Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A89718
|
Cases of conscience practically resolved By the Reverend and learned John Norman, late minister of Bridgwater.
|
Norman, John, 1622-1669.
|
1673
(1673)
|
Wing N1239A; ESTC R231385
|
224,498
|
434
|
as he first worketh then witnesseth so there is usually some distance of time between this and that And his witnessing that we are the Sons of God doth ever presuppose that work as every act doth presuppose its object Rom. 8.15 16. Besides the Spirit doth not evidence or witness the truth of grace to us but in and by the exercise of grace as it is at work in us The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 Now as grace must be before it works so the works and exercise of grace are seldom of that eminence as to amount to an evidence of the truth of grace till time hath given us some taste and trial of them in iterated and renewed acts 4 A pious Christian may live for a long time without peace of Conscience then as appears by the premisses Grace it self is called the inward and hidden man of the heart and like the Souls in-being in the body is not known à priori from its causes but à posteriori from its effects 1 Pet. 3.4 2 Cor. 4.16 Col. 1.6 Admit that these effects are discernable yet are they not actually and so efficaciously discerned as to assure peace without the concurrence of a twofold witness God's Spirit and our Spirits God's Spirit as being a most free agent is not obliged to this or that or indeed to any time of ours He bloweth where and when he listeth Our Spirits are often so dull'd discomposed distempered with passions prejudices prevailing fears and sorrows or power of melancholy c. as they are disenabled to discern till these are worn out with time and experience And mean while like Asaph and others the Soul oft-time refuseth to be comforted Rom. 8.16 Psal 51.12 Joh. 3.8 Psal 77.2 Gen. 37.35 Jer. 31.15 5 Hence there is no such inseparable connexion between grace and peace as a man should disclaim grace because he is as yet denied peace 'T is a weighty saying of that worthy servant of God * Love's Grace Truth growth Serm. 11. p. 〈…〉 who is now shining in another world Though there cannot be true peace where there is no grace yet there may be true grace where there is no peace Q. 9. Whether pious Christians may not lose the peace of their Conscience No doubt they may if we understand it of peace it self though they cannot lose the seeds of peace 1 They cannot lose the seeds of peace and in this sense cannot lose their peace i.e. Seminally and radically considered 'T is a peace and assurance for ever an everlasting joy a joy that no man taketh from you For ever not in regard of an uninterrupted continuance here but in regard of its unintermitted causes There is ever cause or matter of peace though there is not ever the conscience or mercy of peace Isa 32.17 c. 35.10 Joh. 16.22 1. Christ our peace is the same still the same considered in himself and as to the consummating of our Salvation He will not lose his interest in his Saints and hath assured they shall not lose their interest in himself They may forfeit his smiles but shall never fall from himself Heb. 13.8 c. 5.9 Joh. 6.37 39. c. 10.28 29. 2. The Covenant of peace is the same still 'T is an everlasting Covenant and gives ground of everlasting comfort And the propriety of his Saints therein is everlasting too though they cannot ever plead it They may not ever have the comforts of the Covenant but they shall never be cut off or cast out of Covenant Heb. 13.20 Isa 54.8 9 10. c. 61.8 Jer. 33.40 Heb. 13.5 2 They may lose the sweets of peace yea peace it self God himself gives evidence to it Remember how he speaketh to and of his Church O thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted I called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit We have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace I have taken away my peace from this people even loving kindness and mercies I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth c. Isa 54.6 11. Jer. 30.5 Isa 57.17 The godly have given us their experience in it too Behold for peace I had great bitterness saith Hezekiah Isa 38.17 The arrows of the Almighty are within me saith Job the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit The terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me Mine hope hath he removed like a tree he hath also kindled his wrath against me and counteth me unto him as one of his enemies c. He teareth me in his wrath he gnasheth upon me with his teeth c. Job 6.4 c. 19.10 11. c. 16.9 What shall I tell you of Heman of Asaph or of David who yet was of a sanguine and therefore chearful Constitution and of singular skill both in Musical instruments and singing yet was his and their Souls full of troubles and you may find them roaring by reason of the disquietness of their hearts Psal 38. 88. 13. 22. 27. Peace it self may be removed then though the seeds of peace remain In that those seeds are now hidden from sense and they do not immediately bring forth the blessed fruits of peace without the intervening act and attestation of God's Spirit and ours as was said Q. 8. without which a mans interest in Christ and the Covenant will be always dark most times doubtful and many times denied Isa 40.27 Psal 31.22 c. 88.14 Now God's Spirit may and many times doth suspend his testimony and stand off as a stranger or as a wayfaring man yea smite and wound and write bitter things against â—he Soul Our spirits may and do with-hold their witness many times also either careless through oscitancy or confused in their observations or complicated by other objects or compressed in their own operations through doubts which depress them through diffidence which disquiets them through distracting cares and fears which desolate them So that our spirits may not only be opposite to peace but overwhelmed with perplexities Psal 30.7 Jer. 14.8 Psal 69.26 Job 13.26 27. Psal 25.17 77.2 3. 143.4 3 Hence Christians should not measure their grace by their peace Neither 1. as to the sincerity of it There is not any such infallible tye between them as that a man should throw off all his hopes of grace as soon as he is turn'd out of the hold of peace Their tenure is different Grace is a tenure for perpetuity but Peace is a tenancy at will ad placitum domini We hold both from God and of meer grace or favour But that we hold more absolutely God hath undertaken both parts of the Covenant that we shall not depart from him as well as that he will not depart from us This see peace we hold more arbitrarily and are at our good behaviour in it If we break his statutes he will break our
some spark or other in so many embers which you should do well to scarch for and stir up Psal 119.81 Luk. 24.16 cum 22.2 Cor. 13.5 2 Tim. 1.6 Let me ask you or come answer these few questions in this afflicted condition 1. What are your greatest desires are they not to the name of God and to the remembrance of him Oh if God would lift up the light of his Countenance If I might have but some glimpses of his loving-kindness c. Must not all Comforts all Creatures stand by in comparison of this Is not this the one thing thou desirest afore and above all the rest Must thou not say My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Isa 26.8 Psal 4.6 cum 8.73.25 cum 21. 27.4 42.2 2. What is your greatest displicence Is it not that God hideth his face and holds thee for his enemy either that he is displeased with thee or that he is departed from thee Is not this the gall and the wormwood that most embitters this cup to thee that the Lord hath forsaken thee thy God hath forgotten thee thy beloved hath withdrawn himself and is gone from thee Oh the felicities I have found in his favour the overcoming sweetness that hath overflown me in his service c. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me and my tears are my meat while they say unto me where is thy God Job 13.24 Psal 88.7 14. Lam. 3.17 18 19. Isa 49.14 Cant. 5.6 Psal 42.3 4. 3. What are your greatest deliberations Are they not how you may return into friendship with God and God may renew his favour to you How you may be restored into acquaintance with him and be reconciled to and accepted of him Oh that I knew where or how I might find him whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but I would make supplication to my Judg. Oh that I were as in months past when the Almighty was yet with me and the secret of God was upon my tabernacle Lam. 5.21 2 Cor. 5.9 Job 23.3 c. 9.15 c. 29.2 4 5. 4. What are your greatest determinations Are they not for God the living God That thou wilt continue endeavours for him whatever it cost thee That thy Soul still follow hard after him though he seems to fly farther from thee That thou wilt never give over thy work or his word though thou shouldst go weeping from day to day and duty to duty That whatever work sit this shall not for thou settest a value on him above all the world O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee c. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from me From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have I waited for thee and will wait upon thee Psal 42.2 63.8 Lam. 2.18 19. c. 3.48 49 50. Psal 63.1 61.2 Isa 8.17 c. 26.8 9. What doth Conscience answer to these questions Must they not answer in the affirmative Is not the language of your spirits the same much-what with this that is now suggested to you If so how should you cheer your drooping hearts and command off these disquiets and anguish For these are just evidences that God is yours and you are his that the grace of his Spirit is in you though the grace of his favour doth not shine with its wonted light and warmth upon you as the Scriptures mentioned do manifest yea these things speak thy appretiation and esteem of God as the highest good and thy affections for and intention of him as the highest end and do therefore more infallibly conclude the safety of thy condition than do many other marks So that thou maist well renew the Psalmists charge My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him Psal 62.5 Direct 3. Tack about to the cause that hath thus bereft thee of thy comforts Pursue it with all the strength thou canst make Draw up every squadron of thy Soul like the Stars in their courses to fight against Sisera the sin that hath invaded and spoil'd thy peace Let thy Understanding discharge its arguments against it and aggravations of it Let Conscience arraign accuse condemn it and all the other powers under the subjection of Conscience execute and exterminate it Yea call in Prayer Promises Providences and whatever else may powerfully help thee in the combate or to its conquest And be sure thou give it constant chase till thou hast subdued or sunk it till thou hast drawn the nail of sin out of thy heart and driven the nail of sorrow and mortification into its head Thus did holy David Psal 51.1 15. Judg. 5.20 26. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34.31 32. Direct 4. Try the bath of Repentance No Bath is more effectual for an ulcerous body than this is for an ulcerated spirit Repentance is a panacea the Christians all-heal Who ever repented that was not remedied No sooner had Job repented but he was restored recovered Repentance removeth the cause and then God undertaketh to renew our comfort He will repent of the evil of punishing if once we repent of the evil of provoking Let Ephraim repent and she is forthwith remembred received reconciled and God reneweth the sweets of her old relation Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child c. Isa 6.10 c. 57.18 19. Job 42.6 c. Jer. 26 3 13. c. 18.8 c. 31.19 20. 1 Here rip up thy sins in confession that have made these sad ruins in Conscience Thy sorrows are continually before thee Call thy sins before thee also and declare thine iniquity The more you cover them the more they will corrode and like a cancer gnaw and feed on you The sooner you confess them the speedier and safer too will be your cure and Gods comfort Psal 38.17 18. Prov. 28.13 1 Joh. 1.9 David's heart was heavy in him and God's hand was heavy on him And what doth he I acknowledged my sin saith he c. And God by and by acknowledgeth his Soul and anticipateth his supplication I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And he sets a Selah on it for your attention and observation Psal 32.4 5 6. 2 Rinse thy Soul in Contrition Break up the fountains of Evangelical sorrow and bathe thy Soul in them How should thine eyes run down with penitential tears and thy head with rivers of pious sorrow and that heart bleed for thy manifold transgressions which is broken with such manifold tribulations Lam. 1.16 cum 18. c. 3.48 49 51. cum 42. I deny not but thou maist deplore the sadness