Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	wonder_n	wonder_v	world_n	72	3	4.2947	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93682	A hand-kercheffe for a disconsolate soule, to wipe away his sinne, and to keep him from despaire, as though they had never been committed. / By Samuel Spinckes, minister of Gods word.	Spinckes, Samuel.	1651 (1651)	Wing S4981; Thomason E633_7; ESTC R206473	19,356	31

causes and occasions of thy feare whether they be thy sinnes if any trouble thy conscience or thy temptations to sinnes thy weakenesses of faith and holinesse or the like so that hee upon view and sight of thy estate and arguments of thy faith and repentance though they be but weake may apply the promises of mercy the comfortable refreshing Oyle of the Gospel unto thy soule But yet heerein also heede and warinesse must be taken to what Minister and to what spirituall Father we doe repose and put our trust and confidence in for this so great a businesse for we must not send to the Schismaticall Anabaptist Brownist c. who preacheth and applieth all judgements and little or no mercy for then he may make the wound worse then it is but in this case send to the godly reformed Minister not to some up-start Trades-man or body Minister of which at this day are too many but know this that our life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 For as Trees in the cold and stormy Winter so good men and women in tempests and anguishes of soule seem to be dead not onely to the world but even to themselves Whence note that Acts 20.9.10 Eutichus there is an Emblem of a Christian in temptation for he fell from an high loft and was taken up dead and so was reputed of all that ware present but saith the Text the Apostle Saint Paul laid himselfe upon him and imbraced him and so found life in him and set him on his legs so though a man fall high from heavenly grace even to the very pit of hell if it were possible yet he may be raised againe by some skilfull and painefull Paul by applying the comforts of the Gospel and so rightly shewing him that his life is not altogether extinguished and put out but hid onely in Christ and that the same is to be found againe in God But for those that thinke if there be any such that any man may as well absolve or baptize or use any other Ministeriall Function or Office in the Church but some if not too many could be contented that there were no Churches as well as the Ministers of God who onely are lawfully called thereunto I would have such to know that he that sent forth to baptize Mark 16.16 he sent also to remit sinnes saying as my Father sent me so send I you c. John 20.12.13 As therefore none can or ought to baptize though he use the same water and words 2. Cor. 5.7 and 10. vers but onely the lawfull Minister Heb. 5.4 I say he onely which Christ hath called and authorized to this Divine and Ministeriall Function So though others I confesse may comfort with good words yet none can absolve from sinne but onely Christ and those to whom Christ hath committed the holy Ministery and words of reconciliation 2. Cor. 5.18.19 and of their absolving Christ speakes in Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me In a doubtfull title thou wilt aske the counsell and advice of some skilfull Lawyer in perrill of sicknesse thou wilt enquire of the learned Phisitian and is there no danger in the dread and feare of damnation for a sinner to be his owne Judge Judicious Calvin teacheth this point of Doctrine most plainely Et si omnes mutuo nos debeamus consolari c. Although saith he we ought to comfort and confirme one another in the confidence of Gods mercy yet we see that the Ministers are appointed as Witnesses and Sureties to ascertaine our consciences of the remission of sinnes Insomuch as they are said to remit sinnes and to loose soules c. Beza highly commendeth this practice and Luther saith that he had rather lose a thousand worlds then suffer private confessions to be c. And our Church hath ever most soundly admitted and maintained the truth of this Doctrine and heerein I might bring in the visitation of the sick in our Liturgy but that is now abolished and for my owne part I never was against the abolishing of it only this I say and say of it if those in Authority had punished some of those that rent it out of the Churches before that Authority had made the same of no validity and use that then it would have made some and that a great many too have leaned more freely to them and their Authority who now I feare stand but as neuters and the not punishing of such hath been a great cause of the augmentation and encreasing of this civill uncivill and unnaturall Warre There was once much wondering when the Pope fell heere in this Kingdome as now they wonder to see the Prelates cast downe and so the world did once wonder to see the Masse cast away and disliked and now many wonder to thinke that the Lithurgy should be so swept away And for my part I pray God grant that the people doe not at last take a surfeit of that most Divine Ordinance of preaching for no violent thing lasts long Well but we all complaine of our present misery by the unhappy and bloody distractions of the Kingdome by this inbred and unnaturall Warre But yet few consider seriously or the cause whence they come for information heerein take and observe this that sinne is the onely cause of every affliction and of all punishments whether to private men or whole Kingdomes Esay 26.9 We by our sinnes have provoked God to anger and God shewes his anger by these judgements upon the whole Nation Deut. 6.15 King and Subjects have sinned and now King and Subjects are punished Deut. 28.63 Nay God causeth us to punish one another and he doth it either to reforme us or else to destroy us But I dare say God is the efficient cause of all Yea the cause of all causes all other causes are but Gods instruments now the instrumentall cause of these our distractions are wicked men 2. Chron. 22.2.3 God useth one sinner to punish another as Israels sinnes were punished by wicked Shishake and by idolatrous Asher Esay 1● 5 whom God calleth the rod of his anger and the staffe of his hand 2. Sam. 12.11.12.13 So God punished Davids sinne by wicked Absolon and King Rehobcams sinne by his rebellious people 2. King 14.16 and the sinne of the people by their King Jeroboam But yet though God do use wicked men for his instruments yet wicked men doe but wickedly even in the things wherein God useth them for naturally still they are but the Divels instruments to execute his will and their owne Divelish malice as ye may see Job 1.15 But to passe and goe where wee were for Absolution wee finde that Doctor Holland absolved Doctor Reynolds at his death who not being able to speake yet he kissed the hands wherewith he was absolved And so King James of blessed memory as I have credibly heard when hee lay on his death bed sent for a Reverend Bishop to come and give him his Absolution But yet I say

there is no God as also to deny the providence and power of God harping that all things happen by fortune and chance sometimes againe I am ready to deny Christ the second Person in the Holy and Sacred Trinity and sometimes I am ready to lay violent hands upon my selfe and thus to sinne sometimes against the first Table and sometimes against the second Yea and although I pray to be free there from yet I cannot well I shall tell thee the reason of this Sathan is thy utter enemy and for that cause both he and the world and the flesh will not leave assaulting thee and therefore it is that thou doubtest and thinkest withall that thou oughtest not to apply the favour and mercy of God unto thy selfe Unto these I fully answer That these temptations and corruptions may sometimes be found even in the best of Gods children yea in those upon whom God hath bestowed an excellent measure of grace the which either ariseth from the corruptions of their owne natures from which they are not fully purged and in which there are the seeds of all these sinnes of Atheisme Infidelity and the like or else from the temptations of Sathan from which they neyther are nor can be free so long as they live in this vale of misery Paul the Apostle was often buffetted with Sathans temptations Peter had a shrewd fall when hee denied his Master Noah Lot and saythfull Abraham they had their resurrections from sinns as I may say and David though a man according to Gods own heart Acts 13.22 yet he was constrained to pray as Psa 51.10 for to have a new heart created in him c. And how terrible were Jobs temptations as we may read Job 6.4 if these men were not free then how canst thou looke to be priviledged But to satisfie thee further herein know that thou art yet a member of the Church militant and so long as thou art so thou art and shalt be subject to these fightings and warrings against the temptations of Sathan continually nor canst thou be free from these till thou be a member of the Church triumphant which shall be in the world to come for first our regeneration is not fully perfected in this life and therfore the seeds of sin and corruption remaining there is a feare and doubting even in Gods dearest children yea and sometimes a kind of despaire too Oh! but in this know for thy comfort that Christ thine and our sweet Saviour hath felt the terrors of Gods wrath and absence that so his faithfull ones might bee delivered from it yet know this also that there will bee a combate in thee if thou beest Gods even betweene the flesh and the spirit Againe Sathan is a perpetuall enemy and hee will never leave off to seek thy destruction howsoever thou mayst get the victory and be at peace for a time when upon true repentance thou art reconciled unto God yet thy enemies will adventure againe and thou shalt bee sure of many battels and skirmishes with them before thou canst passe thorow the wildernesse of this world to the Canaan of Heaven But yet take this againe for thy comfort that temptations are sure signes that they that are troubled and possessed therewith are the deare children of God And temptations are profitable for a Christian and therefore Saint James saith my deare brethren count it exceeding joy when ye fall into divers temptations knowing that c. Ja. 1.2.3 c. nay our Saviour himselfe was tempted and that to grievous sins too as ye may see Mat. 4. as to Idolatry distrust of Gods providence and to doubt whether he were the Sonne of God or not nay hee was also tempted to pride and vain-glory yea to lay violent hands upon himselfe and so to be the cause of his owne death and when the Devill left him saith the text Luk. 4.13 it was but for a season St. Paul was an excellent Christian and the deare child of God and yet he could not be free from assaults Rom. 7.23 for he had the seeds of sin in him and he had a Law in his members rebelling against the Law of his minde and often leading him into the Law of sin for hee had inward enemies and hee was not free from outward for he had the messenger of Sathan sent to buffet him 2 Cor. 12.7 8. that is Sathan still assaulted him with one temptation or other to move him forward and to provoke him to sinne And St. Paul prayed thrice that is often and earnestly to be freed therefrom and that he might have no more of these assaults and troubles and yet hee could not bee free and why did not God give and grant his desire and request if he would have given this freedome to any then why not to Saint Paul I answer the state of the Apostle required it being a member of the Church militant that he should not be free least he might grow secure leave off fighting and so cease to be a Souldier which we must not do in this life for we then breake our vowes and oaths made by our Sureties or Parents in our Baptisms wherfore we must I say fight manfully under Christs Crosse and Banner against the three deadly enemies of the soule the world the Devill and the flesh and be faithfull unto death and then thou shalt have a crown of life Revel 2.10 It is the property of the Devill saith Saint Bernard to suggest evill motions but it is our parts and duties not to consent unto them for as often as we resist so often we overcome the Devill and we thereby doe honour our God who visiteth us that we should fight who helpeth us that we may overcome and who strengtheneth us that we faint not in our combate to be tempted by Sathan is Sathans sinne not thine but to yield and consent to his temptations is sinne in thee And know this that seeing our Saviour as I shewed you a little before was so tempted to such grievous temptations therefore let none thinke to be free but yet comfort thy selfe with this that God who is thy loving Father in Christ hath the Devill in chaines and as he stayeth the waves of the Sea at his pleasure Job 38.8 So he holdeth Sathan as it were with bit and bridle that he can tempt thee no otherwise nor any longer then God sees for thy good as is evident by the example of Job Job 1.12 And if the children of God be tempted and overcome by any assault yet upon true repentance and comming unto Christ we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1. John 2.1 and in the first Epistle John 1.8.9 If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us but if we acknowledge our sinnes then he is fathfull according to his promise to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse We