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	necessary_a	produce_v	6,956	5	9.5140	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63006	Of the sacrament of baptism, in pursuance of an explication of the catechism of the Church of England. By Gabriel Towerson, D.D. and rector of Welwynne in Hartfordshire	Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697.	1687 (1687)	Wing T1971A; ESTC R220158	148,921	408

it More particularly where he affirmeth that both Jews and Gentiles (h) Rom. 3.9 are all under sin That though the former may seem of all others to have been most free from it yet the Law (i) Rom. 19. had not stuck to affirm that ther was none (k) Rom. 10 c. righteous even among them no not one That there was none that understood none that sought after God That they were all gone out of the way they were altogether become unprofitable that there was none that did good no not one In fine that all the World must thereby (l) Rom. 19. be look'd upon as guilty before God because as he afterward (m) Rom. 23. speaks all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But so the same Scripture did long before declare with an addition of all Men's being under a perpetual course of sin as well as in some measure tainted with it It being not only the voice of God concerning that part of Mankind that liv'd before the flood that every imagination (n) Gen. 6.5 of the thought of their heart was only evil continually but alike intimated by him concerning that part which was to follow even to the end of the World. For affirming as he doth (o) Gen. 8.21 that he would not any more drown the World because the imagination of Man's heart is evil from his youth he both supposeth that Mankind would again give occasion to it by their evil imaginations as without which otherwise there could be no occasion for God's suspending it and that Mankind would do so also in every individual and Generation of it The former because he speaks of the imaginations of Mankind in the general and which are therefore to be extended to all the individuals of it The latter because if any Generation of Men were likely to be free from those imaginations there would so far forth have been no need of his declaring that he would not drown the World because no ground for bringing it on the Inhabitants thereof But therefore as we have reason to believe from the places before recited that the World always was and will be under sin yea under a constant course of it So we shall be yet more confirmed in it if we compare the latter place with the former as the likeness that is between them will oblige us to do There being not a more apt sense of that latter Speech of God than that he would not again drown the Earth because he knew the imaginations of Men would be as evil as they had before been and he therefore if he were dispos'd to take that vengeance to bring a flood often upon it to the no profit of those that inhabited it as well as to the defacing of the Earth it self Which will make the condition of Man to be so sinful that it cannot be otherwise unless by some powerful means delivered from it 2. But so also may we inferr from thence which was the second thing to be prov'd that all Men are under sin from the time they begin to be in a capacity to offend That as it affirms the imagination of Men's heart to be evil so to be evil from their Youth and as I should therefore think from the time they begin to be in a capacity to be guilty of it Not that that Age to which we are wont to give the denomination of Youth is the first wherein Mankind begins to be in a capacity to offend for there is but too much evidence of that in the riper years of Childhood but that we cannot well understand that Text of any other youthful Period than that wherein Mankind begins to be in a capacity to reason and consequently also to offend Partly because the word we render Youth is sometime us'd even for infancy (p) Judges 13.7 Exod. 2.6 and ought not therefore without manifest reason to be removed too far from it But more especially because it is the manifest design of God in the place we speak of to aggravate the evil of Men's imaginations from the earliness thereof and that earliness therefore to be carried as high as the capacity Men are in to imagine evil will suffer the doing of it 3. Now as nothing therefore can be wanting toward the proof of Original Corruption than that they who are so universally and so early under sin are so also from an inward principle and such an inward principle too as was derived to them from their birth so we shall not it may be need any other proof of that than their being so universally and early under the other The former of these perswading Men's being under sin from some inward principle the latter from such an inward principle as is deriv'd to them from their Birth That I make Men's being so universally under sin an argument of their being so from some inward principle is because as so general an effect must be supposed to have some general Cause so no external Cause how general soever can be supposed to produce it without the assistance of the other As will appear if we consider the force of example and which as it is the most general and the most effectual external Cause that can be assign'd so is that into which they who deny the Corruption of Nature are wont to resolve the universality of sin For neither first is even Example of so great force as infallibly and universally to draw Men to the imitation of it For some Men are Vertuous even when they have an ill example before them and others as Vitious where they have a good Neither secondly hath it any force but what it receives from Men's aptness to imitate those with whom they converse Which as it will make it necessary for us to have recourse to an inward principle even for those effects which are produc'd by the mediation of example so make our very aptness to imitate the evil examples of others a branch of that inward principle which we affirm to be the cause of so universal an impiety Only because we are yet upon Scripture proofs and which the more express they are so much the more convictive Therefore I shall yet more particularly endeavour to evince from thence that as all Men are under sin so they are so by an innate principle But so S. Paul gives us clearly enough to understand because both asserting such a principle and that all actual sins are the issues of it The former where he represents even the Man who was under the conviction of the Law and who therefore might be suppos'd to be most free from the contagion of sin as Carnal yea sold under it (q) Rom. 7.14 as one who had sin dwelling in him for so he affirms no less than twice (r) Rom. 17.20 and as one too who had a law in his members (Å¿) Rom. 23 that warred against the law of his mind or as he afterwards entitles

sight of God in fine that he perceiv'd that he was in the gall of bitterness (h) Acts 8.23 and in the bond of iniquity Which notwithstanding the same S. Peter directed him only (i) Acts 8.22 to repent of that his wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of his heart might be forgiven him Which how could S. Peter have done especially in so notorious a case if a second Baptism had been necessary to wash away that sinful estate which the former Baptism had not purg'd or at least which had returned after it My second Argument against the repetition of Baptism is the no necessity of it in either of the foremention'd instances As will appear whether we consider it as a means of obliging us to that piety which our Religion requires or as a means of conveying the graces of it For in the former notion it is as really and effectually an obligation to a Christian life in an unsincere person or one who afterwards apostatizeth as if it had been never so heartily intended The obligation thereof arising not from the secret sentiments of the person that is baptized or his constancy to his profession but from the nature of the thing it self and the Institution of God that prescrib'd it Provided therefore we take upon us the Sacrament it self we tie our selves by it without remedy neither can there therefore be any need of our obliging our selves by it a second time unless he who instituted it should require it of us It is true indeed so far as we have departed from it whether by Apostasie or impiety so far it will concern us to own it again to our Lord and Master by our repentance of the breaches of it and a repetition of the same vows unto him And it will concern us too if the Church requires it to satisfie that also that we do so repent and will amend But as both the one and the other may be done without the repetition of our Baptism so a frank acknowledgment with our mouths together with the receit of the Lord's Supper may very well serve for those purposes because serving a like to declare them But it may be the principal difficulty in this affair lies in what concerns Baptism as a means of conveying the graces of it and particularly our regeneration and new birth And I must confess I was for some time at a loss what to think in it till I consider'd that the Sacrament of Baptism was not either a physical cause or conveyer of Grace that we should think the grace of it could not be in the receiver of Baptism unless it were either presently produced in him or conveyed to him but a moral instrument thereof or a means to which God hath annexed the promise of it For such a one by the favour of that God who hath annexed the promise of his Grace unto it may operate at a distance as well as in presence and accordingly may convey it to the receiver of Baptism as well after his Baptism as together with it yea convey it after the baptized person hath lost it as well as it did at first Which suppos'd the only remaining difficulty will be whether we may reasonably expect it from God supposing the baptized person to return and repent A thing which they have little reason to question who believe God to allow a second Baptism upon it and we shall have far less if we reflect upon the former instances of Peter and Simon Magus For if God will allow of the remedy of a second Baptism upon repentance why not also allow the first Baptism to be the means of conveying his graces and our health and soundness Especially when the breaches of it come to be acknowledged and the vow thereof renewed And if God accepted of S. Peter upon his bare repentance and directed Simon Magus to no other remedy than that and prayer We may as well suppose that if he accept us at all he will accept us upon that and our old Baptism and so make that co-operate to the respective graces of it These I take to be sufficient Arguments against the repetition of Baptism and the more because they also suggest as satisfactory answers to what hath been before alledged for it For neither can they be look'd upon as Heathen and consequently as standing in need of a new Baptism who however they may have renounc'd the old whether by their Impiety or Apostasie yet ever were and ever will be under the obligation of it And much less after their repentance and return can they be thought to want it toward the producing of that regeneration which they are without Their former Baptism through the favour of him who annex'd the promise of regeneration to that Sacrament being as effectual for that purpose as any new Baptism what soever Baptism is indeed generally necessary to regeneration it is so necessary that no man living can promise it to himself without it But if it be of as much value as necessity it may and no doubt will induce him who is the dispenser of his own graces to confer it upon a former as well as upon any new administration of it FINIS