Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	life_n	sin_n	9,880	5	5.5192	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13261	A Christian loue-letter sent particularly to K.T. a gentlewoman mis-styled a Catholicke, but generallie intended to all of the Romish religion, to labour their conuersion to the true faith of Christ Iesus. By Iohn Swynnerton, Gent	Swynnerton, John.	1606 (1606)	STC 23558; ESTC S120777	49,016	88

their birth immediately vpon the Apostles death but some of them sprang vp two hundred some three hundred some fiue hundred years after some sooner some later and were not al til within this very age euen the memory of men now liuing by your selus consented vnto nor absolutely by your owne vsurped authority concluded vpon Hence may you easily gather your religion being neither sufficiently waranted by authority of Gods word nor generally approued by the ancient fathers of the church how woorthily or vnworthily you stile the same with such confidence the old and catholicke religion I cannot go on with particular examination of euery part of your profession your patience and my leisure being I fear proportionable wil not permit me but do beg your attētion to the consideration of one principal point of doctrine generally taught by your greatest clarks as generally beleeued euen to the simplest amongst you whose stomackes indeed are the best digesters of such misdiet because at the hands of ignorance errour euer findeth her securest entertainment I formerlye in discourse of our Religion affirmed that our whole dependance for our saluation was vpon the free mercy of God through christ Iesus And the righteousnesse of christ without any worke or merit of our owne applyed truely by faith was before God our only iustification contrary to this doctrin you are taught and do beleeue that you shall be saued by your workes or at least that your workes must concur and stand vp with faith in the act of your iustification before God Now to make you see and acknowledge the absurdity and preiudice of this opinion first you shall heare what the Apostle himselfe inspired with the holy spirit and the fathers of the church hauing the same diuine scholmaister though instructed in farre different measure haue thought and deliuered touching the same and then som principal inconueniences that necessarily follow that doctrine pregnant and aparant enough I hope vtterly to deterre you from euer lending a listening eare againe thereunto Titus 3 5 Paule that writ more touching the manner of our iustification then all the rest of the Apostles to make his Scholler Titus and others by him to abandon all hope of being saued by their works telleth him plainely We are saued not by workes of righteousnesse which we haue done but acording to his mercy he saued vs Heere he excludeth workes though they be works of righteousnes though they be our best works and ascribeth all the matter of our saluation meerely to the mercy of God through Iesus christ I am sure there is no worke that you or the holiest of your church whatsoeuer can do that is a better worke more meritorious a worke of purer righteousnesse then the workes of Paule were No they hold in no comparison with his for his workes as yours doe not sprang from a liuely faith which made them so good as they were notwithstanding you see he vtterly renounceth them all how good soeuer and dare you in any sort rest vpon yours in this important matter of iustification The said Apostle laboring to win the Romaines to the same faith readeth them this lecture to the same effect Ro. 6 23 The wages of sinne is death but the guift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our sauiour Heere you are plainly told what are the causes of going to hell and comming to heauen The desert of man the cause of damnation but the mercy of God the cause of saluation our sinne doth incur the one for the reward of sinne is death but our best deserts merit not the other for eternal life is meerly the guift of God through Iesus Christ had Paule that learned Apostle in this point approued the doctrine of your church thus questionlesse or to this effect he would haue concluded the reward of sinne is death and the reward of good workes is eternall life but you see hee quite ouerthroweth that opinion leauing vs of our selues to deserue the one but ascribing the other to Gods free guifte in Christ beyond our desert But if neither of these places haue power to remoue you from your former opinion giue me leaue to produce one saying more out of the same authour which I assure my selfe so you ponder it rightly will pierce euen the quickest vayne of your heart if the same as I hope in my sauiour it is not be not vtterly benummed the sufferings saith he of this life are not worthy of the glory to come I conceiue that the workes whereby you hope to merit at Gods hands are the workes of doing and workes of suffering the former more easie and lesse deseruing the latter lesse easie and therefore as you are taught the more meritorious but Paule that knew what it was both to do suffer better then those by whom you are perswaded to place such hie affiance in your workes preacheth vnto you heere another kind of doctrine namely that euen the sufferings of this life your afflictions your deeds of best desert are not worthy of the glory to come And you may be assured that no man that euer fought vnder the banner of Christ Iesus suffered more for his sake or deserued heauen better for his sufferings then he that teacheth you this lesson For he testifieth of himselfe that the sufferings of Christ did abound in him That in labours he was more aboundant then other in ripes aboue measure Co. 11 23 in pryson more plenteously on death oft that of the Iewes fiue tymes he receiued forty stripes saue one that he was thrice beaten with rods once stoned thrice suffered shripwracke that he was night and day in the deepe Sea In iournying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils of his owne nation in perils among the gentiles in perils in the citty in perils in the wildernesse in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false breathren In wearinesse and painefulnesse in watching often In hunger and thirst in fasting often In cold and in nakednesse and beside the thinges that were outward he was combred daiely and had the eare of all the Churches Phi 1 13 And that his bandes in Christ were famous throughout all the iudgement hall and in all other places These are Paules owne wordes of himselfe and his sufferings Now if euer there were such merit in our works sure heere it was if euer the desert of sinfull man could iustly haue challenged such a reward as euerlasting life doubtlesse Paule for these his sufferinges would haue put in with the formost Howbeit you see when he speakes of the glory to come and the proper cause of our attayning vnto eternall saluation he then disclaimeth from al his works from these his sufferings and all and cherefully runs to another refuge euen the righteousnesse of his sauiour christ Iesus wherein there is true merit indeede and wherewith hee knovveth the iustice of God is worthily satisfied and our eternall peace onely procured thus you