Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	law_n	lord_n	4,135	5	3.8427	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41707	The primitive Christian justified and Jack Presbyter reproved, or, A scripture demonstration, that to be innocent and persecuted is more eligible than to be prosperously wicked delivered in a sermon in the Abby-Church of Bath by William Goulde.	Gould, William, d. 1686.	1682 (1682)	Wing G1441; ESTC R9434	18,041	33

and if you will pardon my hasty Conceptions I resolve to speak what is very Plain Innocent and Honest consonant with the primitive rule of Reforming and preservng Churches recommended by Christ and his Apostles and their immediate and best Successors First Sin is not the object of a Rational man's choice considered either in its self or Consequences 1. Not with respect to its self for it is de numero ineligibilium as the Schools speak There is no Form nor Beauty in it that we should desire it Election is the act of the Will whose adequate object is good and so Sin which is malum in se evil in its self cannot be properly said to be elected hence it comes to pass that such who have not their Senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil chuse Sin by a mistake thinking it to be good putting light for darkness and darkness for light Isaiah 5. 20. thus Saint Paul rather Saul before he was Converted verily thought with himself that he ought to doe many things against Jesus of Nazareth and Christ tells his Disciples that some that Kill'd them by a mistaken zeal should think they did an acceptable service unto God thus Iniquity in practice passeth for Duty and Error in opinion for Truth and Evil is chosen sub ratione boni not for its own sake but under the notion of being at least seemingly good Others chuse Sin that good may come thereof that God may have glory or themselves advantage by it This was objected against St. Paul and his Doctrine which in great Disdain he rejected not as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us doe evil that good may come whose damnation is just Rom. 3. 8. Others chuse evil to escape Danger by it elect the evil of Sin to avoid thereby the evil of punishment So Demas resolving to sleep in a whole skin and not to be persecuted for Christs sake forsook St. Paul and imbraced the present world now in all these three respects whether Sin be chosen under the notion of good by a mistake or that good may come thereof or that Danger be escaped by it each of these single and much more united are a clear demonstration that Sin is not eligible for its self Sin indeed is the worst of any thing that is enemy to God or man it is very much worse than Hell not only as its cause or parent but considered in its self for Hell is good for something even to glorifie God's Justice but Sin serves only to abuse his grace and goodness Hell was of God's making Sin of the Devil 's Nay God made Hell as well to terrifie men from coming there as to punish the willful intruders into that place of torments And hence the chief end of Christs taking our flesh was to save us from our sins our worst kind of enemies Hence in Scripture when God is said to be angry to the highest pitch the stile runs thus I will give him up that is filthy to be filthy still I will choose your delusions give them over to their iniquities so that were there no Hell 't were in this sense a kind of Damnation to be sinners Of all sorts of punishments sin it self is the greatest and so not the proper object in its self of a Rational mans or true Christians choice Secondly As Sin is not to be chosen in and for its self so neither with respect tothe Consequences thereof The first and most immediate fruit of Sin is ignorance man was first tempted by the promise of Knowledge and fell into darkness by believing the Devil holding forth his new lights Adam and Eve knew what was good before the Devil promised them the knowledge of evil and had they not imbraced this temptation they had continued in their happiness This knowledge of evil was the introduction of ignorance the Understanding being baffled the Will became foolish and both conspired to ruine each other for the Will beginning to love Sin the Understanding was set on work to commend and advance it and so became both Factious in approving their new miserable Purchase for ever since Adam and Eve yielded to the Tempter who told them they should be as Gods in knowledge Man hath a double disadvantage for the Devil is hence grown more quick-sighted to abuse us and we the more blind by his opening of our eyes as is sufficiently manifest by the prevalence of Atheism and Idolatry in the world than which nothing can be more ridiculous occasioned originally by the Fall of our first Parents from their native paradise A second effect of Sin is Shame which is an immediate consequence of all sort of wickedness what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 21. We see the truth of this by a too sad Experience what Arguments what Preaching what Necessity can perswade men to confess their sins how do men chuse to involve Sin in excuses and denials in the clouds of Lying and the white Linnen of Hypocrisie to shew that a mans spirit is amazed and his face confounded when he is dressed of so shameful Disease It was the unhappy Patrimony which our first Ancestors bequeathed us first to Sin and then to be ashamed of our selves and Actions The woman which thou gavest me said Adam charging his sin upon God The Serpent beguiling me said Eve imputing it to the Devil both betraying the nakedness of their Souls as well as bodies and proportionably making Aprons of Excuses as well as Leaves And you may read the Character of the Parents in the Childrens foreheads for Shame makes us as backward to reveal our sins as we are forward to confess our Sicknesses and less desirous to trust God with the diseases of our Souls than the Physician with those of our Bodies None will own sin amongst all its acquaintance If a man pursue Vengeance he will Christen it Justice he that hates another mans person pretends enmity to his sins and the theft of Rachell shelters its self under the modesty of her sex Genesis 30. 34 35. he that designs to play the Devil first personates the Saint and Rebells call themselves the people of the Lord thus Sacriledge and Schism are a godly thorough Reformation popular Fury is Zeal Obstinacy against Laws tenderness of Conscience Treason and Nonsence praying by the Spirit to dye in Rebellion a glorious Martyrdom and the madness of the Commons against the King and the Priests is courage in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ oppression of our brethren Subjects calls its self a High Court of Justice and such as seize our Estates were the Keepers of our Liberties and Doctors Elders and Deacons the only Sceptre of Christ and to avoid Arbitrary Government we kneel at the bar of our fellow-Subjects and are imprison'd for new unheard of Crimes to preserve our Properties and Privileges A clear Argument that Sin dares not appear in its own colours