Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	faith_n	good_a	3,186	5	4.5750	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91899	Safe conduct, or The saints guidance to glory. Opened in a sermon preached at Dunstans in the East London. November the second, MDCLIV. At the funerall of the vertuous and religious gentlewoman, Mris. Thomasin Barnardiston, late wife of Mr. Samuel Barnardiston, merchant. / By Ralph Robinson, pastor of Mary Wolnoth, Lumbardstreet, London.	Robinson, Ralph, 1614-1655.	1655 (1655)	Wing R1711; Thomason E823_7; ESTC R203376	61,656	101

weighed in the ballance of reason and if they be allowed by it they will receive them but if reason disapprove them they are rejected as spurious and illegitimate Alas Alas Reason is an unsufficient guide to direct us especially in matters of faith Our Saviour sends men to Scripture in all such cases not to Reason Search the Scriptures for in them yee think to have eternall life Joh 5. 39. and they are they which testify of mee And elsewhere to the Law and to the Testimony God needed Isa 8. 20. not have set his pen-men on work to have written his will if Reason had been a sufficient Umpire in such matters To make reason a guide in matters of Faith is to unscripture the Scriptures Reason is not high enough though it stand on tipetoe to see to the bottome of those deep mysteries of Faith which are revealed in scripture Reason loseth it self grows mad when it dives into these deeps Reason is vitiated and corrupted by the fall as well as the Will the carnall Rom. 8. 7 mind is emnity against God Mans head is by nature as full of rottennesse as his heart Reason hath need of the tutorage of the word as well as the affections The light of reason is but as the light of the Gloworm but the light of Scripture is as bright as the Sun Reason doth stand in as much need of the correction of Faith as sense doth of the correction of reason St. Paul tells 1 Cor. 2. 14. us that the naturall man take him in his highest attainments receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Reason is now become like the wise Counsellors of Pharaoh brutish The Heathen that followed their own reason how Rom. 1. 21. 22. did they wander from the truth They became vain in their imaginations their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools as the Apostle speaks It is precious counsell which Solomon gives Pro. 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Hee had a longer line of reason than any of Adams posterity that succeeded him and yet hee prefers Faith in God before the deepest reason He that makes reason his guide doth in effect make it his God Hee that is acted according to the direction of Reason especially in matters of Faith will see cause to bewail such unreasonable actings The high scaling ladder of Faith must be set upon the head of reason if ever we would get a true apprehension of the things of God He that makes reason his guide especially in matters of Faith may find it a Pillar of Cloud but hee shall never find it a Pillar of Fire Reason is a good staff but no good guide I shall add this for a conclusion of all It is the highest and best reason to forsake our own wisdome and in all divine matters to stick to the unerring Counsel of Gods word and Spirit Reason though a very glorious thing is but the handmaid of Scripture Secondly Others there are that make men their 2 Those that make men their guide guide If wee examine narrowly wee shall find thousands in the world that set up no other guide besides this They walk according as they see others walk and they beleeve according to the belief of others It cannot be denied but it is a duty to tread in the steps of good men There is much of Gods Light in their Light wee are many times incited to walk according to the holy patterns of gracious men It is the Apostles advice Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation Ministers are Heb. 13. 7. guides by Doctrin and they are guides by life and it is a duty lying on the flock to follow their holy example as well as their Doctrin And therefore doth the same Apostle in his Epistle to the Philippians Phil. 3. 17. give this Counsell Brethren bee followers together of mee and mark them which walk so as yee have us for an example God hath for this purpose set up his graces in his Saints that by the light of them others may bee able to see the way to Heaven more clearly But yet to make men the best and holiest of men absolutely our guide either for Doctrin or Life is unpleasing to God and unsafe for our selves For First VVe ought not to esteem of men above that which is meet or as the Apostle saith above that 1 Cor. 6. 6. which is written It is an honour too high and too glorious to be put on any man to make him an universal guide VVe are commanded by our Saviour to call no man Father on earth it is not unlawful to call men Fathers Mat. 23. 9. upon earth the Fifth Commandement enjoyns Pa●ernum honorem falso hominibus tribui si Dei gloriam obscurat Calv. both the name and the honour but we are not to call men our Fathers so as thereby to obscure the glory of God as Calvin expounds the place Now to make any man our guide in opposition to the Counsel of God is to call man our Father in a sinful sense Hee that thus makes man his guide makes man his God which is a breach of the first Commandement Secondly The best of men is an insufficient guide the wisest of men need the guidance of God The best of men are fallible Men of low degree are vanity and Psal 62. 9. men of high degree are a lye The best of men are imperfect both in Knowledge and Holiness they are like the Moon that hath a dark side as well as a bright God hath scattered his Graces among his people but he hath not given any one Saint all his graces I mean not all degrees of any grace the best and most perfect hath grace in imperfection The wicked are seducing guides the godly are defective guides and therefore not to be followed any farther then they follow the Counsels of God The Apostle puts in that condition when he propounds his own example Be yee followers of me as I am of Christ It is a limitation 1 Cor. 11. 1. that must never be left out It is no dishonour to any man to dissent from him when he dissents from the Counsel of God Thirdly VVhatsoever wee do if wee have no higher a rule for it then man will not be accepted of God To assent to Divine truths only because they are beleeved of men is to assent to them but with an Human faith To do what God commands only because men do the same is but a Human obedience which God will not reward Thou hast charged us saith Psal 119. 4 5. David that we should keep thy precepts diligently And then he

so is now to be discussed There is no imperfection or insufficiency either in the Word of God or in the Spirit of God what then is the reason First Beleevers do not always follow the Divine 1 They will not follow Gods direction Conduct as is meet they should Saints are dim-sighted they many times mistake the rule Saints are wilfull though they see the Rule and hear the Voyce This is the way walk in it yet they will not walk therein their peevish and froward nature will not suffer them to follow the conduct of Heaven though it be discovered never so plainly And besides the Saints do too often close with bad company which hurry them aside from the ways of God Why Jer. 2. 36. gaddest thou about so much to change thy way It is Gods charge against his own people The dearest of Gods Saints have a gadding spirit within them they love to wander they shut their Eyes and will not see they stop their Ears and will not hear wilfulness occasions wandrings Secondly God is pleased sometimes to with-draw 2 God with-draws himself his guidance from them God doth never totally and absolutely remove his guiding grace from his Servants yet he seeth it meet sometimes to suspend it in the powerful influences of it and upon this suspension the Beleever goes astray It is said concerning Hezekiah That in the business of the Ambassadours of the 2 Chro. 32. 31 Princes of Babylon God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart And when God left him he soon stumbled and fell Beleevers are not so thankful for the conduct of God as they ought to be this unthankfulness makes God look away Beleevers are apt to ascribe their standing to themselves this causeth God to leave them to themselves God would rather have his Children stumble than that they should be too well conceited of their own sight Beleevers do not lay such fast hold on God as they ought therefore he pulls back his hand God would rather his people should now and then fall than that their dependance on him should bee weakned Beleevers are apt to grow too confident this provokes God to turn away his face Psa 30. 6. God would rather have his Children lye a while in the dirt than that they should be proud of their standing Beleevers are too adventurous they are fool-hardy and will now and then be walking upon the water God would rather see his Children sink up to the knees than see them so fondly presumptuous They do not always follow God God doth not always in the same degree communicate his power to them and upon this two-fold account it is that they wander for a time both in point of judgement and in point of practise Thus I have with what brevity and clearness I was able opened these two points That the people of God do desire to be guided by the Counsel of God and that God hath setled it as a privilege upon them that they shall be so guided I proceed to the Application of these two points which I shall reduce to three heads Information Reprehension Exhortation First for Information and here I shall only hint a 1 Use Information few things which by necessary consequence do arise from the points discussed As First What a singular mercy it is that God hath 1 The usefulness of the Scripture given us the Scriptures we should have wandered like blinde men in the dark if this blessed Light by which the whole Counsel of God both for matters of faith and matters of obedience is revealed had not been set up among us This is one great piece of the Divine Counsel by which the Saints are guided to eternal life Solomon speaking of the Word of God tells us how useful it is in this kinde When thou goest it Prov. 6. 22. shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee when thou awakest it shall talk with thee The Word of God is a guide to our thoughts it directs us how to think and how to meditate It is a guide to our Lips it teacheth us when to speak and what to speak It is a guide to our Hands it gives us direction what to meddle with and what to forbear It is a guide to the Saints in their Civil employments it teacheth them how to buy and how to sell and how to trade It is a guide to them in their Natural actions it teacheth them how to eat how to drink how to sleep that God may be glorified in all such actions It is a guide in religious performances it teacheth them how to hear how to pray how to worship It teacheth us how to carry our selves in every condition how to abound without arrogancy how to want without impatience how to be full and not wanton how to be empty and not repine It teacheth us how to carry our selves in all relations It is a Tutor to the Childe to teach him how to obey It is a Counsellor to the Parent to teach him how to govern It instructs Servants how to keep a good Conscience in doing faithful service It directs Masters how to render unto their Servants that which is equal The Word of God is useful in all cases When God put the Bible into thy hand he gave thee a perfect Directory for all manner of concernments Secondly How injurious are the Papists in for 2 The Sin of Papists in prohibiting the Scriptures bidding the use of the Scriptures to the common people God commands all men to read the Word they forbid those to meddle with it that in regard of their ignorance have more than ordinary need of it This is a Sacrilegious wickedness what do they by this tyranny but force the people to forsake the guidance of Gods Counsel The Prophet informs us of the strange wilfulness of the Jews in rejecting the advice of Gods Prophets Get yee out of the way turn aside out of the path cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before Isa 30. 11. us The Popish Clergy by locking up the Scriptures from the common people do as good as say to them Get yee out of the way turn aside out of the path They know they could never perswade the people to follow their blinde guides if they did not deprive them of this Divine guidance The Doctrin of implicite faith and blinde obedience would never go down so easily if Gods counsel revealed in the Word were not laid aside They say the reading of the Scriptures is the cause of Heresies whereas our Saviour affirms that ignorance of the Scripture is the cause of Heresies Yee erre not knowing the Scriptures These Souldevourers Mat. 22. 29. do therefore silence the Oracle of God that they may keep up among the ignorant sort the credit of their own lying Oracles Thirdly How useful is it that the Word should 3 Translations of Scripture necessary be translated