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	lord_n	sin_n	3,005	5	4.4939	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89645	A little starre, giving some light into the counsels and purposes of God revealed in the Scriptures. Or A catechisme, wherein these ensuing principles. 1. What God is, and how he manifests himselfe. 2 Why he made the world and man. 3. Mans condition, what, 1. by creation. 2. By his fall. 3. By being restored by Jesus Christ. 4 The uses and ends of the law. 5. What the Gospell is. 6. Justification what it is. 7. Sanctification what, and how it is wrought. 8. What repentance is. 9. The use and ends of the Scriptures. 10. What true prayer is. 11. Baptisme, and the Lords Supper, why, and how used. 12. Generall redemption what, and how to be adjudged of. 13. Resurrection and judgement what. 14. Heaven and Hell what, in truth and misterie. All which are briefly by way of question and answer opened and explained. / By VVilliam Mason.	Mason, William, Anabaptist.	1653 (1653)	Wing M948; Thomason E1505_1; ESTC R208669	86,553	204

can abound I can as well be content to be hungry as to be full fed to be poor as to be rich to suffer as to raign to dye as to live when a man can live in God and unto God above all this world and esteem all things but drosse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus And true faith is also profitable to men when it is exercised in godly conference building up one another comforting one another and if need require reproving one another when it works in feeding the hungry clothing the naked releiving the oppressed and by doing to every man as we would be done unto This is living faith and it is thus evidenced to be alive Thus we are not justified by nor for our good workes for we are his workmanship created a new in Christ Jesus unto good workes that we should walk inthem Justification where it is indeed will evidence it self by acts of sanctification Q. What is sanctification And how is it wrought A. As Christ is made of God righteousnesse unto us for justification so also for sanctification as he is our justification because he perfectly fulfilled the righteousnesse of the Law for us and paid all our debts yeilding up himself to death for us so also he is become our sanctification by fulfilling the righteousnesse of the Law in our hearts even by living in us As we are justified by his death so we are saved or sanctified by his ●sfe Sanctification is an act of Gods infinite love whereby he takes us out of Adam or the old man and puts us into Christ or the new man and this is the new creation or the new creature when a man that before was unholy profane and to every good work void of judgement is now become through the power of Christ living in him holy unblameable and ready to every good work and this is wrought by the power of God revealing Christ in the soul when Christ is revealed in the soul to be white and ruddy the most excellent the most amiable one in whom God is well pleased and in whom his soul delighteth yea and by whom and in whom he is well pleased with poor sinners and delights in them then that soul is ravished with his beauty which is his love and with beholding or apprehending of it is transformed into the same Image of love more and more Christ is the Saints life and this life is hid in God untill it be revealed and when Christ who is our life doth appear in the soul then the soul lives in his life and appeares with him in glory Now every one in whom Christ lives indeed he conformes them to himself First in death if Christ be risen in the soul then the old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed and the soul is dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in holinesse through Jesus Christ who lives in him Secondly Where Christ is risen indeed there is a conformity in life Christ being the life living in the soul the soul must needs live indeed and live unto God and not any longer to the flesh for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace and thus is Christ our sanctification when he arises and appeares in our hearts whereby he transformes and changes us into his own Image even his Image of glory more and more Q. But doth not the Lord in Scripture call men to repentance and promise them life upon condition of the same yea the Lord doth solemnly protest that he delights not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should repent and turn and live And again why will yee die repent and turn and live yee And our Saviour saith except yee repent yee shall all perish and the Apostles exhort them in the Acts to repent for the remission of sinnes and that their sinnes might be blotted out And again if we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Doth it not from all these places appear very plain that repentance is necessarily required as a meanes or at least a condition of life A. There is in Scripture a twofold repentance spoken of a repentance of the Law and a repentance of the Gospel The repentance which is of the Law is suteable to that Covenant of workes which the Israelites were under for temporal blessings when they at any time acted contrary to the command then the Lord plagued them sometimes with famine pestilence warre captivity c. untill they did repent and when they repented or ceased from their wicked wayes and works then the Lord would also repent or remove the judgement for temporal blessings were promised upon condition of outward obedience and temporal punishments were diverted or turned away upon their legal repentance and ceasing from their evill wayes In the time of Ezekiels prophesie the Israelites were many of them in captivity already and the rest of them were threatened and when the Lord by the Prophet called for repentance the people thought it was to small purpose to repent seeing their fathers had eaten sour grapes and their teeth were set on edge and that it was but a light businesse to promise them any good upon condition of repentance seeing they did but pine away in their fathers sinnes To which the Lord commands the Prophet to tell them that it was no such matter it was their own sin which was the cause of their misery and that if they would return from their idolatries and other abominations he would cease from punishing of them and hereupon uses that solemn oath As I live I have no delight in plaguing you I had rather yee would turn from your evill wayes and live in your own land why will yee die or why will yee be slain or die by famine or pestilence c. And so our Saviour tells those which spake to him of Pilates cruelty that unlesse they did repent they should likewise perish meaning that some temporal judgement would overtake them and thus legal repentance served onely for the preventing or diverting of temporal punishments But repentance which is of the Gospel is not any meanes or condition of life for eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and it is a free gift and not purchased by repentance nor yet promised nor given upon condition of repentance for it is not sin nor Satan nor death it self can make a separation between them that are elected and the love of God in Christ Jesus which is eternal life The Lord who hath promised is not a man that he should lie or the son of man that he should repent in this respect Now this repentance is called godly sorrow and it is wrought by the working power of

performance of any or all those religious services but that they should believe in him who was prefigured in all those services which was Christ and cast themselves wholly upon God in him for Righteousnesse both unto justification and fanctification But now Christ being come in the flesh and having in himself ended all those significations it is the will of God that both Jewes and Gentiles should believe in him and rest confidently assured that God is graciously well pleased with them in him having for his sake forgiven them all their trespasses so that the will of God being the ruleof mens obedience it is the will of God that they should not act according to the letter of the Law for life but that they should believe on the name of his Sonne Jesus Christ in whom is eternall life Q. But is not the Law even in the terrors of it a good meanes to drive men to Christ A. The Law as it was delivered to Israel on Mount Sinai was so holy so pure and of such transcendent righteousnesse that all the wisdome and power of men could not devise any meanes nor perform any action that might in the least be suteable to the will of God herein they being by nature acted by a spirit or principle quite contrary to the most pure holy and righteous will of God hereupon the Law was a ministration of death threatning wrath upon every disobedience so that in this respect the Law was and is so far from being a meanes to drive men to God that is was and is rather an occasion to drive them from him either first into despair if he should turn their consciences loose upon them Or else secondly by stirring up the enmity that is in the minds of men to make them hate God and all the holy wayes of God Or thirdly men being ignorant of the righteousnesse of God are hereby stirred up to invent some way or worship of their own whereby they may appear righteous before God Q. How could the Law being so pure and holy occasion or stir up the enmity that is in mens minds against God A. A man in the state of innocency was able to look upon God and to converse with him every appearance and discovery of God unto him was pleasant and delightful and the more the Lord was pleased to manifest himself unto man the more mans heart was enlarged to love him and his commandments were not grievous in this condition there was neither cause nor occasion of discontent much lesse of enmity or hatred between God and him But when man by sin was fallen from God and was become one with Satan who hated God then he who before was like unto God and loved God was now become like the Devil and hated God and this enmity or hatred was not against God as he was a good and loving God for that man was not now able to apprehend but in that he was a just and a righteous God for so he was pleased to appear unto him Before the Law was given the Lord manifested himself to men very seldome and very low and they knew but very little of him except in the outward creation all this while men were exceeding sinful and death had dominion over them yet neverthelesse God did not impute every transgression unto them though he often plagued them for their grosse and greivous sinnes for there was no written precept and the Law of nature was by sin so blotted and blurred that no man was able thereby to read or know his duty and now men were alive at least in their own conceits they thought themselves to be very happy and their conditions to be very good so long as they abstained from such grossenesse as very nature abhorred because they did not know sin many things that were very sinful went currant for morall vertues and many things that were duties were not looked upon as any thing at all sin was as it were dead men were so benummed in it But now when the Commandement on the Law came when God was pleased to appear in a most righteous Law whereby every sin and transgression was brought to light it being through the power of God a discerner of the thoughts and purposes of the heart now sin revived for now sin was discovered whatsoever was contrary to the holy will of God was known to be a sin and every duty was now known to be a duty so that by the Law men were become sinful that is they were now made acquainted with their sinful dispositions which before the Law came they did not know But this was not all for the Law did not onely discover sin to be sin but also did occasion sin to be more sinful That corruption of nature wherewith every man is tainted and whereby every man is become prone to evil that sinning sin took occasion by the Law or Commandement to work in natural men all manner of evil for the Law was so holy and so high that no man was able to attain to the perfection of it in the least degree and it was also the ministration of condemnation threatening wrath and curse upon every disobedience Now men perceiving that they were neither able to attain to that purity which the Law required nor yet to escape that wrath which the Law threatened that natural corruption that sinful disposition that is in every mans heart by nature was hereby quickened and stirred up through the working of Satan to hate God and to oppose him in all his holy and righteous wayes and appearances and yet the Law is not sin nor the cause of death unto any man but holy and just and good But sin or the vicious disposition of every mans heart being carried on by the Devil did so rage and swell against the purity and righteousnesse of God revealed in the Law that they sinned the more and acted all manner of wickednesse with greater violence even as a mighty stream being stopped rages and swells and breakes down all dammes and stops whatsoever and hence it is that the Commandement which was ordained to life was to them an occasion of death and thus sinne by the Commandement became exceeding sinfull Q. Doth the Law occasion such an enmity or hatred in the Elect also A. The Elect and they that are predestinated to be conformed unto the Image of Christ come under a two-fold consideration First as they are in the state of nature and secondly as they are in a state of grace As they are in the state of nature so they are in the state of enmity and there is no difference herein between them and all other men but onely in the account of God they hate God as much as any oppose him as much as any and had a hand and gave their voyce in the crucifying of Christ as much as any men whatsoever and in this condition