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
A93724	The wels of salvation opened or, a treatise discovering the nature, preciousnesse, usefulness of Gospel-promises, and rules for the right application of them. By William Spurstowe, D.D. pastor of Hackney near London. Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1655 (1655)	Wing S5100; Thomason E1463_3; ESTC R203641	126,003	320

we can make David as a man truly sensible of his many and deep obligations unto God hath a great consultation with himself which way he should expresse his thankfulnesse unto him What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psalm 116. 12. But after all musings and studyings with himself he can finde no other way but this I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord Vers 13. An Eucharistical sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is all that David though a King can finde to give unto God And this kinde of payment the poor may make as well as the rich the young as well as the old The children in the Gospel can cry Hosanna and say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Mat. 21. 15. as well as others It is a good observation of Nazianzen that God hath equalized all men in that ability which most recommends or discommends them unto him and that is the ability of the will to love him and to give him praise This is that which all may do who have tasted how good God is and this is all that the best can do who have been most filled with the riches of his mercy Seeing therefore that a thankful recognition of Gods love and bounty in his promises is the onely recompence that we can make it is most meet that we should abound in it and make it not only the duty of our lips but of our hearts breathing forth our very souls in the continual praises of him who hath manifested the gracious purposes of his heart unto us in many rich promises of life and salvation More then this God in his mercy doth not desire and lesse then this in all reason we cannot give Thirdly the giving of God praise and glory in endlesse songs of thanksgiving is the onely work of the Saints in heaven when fully made partakers of all the blessings that the promises do hold forth It is now the continual blessed exercise of all the inhabitants of those everlasting Mansions in the highest heavens and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither and have our faith turned into vision and our hope into enjoyment Requisite therefore it is that what we know must be our eternal exercise in heaven to make that our frequent practice on earth Those persons that intend to travel into remote and forreign countreys with an advantage unto themselves do before-hand acquaint themselves with the customes manners and fashions of the place to which they go and from others whose experience may give the best light do inquire what is the ingenie and disposition of the natives that so they may the better comply with their formes and civilities yea they endeavour to get some smattering of the language that they may not be altogether strangers to what is done and spoken there So should Christians who expect to dwell with the Lord for ever with all diligence inure themselves to the work and services of that innumerable company of Angels and spirits of just men made perfect and to get some rudiments of their heavenly language while they are below that so they may the better bear a part in that celestial quire singing with a loud voice Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Rev. 7. 12. Now that this duty of thankfulnesse may run in a right channel I shall in some few particulars shew how it may and ought to be expressed First let thankfulnesse appear in the fulfilling of that exhortation of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God The promises as they are causes working holinesse so also are they Arguments inciting to it being for the most part propounded as rewards unto the obedience of faith which is a purifying and cleansing grace Acts 15. 9. In what more genuine fruits therefore can thankfulnesse manifest it self then in holinesse Or how can a beleever better evidence his high esteeme of the promises then by his continual pressing forward to the perfection of sanctity Now as Aristotle tells us in the first book of his Rhetoricks that there are two wayes by which men grow rich either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding to their present store or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substracting and taking away from their expenses So also holinesse is perfected by a double meanes either by the addition of one grace unto another which is the duty that Saint Peter calls for 2 Pet. 1. 5. Adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse c. Or else by not making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof which is the counsel that Saint Paul gives to beleevers Rom. 13. 14. And he that doth not both these wayes endeavour the increase of holinesse starving the boundlesse desires of the flesh and strengthening the graces of the Spirit by renuing acts of godlinesse can never be rich either in grace or comfort Secondly let thankfulnesse for the promises be expressed in proclaiming that mercy salvation and assured peace which you have received from them If so be you have tasted that God is good do as the birds which when they come to a full heap chirp and invite their fellows Tell the hungry soul what satisfying and blessed food the promises are the dejected what reviving cordials the poor what enduring riches the broken and wounded what healing balsoms they are that so they may be encouraged to take hold of these promises by an hand of faith Criples that returne with health from the Bathe hang up their crutches on the trees and their rags on the hedges that are near that thereby they may win credit and esteeme to the waters And so to honour the Wells of salvation should Christians make known the great things that God hath done for them and leave in every place where they come some testimony of their thankfulnesse and Gods goodnesse Come saith David all ye that feare the Lord and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul Psal 66. 16. He doth not call them as Austin observes to acquaint them with speculations how wide the earth is how farre the heavens are stretched out what the number of the starres is or what is the course of the Sunne but come and I will tell you the wonders of his grace the faithfulnesse of his promises the riches of his mercy to my soul Oh! that Believers would be perswaded to declare thus the experiences that they have any time had of Gods truth and power in his Word and in a way of gratitude to communicate them unto others How instrumental might they thereby become in the comforting and establishing of others Experiences are

yet a necessary distinction concerning the promises which is this There are promises of grace and there are promises which are made to grace The one are so absolute as that they do not depend upon any grace in us foregoing or suppose any good qualifications in us to be partakers of them such are the promises of conversion and regeneration in which grace makes way for it selfe and works all the initial preparations without any concurrence or activity on our part we being as fully passive in our second birth as we are in our first birth in our regeneration as in our generation The other promises made to grace are conditonal not as supposing any thing to be performed by our strength and power or as if the conditions were causes meriting the grace promised but they are conditional in regard of a precedent qualification and fitnesse in the subject that is to partake of them without which they cannot be fulfilled grace being made the condition of grace Thus pardon of sinne is promised to him that repents justification to them that beleeves glory to him that is sanctified a crown to him that persevereth and increase in grace to him that improveth grace received But the absolute promise of conversion and giving of spiritual life though it have a kind of opposition unto conditional promises in not requiring that aptitude and qualification of the subject by grace for the fulfilling of it as the other do for the performance of them yet is it not absolute in opposition to the use of external meanes which God hath appointed as a necessary way to obtaine converting grace For as the decrees of God though peremptory and unchangeable do not exclude the endeavours of the creature and the working of second causes no more doth the absolutenesse of Gods promise in conversion shut out but rather include the use and exercise of all meanes that lead to the end True it is that to hear savingly to mingle faith with the Word men cannot by any natural power or ability in the least measure do but yet God hath commanded that they should attend upon the Ordinances and afford their presence to heare the Word when preached and delivered unto them And though these be such actions which have no immediate influence to the begetting or working of grace yet are they so far necessary as that no man can promise unto himself that ever he shall be converted who doth either neglect or refuse the using of those meanes in which God is pleased to dispense his free and undeserved grace This Direction is very usefull in a double respect to which it fitly serves First to silence the prophane cavils of those who make no other use of their naural impotency to good and of the power of God in conversion then to exempt themselves from all attendance upon Ordinances God being able by a powerful voice to bid them arise from the dead when like Lazarus they lie in the grave of their sins as well as heale them when like the Creeple they lie at the poole of the Sanctuary expecting the moving of the Spirit upon the waters no impediment being able to crosse or frustrate the purpose of the Almighty But as in other works of God so in conversion not his power onely but his will which is commensurable to his power and doth modifie it in the working is to be observed and heeded Some things he effecteth without meanes not because his power is infinite and stands not in need of any other assistance but because his will is it should so work other things though as immediately wrought by himselfe are accomplished in the use of meanes not that either his will or power are unable to give an existence unto them without any secondary helps but that his pleasure is to have them so wrought and perfected Such is the work of making a new heart of infusing spiritual life where it is wanting which though it be wholly and onely from God himself is yet ordered by him to be effected in the use of meanes As Physicians put their physick in certaine syrups and liquors which are vehicula medicinae not at all of themselves operative but serviceable to the medicine that works the cure so doth God by his Ordinances which are canales gratiae channels and conduit-pipes designed for grace to run in convey and dispense the precious blessing of a new and spiritual life to those upon whom he is pleased to bestow it And therefore as the plea of those is both weak and impious who contemptuously turne their backs upon the preaching of the Word and other external helps as needlesse and unnecessary to conversion it being Gods sole work so their expectation in the close will be both sad and fruitlesse ending rather in a just turning into hell by God then in a saving and effectual turning thorow grace unto God Secondly it serves to excite and quicken beleevers to an unwearied diligence in holy duties as being the ready and expedite way to obtaine their desires in the fulfilling of any promise which they stand in need of The penny was given to the labourer in the vineyard not to the loiterer in the market-place Mat. 20. And the reward in the promise is not to him that sits still and expects salvation to drop into his lap but to him that seeks and pursues after it making Gods promise not a ground for his idleness but a spur and motive to his diligence The promises are wells of salvation flowing with the waters of life but yet the strong Christian that expects to be refreshed by them must be at paines to draw water out of them Isa 12. 3. They are full breasts of consolation but yet the weak Christian who is as the new-borne babe or new-yeaned lamb must suck these breasts Isa 66. 11. if he will be satisfied with their aliment Etsi infirmus etsi parvulus saith Austin exige à Deo misericordiam Non vides perbreves agnos capitibus pulsantes ubera matrum ut lacte satientur Though thou be weak and little yet seek and exact with importunity mercy from God Do you not see how the young lambs do with their heads force down the milk from their damme that they may be filled therewith To wrastle and strive with God like Jacob for the gaining of a blessing is not superfluous because God hath promised it but necessary because he hath commanded it Ezek. 36. 37. I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them So Jer. 29. 11 12 I know the thoughts that I think towards you thoughts of peace and not of evil yet shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you Calling on God is not for his information but for the exercise of beleevers obedience and submission He will have faith as an hand to work as well as an hand to receive It was a scandal that Pharaoh brought