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	nature_n	sin_n	3,389	5	5.4793	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B09529	The young man's remembrancer, and Youth's best choice: being an exhortation to conversion, in two anniversary discourses from Eccl. xii. I.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1700 (1700)	Wing M1563A; ESTC R180504	46,254	164

8.11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God And Positively as in the Words of the Text Remember now thy Creator But why doth God put a Memento upon this Duty here Why there is a Fivefold Reason for it First To Intimate to us the Opposition of our corrupt Hearts to this great Duty naturally Man cannot endure the Yoak of Obedience to God He is without God in the World God is not in all his Thoughts therefore he calls us to Remember him Secondly The Sum of all Religion lies in the Observation of this one Command there can be no such thing as Religion where God is forgotten Jacob gave a severe Charge to his Sons concerning Benjamin because he lay nearest his Heart the Honor of God lies nearest his Heart of any thing and no Man can Honor him that doth not Remember him therefore he gives such a strict Charge about it It is this that frames our Spirits for all other Duties and makes them fit for every good Work Sin never prevails more upon our Hearts than when God is shut out of our Thoughts the Children of Israel did Evil and forgat the Lord therefore Remember thy Creator Thirdly It implies that no Age is so prone to forget God as that of Youth Youthful Pleasures and youthful Lusts and Vanities do frequently turn the Heart away from God therefore Solomon says Childhood and Youth are Vanity in the Words before the Text. It is Vanity both In a Natural and In a Moral Respect It is Vanity in a Natural Respect as being Frail and Mortal Though by the Course of Nature Young Ones may think to Live long yet by reason of the Frailty of Nature they may Die before the Eldest many Younger than you lye yonder Rotting in their Graves Now thou hast the Seeds of Death in thee and thou hast Sin the Cause of Death cleaving to thee and the Sentence lies against thee and therefore tho' thou mayest please thy self with the Thoughts of Living many Years like the Fool in the Gospel yet thou mayest Dye before to Morrow as he did Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee And as Youth is Vanity in a Natural Sense so it is in a Moral Sense for it is Tainted and Defiled with Lust and Corruption all over Thou art a Child of Wrath from the Womb under a Damning Guilt before ever thou didst commit one actual Sin For by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation Rom. 5.18 But alas How much Guilt hast thou Contracted by thy Actual Sin thy Lying thy Swearing thy Drunkenness thy Gluttonny thy Pride and Envy thy Lewdness and Uncleanness thy sinful Mirth and Levity thy Slothfulness and Vanity thy Stubbornness and Obstinacy These are the common Sins of Youth And no wonder that that Soul is prone to forget God where these Lusts reign therefore Remember thy Creator Fourthly It is a Duty of the Greatest Equity not only from the Will of him that Commands it but from the Reason of the Command it self which Consults Man's Good as well as God's Glory and is it not Equal that we should Remember that God that never forgets us and that we should mind his Glory who is mindful of our Good Besides how Equal is it that God who is the First Cause the Chief Good and Last End should be first owned best loved and most served And is it not Equal that Time being so rare a Jewel so great a Betrustment so Rich a Talent should be employed for him who gave it and who can either continue it or cut it short as we either lay it out upon God or profusely lavish it upon our Lusts Therefore Remember thy Creator Fifthly God gives us this Memento to mind us of that strict Account we must e're long give to him for all our Time Youth is to Account to God for a few Years as well as Old Age is for many more and therefore the Wise Man warns Young Ones of a Judgment Day for them as well as for those of more Years Eccles 11.9 Rejoice O Young Man in thy Youth But know that for all those things God will bring thee to Judgment If we do not Remember to keep this Precept God will Remember to punish the breach of it If we forget our Obedience to God he will not forget to punish our Disobedience and therefore God puts a Memento upon this Command that so we may be Awakened to our Duty from the Sense of an Approaching Judgment Remember thy Creator But it is not barely an Act of the Mind that is here called for it is not enough meerly for you to Remember or Think of God for that is done in Hell they all Remember God there the Memory of the Damned shall then be more quick and strong than ever and shall bring all your Sins into an Eternal view Now the Sins of Youth are committed and forgotten by us and we are apt to think God forgets them too and that they shall never be remembred more they say Tush the Lord seeth us not Ezek. 8.12 But mark what God says Psalm 50. ver 21. These things hast thou done speaking of their Sins before These things hast thou done and I kept Silence But I will Reprove thee and set them in Order before thine Eyes Every Sin shall be set in Order and come into Remembrance in that Day Son says Abraham to the Rich Man Son Remember Luke 16.25 pointing him back to his Lusts If Sinners could but forget in Hell it would be a Comparative Happiness A Loss though never so great yet when it is forgotten the trouble of it ceases It would be an ease to Sinners in Hell if they could never think of God more and if they could raze out the Remembrance of Christ and the Gospel out of their Minds and forget that ever they heard of a Redeemer to Remember what a God what a Creator what a Redeemer what a Heaven what a Happiness they had tendered to them and therefore might have secured but would not to Remember what Calls they were once under to Convert and Turn to God and Close with Christ and Live O how will this wound and afflict in that Day I had once the Means of Grace I heard the Preacher often Calling and Wooing me to leave my Lusts and come to Christ I have many times felt the Convictions and Strivings of the Spirit in me under the Word to bring it about and had I had Wisdom to Consider and a Heart to Comply O how Happy had I been I might have been one amongst the Blessed Saints in Heaven who are here Tormented amongst Damned Spirits O how often have I had Life and Death set before me and therefore this Misery is the Fruit of my own Choice To Remember Lost and Past Opportunities O how will this Torment Fool that I was to have such a Price put into my Hands to get Wisdom as once I had and yet to have

and Confidence in thy Word and Promises Thirdly This Remembrance implies Repentance Forgetfulness and Impenitence always go together Repentance is a Calling Sin to Remembrance with a Due Sence of the Evil of it and Sorrow for it as it is done against God and how can this be where God is forgotten If there be no right Conceptions of the Nature of God His Omniscience His Holiness and Justice there can be no Repentance for Sinning against him They are frequent Remembrances fresh Views of God that work to Repentance and Self-abhorring So it did in Job Chap. 42.5 6. Mine Eye seeth Thee therefore I abhor my Self and Repent in Dust and Ashes The Clearer Manifestations a Soul hath of God the Deeper will its Humiliation for Sin be When Peter remembred the words of Christ then he went out and Wept bitterly Till we Remember and Consider God in the Purity of his Holiness the Severity of his Justice the Tenderness of his Mercy the Inevitableness of his Wrath we can never truly Repent of Sin Fourthly This Remembring of God carries Love in it Though an Object be every Way Amiable and made up of Delights yet it can never be let into the Affections so long as it is shut out of the Thoughts nor on the other hand can it be with any pleasure Remembred when it has no room in our respect God's Design and End is not so much to be Remembred by us as to be Loved by us and his bespeaking a room in our Thoughts is that he may Dwell in our Hearts The Highest Act of Honour the Creature can do to God is to trust him and love him Those that Distinguish the Order of the Angels place the Seraphims above the Cherubims because they have a more ardent Love as well as a more clearer Light a Remembrance of God without a suitable respect will neither be Profitable nor Durable for when any other Object Possesses our Affections God is soon forsaken and forgotten then a Man Remembers God aright when his Affections are suitable to his Apprehensions As it is with Sin a Man hath not the right Notion of Sin unless he feel the Weight of it and loath it Then shall ye Remember your own Evil Ways and shall Loath your Selves for your Iniquity Ezek. 36.31 Or as it is with the Word of God no Man remembers the Word aright if he do not Believe it and Love it So no one can have right Apprehensions of God who has not Choice Affection to him and his Chief Delight in him Look what that is which we Love best and we always think of that most what a Man Loves best is his Chief Good and his Chief Good is his Treasure and where the Treasure is there the Heart will be Christ says What we Love we Delight to think upon as what we hate we soon forget So it is said of Jeshurun Deut. 32.15 He forgat God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation He lightly esteemed him and therefore soon forgets him If one that is but a common Acquaintance with you be Absent you soon forget him out of Sight out of Mind but a bosom Friend a dear Friend a Friend that is as a Man 's own Soul you cannot forget such a one Love will remember him when the Eye cannot see him and makes him Present when he is Absent nay he lives in the Mind when perhaps he lies dead in the Grave therefore I Pray mind that Precept of our Lord Matth. 22. ver 37. Thou shalt Love the Lord with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind Mark ye it is not said only Thou shalt Love God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul but with all thy Mind we Love him with the Heart and Soul when we Devote our selves to him and we Love him with our Mind when we have him daily in our Thoughts and Remembrance the Desire of our Souls is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee Isa 26.8 Fifthly This Remembring of him implies Obedience Obedience to his Will the Will of God is the Rule of Obedience and his Will is made known in his Word Obedience is Knowledge digested into Affection and Practice Hence is that Counsel of David to his Son Solomon Know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect Heart and with a willing Mind 1 Chro. 28.9 Paul's first Question when touched his Heart was Who art thou Lord And then the next was What wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.5 6. to shew us that all Obedience is produced by Knowledge As Ignorance is the Cause of Sin so a Right Sence of God is the best Antidote against it for this begets Love and the more God is beloved the more readily he will be obeyed a weak Conception and a fruitless Remembrance of God Glorifies him no more than a Painter does the Person whose Picture he draws The Glory of God consists not in the lifeless Notions of him but in active Conformity to him a Natural Man may have some Pleasure in knowing the Nature of God Ay but he cares not for knowing the Ways of God Job 21.14 They say we Desire not the Knowledge of thy ways He would own him in his Mercy and Goodness but he hath no regard to his Precepts Mercy is suitable to our Wants but Obedience is repugnant to the Interest of the Flesh That Knowledge of God which doth not take root in the Heart and grow up into Obedience in the Life it is Blindness and Ignorance in God's Account whatever our Notions of it may be Those Gentiles which are said to know God Rom. 1.21 they are said ver 28. not to know God The Sons of Eli could not but know the Lord having such a good Father and being the Lord's Priests But yet because they were Loose and Vile in their Carriage and Behaviour therefore they are said not to know the Lord 1 Sam. 2.12 As there can be no Obedience where God is known so that Knowledge of God stands for nothing which is not fruitful in Obedience It is a Blessed thing so to know God and so to Remember him as not to forget his Precepts It is Moses his Counsel to that People and it is mine to you Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God Deut. 8.11 How is that The next Words tell you in not keeping his Commandments that is forgetting of God Disobedience is called a Forgetting God They forgat God their Saviour Psalm 106.21 And we are said to forget his Words when we do not Remember his Commandments to do them Psalm 103.18 And that which here in the Text is called Remembring thy Creator is in Chap. 12. Ver. 13. expressed by Fearing God and keeping his Commandments which is said to be the Whole Duty of Man If the Authority of God be cast off and we make not his Word the Rule of our Lives he is as much forgotten as if he were