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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	grace_n	work_n	1,598	5	6.0605	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02482	Christ alone exalted in the perfection and encouragements of the saints, notwithstanding sins and trials. Volume III. / Being laid open in severall sermons by the late spirituall and faithfull preacher of the Gospel, Tobias Crispe, D.D.	Crisp, Tobias, 1600-1643.; Cokayn, George, 1619-1691.; Pinnell, Henry.	1648 (1648)	Wing C6959; ESTC R233167	185,508	400

in generall If any man sin as if he had said there must something be done by Believers that goes beyond the being of sin before they can be excluded from having interest in the Advocateship of Christ Here the Apostle speaks expresly there is an Advocateship of Christ for Believers finning without exception I know it is too frequent among many that more grosse sins then ordinary in a Believe● do not only waste the conscience but do also interpose between such a person and Christ of which we shall have occasion to speak else-where For present there is a co●●eit that if a Believer sine more then ordinarily presently there is just c●use for him to suspect Christ will not sufficiently manage his office for him an least Christ hath not sufficiently managed it already so that there is ju●t cause of feare But let me tell you to the everlasting consolation of Gods people that there is no sin which a Believer can commit which can exclude him from the benifit of this Advocateship or bring him beyond the bounds of this large grant If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father And if it be any man you will say it extends to all men in the world as well as Believers if any man sin Nay there is a restraint in the words and you shall easily see it If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father If any of us that have fellowship with the Father and the Son it is not every one that hath Christ for an Advocate but those that are Believers Those that have right to fellowship with the Father and the Son are only spoken of in this place I speak this to the end that those who 〈…〉 fear of death are subject unto bondage all their lives long ●ay know that Christ is co●●e to deliver them and reveales this truth on purpose to deliver them from the feare of death and bondage by being their Advocate for their sins He is an Advocate he is a propitiation for every sin of his The words run in the generall to the end If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for our sins The Apostle doth not say he is not an Advocate for such and such but for such and such Believers that sin so and so if they commit sin so and so agravated and if their sins rise to such an height there is no propitiation for them But the Apostle speaks in the generall style If any man sin and he is the propitiation for our sins and yet beloved I must be bold to goe a little further in respect of the persons whose cause Christ doth plead and in whose behalf Christ is an Advocate I say it is for all sorts of Believers nay I go further it is for more then present Believers even for some who are not for the present Believers but remaine as yet in a state of unbelief In brief Christ is the Advocate of the cause of euery person in the world for whom he paid the price of redemption whether they be persons already called or persons not yet acquainted with the Grace of God for every Elect person as well unconverted as converted Christ doth equalty in respect of the substance of his plea interpose but when I say he plead as well for the unconverted as for the converted I mean for such unconverted persons as do belong unto the election of Grace and have their portion in the price of his blood Beloved for mine own part I cannot yet conceive any other considerable difference between the plea of Christ for the converted persons and the Elect unconverted but this circumstantiall difference namely that the value of his blood is equally of force to Believers and unbelievers being elected saving that the Belevers have this priviledge that the Lord Christ pleads for the manifestation of this discharge unto this converted person but pleads not for the present manifestation there of unto the unconverted elect person tell such time as he shall be called to the faith and by that faith that thing be made evident which before was hid I say the pardon of sin by the blood of C●rist is 〈◊〉 full for the unconverted elect person as fully passed over in grant I mean to that person as to the Believer himself God doth add never a tittle of pardon it self more to him that is a Believer then to that person not yet converted to the faith in regard of the substance of the pardon it self For the cleering of this to you I beseech you note what is the rise or ground-work of the pardon of sin Secondly note when this pardon of sin is compleat with God These two things considered you shal perceive that all the pardon in respect of the substance of it that God passeth over unto men he doth passe it over before their conversion Look I say upon the rise the true rise or originall of the pardon of sin is the gracious grant of God upon the blood of Christ shed This is the onely foundation of pardon I say Gods gracious grant upon the sheding of the blood of Christ there is no pardon appliable to any person in the world but what pardon is to be found in the word of Grace Thou that art a Believer at present thou hast the pardon of thy sins in thy spirit thou art assured of it Where hadst thou this pardon Didst thou not fetch it out of the word of Grace Then as soon as the word of Gods Grace was first published this Grace of the pardon of sin was held forth If thou foundest it not here thou found'st it some where else but tell me where will you have this Grant of God to build upon if you will not have it in the word of Grace You will say the Spirit of God will reveale it unto you It is true indeed but if the Spirit of the Lord doth reveal a grant to you of Grace it is according to his Word The Spirit speaking out of the word o● Grace to men speakes no otherwise but according to this word of Grace in men and if that there be a contradiction between the inward voyce and this word of Grace that is enough to give you cause of suspicion yea you may be confident that that voice within you in respect of such contradiction is a false voyce I say that the Lord Christ sends us unto his Word and from the word we take out the pardon of sin we have Now beloved I beseech you consider if all pardon to all the Elect to the end of the world be contained in this word of Grace there is no more pardon then what is written there then it must needs follow that God passed over his act of pardon of sin at that instant when he entred this pardon in the volume of his Book Is there no pardon till thou art converted and called then the pardon of all thy sins are not to be

of God to be our God In all the rest of the gifts of God which hee hath so freely bestowed never a gift of Gods Spirit procures any thing of its own our faith hath nothing of its own fasting and prayer have nothing of their owne but as the Lord hath been pleased to make these Ordinances to be passages to convey himself to the sons of men and so they are to bee made use of by the sonnes of men Faith as it apprehendeth the Lord Jesus and other Ordinances as therein true faith is exercised and no ●therwise And indeed beloved this is the load-stone to provoke persons to the use of all Ordinances God hath ranked them together that the Lord hath so much and so often promised through them to convey himselfe You are kept by the power of God through faith saith the Apostle unto salvation As if he should have said The Lord doth convey himself and the manifestation of his owne salvation through our beleeving The Spirit of the Lord passing through the Ministery of the Gospel as the breath of man passeth through a Trumpet the Trumpet is the instrument the breath is the Spirit of the Lord the Trumpet addes nothing to the breath Now know beloved so far as you will attend the Ordinances because God calls out to Ordinances and because you have heard the Lord promise to bestow such things upon you in the Ordinances so far you shall attend the Ordinances according to his pleasure but when you ascend so high that the Ordinance doth get things then you rob the Lord and give more to Ordinances than God hath given now though the Ordinances have no efficiency of their own in that nature I have spoken yet there is good cause for all Gods own people to esteem very highly of Ordinances and to be joyfull of Ordinances and to long much after Ordinances to make much of them For why the Lord hath made his promises to be found of them and to be with them in Ordinances In the day of adversity call thou upon me and I will deliver thee And here by the way know from hence what is the exspectatio of Believers themselves which they ought to have of the Lord for such things when they come to such Ordinances that so when wee attend the Lord in his Ordinances we may find him in them In Ezekiel you shall find there was a constant motion but it was because there was a spirit stirring in the wheels there 's no motion in the heart of man nor ordinances in the world but as the Spirit of the Lord is in them The Lord hath promised to meet with us in these Ordinances or else they would be as dry as any thing in the world Therefore as the poor man lay at the beautifull gate of the Temple not because the gate would relieve him but because it was a place of concourse where honourable men resorted from whom he might have almes So in the Ministery in Fasting and Prayer and all other services there is the gate of the Temple of the Lord there is the place G●d makes usually his concourse and resort there is the place God appoints to give the meeting therefore in expectation from the word of his grace that wee may finde him in Ordinances we do refort to them Now what derogation is there all this while to the Ordinances while wee make them but thus passive The richest treasure in the world may come to a man through the poorest vessell the treasure is never the farther off nor never the worse because the vessell is poor It is no matter of what price the means of conveyance is so that the thing wee desire be conveyed to us by i● only w● must no● give i● that which is abovaits due To a●c●ibe the obtaining of these things t● Prayer and Ordinances that is to make gods of them if wee think anything sh● move the Lord but hi● bowels in Christ you invert the course of the Gospel The Lord saith I am he that blotte● out thy transgressions for my name sake Tha● which God d●th to m●n is done to them fo● his own sake He will not be so much bound t● any creature as to ferch the least motive fro● the creature to do good to it Look therefor● as you would speed wa●t ●pon the Lord where he saith you shall speed And this shall be encouragement sufficient to wait upon all Ordinances of all sorts where the Lord appoints that he will for his own sake give you a gracious an we● and bestow all good things upon you that you stand in need of in Ordinances this is motive sufficient I say to stir you up to attend upon Ordinances and yet not to make gods of them to ascribe that to them which belongs alone to God who doth all ordinarily through Ordinances which is the only way to disappoint you of your hope when you exspect help from them Object But what is all this to fasting will you say Answ This is a day of fasting why do you fast you stand in need of other things If you consider the nature of fasting aright you shall find there is nothing more proper for this day then this thing God to be thy God to keep thee from feare What is the end of fasting but this to get a prop and support from sinking by reason of approaching evills Who knowes whether the Lord will repent and leave a blessing behinde saith Joel when he proclaimed the day of a fast then to finde the Lord with his hands full of blessings is the end of a Fast Now if you will finde the Lord your God you shall finde the utmost that you can in fasting for in him you will finde that which will stay and support you when greatest extremities grow upon you Therefore I have no more to say to you beloved but only to commend this work to the Grace of God and to the power of his Spirit that is able to fasten it upon your spirits for your everlasting comfort SERMON III. 1 John 2. vers 1 2. My little children these things I write unto you that you sin not And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world OF all the Prophets Daniel alone had this prerogative to be called The greatly beloved of the Lord you may finde it in the 9th of Daniel And this greatnesse of his indearednesse was expressed in the manifestation of the greatness of the riches of the Gospel unto him in a more singular manner than to others So the Lord doth expresse it by his Angel Thou art greatly beloved of the Lord therefore am I come to tell thee that seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and 〈◊〉 City to finish transgressions and to put an end t●●●n and to make reconciliation for iniquitty and 〈◊〉 bring in everlasting

that you sin not in the words before This is urged as an Argument to perswade them namely Wee have an Advocate with the Father We have considered already the force of this Argument to prevaile to this thing required and we have considered something concerning the nature of the Argument it self If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Here we considered what the Advocateship of Christ is namely to plead a sentence for his peoples discharge according to the rules of justice and equity Secondly whose cause it is that Christ doth advocate or plead Thirdly how Christ is qualified and gifted unto this office of Advocateship He is first Christ that is called of God and furnished by the Lord unto it Secondly he is Jesus Christ an effectuall and prevailing Advocate an Advocate that saves every client harmlesse whose cause hee doth plead Jesus is as much as a Saviour of his people from their sins We have considered thirdly further that Christ is qualified with righteousnesse and herein also the strength of the plea of Christ or the Argument of his plea He pleads discharge from sinne by vertue of his own righteousnesse Now because this discharge doth depend upon this righteousnesse of his We have proposed to your consideration what this righteousnesse is that hath such strength of plea as to obtain discharge from sin to the members of Christ after they have committed sin wee have proposed it first negatively secondly affirmatively The righteousnesse that obtains discharge from sin is no righteousnesse of our own nothing we do hath prevalency in the Court of Heaven with God for our discharg● It is not our tears our prayers or our fasting● that do prevaile with God but the righteousnesse of Christ only by the way a word o● two before I go on Let none think that th● denying efficacy unto our performances for th● procuring of our discharge from sinne doth wholy take away or derogate or eclypse these performances which are the things God himselfe calleth for at our hands I am not ignorant what an aspersion is rather by men collected then what can be justly raised out of what I have delivered as if there should be a slighting and a derogating from the performances that are the businesse of a Christians conversation as if denying efficacy to prevaile for discharge should be the overthrowing of these performances in Gods people You know what is said of fire It is a good servant but a bad master usefull in the harth dangerous i● the top of a house I say the like of all performances whatsoever keep them within their due bounds they are for excellent uses and for excellent purposes Let them break out of their bounds and they are dangerous Rivers are usefull but when they overflow their banks they drown all they are good creatures within the banks and water is usefull and necessary for many purposes but nothing more dangerous and destructive when it rieseth too high Exact performances once into the Throne of Christ give performances the peculiar priviledges of Christ and they deny Christ keep them in subordination to Christ they are usefull in their kinde Pr●yer and fasting and circumspect walking and holinesse of conversation so farre as they are kept within these bounds namely the glorifying of God the manifestation of thankfulnesse and our due obedience to divine Majesty doing good to others and as they are looked upon as the Ordinances of God in the performances of which the Lord will be graciously pleased to meet with his people and in them make good to them things that are freely given by him before in Christ so farre they are exceeding usefull As for instance God calls forth unto prayer he calls forth unto fasting what is the encouragement of men to performe these services not a prevalency that these services themselves have with God but because that he hath promised that when his people call he will answer So for the promise sake we are encouraged in the expectation that the Lord will be as good as his word when we meet with him where he calls us forth to meet with him so far we are encouraged These things will I doe saith the Lord yet for all this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel Observe it well and in it you shall see the usefulnesse in seeking God in any way that the Lord will be sought in First the Lord saith These things will I do the Lord hath bound himself he cannot alter it the word is gone out of his mouth the thing shall come to passe when it is once gone out of his mouth he will make that good for his own sake and I will be sought unto by the house of Israel I will doe it you shall seeke mee and when you seek me I will make it good So when we come to the Ordinances wee look to what God hath promised and upon what God hath ingaged himself to make good to us And when we are upon the Ordinances our eye is or ought to be upon the promises not upon our performances and the Ordinances as if these our qualifications and doing this or that were the procurers of that we desire but the procurer of that is that which moved the Lord to make a promise Secondly as our righteousnesse hath not plea in it to prevaile of it selfe for discharge of sin after commission so neither hath faith it self any prevalency for the discharge of sin I say the plea of saith it self hath no efficacy and strength in it to get discharge from sin Faith improperly is called the righteousnesse of God Look into the 10. of the Romans the Apostle expresseth himselft us The righteousnes of faith speaks on this wise c. Here by the righteousnes of faith there cannot be meant the righteousnesse of the act of believing but the righteousnesse of Christ believed on I came to this assertion that faith hath not such prevalency of plea to discharge from sin I say not a prevalency of plea as to obtain the discharge from sin Nay saith hath not this prevalency so much as to be an instrument to unite a soul unto Christ in its first union I shall desire beloved in this case yet once more to be marked and heeded both attentively and spiritually and ingenuously and candidly The assertion I delivered was this and the reason why I deliver it again I will tell you by and by There is I say not such a thing as an uniting and cementing nor knitting power in faith as that faith doth or should become the instrument to unite a soul in its first union unto Christ For before such believing a soul is united unto Christ and a soul must be united unto Christ before it doth or can believe I said this of elect persons still and so carried it along to the end of the discourse That an elect person is united unto Christ before he can believe on Christ Something I said before for the

wee should then finde the comfort of this Office of Christ to be a propitiation for us Now if you will know what this reconciliation is which is indeed an interpretation of propitiation observe I pray you beloved how the Apostle doth illustrate it in the 2. chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians and the 13. verse You that were sometimes afar off hath he made nigh by the blood of Christ Reconciliation is making nigh those persons who were sometimes afarre off and that you may the better understand this being afarre off look into the 1. chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians the 21 and 22. verses the Apostle there will tell you in what respect the members of Christ the elect are said to be afarre off You who were sometimes alienated strangers enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he now reconciled So then to be afarre off and of afarre off to be made nigh is as much as to say that persons who were alienated in respect of enmitie in their mindes in regard of wicked works these persons notwithstanding all that enmity in respect of wicked works they are made nigh they are reconciled You know well in respect of the persons of men who are elected persons they are from all eternity in the purpose of God made nigh by the vertue of the blood of Christ that in time should be shed which vertue of that blood is effectuall in the eyes and thoughts of God from all eternity so that although in respect of the nature of wicked works there be a separating and an alienating nature and quality yet in regard of the efficacy of the blood of Christ being in force with God the persons who are elected in the thoughts of God are nigh to him in purpose from eternity So that alienation and estrangement in respect of eternity against God is not to be understood as if elect persons were in very deed and properly at any time decreed to be separated absolutely from God no God had them in his thoughts as the objects of his love from eternity and these thoughts of being nigh were intended to be executed through that blood that was continually in his eye But saith the Apostle you that were alienated in your mindes through wicked works that is you who so far forth as you wrought wicked works had that in you which in its own nature was the cause of alienation and could not admit of your being neer and being in the thoughts of Gods love till there were reconciliation made by Christ hath he made nigh that is whereas these wicked works were those things that did in their own nature actually and for the present make you walk at a distance from God and so in respect of wicked works you were afarre off you are now made nigh by the blood of Christ that is Christ hath taken away sin the cause of that distance between God and you and also hath revealed himself unto you being Believers and in revealing himself to you he hath made known to you the eternall counsel of God concerning your reconciliation and that now you are actually and really in the very bowels of God and also he doth in some measure subdue and destroy the power of Satan in those wicked works so that there is now a neernesse I say there is a more neernesse even in conversation with God after calling and believing then there was before calling and the blood of Christ is that that make persons who were far off nigh again to God And this is the reconciliation namely where as there was a distance before there is now a neernesse and this neernes is by the blood of Christ as by a sacrifice of propitiation That you may the better understand the nature of reconciliation with God you must know that reconciliation properly imports thus much that whereas there is variance ●●●angement and a controversie between person and person a person is then said to bee reconciled when the breach is made up and the controversie is ended and the quarrell is done and the persons at variance are become friends again You know as long as there is hitting in the teeth as long as there is secret grudges as long as there is objectings one against another and prosecuting one another in respect of injuries done so long there is not reconciliation When men are reconciled they lay down the bucklers they quarrell no more they fight no more but walk as friends together And if they should walk as friends in outward semblance and yet should bear rancor in their spirits one against another this were but an hypocriticall reconciliation In●cconciliation the very heart it self is made friends with persons reconciled All this imports unto us this much Christ is become to beleevers the atonement one that makes a peace with God he is he that ends the controversie and the quarrell between God and them whereas God was injured and might have prosecuted the Law with violence upon us Christ doth bring to passe that the Lord layes down the buckler to have no more to say against a person but to become friends with him You know that reconciliation is such a thing as is not only a making friends to day but a making friends so that there may be a continuation of this amity You cannot call this reconciliation when men are brought together and their controversies are ended now to day but upon the same controversie they will fall out again to morrow here is not reconciliation for in reconciliation there must be a burying of all that which was the subject matter of the quarrel So Christ being our reconciliation he making our peace with God doth not bring God to be friends with us to day so as to fall out with us to morrow again but to be friends with us for ever Therefore by the way know that every person reconciled unto God by Christ is not only a person becoming a friend of God now but a friend of God for ever And as Christ doth take away the present anger of God against him to day so he takes away all quarrels and controversies for ever So that a person reconciled shall never have God at controversie any more with him Some it may be do conceive Christ doth reconcile God and us in respect of sins that are past but if I sin anew say they God must have new controversies and new quarrels But beloved remember this he did bear all the iniquitie at once upon him and when he made the reconciliation with God he brought in all the trangressions of men from first to last and so ended the quarrel with God in respect of every transgression even for sins future as well as for those that are past He dealt so with God that he did reconcile him to you in respect of them So that Christ must either leave out those sins you think breaks the peace with God in the agreement he made or if he did