Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	reason_n	1,431	5	5.5448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65188	The retired mans meditations, or, The mysterie and power of godlines shining forth in the living Word to the unmasking the mysterie of iniquity in the most refined and purest forms : and withall presenting to view ... in which old light is restored and new light justified : being the witness which is given to this age / by Henry Vane.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing V75A; ESTC R23767	277,940	392

threatens and is ready to introduce upon man in his mutable righteous and holy state And in this way of exercise it will be upheld by Christ during his Reigne on earth the thousand years when with the whole creature it shall be restored from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God and be made subservient to the interest of the right heirs of salvation whereby Kings shall become nursing Fathers and Rulers Nursing Mothers unto the Church bringing the glory and power of all Nations unto it so as all Nations shall walk in the light of the new Jerusalem before which all the Kings of the earth shall stoop and be made to yeeld homage and subjection as not able to resist the wisdome and power of God there shining forth but from the conviction and demonstration flowing thence shall conforme whether they will or no to the righteous Rule of this Government of Christ who thereby binds their Kings in chaines and their Nobles in fetters of yron causing them to fall downe and yeeld themselves up in submission thereunto or else to be burnt up like thornes in the fire as they shew themselves resisters thereof this being the honour which all the Saints shall have in this manner to prevaile over and subdue all their enemies and opposers Psal 149. From what hath beene said we have had some general insight into the true nature of Magistracy or Rule over men and how righteous an administration it is respecting the outward man as well in the Principles as the Rules of righteousnesse that are enabling thereunto on Gods part whose ordinance and institution it is so that considered such as God requires it to be it is mans Ruling over men in righteousnesse and in the true feare of the Lord. And this Christ in his own person as the Sonne of man is perfectly qualified to do whose right also it is having all power in heaven and in earth put into his hands And his Saints when fitted by him to sit upon the Throne of the same glory with him shall likewise be found prepared to bring forth even Magistracy it self in its right exercise exactly answering the end for which it was set up by God and so shall be acknowledged by all the Nations of the world during the thousand years Reigne of Christ on earth Which pure state of Magistracy in the practice of it answerable to the righteousnesse of its Primitive institution is part of Christs Kingdome which he exerciseth in the world Which therefore we are to eye and be farre from discountenancing or grieving the witnesses thereof who through humane frailty may be at first very raw in the particulars unto which they give witnesse herein when their hearts may be sincere to Christ in longing after his coming to set up even Magistracy it self in the purity of its use and exercise And if it be here demanded whether the Saints of God are to content themselves with having this in their eye only and with the contemplation of it by faith as the thing which Christ will bring about in his due time in despight of all opposition who as the stone cut out of the mountaine without hands Dan. 245. shall become a great mountaine that shall fill the whole earth It is answered Though the Saints should sit down in faith and patience waiting to see this promise accomplished by the immediate power and hand of Christ without entertaining any solicitude in reference to other meanes they should not be disappointed nor fall short of their expectations at the last But secondly there is a duty of the day a generation-work respecting the time and circumstances of action in which the lot of our life is cast which calls upon us to use all lawful and righteous meanes that are afforded by the good hand of God through the inward light and knowledge he vouchsafes and outward providences and helps which he casts in whereby to make way for and to be hasting unto the coming of that day of God wherein the old heavens and earth shall be rolled away as garments yea with the works that are therein be burnt up and the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse shall be brought forth in their roome Our part is the same therefore in this as in the practice of other righteous duties appertaining to us the perfection whereof we cannot expect untill the redemption of the body and yet we are to be using all lawful meanes and endeavours to come as near the Primitive patterne and Rule as we can in our whole practice throughout So that when once we have well considered what Rule Christ himself if he were on earth would exercise over men in protecting those that do well and being a terrour to evil works as also in distributing righteousnesse equally and impartially unto all upon the grounds of right and just which everyone in the measure of light they have attained are acquainted with and do acknowledge for the Rule which they are willing to be concluded under as to all their outward concernes we ought in the way of Christ and in the use of all lawful meanes to be as near this in our practice as possibly we may in the Rule over men which we shall be either as principals or accessories in setting up holding our selves obliged in heartinesse and freedome of mind to maintaine In this lesson the Lord Jesus hath given cause to many of these Nations in these late years to be great proficients by the experiences which he hath afforded them step by step for the learning of his will and mind therein who hath not emptied us from vessel to vessel without some teachings thereby what was bad and fit to be left behind nor without some dawnings and intimations of what is good and is yet before us to be prosecuted and followed after Which whoever shall impartially and sincerely weight the cause and interest which the good people of this Nation have all along engaged in as well in reference to their Civil liberties or interests of men as men as to their Christian liberties as Saints cannot but acknowledge nor therefore can yet remove the perswasion throughly out of their minds that God who hath brought on the work thus farre should leave it here when it is come as it were unto the birth and is upon the very anvil to be formed into what may answer the true ends of Magistracy and common good of men unto which if there were yet applications made in a way of righteousnesse and in the fear of the Lord good men and Gods own people might not despaire of being taught by God and enabled through his power to grow up to that wherein like faithful servants unto Christ they might receive encouragement from their Lord at his coming and finding of them so doing with their loynes girt and lamps burning ready to receive him at his second appearance For if once the Lord be pleased so

abundantly confirm and make good the justification which is not of works but of grace according to Gods purpose The very nature and kinde of this faith may suffice to all unbyassed judgements to shew that those that are justified by it are not justified by works since in its principles and seed it is quite differing from that which is by the Law or born after the flesh which is of works so as the one is differenced from the other in the very kind of perfection and life both as to principles and works the seed and the fruit of each yea and this faith of the right kind considered as abiding in Christ not in us is that that properly justifies the believer For if it be by grace it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work And besides the Spiritual Seed are beloved as they are chosen in Christ before the world began and are distinguished as so accepted in him from the fleshly seed before they have done either good or evil This chusing in Christ is not the justification by faith inasmuch as that act of God never passes upon us till we be actually believers For though we have being in our head who is blessed and beloved before the world began Ephes 1. Yet we are not made to be in our own persons of that Spiritual Seed untill we have the righteousness of our head actually imputed to us and so are made to stand without guile or spot before the throne of God whilst as yet we are ungodly and bear about with us a body of sin and death unsubdued and unabolished which nevertheless in the end by faith is overcome and wholly done away The working power then which is put forth by faith in the heart and conscience of him that is the true Believer is to be distinguished from faith in the first act singly considered as the new birth and reception of Christ to inhabite and dwell there as the root and author of all spiritual life and perfection which indeed is rather itself the work or workmanship of Christ as the suitable reception that he makes for his indwelling presence in the heart then any effect of the power of faith working patience and experience there in pursuance of the end for which it is given which is to work the spirit of man either under the first or second dispensation to a compleat and full resignation of its understanding will and desire unto the teachings light and life of this faith evidencing him that is invisible and giving entrance into the glory that is within the veil shewing what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe Which glory is not seen all that while to the natural senses and discerning but the life and workings of faith wherein the spiritual part of the believer does exceedingly rejoyce the fleshly or natural man in the Saint unsubdued cannot bear but hath its reluctancy against lusting to envy ready to oppose resist and contradict the same to the utmost and is all the season of the trial of faith in great heaviness grief and despondency through manifold temptations whilst the believing part is exercising love on him whom the natural senses cannot reach nor come to the sight of In whom though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious girding up the loyns of our minds in sobriety and hope For the power of faith is such in its operation that it overcomes the world and all the powers of flesh and blood in us at the best which serve but to be made conquest of and triumphed over by faith in order to be nailed to the cross of Christ for the slaying of the enmity which thereby would be springing up to the choaking of the spirtual seed the crucifying afresh the Son of God and trampling under foot the blood of the everlasting Covenant as an unholy thing This power of flesh and blood that ends and expires at last under the conquering and triumphing power of faith causes for a long time a sore and fiery trial in the soul through the sharp contest and dispute that arises between the heavenly powers and spiritual senses on the one hand and the fleshly and natural powers in the same Saint on the other by reason of which the soul is often inclining and falling back into the life of the flesh and workings of the natural will instead of being strengthned in the inward man and fixed there in love and true Rest against all contradicting whatsoever made by flesh and blood whether pure and holy flesh or sinful and corrupt So that oft the party which faith by its power makes for it self in the heart and conscience of the believer is deserted and in a manner given off through the prevalent reasonings and desires of flesh and blood which make resistance in this warfare to their last breath or activity that remains in them And first when faith cals the heart to leave its natural state its kindred and relations in the heathenish world the morality and civility whereof seems to have much to say for it self after the corrupt part in it is cast off the natural powers and faculties of the mind in that state rebel and resist a long season not knowing how to submit though upon hopes of a land of promise specially when they must not know or cannot be made acquainted whither the soul is going and are therefore constantly representing all discouragements imaginable to hinder its obedience to this call of faith till at last they be over-ruled and brought under But secondly when through faiths workings by the power of the Law or Ministry of Christs first appearance the soul is brought out of the corrupt degenerate state of nature hath turned its back upon the land of its nativity and is come to the earthly Canaan to the circumcision of the flesh not in the letter only but in the spirit for the righteousness of works by the first Covenant then hath faith another Call or second voice to the soul causing it to sojourn as a stranger even in the land of promise and to look upon this earthly Jerusalem as no abiding City but that out of which it must also pass into a heavenly Country the Jerusalem that is above forgetting the things that are behind or unto which it hath already attained and pressing forwards to the mark for the price of its high calling to be clothed upon as with its house from heaven Through the call of this last voice of faith all flesh and the glory thereof is blown upon and made as nothing Isa 40. 6. the voice said cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field perishing and fading in a moment