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	will_n	3,297	5	6.8462	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96627	The vvay to life and death. Laid down in a sermon, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being. / By N. Waker M.A. late minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire. Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five controverted points, viz. predestination, general redemption, freewill, conversion, and perseverance of the siants. Directing a safe way for the practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides.	Waker, Nathaniel.; Waker, John.	1655 (1655)	Wing W281; Thomason E1639_1; ESTC R209056	41,542	102

two men in the field two women grinding the one taken the other left you have his broad way that leadeth to destruction the way of the flesh and many there be that walk that way the other the narrow way that leads to life to mortifie the deeds of the body and few there be that find it For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. Which words to avoid needlesse curiosity admit of a threefold consideration The words variously considered 1. We may consider them absolutely and so they contain two conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely the one a Commination If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye the second a Consolation If ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 2. We may note them in their antithesis or opposition 2 In their antithesis Though the wicked be destroyed yet it shall go well with the righteous intimated in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but and though the wicked perish as dung yee it shall go well with the righteous and contrà there is and ever will be an opposition 3. In their coherence intimated in the illation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which briefly lyeth thus 3 In their coherence There are two things which molest a Christian that is justified the reliques of sin which he thinks cannot stand with Justification and Sanctification and the afflictions of this life which seem repugnant both to the mercy and Justice of God The Apostle in this Chapter prescribeth an antidote for both giveth both comfort and counsel for afflictions the comfort is that they shall work our good here augment our glory hereafter and the counsel inferred therefore to be patient under them and make good use of them for sin though it do remain yet it shall not condemn unlesse it raign that is the comfort and his counsel and therefore let it not raign but mortifie it and in this verse he layes down a twofold Argument to incite Christians to embrace that counsel For if ye live after the flesh c. The first is taken from the pernicious consequent of a carnal life the second from a sweet effect of a spiritual For if ye live after the flesh c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. First then to handle the words absolutely as two distinct conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely considered and 〈…〉 two parts a Commin●t●on and C●n●ol●tion If ye live c. and here perversum aliquid videtur docere divinus sermo Strange paradoxes to some Nicodemus divine riddles like that of Sampson If we laugh now we must weep hereafter but if we sowe in teares we shall reap in joy the way to death is to live in pleasure the way to life is here to dye He that will save the life of his sin shall lose the life of his soul but he that mortifies himself his most beloved self he shall live for ever In the Commination 1. Proponit modum culpae he layes down the kind of sin to live after the flesh 2. Ostendit stipendium miseriae he declares the horrour of their punishment Moriemini Ye shall dye In the Consolation 1. Proponit officium he prescribes a duty that is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body 2. Promittit mercedem he promiseth a reward Ye shall live And first to begin with the Commination where are laid down two estates of the wicked the one present 1 Th 〈…〉 mmination the other future the one of pleasure the other of pain neither of which the Apostle directly chargeth on the Romans but shews that by admitting the former voluntarily they involuntarily plunge themselves into the latter If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye where is the description of the disposition and condition hereafter of every Epicure yea every unregenerate man like that prodigal he receives his portion from his father he feeds his eye his ear his palate but with him never returnes to his father any more but rather like the rich glutton he goes clad in purple and Scarlet and fares deliciously every day but at last he dies and that death is but the beginning of death when his friends leave him the fiends take him and carry him to the place of torment But before we can improve this for your spiritual advantage we must explicate the two things propounded what the sinne is and what the punishment The sinne is to live after the flesh where two things offer themselves to our view 1. The rule though a crooked one that is the flesh 2. The conformity to this rule which is nothing but irregularity to live after the flesh of which briefly First for the rule The flesh and the Spirit are two captaines under whose banners all men in this world are combatants these have divers lawes and weapons constant and continual opposition and a several reward As for unregenerate men they have the flesh for their guide now what this flesh is you shall see Sometimes it is taken for a substance so it 1. Signifieth the nature of man or all mankind Flesh what it signifieth Gen. 6.12 All flesh had corrupted his way in this sense it is no enemy nor must we Timon-like be haters of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for humane nature Is 40.6 sometimes more strictly it signifieth the body as opposed to the soul 2 Cor. 7.1 in this sense we must not proclaim enmity against our selves nor like those foolish Baalites hate or hurt our own flesh or most strictly for that solid and similary part of the body contradistinguished to the blood bones nerves and sine wes Psal 79.2 the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth It is inhumane and barbarons for another to abuse this but unnatural for a man to do it himself therefore this is not the meaning 2. It 's sometimes taken accidentally sometimes in the better part Ezek. 11.19 2 Cor. 3. more usually in the worse so it Signifieth the frailty of humane nature an effect of sin 1 Cor. 15.50 in this sense Christians are in the flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 3 4. in this sense it is no potent enemy but a weak friend not to be opposed with weapons but comforted with cordials or most usually for sinne which is the cause of this frailty that Leprosie which overspreads the whole nature mind will memory senses affections body and all disabling a man from that which is truly and savingly good and inclining him to every thing that is evil the unhappy off-spring of our first Parents the mother and nurse of all those vipers that daily breed in our own bosomes and that hereditary disease which we derive unto all our posterity By the way we must note that not the body alone as the Manichees dreamed or the inferiour faculties onely as our adversaries of Rome some of them suppose are termed flesh for we read of a mind that is carnal Rom. 8. the purest part