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	good_a	work_n	5,591	5	6.3844	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05999	A commentarie vpon the first and second chapters of Saint Paul to the Colossians Wherein, the text is cleerly opened, observations thence perspiciously deducted ... Together with diuers places of Scripture briefely explained. By Mr. Paul Bayne. B.D.	Baynes, Paul, d. 1617.; Stubbs, Justinian, 1604 or 5-1681.	1634 (1634)	STC 1636; ESTC S101082	229,900	390

had made a good profession before many witnesses We see that children when that they have done already is commended it doth hearten them to further diligence Besides it is a secret shame to leape from pale to sprigge and with the Moone to change our beliefes Therefore even in this regard it inforceth continuance to remember us what we have begunne in Besides be that setteth his hand to Gods plough and looketh backe is not fit for His kingdome Wherefore we must the rather I say hold on Vse What art thou ashamed to be counted an unconstant man by ceassing in that which thou beginnest sinfully and wilt thou not be ashamed to be variable in that course which is good and holy Oh thou hast forgot this who hast lost thy first love who hast beene more zealous more carefull of good duties who hast embraced CHRIST more powerfully and affectionately than now thou dost Why doest thou marre good beginnings with such slothfull proceedings VERSE 7. Rooted and built up in Him and stablished in the faith as yee have beene taught abounding therein with thanksgiving NOw followeth the manner of their walking on in IESUS CHRIST which is described from the augmentation of their Faith and their thankfulnesse for CHRIST and the doctrine which brought the knowledge of Him unto them The growth of Faith is described 1. From the effects 2. From the quantity The effects of a proceeding faith and obedient course of life led in Christ are two 1. A more firme union with Christ this is set downe by a double comparison the one taken from trees fastening their roots lower and lower The other from buildings wherein matter is surely laid upon the foundation The 2. Effect is the more full perswasion of the doctrine of CHRIST and grace of God brought them in the same which is set downe by the manner how it was to be held of them firmely even so as they had beene taught by Epaphras The Quantity followeth abounding in your confirmed perswasion above named The second thing followeth which is also a fruit of encreasing faith even thankfulnesse for CHRIST and His benefits bestowed on us and now more certainely perceived by us So that this verse may be thus conceived It describeth our coustant walking in CHRIST and our Faith in Him by these particulars 1 A more neere Vnion with CHRIST we fixing the roots of our affiance more deepely in Him and like as it is in buildings So wee being living stones which more and more settle as it were by constant walking in CHRIST on Him our Foundation 2 Our constant course bringeth us hitherto that whereas we were wavering touching the points of doctrine and God's grace as they were taught us we I say constant by walking in Christ come to be strongly perswaded in all the matter of faith as we first learned it from faithfull teachers 3. This shall accompany your proceeding in Christ that we shall abound in our perswasion of doctrine and GOD's grace toward us 4. That better knowing the things bestowed on us and eased of our doubting which unbeliefe excited wee grow to unfained thankfulnesse for CHRIST and His benefits The summe therefore is now easily set downe Continue in the faith you have begunne in and live according to His will and through His strength on whom you have beleeved growing by this constant persevering to be more neerely knit to Him rooted and builded more fully perswaded of the doctrine as it hath been taught you for measure more abundant both in knowledge and confidence finally heartily thankfull for so great things given you of GOD. Observe first Doct. out of the coherence What fruit we get by constant going on in CHRIST we come to have more firme conjunction with Him When a young plant is newly set the roots are of small depth in the earth one may well pull them up with an hand but as the tree shooteth up in sight and bearing fruit so it striketh the roots deeper and deeper downward yea both together though it be not perceived So that no force can move it So in a building stones new laid while the morter is yet greene may be pecked out but when the cement is dried and they are sunke downe and throughly settled upon the foundation they are more closely joyned to it then they cannot be easily moved So it is in us wee have not for degree so firme and neere conjunction with Christ but the more we live in Him like good trees spreading in the sight of all men and bringing forth the fruit of righteousnesse the more we come to take root downward by a more firme confidence which doth bring us to have a firmer conjunction and more neere union with Him Our Vnion is answerable unto that which uniteth us As the cause is in degree greater or lesser the effect is answerable Now at the first faith is weake like a bruised reed and smoaking weeke but while Faith holding Christ doth draw the Spirit from Him which maketh it fruitful in good works the more it exerciseth the more it is strengthned even as in babes their powers every way at first are feeble but the more they feed and exercise the more they waste the redundant moisture which before enfeebled their faculties and put forth strength in all their operations Saint Peter when faith was weake in him at the voice of a Damosell was shaken by walking in Christ awhile he was so rooted that threatnings whippings imprisonments conventings before great power martyrdome nothing could shake him Wherefore let us walke on without fainting Vse 1 hold on in Christ this will bring us further and further into Christ What if thou standest not so firme what if little winds seeme to shake thee goe on thou shalt grow rooted in him thou knowest not how yea while thou doest thus though thou shakest thy root doth strike lower and lower into Christ Many are moved to think how weakly they are fastened how slenderly they are rooted in Him but to be rooted is not every beleevers state I mean thus deepely rooted this is the condition which they attaine who have long walked in Christ But what then if Christians be not at first rooted Object a weake faith may be quite overthrowne True Answ if they be not rooted in any manner but this they are from their first setting into CHRIST by faith yea so rooted that they shall never fall altogether but this is an higher degree of rooting which doth not only shut forth falling which the other doth also but even that shaking and more grievous tottering for the most part which trees may have and stand neverthelesse to which the former degree is subject on feeling every wind I say for the most part for such may be temptation and desertion meeting that rooted David may shrewdly totter Hence may be shewed men why they are so weakely grounded in Christ Vse 2 because they walke so loosely and remissely so abound with greene lusts which craze their faith

Christ working through that death in the behalfe of all His the death of the creature so farre forth as by the just judgement of God it hath a power through Sathans working to draw us from God to it selfe 3 A death of our corruption Galath 6.15 By the Cxosse of Christ the world is crucified to me and I to it that is by Christ crucified Briefly as Adam becomming mortall and dying to this mortall life wee all so soone as wee are borne members of Him are mortall and tend to death by force of that mortality in the roote of us So Christ dying spiritually to this world and the sin of all us His members that thus they might be abolished we so soone as by faith we are made His members or are borne of Him we begin to dye spiritually till in death we are fully mortified by vertue of that radicall death in Christ our Saviour who dying according to his flesh did so worke by His omnipotent spirit that as the guilt was at once remooved so the life of it was mortified that it lost the raigne and was successively to be abolished in the being of it in all those who by faith should come to be engrafted into him or all those who should spiritually descend from Him 4 Lastly He brought into our nature supernaturall life that so He in our nature might propagate it to all who were His. The use hereof is to stirre us up above all things to seeke with Saint Paul Vse 1 that we may know what is the power of His death the communion of His sufferings while I feele my selfe made like to Him in dying to this world and sin for by this we know that we are untied to Him suffering and dead to sin and this world while we feele our selves by virtue thereof in like case as I know my communion with Adam that I dyed in him while I see my selfe mortall hastening every day to death as he is dead The Lord Iesus make the scales fall off our eyes that we may see the vertue of His most powerfull death toward all that are His. This also letteth us see what we must doe when this world and the things of it are forcible upon us Vse 2 when our hearts feele the life of sin strongly making to them come to Christ dying speake to Him Thou Lord hast crucified this world thou hast overcome the strength of it thou didst dye not regarding the allurements of it why doe I feele it have so mighty a hand over me even bewitching me as it were at the sight of it So when I feele my sin stirring lively in the lawes of it then to fly hither Lord thou dying hast beene the death of the sin of thy people why doe I who am in thee find it stirre as if it never had received wound The more we get to see our selves in Christ dying for the abolishing of all our sins the more we shall feele them wasting in us Let us give glory to this glorious death which maketh us all to dye Vse 3 As in the naturall body kill the head and all the members dye after so here c. This sheweth us why it is that sin liveth in so many men in the world Vse 4 even from this that they are not engrafted into Christ and so doe not partake of the influence of that spirituall life which from Christ the head floweth into all His members Buryed with Him in baptisme you have put off your sins being set into Him dying and buryed ingrafted with Him buryed in or by your baptisme Observe hence Doct. God doth unite us with Christ even by our baptisme the Lord doth by baptisme signifie to us and confirme thus much yea worke it as by an instrument namely the putting His Christ crucified upon us and our ingrafting into Him dying and rising Rom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For first by baptisme is sealed our communion w th Christ dying and rising secondly our communion in the effects which are mortification and vivification but yet wee must not think though God useth outward baptisme of His minister that this ministeriall action bringeth forth grace as the Papists doe who hold that God doth so use the ministeriall baptisme that He lifteth up that action as an instrumentall cause to worke grace so that it neither commeth solely from God nor yet immediately For this must be held that the power and act of producing grace is only and immediately from God There are two sorts of instruments some worke somthing with the Principall worker others doe not operari aliquid but ad aliquid they worke to something but not any thing having force to cause that whereto they worke such are Gods meanes which He useth and coordeyneth with him selfe in working of all such things which are not wrought but onely by power omnipotent thus he healed the blind with clay and spittle thus He overthrew the walls of Iericho with the blowing of Rams hornes But one may say this is absurd Object to use meanes which shall doe nothing doth any man doe thus Men use meanes which worke something in that they doe with them Answ because their force doth not reach alone to the effect they intend without the helpe of the meanes concurring with them but Gods force being alsufficient it is not absurd for Him to take to Him selfe such instruments in giving grace which are of no force to produce it especially when hereby he exerciseth our obedience faith c. He that planteth and he that watereth is nothing 1 Cor. 3.7 in regard of working in the soule that they tend to the Gospell is sayd to be the power of GOD to salvation Rom. 1.16 because through GOD it is powerfull who accompanyeth it immediately and enty rely working faith by it Yet Papists will not say that the Preachers syllables are elevated by GOD to rayse up the dead in sinnes and trespasses This then is to be firmely held that GOD useth baptisme of engrafting us with Christ and mortifying and quickning us in Him Vse yet the baptisme of water doth not conteyne any force nor is not lifted up to any such agency whereby grace is properly produced But it may be asked Quest how we are set into Christ with baptisme when none must be baptised but those if they be adulti who have faith in appearance and so are already in Him Things are sayd to be done when they are manifested and done in a further degree then before they were Answ thus the believer baptised is by baptisme manifested to be so before the Church yea often to Himselfe the more plentifull grace of God comming into Him while he useth it faithfully and his faith being more strengthened the union is more confirmed The use is to stirre us up that we would looke backe to our baptisme Vse which sealeth unto us so great matters if we have sealed bonds we will have them sometime read to us that we may know what

our spirituall life 3 The manner by death 4 The end of this our reconcilement that Hee may present you holy c. that is Pure for holinesse is nothing but an universall godly purenesse then negatively by denying any remainder of spot or corruption inherent which dwelleth in us From the end marke thus much Obs That every one who is come to finde sinne forgiven in Christ shall one day be made glorious before Him This is thus gathered Christ doth reconcile us to God to this end that Hee may present us glorious before Himselfe Now either Christ must be frustrate of His purpose for which He spendeth no lesse than His bloud or else all true beleevers reconciled to God through Christ His bloud for this purpose shall obtaine this end in due season Which is so certaine that Saint Paul doubteth not to affirme according to the propheticall manner Such whom He hath justified He hath glorified because hee hath begun it in the worke of grace and will not leave till He have set them with Christ glorious in the Heavens See Ephes 5.26 27. Christ gave Himselfe for His Church that He might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that Hee might present it to Himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish If we buy a thing at a deare rate for this or that purpose will wee when the thing is bought and paid for not use it to that end it must bee because wee were not provident enough to see the best use our after-thoughts proving wiser or because some difficulty commeth betwixt us which we cannot overcome or that we are inconstant or that we did purpose it not absolutely but conditionally which condition was out of our hand in the power of another But for inconstancie impotencie or improvidence who dare ascribe them to the only wise eternall and unchangeable God Would a man with all his substance procure himselfe contracted with purpose of mariage and when he had brought it hither thus dearely leave her then and not take her to house Shall God with His bloud bring us to be contracted to Him by faith get His Fathers liking through Him and shall Hee not when the Father and all is pleased take us home to dwell with Him where He is This shall suffice to shew the truth of it Now for the manner of it Thou must know then that for good purpose it is an ancient custome that Contracts goe before mariages both to trie the constancie of the couple to encrease their mutuall desires after a certaine time thus passed they are publikely presented one before the other and the man taketh the woman home to house Thus it is with the Lord Iesus He is contracted to us but yet to trie us how we will hold to Him and because our wedding garments are but in making He stayeth till He come to Iudgement and then all being finished we shall bee presented before Him and bee taken to house even those heavenly mansions with Him for ever VERSE 23. If ye continue grounded and stablished in the faith and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospell whereof yee have heard and which hath beene preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof I Paul am a Minister THere followeth now an exhortation to perseverance delivered conditionally If yee continue c. Where first it may be demanded whether we be not reconciled to God absolutely and freely without any condition of persevering Whereunto I answer that if you looke to the cause of our reconciliation we are reconciled freely and absolutely by the bloud of Christ not by any thing in us past present or to come and our reconciliation hath alwayes perseverance joyned with it But if you looke to the proofe and triall of it whereby we know who is reconciled and who is not then reconciliation hath with it a condition of persevering and continuing that is no man is reconciled but he continueth So that perseverance is a condition not causing reconciliation but proving it Observe hence Obs Whosoever is partaker of the benefit of reconciliation by Christ must persevere founded and established c. and whosoever continueth not but is removed from the hope of the Gospell hath no portion in this reconciliation by Christ Mat. 24.13 He that continueth to the end shall be saved To him that overcommeth I will give a crowne of life Rev. 1.10 As the Israelites that desired to turne backe into Aegypt though they came out of it with joy and gladnesse never entered into the Land of Canaan yea Gen. 15.17 Lot's wife that did but looke back with a minde set upon the riches and pleasures of Sodom is left as a fearefull example unto all revolters Let us therefore cast our accounts before-hand and beware that wee bee not removed from our profession But what need we to be admonished or exhorted hereunto Object when it is certaine all that are truly reconciled shall continue for whom He loveth He loveth to the end and it is not possible that the Elect should be seduced Matth. 24. This doctrine of the certainty of our continuing Answ and this exhortation thereunto have good agreement among themselves for He that hath ordained we shall not fall away hath also appointed the meanes whereby we are kept from it whereof this exhortation is a Principall Our dayes are numbered shall we not therefore seeke to prolong our life by food and rayment or shall we therefore cast our selves into the fire or water because we cannot dye before our time God hath promised never to destroy the world againe by water but that there shall be seed-time and harvest to the end of the world shall we not therefore sow nor reape our corne When Saint Paul was in danger of shipwracke the Lord promised by an Angell Act. 27.31 That not a man among them should be lost yet when the marriners would have left the ship hee cried out except these men stay yee cannot be safe Now two things are requisite to make us continue viz. 1 A stedfast purpose of heart to cleave to God Act. 11.23 2 A diligent constant and religious use of the meanes Who so observeth these two things shall never fall contrariwise who so faileth in either of these can have little hope to persevere For first what likelihood he shall continue who hath not so much as resolved with himselfe so to doe And secondly how little worth such a resolution is without a carefull use of the meanes may appeare by the example of S. Peter who having a strong resolution not to deny CHRIST yet fell into it for want of using the meanes in a very grosse and shamefull manner And this resolution and use of the meanes is that in effect which the Apostle teacheth and requireth in the two words following where he shewes the cause and meanes