Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A02846
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The strong helper, offering to beare euery mans burthen. Or, A treatise, teaching in all troubles how to cast our burden vpon God but chiefly deliuering infallible grounds of comfort for quieting of troubled consciences. By Iohn Haivvard.
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Hayward, John, D.D.
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1614
(1614)
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STC 12986; ESTC S103943
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264,841
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668
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be made righteous by faith This Law that accurseth thee with such ◅igour and seuerity euen in that curse serueth as a Schoolemaister to instruct thee by driuing thee from all liking of thine owne waies to seeke thy iustification by Iesus Christ that died for thee As the tempest by Sea maketh men flie with all speed and skill to safe harbour and as a storme by land maketh men flie with all possible haste into the house Euen so the thundering of the Law denouncing curses against transgressors maketh them with all speed and skill to flie vnto Iesus Christ our Sauiour who onely is the sure harbour and house of rest and safetie to all poore and weather-beaten and distressed sinners To him truely and in the first place belong those words of the Prophet That man shall bee as an hiding place from the wind and as a refuge for the tempest as riuers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rocke in a weary land And as hunger and thirst kindle a desire of meat and drinke and as paine and sicknesse felt and knowne kindleth a desire of the counsell and helpe of the Physician so feare and anguish wrought in our hearts by the rigorous sentence of the Law accursing vs kindleth in vs a desire to slie vnto this man euen the man Iesus Christ our hiding place our refuge our fountaine of liuing waters our shadow that refresheth that in him we might find defence against the storme of curses that the Law powreth downe vpon vs. Be not therefore afraid of the Law but be aduised by it and confessing thy sinnes flie as the Law compels thee vnto Iesus Christ who as the Apostle Peter saith His owne selfe bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree that we being deliuered from sin might liue in righteousnesse by whose stripes ye were healed Turne thee therefore from the ◅igorous face of the Law to the farre more cheerefull countenance of Iesus Christ and behold him hanging vpon the tree where he suffered for sinnes not for his owne for in him was no sin nor guile in his mouth but for thy sinnes imputed to him as the Prophet Esay teacheth vs saying All wee like sheepe haue gone astray we haue turned euery one to his owne way and the Lord hath laid vpon him the iniquitie of vs all Looke therefore from the Law that was giuen by Moses vnto Iesus Christ by whom grace and trueth are reuealed behold him sweating in the Garden till droppes of blood fell from him to the ground behold him scourged with whippes and crowned with thornes till the blood issued from all parts of his body behold him nailed to the tree there reuiled most disdainefully by the Priests and all the people heare him crying out vnder the weight of thy sinnes and of Gods displeasure indured for them My God my God why hast thou for saken me Behold him giuing vp the Ghost his life search whether it were departed from him or no with a speare Then O troubled sinner then did he sustaine the curse of the law when he was made a curse for vs as Saint Paul te◅cheth saying Christ hath redeemed vs from the curse of the law when hee was made a curse for vs. For it is written cursed is euery one that hangeth on tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Iesus Christ that wee might receiue the promise of the spirit through faith Dooth the law thunder out curses Iesus Christ stepped in betweene the law and vs and receiued the stroke of that curse vppon his owne head whereof he gaue all the world assurance when he humbled himselfe to the death of the crosse which manner of death was by a particular sentence of the law pronounced accursed and why should the law threaten againe the curse of God against thee which alreadie before it hath not onely pronounced but executed vpō another for thee Thou art discharged from the curse of the law in the curse that Christ sustained for thee yea thou art so fully discharged of the curse that in place there of thou art made heire of the blessing promised to Abraham for so are the Apostles wordes That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gētiles through Iesus Christ. Now this blessing of Abraham is the firme fauour of God to bee our God according to the couenant which hee made with Abraham and his seede after him in their generations for euer Which seed is not to be accounted by carnall birth but by spirituall faith without regard of line◅l discent in bloud for god is able of the stones that is of the heard stonie-harted Gentiles to raise vp children vnto Abraham For which cause it was said vnto him In thy seed shal all the nations of the earth be blessed By seed in this place he meaneth the Messias the redeemer that came of Abraham Isaack Iacob Iudah Dauid and in him all nations without respect of persons beleeuing in him as Abrahams heires walking in the steps of his faith shall become blessed by inheriting the couenant euen Gods fauour according to the couenant and thou among the rest Feare not therefore the sentence of the law but from the law turne thy face to Iesus Christ and the feared curse shall not fall vpon thee Reuerence the law as it teacheth a rule of life and feare it not as it pronounceth sentence of death God made his sonne vnder the law to redeeme them that were vnder the law And the same sonne of God is called by Saint Paul The end of the law for righteousnes vnto euery one that beleeueth If therefore being in the hands of the law thou wilt looke vnto Iesus Christ tho◅ hast attained to the end of the law and so art no more vnder the lawe but vnder grace And remember what Iesus Christ hath said in the Gospell As Moses lifted vp the serpent in the wildernes s◅ must the sonne of man be lift vp that whosoeuer beleeueth in him might not perish but haue eternall life Looke vp therefore vnto that serpent lift vp vpon the tree of the crosse and the sting of death which is thy sinne and the strength of sinne which is the law shall neuer hurt thee Against all danger of death of sinne and of the law heare what the Apostle saith Thankes be vnto God which hath gi◅en vs victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. CHAP. XXV ALL that is hitherto spoken cannot giue peace to this troubled minde but as one waue followeth another in the sea so one feare followeth another in his heart and new feares afford new obiections Now he pleadeth thus against himselfe I haue no reason to hope for mercy for I haue no heart to pray for mercy I want all things that pertaine to true praier First I haue no God to praie vnto that will lend any care to my praiers I find this saying of Gods recorded
from being lost in the first sence and meaning of that word And there is o◅e that will saue from destruction those that are ready to perish and thee among others that will deliuer from damnation those that are already iudged and thee as well as others and that wil pluck out of the iawes of death out of the snares of Satan and out from the gates of hell those that were ready to be swallowed vp and deuoured as a pray and thee assoone as others so to recouer thee from being lost in the sense and meaning of the word And this seeker is of that diligence wisdome that he cannot be disappointed of finding this sauiour is of that goodnes power that he will not and cannot be letted from sauing whom hee intendeth to deliuer of whom the Apostle to the Hebrewes saith He is able perfectly to saue them that come vnto God by him seeing hee euer liueth to make intercession for them And who is this diligent seeker that can and will so certainely finde who is this mightie Sauiour that can and will so certainely preserue it is the Lord Iesus Christ the sonne of God the sauiour of mankind of whom the Euangelist yea himselfe the Euangelist onely reporting his words saith The sonne of man is come to seeke and saue that which was lost So that if any man be gone astray if any man bee out of the knowledge and care of God his keeper Iesus came to seeke him And if any were worthy to perish and already by sentence giuen adiudged to perish such is the condition of all men Iesu◅ is come to saue him And it is worthy obseruation that he saith The sonne of man came to seeke the sonne of man came to saue as making this seeking and sauing of them that were lost to be the onely end as indeed it was of his comming into the world For this cause was he conceiued by the Holy Ghost for this purpose was he borne of the Virgin Mary to this end and for the effecting of this saluation was the sonne of God made the sonne of man yea for this and for this onely did he fulfill all righteousnes and yeelded obedience euen to the death of the crosse that he might seeke and find them that were gone astray and that he might recouer and saue them that were lost so that hee that shall deny these things to be truely intended and fully performed by Iesus Christ doeth make idle and fruitlesse the incarnation and passion of our Lord Iesus Christ and denieth the vertue of the death and bloudsheding of the sonne of God Let our afflicted sinner consider these things and set his heart on worke to meditate vpon them and it will come to passe that whereas before the remembrance of his lost estate was cause of heauines vnto him the same very condition shall giue him comfort and hope and saue him as an argument to proue him to be one of those for whom Iesus Christ died to saue them For if it be true that the lord Iesus came to seeke and to saue them that were lost and be also true that ◅e is lost then it must also be true that Iesus Chist came to seeke to saue him The Lord Iesus said to the woman of C◅naan I am not sent but vnto the lost ◅eepe of the house of Israel Vnto those lost sheepe hee was sent and to none other So that if our afflicted sinner see himselfe to be a lost sheepe there is hope that the Lord Iesus was ◅ent for yea it is most sure that he was sent for him sent to seeke him sent to saue him whereas if he had a proud opinion of himselfe as had the Pharises that he were not as other men for so gloried hee saying O God thanke thee that I am not as other men or if he nourished a careles opinion of himselfe as doe the contemners of the world that he were in no danger for so doe they flatter themselues saving Wee are deliuered though we haue done all these abominations Then Iesus indeed should not profit him for hee came for none such He saith of himselfe I am not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance In this very name therefore that he is a lost sinner a sinner worthy to perish he may comfort himselfe in Iesus Christ and hope to be saued by him that came to seeke and saue that which was lost Let me in a few words briefely and plainely open to this sinner his estate what it is in himselfe and what it is in Iesus Christ that as in himselfe hee seeth cause of griefe and feare so in Iesus Christ he may see cause of hope and reioicing if hee looke into himselfe and consider what he is by birth what he is by kind and what he hath manifested and declared himselfe to bee by his life and conuersation surely hee is and shall find himselfe to be a lost creature and a child of wrath for he shall find nothing in himselfe but sinne deseruing eternall dest◅uction he shall find that hee was conceiued in sinne that he was borne in iniquitie and that he liued in sinne not onely in the daies of his first ignorance whi◅e sinne reigned without resistance in his mortall body but also in the daies of knowledge sinne yet remaining and misleading him into many errors and it ◅ thus not onely in him but euen in all ◅en and among all others euen in the elect of God in Gods owne peculiar people euen they at home and in themselues are lost creatures dead in sinnes and by sinnes deseruing eternall death The Angell appearing to Ioseph said vnto him of the child conceiued in the wombe of the Virgin Mary Shee shall ◅ing forth a sonne and thou shalt call his ◅me Iesus for he shall saue his people from their sinnes Those whom his father gaue vnto him therefore called his people them he saueth he saueth them from their sinnes By which speech it is plainly intimated that euen they considered in themselues are lost by their sins And so is our afflicted sinner considered in himselfe with respect to his kind to his birth and to his life hee is lost hee is a child of perdition and therein hee hath cause to be humbled and to feare the iustice of God But let not the sinner gaze so long vpon this his naturall estate that his dazled eies should after be vnable to look any higher such a view of this our naturall condition as may serue to beate downe the pride of flesh and bloud and to bring vs vnto true humilitie and to the deniall of our selues before God is sufficient Let him therefore after consider him selfe in another and view his conditiō estate in Iesus Christ by vertue of his holy calling of his second birth namely his regeneration and hee shall find himselfe another man He shall find that God hath