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	wage_n	2,391	5	11.9240	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61206	Satana noēmata, or, The wiles of Satan in a discourse upon 2 Cor. 2. 11 / by William Spurstow ...	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1666 (1666)	Wing S5096; ESTC R22598	68,825	114

sins waste and destroy by making the heart brawny and stiff a path that is trodden onely by the foot of a Childe will by its often going upon contract a hardness as well as the beaten Road and so will the heart in which little sins have a common passage too and fro as well as the heart that is as the high-way that leades to destruction for all sin hath the same tendency though it do not work the effect in the like degree As then they who would keep themselves from a confirmed Stone use daily helpes to carry away the smaller gravell so to prevent a flinty and obdurate heart the care must be constant and the practise frequent of purging the conversation from little sins Oh if once the exercise of this duty be neglected it can hardly be imagined how suddenly Men come to do worse than ever Whence is it that Men sport themselves in the commission of those sins at the mention of which they would once have trembled and brutishly wallow in the midst of that mire the least speck of which they would not formerly should have been found upon their garments Is it not from their compliance of lesser sins that make them grow regardless of greater Is it not from their neglect of the fear of God a powerfull Antidote against the growth of sin this is made the cause by God himself of Israels multiplyed wickedness Jer. 9. 3. They proceed from evill to evill and they know not me saith the Lord. Fourthly By way of Palli●●ion and hiding them when done All sin as it hath death for the w●ges of it Rom. 6. 23. so it hath shame for the companion of it thence it is that Men seek to cover one sin with another deeming it better to be guilty of two faults then to be evicted of one And usually a greater sin is made the covering of a lesser as the vizard which is worn to disguise and hide a Person is more deformed then the Face that it is put upon Sarah at the Angells Tidings that she should have a Childe laughed and when he observes it she denies it Gen. 18. 15. to hide one sin she commits another she tells a lye to free her self from the charge of laughter And this second sin if circumstances be weighed will be found greater then the first David to conceale his Adultery with Bathsheba covers it with the Murder of Uriah her Husband A strange Fig-lea●e to spread over so soule a Crime but whether will not the shame of sin drive a Man if so holy a Person as David make this his security having done evill to do worse And thus also that excellent Woman Eudocia the Empress and Wife of Theodosius the younger as Sixtus Senensis relates the Story having an Apple given unto her by the Emperor of a wonderful bigness that had been presented unto him as a rarity she bestowes it upon Paulinus a learned Person and for that cause of great intimacy and familiarity with her he not knowing from whom the Empress had received it tenders it to the Emperour hereupon the Emperour sendeth for his Wife asketh her for the Apple she fearing because of his earnest enquiring after it that her giving it away might displease the Emperour made answer that she had eaten it he urged her to tell the truth she swore that she had eat it upon this the incensed Emperour brings forth the Apple as a Testimony against her and in his jealousie killed innocent Paulinus and hated his Wife who before was greatly beloved by him Is it not then matter of complaint as well as of wonder that this practise should be the common salve that many use to make others to deem them innocent when they have done evill to add to denialls oathes curses and bitter imprecations of themselves little regarding what guilt they contract before God so they may but seem blameless before Men. But let such know that they sow the Winde and shall reap the Whirle-winde and that as they cover one work of darkness with another God shall add one judgement to another and by the scorching flames of his Wrath shall make them to read the Truth of that divine Maxim He that hideth his sins shall not prospor but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 14. SECT II. SEcondly A second device and circumvention of Satan is A vexatious and restless importunity in urging to the doing of that sin to which he tempts In a temptation are three parts First Suggestion or the casting of evill thoughts into the Minde John 13. 2. It is said that the Devill put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master Immisit ut sagittam He threw as a Dart that thought into him finding it then a sit season both for him to make such a Motion and for Judas to receive it Secondly Perswasion or the backing of the suggestion with Arguments which may sway the understanding to approve and incline the will to consent to that evill as good And then he presseth sometime by way of Terror propounding sad events that will undoubtedly follow if there be not a yeilding to do what is suggested Thus many are moved to a practise of stealing and couzening through a conceived fear of want and penury which will else inevitably fall on them Others unto lying and perjury to preserve their life and liberty which may be otherwise hazarded if not lost Thus Peter both denied and forswore his Lord to save himself from that danger which his being with him might otherwise have exposed him unto Sometimes by way of enticement setting before them the profit and advantage that will accrew by their complyance with his motion And thus Ahabs Prophets through the suggestion of a lying spirit perswaded him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead because of the prosperous success that should attend his undertaking 1 King 22. 21. And with a far more alluring bait would the Devil have courted our Saviour to have done homage and fealty unto him by promising to invest him in a right to all the Kingdomes of the World upon that single condition Matth. 4. 9. Thirdly The last part is a vehement and continued instigation to put in a speedy execution what is suggested and this is the utmost extent of Satanical Power 1 Chron. 21. 1. It is said Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the People The Syriack renders it Praecipitem tulit Davidem He hurried David headlong not by compelling him but with instance again and again inforcing the motion till it was effected notwithstanding Joabs just expostulations and averseness to it The Fencers rule which saith Lypsius is repete double and follow the blow when made is Satans practise to the tempted who pursues oft times his suggestions with that violence as to rob them of their sleep that they may wake to his temptations to urge them whether in company or alone whether in their callings and recreations or in their