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	love_n	1,510	5	5.7755	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27062	Two treatises tending to awaken secure sinners viz., 1. The terror of the day of judgment, from 2 Cor. 5. 10, 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel, from Matth. 22. 5 / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Terror of the day of judgment.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Danger of slighting Christ and his gospel.	1696 (1696)	Wing B1443; ESTC R16419	109,733	266

with the Mammon of Unrighteousness and ventured all his Hope in this Vessel And now he findeth the Wisdom of that Choice in a rich Return God made him so wise a Merchant as to sell all for this Pearl of greatest Price and therefore now he shall find the Gain As there is no other true Happiness but God in Glory so is there nothing more sutable and welcome to the true Believer O how welcome will the Face of that God be whom he loved sought longed and waited for How welcome will that Kingdom be which he lived in hope of which he parted with all for and suffered for in the Flesh How glad will he be to see the blessed Face of his Redeemer who by his manifold Grace hath brought him unto this I leave the believing Soul to think of it and to make it the daily matter of his delightful Meditation what an unconceivable Joy in one Moment will this Sentence of Christ will fill his Soul with Undoubtedly it is now quite past our Comprehension though our imperfect Forethoughts of it may well make our Lives a continual Feast Were it but our Justification from the Accusations of Satan who would have us condemned either as Sinners in general or as impenitent unbelieving Rebels against him that redeemed us in special it would lift up the Heads of the Saints in that Day After all the Fears of our own Hearts and the slanderous Accusations of Satan and the World That we were either impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites Christ will then justify us and pronounce us righteous So much for the Condition to which they are judged 2. The Reason or Cause of this Justification of the Saints is given us both 1. In a general Denomination and 2. In a particular Description 1. In general it is because they were righteous as is evident Mat. 25. 6. The Righteous shall go into Life everlasting And indeed it is the Business of every just Judg to justify the Righteous and condemn the Unrighteous And shall not the Judg of all the Earth judg righteously Gen. 18. 25. God makes Men righteous before he judges them so and judgeth them righteous because they are so He that abominateth that Man who saith to the Righteous Thou art wicked or to the Wicked Thou art righteous who justifieth the Wicked and condemneth the Righteous will certainly never do so himself Indeed he will justify them that are Sinners but not against the Accusation that they are Sinners but against the Accusation that they are guilty of Punishment for Sin but that is because he first made them just and so justifiable by pardoning their Sin through the Blood of Christ And it 's true also that he will justify those that were wicked but not those that are wicked but Judgment findeth them as Death leaveth them and he will not take them for wicked that are sanctified and cleansed of their former Wickedness So that Christ will first pardon them before he justify them against the Charge of being Sinners in general and he will first give Men Faith Repentance and new Obedience before he will justify them against the Charge of being Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites and consequently ●mpardoned and doubly guilty of Damnation This twofold Righteousness he will first give Men and so constiture them just before he will declare it and sentence them just 2. The Reason of the Sentence particularly described is from their Faith and Love to Christ expressed in their Obedience Self-denial and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I was thirsty and ye gave me daink I was a Stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came to me Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Mat. 25. 35 to 41. Here is 1. The causal Conjuction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which observe 1. How it is that Man's Obedience and Self-denial is the Reason and Cause of his Justification 2. Why it is that God will have the Reason or Cause thus declared in the Sentence For the first observe that it 's one thing to give a Reason of the Sentence and another thing to express the Cause of the Benefit given us by the Promise and judged to us by the Sentence Man's Obedience was no proper Cause why God did in this Life give Pardon of Sin to us or a Right to Glory much less of his giving Christ to die for us And therefore as to our constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth justify us for or because of any Works of our Obedience legal or evangelical But when God hath so justified us when he comes to give a Reason of his Sentence in Judgment he may and will fetch that Reason partly from our Obedience or our Performance of the Conditions of the new Covenant For as in this Life we had a Righteousness consisting in free Pardon of all Sin through the Blood of Christ and a Righteousness consisting in our personal Performance of the Conditions of the Promise which giveth that Pardon and continueth it to us so at Judgment we shall accordingly be justified And as our evangelical personal Righteousness commonly called inherent was at first only in our Faith and Repentance and Disposition to obey but afterward in our actual sincere Obedience in which Sense we are constitutively justified or made righteous here by our Works in James his sense James 2. 24. so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification one from our Pardon by Christ's Blood and Merits which will prove our Right to Impunity and to Glory the other from our own Faith and holy Obedience which will prove our Right to that Pardon through Christ and to the free Gift of a Right to Glory and To this last is to be pleaded in Subordination to the former For Christ is become the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. He therefore that will be saved must have a Christ to save him as the Author and an Obedience to that Christ as the Condition of that Salvation and consequently both must be declared in the Judgment The Reason why the Judg doth mention our good Works rather than our believing may be because those holy self-denying Expressions of Faith and Love to Christ do contain or certainly imply Faith in them as the Life of the Tree is in the Fruit but Faith doth contain our Works of Obedience but only as their Cause The Works also are a Part of the personal Righteousness which is to be enquired after that is we shall not be judged righteous meerly because we have believed but also because we have added to our Faith Vertue and have improved our Talents and have loved Christ to the hazard of all for his

Sin and that there is no way but by Christ to obtain Deliverance But because all this must be acknowledged by the Righteous themselves as well as by the Wicked therefore Christ doth not mention this but that only which is the turning Point or Cause in the Judgment For it is not all Sinners that shall be finally condemned but all impenitent unbelieving Sinners who have rebelled finally against their Redeemer 2. And the Reason why Faith itself is not expressed is 1. Because it is clearly implied and so is Love to Christ as Redeemer in that they should have relieved Christ himself in his Members That is as it 's expressed Mat. 10. 42. they should have received a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet and a Disciple in the Name of a Disciple all should be done for Christ's sake which could not be unless they believed in him and loved him 2. Also because that the bare Act of Believing is not all that Christ requireth to a Man's final Justification and Salvation but holy self-denying Obedience must be added And therefore this is given as the Reason of their Condemnation that they did not so obey We must observe also that Christ here putteth the special for the general that is one way of self-denying Obedience and Expression of Love instead of such Obedience in general For all Men have not Ability to relieve those in misery being perhaps some of them poor themselves But all have that Love and Self-denial which will some way express it self And all have Hearts and a Disposition to do thus if they had Ability without such a Disposition none can be saved It is the fond Conceit of some that if they have any Love to the Godly or wish them well it is enough to prove them happy But Christ here purposely lets us know that whoever doth not love him at so high a rate as that he can part with his Substance or any thing in the World to those Uses which he shall require them even to relieve his Servants in want and Sufferings for the Master's sake that Man is none of Christ's Disciple nor will be owned by him at the last XI The next Point that we come to is to shew you the Properties of this Sentence at Judgment When Man had broken the Law of his Creator at the first he was liable to the Sentence of Death and God presently sat in Judgment on him and sentenced him to some part of the Punishment which he had deserved but upon the Interposition of the Son he before the rest resolved on a Way that might tend to his Recovery and Death is due yet to every Sinner for every Sin which he commits till a Pardon do acquit him But this Sentence which will pass on Sinners at the last Judgment doth much differ from that which was passed on the first Sin or which is due according to the Law of Works alone For 1. As to the Penalty called the Pain of Loss the first Judgment did deprive Man of the Favour of his Creator but the second will deprive him of the Favour both of the Creator and Redeemer the first Judgment deprived him of the Benefits of Innocency the second deprives him of the Benefits of Redemption the loss of his hopes and possibility of Pardon of the Spirit of Justification and Adoption and of the Benefits which conditionally were promised and offered him these are the Punishments of the last Judgment which the Law of Works did never threaten to the first Man or to any as it stood alone Also the loss of Glory as recovered is the proper Penalty of the violated Law of Grace which is more than the first loss As if a Man should lose his Purse the second time when another hath once found it for him or rather as if a Traitor redeemed by another and having his Life and Honours offered him if he will thankfully accept it and come in should by his Refusal and Obstinacy lose this recovered Life which is offered him which is an Addition to his former Penalty Besides that the higher Degree of Glory will be lost which Christ would bestow on him more than was lost at first The very Work of the Saints in Heaven will to praise and glorify him that redeemed them and the Father in him which would not have been the Work of Man if he had been innocent 2. As to the Pain of Sense the last Judgment by the Redeemer will sentence them to a far sorer Punishment than would have befaln them if no Saviour had been offered them Heb. 10. 29. The Conscience of Adam if he had not been redeemed would never have tormented him for rejecting a Redeemer nor for refusing or abusing his gracious Offers and his Mercies nor for the forfeiting of a recovered Happiness nor for refusing of the easy Terms of the Gospel which would have given him Christ and Salvation for the accepting nor for neglecting any Means that tended to Recovery no nor for refusing Repentance unto Life nor for disobeying a Redeemer that bought him by his Blood As all these are the Penalties of the Redeemer's Law and Judgment so is it a sorer Penalty than Conscience would have inflicted meerly for not being perfectly innocent and they will be far soarer Gripings and Gnawings of the never-dying Worm for the abuse of these Talents than if we had been never trusted with any after our first Forfeiture Yea and God himself will accordingly proportion his Punishments So that you see that privatively and positively or as to their Loss and their Feeling the Redeemer will pass on them a heavier Doom than the Creator did or would have done according to the first Law to perfect Man 3. Another Property of the Judgment of Christ is that it will be final peremptory and excluding all farther Hopes or Possibilities of a Remedy So was not the first Judgment of the Creator upon faln Man Though the Law of pure Nature knew no Remedy nor gave Man any Hope of a Redeemer yet did it not exclude a Remedy nor put in any Bar against one but God was free to recover his Creature if he pleased But in the Law of Grace he hath resolved that there shall be no more Sacrifice for Sin but a fearful looking for of Judgment and Fire which shall devour the Adversary Heb. 10. 26 27. and that the Fire shall be everlasting the Worm shall not die and the Fire shall not be quenched Mat. 25. ult Mat. 13. 42 50. John 5. 27. Mat. 5. 26. Mat. 3. 12. and Luke 3. 17. Mark 9. 43 44 45 46 48. He that now breaketh that pure Law that requireth perfect Innocency as we have all done may fly to the Promise of Grace in Christ and appeal to the Law of Liberty or Deliverance to be judged by that But he that falls under the Penalty of that Law which should have saved him as all final Unbelievers and impenitent ungodly Persons do hath no other to appeal

sake For it is not only or principally for the Goodness of the Work considered in it self or the Good that is done by it to the Poor but it is as those Works did express our Faith and Love to Christ by doing him the most costly and hazardous Service that by Faith we could see Christ in a poor Beggar or a Prisoner and could love Christ in these better than our worldly Goods or Liberties which we must part with or hazard by the Works that are here mentioned 2. The Reasons why Christ will so publickly declare the personal Righteousness of Men to be the Reason or Cause of his justifying Sentence is because it is the Business of that Day not only to glorify God's meer Love and Mercy but eminently to glorify his remunerative Justice and not only to express his Love to the Elect as such but to express his Love to them as faithful and obedient and such as have denied all for Christ and loved God above all and to shew his Justice to Men and Faithfulness in fulfilling all his Promises and also his Holiness in the high Estimation of the Holiness of his People I shall express this in the Words of a Learned Divine Dr. Twiss against Mr. Cotton pag. 40. Was there no more in God's Intention when he elected some than the Manifestation of the Riches of his glorious Grace Did not God purpose also to manifest the Glory of his remunerative Justice Is it no undeniable that God will bestow Salvation on all his Elect of ripe Years by way of Reward and Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judg will give 2 Tim. 4. 2 Thess 1. It is great pity this is not considered as usually it is not especially for the momentous Consequence thereof in my Judgment So far he So much of the Sentence of Justification which shall be passed by Christ at Judgment upon the Righteous 2. We are next to consider of the Sentence of Condemnation which shall then by Christ be passed on the Unrighteous Which is delivered to us by Christ Mat. 25. in the same Order as the former The Sentence containeth 1. The Condemnation it self 2. The Reason or Cause of it The Condemnation expresseth the Misery which they are judged to 1. Generally in the Denomination Cursed 2. Particularly by Description of their cursed State To be cursed is to be a People destinated and adjudged to utter Unhappiness to all kind of Misery without remedy 2. Their cursed Condition is described in the next Words Depart from me into everlasting Fire prepared for the 〈◊〉 and his Angels 1. Depart From whom from the God that made them in his Image from the Redeemer that bought them by the Price of his Blood and offered to save them freely for all their Unworthiness and many a time intreated them to accept his Offer that their Souls might live From the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and Comforter of the Faithful who strove with their Hearts till they quenched and expelled him O sad Departing who would not then choose rather to depart from all the Friends he had in the World and from any thing imaginable from his Life from himself if it were possible than from Christ Depart from what why from the Presence of the Judg from all farther Hopes of Salvation for ever from all possibility of ever being saved and living in the joyful Inheritance of the Righteous Depart Not from God's Essential Presence for that will be with them to their everlasting Misery but from the Presence of his Grace in that Measure as they enjoyed it Depart Not from your fleshly Pleasures and Honours and Profits of the World these were all gone and past already and there was no farther need to bid them depart from these Houses and Lands were gone Mirth and Recreations were gone Their sweet Morsels and Cups were gone All the Honour that Men could give them was gone before they were set at Christ's Bar to be judged But from all Expectations of ever enjoying these again or ever tasting their former Delights from these they must depart not from their Sin for that will go with them but the Liberty of committing that part of it which was sweet to them as Gluttony Drunkenness Whoredom Idleness and all Voluptuousness from these they must depart But this is consequential it is Christ and the Possibility of Salvation that they are sentenced to depart from But whither must they depart 1. Into Fire 2. Into that Fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels 3. Into everlasting Fire 1. Not into a purifying but a tormenting Fire Whether elementary or not whether properly or metaphorically called Fire let us not vainly trouble our selves to enquire It is enough to know that as Fire is one of the most grievous Tormentors of the Flesh so grievous will be those infernal Torments to the whole Man Soul and Body such as is most fitly represented to us under the Notion of Fire and of Burning It is easy for a secure unbelieving Soul to read and hear of it but Wo and ten thousand Woes to them that must endure it In this Life they had their good things when it went harder as to the Flesh with better Men but now they are tormented when the Godly are comforted as Luke 16. 25. 2. But why is it called a Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. What is this Devil that hath Angels 2. Who are his Angels 3. When was it prepared for them 4. Wat it not also prepared for wicked Men To these in order 1. It seems by many Passages in Scripture that there is an Order among Spirits both good and bad and that there is one Devil that is the Prince over the rest 2. It seems therefore that it 's the rest of the evil Spirits that are called his Angels And some think that the Wicked who served him in this Life shall be numbred with his Angels in the Life to come Indeed the Apostle calls him the God of this World 2 Cor. 4. 4. as is ordinarily judged by Expositors and the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience Eph. 2. 2. And he calleth false seducing Teachers the Ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11. 15. But that wicked Men are here meant as part of his Angels is not clear 3. If it be the Preparation of God's Purpose that is here meant then it was from Eternity but if it be any Commination of God as Ruler of the Angels then was this Fire prepared for them conditionally from the beginning of that Commination and was due to them at their Fall 4. It seems that the Reason why here is no mention of preparing Hell-fire for the Wicked but only for the Devils is not because indeed it was not prepared also for the Wicked but to note that it is the Torment which was first prepared for or assigned to the Devils thereby shewing the greatness of the Misery

see then that it is not meerly for want of good Preachers that Men make light of Christ and Salvation the first News of such a thing as the Pardon of Sin and the Hopes of Glory and the Danger of everlasting Misery would turn the Hearts of Men within them if they were as tractable in spiritual Matters as in temporal But alas it is far otherwise It must not seem any strange thing nor must it too much discourage the Preachers of the Gospel if when they have said all that they can devise to say to win the Hearts of Men to Christ the most do still slight him and while they bow the Knee to him and honour him with their Lips do yet set so light by him in their Hearts as to prefer every fleshly Pleasure or Commodity before him It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with all Vse 3. But for closer Application Seeing this is the great condemning Sin before we enquire after it into the Hearts of our Hearers it beseems us to begin at home and see that we who are Preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our selves The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred Office of revealing the Excellencies of Christ to the World should make light of him themselves and slight that Salvation which they do daily preach The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our Estimation of Christ and do this great Work so negligently that we have cause to be ashamed of our best Sermons but should this Sin prevail in us we were the most miserable of all Men. Brethren I love not Censoriousness yet dare not befriend so vile a Sin in my self or others under pretence of avoiding it especially when there is so great Necessity that it should be healed first in them that make it their Work to heal it in others O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and Salvation are made light of by the Preachers of it But 1. Do not the negligent Studies of some speak it out 2. Doth not their dead and drowsy Preaching declare it Do not they make light of the Doctrine they preach that do it as if they were half asleep and feel not what they speak themselves 3. Doth not the Carelesness of some Mens private Endeavours discover it What do they for Souls how slightly do they reprove Sin how little do they when they are out of the Pulpit for the saving of Mens Souls 4. Doth not the continued Neglect of those things wherein the Interest of Christ consisteth discover it 1. The Churches Purity and Reformation 2. It s Unity 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly Lives of too many discover it losing Advantages for Mens Souls for a little Gain to themselves and most of this is because Men are Preachers before they are Christians and tell Men of that which they never felt themselves Of all Men on Earth there are few that are in so sad a Condition as such Ministers and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they preach methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it Vse 4. Beloved Hearers the Office that God hath called us to is by declaring the Glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of Mens Souls I hope you think not that I come hither to Day on any other Errand The Lord knows I had not set a Foot out of Doors but in hope to succeed in this Work for your Souls I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their Salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text is the Cause It is one of the Wonders of the World that when God hathso loved the World as to send his Son aud Christ hath made a Satisfaction by his Death sufficient for them all and offereth the Benefits of it so freely to them even without Money or Price that yet the most of the World should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his Word Why here is the Reason when Christ hath done all this Men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that Men should be restored to God's Favour and be saved but Men are actually unwilling themselves God takes not pleasure in the Death of Sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33. 11. But Men take such pleasure in Sin that they will die before they will return The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physician and hath provided them a sufficient Plaister of his own Blood but if Men make light of it and will not apply it what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the Reason of their Perdition This sad Experience tells us the most of the World is guilty of It is a most lamentable thing to see how most Men do spend their Care their Time their Pains for known Vanities while God and Glory are cast aside That he who is all should seem to them as nothing and that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all that God should set Mankind in such a Race where Heaven or Hell is their certain End and that they should sit down and loiter or run after the childish Toys of the World and so much forget the Prize that they should run for Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this Business as the All-seeing God doth to see at one View both Heaven and Hell which Men are so near and see what most Men in the World are minding and what they are doing every Day it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined O how should we marvel at their Madness and lament their Self-delusion O poor distracted World what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the Word to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another World then they had been excusable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it Had he left it doubtful there had been some excuse but it is his sealed Word and they profess to believe it and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not Beloved I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this Crime but seeing it is the commonest Cause of Mens Destruction I suppose you will judg it the fittest Matter for our Enquiry and deserving our greatest Care for the Cure To which end I shall 1. Endeavour the Conviction of the Guilty 2. Shall give them such Considerations as may tend to humble and reform them 3. I shall conclude with such Direction as may help them that are willing to escape the destroying Power of this Sin And