Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	father_n	holy_a	spirit_n	2,571	5	5.5598	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30160	The Jerusalem-sinner saved, or, Good news for the vilest of men being a help for despairing souls, shewing that Jesus Christ would have mercy in the first place offered to the biggest sinners / by John Bunyan.	Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.	1689 (1689)	Wing B5545; ESTC R27236	74,451	194

knowledge of the nature of thy Sin and so no true sense of the nature or need of Mercy Little Sinner when therefore thou goest to God though thou knowest in thy Conscience that thou as to acts art no Thief no Murderer no Whore no Liar no false Swearer or the like and in reason must needs understand that thus thou art not so profanely vile as others yet when thou goest to God for Merey know no mans sins but thine own make mention of no mans sins but thine own Also labour not to lessen thy own but magnifie and greaten them by all just Circumstances and be as if there was never a Sinner in the World but thy self Also cry out as if thou wast the only undone Man and that is the way to obtain God's Mercy It is one of the comeliest Sights in the world to see a little Sinner commenting upon the greatness of his sins multiplying and mul●iplying them to himself till he makes them in his own eyes bigger and higher than he seeth any other man's sins to be in the World and as base a thing it is to see a man do otherwise and as basely will come on 't Luk. 18.10 11 12 13. As therefore I said to the great Sinner before let him take heed lest he presumes I say now to the little Sinner let him take heed that he don't dissemble For there is as great an aptness in the little Sinner to dissemble as there is in the great one He that hideth his sins shall not prosper be he a sinner little or great Prov. 28.13 Eighthly Would Jesus Christ have Mercy offered in the first place to the biggest Sinners Then this shews the true cause why Satan makes such head as he doth against him The Father and the holy Spirit are well sp●k●n of by all Deluders and deceived Persons Christ only is the Rock of Offence Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling-Stone and a Rock of Offence Rom. 9.33 Not that Satan careth for the Father or the Spirit more than he careth for the Son but he can let men alone with their notions of the Father and the Spirit for he knows they shall never enjoy the Father or the Spirit if indeed they receive not the Merits of the Son. He that hath the Son hath Life he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life however they may boast themselves of the Father and the Spirit 1 J●hn 5.12 Again Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son 2 John 9. Christ and Christ only is he that can make us cap●ble to enjoy God with Life and Joy to all eternity Hence he calls himself The Way to the Father The true and l●ving Way Joh. 14.6 Heb. 10.19.20 For we cannot come to the Father but by him Satan knows this therefore he hates him Deluded Persons are ignorant of this and therefore they are so led up and down by Satan by the nose as they are T●ere are many things by which Satan has taken occasion to greaten his rage against Jesus Christ. As first His love to Man and then the many expressions of that love He hath taken Man's nature upon him he hath in that nature fulfilled the L●w to bring in Righteousness for Man and hath spilt his Blood for the Reconciling of Man to God he hath broke the neck of Death put away Sin destroyed the works of the Devil and got into his own hands the Keys of Death and all these are heinous things to Satan He cannot abide Christ for this Besides he hath eternal Life in himself and that to bestow upon us and we in all liklihood are to possess the very places from which the Satans by transgression fell if not places more glorious Wherefore he must ne●ds be angry And is it not a vexatious thing to him that we should be admitted to the Throne of Grace by Christ while he stands bound over in Chains of Darkness to answer for his Rebellions against God and his Son at the terrible day of Judgment Yea we poor Dust and Ashes must become his Judges and triumph over him for ever and all this long of J●sus Christ for he is the Meritorious Cause of all this Now though Satan seeks to be revenged for this yet he knows it is in vain to attack the Person of Christ he has overcome him therefore he tampers with a company of silly Men that he may Villifie him by them And they bold fools as they are will not spare to spit in his face They will rail at his Person and deny the very Being of it they will rail at his Blood and deny the Merit and Worth of it They will deny the very end why he accomplished the Law and by figgs and tricks and qui●ks which he helpeth them to they set up fond N●mes and Images in his pl●ce and give the glory of a Saviour to them Thus Satan worke●h under the Name of Christ and his Ministers under the name of the Ministers of Righteousness And by his Wiles and Stratagems he undoes a world of men But there is a Se●d and they shall serve him and it shall be counted to the Lord for a Generation T●ese shall see their sins and th●t C●rist is the Way to Happiness These sh●ll venture themselves both Body and Soul upon his Worthiness All this Satan Knows and therefore his rage is kindle● the more Wherefore ac●ording to his ability and allowance he assaulteth tempteth abuseth and stirs up what he can to be hurtful to these poor People that he may while his time shall last make it as hard and difficult for them to go to eternal Glory as he can Often-times he abuses them with wrong apprehe●sions of God and with wrong apprehensions of Christ. He also casts them into the Mire to the reproach of Religion the shame of their Brethren the derision of the World and dishonour of God. He holds our hands while the World buffets us he puts Bear-skins upon us and then sets the Dogs at us He bedawbeth us with his own Fome and then tempts us to believe that that bedawding comes from ourselves Oh! the rage and the roaring of this Lion and the hatred that he manifests against the Lord J●sus and against them that are purchased with his Blood But yet in the midst of all this the Lord Jesus sends forth his Herrald to proclaim in the Nations his love to the World and to invite them to come in to him for Life Yea his Invitation is so large that it offereth his Mercy in the first place to th●●iggest Sinners of every Age which augments the Devils rage the more wherefore as I said before fret he sume he the Lord Jesus will divide the Spoil with this great one yea he shall divide the Spoil with the strong because he h●th poured out his Soul unto death and was numbred with the Transgressiors and

none despair that are sorry for their sins and would be saved by Jesus Christ Let none Presume that abide in the liking of their sins though they seem to know the exceeding grace of Christ for though the door stand wide open for the reception of the Penitent yet 't is fast enough barr'd and bolted against the presumptuous sinner Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man sows that he shall reap It cannot be that God should be wheadled out of his Mercy or prevailed upon by lips of dissimulation He knows them that trust in him and that sincerely come to him by Christ for mercy Nahum 1.7 It is then not the abundance of sins committed but the not coming heartily to God by Christ for Mercy that shuts men out of doors And though their not coming heartily may be said to be but a Sin yet 't is Such a Sin as causeth that all thy other sins abide upon thee unforgiven God complains of this Th●y have not cried unto me with their heart They turned but not to the most High. They turned feignedly Jer 3.10 Hos. 7.14 16. Thus doing his Soul hates but the Penitent humble broken-hearted Sinner be his Transgressions red as Scarlet red like Crimsom in number as the Sand though his transgressions cry to Heaven against him for Vengeance and seem there to cry louder than do his Prayers or Tears or Groans for Mercy yet he is safe To this man God will look Isa. 1.18 chap. 66 2. Seventhly Would Jesus Christ have Mercy offered in the first place to the biggest Sinners Then here is ground for those that as to practice have Not been such to come to him for mercy Although there is no Sin little of it self because it is a contradiction of the Nature and Majesty of God yet we must admit of divers numbers and also of aggravations Two Sins are not so many as three nor are three that are done in ignorance so big as One that is done against light against knowledge and Conscience Also there is the Child in Sin and a Man in Sin that has his Hairs gray and his Skin wrinkled for very Age. And we must put a differen●e betwixt these Sinners also For can it be that a Child of Seven or ten or sixteen years old should be such a Sinner a Sinner so vile in the Eye of the Law as he is who has walked according to the course of this World forty fifty sixty or seventy Years Now the Youth this Stripling though he is a Sinner is but a little sinner when compared with such Now I say If there be room for the first sort for those of the biggest size certainly there is room for the lesser size If there be a Door wide enough for a Gyant to go in at there is certainly room for a Dwarff If Christ Jesus has Grace enough to save great sinners he has surely Grace enough to save little ones If he can forgive five hundred pence for certain he can forgive fifty Luk 7.41 42. But you said before that the little sinners must stand by untill the great ones have received their grac● and that 's discouraging I answer There are two sorts of little Sinners such as are so such as feign themselves so There are those that feign themselves so that I intended there and not those that are indeed comparatively so Such as feign themselves so may wait long enough before they obtain Forgivenness But again A Sinner may be comparatively a little sinner and sensibly a great one There is then two sorts of greatness in sin greatness by reason of number greatness by reason of throughness of conviction of the horrible nature of Sin. In this last sense he that has but one sin if such a one could be found may in his own eyes find himself the biggest sinner in the world Let this Man or this Child therefore put himself among the great sinners and plead with God as great sinners do and expect to be saved with the great sinners and as soon and as hearttily as they Yea a little sinner that comparatively is truly so if he shall graciously give way to Conviction and shall in God's light diligently weigh the horrible nature of his own sins may yet sooner obtain Forgiveness for them at the hands of the heavenly Father than he that has ten times his sins and so cause to cry ten times harder to God for Mercy For the grievousness of the Cry is a great thing with God for if he will hear the Widdow if she cries at all how much more if she cries most grievously Exod. 22.22 23. It is not the number but the true sense of the abominable nature of Sin that makes the Cry for Pardon lamentable He as I said that has many sins may not cry so loud in the ears of God as he that has far fewer he in our present sense that is in his own eyes the biggest sinner is he that soonest findeth mercy The offer Then is to the Biggest sinner to the biggest sinner First and the m●rcy is first obtained by him that first confesseth himself to be such an one There are men that strive at the throne of Grace for Mercy by pleading the greatness of their Necessity Now their Plea as to the prevalency of it lieth not in their counting up of the number but in the sense of the greatness of their sins and in the vehemency of their cry for Pardon And it is observable that though the Birth right was Rubins and for his foolishness given to the Sons of Joseph yet Judah prevailed above his Brethren and of him came the Messias 1 Chron. 5.1 2. There is a heavenly subtilty to be managed in this matter Thy Broth●r came with subtilty and hath taked away thy blesing The blessing belonged to Esau but Jacob by his diligence made it his own Gen. 27.35 The offer is to the biggest sinner to the biggest sinner first but if he forbears to cry the sinner that is a sinner less by far than he both as to number and the nature of transgression may get the blessing first if he shall have grace to bestir himself well for the loudest Cry is heard furthest and the most lamentable pierces soonest I therefore urge this Head not because I would have little sinners go and tell God that they are little sinners thereby to think to obtain his Mercy for veily so they are never like to have it For such words declare that such a one hath no true sense at all of the nature of his sins Sin as I said in the nature of it is horrible though it be but one single sin as to act yea though it be but a sinful thought and so worthily calls for the damnation of the Soul. The Comparison then of little and great Sinners is to go for good sense among men But to plead the fewness of thy sins or the comparative harmlesness of their quantity before God argueth no sound