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	sin_n	world_n	2,522	5	4.6350	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26799	The peace-maker, or, Two farewel-sermons preached at St. Dunstans in the West, London, August the 17th, 1662, by William Bates.	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1662 (1662)	Wing B1117; ESTC R35319	19,500	36

and obedience that entertains sin for every sin thou dost wilfully commit 't is an act of hostility against God 't is that which makes him thy enemy and makes thee an enemy to him As Jehu said What peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many So what peace can there be so long as thou dost indulge thy self in sin and make it thy business to gra●ifie thy outward senses though it be to the displeasure of God 'T is the greatest mercy in the world to rob such persons of their peace and to discover to them their danger they are only capable of true peace by the knowledge of that which is false Therefore bring your selves to this trial whether or no doth that peace which now you please your selves in cause in you an eternal hatred of sin doth it set you at a distance from your most beloved lusts Then it is that peace that springs from God The greatest part of the world are in a state of war with God though they do not feel the effects of that war True indeed God doth not always draw the sword either of Famine Pestilence or War against a Nation and yet they may be acting in a most hostile way against God So for a person God may not blast thy estate or send diseases upon thy person or raise a tumult in thy conscience and make a conspiracy of thy thoughts and passions against thy peace thou maist be quiet within and yet have war with God because as in the world there may be a Truce when there is no Peace the War may still continue though there be a Truce between two Princes or rather there is not a Truce between God and the sinner but as a Town that is besieged for many days may not feel the battery of their enemy because he is undermining them to blow them up at once so God doth not many times make his battery against sinners but he is undermining them and the fall at the last will be dreadful if there be not a composition Vse 2. By way of Exhortation Let me press you all to follow peace it is a duty which the Gospel enjoyns with the greatest vehemency with the greatest force of words and expressions The Apostle when he is to seal up his affection to them he doth it with that prayer 2 Thess. 3. 16 Now the God of peace himself give you peace always by all means What strange expressions First he gives you here the Title of the God of peace and then he saith Himself The God of peace himself There 's a great deal of force in that word Peace is so excellent a blessing and there is such an abhorrency in our corrupt nature to it that it is only the Lord himself that is able to effect it As if the Apostle had said The Lord must bow the Heavens he must come down himself to create peace among you and to express the greater vehemency of his desire he saith Give you peace always by all means So another Scripture pursue peace Follow peace with all men a word that imports our pursuit after it though it run from us This is the strain and tenor of the Gospel and this becomes you as Christians When Christ came to purchase our peace he came as a Lamb an Innocent and meek creature Behold the Lamb of God When the holy Spirit descended to seal the priviledge of peace to us he descended in the form of a Dove a gaul-less creature in whom there is no rancor nor bitterness What a strong engagement should this be upon all of us to pursue and promote peace And for your encouragement consider 1 That in the times of the Gospel all the promises do as it were empty themselves into this blessing the blessing of peace Thus Isa. 11. 6. you shall find there a gracious promise respecting the times of the Gospel The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little child shall lead them and the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Oxe That which I observe from thence is this that God here promises to cause an universal peace and unity under the Gospel though it be as difficult as to perswade the most disagreeing natures to a peaceable cohabitation For here the Scripture instances in those Creatures between which there is the most natural and therefore the most fierce animosities The Lord will reconcile men though their differences be never so great What is too hard for the God of peace to effect Is not God of infinite power of infinite love then it should quicken us to pursue peace 1 By prayer to him because he is able to effect it certainly that God that was able to bring Order into the World when it was a meer lump and mass of Confusion is able to bring peace and to unite our spirits And it is observable the greater our differences and divisions are the more will the power of this God appear in reconciling them 'T is said in the Psalms that God's Throne is in darkness i. e. His ways of providence are very difficult for us to trace and find out and therefore when our Divisions are at the highest he is able by one word to allay the storm This should encourage us in prayer This is the course of God to glorifie himself by putting a stop to the greatest Troubles when nearest to us and to work out one contrary by another To give you some Instances that so we may encourage our Faith and quicken our Prayer to God for this blessing Consider how still God hath made difficulties the way for enjoyment for Instance The promises that Sarah should be the Mother of a Child but he made way for that by her dead womb for all that numerous Progeny which like the Stars of the Sky descended from her That he first maimed Jacob and then gave him the blessing He brought Joseph from the Prison to a Princely Pallace First David was harassed with troubles and then his head was deck'd with the Imperial Crown So if you look into the Kingdom of Christ who would have thought that a few Fishermen should have advanced the Empire of Christ in the World had you lived to have seen those despicable beginnings when a few unlearned men were the Heraulds and Preachers of Christ how would this have caused you to fail and sink in your spirits and yet the Gospel hath been preached in all the parts of the World and that by a few Fishermen The Providences of God are like those plated Pictures if you look one way upon them there is the appearance of a Serpent if you look on the other side there 's the appearance of an Angel So here many times God is pleased to suffer exasperations to go