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
A70564	An impartial account of Mr. John Mason of Water-Stratford, and his sentiments by H. Maurice ...	Maurice, Henry, 1648-1691.	1695 (1695)	Wing M1358; ESTC R3723	33,266	78

all Discourses of an elevated Nature and talk like other men The Objection I have already Answer'd that which I at present urge is That a Man's parts will rust if they have not sometimes the whet of a generous Conversation and in this condition he will either be over-run with Melancholy whilest he Converses only with the grim Visages and grisly Shades of his disturb'd Phancy or else he will become vain and empty toss'd to and fro with every flatus 4. I may add that one thing more which help'd forward the Delusion was from his taking too much Tobacco This he thought an innocent entertainment and therefore he indulg'd it But 't is natural for frail Man to delight himself too much in that which nourishes his Disease I seldom visited him but he was envelop'd in clouds of Smoke and this amongst other things over-heat his Brain and kindled that Zeal which wrought it self into new Light and Prophecy I the rather mention this because his chiefest Friend did ascertain me of the Truth of it For upon my enquiry Whether he was at all times alike full of Rapture It was presently answer'd That generally while he smok'd he was in a kind of Ecstacy and all his People flock'd about him to receive his Communications It made me think of blind Homer and his gaping Poets And so much for my Third Letter The Fourth enquires how it may consist with the Divine Goodness to permit a Person of no ill meaning to fall into so great Delusion This Query I confess was propos'd to me in some-what a different Dress for instead of a Person of no ill meaning they propounded it how a person sincerely good c. But the Word Sincerity when apply'd to an Enthusiast is liable to an arrest And therefore I shall first give my Reason why I decline it in the present case 1. He that is perfectly Sincere will not only avoid all known Evil as I hope Mr. Mason did but will suspect his private Judgment and do all he can to know the Truth in which particular it is to be fear'd that he was much defective Dr. More in his Treatise of Enthusiasm though he is some-what tender of some Enthusiastical Persons yet he cannot but grant that the extravagancies of most of them are occasion'd through their own Fault and the Guilt lies at their own doors There is an irregularity or vitiosity of the Will accessary to this Distemper whereof Temperance prudent Refreshment Humility and Attention to sober Reason would either be a Prevention or a Cure Now the neglect of these are in some degree or other culpable and so far evil and so far the person is not perfectly Sincere Though they are violently yet they are not irresistably assaulted by their own Complexion I confess indeed That it seems hard at first sight that Reason after its utmost efforts should be so liable to the vigour of the Phantasms and should be so far captivated by 'em as to list it self under the Enemy's Colours and fight on the contrary side Of which there are several instances in Casaubon and Dr. More speaks of David George and others that were grave and sedate in Speech and engaging in Conversation as much as Mr. Mason could be But to this I would offer two things 1. That Melancholy does occasion sometimes a particular tho' not a total Eclipse of the Light of Reason and then tho' all the other powers of the Mind act wonderfully well yet here is an incurable flaw 'till Time or Care or Providence remove it Now these Persons as they are not to be flatly term'd Insincere neither can they properly be call'd Sincere being craz'd quoad hoc and have the sad comfort of Hercules furens solus te jam praestare potest furor insontem 2. The other thing that I would offer is That Men are strangely apt to dandle the Children of their own Brain to cherish their amusing Phantasms and Imaginations which they at first begot in the Mind by unreasonable Fastings or Rigours thinking it unlikely that their should be a bad effect of so good a cause by too intense Meditation by over-curious and anxious enquiries into future Events by fanciful conceits of new Discoveries by morose Zeal c. Here I say it 's true That at first Reason and other good means might have mastered the impressions but being suffered to brood long upon the Mind then like a suffusion in the Eye they tincture and stain it and every thing in this case appears in the colour of their own disease Now certainly a Delusion which thus overtakes a Man must be call'd voluntary and so far culpable though not in its self yet in its Sources and. Causes 'T is just as we blame a Man who through outragious Love or excessive Drinking falls into Frenzies the wildness of which while it lasts he shall be fatally subject to and yet surely his sottishness in contracting it can't be call'd innocent I do not doubt but John of Leyden as verily believ'd himself that the King of Sion was come when he ran naked and bellow'd it about the Streets of Munster as John of Stratford that he had seen a glorious Appearance of our Blessed Lord and Saviour preparing to Judge the World and to save Sion and the Borders that is Water-Stratford and the Parts adjacent None can give better proof that they are in earnest but for all that we must not call 'em sincere than to venture their Lives upon it as those miserable Wretches did in Germany with Veni Creator spiritus always in their mouths and as Hacket and Venner and his Fifth-Monarchy-Men here in England appealing as Solemnly to God as these Witnesses of Mr. Mason's did in their Pamphlet call'd Two Witnesses to the Mid-Night-Cry and praying as long as they had breath If a Man was Sincere he would hear an Argument but all the Arguments in the World are insignificant to such as think they can confront them by a Vision or Revelation Dr. More in his Mystery of Godliness tells us That Enthusiastick Madness is never disjoyned from the highest kind of Pride even there where it seems to be most humble For the attributing nothing to it self but that all its Knowledge and Power is immediately from God is nothing else but an ostentation of an higher kind of Power and more infallible way of Knowledge than other Mortals have of which Mahomet's Vision is a lively Representation It is some-what pitiable indeed when the Study of the Scriptures proves an occasion of such Delusions But Manna us'd otherwise than by Divine Prescription bred Worms and stank Nor is it strange that Persons who have fits of our first Mother Curiosity and Pride and Itch after forbidden Knowledge should grow giddy by looking down upon depths of Speculation which the Divine Spirit has interdicted our search into Such are in particular our Lord 's precise time of Coming to Judgment the punctual Season of his Restoring the Kingdom to Israel which

for I cannot be free to lend them out for many reasons and have deny'd to do it to a Minister that was his intimate Acquaintance and what of them has been seen formerly has since his Death been improv'd against him and so has all that ever was taken out by piece-meals and has turn'd to no account but pecking-work against the Doctrine of the Kingdom If any Person would spread the Doctrine in course as it was deliver'd in the four Years Ministry then all would see how He clear'd and prov'd all things by Scripture which he Preach'd But the Papers that he kept by him were but part of the Doctrine and the Midnight-Cry contains the three parts which he often Preach'd upon That Christ would have a Davidical Kingdom here and that it would be usher'd in by a dreadful Tribulation and that this would be done in a short time He also often declar'd That he knew himself to be the Harbinger sent before Christ's Face which several Scriptures point out that should prepare the way of the Lord though he often would say that he knew himself to be the Unworthiest of all the Lord's Ministers but God should have all the glory of his grace to him for ever He declar'd that by him the way of the Lord was prepar'd and all things restor'd in a ministerial way by a declar'd Decree and that God had given him special grace for this Work and had unseal'd the Book to him that was to be seal'd till the time of the end and had given him the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy He also declar'd to us about three Weeks before he sicken'd That now he had fully and wholly done the Work the Lord had sent him upon as to the Message before Christ's Face and that he had but very few words more to say to us for he should soon be parted from us and be with Christ He told us also That Christ had took the matter into his own hands and that he would visibly perform what he had sent him to declare He said that God had done the part of a God to this Nation in giving them warning and they should know that they were the truths of the eternal God that were deliver'd amongst them and the words of truth and sobriety though the Nation had hist at all and the Devil had roar'd against it yet God would vindicate this Cause and that soon too Two days after he sicken'd He began to tell us how God had pour'd in his Loving kindness into his Soul in an extraordinary manner and so it continu'd all his Sickness And the last words he spake to us were that he was full of the loving-kindness of the Lord. During his sickness he spoke but little but what he did was constantly confirming what he had formerly deliver'd And to the last he still testify'd That he had seen the Lord and that it was time for this Nation to tremble and for Christians to trim their Lamps And as to our present expectations as you desire to know We believe there will be a change according to the word we have had delivered amongst us and that Christ did really appear to my Brother and we take it as a Seal to the doctrine of the Kingdom and as an appearance for his appearance We do believe also that the Lord will appear where the word of the Kingdom has been Preach'd where the Seed of the Kingdom has been sown which my Brother and others have believ'd is meant this Seed of the Kingdom which is that Mustard-Tree in which the Birds will come and lodge in the Branches thereof as Mat. 13.32 And it s believed that the people of God will be gather'd there for where the body is thither will the Eagles be gather'd together And that he will appear in that Mountain where he has been waited for as in Isaiah the 25.9 10. And we do believe him a Prophet sent to this Nation Now as to the second Request in your Letter I find my self very willing to serve you but not capable For the Doctrine that my Brother deliver'd was very large and weighty and so are the particulars of his Life and I not being able to write Sense or English conclude that you will be much troubled to read what I have writ already And if I say any thing of that honourable Minister I must say as hundreds more do that knew him That for soundnese of Doctrine for Christian Converse and for Exemplary Conversation he has not left his Fellow in the World He had such a continual Tide to spirituality such a Zeal to the glory of God and such a Flame of love to Jesus Christ that I never saw the like upon no Man upon Earth before There was certainly an extraordinary effusion of the Spirit of God pour'd out upon him and he was the self-abasingest Creature that ever I knew in my life He would stoop to the necessities of the meanest but would not yield to the sinful humour of the greatest He would never speak evil of no Man but would say to us though you condemn practices condemn not particular Persons for said he a Man that is truly humble will never open his Mouth in Self-boasting or Censure of others He was like Moses meek in his own Cause dead to Affronts and deaf to Reproaches and blind to Injuries but a vehement Man in God's Cause And to the Cartload of Reproaches that was of late cast upon him I never heard him answer any thing to them but Blessed be God that he has accounted me worthy to suffer in this honourable Cause He work'd in God's Service as if he was to merit Salvation by it but yet call'd himself an unprofitable Servant He was of an easy nature in point of Civility but of a steely nature in point of Sinfulness He was the fiercest Man in the World against Sin but the pittyfullest Man to the Sinner His Charity was extraordinary to poor Christians but perfonn'd with the greatest Secrecy that possibly could be and he never turn'd one Petitioner from his Door without an Alms and most commonly gave them Soul-instruction also Now as to his every day Exercise in his Family I need not acquaint you for all knew how he walk'd and how strict he kept the Sabbath But to note particulars that were remarkable of his Life would swell to a large piece and I hear that Mr. Hammet and Mr. Mehew have been writing his Life and Doctrine who have been well acquainted with his Conversation these many Years and have known what a faithful Minister of Jesus Christ he was and what extraordinary success from first to last God gave him in Conversion work in his Ministry and what an universal respect he had for all Christians and where he saw most of the Image of God those he loved best though they differ'd from him in Opinion The Haversham Christians are able to give a large