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	faith_n	holy_a	1,533	5	5.3032	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87170	Topica sacra: spiritual logick: some brief hints and helps to faith, meditation, and prayer, comfort and holiness. / Communicated at Christ-Church, Dublin, in Ireland. By T.H. minister of the Gospel.	Harrison, Thomas, 1619-1682.	1658 (1658)	Wing H917; Thomason E1769_2; ESTC R202373	72,620	183

Redemption unto his People He hath commanded this Covenant for ever Holy and Reverend is his Name Psal. 111.5 9. c. and t is this will afford Death-bed Comfort 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be so not with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow Now then though all these things are phrased in the Language of men yet not without warrant from the Holy Ghost who condescends thus to lisp out the misteries of Salvation else we could not understand or take in any thing of them and though they are all but one act in God as all his Attributes are but one Divine Excellency and Glory the Divine Essence it self but this is too big to come in all at once into our narrow hearts therefore God lets out himself by degrees by drops beams as we may bear it 't is so in the discovery of himself and 't is so in the discovery of his Councill and operations concerning us in Christ Jesus And though the operations ad extra are undivided but according to an ancient agreement between them the operation is attributed to that person the manner of whose subsisting appears most in it beginning work to the Father carrying on to the Son finishing to the Holy Ghost Yea though many disown and dislike these things yet now go and put them home to God and if he will own them and bear his witness to them and seal them upon thy heart it will be sufficient for thee to shame thee for all thy hard thoughts of him and to secure thee from the like tormenting fears for time to come and I know it he will work wonders if thy Spirit be stirred up to put him to it rather then be wanting in his witness to so great a Truth as this and so shalt thou be as Iob speaks delivered for ever from thy Judge from all frightfull Ideas and Apprehensions of him as an angry severe Judge and enabled to walk with him all thy days as with a most indulgent and tender hearted Father But what is all this to me may a poor soul say though I assent unto it and think I believe it if my Faith prove a false blaze of Fancy Presumption vain Hope and thou hast cause to fear and suspect it because it hath not the vertue and operation of that plant of Paradise The Faith of the operation of God the Faith of Gods Elect Is this thy case many times go order thy cause before him fill thy mouth with Arguments go bow thy knees unto the God Father of our Lord Jesus And 1. Tell him he knows how thy heart is carried forth towards him only according to the terms tenour of a Covenant of Grace and not of works thou canst not by any means away with that that he should deal and do by thee as thou dost by him no thou canst not find the life of thine hand as 't is said of some Isa. 57.10 thine hands are not sufficient for thee as 't is said of Iudah Deut. 33.7 And will he trample upon worm that would fain creep towards him only in that way which he himself hath chalked out and is so pleasing to him Secondly He knows that the sole ground of thy confidence is the precious and plentious Grace of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ which tels thee that Christ dyed for sinners enemies ungodly impotent ones and ask him if he have ever a soul with him in Glory that was not once such an one that many are ransomed and pardoned by Christ but not how many Why maist not thou be one of those many That Salvation is neither of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 even to the prisoners of unbelief Rom. 11.32 these and a thousand such like precious things the Gospel uttereth Ask him now if thou must be ashamed of the Gospel as thou hast been of the Law of thy looking for life by it and if he will reject this confidence also so that thou must not prosper in it Thirdly Ask him if there be not a double reconciliation plainly taught in the Doctrine of the Gospel the one actually purchased by the death of Jesus Christ and acknowledged by God at that time the other at the conversion of a sinner when he lays down his arms and enmities and the knowledge of the one is the means to the other Hath God then stirred up all his wrath again and will not suffer a poor soul to come near him who would fain receive the attonement and be made friends with him Fourthly Ask him wherefore hath this Gospel been brought to thine ears to thine heart but that thou shouldest trust in it and that perfectly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} even to the end 1 Pet. 1.13 Did he not call thee to Repentance and will he now repent of his Calling that cannot be for his gifts and calling are without Repentance Rom. 11.29 Did he not bid thee come unto him upon those waters of the Sanctuary And must thou now sink and perish to allude to that of Peter Mat. 14.30 Fifthly Tell him he knows how fully how thankfully thy soul submits to that Righteousness which is revealed of offered in the Gospel and none perish in unbelief but they who are ignorant thereof or submit not thereunto Rom. 10.3 Once indeed thou wert proud of thine own poor polluted Rags but hast now cast them all away and said unto them with detestation get ye hence and wilt never gather them together again but blessest him with all thy heart and soul for that better provision made in the Gospel and wouldst fain appear daily continually before him cloathed with that righteousness which Christ came on purpose to bring into the world Dan. 9.24 Sixthly He knows thy heart closeth with Christ for sanctification as well as Righteousness to justifie thy Faith as that must justifie thy person it closeth with the whole Gospel with whole Christ in all his offices and that there is nothing more desireable to thine eye then that holiness which the Gospel requireth promiseth and promoteth How fain would thy soul be his Glass wherein he might view all his own Gloties Vertues Beauties Graces by reflection And will he break this glass in pieces Seventhly and lastly Ask him if he will but stand to that one good word spoken in his name by his servant Rom 5.20 where sin abounded Grace did much more abound this is not the spawn or spume of thy fancy nor hast thou met with this saying in some good book whose Author might be mistaken but if God will make it good as thou thinkest him bound to do even for the Glory of his Grace Wisdom and Truth thou canst tell where there are superfluities of

TOPICA SACRA SPIRITUAL LOGICK Some brief Hints and Helps to Faith Meditation and Prayer Comfort and Holiness Communicated at CHRIST-Church Dublin in Ireland BY T. H. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Francis Titon and are to be sold at the sign of the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1658. TO HIS EXCELLENCY The Lord Henry Cromwel the Lord Deputy of Ireland May it please your Excellency THe reason why I suffer this Discourse to go abroad and not some others though urged by friends yea commanded thereunto by your Excellency and the Council is partly to beg pardon for that Disobedience partly to evidence that it was no defect in my Will but in my notes and manner of writing that hindred me from paying that observance which now I yield But especially because the Spirit of God for mine own or a worse neither could or would ever have done any such good office for me I say therefore undoubtedly the Spirit of God by these and the like injections and intimations helping me to plead and press them and to hold them up before the Lord and to spread them before Him as Hezekiah did the Letter hath many a time sustained and cheared mine own heart and so renewed the face of that earth after much Winter weather after many trials troubles and tremblings for when God speaks where are the Lips that will not quiver at His voice into whose bones will not rottenness enter and happy they and they only who now tremble in themselves that they may rest in the day of trouble This not to mention any other ground gives me some small glimmering of hope that the same Powerful Spirit may be pleased also further to manage and improve the same Medium to the relief and advantage of others and I can say it it is usefulness and service that I have aimed at in this enterprize Amongst all the Helps to Devotion that I have seen I mean Books so intitled commonly containing some forms of Prayers I remember not any thing at all of kin to this Undertaking which tends to help the Gift not to stint the Spirit of Prayer and only layes a few sticks together pointing to the Wood where more may be had which by His own breath He may be pleased to kindle Whatever strangers either in place or affection may imagine I know your Excellency to be a Pleader and I hope a Prevailer with God daily I therefore offer this poor Essay unto you not so much by way of Assistance as of Acknowledgement that under God You have been and are the Instrumental cause of my enjoying a fulness of opportunities of doing some service in my Generation the value whereof I desire daily to renew upon my heart above all the things that this world can afford or brittle mortality enjoy As it hath been Your Lordships mercy that hitherto you have had help from on High to know and Love the Lord His Name and Image where ever you discern it and to walk acceptably with Your God and usefully to His People for which you have your Record on High your witness amongst men and in your own Bosom So it is now become your Obligation and only Interest still to be found in the same wayes of Righteousness wherein that you may persevere unto the End and that your Path may be as the shining Light which shineth out more and more unto the perfect day That you your most precious Consort and hopeful Children may prove an inestimate Blessing in this world and eternally Blessed in that to come is and shall be the daily prayer of My Lord Your Excellencies worthless but most willing Servant Tho. Harrison Lemmata Casuum Arguments in Case of 1. UNacquaintedness with the Lord page 28 2. Sence of more then ordinary unworthiness ever to be acquainted savingly with God P. 34 3. Iealousie as to the love of Christ P. 42 4. Iealousie concerning God the Father p. 45 5. Fear of unbelief p. 66 6. Fear of Hypocrisie p. 71 7. Fear of being acted only by a slavish spirit of fear p. 76 8. Sence of fearful back-slidings p. 79 9. Sence of strong corruptions p. 84 10. Fear of great Afflictions p. 88 11. Sence of extremity of Pain p. 92 12. Desertion felt or feared p. 99 13. Exercise in Friends Relations Name or estate p. 103 14. Suddian disquietment from cloudy Providences p. 108 15. Dread of spiritual judgements hardness of heart unprofitableness under means of Grace p. 112 16. Fear that prayer is not heard p. 120 17. Fear that God can never take any special delight in such a polluted piece p. 128 18. Fear of ejectment or unserviceableness p. 134 19. Fear of being cast off at last p. 141 20. Intercession for others with Complaints concerning many things that are amiss in our times p. 146 ERRATA Page 6. line 4. read out and l. 12. r our p. 7. l. 9. r. own p. 23. l. 18. r. may p. 24. l. 25. r. of God p. 60. l. 16. r. loved p 67. l. 9. r. a worm p. 82. l. 4. r. them p. 95. l. 9. r. of Iob. p. 146. l. 23. r. in p. 158. l. 26. r. vectigal p. 164. l. 15. r. in the and l. 23. r. of p. 167. l. 26. r. many times Topica Sacra Spiritual Logick JOB 23.3 4. O That I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments HOly Iob poor now even to a Proverb and miserable to a Prodigy perceiving his friends Discourses were fuller of Reproaches then Consolations neglects to answer them resolves to get him to God the only Support and Refuge of the miserable And thus he entertains himself in the second verse even to day after all that hath been said Exasperatio est querelae meae the bitterness of my complaint is rather increased then allayed wherefore no wonder my mouth is alwaies open to breath out complaints and the more I complain the more I suffer from you so some or rather from God himself whose hand I acknowledge in all these stroaks and let me complain as long as I will my tongue is not so eloquent in complaining as his hand is heavy that strikes me my stroak is heavier then my groaning And yet for all this verse 3. he sighes after a Treaty after a nearer access and approach unto him that smites him he quits his seeming friends to make after his seeming Enemy and is willing to make this Enemy his Iudge and to refer all to him And then verse 4. he thinks with himself how he would manage his matters how he would bestir himself and not lose his cause for want of pleading could he but get a day of hearing I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments Some think he wishes for a Guide a Friend to help him to such an opportunity Quis det nossem saith Drusius

Egyptian Task-masters no cruel Bondage that makesthy life bitter to thee no Enemy coming in as a flood to oppress and do thee wrong no Iron-yoak that gals thy shoulders no Violence and Spoil to cry out and complain of Sure thou hast not studied thine own case thou hast not ordered thy cause aright if this fountain fail thee But will this be admitted nay the poor soul say all Complaints are troublesom men cannot endure them I Answer God will Out of the abundance of my Complaint and Grief have I spoken hitherto says Hannah 1 Sam. 1.16 and you know how she sped Nay the word rendred Arguments I find by the Latin Interpreters rendred Redargutionibus Increpationibus lob in some case is Defendant as to the charges drawn up against him by his friends but here he is Plaintiffe also could I come near the Bar sayes he I would make my moan the whole Court of heaven should Ring out and be made sensible of my sufferings But we are well enough with our English translation of the word and it is warranted by the best Criticks the word signifying all proceedings all arguments and reasons used in a cause by either party and contains all that can be alledged or urged by a poor creature any way in his own defence or for his advantage 4. There are some Arguments yet in Archivis in the Rolls and Records of heaven which were never yet imbezled they lie in the Ark of the Covenant hid wth Christ in God under double lock and key where neither moth nor rust can come to corrupt nor thief break through to steal yea they lie many of them in the very heart and bosome and being God of himself I hope we shall meet with some of them anon and that they may meet with the very case of thy soul and that thy soul may meet with God in the making use of them Object 3 But what will Arguments work upon God that King Eternal is not swayed but by eternal considerations He knows no motives but his own bowels and the Merits and Mediation on of his Son and Spirit Answ 1 T is true and well for thee and me that t is so otherwise Time-accidents and Time-exacerbations had long ere this hurried us into a woful Eternity past all relief by way of Argumentation hell not Heaven had been filled with our complainings 2. Hath he not given thee those two great friends of his for thine Advocates the one at his own right hand in Heaven moving and negotiating and alwayes appearing for thee the other seated in thy breast though once a Cage for every unclean and hatefull Birds the Dove alights and abides upon that dunghil and will not be frayed away and the voyce of that Turtle is heard in our Land yea the Fathers own heart is full of love brim full and running over upon thee and this continually pleads for thee and makes all thine arrows which fly upwards inevitable not one is shot in vain 3. Good arguments in prayer do shew the necesity of prayer and great equity for the obtaining of the things prayed for and so do very much confirm our Faith and fire our affections and enable a man to break through many Discouragements which Satan or his own heart may cast in to hinder Prayer and certainly though there be no need of Arguments to work upon God there is to work upon us though not to move his love yet to remove our unbelief though not to prevail upon him to give yet to perpare our selves to receive Mercy Vse The only use I shall make of the Point shall be to press all to make use of it to put it in practice daily it will please your Heavenly Father very well he loves to hear his children Reason it out with him and he doth of set purpose delay to grant their Requests sometimes because he loves to hear often from them to hear their Voyces and see their Faces he loves to hear what they can say for themselves so he dealt with the woman of Canaan he first seemed not to hear her then did deny her suit and then gave a very sharp and cutting Reason of his denial because she was but a Dog she was none of the Israelites who were his Children but when Christ hears her wise answer to his objection Truth Lord but the dogs eat of the crums that fall from their Masters table which was a strong piece of Logick she received an high commendation of her faith and A Grant that would be sure to please her Her will O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Mat. 15.21 22 c She Retorts his own weapon upon him and he yields and gives her what 's dangerous if not good her own Will My purpose is leaving all other wayes of application or enlargement to speak to some principal cases of greatest concernment and most frequent occurrency in our lives and I shall only break the ice in each case for facile est inventis addere to set your wits a work which men which Christians makes least use of in their greatest occasions we trifle in serious things and are serious only in trifles or rather to rouz up your Graces in the holy Apostles phrase {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to stir up the fire which lyes raked up and buried under the ashes of sloth and supine oscitancy or rather indeed to Jog the spirit of Prayer which lies dormant in many bosomes and doth them little service I would but set that Plough a going which too many cast in the hegdge as almost useless which yet if well managed would fill your Garners with all manner of store and to which whosoever puts his hand without too often looking back shall be fit for the Kingdom of God First then Is unacquaintedness with God thy Misery the matter of thy moan and mourning is this thy complaint as t is of the most knowing that so little a portion is heard of Him that neither the Thunder of his power nor the Charms of his Love are sufficiently understood by thee we rather are known of him then that we can say we know him Gal. 4.9 and where or who is he hath no need to plead in this particular some make this to be Jobs case in this very text for thus they render it Vtinam nossem Deum invenirem eum O that I knew God then I should find him He that knows God hath found him and he shall never find him who never knows him His friend that spake last had advised him Chap. 22. v. 21 Acquaint now thy self with him and be peace c. and it may be 't is thereunto that he answers O that I knew him O that I knew where I might find him to be better acquainted with him is this thy case go order thy cause before Him and fill thy mouth with Arguments Ask him with an humble and

holy boldness if he be not willing to be known though he cover himself with darkness but he is too big and too bright for a covering though he make darkness his Pavilion round about him and if so then 2ly Why hath he mad eIntellectual Beings capable of knowing him and eternally miserable if they know him not thy soul is so for certain 3ly Why hath he so many ways issued forth and made out Himself why hath he written such admirable Comments in the things which are seen upon the invisible things of God his eternal power and Godhead Why hath he sparkled forth such glorious Discoveries in the sacied Scriptures in the face of Jesus Christ in the births and breathings the hints and whispers of his Spirit in the wayes and workings of his Providence in the experience of all his Saints yea in thine own heart mind and soul dark and dolesome though it be for the most part so that thou canst not order thy speech by reason of Darkness Fourthyly why hath he so often laid his Commands upon poor sinners to seek him if he mean not to be found shew him his own hand for it thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel Seek ye me and ye shall live Amos 5.4 Seek the Lord and ye shall live ver. 6. and yet again verse 8. Seek him that maketh the seven stars and orion and turneth the shadow of Death into the morning What meaneth all this earnestness if he mean not to be found or saith he these things to Israel only to Israel after the flesh and saith he not the same to all Nations Nay is not his the very end why he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us Act. 17.27 and he never said to the seed of Iacob who wrestle with him seek ye me in vain Isa. 45. 19. And thou hopest thou art one of them though the weakest of all those spiritual Wrastlers Nay shew him his Warrant directed to those who have plowed wickedness and reaped Iniquity and eaten the fruit of lyes Hos. 10.12 13. why then shouldst thou be excluded Fisthly Ask him if he have nor been found of many a soul that sought him not Did not he prevent them and ofter himself and say Behold me Behold me Isa. 65.1 Is there a soul with him now in Heaven whose name is not sought out Isa. 62.12 And will he now hide himself from one that seeks him 6ly Ask him whence is it that thou hast an heart now to seek him Is it not because he hath found thee and means to be found of thee Ier. 29.12 13 14. c. and he knows that thy whole heart is or would fain be engaged in this work Seventhly Why doth he allow so long a time to seek him in all the time of this life as some think at least till the Decree bring forth till he swear in his wrath till the heart be judicially hardened which yet is not thy case through infinite Mercy thou art not yet free amongst the dead nor bound among the damned 8ly Tell him if thou canst say so truly that it is in order to practise that thou wouldst be aquainted with him not meerly to gratifie a natural itch after knowledge not meerly that thou mightst talk of him but walk with him and love him and fear him and obey him in all thing and even in natural things Manus est causa scientiae the hand contributes more to knowledge then the Brain those things we learn to do we learn by doing them and as to Spirituals Christ hath past his word for it John 7.17 If any man will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine 9. Lastly Tell him t is not in a pang in a fit in an humour of newfangledness that thou art thus covetous thus ambitious of his acquaintance but though late though too too lite thou begannest this enquiry he knows thou hast been of this mind for many a day thou hast though weakly followed on to know him and now thou expectest that good word of his should be made good unto thy soul Hos. 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the later and former rain unto the earth press these things upon him and his Love and Truth will let him hide no longer Secondly Doth the sense of thy more then ordinary unworthiness oppress thee Doth the horridness and beynousness of thy sins lie as a mountain of lead upon thy soul and stiflle all the movings and mountings of thy Spirit upward Doth this nip all the buddings and bloomings of faith and hope and force thee often to sigh out in secret It is impossible for me to be saved I shall certainly at last prove a Reprobate Is this thy case Go order thy cause before him and sill thy mouth with Arguments in all humility ask him if he did not before the foundations of the world were laid chuse voluntarily absolutely and immutably what company he would have with him to all Eternity sometimes thou thinkest he would never chuse thee there now lies a secret Bar in thy way study the point a little and get it removed He was under no necessity to chuse any no not Christ himself to be the head of the Church for he might have chosen whether ever there should have been such a body yea or no God the Father begets the Son necessarily not arbitrarily that is from his Nature not from his good pleasure but he chooseth him to be the head and root and Representative of the Church arbitrarily not necessarily this is from his good pleasure not from his Nature How free is he then in all his other Elections He chose in deed in Christ but not for Christ as in the natural birth so here first the head comes forth and then the Members Christ is the cause of the Salvation of the Elect but not of Election to Salvation Christ is the meritorious cause of the application of all good not of Gods volition or decreeing that good Election is God himself electing and there can be no cause of God God cannot be an effect Christ indeed was by but had not the naming of the Blect this was the Fathers part and gives him primitively and Originally and interest in them as Christ himself acknowledgeth John 17.6 Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me Christ himself did not propound sollicite for this or that person much less any foreseen qualifications which are the effects but could not be the causes of that Love or choise and if there was none by to move him was there any to manacle him to prescribe Laws and limits to him to say unto him You may not chuse such or such