Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	place_n	see_v	time_n	2,364	5	3.2293	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17936	Tentations their nature, danger, cure. By Richard Capel. Sometimes fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford. To which is added a briefe dispute, as touching restitution in the case of usury.; Tentations. Part 1-2	Capel, Richard, 1586-1656.; Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1633 (1633)	STC 4595; ESTC S119212	168,622	502

detestable to himselfe or others the greatest sins doe not alwayes vex they should I know but they doe not To come to our point Wee say that sin doth cause sin by way of desert when GOD doth by Permission Desertion and Tradition give a man up to some sinne of shame or inward biting sorrow to judge him for some other sin bare permission it is not for so we sin all sins we commit I hope wee cannot sin any sin except he suffer and his power doe permit yet wee finde that Pharaoh had his heart hardened worse for manner and measure than other common sinners had but all sinners are sinners by permission therefore there was a delivering up an act of justice and power in hardening the heart of Pharaoh and so it is when God doth plague one sin with another the thing I educe is this that it is impossible with all our whining to get off the sin merited except we first deale with the sin meriting we cannot affront the justice and power of God when he doth inflict and lay it on for some other fault it is out of our element to take it off till first wee have removed and done away the guilt and power of the former sin when sin doth worke and produce another sin by its own force then it comes from the power of sin when sin doth demerit to have another sin made a punishment of it that comes out of the guilt of sinne and justice of God therefore we must make our peace for the sinne which is is the cause and subdue that ere wee can possibly make any hand with the other sin which is the punishment That then wee may cleere our selves of some tentations wee must looke see what brought it if wee try and try and can make nothing of it then wee may see it is for some other sin which sin wee must finde out and then cast out that corruption and the worke is done we finde some what to the purpose in Ionas a good old Prophet he fled away from God was found out throwen into the Sea swallowed by a Whale and God in his goodnesse did deliver him and yet after hee fell into the like sin againe no doubt he did aske God forgivenesse in the Whale for his first sin yet hee after fell into the same way againe and did chafe because Ninive was not destroyed now see here the roote of sinne was not moared up he did at first flye out of pride because hee would not bee thought to preach the destruction of so famous a place hee thought none would be well pleased w th such a message and therefore do it whose would for Ionas This fact hee was sorry for but saw not the cause of all to be pride and therefore after when hee saw that Ninive was not destroyed what a chafe was hee in and was not this horrible pride too that so many must be destroyed rather than Ionas should bee thought to misse in denouncing a judgment which should not come had he found out the Canker at the first and killed it he had not fallen this second fall T is certaine that as in diseases in the body if one disease bee caused by another that is more in the spirits and humours of a man the disease causing must bee done away ere the disease caused can be remitted it may be eased for a time but it will returne again as long as the sicke matter is there to feed it and therefore wise Physitians strike alwayes at the roote so must wee and when Satan is upon us with some vexing lust and we cannot with all our power put it off Let us say sure it is for some other sinne that must bee killed ere this will bee cured and so we must cast out the mother-lust we must not say that we cannot find what it is what the sin is for which we are vexed with these or those afflictions for the Word and the Spirit will show it if wee aske it at the hands of God the Lord will point it out unto us so David Psal 139. 24. See saith he if there be any wicked way in mee and leade me into the way everlasting See if there be any wicked way in mee see it and show it unto me it being the office of the Spirit to convince a man of his sins it followes that the Spirit if we secke it in sincerity with a desire to be healed will finde out our sinnes for us and shew them unto us and when by the line of the Word and Spirit we have found out that Nest we are to turne our griefe upon those lusts rather than upon the present tentation the matter is that when wee are thus haunted and dogged with such tentations as are corrections say it is rather for some sins either 1. Past So some when maried are tempted but not brought to adultery because when single they were uncleane one way or other and thought to mend all by marying without repentance and so when once maried they grow secure and lay all on the Physick and not on God as Asa did in another case and then when they feele that sinne urgeth and Satan tempteth as much and perhaps more after than before because the sinne is worse men faint and sing many a heavy song and hang up their sword and say as good not at all as never the better Now here the right and ready way to heale all is to repent truly and thorowly of former uncleannesses lusts and then the Coasts will cleere first doe that and then marry bring not old sins to the mariage bed and when the knot is knit tentations as many as strong perhaps more perhaps greater may come but they shall not overcome and therefore they must not say better not marry at all if it be so I say he that hath the gift let him not marry but hee who hath not the gift as all have not hee were best marry or he must and will doe worse Resolve the case thus such a man if hee marry not use what helpes naturall morall spirituall he can yet he burnes still and the more he opposeth the more strong his affections grow a man maried cannot say that hee shall not bee tempted to defile the bed but this I say that using all GODS meanes and calling in for Gods blessing on the ordinance hee shal not fal his soule will heale Now in case one finde that for all his care his lusts grow exorbitant and violent look back and humble for what are past before this is to pluck us by the eares for what we were before we were maried make all that well compound with God for old matters and then ease and peace will come 2. Present As say a worldly man to bee told and convinced of his sin and yet will not mend as wee see a man may see a sin to be a sin and yet

with the Lord. 2. The other extreame is to grow senselesse to be past feeling wee are apt in these cases to feele too much or too little for if our terrours overcome us wee despaire if wee overcome them by faith wee take comfort if wee put them off by the flesh we grow secure and it is common out of great feares to runne into great want of feeling and so we finde it in the Apostle that lasciviousnesse breeds in us a senselesnesse it feares up the conscience and such come to be past feeling To open this there is a partiall want of feeling when wee commit sinnes and aile nothing in some particulars Thus wee finde that otherwise good people breake out into excesses in buying and selling doe they care not what in matters of profit and feele nothing the conscience sees all saith nothing or as good as nothing one would wonder how men can sell day I speake not against giving day but selling of it let out their money to use hoard up corne directly against the Word of God in the very letter make up some peeces of workes on the Lords day are told of it in the ministry and yet nothing come of it why Because custome in them and in others hath taken away their feeling covetousnesse hath made them in most matters of commodity to bee past feeling yet this is but partiall we meane not to say that those allow those sins for the point is that though the Word be plaine yet custome doth so dazle their eyes that they cannot in the particulars see the right so David and Salomon did multiply wives against that Text Deut. 17. 17. The like did the Patriarches for Polygamie And the beleeving Gentiles saw not single fornication to be more than a thing indifferent Act. 15. 20. 21 25. Rev. 2. 15. 20. Yet this fornication is forbidden in the Word So great is the force of custome But should these men meddle halfe so much in forbidden lusts of uncleannesse oh what pangs rise in their conscience they feele it with a witnesse But now the passions of lasciviousnesse when once men have broken thorow the terrours of it which usually come first then they bring a man to a total senselesnesse to be past feeling not only in these and the like affections but in all universally to make conscience of nothing to commit any sinnes that comes to hand with all greedinesse devoure any thing like some stomackes and be never troubled with it it is so sensuall a sinne and gives such a blow to the naturall conscience too that like a sound knocke on the head it takes away all sense and feeling let Satan propose what he will nothing comes amisse for this sinne of uncleannesse fights against both light of nature and grace and if the naturall conscience speake and wee will not heare and the spirituall conscience crie and we will not hearken the conscience will grow speechlesse and speake no more and hence it is that such as come to a custome in some covetous practises are past feeling in some things for some time but such as come to a custome in the lust of uncleannesse are soone made to be past feeling simply and totally scruple at nothing whatsoever Sith then the danger is as great as a seared conscience comes to such as have broken the peace with God must returne and make all haste to repentance the crie is so great and the sight of it is so odious and the sense of it is so grievous at first and so palpable that we may with the more ease come to repent It is a sinne that doth convince it selfe to bee a sinne till a man hath lost his judgement and his spirituall taste while it is a doing the judgement cries shame and there is little to doe because our worke lyes in a manner onely with our affection whereas many passions of anger and pride and covetousnesse are such that the offender is long ere hee can bee brought to see the thing to be a sin the fact to be a fault But in pollutions of uncleannesse they are so direct against the principles of reason and so flat against al shew of Religion that they carry their conviction in their mouthes which makes the heart the more ready to entertaine the work of repentance unto life Iudah repented David repented Lot repented and so did Thamar and so did others and they were taken into speciall favour and honour as we see them upon record in the first of Matthew Those sinnes which much humble doe much honour none humble more than such base lusts David died in honour Mary Magdalen is in great honourin the Church of God Christ to comfort and honour her appeared first and foremost to her what ever heales the soule heales the name repentance doth both The truth of our repentance wil best appeare if wee goe away as Iudah did and doe so no more come not neere the garment spotted with the flesh affections of another nature are more apt to bring a relapse than these passions they leave such a sting and sent behind them goe away but with a smart have such a tast and are such a base sight that few relapse such as are by Gods mercy cured of these diseases are commonly ever after very chast Become as children in all purity and chastity when wee fetch out a great staine the cloth is after whiter than ordinary and so after this staining sin is washed away such must be very holy passing chast beware of the least sparke of sin this is the meaning of that of Iohn the Baptist Bring forth fruits meet or worthy of repentance how worthy of repentance It is that when a man hath beene at it in the worke of repentance his workes and deeds must afterwards be better than ordinary hee must looke like a true penitent that as a Physitian can judge by the colour of the face that his patient is recovered so must our workes shine and carry such a lustre and colour with them that one of skill may read it as written in our faces that there is amendment of life that now all is well and sound within And say by intemperate courses one have bin the occasion of hastning our owne end before the time I grant that there is just cause as Salomon speakes to mourne at the last when the flesh and the body are consumed and we are accidentally guilty of hastening our owne death before the time of Natures Period but never before the time of Gods councell mourne here spare not but yet not as men without hope repentance will mend this also First hardly one man in a thousand but one way or other more or lesse cuts off some of his dayes Had it not bin for one thing or other hee might have lived a day a yeere longer as I thinke is plaine enough in David who was bed-rid at or about the age his father begat him either