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	power_n	produce_v	4,222	5	8.3674	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61104	Chrysomeson, a golden meane, or, A middle way for Christians to walk by wherein all seekers of truth and shakers in the faith may find the true religion independing upon mans invention, and be established therein : intended as a key to Christianity, as a touchstone for a traveller, as a probe for a Protestant, as a sea-mark for a sailor : in a Christian dialogue between Philalethes and his friend Mathetes, seeking satisfaction / by Benjamin Spencer ...; Way to everlasting happinesse	Spencer, Benjamin, b. 1595?	1659 (1659)	Wing S4944; ESTC R13439	363,024	312

7.54 is described the very spirit of remorse not the remorse of spirit by saying they were cut to the heart by Stephens sermon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which argued only vexation envy and malice This kind of repentance may go before faith and be without faith but the true repentance to salvation is caused by faith or else it is meerly sinfull Rom. 14.23 nor can it purifie the heart without faith Acts 21.24 and therefore the arguments for repentance are drawn from the promises of grace exhibited in Christ Mat. 3.2 Two things must especially be observed in repentance 1. That it be not put off and deferred 2. That it be continued because the faithfull do continually sin little or much as appeareth Psal 32. and Psal 51. Mat. 18.2 and therefore even the very regenerate are exhorted upon their fals to repentance and pardon is promised them Ezek. 33.11 and Rev. 2.9 notwithstanding the rigid doctrine of the Novatians and the Catharists who denied repentance to those that had sinned after baptisme For though God in Christ takes away the power of sin yet not the power of sinning the dominion of sin is destroied but sin is not quite taken away out of our nature in this life that so we may the more aspire toward heaven where no sin shall remain Now the parts of this repentance is 1. A turning of the heart from evill with hatred and mortification of the old man and a turning of the heart to good with a love thereof and practice of it by enlivening of the new man Esa 61.2 V.d. Aug. lib. de vera falsa penit cap. 13. from whence floweth a sadness for offending God and a joy that arises from the hope of pardon Psal 51.10 for we need not hold contrition confession and satisfaction to be essential parts of true repentance because that reprobates have them and yet have not true repentance as Judas yet may they be the effects of true repentance in them that have it but not a cause of remission nor have power to blot out all sin as the Papists suppose as not the sin of a reprobate nor the sin against the Holy Ghost Nor need we think confession is absolutely necessary to salvation for Peter wept but said nothing as we read of yet sanctification produceth a confession of sin first to God either publickly as Neh. 9. or privately as Psal 32.5 and that generally of all sin Luke 18.13 or parricularly of the sins of our lives Jam. 5.16 as Psal 19.13 And 2. To my neighbor Mat. 18.15 that I may receive counsell and comfort from him and he satisfaction from me and so reconciled one to the other as Mat. 5.23.3 There is another confession which is made before the Pastors of the Church of some sins which burden conscience Luke 19.8 So there is a publick confession of sins made by Priest and people to God in the publick place and exercise of religion either ordinarily of the common sins that cleave to nature or extraordinarily on the times of humiliation for some peculiar sins that have infected both Priest and people Neh. 1.7 So there is a confession which hath been used in the Church by those which for disobedience have been excommunicated and could not be received into the congregation again without such confession But these confessions prove not papisticall auricular confession of all sin to be either forced upon men as lawfull or necessary to our reconcilement with God for as it is impossible to confesse all sins Psal 19.13 so it is not any where commanded in Scripture nor any example given that it should be so done to a Priest or to that end and the rather because there is another rule of remission and justification with God set down Ezek. 18.21 and Rom. 4.23 namely repentance and faith Indeed confession of sin was not established as the Papists urge it till the time of Pope Innocentius the third who did order in the Councill of Lateran at Rome about the year 1215. that all of either Sex after they came to the years of discretion should confesse all their sins faithfully once in a year to their own Priest which was seconded by the Councill of Trent which enjoined confession before Easter but we find it not imposed by any divine authority as it is of no great antiquity Therefore though a man may in case of a troubled conscience go and confesse to one that is a true minister and lawfully called thereunto having the word of reconciliation and Gospell dispensation committed to him yet he is not to be forced thereunto for in that there is too much formality and something of tyranny or if thou hast wronged thy neighbour thou maist confesse thy fault to him but if thou beest ashamed to confesse it Chryl hom 2. in Psal 50. lest it prove approbrious to thee yet confesse it daily to God and thine own soule and devise some means or way to make him satisfaction Aug. lib. 10. conf cap. 3. Amb. lib. 10. in Luke cap. 96 as the case requireth for some sins as Peters are confessed by the eie in tears when shame stops the mouth of confession and let those exactors passe that are very curious in the search of other mens sins but too sloathfull to amend their own Now the effect of repentance is a christian holy life by which we come to be of the communion of Saints And such a life we must lead that we may recover that chiefe part of Gods image lost consisting in righteousnesse and holinesse And this is necessary because our God is holy and we are joined to this holy God and made his people by covenant and he hath in Christ purged us redeemed us and adopted us his children and because Christ hath inserted us into his own body as his members and the Holy Ghost hath dedicated us as temples to God and hath appointed us to heavenly incorruptibility and therefore a Christian life consisteth not in an outward profession of the Gospell in tongue but in an imitation of Christ having his word for the rule and Gods glory for our end and scope simplicity and sincerity for the mode and manner of it with a continuall perseverance and daily progresse in it Now of this life there be three parts 1. A deniall of our selves 2. A meditation of life to come 3. A right use of worldly goods Mathe. I pray declare how Phila. First a deniall of our selves there must be the foundation whereof is because we are not our own but Gods who by Christ hath redeemed us Rom. 14.7 8 9. and therefore we must renounce all our affections that resist the law of God as impiety pride and hypocrisie and have an humble and voluntary subjection in all things to the will of God and a practice of those things that God requireth of us as of sobriety righteousnesse and godlinesse as Tit. 2.12 Therefore this life must have respect both to God and men

upon the soule to which at first he gave being and making man the instrument to produce it in the seed Mathe. I pray give some places of Scripture to prove the production and some reasons drawn from thence for many places seem against it Phila. Some seem against it but are not so as Exod. 21.22 c. that a man if he hurt a woman with child and her fruit depart from her and yet mischief or death follow not i. upon the mother then the punishment shal be but a fine or mulct but if mischiefe or death follow then he shall pay life for life Now if this mischiefe or death be understood of the woman this place argueth nothing to the souls production by propagation If it be meant of the child then it must have life and how a reasonable creature can have life without the form of it viz. a reasonable soule I know not therefore the judgement surely was to be made upon the child quickning and so life was to answer for life but whether the soule be not infused before even at the conception is still questionable So Numb 27.16 he is called the God of spirits yet is he not also the God of our bodies yes sure as 1 Cor. 6.20 Glorifie God in your bodies for they are Gods But Eccles 12.7 seemeth to make a greater difference for the body is said there to return to the dust but the spirit to God that gave it yet this proves only the soules immortall estate after death not any immediate creation of it except he relates to Adam whose creation was immediate of dust and his soule immediate from God but our bodies are not so and the question still remains whether the soule be not conveied by Gods speciall concurrence in propagation So Isa 57.16 it is said of God I will not alwaies contend lest the soules that I have made faile before me but that is meant by the generall life of all creatures Beside who knoweth not that God makes us we teach our children so to answer us in their Catechisme because God did it originally and doth it still by his benediction of parentall seed yet we know also that the parents beget the children So Ezek. 18. it is said all souls are mine but that is all persons So Zach. 12.1 It is said God formeth the spirit of man within him which no man will deny but the question is still of what whether of nothing or of the parents substance corporall and spirituall Indeed that place of Zachary intends the first mans forming as we see by his alledging Gods stretching forth of the heavens and laying the foundation of the earth which was at the creation or if he meaneth the souls of men since the creation then by forming cannot ●e understood creating of nothing But you will say that God is called the Father of Spirits in opposition to the fathers of our flesh but the opposition is not made there between God and man or soule and body but between naturall life and casuall correction and spirituall but be it meant of God and naturall parents yet it proves nothing to the souls production for he is the God of our body as well as of our spirits Mathe. But if the soule be of a spirituall substance and nature how can it be propagated in generation Phila. Because it is not propagated after a bodily manner though the whole man begets the whole man for the soule consisting rather of power then parts the propagation of it is by promotion rather than decision nor is the soule so spirituall as to be simply simple for only God is so but hath a spirituall composition though not elementary which the God of spirits can blow up to a flame which kindles presently upon fit matter by vertue of his first word given to the nature of man saying increase and multiply and by his continuall assistance to mans generation Mathe. But generation of souls argueth a corruption of souls and so it is not immortall Phila. It followeth not for the corruption of the soule in propagation is only a mutation from power to act and so is not corrupted by putrefaction but advanced by perfection it is the same as it was but not in the same manner as it was and so the soul propagated is not corrupted nor is the soule propagating corrupted for it is neither divided nor diminished no more then the flame of a lamp is by lighting another Mathe. But if it passe in propagation then if conception faile a soule is lost in the emission of seed for want of conception Phila. Not so for the soule is never procreated but in conception namely when the seed of male and female meet in one together with the efficient power of God concurring with all naturall causes for the production thereof therefore when conceptions faile the soule continueth as it was so in unlawfull copulations with other creatures God not conferring his power no rationall creature is brought forth but the soule remains without communication of it selfe Mathe. But if the soule be so traduced from the parents then from one of them or both and I see not how one soul can be divided nor yet how one soule can be made out of two Phila. It cannot be from one for the seed of neither male nor female alone conteins the matter and form of the creature to be produced but two do make one two in number and sex being united make a third and this is Gods ordinance in nature that mankind should be distinguished into two sexes and by their uniting again the whole kind should be preserved neither is the soule divided because it consists not of parts but powers and therefore the propagation of the soule is not done by decision Zanch. de tribus Elohim p. 2. l. 3. cap. 7. but by operation whereby the same power is effected in another which the soule hath in it selfe yet it is neither annihilated nor diminished because it is a spirituall nature as we understand God to beget his Son and communicates to him his whole essence and yet the Father retains his whole essence And this need not trouble us since we see the forms of other creatures are indivisible as well as mans soule and yet they beget their like without any division of their essentiall forms And for the making of one soule out of two you are to conceive how two in act may make one for man and wife is not only one flesh carnally but their very soules do so cleave together like Jonathan and David that they would become one which because they cannot do they by the assistance of God conspire with the fitnesse of other causes to produce another creature like themselves Athanas de var. p. 16. as flint and steel smote together begets fire which is the next creature that a fervent motion can beget Mathe. When do you judge the soule to be thus traduced Phila. At the first conception no doubt and

not plainly declare it only it saith such a place there is prepared for the devill and his angels called an Abysse and bottomlesse pit but whether it be under the waters where the old Rephaims or giants buried in the deluge of which is spoken Pro. 21.16 a man that wandereth from the way of understanding shall remain or in any subterraneous fires Pro. 21.16 which break out in divers places of the world Surius Hecla Aeina which fires I take to be not subtile enough to torment such spirits But that there is a place of torment to which they are reserved is typed forth to us by a place under the waters where the dead lie sighing Which place of hell is naked before God without any covering which is called also Job 26.5 6. Abaddon Prov. 15.11 the place of destruction And such a place seems to be under the earth from which Esay eloquently saith Esa 14.9.10 that the hell from beneath is removed to meet the King of Babylon after his ruine saying to him in an upbraiding manner art thou become like one of us So the vallie of Hinnom is a type of it from which hell was called Gehenna after the captivity from the detestable use of that where they burnt their children in Tophet to the Idol Moloch for which God made it a place of abomination First by the burning of 185000 of the dead Assyrians there whom the Angel slew 2 Kin. 19.35 prophecied of therefore Esa 30.33 and there likened to hell And 2 ly by King Josiah who made it a common lay-stall Jer. 7.22 And thirdly by buring the bodies of the Jews there who were massacred by the Babylonian army when Jerusalem was taken till no place was left to bury there therefore afterward called the vallie of slaughter Jer. 19.6 all which together with the burning of Sodom with fire and brimstone argueth such a dreadfull place to be reserved but where it is or whether yet it is till all these lower places be dissolved is doubtfull Mathe. Where are these evill spirits Phila. About the earth and the aire Therefore St Paul cals Satan the Prince of the power of the aire Hieron in Ephes 6. O ig in Num. cap. 22. 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude ver 6. And all the Doctors for the first 400. years held the same opinion Indeed the devill durst adjure Christ not to torment him before the time whereby it seems they were not as yet cast into hell but as St Jude saith and Peter also they were cast downward and are reserved in chains or for chains of darknesse to the last judgement when they shall be confined by the divine workman when the mystery of God is finished to their terra damnata the Abysse of blacknesse of darknesse for ever Mathe. What doth or can this knowledge profit me Phila. Very much As 1. Ovid. rudis indigest moles Since God first made a rude Chaos as a subject to work upon though he could have made all rightly formed at first but to shew how he intended to work upon us whom he foresaw would make our selves a deformed lump namely that his spirit must move upon us and that he would call light out of darknesse that we might become children of light for the Creation was a type of our recreation and the first Adam of the second and making all so excellent as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a prototype of what he meant to do by his personall and declarative word by whom and for which all things were created 2. Out of light he made the highest heavens the place of the blessed for them to dwell in a light never to be extinguished that we might know there is a rest for the people of God and therefore not to set up our rest here nor mind things below but above to have our conversation in heaven and seek another City whose builder and maker is God 3. He began with light not that he needed it but to teach us not to doe the works of darknesse but walk in light and to begin our works with the light of true understanding not with blind affection or rashnesse 4. Because some of the Angels of light fell because they would not stand by the way God had determined as by his grace power or order but rather by their own devise and so fell from heaven Take heed of desiring to be independent which God hath granted to nothing in this world for all depends on Gods power or love or grace or order Jude Ep. that he hath set except such as will fall by envy pride or rebellion into destruction especially men if they go in the way of Cain or the gainsaying of Corah or love with Balaam the wages of unrighteousnesse they must needs fall with the apostate Angels Mathe. What order did God observe in creating the world Phila. 1. He made the generall and more imperfect creature as the elements under the name of heaven and earth 2. Things composed of them some with life as trees herbs beasts birds fishes some without life as stars meteors stones and minerals with which when he had furnished the world like a fair house then he made man and put him in possession of all 3. He made some in actuall being Homers Chain as the vegetative and chiefe sensitives some only in potentiality of being as those many creeping things which heat and moisture is apt to produce 4. In this great work he hath ordained certain midling natures by which as by certain links of a chain we may be led to the highest natures As 1. Water and earth is coupled by slime air and water by vapors fire and air by exhalations So chrystall is a middle nature between water and the harder sort of precious stones So Quicksilver between water and mettals Corall between roots and stones so some vegetals are of a middle nature between a plant and a living creature as the Mandrake and the Zeophytes so some sensitives as the Amphibions are creatures of a middle nature between fish and flesh such are Crocodiles Seals and Sea-Morses so Estriges are a middle nature between a beast and a foul a Bat between a creeping thing and a bird an Ape between man and beast Hermaphrodites between man and woman a man between a bruit and an Angell an Angell a middle nature between an intellectuall and rationall spirit Christ a mediator uniting God and man together Mathe. Whether had God no coadjutor in this work of Creation Phila. He had none For God is the sole cause of creation and Being is the first effect of creation and nothing can come between the first cause and the first effect but a meer nothing and therefore God had no instrument or coadjutor to assist him No not Angels for they can do nothing in an instant as God doth in creation by an efficacious word only which doth distinguish him from all false gods and heathen vanities as Jer. 10.11

which not being done the Sacrament is slighted and profaned because that to which it relates hath no impression in us as by remembring his love expressed to us in his death than which none could be greater being endured for us while we were enemies Rom. 5.8 or the horrour of his death being most painfull shamefull fearfull enduring not only the spight of wicked men but an abstraction of the divine comfort for a time so that never was sorrow like his Lam. 1.12 all which was most properly due to us nor remembring the benefits of his death which concerns us as by it the sting of death is taken away though a stain is left the curse of the law is abolished it is to us no killing letter the exaction of the law is nullified we being not bound to every jot and tittle of it for our justification but our weak performances are excepted of God in Christ because we have a right to all Christs righteousnesse and a just claim in him to all the blessings of the law so that neither the corruption of nature can reign over us Rom. 6.14 nor sin bind us over to punishment everlasting and for temporall afflictions they shall all work to our good and glory as they did to Christs Rom. 8.28 Phil. 2.9 Mathe. How may one then rightly remember Christ in receiving the Sacrament and so become a faithfull receiver Phila. These do one include the other For as faith looks upon Christ and his benefits so remembrance cals those things to mind which faith beleeves so that this remembrance must be a beleeving remembrance that the Sacrament presents to us under seal the benefits of Christs death and passion It also must be a thankfull remembrance for those inestimable favours of which I told you Next it must be an obedient remembrance to what he hath commanded and now God in him entreats us to do out of love By all which you may discern how a communicant must be qualified and in what he must especially examine himselfe namely in faith which is the speciall condition of the covenant of grace of which the Sacrament is a seale Now faith must be considered in the cause the nature and the effects of it The causes of faith are the word which is the seed of it and the spirit which is the vertue of this seed both these brings light to discover the darkness of our naturall estate and the comfort in Gospell light Then next a power to regulate and conform us to its own rules and to subdue all opposition 2 Cor. 10.4 Now for the nature of faith it being convinced that the word is of divine authority it gives both an intellectuall assent to the truth of it because God doth avouch it and a fiduciall assent to the goodnesse of it for our own salvation and as to the Word so to the Sacrament which is the seal thereof which goodnesse breedeth in us a love longing and delight in the holy mysteries Upon which followeth an heavenly and holy effect of faith as to desire and hunger after the food of the soule and a strong conversion of it into our soules nutriment and growing in grace by the strength of it more and more Rom. 13. 2 Pet. 2.2 Next a sympathy with Christs members in their griefs and joies Then a readinesse to every good work and a strong repulse of evill upon which followeth affiance in God hope in his promises peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost and a continuall fructification in an holy life by the strength of the Word and Sacrament while we walk here in this wildernesse of sin as the Israelites did in the strength of Manna and the Rock-water till we come to the land of everlasting rest Mathe. I thank you for your patience and resolutions of my generall and disordered queries I shall make bold hereafter if God give leave and you will affoord me your assistance in resolving me to trouble you with some other more particular cases But before I part I desire you since there is such divisions among us to tell me what Church you think most safest for one to cleave unto in life and death and what congregation is best to associate my selfe withall Phila. I suppose you find by what hath been said that the Protestant Church is the soundest for doctrine and therefore hold you to their principles of doctrine as they have been set forth and maintained by our * The 39. Articles of the Church of England Church of England in the time of King Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeth and her successors And for matters of discipline it is to be wished that some were setled among us for the suppressing voluptuous living and libertinisme But if it may not be had let us be content with the Gospell preached and pray for reformation As for the Congregation you speak of I hold the publike generally best because Preachers in Churches will make more conscience of what they preach then those of the private conventicles or chambers except it be some that are forced to make such places their refuge to exercise their ministry which in conscience they cannot give over though prosecuted much like as the primitive Doctors were persecuted Mathe. But they that do preach in publike some are of one opinion some of another as Prela●icall Presbyterian and Independent Phila. Let no titles trouble you but trie the spirits whether they be of God by their teaching faith and an holy and good life Let men impose upon others or take up what names they please to themselves be thou content to be a Protestant Christian And for mens private opinions except they publish them to seduce others they must stand or fall to their own master And for joining your selse to a Congregation I will give you no advice but only si●ce you have liberty given use it to the best advantage for your soule by hearing ministers of the soundest judgement and most edifying And because all Congregations are mixed it is best to consort with those that are the most pious in their lives and unanimous in their worship of God Mathe. But some say the learned are not the right Preachers but the plain man though a Tradesman who preacheth by the spirit Phila. Surely the learned are more to be trusted for the soule as a learned Physitian for the body but they go by rule others by rote so do these mechanick preachers they despise learning as some do riches because they despaire to get and so they entitle the spirit to their ignorance of which the spirit is no author but the devill and mans presumptuous sins for the spirit never imploied any about his Church but either he made them able by infusion which they cannot prove he hath them or else by acquisition He gave Isaiah the tongue of the learned as well as Bezaleel and Aholiab the gift of handicraft So Christ took plain men to preach his Gospell but he made