Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	know_v	see_v	4,988	5	3.1452	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75693	An argument proving, that according to the covenant of eternal life revealed in the Scriptures, man may be translated from hence into that eternal life, without passing through death altho the humane nature of Christ himself could not be thus translated till he had passed through death.	Asgill, John, 1659-1738.	1700 (1700)	Wing A3926; ESTC R208477	45,123	107

of every Man within any Country doth subject him to the Laws of that Country is the Law of all Nations And without these Concessions there could be no Laws because else every Man must have a particular Law delivered him for himself which being a publick Inconvenience cannot be admitted in the nature of Laws And thus this Law of Death fell upon Christ himself as a Descendant from the same common Ancestors Christ had two descents in his Birth One was his natural descent from the Virgin Mary his real Mother The other his legal descent from Joseph his supposed Father But in his Genealogy set down by two Evangelists this legal descent by Joseph is only counted upon without taking any notice of his descent by his Mother's side Because this descent by Joseph was his legitimate descent according to that Law which makes all the Issue of the Woman born during the Coverture to be the Issue of the Husband although it be notoriously known that in Fact it were begotten by another And this is our Law at this day altho the Issue be born but one day after the Espousals And the Canon Law is much stronger for that makes the Issue born of the Woman before Marriage let them be begotten by whom she will unless by a former Husband in Wedlock to be the Issue of the Husband to whom she is afterward married And therefore Christ having such a Father-in-Law as this his descent must be accounted from his Father-in-Law and not from his Mother because all legal descents are accounted from the Father and not from the Mother When the eleven Tribes were polled in the Wilderness of Sinai they gave account of their Pedigrees after their Families by the House of their Fathers without taking any notice of their descent by their Mothers side And so did they of the Tribe of Levi who were numbered after them Wherefore I say the business of the Evangelists being to shew such a descent in Christ by which the Curse of the Law might fall upon him in his Birth they must shew a descent upon which the Law might operate For as this is a Law all Proceedings thereupon are according to Law And hence it is observable that his being born of a Virgin espoused and not of a single Virgin was not accidental but designed For as it was necessary that he should be born of a pure Virgin to preserve his Nature from the defilements of the Humanity so it was necessary that he should be born of a Virgin espoused to derive upon himself the Curse of the Law by a legal Father For which purpose it was necessary that the Birth of Christ should in the terms of the Evangelist be on this wise and no otherwise And as this peculiar Genealogy of Christ was not accidental but designed the quality of his descent was so too There are mutual courtesies and civilities used amongst Equals but he that accepteth Riches or Honour from another doth thereby acknowledg him to be his Superior for the lesser is blessed of the greater Wherefore when Abraham had rescued the Plunder taken from the Sodomites he permitted the young Men that fought with him to eat and drink of the Provisions and his three Confederates that assisted him to take their Portion of the Goods but for his own part taking himself to be as good a Man as the then King of Sodom he scorned to accept from him the value of a Shoe Latchet lest it should be said he made Abraham rich So tho Christ in the days of his flesh behaved himself with all the freedom of Conversation The Son of Man came eating and drinking and when little Zacheus climb'd up a Tree to see him he frankly invited himself to dine with him Yet knowing himself to be the Son of God he neither could nor would receive any Dignity from Man I receive not Honour from Man And thus knowing his real descent to be from Above I am from Above it was equal to him to be reputed the Son of a King or a Carpenter But he rather chose the latter because being himself a King I am a King he would not accept his immediate descent from another King lest it should be said that that made him King David often vaunted of him as his descendant to come twice fourteen Generations before he was born And Abraham rejoiced to see his day But he was so far from valuing himself upon these great Ancestors one a King and the other a King's Fellow that he rather seemed to disown them Before Abraham was I am If David called me Lord how am I his Son He made no other use of his Royal Pedigree but to convey by them a corrupted descent from Adam who standing attainted of Treason against Heaven Christ himself under this Attainder was baptized in his own Blood to restore the rest of Mankind into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For Christ himself thus falling under the Law became as guilty of the breach of it as any common Man notwithstanding his personal Holiness For we are none of us guilty of this Sin in Fact but only by construction of Law in the Article of our Birth which falls upon us before we know Good or Evil and so it did upon the Humanity of Christ And this Law thus falling upon him was as just a cause of his Death as it is of ours Nor can his Death be assigned to any other cause but this This Death of Christ was the most unlikely thing that ever happen'd in the World His Disciples could not believe it till they saw it He did not die of Age being about thirty three at his Death He did not die of natural Infirmity having the power of Health by which he preserved his own and restored others He did not die in Battel For his Kingdom was not of this World else would his Servants have fought that he should not have been delivered unto the Jews He did not die by any sudden Accident the Angels having charge over him lest he should dash his foot against a stone He did not murder himself but made all his Efforts to escape the greatest of which was his asking his Life of God Nor was he murdered by others because there was a form of Law in doing it And yet he was not executed by Law because there was no Law then in being by which he could be executed for the Crime of which he stood accused The time that Christ lived in the World was after the destruction of the Jewish Monarchy and during the continuance of the Roman Conquest under which the Jewish Nation being then Subjects were permitted the exercise of their Religion and Priesthood but not of the Civil Power which they had while their Monarchy was in being So that if a Jew had committed any Offence against the Jewish Law which was not an Offence against the Roman Law he was liable to no other Punishment than the Censure of the Jewish Church

Christ seems very peculiar And yet we shall find even this also to be most sutable to the common use of Seals amongst Men. We cause our Seals to be impressed with the most memorable Ensigns of Honour that can be assigned to our Families whereby they may be remember'd every time the Deed is shown And amongst these we esteem those most honourable which are gain'd in the Field with the loss or hazard of our Lives Why then here 's the Son of God thrown down from Heaven in the form of a Man as a Champion against Death and Hell slain in the open field before the Face of Men and Angels in the Quarrel and Defence of his Friends And after that displaying himself again with all his Wounds about him Reach hither thy Finger and behold my Hands and reach hither thy Hand and thrust it into my side Now first I challenge the Hero's to show such Scars of Honour as these And then I defy the Heralds to match it for a Coat of Arms. Such a Champion and such a Cause such a Combat and such a Conquest And therefore of all things in Heaven and Earth God hath chosen out the Blood of Christ to be the Seal of the Covenant of Eternal Life That as often as Man sees the Seal of that Covenant he may remember the fate of that day As often as ye do this do it in remembrance of me The place of the execution of this Covenant was upon Earth which Instance hath put me upon many thoughts by the by The first Notion of a God is that he is equal to himself in all his Attributes and it seemeth Blasphemy in Man of himself to suppose any Inequality in his Maker But God having owned something which he values himself upon more than all the rest Man hath thereby leave so to conceive of him Now he hath magnified his Word above all his Name And in that Word he hath bound himself by an Oath to perform this Covenant Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie unto David And of all parts of this as well as other Covenants the Sealing is the greatest Solemnity This Covenant then being sealed by God himself upon this Globe of Ground I can't but think that Man is to pass through his greatest Change in the same place But I 'll say no more of that till I have done my Argument 5. The Witnesses to the Execution And these were first accidental and they were the whole World The sound thereof is gone through the whole Earth for this thing was not done in a Corner Secondly The direct Witness and that was himself For this end was I born and for this end came I into the World to bear Witness unto the Truth For as he did not depend upon the Testimony of John to tell the World who he was having a greater Testimony of his own Works so he doth not depend upon Man to witness this Covenant having attested it himself in his own Blood And this is after the manner of Kings Witness our selves because they can't have a greater And like God himself who swears by Himself because he can't swear by a greater 6. The Ceremony by which this Covenant is to be executed by Man This Covenant being thus executed by God himself and attested in the Blood of Christ stands ready to be executed by Man on his part And this is also agreeable to the Forms of Title amongst Men who can take no benefit of a Deed but by acceptance of it We distinguish our Deeds by two Titles 1st An Indenture in which all the Parties must be named 2dly A Deed Roll in which the Parties need not be named but are described by the first Prescription of the Deed As if the Deed begins To all Persons who shall subscribe these presents then every one by his Subscription becomes a Party to take the benefit of all that is contained in that Deed for the Subscribers Now in this Covenant of Eternal Life the Parties are not named but every Man is so described that he is at liberty to make himself a Party to it The words of this Prescripion are 1. Positive He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath Eternal Life 2. Negative Except ye eat the Elesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man ye have no Life in you Which Prescription doth not respect his Blood as Blood only but as that Blood is made the Seal of this Covenant This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood We don't seal Wax as Wax but as it is annexed to the Deed and made the Seal thereof For the Sealing the same piece of Wax at large separate from the Deed signifies nothing And hence it is not the Wax that sanctifies the Deed but the Deed that sanctifies the Wax For if Lead or any other malleable Substance be annexed to the Deed and impressed with the Seals it is as effectual as if it were Wax And hence Christ himself doth own that it was the Sanction and Mission of God upon him that made him the Redeemer of the World Say ye of him whom God hath sanctified and sent into the World that he blasphemeth because he saith he is the Son of God For him hath God the Father sealed And hence that great Cognomen Christ is added to his proper Name of Jesus And thus the Kings of Israel receiv'd their Sanction by the Anointing of the Prophets The distinction between things Holy and Common Sacred and Civil is the Appointment of God put upon the one and not upon the other The things used in Ceremonies are in themselves indifferent and insignificant but by the Sanction of those Laws by which they are made Ceremonies they become the most necessary and essential Parts of the Law Such were the things used in the Sacrifices of the Mosaical Law foolish and insignificant in themselves but being set in order according to the forms of that Law they became Sanctions to one another The Gold of the Temple the Wood of the Altar and the Flesh of Beasts were all common things till they were used according to the Temple-Laws and then and there the Temple sanctified the Gold and the Altar sanctified the Gift So 't is in our Law a Writing is nothing and Wax is nothing and a Seal is nothing they are but Cyphers in themselves but if the Wax be put to the Writing and the Seal to the Wax this makes the Writing to be a Deed and is the form of a Title Men in their private Stations may argue with one another pro con as long as they please without doing good or hurt But the Ay or No of one of these Men given in a Court of Legislature may turn the Fate of a Kingdom And the more slight and plain these Ceremonies are by which Titles are executed the more sure the Title is that is to come from them because they can neither be mistaken nor forgotten We think it an