Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	1,540	5	10.6759	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32724	A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects by Stephen Charnock.	Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680.; Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680. Works of the late learned divine, Stephen Charnock.	1683 (1683)	Wing C3711C; ESTC R24823	277,473	158

the Spirit of God There is a powerful voice behind him that brings him back when he turns either to the right hand or to the left from the ways of God Isa 30.21 By virtue of this seed within him and the Spirit of God exciting it that word which comes home to the Soul after a sin becomes efficaciously melting and raises up springs of penitential motions which could not arise so suddenly were the spiritual life wholly departed For a man that hath no habit of grace in him cannot so suddenly concur with Gods proposals and exercise a repentance In such an one we see first a stupefaction of mind and an unaptness to faith no motions of a true repentance though some preparation to it But with a regenerate man it is otherwise David being admonisht by Nathan was struck to the heart and Peter presently upon our Saviours look melted into tears Their grace like tinder took fire presently upon those small but powerful occasions though it did not act at the time of their sin yet it had an aptness to act upon the removal of the impediments Though Jonah seems to cast off all regard of God and his command yet upon the first occasion in the Whales Belly he brings forth excellent fruits of faith in a moment Jonah 2. Grace in an instant upon the first motion of the Spirit will rise up and take its place from whence it seems to be deposed As a natural man under some sting of Conscience and flash of a lightning conviction may be restrained from sin yet his natural inclination to it remains though suspended at the present and may be carried the quite contrary way as the stream of a river by the force of the Tide is turned against its natural current yet slides down its channel with its wonted calmness upon the removal of the force so a good man under the violence of some lust hath not his new nature changed though at present it is restrain'd by an extrinsick force so that as the one upon the taking off his conviction returns to his sin so the other upon the removal of his fetters returns to his holiness with a greater spirit and delight A wicked man may sometimes do a good action but he continues not in it As a Planet is sometimes retrograde but soon returns to its direct course When their Conscience pinches them they awake out of their trance So a good man may sin through infirmity but he will revoke it by repentance The seed of God remains in him as the Sap in the Root of a Tree that recovers the leaves the next return of the Sun at the spring He may sink by nature and rise again by grace but the Devil who sinned at the beginning fell and never rose more Vse of Examination If you find your selves in these cases in a course of known sin resolution to commit it were it not for such bars unwillingness to know Gods pleasure and injunction despising admonitions and reproofs a settled love to it a full consent of Will without any antecedent concomitant or consequent dissent tumbling in it without rising by repentance a circle of sinning and repenting without abhorrence of sin you may conclude your selves in an unregenerate state you sin like the Devil who sinned from the beginning A DISCOURSE OF The Pardon of Sin Psalm 32.1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity THis Psalm as Grotius thinks was made to be sung upon the Annual day of the Jewish Expiation when a general confession of their sins was made 'T is one of David's poenitential Psalms supposed to be composed by him after the Murder of Vriah and the pronouncing of his pardon by Nathan v. 5. and rather a Psalm of Thanksgiving 'T is called Maschil a Psalm of understanding Maschil is translated eruditio intelligentia and notes some excellent Doctrine in the Psalm not known by the light of Nature Blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessednesses Ex omni parte beatus Three words there are to discover the nature of sin and three words to discover the nature of pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transgression Prevarication Some understand by it sins of omission commission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin Some understand those inward inclinations lusts and motions whereby the Soul swerves from the Law of God and which are the immediate causes of external sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquity Notes original sin the root of all Three words that note pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levatus forgiven Eas'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to take away to bear to carry away Two words in Scripture are chiefly used to denote remission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expiate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bear or carry away the one signifies the manner whereby it is done viz. atonement the other the effect of this expiation carrying away one notes the meritorious cause the other the consequent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covered Alluding to the covering of the Aegyptians in the Red Sea Menochius thinks it alludes to the manner of writing among the Hebrews which he thinks to be the same with that of the Romans as writing with a Pencil upon wax spread upon Tables which when they would blot out they made the Wax plain and drawing it over the writing covered the former letters And so it is equivalent with that expression of blotting out sin as in the other allusion it is with casting sin into the depths of the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impute Not charging upon account As sin is a defection from the Law so it is forgiven as it is offensive to God's holiness so it is covered as it is a debt involving man in a debt of punishment so it is not imputed They all note the certainty and extent and perfection of pardon The three words expressing sin here being the same that are used by God in the declaration of his Name Exod. 34.7 Here are to be considered 1. The Nature of Pardon 2. The Author of it God 3. The Extent of it Transgression Sin Iniquity 4. The Manner of it implied by Faith in Christ The Apostle quoting this place Rom. 4.7 to prove Justification by Faith As sin is not imputed so something is imputed instead of it Covering implies something wherewith a thing is covered as well as the act whereby it is covered 5. The Effect of it Blessedness I shall not divide than into distinct Propositions but take the words in order as they lie I. The Nature of Pardon 1. Consider the words and what notes they will afford to us 1. Covering as it alludes to the manner of writing and so is the same with blotting out Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blots out thy transgression whereby is implied that sin is a debt and pardon is the remitting of it It notes 1. The nullity of the debt A crossed book will not

rank what are the weeds Satan's devices and our thoughts are of the same nature 1 Cor. 2.11 2 Cor. 10.5 and sometimes in Scripture exprest by the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he hath his devices so have we against the authority of God's Law the power of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ The Devils are call'd spiritual wickednesses because they are not capable of carnal sins Eph. 6.12 Prophaneness is an Uniformity with the world and intellectual sins are an Uniformity with the God of it Ephes 2.2 3. There is a double walking answerable to a double pattern in v. 2. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is a walking according to the course of this world or making the world our copy and fulfilling the desires of the mind is a walking according to the Prince of the power of the air or a making the Devil our pattern In carnal sins Satan is a tempter in mental an actor Therefore in the one we are conformed to his will in the other we are transformed into his likeness In outward we evidence more of obedience to his laws in inward more of affection to his person as all imitations of others do Therefore there is more of enmity to God because more of similitude and love to the Devil a nearer approach to the Diabolical nature implying a greater distance from the Divine Christ never gave so black a character as that of the Devil's children to the prophane world but to the Pharisees who had left the sins of men to take up those of Devils and were most guilty of those high imaginations which ought to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 5. In respect of contrariety and odiousness to God Imaginations were only evil Rom. 8.7 and so most directly contrary to God who is only good Our natural enmity against God is seated in the mind The sensitive part aims at its own gratification and in mens serving their lusts they serve their pleasures but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince in man Titus 3.3 serving divers lusts and pleasures is possest with principles of a more direct contrariety whence it must follow that all the thoughts and counsels of it are tinctured with this hatred They are indeed a defilement of the higher part of the Soul and that which belongs more peculiarly to God And the nearer any part doth approach to God the more abominable is a spot upon it as to cast dirt upon a Prince's house is not so heinous as to deface his Image The understanding the seat of thoughts is more excellent than the will both because we know and judge before we will or ought to will only so much as the understanding thinks fit to be willed and because God hath bestowed the highest gifts upon it adorning it with more lively lineaments of his own Image Col. 3.10 Renewed in knowledge after the Image of Him that created him implying that there was more of the Image of God at the first Creation bestowed upon the understanding the seat of knowledge than on any other part yea than on all the bodies of men distill'd together Father of Spirits is one of God's titles To bespatter His Children then so near a relation Heb. 12.9 the Jewel that he is choice of must needs be more heinous He being the Father of Spirits this spiritual wickedness of nourishing evil thoughts is a cashiering all child-like likeness to him The traiterous acts of the mind are most offensive to God as 't is a greater despite for a Son to whom the Father hath given the greater portion to shut him out of his house only to revel in it with a company of Rioters and Strumpets than in a Child who never was so much the subject of his Father's favour And 't is more heinous and odious if these thoughts which possess our Souls be at any time conversant about some Idea of our own framing It were not altogether so bad if we loved something of God's creating which had a physical goodness and a real usefulness in it to allure us but to run wildly to embrace an Ens rationis to prefer a thing of no existence but what is colour'd by our own imagination of no vertue no usefulness a thing that God never created nor pronounced good is a greater enmity and a higher slight of God 6. In respect of Connaturalness and Voluntariness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch Moral 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thales Diog. Laert. They are the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart and they are continually evil They are as natural as the aestuations of the Sea the bubblings of a Fountain or the twinklings of the Stars The more natural any motion is ordinarily the quicker it is Time is requisite to action but thoughts have an instantaneous motion The body is a heavy piece of clay but the mind can start out on every occasion Actions have their stated times and places but these solicit us and are entertain'd by us at all seasons Neither day nor night street nor closet exchange nor temple can priviledge us from them We meet them at every turn and they strike upon our Souls as often as light upon our Eyes There is no restraint for them the Laws of men the constitution of the body the interest of profit or credit are mighty bars in the way of outward profaneness but nothing lays the reins upon thoughts but the Law of God and this man is not subject to neither can be Rom. 8.7 Besides the natural Atheism in man is a special friend and nurse of these few firmly believing either the omniscience of God or his Government of the world which the Scripture speaks of frequently as the cause of most sins among the sons of men † Isa 29.15 Ezek. 9.9 Job 22.13 14 Actions are done with some reluctance and nips of natural conscience Conscience will start at a gross temptation but it is not frighted at thoughts Men may commit speculative folly and their conscience look on without so much as a nod against it Men may tear out their neighbours bowels in secret wishes and their conscience never interpose to part the fray Conscience indeed cannot take notice of all of them they are too subtil in their nature and too quick for the observation of a finite principle They are many † Prov. 19.21 There are many devices in a man's heart Florus l. 2. c. 3. Major aliquanto labor erat invenire quam vincere and they are nimble too like the bubblings of a boyling pot or the rising of a wave that presently slides into its level and as Florus saith of the Ligurians the difficulty is more to find than conquer them They are secret sins and are no more discerned than motes in the air without a spiritual sun-beam whence David cryes out Psal 19.12 Cleanse me from secret sins which some explain of sins of thoughts that were like sudden and