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	great_a	sin_n	3,696	5	5.0169	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76092	Sick-bed thoughts, upon those words of the apostle in Phil. 1, 23 ... Part. I containing an answer to that great and solemn question, what that state and condition is, which a person must be found in, before he can have good and sufficient ground, not to be affraid, or unwilling to dye? / by J.B.	Batchiler, John, ca. 1615-1674.	1667 (1667)	Wing B1075; ESTC R42879	47,054	145

partly by way of information and partly by way of exhortation and that both to good and bad SECT 3. The true causes assigned that justly fill men with horrour and dread of the thoughts of death and so render them much affraid and unwilling to dye THere are many things that justly cause a fear of death even a great and terrible fear First the consciousness of sin and guilt especially in the state of unregeneracy which is alwayes accompanied with impenitency and unbelief the two damning sins not but that all other sins even the least that is hath demerit and provocation enough in it to damn any one that is guilty of it but Faith and Repentance where-ever they are in Truth will take all off even millions of guilts and make the blackest sins that are as white as snow scarlet and crimson sins to bee as wool Isa 1.18 Now where these are wanting and so the guilt and filth of every sin remaining and upon all occasions flying in a mans face and fixing their venomous stings in his heart and conscience How terrible must this needs be For do not thoughts of the wages which these sins not repented of do deserve come pouring in upon him as at all times so most of all when Death approaches Though before he lull'd his conscience asleep and would not suffer it to be awakened neither by a quickning Soul-searching Ministry nor the plain-dealing of faithful friends Yet now Satan and Conscience too will both speak and speak aloud too yea though Satan should say nothing but be altogether silent yet self-accusations and self-condemnations will speak enough to fill the soul with horror and leave it in such distresses as no remedy can be found for while the aforesaid impenitency and unbelief remains to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à semet ipso damnatus self-condemned Who can express the terror of it and indeed this is that not so much Death it self as begets so much fear and dread As Ambrose in his discourse de bono mortis doth learnedly argue where in his eighth Chapter he hath many excellent passages to this purpose Mors peccatorum pessima saith he non utique mors pessima generaliter sed pessima specialiter peccatorum unde liquet acerbitatem non mortis esse sed culpae the death of sinners is the worst of deaths not death in general but the death of sinners From whence 't is evident that the bitterness is not from death it self but from the crimes that merit it Again a little farther he hath these words suae igitur unusquisque conscientiae vulnus accuset non mortis acerbitatem Let every one therefore that by his Sin hath wounded his own conscience lay the blame there and not upon death And again Non enim habemus quod in morte metuamus si rihil quod timendum sit vita nostra comisit There will be no cause of fear in death if in our life-time we have done nothing that we have cause to be afraid of Once again Prudentibus delictorum supplicia terrori sunt delicta autem non mortucrum actus sunt sed viventium To wise men the punishment of offences is matter of fear now these are the acts not of dead-men but of the living This then is the first thing that gives just cause of the fear of death Sins not repented of Secondly The apprehension of Divine displeasure hereupon and the Wrath of an Offended God a Wrath unappeased an infinite wrath a wrath intellerable and unexpressible a wrath inflicted by an Omripotent Power in comparison of which all the rendings tearings cruciatings burnings rackings torturings of mens bodies here by all the most exquisitely invented torments upon Racks Gibbets Wheels Gridirons and other engines of cruelty are but a flea-biting The principal torments here I mean from the sense of Divine wrath being chiefly seated in and mostly inflicted upon the minde not but that the body too when 't is risen from the Grave shall have its share in these sufferings in conjunction with the soul even to its utmost possibility of bearing them Thirdly An obnoxiousness to all this by the fixed Law of God which cannot be altered and by which he stands accursed and subject to all the direful threatnings thereof so long as he remains in this his unregenerate and impenitent state This is another thing that adds unto his fear Fourthly The thoughts of that most just and great Tribunal at which he must one day stand and where an account must be given of every thought word and deed how wicked how vile soever and howsoever circumstanciated all must be detected then and laid open before Men and Angels All night-sins secret-sins heart-sins The Thief the Murderer the Adulterer the closest and most undiscerned Hypocrite shall then be known what he is and all his iniquities start up before him The Books shall be opened the Book of a mans own Conscience the Book of Gods omnisciency the Books of Record in Heaven And then shall the impenitent hardened sinner stand before his great God and Creator who will now be his Judge as a guilty Malefactor and as I said before self-condemned There shall need no farther evidence than himself against himself All his scoffings and scornings of God and the things of God of his holy Waies Ordinances People all his contempts of Christ and tramplings under-foot of his most precious blood all his fleightings neglectings and opposings of the Spirit of Grace and the work of it upon his own heart all his abuse of Mercy and of the Patience forbearance and long-sufferings of God towards him shall be remembred and set in such order as to give him a full view of all at once Now how dreadful must the very thought of this also needs be to an impenitent and hard-hearted sinner if ever his Conscience be but in the least awakened Fifthly The Heart-sinking expectation of that most dreadful Sentence of Condemnation to be pronounced upon him in these or the like words Go you cursed into everlasting destruction into Hell-fire there to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels I and to bee tormented by them as well as with them For the Devils shall not onely be companions and sharers with the damned Sons and Daughters of men or rather the Sons and Daughters of men shall be sharers with the Devil and his Angels for whom as for the first Offenders Hell-fire is said to be prepared Matth. 25.41 but shall also be their tormentors and Executioners and what greater aggravation can there be to the misery of Malefactors than that those that hate them most and likewise have the greatest skill and strength in inflicting torments yea and exceedingly delight in such cruel work and are never weary of it should be their Tormentors Sixthly The consideration of a most severe and impartial Justice which in case of non-satisfaction otherwise made will certainly have the utmost vengeance taken in the Execution of the aforesaid sentence

speaks of the soundness of his Faith believing all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets and of the holiness of his practise in a pure and right worshipping of the God of his Fathers to both which he immediately subjoyns this his double exercise of a good Conscience or a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men 2. The Annotation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated void of offence properly signifying one that doth not cause another to stumble for so this very word is used in Luke 4.11 For dashing ones foot against a stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Balaam taught Balak how to bring Israel into sin by Whoredome and Idolatry 't is said Rev. 2.14 he taught him to cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel Hesychius Estius Beza Grotius and many other learned men criticize upon this word variously but all in effect amounts to this when a man becomes an occasion to his Neighbour any way to sin he is then a scandal a stone of offence a Trap Gin or Snare to him and is guilty of the curse pronounced in Lev. 19.14 upon those that lay stumbling-blocks before the blinde Now hee that by all means takes heed of this as well in things Spiritual as otherwise hee it is that most truely may be said to have a Conscience void of offence towards men Thus have I done with the first general Branch of a good Conscience a quiet Conscience I come to the second SECT 8. Of an Excusing Conscience which makes its own defence 1. Against the Challenge of exacting Justice 2. Against the malice of an accusing Devil I Will begin with the first The Challenge of Exacting Justice What is that Challenge you 'l say Why it challengeth for the breach of the whole Law of God and this a thousand and a thousand times over for manifold and great wrongs done to God besides such as an abuse of his patience forbearance and long-sufferance great and high ingratitudes for many Mercies received non-improvements of the means of Grace with many other crimes of like nature but especially for Gospel-sins and the neglects of those offers which for a long time were made before ever they were at all regarded or hearkned to For all which Justice crys out to the God of Justice against the Sinner calls for satisfaction and that to the utmost farthing both principal and interest or else away let him go saies Justice away with him to Prison to Hell-fire there let him lie and there let him be punished too according to the merits of the cause spare him not says Justice let him know what it is to sin against such a God and abuse such Mercy as he hath abused This and abundance more hath Justice to say even against the best man and woman in the world To all which an excusing Conscience makes answer and defends it self thus by pleading three things against which even Justice it self can make no reply but is left wholly speechless First Acknowledgeth that Justice is just in its Challenge that it self is indeed the person guilty of all this of all these debts and these crimes but withal that both the debt and the guilt is transferred and that Justice it self must herein be just also in making its challenge where the debt and the guilt lies which is not now upon me saies Conscience but upon Christ my surety who hath undertaken for me my gracious God hath laid all my sins upon his back and my gracious Redeemer was willing he should and thither I also have carried them and laid them too Secondly Conscience excuseth it self again thus Christ hath not only taken my debts and guilts upon him but he hath endured the punishment and paid the whole debt First for my debts I shall never contract greater or larger debts than he hath already discharged for me and that before-hand too and in better coyn than ever could have been pay'd by any other not with silver and gold but with that which is much more precious his own heart-blood 1 Pet. 1.18.19 And for Punishment hath he not undergone that also And for whom did he undergo it if not for me and such as I am He had no sin of his own to suffer for no sin by inhesion his holy heart had not the least defilement in it Well then it was for my sins that he suffered And did he not suffer to the full Pray speak Justice Was one lash forborn One wound abated Was he not all over wounded for my transgressions even all in a gore-blood How did the drops run trickling from him while the stripes were laid thick on him And why so saies Conscience but that I might be healed Isa 53.5 Hath not the Holy Ghost it self taught me to say so and commanded me to believe it Now then what can Justice it self desire more Ought any debt to be payed any more than once or doth any just Law inflict punishment more than once for one and the same offence Thirdly Conscience proceeds yet farther in its own defence and adds one plea more and 't is a great one without which the two former could never be verifyed by him as to his own particular What is that you 'l say Why 't is the blood of sprinkling for saies Conscience that it may indeed appear that I am one of those for whom Christ hath done this for whose sins he hath undergone his sufferings and whose debts he hath paid that I am indeed one of his saved and redeemed ones Behold here the sprinklings of his blood upon me Where-ever that is found the Conscience cannot not be evil the heart is washed thorowly Heb 10.22 But this thorough-Grace you cannot deny to be upon me and therefore while I adore the Mercy that hath thus sprinkled mee I fear not you Justice nor any Challenge that you do or can make against me But then Satan happily will come in with his Accusations and these great and heavy For that malicious foul-Fiend is wont to lay his charge deep calumniari fortiter and to the very best of Saints too in their Generations Thus he did to Job to Paul yea unto Christ himself he wants not impudence as we may see in Jobs case nor cares he how many lyes hee tells to traduce God and trouble a Saint and he never doth it more than when sickness or any other troubles seizeth him and death approacheth And the whole charge which he bringeth in usually is three-fold or may all be reduced to three general heads First Sins of Commission these he enumerates multiplies and aggravates with all manner of horrid circumstances of time place manner measure endeavours to make them all no less than presumptuous sins sins against Conscience against much light great love many obligations from the God of all Grace and Mercy For the circumstances of time and place don't you remember saies this Accuser of the Brethren