Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	good_a	sin_n	2,776	5	5.2292	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53083	Peccata in deliciis a discourse of bosom sins : a sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and court of aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, October the 10th, 1686 / by Peter Newcome ...	Newcome, Peter, 1656-1738.	1686 (1686)	Wing N902; ESTC R3277	17,860	35

Geffery Mayor Martis xii o die Octobris 1686. Annoque RR. Jacobi Secundi Angl. c. Secundo THis Court doth desire Mr. New-come to print his Sermon preached at Guildhall-Chappel on Sunday Morning last before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe IMPRIMATUR Octob. 14. 1686. Hen. Maurice RRmo in Christo Patri ac Dnō Wilhelmo Archiepisc Cantuar a Sacris Peccata in Deliciis A Discourse of Bosom Sins A SERMON Preach'd before the LORD MAYOR And Court of Aldermen AT Guild-Hall Chappel October the 10th 1686. By PETER NEWCOME M. A. And Vicar of Aldenham in Hertfordshire LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard 1686. To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Geffery Lord Mayor of the City of London And to the Court of ALDERMEN My LORD IN Obedience to your Lordship's particular Desire as well as the publick Order from the Court to me I here present you from the Press what your Lordship was pleased so much to favour with your liking from the Pulpit The Discourse is rustick plain and purely practical and was design'd not so much to work the Head or tickle the Fancy as to affect the Heart and reform the Life to a real and universal Uprightness before God which end if it answer I am not at all sollicitous how it may fare in other respects That the Blessing of God may attend both it and the Government of this City is the hearty Prayer of Right Honourable Your most humble and most obedient Servant PETER NEWCOME A Sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor at Guild-hall Chappel PSAL. 18.23 I was also upright before him and I kept my self from Mine Iniquity ORder and Method in Spirituals as in Temporals is the Life or Action that which facilitates and succeeds our Enterprize rendring it both pleasant and profitable to us We might certainly become much better Men and much sooner too did we but begin at the right end and proceed regularly in a good way A neglect whereof doubles our Task and disappoints mightily our Labour This therefore is of vast consequence for us all to learn even the best and shortest way to be Good which the Words before us may instruct us in as declaring not only an Evidence of the Psalmist's Vprightness but intimating also the successful Method of his attaining thereto which was by keeping himself from his Iniquity I was also upright says he before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity A due Abstinence from our Own Iniquity as it is the Effect so it is a certain Cause of a Religious Vprightness before God The first step or likeliest method to become effectually Good is diligently to keep our selves from our Own Sin This Position as the words afford us so shall I endeavour to illustrate by briefly insisting on the following Particulars First of all I shall shew what is here meant by a Man 's Own Iniquity Secondly Whence it is that some Sin more peculiarly becomes so Thirdly How this may be discover'd and distinguish'd by us from all other Sins And then Lastly The necessity of keeping our selves from such Sins especially in order to our becoming Vpright before God The first of these I begin with which is I. To explain what we are here to understand by a Man 's Own Iniquity Because every Man 't is evident since that first fatal laps from Human Innocency do's remain a bruised and corrupted Being having a Principle of Vice within which do's strongly cncline to all Sin So that what ever Enormity we at any time stand guilty of it may most properly be termed our Own it proceeding from our own Choice and depraved Inclination nor can any thing but himself challenge a Propriety therein But even yet All Sin is not in the same degree apparently his Every Crime cannot claim an Equal Interest in him The Appetite of the Old Man is not without its Longings too discovering a greater lust after some Food more than others never moving with an equal pace towards every Sin Some it craves after with a greater thirst pursues it with more eagerness and swallows it with more delight and gust than it does others Some it singles out and makes special choice of to follow and prey upon with the most earnest Delight and sensual Sweetness Hereby owning it more peculiarly his own the Sin which he chiefly respects to which he most ordinarily conforms himself and is most conversant in and to which therefore he makes all Occasions and Circumstances Friends and Acquaintance Religion and Conscience all the Powers both of Soul and Body and outward Estate tributary and subservient Thus in the Body of Sin as in the Body Natural there is ever some one prevailing Humour which shews it self and lords it or'e the rest And therefore as good Men tho they have the seed of every Grace in them yet some one may be be said to be their's in an eminent manner above the rest as Abraham was eminent for Obedience Moses for Meekness Job for Patience So wicked Men tho they have the seed of every Sin in them Jews and Gentiles being all under Sin as the Apostle argues Rom. 3.9 i.e. all alike corrupt by Nature yet does not this Corruption operate alike in all Bodies but in every particular Person it vents it self in one way rather than another Whence it is that we find also wicked Men marked out in Scripture for their several Sins Cain for his Murder Simeon and Levi for their Treachery Corah and his Company for their Rebellion Nebuchadnezzar for his Pride Manasses for his Cruelty Balaam for his Covetousness Some vicious Humour or other ever gets the predominancy in all Constitutions Every Man hath his Peccatum in deliciis some sweet Morsel which he roles under his Tongue and is loth to spit out Even as in every Man's Body there is a seed and principle of Death yet in some there is a proneness to one kind of Disease more than to another so tho in every Man's Soul there is naturally the seed and principle of every Sin yet hath every Man his Inclination to one kind rather than another and this is that which we are here to understand by His Iniquity as being so in a more peculiar and eminent manner so as no other Sin besides it is Consider we therefore II. Whence this comes to pass From what Cause it proceeds that every Man thus singles out his particular Sin This I conceive to be from one or possibly all these following 1. From the Natural Constitution and particular Complexion of Bodies 2. From distinct and particular ways or manner of Education and Breeding 3. From the present Age or season of Life 4. From particular Callings or Professions of Life 5. From the present Outward Estate or Condition And 6. Lastly From Custom and long Usage 1. The Natural Constitution and particular Camplexion of Bodies will be apt to incline Men to particular and suitable Sins For

were the Seat of God and exalts it self in the Soul above all that is called God It reigns over us instead of God and is most notoriously therefore our Predominant and reigning in Thus by these plain Rules may one easily be directed to discover and distinguish our Darling our Bosom our reigning Sin Which having once found out our next concern must be to quit it abstinence from such Sins being the first step to real Goodness I haste therefore to my last general Head Which was IV. Lastly To shew you the necessity of keeping our selves from such Sins as these especially in order to our becoming upright before God For tho the Sin you love possibly may be but one yea and that in your own esteem at least but a very little one yet is there an Absolute Necessity of your Resolving to part with it especially and above all others And bending all your Forces against it alone to try this Method of the Psalmist's for your becoming Vpright before God For consider 1. Tho your Peculiar Lust may possibly be but One yet it is Sin however It is a Transgression of the most reasonable just and holy Law of God and Religion And consequently a stain and blemish of our Natures the reproach of our Reason and Understanding the disease and deformity of our Souls the great Enemy of our Peace the cause of all our Uneasiness and Fears and Troubles yea and that too for which even the Son of God was forced to die a most shameful and painful Death that it might not be our Unavoidable Ruine This is the least we can say of any Sin And tho then your Sin be but one yet hath it you see a monstrous Aspect and God cannot approve of it tho but single and we must therefore keep our selves from it before ever he will accept of us as upright before him But 2. If the Sin be but one then you may consider that 't is by so much the easier to part with and the more reasonable to relinquish it He that is bound with a strong Cable or multitude of smaller Cords may pretend some Necessity for his Thraldom from the strength of his Bonds But he that is tied with one single Thread such as one Resolute Struggle would be lure to break he is Prisoner only to his own either Sloth or Humour And who will pity his Captivity where 't is so apparently his own Choice Do not therefore say My Sin is but one and therefore I need not leave it But My Sin is but one therefore I need not keep it So single a Pleasure one may dispense with and find no great miss This single Profit one may resign and 't will be no breach in one's Estate And if my Saviour hath required a Renunciation of all my multitude of Sins tho never so dear shall I scruple to renounce one and that in my own esteem but a very small one Nay 3. We may yet argue higher and from the singleness and smallness of the Sin deduce the inhancement of the Guilt Great Acquisitions carry some Temptation in their face but despicable Prizes do rather avert than tempt 'T was therefore the sign of a Common Harlot to be hired with a Kid Gen. 38.17 And sure he must be of a strange prostitute Soul that can adulterate for such low trivial Wages To dishonour God tho the whole World were to be gained by it were great Impiety but to do it for handfuls of Barley and pieces of Bread upon such trivial inconsiderable terms himself brands as a yet higher pitch of Prophaneness Ezek. 13.19 And sure it argues a very light esteem of God indeed when one poor contemptible Lust shall be able to over-poize him in our Hearts Like wretched Judas this is to betray our Lord for a contemptible Piece A Smile a Word prevails more than the Love and Bounty of our Creator And do we not then deserve to perish Nor 4. Is the Folly less than the Prophaneness For the most Doting Affection when 't is summ'd up can amount to no more than this viz. That it makes a Man expose himself to the greatest Pain and the greatest Loss for the thing Beloved And this is most visible here Hell being certainly acquir'd and Heaven as certainly forfeited by one Sin as by many And then tho there may be odds in other respects yet what is there in this between us more modest and the most Licentious Sinners but that We put the very same value upon one which the other do put upon many Sins Which renders our Folly but so much more apparently the greater because we sell our Souls so much the cheaper Let Men pretend then what they will in extenuation of their Bosom Sin that they are not so prophane as many others that they neither have so many nor so great Sins to answer for as their Neighbours that setting aside possibly some one foolish Custom they have took up and are addicted to they can challenge all the World to accuse them of any they denying themselves in most of the Sins they can see others commit with greediness yet notwithstanding all this so long as they harbour but one Beloved Sin they are certainly as miserably cheated in their bargain as others and are no less guilty of the most egregious Madness For 't is apparent all the Love which other Men scatter and distribute upon several they have united and concenter'd in this One Lust And when then the parting with one Sin might save their Souls surely 't is a doting Passion indeed that will make Men hazard their Salvation for it Alas if our Sin be but One let us never be so foolish so stark mad as to be damn'd for it To make it the price of all those Pleasures which are at God's Right-hand for ever-more Of that Fulness of Joy which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor ever yet enter'd into the Heart of Man fully to conceive But since it is but One let us never be so rediculously fond as to be undone for a Trifle but with the upright Psalmist resolve rather to endeavour henceforward to keep our selves carefully from it And that more especially because 5. Tho it be but One yet it is the most malignant and mischievous one that can be harbour'd There 's no Sin among the whole mass of Vice which we have more reason to relinquish than our peculiar Sin because none is capable to do us more Mischief And that 1. Because this we have made our intimate and have not that Jealousy over it which we can have over other Sins This is our Bosom Intimate is got into our own Quarters shuffled with our own Forces entred our Holds and Defences and mixes in all our Counsels having full power of our Affections and therefore may easily do us the most injury it being observed that the Risque is ever the greatest when the Foe is thus Rebel and Traitor too A false Friend is certainly the worst