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	life_n	sin_n	9,880	5	5.5192	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44932	The spirit of prophecy a treatise to prove, by the wayes formerly in use among the Jews, in the tryal of pretenders to a prophetic spirit, that Christ and his Apostles were prophets : together with the divine authority of christian religion and the Holy Scriptures, the insufficiency of human reason, and the reasonableness of the christian faith, hope, and practice, deduced therefrom, and asserted against Mr. Hobbs, and the Treatise of Hvmane Reason / by W.H.	Hughes, William, b. 1624 or 5.	1679 (1679)	Wing H3346; ESTC R19799	183,906	298

study the promotion of Vertue especially when they were so far from having any Worldly Temptation to do it as that they had all imaginable Discouragements from it Who but Lovers of God and beloved of him in such a case would so strenuously propugnate his Glory by the Extirpation of Vice and Plantation of Vertue and Holiness of living Is it likely that Workers of Wickedness should be Planters of Holiness and that with design to have it spread universally and continue perpetually Yet such we know were Christ and his Apostles and so zealous were they in it as that their Labour and Industry did far out-●trip that of the most admired Teachers of Vertue among the Gentiles for they did not only despise their Family-concerns and renounce all sinful Pleasures whatever but they endured the utmost Malice of Men and the rudest Contradictions of Sinners in the Defence of Truth and Propagation of Vertue the one they Signed the other they Sealed with their Blood Was it then possible they should be no Lovers of it Greater Love than this we know hath no man that he layeth down his Life for the Beloved and the Object of strong Love is like the green Poplar that Jacob set before the Flocks of Laban it makes the Lover bring forth something that 's like it self it alwayes hath a kind of plastick Power whereby it is able to form its own Image and work its own likeness in the Souls and Lives of the Lovers and thus it seems the Love of God and his Righteousness wrought in Christ and his Apostles As was apparent by their Deportment and Conversation among Men which was so highly becoming the Gospel as that That Heroick Vertue which in others was a meer Phantasm in them was real The Life of Christ was so unbl●mished a pattern of Piety and transcendent Vertue as that he challenged his Enemies to convince him of Sin What he himself did to the Jews his Followers have since done to the Gentiles thus Arnobius upbraids the partiality of their Judgment and behaviour towards the Deceased Those saith he that in their Lives were prodigio●sly profligate and l●scivious after their Death you admire and extoll to the skies in your praises you repose their memoirs in the safest places of Libraries you reward them with Chariots and Statues and as much as in you lies you endow them with a kind of Eternity by the testification of immortal Titles only Christ if you could you would tear and mangle into pieces yea him only were it lawful you would chew like savage Beasts with bloody mouths and devour all with bruised bones But for what Cause I beseech you speak what Sin what Fault is it for what was there that he did which swerved from the Rule of Righteousness or might stir you up to your sharp hatred against him Thus also Origen tells Celsus divers of their reputed Gods were stained with the Vices of Men but of our Jesus there is nothing reported that he did intemperately for those that lay in wait and sought false witnesses against him would certainly have found something of probability to have put into the evidence that so for that Intemperance they might the more plausibly have drawn up their accusation against him But nothing of that nature could with any shew of probability be alledged against him for the truth hereof he refers Celsus to some Histories which it seems they then had of him and if by them or any other means either Origen or Arnobius could have been found Lyars how rash and ill-advised had they been in thus appealing to their Adversaries who wanted neither Wit nor Malice to have done it if they could but since they left it unattempted it is more than probable that they as well as Pontius Pilate could find no evil that our Saviour did Nay so far was he from it as that in some of their esteem as well as ours he was infinitely above it for they thought him a God thus Chalcidius a Platonist mentions the Star that conduced the Eastern Sages to Christ and saith of it it did not presage Diseases or Mortality but the descent of a venerable God to converse with men and settle the affairs of Mortals Apollophanes and his friend Dionysius it seems were of the same Opinion for being together at Heliopolis in Aegypt and contemplating the supernatural Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviours Passion O good Dionysius said Apollophanes things Divine now have their turn to suffer and Dionysius thought so too for he replied either God himself suffers or Sympathizeth with him that doth Afterwards Pontius Pilate gave such an account of Christ to Tiberius as that in Tertullians judgment Pilate himself in his Conscience was a Christian yea and Tiberius thought him a God and would have had the S●nate declared that he was so but the Senatours because Pilate did not give them the first Notice of it were pleased to refuse him However C●●sar continued in his Opinion and did threaten those that should presume to accuse the Christians And so much Reason it seems there was for this his Opinion as that his Successours would have believed in Christ if the Caesars had not then been necessary or if they could have been Christians and Caesars too Had these things been false or doubtful or capable of being proved so Tertullian had much better have spared his Apology than sent it to tell fals● tales of such importance concerning Emperours and that in Writing to their Successours was much more likely to betray his own Folly and Impudence than to obtain their Belief and Clemency to enrage their Anger than to acquire their Favour but whoever reads his Works will ●ind Cause enough to think Tertullian much more wise and learned than to be so bad an Advocate yea so rash and impudent a Lyar as he must needs have been if these things had not been true we have therefore much Reason to believe and none to doubt that they were so and consequently that in the esteem of the Gentiles as well as of us Christians our Saviour was holy harmless and undefiled with Sin and fully satisfyed in the enjoyment of himself for Holiness Self-sufficiency and perfect Happiness are such essential Attributes of the Deity as that whoever owns the one confesseth the other And for the Apostles though they themselves confessed they did not live without Sin yet surely they were in Holiness that which Saul was in Stature viz. higher than others by the Head and Shoulders By their Doctrine they taught men to abstain from the very appearance of Evil and to follow Holiness in all manner of Conversation and for their help in so doing they made no doubt of propounding their own Example to their Imitation most unlik●ly therefore it is that that did enervate their Doctrine especially considering the multitudes of their Followers and the science of their Adversaries Although our Nature be corrupt and depraved yet not so

Cause liable to be put to death this Law then was severely Penal and known it is sufficiently that Law-Givers on earth much more may the Supreme one in Heaven admit of a Relaxation of their Laws and accordingly so hath God done in divers Cases as for instance in case the high Priest or the Congregation or a Ruler of the People sinned through ignorance although according to the Rigour and utmost severity of that Law the Sinn●r ought to be put to death yet God accepted of a Sacrifice Concerning which Sacrifice we shall do well to observe three things viz. First that the thing Sacrificed whatsover it was was substituted in the place of the offender and this its Surrogation was usually signified by the imposition of his hands upon it and then secondly the Bullock or Kid of the Goats thus substituted in the stead or room of the offender was killed and offered in Sacrifice unto God and hereupon thirdly Gods Wrath was appeased by the Offering or oblation of this Sacrifice the Offender obtained pardon for his fault and his life was to be spared for the Priest thereby made an attonement for him concerning his Sin and it was forgiven him The suffering of a viol nt death was remitted he was no longer bound over to it he had no cause to fear it from the hand either of God or of the Magistrate Now know that the Law having but the Shadow of good things to come these things were Types of our state by Nature and deliverance therefrom by our Blessed Saviour a violent temporal death the penalty of transgressing the Ceremonial Law did Typifie or at least not Inelegantly adumbrate Eternal death the Sanction and Curse of the moral Law whereunto both by Nature and Practice we are all obnoxious but it pleased God to admit a Relaxation even of this Law and thereupon to send his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins i. e. to be a Sin-offering a Propitiatory Sacrifice or Sacrifice of Atonement and Exp●ation for them and this he was in his sufferings especially his Bloody Death and Crucifixion for the three essential parts of such a Sacrifice but now m●ntioned were all evidently contained therein as first his Surrogation in ●ur stead this is very plain to be seen in his Death for He gave his life a ransome for many his Body was given and his Blood was shed for you Christ dyed for the ungodly i. e. for all He did tast Death for every Man He suffered for us i. e. for our Sins the Just for the Unjust From any much more from all these Texts of Scripture the Surrogation of Christ in his sufferings is so plain and evident as that the Socinians with all their Criticisms and distinctions will never be able wi h any Probability to gain say it The like also we may observe concerning the second thing in a Sin-offering under the Law namely the Oblation thereof unto God this likewise is evident in our Saviours sufferings for through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God And that this Oblation of himself to God was not made as some would have it by his entrance into Heaven but by his sufferings on the Cross appears if not from the Apostles making it the same or almost all one thing therewith by calling his offering of Himself in one verse his suffering in the next yet from the Comparison he makes between the condition of Christ and other Men it is appointed unto Men once to die so saith he Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many so that Christ in dying w●s offered and in being offered he dyed so that 〈◊〉 are sa●ctified thro●gh the Offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all and this offering of his b●dy to God was antecedent to his Glory in Heaven for after he had offer●d one Sacrifice for Sin for ever he sat down on the right hand of G d it is n●t therefore to be doubted but our Saviour upon the Cross offered Himself a Sacrifice to satisfie divine Justice and so to appease the Wrath of God against us For lastly his Sufferings had the Effect that was natural and necessary to a Sin-offering namely the Atonement and Reconciliation of God to Sinners for when we were enemies we were Reconciled unto God by the death of his Son and you that were enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death hereby then methinks it is so plain as that nothing can be plainer unless it be to those that can see knots in a Bull-rush than that Reconciliation and Atonement was made to God for us in and by the death of his Son Thus fully do we see that our Blessed Saviour in his Temptations and Sufferings hath redeemed us from the power of Satan and the Curse of the Law or the Wrath of God against us But these things I confess are not sufficient for to any one that shall consider the imbecillity of humane Nature now in its state of Mortality and imperfection it must needs methinks be evident that after this great Salvation thus far wrought out for us and revealed unto us we still shall want Grace and Mercy to help in time of need Grace to help our Infirmities and to enable us acceptably to perform our Duty And Mercy to forgive us our Sins and to succour us in our Miseries Both these it is manifest that we want Know therefore lastly that both these Christ is enabled to give unto us by his Temptations and Sufferings for us for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted But was not he able to succour us before he suffered and was tempted Yes doubtless that he was as he is God over all blessed for ever but Infinite Wisdome and Goodness condescending to our infirmities were pleased to constitute another way of shewing mercy and affording Succour to us in miseries and temptations When we consider the Infinite distance between God and us together with our manifold sins and odious miscarriages against him we may well be afraid to approach him or else void of confidence in our approaches To the end therefore that we might have the highest assurance that may be both of Grace and Mercy and of their accommodation to our Nature under its abasing reflections on it self it seemed good to Infinite Wisdome so to order the matter as that the Divine Grace and Mercy should in some sort be made Humane for being conveyed to us through the Heart of our Lord Jesus the Mercy of God is so assimilated unto and made the Mercy of a man as that though we cannot conceive how the Divine Nature is disposed to shew Mercy yet by the familiar experience of our own hearts towards others we may conceive how Christ will be merciful unto us viz. by way of Pity

two 1. Because the Apostles Power was no other than that of Our Saviour to invite men to imbrace the Kingdom of God which they themselves acknowledged for a Kingdom not present but to come and They that have no Kingdome can make no Laws It is very true They that have no Kingdom can make no Laws yet since as the same Page tells us God is the Soveraign of all the World they that have no Kingdom may Proclaim his Laws and this was the Office of the Apostles as Prophets or men Inspired by God and sent to Preach the Gospel Their calling of M●n to Christianity derived not its Authority Originally from them but from God that sent them and send them he did not barely to invite Men unto it but also in His Name to Command them to receive it for now God Comm●●deth all Men every where to repent and this is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ Under these two heads of Repentance towards God and of Faith towards our Lord J●sus Christ St. Paul comprehends all Invitations that can be to Christianity and since they both are thus plainly and Emphatically commanded it is a strange over●ight or worse to say the Prec●pts of the Gospel are no Commands And yet more strange and worse than so it is to say 2. We read not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin but th●t they died in their sins that is that their sins against the Laws to which they owed obedience were not pardoned And therefore of Infidels St. John ●aith not the wr●th of God shall come upon them but the wrath of God remaineth upon them and not that they shall be condemned but that they are condemned Nor can it be conceived that the benefit of Faith is Remission of sins unless we conceive withall that the dammage of In●idelity is the Retention of the same sins But do we not read that when Christ sent forth His Disciples by two and two He gave them Order that in whatever House or City they were not received and heard they should shake off the dust under their feet for a ●estimony against them and withall assuring them that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and G●m●r●●a in the day of Judgment than for that city And do we not read of Jerusalem whose Houses were le●t desolate because the Inhabitants would not be gathered unto Him and do we not read that This is the cond●mnation that light is come into the world and men love Darkness rather than light and do we not read that he who believeth not shall be Damned and do we not read that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in fl●ming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and do we not read of the Comforter who was to come and reprove the world of sin because they believe not on him It is well known that if we turn to our Bibles we may read all these things therein how strange then is it and horrid to say we read not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin Is that no Sin which will make Eternal Judgment more severe and intolerable to otherwise the best of Cities than to Sodom and Gomorr●a is that no Sin for which God destroyed Jerusalem and cast off the ●eed of Abraham his Friend and the Children of Jacob his chosen Is that no Sin for which above all things the World is condemned Is that no Sin for which Men shall be damned Is that no Sin for which they shall suffer the vengeance of Eternal fire Is that no Sin for which the Holy Ghost reproves the World of Sin Who so blind in his apprehension or so perverse in his judgment as to think it is not even he that writ it I verily think did it with but at best a trembling Assent unto it His Allegations of Scripture and Reason to prove it are so impertinent and insufficient as that they rather conclude the contrary For what though St. John speaks in the present Tense and faith not the Wrath of God shall come but that it abideth upon him that believeth not and that he is condemned already Doth it thence follow that Infidelity is no sin who would not rather thence conclude that it is yea and that so great an one as that the Unbeliever shall as certainly be punished for it as if Gods Wrath were actually Inflicted or Eternal Condemnation had actually passed upon him this Construction of the Evangelists words is certainly far more probable than the other because He there assigns the Reason of the Unbelievers Condemnation which is not because he had sinned against the Laws of Nature and the Civil Laws of State but because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God Since then this is the moving Cause or Reason of his Condemnation it is here evident that this is his sin Nor doth the Reason that the Leviathan alledgeth to the contrary enforce any other conclusion for it cannot be conceived that the Retention of sin is the dammage of Infidelity unless we conceive withal that Infidelity doth displease God nor can we conceive it to displease Him unless withal we conceive it to be a Sin And indeed when we well consider it we cannot possibly methinks conceive it to be any other for very evident it is that Christ Crucified is either a Rock of Offence or Foolishness unto it it sets at naught the Counsel of God in contriving and despiseth the Riches of His Grace in effecting the Redemption of the World by Him it counts the Blood of the Covenant an Unholy or Trivial thing not worth minding and does despite unto or at least resists the Spirit of Grace it makes God a Lier and all the Witnesses to Christianity it impudently chargeth with Falshood in short it frustrates the whole Gospel and breaks the Commandment of God and therefore it is a great sin Nor indeed can it possibly be otherwise because it is a Notorious transgression of the Gospel and the Gospel is a Law Namely the Law of the Spirit of Life and the perfect Law of Liberty Nor can it be thought that these Apostles do improperly style the Gospel a Law for a Law being little or nothing else but an Ordinance and Preception Promulgated for the common Good by Him that hath the Care of the Community it is very easy to discern that the Gospel hath in it the Nature of a Law because all the parts of its Definition are very agreable thereto it concerns Me at present to take Notice only of its Obligation and this is so inseparable from a Law as that it receives its Name therefrom and indeed the most Essential difference of a Law

But besides Allurements and enticements unto Sin the Devil sometimes by especial permission from God hath other wayes of provoking men thereunto And this he hath power to do by bringing afflictions perhaps the ●orest pains both of Loss and Sense that possibly he can upon them Thus we read of Gods Servant Job whom he tempted by great and grievous afflictions in his Person Goods and Kindred And thus it pleased God to permit him to do by our Blessed Saviour It was we know at first foretold that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head and the Serpent should bruise his heel i. e. that the Messias should destroy the power and authority of the Devil and the Devil should sorely but not irrecoverably wound the Messia● Now in order hereunto there was to be a time wherein the Devil was to be permitted to do his utmost against him this bitter Conflict with the Devil it is thought our Saviour apprehended at his triumphant Ingress into Jerusalem three dayes or more before he entred upon it This seems it he spake of when he said Now is my Soul tr●ubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour No this he himself upon a little deliberation seems to disapprove because for this cause saith he came I to this hour he resolved therefore to say Father glorifie thy Name Hereby he commits himself to his Father's disposal and prayes him to make the Contest glorious unto Him A little while after J●sus knowing that this hour was come said unto his Disciples hereafter I will not talk much with you f●r the Prince of the World cometh Satan it seems would again try his strength upon him and that not as before with subtilty and snares but with greater force and violence than formerly had been permitted to him and accordingly so it seems he did in his Agonie and Bloody Sweat at which time saith a great Divine his Fath●r permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him only over his Soul or Life he had no power Yet doubtless during this Agonie he suff●red pains more than natural such as neither the Prophets before him nor the Apostles or Martyrs after him either felt or could indure the pains of Hell they could not be because the Prince of the World having nothing in him he was not a Patient rightly disposed to indure those pains yet doubtless as the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater than the glory of all his S●ints which have been or shall be hereafter so no doubt his Sufferings did far exceed the sufferings of all his Martyrs But what they were is it seems best expressed in the ancient Greek Liturgies by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown Sufferings Hereby the Devil tempted him to Impatience or some other obliquity in one kind or other but his design was frustrate for when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death he was heard in that he feared The Paroxysme was over the sharpness of the pain was abated if not quite extinguished by t●ese means at this assault in this battel also the Devil was beaten he ceased therefore from farther attempts by way of single Duel But the Contest b●●ng for no less than the Crown and Empire of the whole World Satan resolv●d not so to leave him but once again to attaque him and it should be in that manner wherein throughout all Ages he had found himself most successful in doing mischief and that is not by hims●lf alone and immediately but by his wicked Instruments Men being left to the freedom of their own Wills are not under so strict a restraint as the Devil is ●ereupon he hath tempted them to be executioners of his Malice and they at his suggestions have often acted greater cruelties than were permitted to him to do by himself immediately Judas therefore and the Jews he most e●fectually t●mpted to the most barbarous and unnatural cruelty that they could possibly execute on the Holy One of Israel Thence was it that when he was apprehended He said unto them that took him This is your hour and the power of darkness whereby it is plain not only that at that time our Dear Lord was delivered into their hands to do what they would with him but also though the Devil did not appear yet he was the greatest Actour in all the Scenes of that sad Tragedy from the Apprehension to the Crucitixion of our Lord Jesus his Darkness was in its power his Will was then done his Pleasure was ful●illed The Outrages and Barbarisms that men then committed upon him were but the Venom which that Old Serpent spit at him and by so doing did the worst he could against him viz. he bruised his heel i e. he crushed his Humanity to death yet neither so could he conquer him by obtaining the least Sin to be committed by him Had he effected this he had obtained his purpose and done his own business viz. he had de●cated our Salvation and established his own Throne for ever but blessed be God the Captain of our Salvation was Victorious and by so doing he ●ath canc●lled all the Claim that the D●vil can p●ssibly make unto us and hath utt●rly dissolved and ●isp●●sed all Shadow of pretence to the Right of Conquest over us and since he received his Commission from God and in all his Temptations and trials he fought his Battels against the Devil it is evident that his Right hand and his holy arm h●ve gotten God the victo●y and so indisputable is the Right of Conquest as that by the Law of Nations Conquerours are always and every where Lords and Sovereigns over them that they have taken in just and lawful Wars since therefore in the War between Christ and the Devil most justly and graciously designed for our Redemption our Blessed Saviour was the Conquerour he hath thereby undoubtedly renewed if not also augmented Gods Rig●t of Sovereignty over us and by so doing hath laid as we shall see in the Sequel f●esh Obligations of All●giance and Subjection to Him upon us Neither is that all for by his sufferings he did not only ●e●●ore us into the freedom of Gods service but did also propitiate and make him gracious unto us For God sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins or he set him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood and so the Son Himself tells us that his Blood was shed for many for the Remission of Sins As a farther proof and illustration hereof it will not be amiss to observe That the Law of Moses had this severe Sanction Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them the matter of this Curse was a violent death without mercy so that whosoever transgressed it was for that