself is very conscientiously perswaded of For as Falshood may be maintain'd with equal warmth and zeal as Truth so may it be suffer'd for with resembling Patience But when Miracles are once brought to second a Doctrin these silence any farther doubts I yield I am convinc'd for these are either contrary to the Laws of Nature or above them and so are immediately acted by God himself who will neither exercise his own Power nor delegate it to any other to ratify a Lie or grace an Impostor So that since our Saviour's Miracles were more proper more clear and visible Tests of his Doctrin than his Death if his Propitiation or what he did towards the abolishing of Sin consisted only in bearing witness to his Doctrin it might rather be deriv'd from these than from his Blood which is a Paradox which hitherto has never been advanc'd To proceed This Propitiation cannot consist in Christ's meerly gaining or purchasing by his Death a Right or Title to forgive Sin For our Saviour did not purchase any such Right by his Death because he was invested with it long before he suffer'd and when a Person is once legally possest of any Right he needs no subsequent act to appropriate it more closely to him But that our Saviour had such a Right before his Crucifixion is plain as from several other places of Scripture so from that instance of his Healing the sick of the Palsy where he Prefaces his miraculous Cure with that comfortable Declaration of Son thy sins are forgiven thee And lest it might be urg'd That this was only a removing of his temporal Punishment it is very apparent that our Saviour distinguishes between these two Acts by subjoyning the other Command of Son take up thy bed and walk which had been utterly needless if the former words had implied a Cure of his Disease Nor can it be shewn That Propitiation for Sin can coincide with a Right of forgiving Sin for the former pre-supposes an offended Party which must be satisfy'd an offending one which is of it self unable to attone its Anger and lastly a Mediator or Sequester to finish the Reconcilement So that three Terms are necessary to make up an entire Propitiation but a Donation and a gratuitous Remission is nothing else is only between two where there are no insuperable Hindrances or Lets why the Donor should not suffer his Bounty to stream freely out towards the Indigent without any third Person to interpose for him or to bear his Punishment Farther

of Man insomuch that the Sun shall stand still upon Gibeon and the Moon in the Valley of Ajalon As a Miracle thus surpasses the Power of Nature so the Person in favour of whom it is wrought ought to know that this Miracle shall be thus wrought He ought either to know in particular that this Miracle will be wrought and no other or that a Miracle of some kind will be wrought when natural Helps shall fail Thus Moses when Pharaoh prest behind and the Red-Sea rag'd before tho' he seems to have had no special Revelation that the Sea should be made dry Land and the Waters be divided yet he knew in gross that The salvation of the Lord should be seen that day and that the Aegyptians whom they had seen that day should no more be seen again for ever Therefore the dividing the Red-Sea was a Miracle perform'd by Moses tho' he did not particularly foresee it But when the Person in behalf of whom a miraculous Work is brought about is wholly ignorant of it this can be no Miracle nor ought any Consequence to be drawn from it as if that Person was immediately Commission'd from God The sudden Advancement of Men from the lowest Fortunes to the highest Stations by unaccountable and unforeseen means is sometimes assuredly the immediate Hand of God but since this Exaltation may be for the Ruin as well as for the Happiness of Mankind and since the Party exalted could not foresee his Success 't is no Miracle tho' it is wrought by a Divine Power nor ought we to conclude that this Person is a nearer Favourite of Heaven than the rest of Human kind The Creation of a Reasonable Soul is miraculous but because it is usual is not of that kind of Miracles exprest in the Words Thus the Inspiration of Grace is miraculous but because it works now a-days according to the method of Reason and Discourse whatsoever the Enthusiasts may pretend to the contrary assisting us while we use such moral Means as Religion commands and Reason prescribes it is not to be rang'd with the Miracles mention'd here Since Miracles therefore are the Effect of a Power more than Natural it is just to enquire Secondly What Power is capable of working a Miracle Where notwithstanding what the acute Le Cler● and others of this Age have Jean ●e Clere de l' Incredulite Lettre 2. p. 355. advanc'd That Miracles may be wrought by good or bad Angels or by a Power less than Infinite yet it may be laid down as a Conclusion That infinite Power alone is capable of working a Miracle For a Miracle proclaims an omnipotent Agent and carries the Hand of God written upon it in bright Characters legible to the most Vulgar Reason For every true Miracle is a forming of something out of nothing and that either in the thing it self or in the manner of forming it In the thing it self when it is of that sort that it cannot be form'd by any second and ordinary Causes As the Resurrection of the Dead the Re-union of the Soul and Body the restoring of the Springs and Mechanism of Motion after a total separation For Death is a Prison which surrenders back its Captives upon no other Summons below those of the Almighty To restore Life being only the Prerogative of him who gave it Or a Miracle may consist in forming something out of nothing as to the manner of doing it when the thing lies within the power of second Causes yet is brought about without the assistance of any of them As to cure Diseases by a Word speaking or by touching the Hem of the Garment Where there is something which answers calling Light out of Darkness and commanding every thing to be from nothing Creation therefore being one of the peculiar Acts of God and which we do not know that He ever communicated to a Creature the Power of working Miracles as to the original of it must be so too For only He who first form'd the Laws of Nature can suspend or alter them 'T is true the Angels far surpass us in the excellency of their Faculties and therefore may perform such things as are apt to raise Admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them or manner of their Production Even the fal● Angels themselves have not their Forces so much broken by Sin but that by Lying Wonders they may easily impose on the Spectator's Eye tho' 't is wholly impossible for them by any Power of their own to alter the Course of Nature or produce a real Miracle So that if a Miracle has been wrought for the confirmation of any Doctrin 't is a sufficient warrant that this Doctrin is of God But since the evil Angels who have assum'd the Person of God may also counterfeit his wondrous Works it will be necessary Thirdly To enquire into some of those Marks whereby a true Miracle may be distinguish'd from a false one So that a difference may be put betwixt the Works of God and those of his greatest Enemies The first Mark of a true Miracle is That there should be sufficient Evidence that this Miracle has been wrought and the Effect of it ought to be addrest to our Senses For a Miracle it self is not an object of our Belief tho' it is form'd in confirmation of something which we are oblig'd to believe For then a Miracle would be as obscure as the thing which it is produc'd to prove And every Miracle would want another to make it serviceable to its grand design The second Mark of a true Miracle is That it ought not to tend to the overthrowing of any Doctrin before establish'd by God by sufficient Miracles For God cannot be divided against himself But should he overthrow that by Miracle which he had before settled by Miracle Eternal Truth would disagree with himself For Miracles and a Doctrin give mutual support one to another as Miracles declare the Doctrin to be true so the purity and excellence of the Doctrin confirm the Miracles to be Divine But if there is an Inconsistency between the Miracles and the Doctrin the decision must be in favour of the Doctrin in opposition to the Miracles For if a Person acts the most wonderful Works to give Sanction to a Religion which contains low Idea's of God or interferes with the great Duties we owe to one another his Miracles are nothing but artful Frauds and he himself only a more pompous Deceiver So on the other hand when Miracles are produc'd in favour of a Doctrin which is pure and holy whose prospects of Rewards are only laid in a future State which enjoins Modesty Temperance Sobriety and Patience and whatsoever is fitted to advance Human Nature such a Doctrin is highly fitted to perswade Men that the Miracles wrought in behalf of it are true The third Mark of a true Miracle is That the Effects of it ought to be lasting and durable If Diseases are remov'd by a

Supplication to God He will not hear will not regard our Prayers They are like unballowed Fire offer'd to Him and are an abomination in his sight for of him who is not resolv'd to part with his Sins the very Prayers are sinful That Duty which draws others nigher to God casts him at a greater distance from him That Ordinance which sanctifies others serves only to aggravate his deplorable Stare and to render his Condition more insufferable But neither on the other hand is he less criminal if he does not Pray at all for he is not excus'd from this Duty by being unqualify'd for it but he becomes guilty not only of those Sins which are the hindrances of his Devotion but of that Inability to Devotion which they have caus'd and so hard are his Circumstances that he is likely to suffer not only for making his Duty impossible by sinning but even for not discharging it while it is thus impossible And this justly enough too because this Impossibility was wilfully superinduc'd an Act of his own choice and free election and for which he has none to blame besides himself and his own wild Passion● So that while his Case continues thus he is on all accounts unqualify'd for Prayer and yet is guilty too if he does not Pray till by hearty Repentance he has freed himself from his Sins So indispensibly necessary is Purity from Sin to prepare us for Prayer But as there are different kinds of Sins so is there the greatest necessity that we should be innocent of those Sins which are most oppos'd to the Spirit of Prayer for they are not all of them equally destructive of it But these are Malioe Ill-will or Hatred of our Brother Now as these Vices commence two manner of ways either by Injuring our Brother or by receiving an Injury from him so we may be suppos'd in either Case to be guilty of them and therefore on all regards unqualify'd for Prayer if we do not contribute our utmost towards the suppressing of them As for Instance If I have injur'd my Brother and given him any umbrage to hate me I am in a great measure guiley of the Sin and therefore am unqualify'd for Prayer if I do not endeavour a speedy Reconcilement with him For if my Gift is before the Altar and I there remember that my Brother has ought against me any just cause of complaining that I have injur'd him I am oblig'd to leave my Gift before the Altar and go and first be reconciled to my Brother So on the other hand when we are injur'd by our Brother we are guilty of the Malice and the Sin lies at our door and so our Prayers become ineffectual if we express an eager Desire to revenge our selves if we shew an Aversion and Unwillingness to forgive him if we neglect his Proposals of Peace and Accommodation For how can we expect that God should pardon our Sins of the blackest Character if we will not forgive our Fellow-servant the least Offence And has not our Blessed Lord taught us that we cannot Pray to God to forgive us our Trespasses unless we forgive them that trespass against us And as often as we use this sacred Prayer of our Saviour's if we do not forgive those who have offended us from the bottom of our Hearts we desire that God would not forgive us that He would remember and revenge ou● Sin● against Him as we 〈◊〉 to revenge those which our Brother h●● commi●●●● against us So that in effect we 〈◊〉 the best Prayer that ever was into S●● and use the Words of ou● Saviour who spake as never Man spake to our 〈◊〉 Damnation So that Purity from Si● especially from Malice Hatred or 〈…〉 will is 〈◊〉 First Qualification in ●●●er ●o prepare us for Prayer The Second preparatory Qualification for Prayer is 〈…〉 the Nature of our 〈…〉 s and 〈◊〉 the Manne● by which 〈◊〉 has pro 〈…〉 to supply them that we may 〈…〉 what to pray for and 〈◊〉 Method ●● take to have our Prayer 〈…〉 do And in taking an Est 〈…〉 Wants we are to consider 〈…〉 a● Creatures whose chief Interest 〈◊〉 on a future St●●● wh 〈…〉 Necessities a●● those which 〈…〉 Soul As to what concerns this Life we are to resign that over to ●●● Heavenly Father 's good Providence with a Father not my Will but thine be done But as to spiritual Wants concerning these we ar● to s●e with the greatest and most unconditionate Importunity and a pious Violence is to be done to Heav●●●● till we 〈◊〉 our sel●es suocessful in what we p●●y for But then Secondly we must reflect on the Terms on which God has undertaken to assist these Wants and to resolve to comply with them are they never so●●●neasy Thus do we ask for Pardon for Sins we know the terms on which this ●●ust be granted are provided we repent and forsake them We are therefore to resolve to set our selves abou● this Repentance and Amendment before we pray for the Pardon Th●s because 〈◊〉 and Virtue can 〈…〉 compast without the use of good and wi●e Endeavours we are to resolve o● these before we petition for those For the Promises of God tho● infallible in regard to any Grace ought nevertheless to encourage us to travel with more A●do●● and Fidelity to merit the Effects of them And if we ask after this manner i● shall be given us for every one who asketh in this wise receiveth The Third Qualification preparatory to Prayer is Faith or a Trust in God that He will gran 〈…〉 pray for according to our 〈…〉 All thing● whatsoever y● sh●ll ●●● i● Prayer believing ●e shall receive Now we may be said to be qualify'd 〈◊〉 this Grace when sensible of our own Want● we commend our selves to God by Prayer relying on his Divine Goodness and Power that he will give ●● what ●● sue for that is as 〈…〉 hinted if we are careful of performing the Condition● on which ●e stipulated to give if we ask for Pardon for Sins i● reforming them for vir 〈…〉 Endowments in industriously seeking after them for the assistance of God's Spirit in concurring with it and making good use of it for Health or 〈…〉 other prosperous Turns of Providence and outward things with a due submission to God's Will join'd with the use of lawful Means to attain them For ●o trust that God will hear us without these is not Faith but ●● un warrantable Considence not Hope but Presumption The Fourth Qualification preparatory for Prayer is a good Intention to use what God shall bless us with to excellent Ends and Designs to the Glory of God and the Advancement of our own and Brother's Salvation Otherwise if we only ask for God's Blessings to consume them on our Lusts we petition Heaven to contribute to our Undoing and beg of the Almighty Materials for our Sins and for Occasions to provoke Him God is oblig'd to deny us out of Love and Compassion ●i for●