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	lord_n	1,391	5	3.9699	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39680	Sacramental meditations upon divers select places of scripture wherein believers are assisted in preparing their hearts, and exciting their affections and graces, when they draw nigh to God in that most awful and solemn ordinance of the Lords Supper / by Jo. Flavel ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing F1183; ESTC R6003	82,969	246

Christ the best mercy but delivered him up for us all when we were his Enemies then certainly he will not deny lesser mercies when we are reconciled and made Friends to him And this is the forcible reason of the Apostle which even compels assent Rom. 5. 9. Much more being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him In a word Fourthly and lastly If it were the very design and intention of God in not sparing his own Son to open thereby a dore for all mercies to be let in upon us then 't is not imaginable he should with-hold them He will not lose his design nor lay so many stripes upon Christ in vain Some shall surely have the benefit of it and none so capable as Believers When God spared not his own Son this was the design of it and could you know the thoughts of his heart they would appear to be such as these I will now manifest the fierceness of my Wrath to Christ and the fulness of my Love to Believers The pain shall be his that the ease and rest may be theirs the stripes his and the healing balm issuing from them theirs The Condemnation his and the Justification theirs The Reproach and Shame his and the Honour and Glory theirs The Curse his and the Blessing theirs The Death his and the Life theirs The Vinegar and Gall his the sweet of it theirs He shall groan and they shall triumph He shall mourn that they may rejoyce His heart shall be heavy for a time that theirs may be light and glad for ever He shall be forsaken that they may never be forsaken Out of the worst of miseries to him shall spring the sweetest of mercies to them O Grace Grace beyond the conception of the largest mind the expression of the tongues of Angels THE SEVENTH MEDITATION UPON Mark 9. 24. And straight-way the Father of the Child cried and said with tears Lord I Believe help my Unbelief THE occasion of these words is to be gather'd from the Context and briefly it was this A tender Father brings a possessed Child to Christ to be cured with a Sipotes a doubting question If thou canst do any thing have compassion upon us and help us Words imparting much natural affection and tender love to his Child Have Compassion upon us and help us If the Child be sick the Parent is not well What touches the Child is felt by his Father And as they import his natural affection to his Child so also his own spiritual disease or the weakness of his Faith His Child was possest with a dumb Devil and himself with unbelieving doubts and suspitions of Christs ability to cure his Child The Child had a sick body and the Father an infirm soul. Satan afflicted one by a possession and the other by temptation ver 22. Christ returns his doubting language upon himself ver 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth q. d. Dost thou doubt of my ability to heal thy Child question rather thy own ability to believe for his cure If he be not heal'd the cause will not be in my inability but in thine own infidelity Which he speaks not to insinuate that Faith was in his own power but to convince him of his weakness and drive him to God for assistance which effect it obtain'd for immediately he cry'd out and said with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief O how good is it for men to be brought into the straights of affliction sometimes Had not this man fallen into this distress it 's not like that he had at least not so soon arrived either to the sense of his grace or the weakness of it In the words we may note these three parts First A profession of his Faith Lord I believe Secondly A sense of the weakness of his Faith Help thou my unbelief Thirdly The affection with which both were uttered He cried out and said with tears If these tears proceeded from the sense and feeling of divine power inabling him to believe as some think than they were tears of joy and would inform us of this great truth That the least and lowest measure of true Faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it If they proceeded from the sense of the weakness of his faith then they give us this note That the remainders of unbelief in the people of God do cost them many tears they are the burdens and sorrows of gracious souls 1. Doct. That the least and lowest measure of Faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it The Apostle in the 2 Pet. 1. 1. calls it precious Faith and it well deserves that Epithet for the least and lowest degree of saving Faith is of invaluable excellency as will appear in these particulars First The least degree of saving faith truly unites the soul to Jesus Christ and makes it as really a branch or member of him as Moses Abraham or Paul were All saving Faith receives Christ Joh. 1. 12. Indeed the strong Believer receives him with a stronger and stedier hand than the weak one doth who staggers doubts and trembles but yet receives him and consequently is as much interessed in the blessed priviledges flowing from Union as the greatest Believer in the world Such are Christs complacency in our persons and duties his sympathy with us in our troubles and affections and our interest in his person and purchase And is not this matter of exceeding joy Is it not enough to melt yea overwhelm the heart of a poor Sinner to discover and feel that in his own heart which entitles him to such mercies Secondly From the least degree of saving faith we may infer'as plenary a remission of sin as from tht strongest The weakest Believer is as compleatly pardoned as the strongest Act. 10. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things All that believe without difference of sizes strength or degrees the least as well as the greatest the Believer of a day old as well as the Fathers and Worthies of greatest name and longest standing Loe then the least measure of faith intitles thee as really to the greatest blessing as the highest acts of faith can do 'T is true the stronger the acting of faith is the clearer the evidence usually is but interest in the priviledge is the same in both If then thou canst discern but the weakest act and smallest measure of faith in thy soul hast thou not reason with him in the Text to cry out and say with tears Lord I belive Canst thou receive and read this Pardon the pardon of such and so many sins and not wet it with thy tears O it's matter of joy unspeakable Thirdly The least degree of saving faith infers thy Election of God and if that be not matter of melting and transporting consideration nothing is O it 's matter of more joy that our names are written in