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	life_n	2,319	5	5.0453	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17218	Looke from Adam, and behold the Protestants faith and religion evidently proued out of the holy Scriptures against all atheists, papists, loose libertines, and carnall gospellers: and that the faith which they professe, hath continued from the beginning of the world, and so is the true and ancient faith. Herein hast thou also a short summe of the whole Bible, and a plaine manifestation, that all holy men who have pleased God, have beene saved through this Christian faith alone.; Alte Glaube. English	Bullinger, Heinrich, 1504-1575.; Coverdale, Miles, 1488-1568.	1624 (1624)	STC 4073; ESTC S108889	66,495	116

forth children Subjection also and service with feare and obedience which she oweth to the man To man hee enjoyneth labour for the Lord cursed the earth and said With sorrow shalt thou get thy living all the dayes of thy life Yea in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Moreover he layeth temporall death upon them both and saith Earth thou art and to earth shalt thou returne Of the first doth Paul speake also 1 Tim. 2. The woman shall be saved by bearing of children if she continue in faith and in love and in holinesse or cleannesse and nurture Of the second speaketh the same Paul likewise to the Ephesians and Thessalonians Let no man undermine or deceive his brother in occupying and who so hath used falshood and deceit let him doe it no more but let him rather labour with his hands some honest thing that he may have to distribute unto such as have need And as touching death Paul also saith to the Hebrewes in the ninth Chapter How that it is appointed unto men once to die and that even so Christ Iesus was offered up and died once for all CHAP. IIII. Of the first faithfull Christians ADAM and EVE ANd hitherto I trust we have had in the first promise of God the foundation and the whole summe of our holy Christian faith namely that the whole generation of man was but lost through his owne fault and wickednesse and fallen into death and damnation so that there remaineth nothing in man but it is displeasant to God Hereof commeth it that there is nothing to be ascribed unto the power and deserving of man save sinne and malediction But God of his abundant mercy had compassion on us and of very grace promised he life unto us againe in his Sonne our Lord Iesus whom he would to become man and to suffer death in his flesh that thereby hee might tread downe the devill death sinne and hell Item he would put enmitie betweene the womans seed and the serpent that is he would endue us which are the seed that is to say the children of Adam if wee beleeve with another heart and power that we might become enemies unto the devils workes resist his suggestion and hold our selves fast by the blessed seed labouring and suffering whatsoever God enjoyneth us to worke and suffer Who is it now which seeth not herein all that is written in the whole Scripture of beleefe of love and innocencie that is to say of a Christian life and faith Who so is disposed let him looke upon the 2.3 and 4. chapters of Paul to the Romanes the first and second to the Ephesians let him compare those chapters toward this summe and he shall finde it none otherwise For as much then as Adam and Eve had faith in God and stood so toward God that they knowledged themselves to be sinners and trusted to be saved only through the blessed seed giving themselves over willingly into the discipline and nurture travell and trouble of this time No man can say contrary but it followeth that our first elders were Christians Neverthelesse we will declare the same yet more clearely by Moyses words following And Adam called his wife Heva because shee should be the mother of all living For as soone as he was now strengthned through the promise of God and beleeved that hee and his posteritie which else were children of wrath of the devill and of death should live through the blessed seed he turned his wives name and called her Heva for the remembrance of the matter and practising of his faith for he beleeved that shee now living in the power of the blessed seed should bring forth not only quicke men temporally as pertaining to this naturall life like as we call other creatures living but living that is to say children of salvation For Adam had lost eternall life from himselfe and from us his posteritie but the same is given unto us againe through Iesus Christ our Lord. Adam for as much as he beleeved changed his wives name like as we finde that for great weighty causes the names of certaine places cities and men were changed Thus was Iacob called Israel Simon Peter Luthz Bethel Eve had now a name of life for Haiah in Hebrew is as much to say as Life Afore was shee called Ischa that is to say Woman because shee was taken from out of the man which in the Hebrew is called Isch Gen. 2. And thus it is manifest what faith Adam had whereby we may well suppose that Eve had none other faith But God used his mercy and loving kindnesse yet furthermore even in the mids of all correction for when he would now expell man out of paradise into miserie he doth unto him in every condition even as a faithfull father which for some misdeed putteth his sonne away from him notwithstanding leaveth him not utterly comfortlesse but provideth him a garment and comforteth him with friendly words and then first sendeth him away from him Even thus doth God the father of heaven also For first he cloatheth Adam and Eve against the frost and tempest of weather in as much as by the meanes of sinne the weather the earth the aire and all creatures were no more so subject tame and obedient unto man as they were afore the fall Therefore even now at this present time whatsoever inconvenience and harme is in the good creatures of God it commeth by the meanes of our sinnes Afterward doth the Lord comfort the miserable wretched man with very loving words after this manner Behold Adam is become like one of us or Loe Adam shall be as one of us and it shall happen unto him as to one of us and he shall know good and evill This doth God speake which is one in substance and three in persons he prophesieth here unto Adam that he shall know or have experience of good and evill that is to say that upon earth he must feele prosperitie and adversitie miserie and trouble sowre and sweet and must suffer necessitie paine and affliction Yet in all this must he be constant and patient forasmuch as nothing shall happen unto him save even the same that shall happen to one of them And he meaneth the Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ the second person in the holy Trinitie With this his passion and through the same doth he comfort Adam As though he would say let the paine sorrow and trouble which thou must suffer upon earth not vex thee and consider that one of us also shall take upon him the kinde and nature of man and that the serpent as it is said afore shall tread him on the heele that is to say he shall die he shall be opprest and have much affliction and trouble all the daies of his life In the same meaning also did the holy Apostle Peter say Christ suffered for our sakes and gave us an example that we should follow

because we may not describe it after our owne judgement we will rehearse the words of the Apostle which writing to the Hebrewes saith after this manner Faith is a substance of things to be hoped for an evidence or certaintie of things which doe not appeare By the which definition it is manifest that when we set forth or teach this faith we meane no vaine faith no false opinion of faith no fond imagination of faith no dead faith no idle faith but a substantiall thing even a sure beleefe of things that are to be hoped for and a proofe experience or knowledge of things that are not seene This faith then is the instrument whereby we feele and are certaine of heavenly things that our corporall eye cannot see Now because none other vertue can so apprehend the mercy of God nor certifie us so effectually of our salvation as this living faith doth therefore hath the Scripture imputed our justification before God only unto faith among all other vertues not without other vertues following but without any other worke or deed justifying This is the faith of Christ which all the Scripture speaketh of This is the faith that S. Paul preacheth to justifie in the sight of God as S. Iames teacheth that works justifie in the sight of men and that it is but a dead faith which hath no works This is the faith without the which it is impossible to please God and of the which whatsoever proceedeth not is sinne This is the faith whereby God purifieth our hearts and whose end is salvation This is the faith that worketh by charitie or godly love is of value before God This is the faith whereby the holy fathers which were afore Christs incarnation did in spirit eat and drinke enjoy the same mercy of God in Christ that we are partakers of To be short this is the same faith whereby God saved those his elect of whō S. Paul maketh mention in the foresaid epistle to the Hebrewes and rehearseth many godly fruits of the same in their conversation This then is no new-fangled faith no strange faith no faith invented by mans braine but even the same that Gods holy spirit teacheth in the infallible truth of his Scripture and that Adam Abel Enoch and all the other servants of God were saved in Why doe men therefore either call it a new-fangled faith or report evill of us for setting it forth Why I feare me this is one cause The old faith that all those servants of God had whom the Apostle nameth in the eleventh to the Hebrewes had a life and conversation joyned unto it which was rich and full of all good works Therefore seeing there be so many bablers and pratlers of faith and so few that bring forth the worthy fruits of repentance it giveth the world occasion to report of us that our faith is but new-fangled They see us not fall to labour and taking of paines as Adam did They see not the righteousnesse and thankfulnesse in us that was in Abel They see us not walke after the word and will of God as Enoch did They see us not take Gods warning so earnestly as Noe did They see us not so obedient to the voice of God nor so well willing and content to leave our friends to forsake our owne wils our owne lands and goods at Gods calling and dwell in a strange country to doe Gods pleasure as Abraham did they see that wee chuse not rather to suffer adversitie with the people of God than to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season They see us not esteeme the rebuke of Christ or trouble for his sake to be greater riches than all the treasures of this world as Moses did To be short they see not in our garden those sweet flowers and fruits of Gods holy Spirit which were in them that had the old faith Ashamed may wee be therefore as many of us as either write teach preach speake or talke of the old faith if wee endevour not our selves to have those old heavenly vertues that were ever plentifull in all Gods true servants in every one I meane according to his calling Not that it is evill to teach or talke of the true old faith but this I say because that according to the doctrine of S. Iames they are but deceivers of themselves that are not doers of Gods word as well as hearers thereof And through such slender receiving of Christs holy Gospell it is now come to passe that like as we haue need of such an Apostle as was holy S. Paul to rebuke this vaine confidence that men put in their workes and to tell us that no worke of our doing but faith of Gods working doth justifie us in his sight Even so have wee no lesse need of such another Apostle as was holy S. Iames to rebuke this horrible unthankfulnesse of men that professing themselves to bee Christians and to hold of Christs old faith are yet dead unto all good workes receive not the word of God in meekenesse cast not away all uncleannesse and malitiousnesse are swift to speake to talke to jangle and to take displeasure are forgetfull hearers of the Word and not livers thereafter boasting themselves to be of Gods pure and undefiled Religion and yet refraine nor their tongues from evill visit not the poore the friendlesse and the desolate in their trouble neither keepe themselves undefiled from this world Reade the first chapter of his Epistle What an occasion might such an Apostle as holy Iames was have to write another yea a sharper Epistle seeing so many pretending to be of Iesus Christs old faith are yet so partiall have such a carnall respect of persons are not rich in faith despise the poore practise not the law of godly love talke and jangle of faith not having the workes thereof clothe not the naked helpe not the poore to their living regard not their necessitie have but a dead faith declare not by good and godly workes the true and old faith of Christ are but vaine beleevers have not the eflectuous the working and living faith that Abraham and Rahab had Reade the second chapter of his Epistle How would holy Iames reprove these bringers up of strange doctrines blasphemers backbiters belie●s of good men false teachers against Gods truth dissemblers with the same cary fire as they say with the one hand and water in the other pretend to be learned and yet bring not forth the workes of good conversation in meekenesse out of Gods wisdome but in frowardnesse and out of carnall doctrine How would he take up these that delight in malice and strife belie Gods truth are given to earthly fleshly and devillish wisdome are unstable full of all evill workes are not in the schoole of Gods wisdome and learning are not given to unfainednesse of heart are not peaceable are churlish uneasie to be intreated c. Reade the third chapter

taken from it Now did God make a Testament or bequest with Abraham and promised him therein that he would give him a seed in whom he and his children should be saved And the same salvation did he expresly appoint in one and not in many Wherefore wee must adde nothing unto Gods bequest seeing he hath promised vs salvation in Christ only and not in many that is to say in no creature not in our owne power and workes of the Law neither must wee thinke that the Law was afterward added to the intent as though Christ were not able to save us or as though we might obtaine salvation by our owne workes out of the Law For thus followeth it in Paul word to word This Testament I say which afore was confirmed to Christward is not disanulled or made of none effect by the Law which was given beyond foure hundred yeeres thereafter For if the inheritance begotten by the Law then is it not given by the promise But God gave it freely unto Abraham by promise These are Pauls words out of the which every man may understand that to the generation of man salvation is given only of the grace of God through the promise and through no deserving at all and that the law of the promise that is to say the bequest and Testament of God is nothing minished but that the summe remaineth without blemish namely that salvation is given us freely But here might one aske Seeing that the salvation is clearely enough expressed afore the Law and is ascribed only unto the grace of God why would God then adde the Law why was he not content with the Testament alone Therefore followeth it now in Paul Why then serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions till the seed came that was promised These are Pauls words which are thus to be understood The Law was not given because of the promise to make it of none effect and to teach that men are saved by workes and not through the grace and free liberty of God but it was given because of transgression that is to say because that the people of God in Aegypt had transgressed the way and truth of their Fathers and knew no more what was sinne right or unright wherein stood salvation or damnation for they were corrupt through the long dwelling among the Idolaters of Aegypt Therefore did God ordaine them the Law out of the which they might learne the will of God what sinne right or unright is and to know themselves to goe into themselves and to consider how that the holy workes which God requireth are not in their owne power for the which cause all the world have great need of a Mediator And thus the Law was given to further the promise namely that wee through the Law might be led only unto Christ For thus followeth it in Pauls words And it was given of Angels by the hand of a Mediator A Mediatour is not a Mediatour of one only but God is one Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid Howbeit if there had beene given a law which could have given life then no doubt righteousnesse should come of the Law But the Scripture hath shut up all under sinne that the promise should come by the faith on Iesus Christ given unto them that beleeve Before faith came that is to say Iesus Christ in whom we beleeve we were kept and shut up under the Law unto the faith which should afterward be declared Thus was the Law our Schoole-master unto Christ that we might be made righteous by faith c. By these words of Paul may every man understand now for what cause the Law was given and how it is not contrary to the promise of the foresaid seed but rather bringeth us from our selves and from all creatures only unto Iesus Christ The Law therefore confirmeth the first promise concerning the blessed seed and teacheth that wee obtaine all salvation in him only Howbeit it is also a rule of our life informing us what wee ought to doe and what we ought to leave undone Yet on our side is all unfruitfull where faith is not But where faith is it ceaseth not through love to worke good according to the Law all honour and praise being referred unto God to men nothing but unperfectnesse God also among his people wrought many things whereby hee set the cause of Iesus Christ clearely afore the eies of the people as it is expressed afore by the Lambe of the Passeover Likewise is it where as Moses hanged up a Serpent in the wildernesse that all they which were stung and poisoned of serpents should behold the brasen serpent hanging and not die but be saved alive Wheras doubtlesse the outward beholding of the brasen serpent saved not them that were poisoned but it was God which would so declare that his Sonne should be hanged upon a crosse to the intent that every one which were poisoned and defiled by the old serpent and sinne should beleeve in the Sonne of God and live in him For so is it written Sap. 16. They had a token of health according to the commandement For who so converted was not made whole by the outward thing which he saw but by thee which art the restorer of health and Saviour of all And yet saith Christ more clearely Ioh. 3. And like as Moses set up the serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Sonne of man be lift up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternall life And as touching this the holy Apostle Paul bringeth in another sentence 1 Cor. 10. and saith Brethren I would not haue you ignorant of this that our Fathers were all under the cloud and all passed thorow the sea and were all baptised under Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat one spirituall meat and drinke of one spirituall drinke But they dranke all of the spirituall rocke that followed them which rocke was Christ Besides this if we consider the declaration of the lawes of the first Table which teacheth how we shall behave our selves right toward God to love worship and honour him to serve him and to cleave only unto him we shall finde in the same first Table the whole cause of Christ For all that afterward was ordained and appointed concerning the Tabernacle the Priesthood and the Oblations pertaineth to the summe of the first Table for as much as the Scripture and the mouth of God calleth it his law precept commandement use and statute ordinance and service And if thou aske How can God which is a spirit be served with outward visible and fleshly things as the foresaid ceremonies of the Iewes are I answer Such outward rites of the people of God were sacraments and tokens of heavenly invisible good things and were not the heavenly riches themselves Wherefore they neither served nor pleased God

threatning that in what houre soever he did eat of the same tree he should die an everlasting death But untruly dealt man with his faithfull God transgressed his commandement and gave more credit to the perswasion of the woman and of the serpent than to the true word of God which was nothing else but even as much as to take the forme of good and evill out of themselves or elsewhere rather than of God and not to cleave and be obedient onely unto him as to such an one as wisheth good unto every man For man being deceived through the woman and the Serpent did beleeve that God was not indifferent and that hee had withdrawne from him some of his godly wisdome And for as much as the minde now was departed from God through infidelity and looked not for all good at his hand therefore tooke the hand the noisome apple and the mouth did eat the forbidden meat And thus thought hee to helpe himselfe to Gods Majesty by another meanes rather than by God and so to repaire his necessitie which he thought hee had And so with infidelity unfaithfulnesse disobedience and unthankfulnesse he wrought life and died the death that is he offended against God and fell into the punishment of everlasting damnation Yea he made himselfe bound unto the devill whom he was so diligent to beleeve to follow and to serve Contrariwise he forsooke God and so came he utterly into the bondage of the devill and darknesse And thus have we now the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God Againe the wickednesse and great unfaithfulnesse of man CHAP. III. The first and right foundation of our holy Christian faith HEre now had the just God occasion and right to expell man to destroy him to damne him and to leave him utterly to the devill And the same also did his righteousnesse and truth require For he had said In what day soever thou eatest of the fruit thou shalt die the death Contrariwise the goodnesse and mercy of God required not utterly to suppresse man a poore and naked creature In the meane season was there found a way whereby the righteousnesse and truth of God should be satisfied and in the which the mercy of God should specially be exercised and declare it selfe that is to say Christ Iesus which is given us by the manifest grace of God was offered for our sinnes satisfied and recompenced the righteousnesse of God and so delivered us out of the bonds of the Devill For hee died for us all in as much as God said In what day soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Therefore died Christ for us all that through his death we might live and be taken out of the kingdome of darknesse and be set in the kingdome of the deare beloved Sonne of God This device of Gods wisdome which no doubt was determinate from everlasting was also directly opened unto Adam after the fall in manner following When man had eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree immediatly his eyes were opened in so much that he was ashamed when he saw that he was naked Hitherto had hee lived in innocencie therefore began he now to cover himselfe but with simple clothing which they trusted not much to like as it is all unprofitable that man of himselfe will cover his sinne withall saving that they fled from the Lord and hid themselves from him But the Lord followed upon the fugitive put him in minde of his decay miserie and the life that hee was fallen from and said Adam where art thou Or knowest thou what miserie thou art fallen into from great felicitie Now should man have acknowledged his fault but hee shewed himselfe stiffe-necked And the Lord moveth him still to see if he will acknowledge his sinne and said Who told thee that thou art naked Yea to helpe him in the matter and to make him confesse his sinne hee saith moreover Hast thou not eaten of the tree of the which I forbad thee that thou shouldest not eat But man was loth to knowledge his sinne and laid it first upon the woman his companion and the same did he with so froward and unadvised words that a man may easily see that secretly in his heart he wickedly and unreasonably laid the fault upon God For hee said not onely The woman gave me of the tree to eat but added proudly thereto The woman which thou gavest me c. As though he should say Thou thy selfe art in the fault if thou haddest not given mee the woman I had not beene deceived And yet the righteous God gave him not the woman to deceive him but to bee an helpe to him Therefore appeareth it here againe that the sinne of man was the more wilfull grievous Yet for all this did the gracious God proceed further and would prove whether hee might finde any knowledge of the sinne with the woman the beginning and occasion of the sinne But nothing at all could he finde The one person was as the other and they both had no power Therefore like as Adam put all the fault to the woman even so laid the woman all the fault upon the Serpent that is upon the Devill Which nature doth yet to this day cleave in man But what man which hath well considered this foresaid matter by himselfe would now say or durst thinke that any part of the promise of righteousnesse and salvation of man were to bee ascribed to his owne power and deserving For as much as it is so manifest how unable and lost a creature man is of himselfe which doth nothing but heape sinne upon sinne and disobedience upon disobedience Againe who is so blinde but he seeth that all salvation is to be ascribed to the onely meere grace and mercie of God For now followeth it first how God handled this matter Now when all the complaint was made upon the Serpent the Lord asketh and examineth the Serpent nothing at all for the deed was open neither was the Serpent created of God to speake and with the Devill was there no truth Therefore doth the Lord righteously curse the Serpent the Devill Unto the bodily serpent also whom the Devill used as an instrument he giveth a sore curse and saith Vpon thy belly shalt thou goe and earth shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life When this was done it was ordained now first for man that according to the righteousnesse and truth of God he should bee punished also with the curse and with eternall death but for the causes expressed in the beginning of this chapter the curse was directed unto Christ who also with cleare words was promised and so was life in him promised likewise Therefore saith not the Lord now And cursed bee thou man because thou hast done against my Commandement but And I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman betweene thy seed and her seed the same shall tread thee on