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	word_n	1,525	5	4.2834	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26112	A treatise of rejoycing in the Lord Jesus in all cases and conditions ... together with a Christians hope in heaven, in one sermon, and freedom from condemnation in Christ, in two sermons being the last preached / by Robert Asty.	Asty, Robert.; Asty, Robert. Saints hope in heaven.	1683 (1683)	Wing A4086; ESTC R27667	164,168	283

that will keep up your spirits O pray unto the Lord that he would encrease your Faith Pray for the encrease of this grace above all and be earnest with him that he who hath been the Author would be the promoter of your Faith And for your encouragement Christians let me tell you that the more you believe in Christ Jesus the more 1. In the first place you will glorifie Christ every act of Faith glorifies Christ Jesus it doth glorifie his Fulness it glorifies his Alsufficiency it glorifies his Advancement and Enthronement at the right hand of the Father it glorifies him in his Gospel-Offices as he is intrusted with the Fulness of all grace for you Nay 2. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ doth engage Jesus Christ to come in for your help Every act of Faith doth not only glorifie him but engage him it will awaken his Power and cause him to arise and open his hand and give out more liberally and freely He says therefore unto his Servants many times According to your Faith be it unto you Nay 3. This living upon Jesus Christ is the only way to make your lives comfortable in this world What had this Prophet to comfort his heart with but only this the Lord Jesus Christ resting upon him alone The Figg-tree that was withered and his creature-comforts were gone emptiness and nothingness was before him well says he I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Behold this it was that made his condition comfortable why Christians you will never have comfort in your own spirits under a loss under a cross and in a time of temptation if you have not Faith upon Christ Jesus and there fix your Souls Nay let me add 4. In the fourth and last place That hereby you shall have confirmation and establishment and settlement in the greatest shakings of providence that may be brought upon your condition And therefore O Christians let me in the winding up of all once more call upon you to live upon and to glory in Christ Jesus alone As to all your comforts in this world you cannot promise your selves they shall abide with you God may empty you from vessel to vessel till he have taken all these away but now there is enough in a naked Jesus to take comfort in there is enough in Jesus Christ alone for you to glory in O come and draw your comforts from Christ and do not draw them from the creature do not draw them from secondary helps but draw them from the fountain do not sit down at the streams but away to the fountain to the Ocean that is alwaies full In every strait have your eye upon Jesus in every cross keep your eye upon Jesus in every loss keep your eye upon Jesus under every strait and trial have recourse to Jesus and acquaint your selves more with him that you may be in the Prophets frame here To rejoyce in the Lord and to joy in the God of your Salvation THE SAINTS Hope in Heaven In one Sermon Together with Freedom from Condemnation in Christ Jesus Discovered in Two Sermons Preached Octob. 2. 1681. being the last that were Preached By Robert Asty late Minister of Jesus Christ in Norwi●h Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth V. 34 Who is he that condemneth LONDON Printed by Tho. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. THE HOPE OF THE Saints in Heaven Colos 1.5 For the Hope which is laid up for you in Heaven whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel THis holy Apostle being in bonds for the sake of Christ understanding by Epaphras that this Church with whom he had taken much pains in the Lord was in danger to be carried off from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel by some Seducers and false teachers that would set up the abrogated institutions of Moses with the institutions of Christ makes it his business to confirm them in the faith that they had received after the inscription and salutation the Apostle gives thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for what he had done for this people he declares how much they were upon his heart he could not cease praying for them and he rejoyced in their faith and in their love as you may see v. 3 4. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying alwaies for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the Saints and he speaks of their hope in this 5th verse which saies he is laid up for you in Heaven by hope he doth not mean the grace of hope as 't is sometimes to be taken in the Scripture but he means the object of hope or the thing hoped for as sometimes hope is to be understood as in Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith And Titus 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope So as the hope that he speaks of which is laid up in Heaven is Heaven itself and the glory and blessedness of it that did belong unto them that had laid hold upon Jesus and upon eternal life in laying hold upon Jesus There are some to make out the dependence of these words with the preceding do thus understand them we give thanks unto God for your faith and for your love which is an evidence that you have a hope which is laid up in Heaven for you Some others thus we are rejoyced in your faith and in your love which you have received and wherein ye stand fast for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven Some others they understand the Apostle expressing in the fourth verse the causes and grounds of his giving thanks to God for them and rejoycing on their account and that is their faith and their love which are illustrated in the fifth verse both in the final cause and also in instrumental cause the final cause is Heaven and the blessedness thereof which their faith and their love will issue its self in the instrumental cause is the word of the truth of the Gospel by which faith and love have been wrought in them and by which they were making meet for the heavenly inheritance It is only a short discourse that I intend upon the words The Proposition from the words is this Doct. That the Saints have a hope which is laid up in Heaven for them They have the glory and the blessedness of Heaven to seed and to feast their expectations upon whilest they are here There is a world beyond this world where the Saints have their treasure where their great estate and their inheritance lyeth Some things they have here but truly as the Apostle saies 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable if that there were nothing more then is to be enjoyed here

these things that we have laid down in truth though not in high degrees and measures you may be comforted Many Persons they wrong their case and so darken themselves thereupon by looking more unto the height of those things that are notes of evidence then the truth of them Now examine your selves I say by the truth of these things though you cannot yet find that you have overcome temptation that you have got into an holy triumph over temptation yet if that you can find that under all contrary inclinations and drawings the habitual frame and inclination of your heart is secured for Christ you may be comforted though you cannot find that you are able to do much towards the repairing of the glory of Christ in your place yet if you have a heart that is deeply affected with the dishonour that is done to Christ because Christ is dishonoured thereby you may be comfotted Though Christians you can find in your searches but very little of Christ in your hearts yet if your Souls are restlesly carried out after Christ in all your seekings of him that you must compass something of Christ or you cannot be satisfied this seeking heart and restless Spirit after Christ is a note of evidence to you and though you cannot live up to Christ as you would yet if your preparations and reformations be heart-preparations and heart-reformations that the work is begun and going on in you this may be matter of comfort to you and so you may go on to all the other particulars that I have given you look more to the truth of them then to the height and degree of them if you would upon them come to a right understanding of your present state Secondly If upon a search you can find but some of those things that have been given you as evidential of an interest you may be comforted though for the present you cannot speak of them all upon a particular experimental sense The Lord he speaks unto one Soul by one word and he speaks unto another Soul by another word and we don't know what particular word the Lord will make use of nor what particular of all these the Lord hath singled out and made of use advantage and comfort unto any of you but if the Spirit of the Lord hath singled out any one of them and given you a hint of interest thereupon you have cause to rejoice in the Lord and if the Lord hath given you but the least hint of his love and the least intimation by any word of Grace of your interest let not this be lookt upon as a small thing Take heed of refusing the consolations of the Lord when they are offered to you remember him of whom it is said Psal 77.2 My Soul refused to be comforted Thirdly Know this that full assurance and clear evidence of interest is gradually brought into the heart as the light of Grace comes in gradually so also does the light of comfort which is a light unto your Souls to discern Christ and to take comfort in him now the Lord it may be at first let in a little light as it were through the cravis don't set light by this thus doth the Lord work he gives in a little light at one time that doth as it were put the Soul between hope and fear and by and by he comes in with a little more light and then with a little more light and so gradually he carries on the Soul until he hath led him unto a clear evidence and given him a full assurance of interest so as if you have but yet the day star in your hearts don't despise it if you have yet but the beginnings of the light of consolation don't judge this small though comparatively to what some do enjoy it is but small yet let it not be small in your apprehensions but know that the light of interest gradually comes in encreases I may liken the light of interest unto the Prophets Cloud that was at first but like a mans hand and it was a great way off there was some hope of rain upon it but they did not know what would come of it but this was the beginning of such a Cloud that brought abundance of rain So thou hast Christian a little light that is glimmering in thy heart that sets thee it may be between hope and fear well let not this be small to thee for though for the present thou canst not come to a full assurance yet thou dost not know what this will come to thou doest not know what a growing light this is and how much it may encrease in thy heart Now unto those that have as yet but a little light in their Souls some small hopes through grace of an interest but they dare not positively conclude nor they dare not absolutely deny they have not that full assurance that some have neither are they left wholly in the dark unto these Souls I would speak something by way of encouragement and something by way of direction First By way of encouragement to those that have a little hope through grace and have some small glimmerings of their interest and some buddings of their evidence though it is not yet fully blown let such hearts consider First That if thou hast any thing that is a note of evidence or gives thee hope through grace any thing I mean that is in truth know that though it be never so small yet thy interest in Christ is as great as his is that dwells in the height of assurance my friends your interest in Christ is not the less because your evidence of interest is very small but your little evidence that is in truth or this little word of grace that the Spirit hath spoken that gives you some hopes about your condition doth give you as full an interest in Christ as he hath that hath the highest measures of assurance in this world The young Child that can but run to his Father and cry Father Father he hath as full an interest in and relation to his Father as the grown Child that in understanding and judgment is able to reflect upon and improve the relation and so it is with thy Soul in thy union with Christ though thou canst but look up unto the Lord and cry unto him that he would help thee though thou canst but just cry Father though thou art not able to improve thy interest as some others can yet if upon the least hint of grace from the Spirit thou art able to cry Father thy interest is as good and as great as that Souls that is able to rejoyce in Christ in full evidence Christ is yours and you are Sons you are heirs as well as others and you have the same Spirit and the same Fountain of Grace to go to under the smallness of the evidence of your interest Secondly You are under the same preservable maintainable care that those are that dwell upon the top of