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	punishment_n	sin_n	3,729	5	5.7335	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93781	Spiritual infatuation, the principal cause of our past and present distempers. Or a serious caveate to the many seducers and seduced who under the specious pretences of reformation and conscience endeavour the subversion of Church and State. In several sermons on Isa. 9,10,11,12. By W. Stamp D.D. late minister of the Word at Stepn[e]y near London.	Stampe, William, 1611-1653?	1662 (1662)	Wing S5195; ESTC R229850	116,158	268

the sweet influence of his grace suffers him to take his full swinge in wickednesse and to run head-long without any restraint to his own ruin and destruction This I take to be the obduration of Pharaohs heart so frequently mentioned in the book of Exodus For it is said Exod. 8. 15. When Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardned his heart and harkned not c. and v. 32. Pharaoh hardned his heart this time also c. and then Exod. 9. 12. it's said God hardned the heart of Pharaoh And 't is observable how he is threatned v. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people c. So that first Pharaoh hardens and then God hardens Pharaoh hardens himself and God leaves him to himself Pharaoh hardens wilfully and God hardens judicially This I take to be the doom of the accursed fig-tree in the Gospel under which is comprised every barren Christian Le● no fruit grow on thee henceforward Mat. 21. 19. Iude 12. for ever These are th● trees Saint Iude speaks of whose fruit withereth without fruit twise dead pluck'd up by the roots Where the Method of Gods Iustice is very observable upon an obstinate and Apostate sinner First His fruit withereth he deserts his station grows weary of well doing and puts off the yoke of Christianity as if it were an intolerable burden Then without fruit The sap of grace is withdrawn and the soul becoms immediately barren Then twise dead dead naturally and dead spiritually For as the soul is the life of the body so is the Grace of God the life of the soul And lastly pluck'd up by the root not presently cast into the fire They may continue in the garden of Gods Church a long time after may participate of the dew of heaven of the holy Ordinances of God and external communion with his people But as never fruit comes of a tree that is pluck'd up by the r●ots and so left So never any thing capable of Divine acceptation comes from a man thus miserably deserted The ground and foundation of this doctrine I conceive may be safely laid upon that maxime of our Saviour Habenti dabitur To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundance But whosoever hath not that is hath not improved his talent from him shall be taken away even that which he Mat. 13. 12. seemeth to have These are the several kinds or degrees of Obduration and this last I take to be the disease in its full height and malignity Secondly We are in the next place to look upon the cause of this disease and what is particularly instrumental unto it We say in Philosophy Anim● sequitur temperamentum corporis The soul hath its operation according to the temper organs and disposition of the Body As there is no disease in the body so there is no distemper or depravity in the mind but is the effect and product of a certain particular cause So that as Infatuation of mind is a certain preparative unto judgement so there are certain preparatives and predispositions to Infatuation of mind Two sorts of evils there are ●n the world the evil of sin and the evil of punishment this of Infatuation is both it is hard to say whether hath the greater share in the composition This twisted evil as it arises from several causes so it is compounded of several ingredients In the general God himself may be said to harden according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 8. Whom he will he hardneth Not by any positive operation upon the mind as was said before but by a privative withdrawing or withholding of Grace No o●herwise then as wax being taken from the fire from being soft and pliable returns to its natural hardnesse and inflexibility And this is the just permission of Almighty God that such as will not conform unto him and walk in his ways should be left unto themselves to take their own precipitate and destructive courses For Instrumental Causes there are many To instance in some few for all the rest The first Medium unto Obduration I shall propound is The misunderstanding and abuse of secular prosperity and successe Thus Senacharibs best argument to perswade Ierusalem to revolt from good King Hezechiah is drawn from the successe of his sword upon the men and gods of Hamah Arpad and and Sepheruaim and from thence he 2 King 18. 34. 35. inferr'd that therefore the Lord of hosts should not deliver Ierusalem out of his hand And never under●tood the guilt of his Blasphemy nor the falacy of his argument nor the vanity of Nisrock his Idol till he felt the power of his maker and the stroke of Divine vengeance in the swords of his own Sons sheathed in his own bowels in the very Act and posture of his Idolatrous worship When the greatnesse of Nebuchadnezzars power and conquest lifted him up so high that he forgot he was a man God brought him down and humbled him into the very nature and condition of a beast There was a time when Dan. 4. Babylon was grown fat as the heyfer at grasse by eating up the inheritance of the Lord but it lasted not long for within a short time after Every one that went by Babylon Ier. 50. 11. was astonished and hissed at the sight of all her plagues And the same Prophet takes notice of some of Gods own people that were waxen fat and shined that overpassed the deeds of the wicked that did not Iudge the cause of the Fatherlesse c. and yet they prospered until the day of Gods visitation came Ier. 5. 28. 29. upon them Thus was Egypt gro●n as a fair heyfer and her men in the midst of her as so many fatted bullocks and all to their own destruction as appears Ier. 46. 20. Thus was I●surun grown fat and kicked he was grown thick and covered with fatnesse and mark what followed hereupon he presently forsook the God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Deut. 32. 15. And therefore the Divine Omniscience foreseeing this evil consequent arising from blessings abused enters a caveat against it Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and thy flockes multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplyed and all that thou hast is multiplyed then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God c. Deut. 8. 11. 12. 13 14. The Psalmist speaks very home and close to our purpose who describing the wickeds day of Sunshine saith Their eys stand out with fatn●sse they have more then heart cou●d wish they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men pray observe the co●seque●t Therefore pride compasseth them about like a chain violence covereth them