Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	faith_n	grace_n	1,407	5	5.8253	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53903	Enoch's translation, in a sermon preached at the funerals of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Elgin, Baron of Whorlton, &c. In the parish-church of Malden in Bedford-shire, Decemb. 31. 1663. By Rich. Pearson D.D.	Pearson, Richard, Chaplain to the Earl of Elgin.	1664 (1664)	Wing P1012; ESTC R216919	15,936	38

is for their Faith as the first and leading Grace as the principal and fundamental Grace which is the root and spring of all the rest as that Grace which made them live Religiously here By faith Enoch pleased God and as that Grace which carried them to Heaven afterwards By faith Enoch was translated This order of Salvation God hath set No coming to Heaven but by Christ no coming to Christ but by Faith So No Faith no Christ and no Christ no Salvation Whereas some have vainly thought to make Saints of the old Philosophers as if by the right use of Reason or by the improvement of their natural Endowments they could attain Salvation this fond charity of theirs is much like that legendary devotion of Pope Gregory who is said by his prayers to have fetch'd the Soul of the Emperour Trajan out of Hell being moved with compassion for the justice which he had once done to a poor widow But the story tells us that by revelation he received this answer That however he was heard in that Petition yet Caveret in posterum he should beware hereafter that he did not presume to pray for any that was dead unbaptized It is an equal presumption in these men to think by their opinion to redeem from Hell the Souls of those Heathens who lived and died without Faith without Christ and without God in the world An opinion not unlike to that of the Turks in their Alcoran That every man shall be saved in his own Religion be it what it will if he be but devout in it Briefly it is an opinion which overturns the whole frame of revealed Truth that any man can be saved without Christ or have any interest in Christ without Faith This is the reason why the Apostle in this Chapter makes such frequent mention of Faith in the behalf of all the Saints as the Grace which carried them to Heaven as the Grace which God esteems and approves above all as the radical and fundamental Grace which is the Root and Principle of a vertuous and holy life By faith Enoch that 's the first Elogium in the beginning of the verse The second is drawn from the Consequence or Result of it in the close of the verse He pleased God This follows naturally upon the former as the Effect upon the Cause For as the Apostle has laid down the Maxim in the next verse Without Faith it is impossible to please God so with Faith it is impossible not to please him Faith is the Grace that incorporates us into Christ being incorporate into Christ we are made partakers of all his Merits his Satisfaction becomes ours his Obedience ours his Righteousness ours being thus cloth'd in the robe of his Righteousness put on by Faith we become accepted of God and God well pleased with us Again Faith is the Root from whence infallibly springs the Fruit of a Holy and Godly life and with such Fruit God is well pleased But the Apostle here sets it down with advantage It is not barely He pleased God but He had this testimony that he pleased God And from whom had he this testimony even from God himself We find it given unto him by the Spirit of God Gen. 5. 24. there it is said Enoch walked with God and here Enoch pleased God To walk with God and to please God are phrases equivalent Can two walk together saith the Prophet unless they be agreed that is unless they be pleased Amos 3. 3. Therefore the Apostle S. Paul joyns these two words together in 1 Thess 4. 1. Ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God Would you then know what it is to please God S. Augustine leads us to the beginning of this duty Placere Deo incipit qui in se odit quod Deo displicet Then we begin to please God when we hate and abhor in our selves whatsoever is displeasing unto him S. Basil carries us further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then we please Bas l. de Virgin God when by a holy and a vertuous life we endeavour to make our selves like unto God More particularly To please God is to love him to fear him to serve him to praise him to doe all those things which are pleasing and acceptable unto him The reason is God is the onely infinite good and cannot take pleasure in any thing but himself or something of himself He is pleased with his Son because he is Himself he is pleased with Piety because it is a beam of Himself wrought by his Spirit in the creature So every action the more it has of God the more pleasing it is unto him and the more it has of Christ the more it has of God and the more it has of Faith the more it has of Christ and of all other Graces Faith is most pleasing to him because it holds most of Christ the more of Christ the more acceptation we find with God because in him God is perfectly well pleased The summe is this The pleasing of God must be both our Final cause we must make it our End whilst we are in the world to direct all our actions to the Glory of God to doe that which may please him and our Formal cause we must make it our Rule it is the surest Rule we can walk by to doe those things which are pleasing unto God Christ himself walked by this Rule It is my meat and drink to doe my Father's will Joh. 4. 34. David desired to walk by this Rule Psal 143. 10. O teach me to doe the thing that pleaseth thee Enoch went by this Rule he walked by Faith and he pleased God And this is the Rule which is set to every Christian that Golden and unerring Rule which can never deceive us 1 Joh. 3. 22. to doe those things which are pleasing in his sight So it excludes three false Rules by which most men are wont to be over-ruled in the managing of their conversation The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-pleasing that 's a false Rule we must not be self-pleasers Rom. 15. 1. not to lean to our own Understandings not to be swaied by our own Wills not to be ruled by our own unruly Affections I came not saith Christ to doe my own will but the will of him that sent me Joh. 6. 38. That man is the best Servant of God who is least his own Master who knows no other velle and nolle but onely to doe the will and pleasure of God The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pleasing of men that is also a false Rule the Apostle cries it down in Eph. 6. 6. Not as men-pleasers but as the servants of God It is hard to be both a Servant of God and a Pleaser of men therefore the Apostle puts them as contradistinct and inconsistent designes and if we will cleave to the one we must renounce the other 1 Thess 2. 4. So speak so doe not as pleasing men