Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	love_n	love_v	4,041	5	6.5654	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65667	Energiea planēs, or, A brief discourse concerning man's natural proneness to, and tenaciousness of errour whereunto is added some arguments to prove, that that covenant entred with Abraham, Gen. 17.7 is the covenant of grace / J. Whiston ...	Whiston, Joseph, d. 1690.	1682 (1682)	Wing W1689; ESTC R39755	91,886	168

special of Men's tenaciousness of Errour when once taken up and Embraced by them and that is carnal or corrupted Self-Love This Self-Love is the Cause and Root of all Evils and this is an Evil incident not only to unregenerate Persons Causa radix omnium malorum Musc but to Saints themselves yea there is too much of it in the best of Saints tho there be a true Love to God yet self-Self-Love so prevails as that Love to God is much weakened thereby tho they love God sincerely yet they may love him too little and themselves too much and this self-Self-Love is over and above the three former the great Cause of Men's tenaciousness of Errour when taken up and embraced by them And if it be said How doth this carnal and corrupt Self-Love work towards Men's tenacious holding of Errour when taken up and embraced by them 1. I answer Self-Love causes Men to over-value and over-ween themselves and in particular their own Understandings and Judgments A deep and piercing Understanding and a clear and sound Judgment have an excellency in them and are ornamental to Human Nature Now Self-Love expresseth it self in Men's wishing well to themselves Hence every one would have at least would appear to have what they apprehend an excellency in and to be ornamental unto them and quod volumus facile credimus Hence from the excess of Self-Love Men are easily brought to presuade themselves that that is true of them which they would have at least would have appear to be true of them and answerably apprehending an Excellency and Glory in such an Understanding and Judgment they easily persuade themselves their own are such and hereupon do overvalue themselves self-Love as one speaks is a multiplying and magnifying-Glass it represents Men to themselves double to what they are in reality and Truth Hence a bad Glass for Men to look on themselves in yet it is too common for Men to look upon themselves in this Glass Hence they conceit they have clearer and more piercing Understandings and Judgments than indeed they have and thereupon conceit themselves not liable to those Mistakes Misapprehensions or false Reasonings that other Men are subject unto and consequently suspect not themselves to have a Lye in their right Hand when yet indeed they have Lean not to thine own Vnderstanding saith Solomon implying a proneness in Men to do it and that supposes an over value that Men have for their own Understandings were they sensible and apprehensive of the Shallowness Darkness and Deceiveableness of their Understandings they would not lean unto them but when Men over-value their Understandings and Judgments they lean to them as sufficient to guide them into Truth and secure them from Errour and Deceit and no wonder who Men are very tenacious of Errour when they have embraced it who suppose themselves above the danger of it at least in less danger than ordinarily Men are 2. Self-Love causes men to conceit themselves higher in the Love Favour of God than indeed they are Men are apt to think the Love of God unto them must bear a proportion to the value they have for themselves and hence conceit themselves to be peculiarly priviledged with the Knowledg of Truth and that God from that Love he bears to them will secure them from Errour It was not form Haman's Desert so much as from his Self-Love that he flatters himself with a conceit of being Ahasuerus his Favourite and consequently the only Man whom he delighted to honour Self-Love often causes Men to think they are higher in the Love of Men than indeed they are and answerably they are apt to over rate the Love of God to them and suppose themselves to be as high in his Love as they suppose themselves to be in the Love of Men not but that there are some who are especial Favourites of God and answerably are priviledged with a special Knowledg of Truth and secured from at least any gross Errours but many meerly through Self-Love arrogate this to themselves when they have no just ground so to do Hence suspect not themselves of those Errours they have indeed taken up and embraced 3. Self-Love begets in Men an unwillingness to take notice of and blinds their Minds that they do not see their own Defects Weaknesess and Imperfections The old proverb is Vbi amor ibi nulla deformitas And by how much the stronger Love is by so much the more unwilling Men are to take notice of the more effectually are their Minds blinded by it that they neither do nor can see any Deformity in its Object It is to admiration how the excessive Love of some Parents to their Children will blind their Eyes that they see not those Evils and Miscarriages in them which are obvious and plain to all others Now as a Man is nearest to himself so Love ordinarily worketh most strongly towards himself Hence their Self-Love blinds their Minds that they see not their own Evils but flatter themselves as tho Innocent when yet all others cannot but greatly condemn them See Psal 36.2 Hence it seems to be that David himself saw not his Evils in the Murther of Vriah and committing Adultery with Bathsheba and after taking her to be his Wife and therefore Nathan endeavours his Conviction by representing his Case in another Man's where Self Love could have no influence upon him to blind his Mind 2 Sam. 12. beginning Thus in point of Errour Men through the excess of Self-Love neither are willing to nor do see either the defects of their own Understandings nor the Mistakes Errours and false Reasonings they have taken up and are seduced by And hence having once taken up Errour instead of Truth are so tenacious of it 4. Self-Love opposes Men in owning and acknowledging themselves under any Guilt whether of Errour it self or any other Sin as the effect of it how hard is it to convince Men that are under the prevalency of Self Love that they are under any Guilt through the prevalency of Self-Love Men are willing to persuade themselves all is well between God and them and thereupon to speak Peace to themselves they have more Charity for themselves than to suppose themselves Guilty and besides were they Guilty they must own the displeasure of God out against them and that they are in danger of Judgments and Chastisements from him but this they are unwilling should be and therefore are willing to persuade themselves that it is not and yet further suppose they are Guilty they must apply themselves to those hard and unpleasing Works of Repentance and Self-Humiliation which they are unwilling to do and hence would fain have all things well with them at present And hereupon tho they have taken up and embraced Errour yet they are so hardly convinced of it grant but such a Doctrine or Tenet which they have espoused to be an Errour they must have lower thoughts of themselves than they have or are willing

while it is only suggested to the Mind or looked upon as anothers Opinion or Practice the Mind may and ordinarily will with more freedom weigh and examine it but when it is actually closed in with that a Man hath espoused it as his own Opinion or as his own Judgment Self-love will greatly hinder from an impartial and through weighing of and searching into it And besides it is vastly more easie to reject an Error before it is actually imbraced than it is to relinquish it afterwards Error once taken hold of is not easily let go again Error ordinarily is held fast and therefore let us be excited to the greater Wariness and Watchfulness against Error When we see how strangely tenacious Men are of Error let that be the Use we make of it think with our selves how careful should we be that we do not take up any Error instead of Truth Oh! how much Prejudice do some good Men receive by the Mistakes and Errors they have unwarily taken up and imbraced and yet how tenacious are they of them let them be warnings unto us It highly concerns us to be very deliberate before we close in with any Doctrine or Practice especially that differs from those Doctrines and Practices that have been generally received and walked in by true Saints and that throughout all Ages Men's especially good Men's over-hasty taking up and imbracing Doctrines and Practices that are proposed to and pressed upon them under the Notion of Truth without a due use of the necessary means to find out whether they are so or no has been one of the great Causes of the abounding of Errors among Professors Men having once imbraced an Error they too commonly are exceeding tenacious of it and besides Conscience enforceth them not only to be tenacious of it themselves but to promote it among others and hence it is that Errors so much abound as they do and therefore I say let us be wary of imbracing Error instead of Truth And to inforce this together with the foregoing use I would offer two things to Consideration 1. The Evil and Sinfulness of Error and consequently the Provocation it is unto God Few Christians apprehend there is such an Evil in Error as there is and that it is so provoking unto God as indeed it is at least that Error as such and consequently every Error is so evil and displeasing unto God And therefore that we may be more sensible of the Evil and Sinfulness of Error let these four things be considered 1. That Error blots and defaces the Image of God in Man the Image of God in Man is Man's Conformity to and Resemblance of God which respects his Understanding as well as his Will and Affections Hence the Image of God in Man is said to consist in Knowledg as well as in Righteousness and true Holiness Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 compared together We are renewed saith Davenant according to the Image of God Cum illustrantur sanctificantur omnes Potentiae Inclinationes Animae nostrae All Error supposes a Defect in Knowledg or is an Effect of Ignorance Ye err not knowing the Scriptures saith our Lord Christ Hence through Error Men come short of the Glory of God as well as through any defect in their Sanctification and all Defects or Blots in the Image of God in his People are sinful and displeasing to him 2. Errordefiles the Nature of Men as well as any moral Evil Error it 's true being in the Understanding it primarily defiles the Understanding but as it proceeds from affected or voluntary Ignorance it defiles the Conscience yea it diffuses a Defilement throughout the whole Soul Hence the Apostle having a peculiar respect to erronious Persons tells us They have their Minds and Consciences defiled Tit. 1.15 3. That as Error it self is a Sin and is usually if not always an occasion of some other Sin either of Omission or Commission so both Error it self and those Sins occasioned by it are lived impenitently in Men humble not themselves for such Sins Now Sin tho it be a Sin of Ignorance especially when that Ignorance is voluntary being lived impenitently in may be greater and more provoking unto God then other Sins are that are of a more heinous Nature in themselves that men through the violence of a Temptation or the strong workings of a particular Lust are over-taken with but are not persisted in 4. Errors break that Unity that ought to be and God delights to see among his People God would have his People to be of one Mind and one Judgment Now Error breaks this Unity whence variety of Evils usually issue And let it be observed that though the difference in Mind and Judgment among Christians will not excuse any in whom those Evils occasioned by or arising from them are found yet they will be eminently charged upon those on whose part the Errors lye But Secondly The other thing I would offer to Consideration is this That by how much the greater the Provision God has made is and the more full the Means he has vouchsafed for our coming to the Knowledg and preservation in Truth are by so much the more sinful and provoking are Errors Now consider what Provision God hath made for and what Means he vouchsafes to us in these Lands 1. He has given us his Word and that in our own Language we may daily read in and converse with it 2. He hath constituted a Ministry raises up Men and furnisheth them with Gifts sutable for that Office and that with reference to our Guidance into and Establishment in the Truth Eph. 4.11 12 13 14. 3. God hath given his Spirit to abide with his Church here upon Earth Joh. 14.16 Hence by Prayer we may obtain his Teachings and that is one of the great ends with reference unto which he is given to and left with the Church Joh. 16.13 Yea God gives his Spirit to dwell in every individual Believer and that with reference to the same end But ye saith the Apostle John speaking unto Saints have an Vnction from the holy One and ye know all things that is all Truth necessary to be known 1 Joh. 2.20 The Apostle speaks of them as tho actually knowing all things The Scripture sometimes speaks of that as true de facto which on many accounts either ought to be or may be so as if he should say such an advantage you have by that Vnction you received from the holy One to know all things that it may well be supposed of and expected from you that you do indeed know all things There can hardly be any Error imbraced by a Believer but it must be through his own Default 4. God works providentially with reference unto our Guidance into and Establishment in the Truth The Providences of God as they are designed for so if wisely observed and well improved would highly conduce to our Guidance into and Establishment in the Truth I will guide thee with mine Eyes