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
A96627	The vvay to life and death. Laid down in a sermon, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being. / By N. Waker M.A. late minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire. Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five controverted points, viz. predestination, general redemption, freewill, conversion, and perseverance of the siants. Directing a safe way for the practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides.	Waker, Nathaniel.; Waker, John.	1655 (1655)	Wing W281; Thomason E1639_1; ESTC R209056	41,542	102

former and latter rain and now judge thou who art a party whether there hath any thing been wanting on Gods part to make thee happy but thou wilt needs dye not because thou lovest death but sin which is the cause of it And let us all remember that our worst enemy is within us Bern. Ipsi gestamus laqueum nobiscum circumferimus inimicum We carry a snare about with us our own enemy is within us We are beaten like Judah with our own staffe and manacled with our own bracelets yea with Saul we slay our selves with our own sword It 's a Serpent in our own bosome that stings us Inimici hominis sunt ejus domestici A mans foes are those of his own house He that dips with us in the dish is it that betrayes us Blame not Satan or his instruments these could not kill us but that this Traytour opens the doors their temptations else would fall like a spark of fire in the Sea much lesse let us murmur against God though he be the inflicting cause yet sin is the meritorious Take heed of this enemy so much the rather for it 's a potent and politick enemy being an old man that receives influence from the Devil it 's worse then the Devil who hath some natural goodnesse wisdome and power which in themselves are good though by him abused But in the flesh dwells no good thing it fills the whole man full of impiety as the mind with wicked thoughts making it like a dark filthy Dungeon full of Snakes and Adders destitute of heavenly light and heat the imaginations of it onely evil continually and if the best part be so what is the worst It 's a store-house or a common sewer of abominations fills the eye full of Adultery the countenance of wrath makes the throat an open sepulchre the tongue a world of wickednesse if a world in that little member how many worlds in this little world of ours fills the hand with extortion makes the feet swift to shed blood in a word all the Devils brats are warmed conceived and bred in that wombe it 's an enemy to all Spiritual undertakings what is wisdome to the Spirit is foolishnesse to the flesh what the one willeth the other nilleth what the one endeavours the other crosseth it breakes all Lawes both of God and man and makes unreasonable Lawes of its own of sin and death Rom. 7.23.8.2 Of sinne therefore dishonourable to live after them for it gives unreasonable command He that obeyeth hath Chams curse to be a servant of servants But the service is dangerous in that rewarded with such wages for the wages of sin is death worse then for a man to serve at the Gallies all day and be hanged at night Therefore of all enemies let us take most heed of our selves these lusts within us fight agaist us 1 Pet. 2.11 they hunt for the precious life and if we yeeld to them we dye He that soweth the wind shall reape the whirlwind If we sowe to the flesh we shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live But if ye by the Spirit The Conolation c. Now I am fallen on the second Proposition the Consolation Hitherto I have tyred your patience with a discourse of the works of darknesse and a sad narration of death the reward of such works give me leave now to entertain your ears with a more pleasing discourse of life and of the narrow way that leads thither If ye by the Spirit c. The flesh like a potent King domineers in a natural man and makes him yeeld obedience to it in the lusts thereof yea in a regenerate man it remains though weakned and wounded like the Canaanites if it cannot dwell in the City it will lodge in the subburbs though it raign not like a King it will rebel like a Traytor sometimes assaulting by open violence sometimes by secret ambushments and hidden stratagems undermining so that while he dwells in this tabernacle of flesh the flesh will continue in him his labour shall not end so long as his life doth continue while we live then we shall find work enough to keep under this rebel and to encourage us herein God hath given us such an help as will effect it his Spirit and propounded such a motive as may spur on the dullest Laodicean Ye shall live Here the Apostle doth these two things Divided 1. Proponit officium If ye c. 2. Promittit mercedem First the work then the wages first we must do the will of God then receive the promise first God must be glorified by us and then he will glorifie us the hardest that is first and that we must look to to mortifie the sweetest comes last and that God will care for Ye shall live In the first we note these particulars Subdivided 1. Octjectum deeds of the body 2. Actionem circa objectum Ye must mortifie the deeds of the body 3. Causas hujus acticnis principalem the Spirit minus principalem we First The deeds of the body what for the object about which mortification is conversant the deeds of the body Here we must explicate both the fountain and streams Some understand a metonymie in this word body so by it understand the natural body because sin is acted by the body Others understand it metaphorically of that old man and masse of corruption that is in every man called the body of sin Rom. 6.6 7.24 Col. 2.11 for as the body is a totum integrum consisting of many members so is sin Col. 3.4 the head of sin vain imaginations the heart of sin corrupt affections the tongue of sin rotten communication the forehead of sin impudent avouching the hands and feet of sinne wicked executions Again as the body hath its dimensions so hath sin it reacheth to heaven and burneth to the lowest hell is's of as great a latitude as Gods Commandments which are exceeding broad 3. As the body is knit together by joynts and ligaments so is sin If the foot of sin do but stirre the whole body moves as we see in the sin of Adam He that offends in one is guilty of all he sins against the general equity of the Law and righteousnesse of the Law-giver As the body compasseth us about so doth sin it 's peccatum circumstans that for the first by the body we mean the body of sin Secondly For the deeds of the body This old man though old yet is very stirring and operative When men grow old their apprehension is weak their memory dull the strong men bow the whole man is feeble but it is not so in the body of sin the older it is the more vigorous and lusty Nothing in the world so fruitful though these are but 〈◊〉

yet he may set up his sailes and turn them into the wind When we have received the Spirir we are the instruments of the Spirit yet not passive ones but as servants that work by the direction of their Masters as the body works being enabled by the soul We are not saved altogether as we were created He made us not we our selves so he saveth us not we our selves that is as of our selves but being enabled by his Spirit and thus though it be true that he works in us both the will and the deed yet it is as true that we must work out our own salvation A silly Countrey-fellow once bought Orpheus his harp and thought it would make melody of it self without the touch of a skilful hand so do these men think of the Spirit that it will work in them though they be idle resist or quench the Spirit and turn the grace of God into wantonnesse thus making God the cause of their sins if not an efficient at least a deficient and they think they have done as much good and omitted as much evil as God by his grace enabled them I must tell our superstitious Baalites that this mortification Non fit per disciplinam Monasticam aut Baaliticam lanienam corporis sed per Spiritum resistentem operibus carnis is not done by Monastical discipline or by Baalitical cutting of the body but by the Spirit opposing and resisting the deeds of the body Though a man fast till he faint and dye cover himself with sackcloth day and night though he beat himself black and blue endure heat and cold as much as the body will bear not suffer their eyes to sleep or eye-lids to slumber it 's not their solitary caves or tedious pilgrimages many that do so nourish pride vain-glory self-confidence but it 's the Spirit of God and yet the Spirit useth other instruments The Word of God as a two edged-sword cuts the throat of our corruptions in prayer we lay them open to God presse him with his promise and get grace and assistance from him in voluntary chastning our selves ordinarily by sobriety in meat drink apparel recreation extraordinarily by prayer fasting weeping we do as it were with Gods plough soften our hard hearts and so extinguish this fire by withholding combustible matter or by those that are imposed by God In the former we take up our crosse in this it 's laid upon us In the one we turn without in this with a bridle in our jawes But the Spirit must diffuse it self through all these to make them effectual and without it these bodily exercises profit little the flesh will still recalcitrare therefore Monasticks and Anchorites have found corruption as strong in the Cloyster as in the Court in the Cell as in the City He that will not humble his body cannot will not humble his soul but he that humbleth his body without the soul loseth his labour Yea For Exhortation with your good leave I must tell the best man here that it is not enough that he hath begun well but he must go on So the Apostle writes to converted Romans so we speak to converted Christians you have done it Sacramentally make good your vow you have done it in profession let your practice be answerable you have done it really but it 's but in part continue in well-doing A good progresse and conclusion is necessary to life as a good beginning Take heed of beginning in the Spirit and ending in the flesh They that think they are mortified enough must mortifie that proud conceit or perhaps they will come short of life And for Catharists that boast of absolute perfection their reward shall be they lead themselves into a fools Paradise By all this which hath been said we may verifie that of our Saviour Matth. 6.14 Heaven it spued out the Angels that sinned and will not lick up the Devils vomit again But though it be difficult yet not impossible therefore I would not discourage any It 's easie to a spiritual man and me thinks the benefit should take away the difficulty Look unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith But alas these joyes are farre off and serve but little or else the taste of the world spoiles our relish Our teeth are so set on edge with these apples of Sodom that we cannot taste the fruit of the tree of life See what there is in the Text to encourage us 1. It 's but the deeds of the body to be mortified those which we may well spare God commands us not to destroy any faculty of the soul either to hurt the understanding or dull the apprehension or overload the memory or clog the conscience not to kill the body or consume the spirits by a dull austere melancholy not to destroy the forme or feature of it Religion it depriveth us of nothing that brings true pleasure or profit Adam in innocency glorified Saints and Angels God himself hath transcendent happinesse to which nothing can be added yet it 's the unhappinesse of some to think they cannot be merry unlesse they are mad nor happy except sinful that mortification abridgeth them of true delight Again these must but be mortified not utterly abolished We cannot abolish them to have no being but onely mortifie them that they do not reign so that while sin doth not prevail but thou groanest under the reliques of corruption God will accept thee and that thou mayest do this he gives thee his own Spirit to enable thee to the work offers thee a Crown of glory at the end of thy labour Surely if he had commanded thee a greater matter upon such termes wouldst thou not have done it What remaineth then but that we set about the work chearfully I exhort you all to be happy The fulnesse of glory will answer all the difficulties I can say no more Mortifie and you shall live If you will not kill you must be killed God hath proclaimed these deeds Traytors they have shed the blood of Christ done all the mischief in the world and in a word will undo our soules How can we but with indignation see strumpets more carefull to adorne their bodies then we our soules St. Augustine mournes to see Arius take more paines to go to hell then he could do to go to heaven How can we endure to see a Papist take more paines to scourge his body an earth-worme macerate himselfe to get wealth an adulterer dance attendance to fulfil his lust and yet in the mean time we do nothing to get to heaven Go home then with shame in thy countenance fasting weeping and mourning with anger indignation and holy revenge looke on that heart of thine that hath offered such indignity to heaven by an holy Anathema deliver that flesh of thine to Satan smite on thy thigh with Ephraim on thy breast with the Publican weep with David rivers of tears because others keep not Gods Law and weep bitterly with Peter

THE WAY To Life and Death LAID Down in a SERMON 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being By N. Waker M. A. late Minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire Now published for the reasonablenesse of the advice therein given touching the five Controverted points viz. Predestination general Redemption Freewill Conversion and Perseverance of the Saints Directing a safe way for the Practice of private Christians as confessed by the disputants on both sides The text Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. LONDON Printed by J. L. for Phil. Stephens at the gilded Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO The Reader WHat entertainment this sermon will find in the World I can easily foresee Some I hope it will both profit and delight If it displeaseth some others I have what I looked for To the pious charitable and ingenious it cannot I think be unacceptable sure I am unseasonable 't will never be so long as the world is so full of walkers after the flesh the sharpest reproof comes not amisse Of the Authour my near relation forbids me to expresse what I might justly make known to the world In the eyes of some he will be in dislike as being in their opinion too mild and moderate in the Controversies about Predestination General Redemption Perseverance c. Touching which Points he layeth down the Rules for Christian practice according to Godlinesse which are confessed to be so by the Disputants on both sides Live here we must as if infallibly chosen to life eternall and yet never cease to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure implore the speciall ayd and assistance of his holy Spirit who worketh in us both to will and do even all our works in us and for us not forgetting in the meantime to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Further we have here a portraiture of LIFE and DEATH the life of the spiritual with the death of the carnal both of them pictured and set forth in most lively colours upon which is grounded a pious and patheticall Exhortation to fasting and mourning a duty as well now as then yea now if ever needful A Plat-form we have drawn to our hands by the Learned and most eminently holy Bishop HALL In a Book entituled The Holy Order and Fraternity of Mourners in Sion Let none be ashamed to follow so worthy a guide and have we not just cause our sins and Gods Judgments the confusion of our Land the ruines of a fair and flourishing Church will not all this open the flood gates of our teares yea let it at last till then there is no hope of mercy wring from us bitter cryes and lamentations Let us all with holy David set our faces unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes nor let us ever cease till our God at length overcome with our importunity shew mercy unto us bind up the wounds of this bleeding Island hear the prayers of those that stand in the Gap and be favourable unto us All which that he would for his Sons sake hear and grant is the uncessant prayer of him who professeth himself one of that Holy Fraternity of Spirituall Mourners Even yours in the Common Saviour John Waker THE Way to Life and Death Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live THis whole Universe may not unfitly be divided into three principall Kingdomes The Preface or introduction the first in Heaven where God reigneth the second in hell where Beelzebub domineereth and the third on Earth which God hath given to the children of men In the first is nothing but holinesse and happinesse in the second nothing but sin and misery in the third a mixture of all in the first is light without darknesse in the second darknesse without light in the third both light and darknesse In the first are Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory and blisse in the second the Devil and his angels tormented in flames and here are men of a middle condition placed on earth for the tryal of their obedience and accordingly as they shall demean themselves in this world so shall their doom be hereafter either to live with God who is the fountain of life or dye that second death with the damned spirits Here then we are in a center from hence are drawen two long lines the one reaching to heaven the other to hell in this world God hath shewed us the way of both the one that we might avoid it the other that we might walk in it nay he hath given us a taste of both of hell in the miseries of the world of heaven in the comforts of it of this that we might long for the fruition of the harvest of that that so we might ever take heed how we come into that place of torment So then there are but two conditions after this life the one of joy the other of torment the one of life the other of death and there are but two estates of life in this world as meanes tending thereunto one evil another good some live after the flesh and some after the Spirit and they that live after the flesh shall dye but they that by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live So that here the Apostle describes two contrary waies and two contrary ends unto which they lead the first is the broad way that leadeth to destruction a way of pleasure but it endeth in woe The voluptuous man now fares deliciously anon cannot get a drop of water now cloathed in fcarlet anon tormented in flames now accompanied with Nobles anon haled by devils the other sowes in teares but reaps in joy now full of sores with Lazarus anon with him full of pleasures now among the dogs anon among Angels now on the dung-hill anon in Abrahams bosome verè stupendae vices the former of these wayes is through the fairest street in the City but it leads to the place of execution the other through a narrow dirty Lane but it brings to the Kings Palace where is prepared a costly banquet the first is a way pleasing to flesh and blood strewed with Roses over flowery meadows having all the delights that nature or art can afford but it leads at last to the dead Sea it tends to the chambers of death the other is beset with briars and thornes haunted with wild beasts theeves and robbers over craggy Rocks and steep Mountaines where if a man cannot find a way for few tread that path he must make it as he did over the Alpes but this way leads to the new Jerusalem to the Celestial Paradise Non quà sed quò must be the wise mans quaery not which way we go but whither so that here you have our Saviours

and glory in your shame you that are perfidious to God and man forgetting your Marriage-vow as if your lust were asleep rouze it up and foment it with lascivious pictures scurrilous talk filthy Poems pictures Stage-playes the seminaries of filthinesse you that are wise to do evil and invent prodigious wayes to satisfie your lusts Strange punishments shall be for such workers of iniquity Remember Absalom that defiled his fathers Concubines Heaven would not receive such a miscreant nor the earth bear him he was hang'd betwixt both Remember Sodom and Gomorrah that burned in unnatural lusts God sent fire from heaven to consume them But if they escape that a worse is preparing it will be at the last bitter as wormwood sharper then a two-edged sword Remember this ye haughty persons that speak swelling words of vanity that wear Lord-ships on your backs that spend so much time in trimming up that house of clay you men that are so effeminate and women that are grown Monsters wearing apparel against shamefastnesse utility and decency you in whom nor Magistrate nor Minister can work any reformation but make idols of your selves take heed God send not a rent instead of a girdle and baldnesse instead of your borrowed powdered brayded hair Take heed God do not send an enemy to pull off your ridiculous apparel and discover your shame to your reproach but if you escape here you shall be sure to smart for it hereafter Remember this ye rich men you that go clothed in purple and scarlet and fare deliciously every day It 's impossible for those that live after the flesh to enter into heaven it s very difficult for a rich man not to live after the flesh You may not do with your own what you will not be proud of your own cloathes nor play the gluttons with your own food nor be drunk with your own wine nor lascivious with your own wives Ere long God will pose yon with these two Quaeries How you came by your wealth and I will not bid you rememmember how much you have hoarded up by sacriledge by oppression and cousenage the second How you have imployed it in good chear in brave apparel so much for the satisfying of my voluptuous pleasure scarce any for the glory of God in heaven and poor Lazarus on earth Your account will be woful you stand in slippery places therefore by how much wealth encreaseth by so much had you need to be more watchful Oh remember this all ye that forget God lest he teare you in pieces when there is none to deliver Let no man deceive you with vain words for these things sake the wrath of God comes upon the childaen of disobedience but if nothing will reclaim you if you will not fear it you must feel it Go on then thou debauched sinner let loose the reines to all licentiousnesse please the flesh in all sensuality eat drink and be merry account our words as wind and death and torment as some Poetical fiction cloath thy self in purple and scarlet and fare deliciously every day let the poor dye for want of thy superfluities prefer thy dogs before poor Lazarus live like an Epicure like a beast like a devil but remember that destruction will overtake thee as a whirlwind unsatisfied hell will ere long send pale death as an inexorable Sergeant to arrest thee and thou shalt be cast into prison and not come thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Time will come when having irrecoverably lost the blessing with Esau thou wilt howl and say Blesse me even me also but there shall be no place for repentance As a man that seeth a costly feast when he himself is pined thou shalt see Abraham Isaac and Jacob set down at Gods Table then shalt thou think There is such a one whom I once scorned now he is comforted I am tormented Ah wretch that I am I was invited as well as he Alas how much precious time have I now mis-spent wherein I might have gained much to mine own soul how many admonitions have I contemned and now it 's irrecoverably come upon me How ost hath Christ opened his wounds to heal me stretched out his arms to receive me intreated me not to grieve his Spirit nor to crucifie him afresh With what earnest sollicitations hath he wooed me to be reconciled but I would not Oh what doth it profit me now that I have been cloathed in purple and scarlet c. How much better had it been for me to have been the very off-scouring of the world a worm and no man yea better for me that I had never been or might yet at the last cease to be but all this is now justly come upon me because I would not hear my Saviour and his messengers nor pity mine own soul but while I was seeking my venison have lost my blessing But if all this will not avail to dehort men from living after the flesh give me leave to turn my speech to you Reverend Sages whom under his Majesty God hath placed at our stern Let it be your care to revive those gasping Lawes constituted against swearing and surfeiting and drunkennesse c. not onely for the punishing but for the preventing of this latter for this purpose remember your oaths do not play with the Evangelists as it is the fault of too many else you through your neglect may bring ruine to the Land and the blood of these men upon your heads Impunitas ausum parit ausus excessum so the sin will be ultimately terminated in you and principally let your lives be exemplary reform your families let not your Cellars be turned into Ale-houses nor your houses shops for the devil Tophet is enlarged for such that live after the flesh and by their example draw others And you that have the Ecclesiastical power Oh improve it to Gods glory and for his sake quicken discipline against these walkers after the flesh If they will needs die pull them by violence out of the fire Let not the sword rust in the sheath or if you do draw it think it not enough to flourish it and if you will strike lay on upon these walkers after the flesh Oh give not Church-Wardens cause to complain that they still present but can see no reformation nor the delinquent to boast that they can escape with a ten groats see nor the soules of these men to complain hereafter that if the flesh had been punished the spirit had been saved in the day of Christ Let Ministers preach and people pray and Magistrates punish and delinquents reform and all mourn lest our patient God for our transcendent abominations cause our Land to spue out her Inhabitants But if none of these will perswade then let those that live after the flesh know that their destruction is from themselves God hath gathered the stones out of the vineyard by his preventing grace fenced thee about given thee the sweet influence of his grace the