Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	punishment_n	sin_n	sin_v	1,923	5	9.5821	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49761	An history of angells being a theologicall treatise of our communion and warre with them : handled on the 6th chapter of the Ephesians, the 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 verses / by Henry Lawrence ...; Of our communion and warre with angels	Lawrence, Henry, 1600-1664.; Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1649 (1649)	Wing L660; ESTC R12895	135,420	210

to holinesse which is Angells worke and also the ministery they are under for they are not under this evill ministery as they are under God and the good Angells the wicked are so they are in some sort subjected to it for their good and advantage but the ministery they properly fall under as their owne is of another kinde as wee have formerly shewne Secondly then wonder not that evill men are so wicked there is a ministery upon them for that purpose an evill spirit from the Lord is upon them and God hath forsaken them be not scandalized at the evill of any that is not under the ministery of God and the holy Angells for they are prest and ridden by another spirit and they cannot but goe when they are so driven Thirdly take heed yee be no occasion or temptation to sin it is the Divells worke doe not that vilde worke it belongs to the Divell and his Angells you may commit this sin amongst others to be an occasion of others sins though not of purpose but through want of care and watchfulnes but take heed of this though it be but by accident Fourthly when yee see men rise to a height in wickednes doe not thinke they shall presently be destroyed and sent to their place they are cast perhaps under sure bonds for destruction but as the Divells they are at liberty for service and ministry God will use them as hee doth the Divells for base and filthy worke before hee will cast them into the great deeps Fifthly labour for holinesse and wisedome that yee may be fit for a ministry The evill Angells are indued with great strength because they have a mighty worke to doe you have a ministry also to serve God and man to doe great workes but where is your ability labour also for holinesse that you may be mighty to worke Sixthly if so good an account may be given of the Divells and their ministery which is the worst thing in the world doubt not but God will justify well enough all his actions to the world one daye Seaventhly dread not your adversary hee shall prove your Crowne Eightly since there is such a ministery to tempt and deceive keepe close to your strength depart not from your coulours the Divell is to hard for you if hee take you alone ye cannot fight with him in single combate if you take your selves from Gods ordinances and wayes you will be as an excommunicate person which is delivered up to Sathan so you may deliver up your selves Ninthly be secure on Gods side this is but a ministery hee will have the victory and the glory hee overcomes for the present often the infirme and weake will of man but the power and grace of God never Consider that his power is from God and his ministery is for him in those that perish hee is the mighty minister of God for their destruction the skirmishes hee obtaines of the Saintes hee shall have little cause to boast of at last when hee shall see those Saints filling the seats of the wicked and falne Angells so as for Gods manifestative glory hee shall serve to advance it aswell as all the other peece of the creation for his essenciall it is above his reach or that of any creature You have seene the ministery of the evill Angells it will not be amisse in pursuite of it to consider how farre they mingle themselves with temptations and whether they be the cause and Authour of all or of all sinne It seemes temptations goes before sin as the cause before the effect Iam. 1.14.15 Every one when hee is tempted is drawne away of his owne lusts and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sinne Therefore First to state aright the case of sinne and then consider how farre hee tempts How ever immediately or properly the Divell may concurre in the point of temptation yet hee ever concurres remotely in respect of the sin committed for betweene the temptation of the Divell and sin there ever mediates or goes betweene cogitation or thought in which the temptation properly and formally lyes so as hee may be an effectuall cause of temptation but not of sin for hee may necessitate a man to feele a temptation but not to consent to it The Divell may represent such an object to us but hee cannot constraine us to be taken with it to close with it The Divell when hee temps us hee doth not binde us or altogether hinder the use of reason for though hee may have an ability naturally to do it it is not ordinarily permitted him or if it be permitted him then properly and formally hee doth not tempt to sinne but inflicts by Gods permission some evill of punishment upon us by which our power of sinning for the present is taken away which cannot be without an ability of reasoning or working freely To which wee may adde that as the Divell cannot worke in our wills the consent of sin as being the next totall and efficient cause for that were to destroy the liberty and life of the will which is to be free and to moove freely as hee cannot do this wholy so neither as a partiall or halfe cause to operating immediately with our will bending and mooving of it for even this is a branch of Gods prerogative and exceeds the spheare of all created capacity the will is independent upon all created power both in its operation and in its being and is out of the naturall power of all the Angells onely God the first cause of all things can concurre with the free acts of the will and neverthelesse preserve its liberty hee can bend it and frame it and reatch it as free and as immateriall as it is Then first thy perdition is of thy self oh Israell it is thy cursed will that strikes the stroake for sinne which all the Divells in hell could not doe men will be impure they will be covetous they chuse to doe evill that is it which strikes the stroake lay no more upon the Divell then is his due hee cannot force your will and it is will wherein your sinne lyes the lesse voluntary any thing is the lesse sin nay hee cannot cooperate immediately with your will hee cannot bend nor moove it to assent to the understanding the will and the deed is not from him Let every sin then humble us for the will that is in it and know that the strength of sin lyes in the will as that is gained as that assents more or lesse Secondly blesse God that hath preserved you this liberty and hath left to himself onely that power over you make good your liberty against the Divell and call in God to your aide beseech him that can to bend and moove you and since hee hath not subjected you necessarily do not you subject your selves voluntarily Glory over the Divell in this behalfe and make good your ground which all the power and art hee hath can never gaine unlesse you will For the