Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A39884
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The Christian directed in his race to heaven, or, A short account of that knowledge and practice that leads thither by James Forbs.
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J. F. (James Forbs), 1629?-1712.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing F1442; ESTC R29428
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47,247
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90
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for his Glory and Honour tempering your Zeal still with Knowledge anda Holy descretion Eighthly Let your hopes for Heaven be well bottomed not the Hypocrites hope and persist in a patient waiting to the end for what is wrapt up in the promise and for what Faith has believed so as never to be swallowed up in a distrustful despair Pet. 1.13 8. Be frequent in self-examination try the truth of your Graces by the Touch-stone of the Word 2 Cor. 13.15 Lament 3.40 Ps 119.59 Ps 4.4 Interrogate your selves sometimes whether yet there be an effectual change wrought upon your Hearts whether at this instant God is present with or absent from you whether you are Dead and Lumpish or Lively and Active in the present temper of your Spirits whether you are going backward or forward there will be no time lost in communing with your selves about Soul-concerns for if upon search you discover an advance and growth in Grace it will occasion praises and thanksgivings if otherwise humiliation and reformation 9. In every Ordinance of Worship mind the sanctifying of God's Name the furthering your Souls communion with God and the increase of Grace in you 1. Peruse the Scriptures as a Love-Letter sent from Heaven wherein you may Read as in Letters of Gold engraven with the point of Diamond the eternal purpose and counsel of God concerning your Salvation Be of David's mind Ps 19.10 The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired than Gold yea than much sine Gold Sweeter also than Honey and the Honey Comb. Always with Reading joyn Prayer and Meditation Observe some order and method Be constant in it using it as your Souls daily Food 1 Pet. 2.2 Let them that are able and can spare time Read the Bible with some helps for better understanding the literal sense thereof I humbly commend Jackson's Annot from Genes to Isa and the Dutch Annot. from Isa to the end To them that would Read Practical Observations Piscator and the Scotish Divines so far as they have gone in commenting thus on the Scriptures 2. Where the Word is Preached in the Name of Christ as an Ordinance of God by such as are Authorized from Heaven make conscience of hearing it not as it is the Word of Man but as it is the Word of God which effectually worketh in them that believe 1 Thes 2.13 3. When you have occasion to sit down at the Lord's Table as a fellow-communicant with the invited guests of the King of Glory Come First self-examination being previous according to the command of Christ 1 Cor. 11.28 Secondly With a more than ordinary edge upon your Appetite 3ly With Knowledge and Faith to discern the Lord's Body 4ly With such a penitential frame of Heart that you cannot tell how to look upon him whom you have pierced with dry Eyes 5ly Let Sacrament seasons be solemn renuals of your Covenant with God coming under a sacred Oath that you will with full purpose of Heart cleave unto him and his ways all your Days 6ly Study to answer the ends of Christ in this institution in experiencing it to be a Soul-sanctifying Love-feast in respect of the sweet communion you have with himself therein and with those that are visible Members of his Body mystical 7ly What Kisses of Christ's Mouth and Embraces of Bosom-Love are there communicated be chary of them walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing not turning Grace into wantonness 4. Let the Lord's Day be your delight First Set it apart wholly for the service of God in works of Piety and Charity Isa 58.13 14. Let it be a Holy Day indeed to you on which you are not to think your own thoughts speak your own words nor do your own works or use recreations at other times Lawful Secondly Observe it as a time of Triumphant Joy and Thankfulness for the Glorious work of our Redemption by Christ Thirdly As a significative memorial of your celebrating an eternal sabbatism in the Heavens 10. Learn contentation with every condition studying the duties that are proper both for a prosperous and an afflicted state so as to be found in the practice thereof Duties of a prosperous State 1. When you are high in Estate be humble in Mind having low thoughts of your selves as being less than the lest of all God ' s mercies Gen. 32.10 Secondly In fulness deny not God saying Who is the Lord Prov. 30.9 Thirdly Acknowledge him with Thankfulness as the Author of all your Enjoyments 4ly Testifie your Thankfulness in Honouring him with your substance and with the first fruits of your increase Prov. 3.9 Fifthly Despise not the poor neither shut your Bowels against them Sixthly Take not encouragement to sin the more against God because his Grace abounds towards you but fear him because of his goodness Hos 3.5 Seventhly Read Pray Hear Meditate watch over your Hearts maintain a constant communion with God in Holy walkings and perform all Holy duties as much then as ever Eighthly When you are at the highth and top of prosperity expect and prepare for a change every Day that it may never surprize you unawares but that with Job you may say there 's no evil come upon me but what I feared 9ly Be so far from Glutting and Surfeiting your selves with Creature comforts and Enjoyments terminating your satisfaction and content wholly therein that you shall rather thereby be made to long for Heavens Glory the more saying often thus within your selves If a little Water that comes from the Cistern now be so sweet and refreshing O what will a full draught of the Water of Life Drunk at the Fountain and Well-Head be to all eternity If there be so much comfort in Creatures O what is in the Creator himself when he shall be all in all to us and in Christ when we shall see him and be as he is Come Lord Jesus even so come quickly Duties of an afflicted State 1. Eye the Hand of God in all cross ocurrences as considering there 's no evil in the City but what is of him Amos 3.6 Secondly Consider what in your selves may be the cause of the crosses search till you find out the plague of your own Hearts Thirdly Be humbled for whatever has provoked the Lord to deal thus by you and turn unto him that smites you with a hearty and thorough Reformation 4ly Is any Man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 If ever there was a time for you to pour out your Souls into the Bosom of God It s when his chastening Hand is upon you Isa 26.16 Hos 5.15 Fifthly Harbour not any thoughts of repining at God's good pleasure but bear his indignation patiently 6ly Be Thankful not only for former mercies but also for the present temperature and mixture of mercy with justice Lam. 3.22 Say with Job the Lord gives the Lord takes Blessed be the Name of the Lord for ever Job 1.21 Seventhly Act Faith upon particular promises made
in sparing me this one day more And what is the work carved out for this day And how shall I manage it When you are putting off or on your Cloaths have these or the like thoughts O that I could cast off the works of Darkness and put on the Armor of Light O that I might be devested of the Old Man and invested with the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus When you are Washing your Hands send up this or some such Ejacluation to Heaven O that all my sinful pollutions may be done away this Morning by the Blood and Spirit of the Lord Jesus 2. Drive some Trade with Heaven oftner than once every Day by Private Prayer Ps 55.17 Evening and Morning and at Noon will I pray and cry aloud First Chuse the most seasonable times for it and what time is thus spent account it no hinderance but rather a furtherance to your oher Business Secondly Shun Formality and Pharisaicalness in it Mat. 6. begin 3ly Let the whole Heart be engaged in it with all possible seriousness and Spirituality without Distracting Carnal Roving Wandering and Worldy thoughts 4ly Consider your Soul-wants before-hand that you may know what to say to God when you go to him 5ly Go in a most humble self-abasing Sense of your own vileness and unworthiness but with some Holy confidence upon the account of Divine precepts and promises Christ's Death and Intercession Look upon God in Christ as a Fountain of all supplies 6ly Do not give over wrestling till you can say that more or less your Soul has found something of God in this duty 7ly Rest not on the Duty done but study to keep your Heart from Morning to Night in a praying temper Luke 18. begin Thess 8. O for the Lord's sake let me engage you to perseverance in this so Soul-concerning an exercise Eighthly Take heed of frequent intermissions upon pretence of Business present indisposition or any other account whatsoever He or She that will leave off Praying for one or two whole Days together may come to do so for Months together I have known some professors my self that have sadly smarted under the experience of laying side Private Prayers 3. Be diligent in the duties of some Lawful Calling Prov. 10.4 The Hand of the diligent maketh Rich Be just and honest in it Make conscience of following it close because of God's command to work Six Days This you will experience to be an excellent preservative from many evils and inconveniencies which Idleness would expose you unto An Idle Person lies open to all temptations he is a cushion for the Devil to sit down on and a Horse ready Sadled to Ride to Hell on 4. Be critical in the observation of every Days Sins for exciting an assiduous renual of repentance for the same and of every Days mercies not forgetting to give thanks unto God for them Say thus towards the close of the Day O that I might not go to Bed with guilt upon my Conscience this Night whatever in me has been offensive to thy Holy Majesty in Thought Word or Action pardon for Christ's sake the carnality of my thoughts When first Ia woke in the Morning my backwardness formality and deadness in Private Prayer the Earthliness Vanity Frothiness and Levity of my Spirit all Day long And so for mercies say thus O Blessed be God for Food and Rayment Health and Strength and Liberty and Relations Protection and Preservation O Blessed be God that I have been keept from the actual commission of such sins as many others are wallowing in and I my self might have been if not restrained by Grace 5. Take heed of the first rising and beginning of every the least sin Keep a continual strict watch over your Hearts take present notice of what you discover amiss within check your selves for it dally not with any temptation without making some vigorous resistance That which may be easily nipt in the Bud may cost you Thousands of Prayers and Tears afterwards Custom in sin is not conquered with a wet Finger Have a Holy jealousie of your selves as to every sin otherwise you know not what height of impiety you may come to ere you be aware Luke 21.34 1 Cor. 10.12 1 Pet. 4.7 And 5.8 6. Study mortification especially of your Beloved Sins and Lusts such as your Natural temper or education or strong temptations with which you are continually haunted or such as your Calling most prompts you unto that so you may approve your Hearts unto God in something beyond what is attainable by the most refined Hypocrite Ps 18.23 Keep under your Bodies make no Provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof Deny your selves of carnal pleasures rather than suffer an interruption of your inward peace and communion with God Rest not satisfied with a bare cessation from the external acts of sin for a season with the silence of a secure Conscience ceasing to trouble you with the removal of temptation or the exchange of one sin with another But get the unclean Spirit totally dispossessed lay the Ax to the Root of the Tree and strike at the most inward close unmortified corruptions of the Heart Pray for the fin-mortifying Spirit of Jesus Christ and draw virtue from him whereby you may be enabled to mortifie the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 7. Look well to the government of your affections First Never desire things sublunary but with submission to the Will of God but let your desires after God and Christ Grace and Glory know no bounds or limits being enlarged to a kind of infinitness Secondly Lay not out your Love so inordinatly upon any Creature Person or thing so as to bereave the Lord of Glory of his due Love Creatures for what of God is in them for what of God you may have from or by them and so as contentedly to part with them when Providence would have it so Thirdly Hare the Persons of none in the World but so as that you can cordially pity and pray for the vilest Sin is to be the only object of your hatred in whatsoever Subjects your selves or others Fourthly Moderate your joy for outward enjoyments and also your Sorrow for outward Crosses and Losses all excess in carnal mirth and melancholy is discommendble 1 Cor. 7.29 Phil. 4.4 Fifthly Give not way to servile fear where there is no cause of fear neithere be too Foolishly bold or venturous when there is just cause of fear Sixthly be Angry at no thing but sin and sin not in being Angry at sin Eph. 4.26 27. If at any time you are Angry let not the Sun go down upon your wrath lest by that time you have slept a little upon it it turn into malice Labour to subdue your Passions so as that you can patiently bear with affronts and indignities without a Passionate retribution of like for like Seventhly Be never too hotly zealous in pleading for your own Private Personal concerns but be zealous in the cause of God