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
A53275	The generation of seekers, or, The right manner of the saints addresses to the throne of grace in two treatises : the first being a sober vindication of the spirit of prayer, with the resolution of diverse practical cases related thereunto : the second a plain exposition of the Lord's prayer, with notes and application, mainly intended as a directory to those who desire to attain the gift of prayer.	Oldfield, John, 1627?-1682.	1671 (1671)	Wing O221; ESTC R31049	228,802	474

Divels help In thus doing you ask Gods leave and then take it whether hee will or no. 3. Get your hearts prepared with patience and contentment to sit down with what God affords you you must be moderately both prayerfull painfull and carefull Prov. 27. 23. But if God deny his blessing or doe not Crown your labours with that fulness as hee doth others you must be patient contented and thankfull Get a frame like that of David 2 Sam. 15. 25. If the Lord delight in mee so if not so Like Paul's Phil. 4. 11 12. Learn to abound and to want and in all estates to be thankfully contented be not like some sturdy unthankfull beggars who if you give them nothing will goe away rai●ing and cursing or if not what or how much they expect will throw it in the face of him that gives it and to work you into this frame I know no considerations or helps more effectuall then these two 1. To consider seriously the vanity vexation dangers and temptations that attend these things especially when our portion is greater than others Oh how hath prosperity kild it ten thousands So that Agur fears and prayes against it Prov. 30. 8 9. 2. To get assurance of those better and more durable riches hee that hath tasted that old wine will not much-care for this new hee that hath his eye and heart full of heaven will be satified with a little on earth David desires to be none of those who have their portion in this life and whose bellies God fils with his hid treasures Psal 17. 14. And why because hee was assured that when hee awaked out of the sleep of death he should be satisfied with Gods image So much for this Petition CHAP. VIII V. PETITION And forgive us our trespasses as wee forgive them that trespasse against us THis and the following Petition relate to our souls in this wee beg deliverance from evils past in the other from evils to come This is a Petition for justification that for sanctification some have observed that whereas the three Petitions relating to God have no connexive particle these three are tied together with a conjunction And forgive us And lead us not teaching us not to content our selves in the first or second without the third also In the words you have 1. The thing Petitioned forgiveness 2. An encouraging ground of asking it as we forgive them c. Luke hath it thus for wee also forgive our debtors Explic. Trespasses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debts which Luke calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins trespasses deviations or as the word imports missings of the mark What debts are properly so called I need not tell you some it may be know by woefull experience but how sins are called debts is not so obvious to every ones understanding for it may seem strange that that should be called a debt to God which is an offence against God Therefore know that Debt is here put figuratively and improperly And in reference to God our debt is twofold Either 1. Direct and immediate which results from our relation to God as his creatures and that is Obedience Rom. 8. 12. we are debtours not to the fl●sh the opposition is implyed but to God Now this is not the debt here meant wee may not pray to be absolved from our obedience that 's a debt God will never remit so long as our Relation of Creatures and subjects to him abides 2. There is therefore a secondary and consequential debt arising from our non payment and faileure in the first viz. satisfaction to be made either by doing or suffering thus all punishment due to fin temporall spirituall or eternall is called a debt because wee are obliged and bound to the payment of it so Death is termed a debt Now here in calling sins a debt is a Metalepsis or Complication of Tropes For here is 1. a Metaphor borrowed from one that owes money or any other thing 2. A Metonymy the cause put for the effect none will be so absurd as to think sin it self a debt to God but it is the cause of a debt that is thereby wee become liable to suffer the penalty of the law for the non-payment of our first debt of obedience The sense is Forgive us our sins whereby wee are indebted to the Law and bound over to abide the penalty of it This Metaphor frequently occurres in Scripture Luke 13. 2. there those that are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinners are Verse 4. called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debtors See Matth. 23. 16. 18. Forgive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used very frequently in the New Testament signifies to dismiss let loose or send away A word borrowed from the releasing debts cancelling bonds or letting loose prisoners The same thing is expressed by divers other like Phrases in Scripture as by Gods casting our sins behind his back hiding his face from them passing them by putting them away from him as far as the East is from the West not imputing not beholding not remembring them blotting out purging with Hysop c. In short forgiving or pardoning of sin is not a taking away the very fact done that 's impossible in nature though God may esteem or count it as not done yet hee cannot make it not to be done since to be done and not to be done is a plain Contradiction Semel factum infectum fieri nequit nor is it a taking away the sinfulness of the fact for the fact remaining so and so circumstantiated it cannot but be in it self a sinfull action i. e. it carries in it a difformity to the divine Law Nor is it a separating the guilt from the fact that is its obligeing nature to punishment so long as the fact is and is sinfull so long it hath guilt annexed to it But To forgive is not to impute this sinfull guilty fact to us not charging it upon us to our condemnation so that the sense is Lord wee have a numberless number of trespasses which thou mayst justly charge upon us but O remember them not against us let them be in reference to our punished for them as if they had never been committed cast them into the depth of the Sea c. As wee forgive Luke hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for wee also which wee are not so to understand as if by our forgiving others wee put an engagement on God to forgive us but only as an encouragement on our parts to ask it its true indeed that it is a condition without which God will not forgive us though not a meritorious cause or reason for which hee ought in justice to forgive us it may be an argument wherewith wee may plead with God for pardon and it is drawn à minori from the less to the greater Thus Lord we that are creatures whose mercies are but the mercies of creatures find our hearts drawn out through thy grace to forgive offences done against our selves

to be paid by us wee should never have been taught to ask forgiveness wee must sue for it in form â pauperis as being unable to satisfy We are never in a right capacity to ask or obtain forgiveness till wee are under a clear conviction of the impossibility of our making satisfaction Borrow Job's acknowledgment Chap. 9. 3. If hee i. e. God will contend with him man hee cannot answer him one of a thousand i. e. hee can neither justify himself from his sin nor satisfy for it In David's Psal 143. 2. Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Here you may amplify upon the number nature and aggravatious of your sins which render the debt infinite and insolvable especially being committed against a God of infinite Majesty c. which renders their demerit infinite 3. Here also we are to acknowledg that it is in the power of God to forgive whether without satisfaction made by our selves or our Suerty I shall not here enquire nor is it necessary that he hath proclaimed himself a sin forgiving God Exod. 34. 6 7. that none but hee alone can do it Mark 2. 7. that it is his property his glory to doe it Mich. 7. 18. Psal 130. 4. Dan. 9. 9. To him belong forgiven●sses and if it be the glory of a man much more of God to pass by a transgression Prov. 19. 11. Here we may amplify upon the free and gracious promises hee hath made and the way and means himself hath provided by sending his only begotten Sonne to suffer and satisfy as also the great Sinns and Sinners hee hath forgiven especially the Covenant of Grace which proclaims pardon and the way in which hee will give it These things afford ample matter of acknowledgment 2. Something is included by way of Petition which may relate either 1. To the things begged which though included in one word forgiveness yet may be distinguished into four things which follow each other 1. Pardon it self which is the non-imputation of sin and the not-punishing it upon us Psal 32. 1 2. We may begge it in David's language Psal 51. 1 2 7 9. or the Publican's Luk. 18. 13. and may plead for it the free promises of God Such as Isa 43. 25. and 57. 18. Use also Hos 14. 2 4. 2. The sense and feeling of it upon the conscience which David prayes for Psal 51. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice And Verse 12. Restore unto mee the joy of thy salvation stablish mee with thy free Spirit Pray for the Spirit to seal this mercy to you Eph. 1. 13. that so you may be filled with joy and peace in beleeving Rom. 15. 13. that your owne consciences may give an answer of peace 3. The continuance of pardon and fuller Ames ●medull Theol. L. 1. C. 27. §. 23. Langley against Winnell p. 78. assurance of it for though it is true that God never unpardons as I may say a pardoned Sinner nor repeals or repents his gracious act yet we may and ought to pray that the sins we dayly commit may be actually pardoned for actually pardoned they cannot be till actually committed though there may be a foundation for pardon layd in the soul before the sin be committed this is as it were dayly bathing and washing our selves in the fountain which God Zech 13. 1 hath set open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleanness from our pollutions dayly contracted besides we are to pray for the continued and increased sense of pardon its certain God may let conscience fly in our faces and it may be with a soul once truely pardoned as if it were not pardoned as to its owne sense and seeling What need therefore to pray for the lively sense and fuller evidences of this mercy In that Parable Matth. 18. 36. there may s●em an intimation as if God would reverse a pardon once given but wee must remember that Parables are only argumentative and of force to prove as to their main scope which in that is to shew how God deals with those that forgive not their Brethren yet 't is certain God may reverse the sense of pardon and draw a cloud betwixt himself and us witness many expressions in Psal 89. 30. 3● Psal 32. 38. 51. 77. 88. c. Yea not withstanding the remission of sin as to the eternal punishment yet he may both let fall sparks of wrath into the conscience and lash his people with temporal punishments 2 Sam. 12. 13. 14. Psal 99. 8. for God no where ●es his owne hands in this case therefore wee have need upon these accounts to beg pardon that God will not call our sins to remembrance nor cause as as hee did Job Chapt. 13. 26. to possess the iniquities of our youth yea to go a step further we have need to beg pardon and the continuance of it I mean as to temporal judgments in reference to our children and posterity on whose backs God often lasheth his own children sometimes by giving up their children to lewd and wicked conrses so that they become a grief of heart and consumption of the ayes to their parents Sometimes by inflicting misery poverty warre sickness c. upon them for some miscarriages of their Parents though not without their owne also Instances of both cases are obvious Who doubts but Gods giving up Amnon to deflour his Sister and Absalom to contrive the death of his Father were rods wherewith God l●s●● David though hee had pardoned his sin as to eternal punishment 2 Sam 12. 13 for his adultery and murder in the buisness of Vrish and the falling off of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam with the bloody warres and others miseries attending thereon were undoubtedly a punishment of Solomon's falling away from the true God The Milevit Council Can. 7. and 8. Anathematizeth those that say this Petition concerns Sinners and not Saints or that Saints say it humiliter non veraciter to Idolatry so that in this respect we should beg pardon that is the aversion of temporall punishments from our selves and posterity which I hope I may fitly call pardon though not in the strict and proper The logical acceptation of the Word Well this I have h●●ted to shew in what sense and in what respects even the pardoned sinner may begg pardon The rather because some have thought this a Petition fit for sinners to put up not for Saints and that for those who are pardoned to beg pardon is but a mocking God But there is yet a fourth Particular included in this Petion under Forgiveness and that is 4. The compleating act of God whereby he will publickly justifie and acquit us before the whole World at the great day the hastening of this we are to pray for To give you the words of a Reverend Author Ames Med. Theol. l. 1. c. 17. S. 25.

Woollen of mens supposed super-erogatory Merits with the clean white Linnen of the Saints The Spirit will no longer be an Intercessor in our hearts than we rely upon Christ alone as our Intercessor in Heaven I am confident the Spirit never went along with prayers put up in the name of the virgin Mary Peter Paul c. Abide then in this Doctrine 2. Abide in the Faith of Christ I mean a personal applicatory Faith whereby we depend on Christ and his merits for acceptance of our persons and audience of our prayers It is not enough that we assent to the Doctrine but we must also rely on the merits of Christ We can no longer pray in the Spirit than we pray in Faith If we stagger in our affiance we shall want our wonted assistance 3. Abide also in the love of Christ maintain a singular and superlative esteem of him in your hearts count him the chief of ten thousand altogether lovely To abide in Christ is to continue and abide in his love But John 15. 9 10. what is this to the purpose in hand How will this procure the Spirits continued assistance in prayer Very much Love to Christ is one of those sweet and fragrant flowers indeed of his own planting wherein the Spirit is much delighted Observe that Text If a man love me be V. 23. will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him How else do the Father or Son make their abode in a soul but by the Spirit Where then the Love of Christ is there the Spirit takes up his abode and where he abides he cannot be idle and unimployed He is like some friend that though they come but a visiting will further and not hinder business though indeed his coming to the John 14. 16. soul is not to give us a visit but to abide with us for ever And so much in answer to this fifth Case CHAP. VII IN the two last Cases I have proposed something 1. In order the Attainment of the Spirit of prayer 2. In order to the Preserving and continuing it The next will be Case 6. What may I do to recover the Spirits help and enablements its quickning motions its lively stirrings and assistances when they are withdrawn I need not say much of the usefulness or necessity of this Case What I spoke of the former is easily applicable hither The frequent complaints of Gods people concerning their indisposition coldness straitness and inability to prayer sufficiently tell us that it is needful to propose what may be thought effectual in this Case Something is fit to be premised though in effect it hath been hinted before 1. We may be said to lose or want the Spirits assistance either 1. As to that degree of liveliness and ability which we have formerly found There may be abatements of that fervour enlargement and vigour of affections that we have exercised in prayer This is the common experience I believe of all Christians They do not alwayes enjoy the same measure of divine enablement sometimes they sail swiftly Wind and Tide favour them at other times their motion is very slow they drive heavily much ado to bear up against the Wind and Waves 2. Sometimes we may seem wholly to want the Spirits assistance not one good motion no heart to pray I say not that we may lose the Spirit as to its Indwelling but as to its operations there may seem a Cessation of any lively breathings As in a Swoon the breath may be stopt the pulse not beat sensibly so that one may not feel himself alive and may be judged by others to be dead Though as Paul said of Eutychus Act. 20. 10. his life is in him Now I would be understood to speak to both these What is to be spoken may respect both the remission and abatement of degrees and also the intermission or cessation of acts of Spiritual life Both sorts need Counsell 2. The Spirits Return must be an act of free grace and indeed of rich grace For I suppose it will be granted that the Spirit withdraws not but upon some great Provocation though God may have as you have heard very gracious ends in such desertions yet I can scarce think he doth it till we have justly deserved it and in a manner driven a way his holy Spirit Now you may easily see that to sin against the Spirit of God after we have enjoyed his presence found the sweetness of his assistance and known the advantage thereof must needs be a very provoking sin it carries in it much of ingratitude and dis-ingenuity Solomon's sin was the more hainous because 1 Kings 11. 9. his heart was turned away from the Lord his God who appeared unto him twice How ill then must God needs take it that thou shouldst grieve his Spirit and abuse his goodness who hath appeared so often so sweetly and comfortably to thy soul Who hath helped thee at many a dead lift and put many a good motion into thy heart and held thee up in duty So that thy sin is not a little sin it calls for a deep humiliation it may cost thee many a deep sigh many a brinish tear before thou recover thy former state Nay possibly God may set just cause never to return to thee in that degree of enlargement and those gracious manifestations which thou hast sinned away Thou maist lay down thy head in sorrow though thy eternal condition be secured This I say not to break any bones or to discourage any from using means but to let them know that its dangerous to grieve the Spirit of God and that it requires the utmost of their diligence and industry to recover from under such desertions And now I come to lay down something in answer to this Case Direct 1. Thy first work must be to endeavour to find out the sin or sins which have robbed thee of this Priviledge Search and search again till thou findest out the Achan that hath thus troubled thy soul Here I cannot reckon up every particular sin that may possibly be a cause of the Spirits withdrawment but only hint what probably may be and ordinarily is the occasion of it It is not every miscarriage that grieves away the Spirit then who should enjoy that Priviledge The Spirit helps our infirmities It pitties us under weaknesses therefore meer failings do not provoke God to take away his Spirit Nor yet every greater sin if speedily repented of You can scarce imagine a sin more hainous for the nature than Peter's or more aggravated by its circumstances Yet it appears not that he lay under desertion he wept bitterly and it is not likely his tears were prayerless and no sooner is our Saviour arisen but he must have the Tidings with the first Such things intimate that he fell not under desertion His repentance was as speedy and serious as his sin was hainous Well what