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	grace_n	sin_n	2,826	5	5.1233	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28288	The love of God manifested in giving our Saviour for the redemption of mankind a sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen on Nov. the 29th, 1696, being the first Sunday in Advent / by L. Blackburne ...	Blackburne, Lancelot, 1658-1743.	1697 (1697)	Wing B3067; ESTC R11620	10,822	27

had sold himself to Sin and given himself up to Vanity his ways were perverse before the Lord Paradise it self cou'd not tempt him to be honest a little while but he wou'd needs serve the Devil as soon as God had made him This was the condition of lost Man when yet God so lov'd the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life 2. An End truly worthy of God! Worthy his Infinite and Almighty Beneficence Men in Prison are sometimes unexpectedly set free but often free only to starve abroad in the open Air. Men sunk in Debt have their bonds often cancell'd by the Compassion of Government but are many times only by that Means at liberty to contract new ones without any probable condition of support But Man by this Gift was not only rescu'd from perishing Everlastingly but Eternal Glory and Happiness was purchas'd for him For the End God propos'd in giving his Son was not narrow and short according to the weak measures and imperfect Projects of humane Benefactors It was not limited barely to the freeing us from Punishment it extended to the enstating us in Life Everlasting and however these two are commonly mistaken or confounded one for or with another yet they are distinct Effects in different regards depending equally on the same Gift and both together making up the great End of it the Salvation of our Souls The Pardon of our sins and deliverance from Death was due to our Blessed Saviour's Infinite Satisfaction But our claim to Eternal Life depends wholly on his Merit as all those Gifts and Graces do which conduce to our obtaining it For to frame an exact Notion of the Essential Parts of the Causes and Principles of our Salvation the Sacrifice of Christ is to be consider'd in two respects either as a punishment inflicted by divine Justice on that Victim which was offer'd in our stead or as a Voluntary Oblation which Christ made of himself to purchase for us an inheritance in the highest Heavens by Vertue of that Covenant which he made with the Father as Mediator between God and Man it is his satisfaction which respects the Guilt of our sins and the Divine Justice naturally and necessarily demanding their Punishment and the consequence of that can reach no farther than putting us in a state of Impunity But it is the Merit of our Blessed Saviour which respects our Natural want and incapacity of Eternal Happiness and the Formal Effect of that is not the Delivering us from Hell which the satisfaction has perform'd already but the acquisition of Heaven for us which is an End above and beyond what that satisfaction was determin'd to Not that the Merit or Satisfaction in the Sacrifice of Christ can any way be separated or divided from it it cou'd not satisfy if it were not Meritorious it cou'd not Merit if it did not satisfy but still when we speak properly and clearly they are two distinct and different things and produce distinct and different effects For though God having made Man at first Just and Innocent and put him in Possession of that Happiness which he lost by Sin it may seem probable that the Satisfaction made for that Sin shou'd of it self re-instate him in that Happiness and supersede by that means all manner of necessity of any farther purchace to be made for him Yet if we consider well the nature of the Happiness which the Gospel directs us to aim at and expect it will be found to be such as Man cou'd lay no claim to from any natural right and therefore such as cou'd not any way be due to him upon and from his restitution to his natural State For his natural State consisted in the enjoyment of an Earthly Paradise and depended as to its duration on his continuance in Innocence But the Life Eternal of the Gospel is a supernatural Gift not an animal felicity in its own Nature capable of change however conditionally lasting 'T is a happiness which will make us like the Angels of God in a state unchangeable and indefeasible giving Immortality to our Bodies and impeccability to our Souls and requiring therefore a new right beyond the simple pardoning of our Sins on account of the ransom paid for us beyond the restoring us to the State from which we were fallen which might acquire to us an Everlasting Inheritance in the Kingdom of God by the infinite Merits of the voluntary oblation which our Blessed Saviour made of himself unconstrain'd by any Power unoblig'd by any Law unengag'd by any Merit of ours that cou'd deserve it 3. Which leads us to the consideration of the Principle upon which God was pleas'd to bestow this Gift his Infinite and unbounded Love and Compassion Infinite and Vnbounded indeed had that Goodness need to be which cou'd extend it self to the World in that condition which it was sunk into For Sin is a State of Rebellion and Defiance against God and he that has once put off and renounc'd his Allegiance cannot rationally expect or hope for the benefits of that Government which he refuses to submit to how mild and compassionate soever the nature of the Power may be or however good and beneficent the Sovereign Administration of it A Love only without limits cou'd pursue us so far as effectually to overtake us when we were set at a wider distance from him by our Sins than we were by our Nature when all the Characters of his Perfections in us were blotted or eras'd all the Faculties of our Souls disorder'd and revers'd and the whole Body of Sin reign'd in triumph over us But though his Almighty Love reach'd us in this State of Sin and Wickedness it was not under this consideration that it did so Such an imagination wou'd be abusive and unworthy of God inconsistent with his Infinite Holiness and Purity and irreconcileable to his Justice which demanded their Vindication It was the Misery of Man alone which mov'd the Divine Compassion a Misery too great for any Natural Powers to redeem him from too intense for any Creatures Pity to abate or relieve For no Man can by any means redeem his Brother nor give to God a ransom for him for it cost more to redeem their Souls so that they must let that alone for ever And Misery indeed is the proper object of Pity and helpless Misery of a Divine Beneficence a Misery hopelesly such of an Almighty one On this account notwithstanding we were dead in our trespasses and on that score the wretched Objects of Divine Justice it was not inconsistent with the inviolable Majesty of God's Laws and his immutable Decree of punishing Sin that God shou'd have inclinations of rendring himself placable to Mankind that he shou'd be mov'd with compassion to such a degree as to procure us the means of Reconciliation since even those means by the satisfaction given serv'd but yet more to raise the Glory