Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	day_n	see_v	1,438	5	3.1164	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26952	Making light of Christ and salvation too oft the issue of gospel invitations manifested in a sermon preached at Lawrence-dury, in London, by Rich. Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing B1306; ESTC R32552	28,762	38

to night that they can find no time for matters of Salvation Christ would teach them but they have no leisure to hear him The Bible is before them but they cannot have while to read it A Minister is in the Town with them but they cannot have while to go to enquire of him what they shall do to be saved And when they do hear their Hearts are so full of the World and carried away with these lower matters that they cannot mind the things which they hear They are so full of the thoughts and desires and cares of this World that there is no room to pour into them the water of Life The cares of the World do choak the Word and make it become unfruitful Mat. 13. 22. Men cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon but they will lean to the one and despise the other Mat. 6. 24. He that loveth the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15 16. Men cannot chuse but set light by Christ and Salvation while they set so much by any thing on Earth It is that which is highly esteemed among Men is abominable in the sight of God Luke 16. 15. Oh this is the ruin of many thousand Souls It would grieve the Heart of any honest Christian to see how eagerly this vain World is followed every where and how little Men set by Christ and the World to come to compare the care that Men have for the World with the care of their Souls and the time that they lay out on the World with that time they lay out for their Salvation To see how the World fills their Mouths their Hands their Houses their Hearts and Christ hath little more than a bare Title To come into their company and hear no discourse but of the World to come into their houses and hear and see nothing but for the World as if this World would last forever or would purchase them another When I ask sometime the Ministers of the Gospel how their labours succeed they tell me People continue still the same and give up themselves wholly to the World so that they mind not what Ministers say to them nor will give any full entertainment to the Word and all because of the deluding World And oh that too many Ministers themselves did not make light of that Christ whom they preach being drawn away with the love of this World In a word Men of a worldly Disposition do judge of things according to worldly advantages therefore Christ is slighted Isa 53. 3. He is despised and rejected of men they hide their faces from him and esteem him not as seeing no beauty or comeliness in him that they should desire him 7. Christ and Salvation are made light of because men do not soberly consider of the truth and weight of these necessary things They suffer not their minds so long to dwell upon them till they procure a due esteem and deeply affect their Heart did they believe them and not consider of them how should they work Oh when men have reason given them to think and consider of the things that most concern them and yet they will not use it this causeth their contempt 8. Christ and Salvation are made light of because Men were never sensible of their sin and misery and extream necessity of Christ and his Salvation their eyes were never opened to see themselves as they are nor their Hearts soundly humbled in the sense of their condition If this were done they would soon be brought to value a Saviour A truly broken Heart can no more make light of Christ and Salvation than a hungry Man of his food or a sick man of the means that would give him ease but till then our Words cannot have access to their Hearts while sin and misery is made light of Christ and Salvation will be made light of but when these are perceived an intolerable burden then nothing will serve the turn but Christ Till men be truly humbled they can venture Christ and Salvation for a lust for a little worldly gain even for less than nothing but when God hath illuminated them and broken their Hearts then they would give a World for a Christ then they must have Christ or they die all things then are loss and dung to them in regard of the excellent knowledge of Christ Phil. 3. 8. When they are once pricked in their hearts for sin and misery then they cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2. 37. When they are awakened by Gods Judgments as the poor Jaylor Acts 16. 29. then they cry out Sirs what shall I do to be saved This is the reason why God will bring men so low by humiliation before he bring them to salvation 9. Men take occasion to make light of Christ by the commonness of the Gospel because they do hear of it every day the frequency is an occasion to dull their affections I say an occasion for it is no just cause Were it a rarity it might take more with them but now if they hear a Minister preach nothing but these saving Truths they say We have these every day They make not light of their bread or drink their health or life because they possess them every day they make not light of the Sun because it shineth every day at least they should not for the mercy is the greater but Christ and Salvation are made light of because they hear of them often This is say they a good plain dry Sermon Pearls are trod in the dirt where they are common They loath this dry Manna Prov. 27. 7. The full Soul loaths the hony-comb but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet 10. Christ and Salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already and God that is so merciful and Christ that hath suffered so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at any time if it be not yet so A conceited facility to have a part in Christ and Salvation at any time doth occasion men to make light of them It is true that Grace is free and the Offer is universal according to the extent of the preaching of the Gospel and it is true that men may have Christ when they will that is when they are willing to have him on his terms but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter If thou canst make thine own Heart willing why is it not done now Can you do it better when sin hath more hardned it and God may have given thee over to thy self Oh sinners you might do much tho' you are not able of your selves to come in if you would now subject your selves to the working of the Spirit and set in while the gales of

matters of another World and out of his element and therefore he hath no more delight in them than a Fish would have to be in the fairest Meadow or than a Swine hath in a Jewel or a Dog in a piece of Gold They may be good to others but he cannot apprehend them as suitable to him because he hath a nature that is otherwise inclined he savoureth not the things of the Spirit Rom 8. 5. 4. The main cause of the slighting of Christ and Salvation is a secret root of unbelief in mens hearts Whatsoever they may pretend they do not soundly and throughly believe the Word of God They are taught in general to say The Gospel is true but they never saw the Evidence of its truth so far as throughly to perswade them of it nor have they got their Souls setled on the Infallibility of God's Testimony nor considered of the Truth of the particular Doctrins revealed in the Scripture so far as soundly to believe them Oh did you all but soundly believe the words of this Gospel of the evil of sin of the need of Christ and what he hath done for you and what you must be and do if ever you will be saved by him and what will become of you for ever if you do it not I dare say it would cure the contempt of Christ and you would not make so light of the matters of your Salvation But men do not believe while they say they do and would face us down that they do and verily think that they do themselves There is a root of bitterness and an evil Heart of unbelief that makes them depart from the living God Heb. 2. 12. and 4. 1 2 6. Tell any Man in this Congregation that he shall have a gift of 10000 l. if he will but go to London for it if he believe you he will go but if he believe not he will not and if he will not go you may be sure he believeth not supposing that he is able I know a slight belief may stand with a wicked life Such as men have of the Truth of a Prognostication it may be true and it may be false but a true and sound belief is not consistent with so great neglect of the things that are believed 5. Christ and Salvation are made light of by the World because of their desperate hardness of Heart The Heart is hard naturally and by custom in sinning made more hard especially by long abuse of Mercy and neglect of the means of Grace and resisting the Spirit of God Hence it is that men are turned into such Stones and till God cure them of the stone of the Heart no wonder if they feel not what they know or regard not what we say but make light of all 'T is hard preaching a stone into tears or making a rock to tremble You may stand over a dead body long enough and say to it Oh thou Carcase when thou hast lain roting and mouldring to dust till the Resurrection God will then call thee to account for thy sin and cast thee into everlasting fire before you can make it feel what you say or fear the misery that is never so truly threatned when Mens Hearts are like the High-way that is trodden to hardness by long custom in sinning or like the clay that is hardned to a stone by the heat of those Mercies which should have melted them into Repentance when they have Consciences seared with a hot Iron as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 4. 2. no wonder then if they be past feeling and working all uncleanness with greediness do make light of Christ and Everlasting Glory Oh that this were not the case of too many of our Hearers Had we but living Souls to speak to they would hear and feel and not make light of what we say I know they are naturally alive but they are spiritually dead as Scripture witnesseth Eph. 2. 3. Oh if there were but one spark of the life of Grace in them the Doctrin of Salvation by Jesus Christ would appear to them to be the weightiest business in the World Oh how confident should I be methinks to prevail with men and to take them off this World and bring them to mind the matters of another World if I spake but to Men that had Life and Sense and Reason But when we speak to Blocks and dead Men how should we be regarded Oh how sad a case are these Souls in that are fallen under this fearful judgment of spiritual madness and deadness To have a blind Mind and a hard Heart to be sottish and senseless Mar. 4. 12. John 12. 40. lest they should be converted and their sin should be forgiven them 6. Christ and Salvation are made light of by the World because they are wholly enslaved to their sense and taken up with lower things the matters of another World are out of sight and so far from their senses that they cannot regard them but present things are nearer them in their eyes and in their hands There must be a living faith to prevail over sense before Men can be so taken with things that are not seen though they have the Word of God for their security as to neglect and let go things that are still before their eyes Sense works with great advantage and therefore doth much in resisting Faith where it is No wonder then if it carry all before it where there is no true and lively faith to resist and to lead the Soul to higher things this cause of making light of Christ and Salvation is expressed here in my Text One went to his Farm and another to his Merohandize Men have Houses and Lands to look after they have Wife and Children to mind they have their Body and outward Estate to regard therefore they forget that they have a God a Redeemer a Soul to mind These matters of the World are still with them They see these but they see not God nor Christ nor their Souls nor everlasting Glory These things are near at hand and therefore work naturally and so more forcibly but the other are thought on as a great way off and therefore too distant to work on their affections or to be at the present so much regarded by them Their Body hath life and sense and therefore if they want meats or drink or cloaths will feel their want and tell them of it and give them no rest till their wants be supplied and therefore they cannot make light of their bodily necessities but their Souls in spiritual respects are dead and therefore feel not their wants but will let them alone in their greatest necessities and be as quiet when they are starved and languishing to Destruction as if all were well and nothing ailed them And hereupon poor people are wholly taken up in providing for the Body as if they had nothing else to mind They have their Trades and Callings to follow and so much to do from morning