Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	sin_n	7,176	5	5.3331	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40082	Libertas evangelica, or, A discourse of Christian liberty being a farther pursuance of the argument of the design of Christianity / by Edward Fowler ...	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing F1709; ESTC R15452	145,080	382

and particular concerns And the Opposites to these do give the Soul great Enlargement and Liberty viz. That Confidence that is opposite both to Fear and to Shame Delight and joy which are opposite to Trouble and Dejection of Mind and Generosity and Nobleness of Spirit whereby a man is carried forth to the loving of God the Chief Good in the first place and a hearty concern for the general welfare of his Fellow-Creatures which is opposite to immoderate Self-love First The Observance of the Rules of Righteousness casteth out Fear This is a most servile Passion the Apostle speaketh of some who through fear of ●●ath were all their life-time subject to bondage By Fear I mean that which is expressed by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cowardly and dispiriting Fear None can imagine I mean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Awful and Reverential Fear such as is called Heb. 12. 28. a Godly fear Nor yet do I mean such a Fear as awakens and excites the Soul to the use of means for the shunning and keeping off evils Such a Fear as this doth not at all inslave or put a man out of his own power but is highly serviceable to the maintenance and preservation of Liberty And therefore it is commended to us by the Apostle Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it But as was said the Fear which is enslaving is a Cowardly Dispiriting Fear and this the Righteous and Good man is freed from He hath not received the spirit of bondage again to fear in this sence but the spirit of Adoption whereby he crieth Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. He is not afraid of God as a poor Slave is of his fierce Master or as a wicked Servant of his justly provoked and incensed Lord but not being under the guilt of wilful sins his Conscience being privy to no other guilt than that which upon good grounds he believes is expiated by the Bloud of Iesus he can go to God as a child to his loving and tender Father And as he hath no tumultuary confounding or disheartening fear of God so neither hath he of the Devil or Men or any worldly evil as knowing that all these are subject to the restraint of that good Providence which ever chargeth it self with the care of good Souls and all their concerns God hath not given him the Spirit of fear or timidity and fearfulness but of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. This man is an affectionate Lover of God and therefore cannot question God's love to him and is assured that all things shall work together for his good for his good both in this life and in the life to come Herein is our love made perfect saith S. Iohn in his 1 Epistle 4. 17. because as he is so are we in this world because we follow the example of our Blessed Saviour in the conscientious observance of the Rules of Righteousness there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love That is he that is affected with such a fear as hath now been described He who is not under the power of Cowardizing dismaying Fear his Spirit is at great Liberty but a care to keep an inoffensive Conscience both towards God and men to adhere to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness and never to swerve from them will banish this Fear The wicked saith the Wise man fleeth when no man pursueth but the righteous is bold as a Lion Prov. 28. 1. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely or confidently and securely Prov. 9. 10. To which great truth the Poet gives his Testimony in those known Verses Integer vitae scelerisque purus Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu c. He that 's in life upright and pure in heart Is too secure to need the Bow or Dart. hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nullâ pallescere culpâ The strongest Bulwark's not so sure a Fence As is an inoffensive Conscience Secondly True Goodness begets that confidence which is opposed as to Fear so to Shame too There is a highly commendable shame which is proper to a Good man namely that which is expressed by the Latine Verecundia Which is a quick sense of whatsoever is indecorous and misbecoming No man can have too much of this for the more any one hath of it the better man must he necessarily be But there is another sort of Shame expressed by Pudor which is a troublesome passion arising from a sense of disgrace upon consciousness of Guilt Of this Shame the most learned Doctor Henry More observeth in his incomparable Ethicks that it neither falleth upon the worst nor the best of men For he who is conscious to himself that he constantly exerciseth his liberty in doing the best things knows that he ought not to be contemned and thereupon being above all contempt contempt it self is contemned by him which is a great instance in good men of Generosity but in bad men is the very height of improbity This Shame is a good effect of a bad cause for though it be an evil yet 't is a necessary evil and tends to the deterring men from unworthy actions for the time to come and doth actually produce this good effect where the great uneasiness and perturbation of mind which was caused thereby upon past commissions of sin is seriously and consideratively reflected upon For where this Shame is there is great Bondage where there is consciousness of guilt the mind of a man is miserably pent up confined and straitned so that he dares many times neither to look abroad into the world nor to look up to Heaven nor reflect upon himself And therefore Liberty and Confidence are expressed by the same word viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek language But while a man is careful in the observance of the Laws of Righteousness to be Righteous before God and to walk as it is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless he is not affected with this kind of Shame and consequently enjoys a mighty Freedom by this means Upright Iob had the happy experience of this effect of uprightness as we find Chap. 31. 35 36 37. Oh that one would hear me saith he behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine Adversary had written a book Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a Crown unto me I would declare to him the number of my steps as a Prince would I go near unto him Which is as much as if he had said Oh that mine Adversary instead of secretly whispering evil things of me had drawn up a charge in writing against me I would be so far from endeavouring to have it concealed

of Grace should no more have hindred his Salvation than God's Threatning against Nineveh The cause of Rejection or Damnation is Sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel c. It is not a Christian man's part to attribute his Salvation to his own Free-will with the Pelagian and extenuate Original Sin nor to make God the Author of ill and damnation with the Manichee nor yet to say that God hath written Fatal Laws and with necessity of Destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other head-long into Hell I have thus at large transcribed the words of these two Holy Bishops and Martyrs for the Reformed Religion because the Books are not easie to be met with and Bishop Hooper's not to be light on without great difficulty And I say by these Citations to which we might have added others it is very apparent not only that they undoubtedly believed the Doctrine of Christ's dying for all men and were zealous Assertors of it too but also that they rejected that Doctrine of Fatal Decrees which is the Foundation of the contrary Opinion I cannot but take notice by the way how Unreasonable and Uncharitable those men are who clamour at such a rate against their Brethren as Innovators and Apostates from the Church of England for their asserting no worse Doctrine than we have now seen was heartily approved by these Ancient and Eminent Fathers of our Church The Doctrine of which Church I presume they 'l have the Modesty to acknowledge they were as fit judges of as themselves But I must hasten to that which is much more to our present purpose viz. That no Doctrine is more clearly or fully asserted in the Holy Scriptures than this of Vniversal Redemption And that there may remain no longer the least doubt or scruple in any of our breasts concerning it let us take notice of these following particulars First How those that have a share in Christ's Redemption are expressed by our Saviour and his Apostles They are expressed by the words SINNERS indefinitely the WORLD ALL the WHOLE WORLD EVERY MAN And can the Wisdom of man invent more plain significant and full words by which to express the Universality of Mankind 1. Those whom Christ came and died to save that is to put into a Salvable state so that it will be wholly long of themselves if they perish are expressed by the word Sinners indefinitely S. Paul saith 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners of which I am chief Now 't is a known Maxim that An indefinite Proposition is equivalent to an Vniversal one And our Saviour himself saith that He came to call sinners to repentance Luke 5. 32. And to seek and save that which was lost Chap. 19. 10. He makes no exception of Sinners or Lost persons and therefore what can they be less than All Mankind But if this be not satisfactory 2. They are expressed by the word World Our Saviour saith Iohn 3. 16 17. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I could not disparage any ones understanding more than by endeavouring to satisfie him that 't is a most pitiful and senseless shift to say that by the World is meant all the Elect in the world that is some exceeding few of the world in comparison of the rest For besides that this is to make nonsence of the former Verse as must needs be obvious to every body so by taking the same Liberty in interpreting other Texts the Bible would be made the most insignificant Book in the world The Generality of men is ordinarily called the World and Bad men are sometimes so called in Scripture because they are the Generality but to express the incomparably lesser part of men by the word World is such a Figure as was never heard of 3. They are expressed by the word All to put us more out of doubt 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again Now did ever the word All signifie a few And that by All is to be understood the Universality is plain from the former of these Verses where the Apostle proves that all were dead or obnoxious to death by this Argument that Christ died for all But we will not question whether all in the largest sence were obnoxious to death and therefore all must be understood in the same extent when it is said that Christ died for all or we shall make the Apostle a very sad Arguer For how could it follow from hence that Christ died for some that therefore all without exception were dead Again 1 Tim. 2. 6. we read that Christ gave himself a Ransom for all And ver 4. that He will have all to be saved and come to the knowledge or Acknowledgment of the truth And once more 1 Tim. 4. 10. that He is the Saviour of all men but especially of those that believe So that those that believe are not the all he is the Saviour of the all being distinguished from them And the meaning of the words is sufficiently obvious viz. He is so the Saviour of all as to put them into a capacity of Salvation but he is so the Saviour of those that believe as that they shall be actually saved Those that so believe as to obey the Gospel are at present in a state of Salvation and if they persevere shall be undoubtedly saved 4. Those whom Christ died for and came to save to make it still more out of doubt if it be possible are expressed by the Whole World 1 John 2. 6. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous who is the Propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole World Nay 5. They are expressed by Every man Heb. 2. 9. But we see Iesus who was made a little or for a little while lower than the Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that he by the grace of God should taste death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for every man And this is the fullest and most Comprehensive Expression that can be imagined If after all these most express Affirmations in such variety of the plainest words it shall still be asserted that the Doctrine of Universal Redemption is Heretical or false there needs no other Reply but this Let Christ be true and his Holy Apostles and everyman a Liar that dares to