Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A90291
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The stedfastness of promises, and the sinfulness of staggering: opened in a sermon preached at Margarets in Westminster before the Parliament Febr. 28. 1649. Being a day set apart for solemn humiliation throughout the nation. By John Owen minister of the Gospel.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing O808; Thomason E599_9; Thomason E618_7; ESTC R203108
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32,151
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58
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will be merciful to your sins I pray believe me for I will pardon your iniquities yea it shall be so I will blot cut your Transgressions as a cloud There is not any want whereunto we are liable but thus he hath dealt concerning it As his Command is line upon line so is his Promise And this is one way whereby God causeth the Truth of his Promises to appear To take away all colour of staggering he speaks once yea twice if we will hear 2 The Second way of Confirming any Truth is by an Oath Though we fear the Truth of some men in their Assertions yet when once they come to Swear any thing in Justice and Judgement there are very few so knownly profligate and past all sense of God but that their Asseverations do gain Credit and passe for Truth Hence the Apostle tells us Heb. 6. 16. That an Oath for Confirmation is to men an end of all strife Though the Truth be before ambiguous and doubtful yet when any interposes with an Oath there is no more Contest amongst men That nothing may be wanting to win our Belief to the Promises of God he hath taken this Course also he hath sworn to their Truth Heb. 6 13. When God made Promises to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he sware by himself He confirms his Promise by an Oath O faelices nos quorum causa Deus jurat ô infaelices si nec juranti Deo credimus When Christ came in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen to make sure work of the Truth of them he is confirmed in his Administrations by an Oath Heb. 7. 21. He was made a Priest by an Oath by him that said The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever Now I pray what is the cause of this great Condescention in the God of Heaven to confirm that word which in it self is Truth by an Oath The Apostle satisfies us as to the End aimed at Heb. 6. 17 18. This was saith he the Aim of God herein That his People seeing him ingaged by two such immutable things as his Promise and his Oath may be assured that there is an utter impossibility That any one word of his should come short of it's Truth or that they firmly resting upon it should be deceived thereby And this is a Second way 3 Another Course wherby men Confirm the Truth of what they speak is by entring into Covenant to accomplish what they have spoken A Covenant gives strength to the Truth of any ingagement When a man hath but told you he will do such and such things for you you are full of doubts and fears that he may break with you but when he hath indented in a Covenant and you can shew it under his Hand and Seal you look upon that consider that and are very secure Even this way also hath the Lord taken to confirm and establish his Truths and Promises that all doubtings and staggerings may be excluded he hath wrapped them all up in a Covenant and brought himself into a faederal Ingagement that upon every Occasion and at every Temptation we may draw out his Hand and Seal and say to Satan and our own false hearts see here behold God ingaged in Covenant to make good the word wherein he hath caused me to put my Trust and this is his property That he is a God keeping Covenant So that having his Promise redoubled and that confirmed by an Oath all Sealed and made sure by an unchangeable Covenant what can we require more to assure us of the Truth of these things But yet further 4 In things of very great weight and Concernment such as whereon Lives and the Peace of Nations does depend men use to give Hostages for the securing each other of the Faith and Truth of all their Ingagements that they may be mutual Pledges of their Truth and Fidelity Neither hath the Lord left this way unused to confirm his Promise He hath given us an Hostage to secure us of his Truth one exceedingly dear to him one alwayes in his bosome of whose Honor he is as Careful as of his Own Jesus Christ is the great Hostage of his Fathers Truth the Pledge of his Fidelity in his Promises God hath set him forth and given him to us for this end Behold the Lord himself shall give you a sign a sign that he will fulfil his word A virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call his name Immanuel Isa 7. 14. That you may be assured of my Truth the Virgins Son shall be a Hostage of it In him are all the Promises of God Yea and Amen Thus also to his Saints he gives the further Hostage of his Spirit and the first fruits of Glory that the full accomplishment of all his Promises may be contracted in a little and presented to their view As the Israelites had the pleasures of Canaan in the Clusters of Grapes brought from thence Now from all this it is apparent not only that there is Truth in all the Promises of God but also that Truth so confirmed so made out established that not the least Occasion imaginable is thence administred to staggering or doubting He that disputes the Promise and knows not how to close with them must find out another Cause of his so doing as to the Truth of the Promise there is no doubt at all nor place for any 2 But Secondly though there be Truth in the Promise yet there may want Ability in the Promiser to accomplish the thing Promised because of it's manifold difficulties This may be a Second Cause of staggering if the thing it self ingaged for be not compassable by the Ability of the Ingager As if a skilful Physitian should Promise a sick man a Recovery from his Disease though he could rely upon the Truth and Sincerity of his Friend yet he cannot but question his Ability as to this knowing that to cure the least Distemper is not absolutly in his power but when he Promises who is able to performe then all doubting in this kind is removed See then whether it be so in respect of these Promises whereof we speak When God comes to Abraham to ingage himself in that Covenant of Grace from whence flow all the Promises whereof we Treat He laies this down as the Bottom of all I am saith he God Almighty Gen. 17. 1. or God Alsufficient very well able to go through with what ever I Promise When Difficulties Temptations and Troubles arise remember who it is that hath Promised not only he that is true and faithful but he that is God Almighty before whom nothing can stand when he will accomplish his Word And that this was a bottom of great Confidence to Abraham the Apostle tells you Rom. 4. 21. Being fully perswaded that he who had Promised was able also to performe When God is ingaged by his VVord his Ability is especially to be eyed The Soul is apt
to ask how can this be it is impossible it should be so to me but he is able that hath Promised And this Rom. 11. 23. the same Apostle holds out to us to fix our Faith upon in reference to that great Promise of Re-calling the Jews and Re-implanting them into the Vine God saith he is able to graft them in though now they seem as dead bones yet the Lord knows they may live for he is able to breath upon them and make them terrible as an Army with Banners Yea so excellent is this Alsufficiency this Ability of God to accomplish his whole VVord that the Apostle cautions us That we do not bound it as though it could go so far only or so far Nay saith he Ephes. 3. 20. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think VVhen men come to close with the Promise indeed to make a life upon it they are very ready to question and enquire whither it be possible that ever the VVord of it should be made good to them He that sees a little Boat swimming at Sea observes no great difficulty in it looks upon it without any solicitousness of mind at all beholds how it tosses up and down without any fears of it 's sinking but now let this man commit his own life to Sea in that Bottome what inquiries will he make what a search into the Vessel Is it possible saith he this little Thing should safe-gaurd my Life in the Ocean It is so with us in our view of the Promises whilst we consider them at large as they lye in the Word alass they are all true all Yea and Amen shall be all accomplished but when we go to venture our Souls upon a Promise in an Ocean of Wrath and Temptations then every blast we think will over-turn it it will not bear us above all these Waves Is it possible we should swim safely upon the Plank of a Pinnace in the middest of the Ocean Now here we are apt to deceive our selves and mistake the whole thing in Question Which is the Bottom of many corrupted Reasonings and perplexed Thoughts We enquire whether it can be so to us as the Word holds out when the Truth is The Question is not about the Nature of the Thing but about the Power of God Place the Doubt aright and it is this Is God able to accomplish what he hath spoken Can he heal my Back-slidings Can he pardon my Sins Can he save my Soul Now that there may be no Occasion nor Colour of Staggering upon this Point you see God reveals himself as an Alsufficient God as one that is able to go through with all his Engagements If you will stagger you may so do this is certain you have no Cause to do so from hence there is not any Promise that ever God entred into but he is able to perform it But you will say Though God be thus able thus Alsufficient yet may there not be Defects in the Means whereby he worketh As a man may have a strong Arm able to strike his Enemies to the ground but yet if he strike with a Feather or a Straw it will not be done not for want of strength in his Arm but of fitness and sutableness in the Instrument whereby he acteth But 1 God using Instruments they do not Act according to their own Vertue but according to the Influence of Vertue by him to them Communicated Look to what End soever God is pleased to use any Means his chusing of them fills them with Efficacy to that purpose Let the Way and Means of Accomplishing what thou expectest by the Promise be in themselves never so weak yet know that from God's chusing of them to that End they shall be filled with Vertue and Efficacy to the Accomplishment of it 2 It is expresly affirmed of the great Medium's of the Promise that they also are Able that there is no want of Power in them for the Accomplishment of the Thing Promised 1 There is the Means procuring it and that is Jesus Christ the Promises as to the good Things contained in them are all purchased by him And of him the Apostle affirms expresly That he is ABLE to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him Heb. 5. 27. No Want here no Defect He is able to do it to the uttermost able to save them that are tempted Hebrews 2. 18. 2 There is the great Means of Manifestation and that is the Word of God and of this also it is affirmed that it is able It hath an Alsufficiency in it 's kind Paul tells the Elders of Ephesus That the Word of Grace is able to build them up and to give them an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified Act. 20. 32. 3 There is the great Means of Operation and that is the Spirit of Grace He works the Mercy of the Promise upon the Soul He also is able exceeding powerful to effect the End appointed It hath no bounds nor measure of Operation but only it's own Will 1 Cor. 12. 11. Hence then it is apparent in the Second Place That there is no Occasion for Doubting yea that all staggering is excluded from the Consideration of the Ability of the Promiser and the means whereby he worketh If thou continuest to stagger thou must get a better Plea then this it cannot be it is impossible I tell thee nay but God is able to accomplish the whole Word of his Promise But 3 There may be want of Sincerity in Promises and Engagements which whilest we do but suspect we cannot chuse but stagger at them If a man make a Promise to me and I can suppose that he intends not as he sayes but hath Reserves to himself of another purpose I must needs doubt as to the Accomplishment of what he hath spoken If the Soul may surmise that the Lord intends not him sincerely in his Promises but Reserves some other Thing in his Mind or that it shall be so to others and not to him he must needs dispute in himself stagger and keep off from Believing This then must be Demonstrated in the Third Place That the Promises of God and God in all his Promises are full of sincerity so that none need fear to cast himself on them they shall be real unto him Now concerning this Observe 1 That God's Promises are not Declarative of his secret Purposes and Intentions When God holds out to any a Promise of the pardon of Sin this doth not signifie to any singular man That it is the Purpose of God that his Sin shall be pardoned For if so Then either all men must be pardoned to whom the Word of Promise comes which is not or else God fails of his Purposes and comes short of his Intendments which would render him either Impotent that he could not or Mutable that he would not establish them but who hath resisted his Will Rom. 9. He is the Lord and he changeth