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	reason_n	sin_n	2,514	5	4.6493	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37064	A demonstration of the necessity of settling some Gospel-government amongst the churches of Christ in this nation held forth in an answer to a querie whereby Mr. Saltmarch did once endeavour to hinder the settlement of all church-government in the nation : written in the year 1646, and now published for the present use of these times, wherein it may be seasonable to be taken into consideration for the preventing of further confusion and disorder amongst the professors of the Gospell / by John Dury.	Dury, John, 1596-1680.; Hartlib, Samuel, d. 1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing D2851; ESTC R24917	50,485	74

Church-Government is to be settled amongst them For if the Gospell be preached and Christ offered to a People in the Covenant of Grace they are brought thereby under a necessity either of sinning against God if they receive not Christ or of being persecuted and miserable in the World if they receive him For it is said That all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 and the world is condemned of sinne if it believe not in him Joh. 16.8 9. So then seeing God hath appointed this necessity to follow the Gospell preached or the preaching of it it is no Truth to say That whatsoever bringeth a People on a necessity either of sinne or misery is not fit to be brought upon them for the preaching of the Gospell doth this and it is absurd to say that the preaching of the Gospell is not fit to be brought upon them But he will say perhaps that the Case is different either that there is a greater necessity of Preaching then of exercising Church-Government or that the Cause of this necessity is not proper and per se by it selfe following the nature of the Gospell but onely accidentall in respect of the world I answer That he will never be able to shew a greater necessity of the one then of the other he may perhaps shew that the one may go before the other na●●ly that Teaching must be first but that upon Teaching the Observation of all Christs Commandements under which the Commandements of Church-Government are comprehended must needs follow is clear from the Fundamentall Commission given to the Apostles Mat. 28.20 and he that doth charge Timothy to preach in Season and out of Season doth also charge him in the same place to watch and elsewhere with no less earnestness to observe all the Rules of Government without preferring one before another 1 Tim. 5 21. And we have seen heretofore that the Principles of the Outward Profession of Religion are no lesse essentially requisite in Christianity then the Principles of Faith although the Principles of Faith are first in Order So then he cannot plead a greater necessity of the one then of the other But then when he saies that the Gospell is not by it self a proper Cause of Persecution and Misery but onely accidentally by reason of the evill world which hates the Godly without a cause I say that herein he gives himself an Answer concerning the matter of Government for the settling of the Government which Christ hath ordained is no cause either of Sin or Misery by it self but onely accidentally by reason of the ignorance and wickednesse of our corrupt nature from whence you see that the generall ground of his Reasoning in the first Section is not true as he doth presuppose it namely that whatsoever doth necessitate a People either to sinne or to be miserable is not to be imposed upon them but to make it true a limitation is to be added thus Whatsoever in its own nature and propertie and not accidentally doth necessitate a People either to sin or misery that is not to be imposed upon a People but then if you express according to this presupposal the Assumption or second Proposition of his Argument thus Now the settling of Church-Government doth in its own nature and property and not accidentally necessitate a People either to sin or to be miseable this you see is evidently false and therefore the Conclusion which he intends to inferre doth not hold true namely that no Church-Government ought to be settled upon this People Thus you see that the very ground of his Reasoning is a hidden fallacie fit to deceive ignorant people and plausible to a naturall mans Capacity but no wayes agreeable with Gods Truth and counsell in the dispensation of the Gospell For God hath determined that all men shall be brought to this necessity in some degree more or lesse for the tryall of their Faith and perseverance But you perhaps will say that he makes not this the chiefe ground of his Reasoning but that he seems onely to touch it as an inferrence following upon the precedents to shew the inconveniencie thereof I Answer If it be no inconveniency in Gods Counsell then his Counsell to reject all Church-Government upon this ground is contrary to Gods Counsell and he speaks in this Matter as a naturall Man to please Men rather then God Having thus discovered the deceit of his main ground of Perswasion you may easily perceive that the Superstructures will fall but that we may further see the force of his Consequences and the Coherence of Matters which he layes together let us proceed to set all his Arguments in their Order distinctly Thus then he doth Reason That which bringeth upon a People a necessity of Sinne or Misery is not to be imposed upon them The settling of any Church-Government will do this Ergo no Church-Government is to be imposed upon them The first Proposition of this Argument hath been now examined and found false his Discourse runnes upon the proof of the Second namely that the settling of any Church-Government will bring this People to the necessity of sinne Thus That which will put this People upon the Practise of that wherein it is impossible they can be fully perswaded in their minds will put them upon the necessity of sinne Rom. 14.5 But the settling of any Church-Government will put them upon the practise of that wherein it is impossible they can be fully perswaded in their minds Ergo It will put them upon the necessity of sin Here again the Major or first Proposition is not to be admitted without a Restriction thus That which in its own nature and by it self will put this People upon the Practise of that wherein it is impossible they can be fully perswaded in their mind will put them upon the necessity of sinne if they do it now with this Restriction the second Proposition is false for it is not true that the settling of any Church-Government whatsoever will in its own nature and by it self put them upon the Practise of that wherein they cannot be fully perswaded in their minds Therefore this Conclusion is false namely that the Settling of any Church-Government whatsoever will put them upon the necessity of sin Here again you see plainly the falacie but he not observing this hath gone on in his Reasoning to prove the other Proposition namely that the settling of any Church-Government whatsoever will bring the People upon the Practise of that wherein it is impossible they can be fully perswaded in their minds and to make this good he Argues thus A People that is generally untaught in the nature and grounds of all Church-Government will be brought upon the Practise of that wherein it is impossible they can be fully perswaded in their minds if the settling of any Church-Government be brought upon them But this People is generally untaught in the nature and grounds of all Church-Government