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	sin_n	sin_v	3,111	5	9.7434	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67085	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W360; ESTC R39413	43,048	124

all his goodnesse Quest If sin comes to passe by the will and providence of God how is God excused from being the author of sin Answ. Very well For the bare willing and permitting of a thing makes not him who willingly permits it the author and cause thereof To make God the author of sin or any way guilty of it there are three things required First that God do command counsell or perswade men to commit sin Or secondly that he move incline or stir them up to it Or thirdly that when he willingly permits and suffers it and is able to hinde● it he be bound by some Law and bond of duty as men are to hinder it to the utmost of his power and in no case to will it But Gods Will hath no Law besides it selfe as he is supreme Lord of all so he may will or not will where hee pleaseth Hee is bound by no Law to restraine men from sin Hee may have mercy on whom he will and whom he will he may leave to be hardened Neither doth God command counsell or perswade any man to sin by his Word but hath given a Law to the contrary by which he forbids sin under paine of death And never did hee tempt move incline or stir up any to sinne Therefore he can neither bee the cause or author of sinne nor any way partaker in the staine and guilt of it Quest But doth not Gods Providence meddle any more with sinne but only to permit it willingly and wittingly Answ. Yes certeinly God by his providence doth hinder and limit sin that it doth not break forth in all wicked men nor prevaile to the utmost extremity He doth also order and dispose the sins of the wicked to his own glory and the good of his elect He made the fiercenesse of Pharaoh and Senacherib turne to his honor fame and praise and the trechery of Judas in betraying and the cruelty and malice of the Jewes in murthering Christ he turned to the redemption of the world and the salvation of his elect in Christ by his overruling power and goodnesse Quest You have fully justified God from being the Authour of sin Now tell me how man being made in Gods image perfectly upright and good could bee drawne to disobey his Commandement which was so just equall and easie to bee observed Answ. By the power malice and subtlety of the Devill For every creature is in it selfe mutable and may decline and bee corrupted unlesse it bee brought by Covenant into Communion with God who onely hath immortality and is of himselfe unchangeable Man though made perfect with all naturall perfection was Mutable in innocency and therefore God made a Covenant of life with him upon condition of his obedience hee gave him the Tree of life to bee a seale of this Covenant and to confirme it and to settle man so steadfastly in that naturall estate that hee could not have beene seduced by any power or subtlety of the Devill if hee had received the seale by eating of the Tree of life But the Devill prevented our first parents before they had time to eat of that Tree and subtlety by the Serpent insinuated himselfe into the woman and by her into the man before they were setled and established by the sealing of the covenant breathed into them infidelity and ambition and by his lyes brought them into an evill opinion of God and so drew them into disobedience and transgression of Gods Commandement and made both Adam and all mankind who were then in his loyns guilty before God worthy of death and subject to all the evils and curses which follow sin and disobedience For Adam the root and stock being corrupted and stained with sin all the branches which spring from him must needs bee partakers of the same corruption and of the malice enmity against God which the Devill breathed into him Thus the Devil was the first author of mans sin and fall and the Serpent was his instrument Quest If this be so why do not the Devill the author and the Serpent his instrument beare the punishment but man and his posterity suffer for it Answ The Devill and the Serpent are cursed for this sinne with an eternall curse from which there is no redemption And Adam because by infidelity pride ambition and an ill and false opinion of God which Satan suggested into his heart did willingly yeeld to the temptation and transgressed Gods Commandement and as a voluntary agent did work with the Devill in that act of disobedience therefore hee is guilty yet so as that his sin is pardonable and both he himselfe and all his Elect and Faithfull posterity are redeemed from it by Christ Quest How comes it to passe that so small a thing as that wherein Adam transgressed to wit eating of a forbidden fruit is counted so great a sin before God and brings on all man-kind so many evils and curses Answ. The smaller the thing was in which God required obedience of Adam the greater was his sin and the more blame he deserved in that having received so many gifts from God and such large dominion over all earthly creatures by the free gift of God he would not upon Gods just Command which was so easie to bee observed obey his Creator in absteining but onely from one Tree Besides hee disobeyed God out of infidelity pride ambition a false opinion of God and enmity against his Majesty For hee beleeved the Devils words who said hee should not dye and not Gods Word who had said that in the day hee did eate hee should surely dye Hee in pride and ambition sought by eating to become as God and imagined wickedly that God out of envie did forbid him to eate of purpose that hee might not become wise as himselfe So that this disobedience in so small a matter did include in it all kindes of sinnes whereby the whole Law of God is transgressed Quest You have well shewed that this act of disobedience was an heinous sin Now tell me what evils it brought upon man-kind Answ. First it stript man naked of all those perfections of Nature and all that uprightnesse and image of God in which hee was created so that his person which before for the beauty majesty and comelinesse of it was reverenced loved and served of all creatures came to be feared and abhorred of them as an enemy his nakednesse made him ashamed and his paines and sorrows made his life a burden to him Secondly mans nature and frame was so stained and corrupted by this sin that neither he nor any of his posterity can understand things aright nor will nor do any good but are altogether perverse froward prone to all wickednesse very slaves of sinne and Satan and by Nature children of wrath Thirdly it brought a curse upon the ground for mans sake so that without his hard labour and sweet it yeelds no good fruit but only thornes thistles other

labourer for the good of your soules according to the utmost of my power and Your welwilling though weake Pastor GEO. WALKER A briefe Dialogue wherein the Father examineth his Son concerning the principles of Religion in which he hath formerly instructed him Quest MY deare Child why doest thou complaine because of thy sicknesse and many paines and infirmities which often doe befall thee seeing thou by thy sins pullest them upon thee and causest God thus to punish and correct thee Answer Indeed in my book of the of the Psalmes of David I am taught to confesse that I was shapen in iniquity and that in sin hath my mother conceived me but this is the fault of you that are my parents from whom I received in my birth and with my first being this sinfull corruption Quest It is true that wee brought thee into this world a poore sinfull wretch But doest thou not know that this corruption commeth not from our selves as the first causes of it but from our first parents in whom thou and we and all mankind have sinned against God and lost that image and likenesse of God in which wee were created and are so infected with the poyson a●d malice of the Devill which hee breathed into our first parents that wee have no power or will to do the good which God requireth of us in his Law but are forward to run into all sins which God forbiddeth Answ. I remember now when you put me in mind of it that you have taught me oftentimes that God created all things good at the first and in Adam he created all man-kind in his owne image and likenesse and that the Devill by the Serpent did tempt the woman and breathed into her his poyson and drew her into sin and by her infected Adam who was the root and stock of all man-kind and by drawing him into transgression did corrupt him and all man-kind defaced Gods image in us al and stained and defiled our nature so that eversince we are by nature children of wrath and disobedience who of our selves have no power to will or do any good but do run into sin and actuall transgression continually Quest I see and perceive by this that you are ready to forget those instructions of godlinesse which you have often learned and have need to have your memory often rubbed up And therefore I will stirre you up to remember the things which I have often taught you by asking you questions concerning the chiefe points of Christian Religion which you have learned that they may be more deeply printed in your mind and that you may have them more ready to put them in practise when occasion shall be offered Answ. I acknowledge my selfe bound in a double bond of thankefulnesse unto you both for your godly paines in t●aching me saving Knowledge and for your fatherly care to ma●e me remember the things which you have taught me that I may both beleeve and practise the things which God requireth of me for the obteining of eternall life and blessednesse Quest My paines of teaching you are a pleasure to me when I see you willing to bee instructed And if you answer readily the questions which I shall aske you concerning the grounds of Religion which I have heretofore taught you I shall rejoice in hope and confidence that God hath chosen you to be a vessell of honour called you to the state of Grace and prepared you for the state of glory in Heaven Answ. I acknowledge with all thankfulnesse Gods infinite love mercy and bounty to me in that hee hath ordeined me to be borne of Godly and Christian parents who as they were meanes to bring me into the world a corrupt sinfull child of Adam so are Gods speciall instruments to beget me to God a new creature in Iesus Christ by instructing me in his holy Word by which his holy Spirit doth take possession of my soule worketh in me Faith and renueth me after the image of Christ wherefore I am ready according to my best understanding and memory to answer every question which you shall aske concerning the things which I have before heard and learned from your mouth humbly beseeching God to print in my heart and to enable me by his grace to practise in my life the things which by your often urging and pressing are printed in my memory Quest My first Question therefore shall be about that which is the first work of God by which he gave to man-kind their first being I meane the creation of Adam and all man-kind in him tell mee what you have been taught concerning it Answ. First I have learned that God created the whole world and all things therein Gen. 1. 2. Quest What God is he who did performe and perfect so great a work Answ He who is the one only true God and besides whom there is no other God Deut. 6. 4. Isay 45. 5. Quest What a one do you conceive this God to be Answ. I conceive him to bee such a one as his most proper name Jehovah doth signifie Quest What doth that name signifie Answ. It signifieth that he is and hath his being of himselfe from all eternity without beginning and without end and that bee giveth being motion breath life and all other things to all creatures which live move and breath and to all other things which have been are or shall bee in the world and without him nothing can ●e or come to passe Exod. 3. 14. Quest What do you learn from thence Answ. I learne First that God is most absolute of himselfe and depends upon none other neither needeth either for his being glory or blessednesse any help or for the increase of them Secondly that he is before all things and is the first cause of them Thirdly that he is eternall even one who was before all times and is and shall be the same for ever without beginning and without end Fourthly that he is immutable and unchangeable in his nature essence and being and in his counsels will and all other his attributes and properties Fiftly that he is most perfect one who wanteth nothing but hath in him all excellencies to the full so that nothing can bee added to him to increase his goodnesse or blessednesse Sixthly that he is infinite and incomprehensible no tongue can utter no eye can see nor eare heare nor heart conceive nor reason and understanding comprehend him or his excellencies Quest Wherein doth his infinitnesse consist Answ. It consists in this that he hath no bounds nor limits but is above all degrees of comparison his whole essence is at all times pr●sent in all places and neither Heaven nor the Heaven of Heavens nor all places in the World can conteine him or measure his Substance He is infinit in Wisdome Knowledge Power Goodnesse Mercy Iustice Will Counsell and all other Attributes and Properties able to do whatsoever he will He seeth and knoweth all things which are have