Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	great_a	see_v	4,001	5	3.3205	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76131	The doctrine of self-posing, or, a Christians duty of putting cases of difficulty to himself Being the summe of some sermons preached at Upton upon Seavern, in the county of Worcester. By B. Baxter, late minister of the gospel there, but now removed.	Baxter, Benjamin, Preacher of the Gospel.	1666 (1666)	Wing B1170A; ESTC R230135	25,508	101

with us than against us He saw more power in God to help than in the enemies to hurt Thus Christians must see their consolations to be above their tribulations and their incouragements to surmount all discouragements They must be sure to furnish themselves with arguments drawn from the consideration of the truth and goodness and power and all-sufficiency c. of God 2. The particular directions First Be not over-hasty in your resolutions Let there be a thorow and serious consideration of difficulties before you come to resolution Take the counsel of our Saviour Luke 14.28 concerning building and going to war there should be a sitting down first to consider whether one is able to build such a house and to manage such a war This was Peters oversight he was too hasty in his resolution Do as Porters do ponder and weigh your burthen before you carry it Secondly Be self-denying Presume not upon your own strength This was Peters failing Go not forth in your own might for in the might of the Lord shall every one be strong 1 Sam. 2.9 By strength shall no man prevail And in God David found his strength when he telleth you how it was with him in the day of trouble Psal 73.26 My heart and my flesh fail me but God is the strength of my heart Thirdly Get safe grounds for your resolutions to be built upon build not upon a sandy foundation Remember a good cause and a good conscience will make a man resolute Let me tell you it is an interest in God and an interest in Christ that will make us resolute in the midst of the greatest difficulties as you may see Psal 46.1 Psal 23.1 c. Fourthly Eye and observe others in their resolutions Look back upon those that have gone before you and see what steps they walked in Take our Saviour himself for an example who telleth us John 9.4 The night cometh when no man can work and therefore took up this resolution that he would work while it was day Put the same cases to your selves as the Saints have done and lay down such resolutions It was the saying of Chrysostome when Eudoxia the Empress threatned him What will she do to me Will she saw me asunder I will remember Isaiah Will she cast me into a fiery Furnace I will remember the three Children Will she cut off my head I will remember John the Baptist Will she stone me I will remember it was the case of S. Stephen Will she banish me I will remember it was the case of S. John who was banished into the Isle of Patmos 5. Strive to find out answers to those doubts and objections that will be most like to hinder resolution The Martyrs met with many in the day of their sufferings viz. Is not life sweet will you destroy your self will you undo Wife and Children will you obstruct your own honour and preferment in this world Thus Christians should make these and the like objections This is to sit down and consider what it will cost us to encounter with difficulties when they come and will put us upon laying down setled resolutions against they come Sixthly To make you resolute when difficulties come compare and weigh your disadvantages with your advantages When the day cometh when there is a day of suffering come upon you for bearing testimony to the Gospel of Christ you should consider as what will be the loss so what will bee the gain Thus the Apostle Paul did to strengthen his resolution he weighed both 2 Cor. 4.17 Hee put his afflictions in one scale and saith they were light hee put glory in the other scale and found it exceeding weighty so concludes that his afflictions here were not to bee compared with glory hereafter The same Apostle doth the same Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to bee compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I compute The Apostle had cast up the account of the loss and gain that might come by suffering for the sake of Christ and hee puts this at the foot of the account which is mentioned verse 18. It is good for Christians when they have forecast difficulties to look and see what is beyond them It is the expression of the Psalmist Psalm 66.12 Thou broughtest us through fire and water but thou hast brought us forth into a wealthy place When you look upon fire and water before you upon the putting of cases of difficulty to your selves by the eye of faith you may see a glorious and wealthy place beyond that When you see a Mountain of difficulties in your way remember there is a pleasant and delightful Valley beyond it There are two things christians should consider of First What is on the other side the evil of sinning and that is Hell Secondly What is on the other side the evil of suffering and that is Glory And therefore the Saints of God have chosen the evil of suffering before the evil of sinning We read of the Prince of Condy who being brought Prisoner to the Louvre in Paris that night that the Massacre was in France under the reign of Charles the ninth hee had these three proposals made to him either to go to Masse or to lose his Head or to suffer perpetual imprisonment To the first hee answered it was an evil of sin and hee would not chuse that for the two last they were but evils of suffering and as for them hee did submit himself to his Majesties pleasure Christians should remember that the greatest evils of suffering are to bee preferred before the least evil of sinning It was the saying of Chrysostome when hee heard how the Empress threatned him Nil nisi peccatum timeo I fear nothing but sin I shall close this with the answer that a Father returned to an Emperour who threatned him with imprisonment if he conformed not to his way of worship Tu Carcerem ille Gehennam Thou threatnest me with a Prison but God threatneth me with Hell Seventhly When you have layed down setled resolutions nourish them by prayer Remember in whom your strength lieth viz. in God David telleth us Psalm 73. when his heart and his flesh failed him God was the strength of his heart Be much in holding communion with him in whom your strength lieth That as David saith Psal 121.1 I will lift up mine eyes to the Hills from whence cometh my help Some think David in the sudden looked to the Creature viz. the Mountains by which Jerusalem was made strong But he presently recalleth himself and saith verse 2. My help cometh from the Lord. Christians you may resolve upon your putting cases of difficulty to your selves but remember that your enablements to perform those resolutions lye in God without whom you can do nothing Solomon saith Prov. 21.31 The Horse is prepared for the day of battle but salvation is of

convinced of his own inability to undergo sufferings when they come looks out of himself and fastens upon a rock that is higher than he when the over-confident Christian builds and bottoms himself upon his own strength You know the story of Mr. Saunders and Dr. Pendleton Pendleton was the confident man Saunders was the timerous man but the timerous man suffered at the stake when the confident man returned this answer that He could not burn 2. Use is by way of Exhortation and it is to put us upon the duty of putting cases of difficulty to our selves Here we shall do three things 1. Shew whence it is men do it not 2. Directions concerning it 3. Arguments and Motives to move us to it 1. Consider why some do it not So among other causes of it take these First The unpleasantness and bitterness of such thoughts they think it is tormenting them before their time Every man naturally desireth to fancy to himself ease and quietness when the evil day of wrath and judgment is near And when they are told that such a day is drawing near how ready are they to put it far from them as those in Amos did Amos 6.3 As Peter said to Christ Be it far from thee Lord this evil shall not bee unto thee When Christ foretold his sufferings How many are there that love not those Sermons by which they are called upon to the exercise of this duty and are ready to say of Ministers that preach such Doctrine as Ahab did of Micaiah hee speaketh no good to mee And as he said to Elijah Hast thou found me O mine enemy And when the discourses of difficulty are so unpleasing to men much more must the thoughts of them bee to them what we love not to hear of we lesse love to think of Secondly A kind of unchangeableness that some groundlesly fancy concerning their present condition They think their mountain is so strong that it cannot be removed they think not that times may change that winds may turn and that that wind that now sits upon their backs to blow them forward may quickly turn and blow in their faces to drive them backwards Thus said Babylon in her prosperity I sit as a Queen and shal never be in adversity Yea thus said David in his prosperity Psal 30.6 That he should not be moved The truth is men look not upon outward things with right considerations of their brevity mortality mutability Most say as those in Isa 56.12 To morrow shall be as this day Most men look only upon the outward wheel of Providence but consider not the wheel within the wheel as the expression is Ezek. 1. And there was a wheel within the wheel When men are in a prosperous condition they grow confident that their mountain is so strong they shall not be moved but this is by reason of their looking upon the outward wheel but think not of the wheel within the wheel how that may move The outward wheel of providence as to Haman moved to his honor and advancement but the inward wheel moved to his ruine and destruction As on the contrary in the case of Joseph the outward wheel of providence seemed to move to his ruine and destruction when the inward wheel moved to his honour and advancement So then this is one cause why many put no cases of difficulty to themselves they only look on the outward wheel but think not of the wheel within the wheel Thirdly carnal confidence Some think come what will come we have something to trust to As the Prophet Amos telleth those Amos 6.1 That they did trust in the Mountain of Samaria and then see vers 3. They put the evil day far from them When others make God their refuge and Rock and strong Tower of defence these make their barns and their bags and their friends and in a word the creature the rock of their confidence and upon this account think themselves so safe that they need not fear Solomon saith of the rich man Prov. 10.15 That his wealth is his strong City Thus some look upon friends as their rock some upon riches as their rock some upon their present worldly enjoyments as their rock And this is the reason why such put no cases of difficulty to themselves 2. Consider the Directions concerning putting cases of difficulty to our selves and so to put them that wee may with the Prophet Habakkuk lay down setled resolutions The Directions are of two sorts 1. Some more general 2. Some more particular The general Directions are these First In putting cases of difficulty to our selves we must be sure to put them right we must neither put them above nor below what they are Some look upon difficulties through multiplying-glasses magnifying-glasses which represent difficulties to them more and greater indeed than they are A wise man discourseth them and gageth them he fathomes them and makes them neither greater nor less than they are Some there are that put vizzards upon their difficulties and make them look worse than they are and seeing them so disguised fly from them We read of one who when he came in armed and with his Head-piece on his own child fled from him as being afraid though he was his Father but the Armour being put off he ran to him and owned him It is the wisdome of Christians to pull the vizzards off two things 1. Sin to see the ugliness of it 2. Sufferings that there is no such terribleness in them as some imagine And as Christians are not to put cases of difficulty to themselves above what they are so they are not to put them below what they are if so there will either follow non-resolution or very weak and slight resolutions the end of which will be but a surprizal How many have perished for want of giving an Alarum to themselves concerning evils approaching VVe read of a City that had enemies and divers times some came in and told them the enemy was approaching they finding these alarms false at last proclaimed that none upon pain of death should come with such tidings at last the enemy came indeed and took the City and this was said of it Silentium perdidit silence hath destroy'd it Thus it is with many who do not alarm their own souls concerning approaching difficulties it may be said silence hath destroyed them Second general direction He that will put cases of difficulty to himself and lay down setled resolutions must find his arguments to be above his difficulties This is the great cause why Christians stagger and waver in suffering times because they find their troubles and difficulties to be above their arguments We read of Elisha's servant when he saw the great host of the Syrians 2 Kings 6.15 He cried out Master what shall we do His troubles were above his arguments and by reason of that he was at his wits end but his Master Elisha's arguments were above his troubles who answered there are more