Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	election_n	faith_n	1,811	5	6.4367	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12205	Tvvo sermons vpon the first words of Christs last sermon Iohn XIIII. I. Being also the last sermons of Richard Sibbs D.D. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, Iune the 21. and 28. 1635. Who the next Lords day follwing, died, and rested from all his labours	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1636 (1636)	STC 22515; ESTC S102407	24,191	77

yeeld to any quiet all these quarrels must be taken up 1 A peace must be made betwixt God us by the great peace-maker who is also called our peace and when we be justified and acquitted from our sins by the bloud of Christ sprinkled on our souls by faith that bloud of Christ speaks peace to the soule in the pardon of sinne being justified by faith we have peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Then secondly there must be another peace setled in some degree and that is the peace of government in the soule grace must be above corruption They will be together in the soule whilest we are here but sinne must not have the dominion This is such a peace not as will admit of no conflict but a peace wherein grace may get the better and where grace gets the better it will keepe corruption under and God gives his Spirit to whom he gives his Sonne that as we be in good termes with God so our natures may be like his That we may love and delight in what he loves and delights in and so may be as friends enjoying acquaintance and communion together I but thirdly there is confusion in the world and many accidents may fall out that may disquiet us for time to come Now before the soule can be at peace in that respect it must know that being once in Christ reconciled to God and having the Spirit of God it is under a gracious government and providence that disposeth all things to good and maketh every thing peaceable Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia When God is at peace all is at peace yea so farre at peace that they have a blessing in them The curse and venome is taken out of them by Christ who took the curse on himselfe and satisfied the wrath of God and now they be not onely harmelesse but medicinall and helpfull so that they be all ours and made in some sort serviceable to further our spirituall good When our husband hath all things committed unto him in heaven or earth wil he suffer any thing to befall his dearly beloved Spouse that shall be disadvantagious and prejudiciall to the maine No no he will not suffer any thing to befall her which he will not rule and order and over-rule for the good of the Church and so there comes to be that third peace And for the time to come a Christian knows that whom Christ loves he loves to the end and the good work begun shall be perfected to the day of the Lord. He knoweth he is in heaven already in his head He that beleeves in Christ hath everlasting life and is triumphing in glory in his head And therefore nothing can dismay a Christian that is truly in Christ grant the first grant all stand upon good termes with Christ be reconciled to God and nothing can do thee hurt But when we at any time come to comfort such as have comfort for their portion it sticks here if I were a childe of God indeed or if I did beleeve it were something These be good comforts indeed and certaine and true for they be the word of God but what is this to me I finde universally that comfort sticks there and therefore we must labour to remove that objection First of all therfore labour to have a good judgement of maine truths that these comforts are the comforts of the holy Ghost and that the word is the word of God by a generall knowledge of the truth of the promises thou shalt be better able to apply them If thou sticke in the principles so as not to know them nor to beleeve them there is no talking of the application of faith upon them we must make that our owne in particular which we beleeve first in generall And therefore Christians must first be well seene in the Scriptures and in the promises there that they may know what belongs to them and apply them to themselues I but my faith is weake I answer The office of faith is to know Christ and the weakest faith will do that as well as the strongest And when we are once one with Christ then our perfection is to be found in him It is the office of Faith to bring us to Christ and then looke to him for all perfections and for thy title to him in heaven and not in thy faith And true faith is faith even in the least degree of it As we say of the elements every drop of water is water and every sparke of fire is fire And therefore the argument will not hold if we have not much faith we have no faith or if we have no feeling we have no faith There are many common errours which we must remove that they may not hinder us in the application of Christ by distinguishing betweene strong grace and true grace and above all labour to know and understand the covenant of grace The tenor of which requireth no set measures of grace but if we beleeve we shall not perish but have everlasting life under so gracious and mercifull a covenant are we 2 But this is not sufficient to satisfie the soule The very cleaving to Christ is indeed a sufficient ground of comfort but yet to obtaine actuall comfort there must be a knowledge that we do cleave to Christ and beleeve There may be adherence without evidence and there must be an act of reflexion to cause faith of evidence it must appeare to our selves that we do beleeve before we can have comfort though we may be true Christians and go to heaven without it Therefore let us labour to make our calling and election sure that is in our selves and in our owne apprehension though it be never so sure in it selfe and in Gods breast yet we must labour to make it sure in our owne breasts that sinne may be pardoned in our owne consciences that all may be reconciled in our owne hearts that what is done in heaven may be done in our hearts also being cleared to our owne assurance You see what advise the Apostle gives Give all diligence it is not got without diligence nor without all diligence to make our calling and election sure that is to make our election sure by our calling and to that end to adde grace to grace It is the growing Christian that is the assured Christian. Whilest we are yet adding to every heape we shall get more abundant entrance and further into the kingdome of Iesus Christ as the Apostle there speaks 3 And when we have attained any evidence of true faith labour to keepe that our evidence cleare let it not be spotted or defiled by any sinfull acts you have many a good evidence that is so blurred with negligences and daily errours in speeches and conversation that when they reflect upon themselves they conclude Can such a wretch as I that have so loose a tongue that have no more watchfulnesse over my heart have any faith at all And thus

when it is purged and pacified then keep it cleane for a foule soule is alwayes a troubled soule and though it may be quiet yet it is sure to break out afterwards And because there can be no more comfort then there is care of duty therefore together with innocencie let us be carefull of all duties in all our severall relations let us consider in what relations we stand and what duties we owe and be carefull to satisfie them all Neglect of duty is a debt and debts are troublesome when the soule reflects upon the omission of a necessarie duty I owe such a duty to such a person I should have done such a thing in such a relation but I have omitted it it is a disquietment and that upon good grounds and if you have beene negligent there must be an actuall renewing of the Covenant and a setting upon the duty with fresh endeavours to make amends for former negligences or else the soule shall have no comfort nor will God suffer it to admit of comfort And therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling The reason that men do still tremble and are troubled with this doubt and that feare is because their salvation is not wrought out something is left undone and their consciences tels them so But above all that we may receive comfort let us labour for a spirit of faith Therefore here it is said You beleeve in God beleeve also in me Christ brings them to faith for comfort And he sets downe a a double object of faith God that is the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and Christ considered as Mediator and Christ brings them to himselfe Beleeve also in me because he would fense them against the future scandal of his suffering As if he should say You will hereafter when you see me so handled and upon the Crosse doubt and call in question whether I am God and the Messiah of the world or no. But if you beleeve in God beleeve in me For howsoever in love to you and mankinde I tooke mans nature on me and am abased yet in my greatest abasement remember this that I am God And surely there is nothing can stay the soule more especially when it is deeply humbled then to consider God in the second person incarnate and abased and crucified and made a curse and sinne for us to see the great God of heaven and earth whose excellencies we cannot comprehend to take our nature and in our nature to suffer for us those things which he did endure This will establish the soule indeed Can the the soule thinke that this was done for any small or to little purpose Or can there be any griefe or sinne that should hinder comfort or perswasion of the possibilitie of pardon when the great God became man on purpose to dye for sinne We may set this against all discouragements whatsoever And therefore beleeve in God beleeve also in me Howsoever you see me abased yet you may have comfort in my abasement for it is for you And therefore saith Paul Irejoyce to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified That which proud and Atheisticall Heathens tooke scandall at that he rejoyceth in God forbid that I should glory in anything but in the Crosse of Christ Peace of conscience joy in the holy Ghost reconciliation and title to happinesse is all founded upon Christ crucified And then againe you see he joynes both together Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me to shew the distinction of persons in the Trinitie God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost all our faith is resolved at length into one God but yet withall into three persons in that Divine nature because as there is God the Father offended so there must be a God to satisfie that God and there must be a God to reveale and apply that satisfaction The soule is so full of doubtings that nothing can set it downe but that which is above the soule and above the devill And therefore for our salvation and to give us comfort there is a necessitie of three persons in the Godhead The Father is offended God in the second person must satisfie offended justice and God in the third person must reveale and apply the Sonne for comfort And therefore he names them distinctly Ye beleeve in God c. And because we cannot beleeve in God the Father but by beleeving in Christ therefore he joynes them together ye beleeve in God ye beleeve also in me No man comes to the Father but by the Sonne God the Father dwels in the light that no mortall eye can approach unto onely he hath manifested himselfe in his Sonne who is the ingraven Image of his person God shines in the face of Christ and as he comes down and makes himselfe knowne to us in his Sonne so we must go up to him in his Sonne as he saith afterwards I am the way the truth and the life There is no going to the Father but by me nothing is more terrible then to conceive of God out of Christ for so he is a consuming fire therefore thinke of God as ours in Christ carry Christ our elder Brother with us and desire God to looke upon us in his Sonne Now now doth faith in Christ ease the soule in trouble Many wayes I will name a few Faith in Christ banisheth troubles and bringeth in comfort Because it is an emptying grace it emptieth us of our selves and so makes us cleane to another and thereby becomes a grace of union It is such a grace as brings the soule and Christ together Now Christ being the fountaine of comfort God having treasured all comfort in him for the fulnesse of the Godhead dwels in Christ and faith causeth Christ to dwell in us brings the soule and Christ together and so must needs make way for comfort for it makes us one with the fountain of comfort And by its repeated acts derives fresh comfort Again faith establisheth the heart Now to establish the soule there must be a solid Basis as in building there must be a foundation and a planting upon that foundation Now here is a foundation God and Christ and there must be a grace to found and bottome the soule thereupon and that is faith and so the soule is established The chaine and connexion of causes herein is this God the Father in Christ and by the holy Ghost conveighs comforts through the word laid hold upon by faith It is not the word alone for that is but as the veins and atteries that conveigh the bloud and spirits So the Spirit being conveighed by the promises helpeth the soule to lay it selfe upon Christ by faith which is a grace of union by which union with him the foule is established And then againe faith stirreth up such graces as do comfort the soule as hope in all good things promised And therefore in the next Verse he addes to comfort them In my Fathers house are many mansions and