Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	eternal_a	good_a	work_n	4,394	5	6.6946	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96973	Five sermons, in five several styles; or Waies of preaching. The [brace] first in Bp Andrews his way; before the late King upon the first day of Lent. Second in Bp Hall's way; before the clergie at the author's own ordination in Christ-Church, Oxford. Third in Dr Maine's and Mr Cartwright's way; before the Universitie at St Maries, Oxford. Fourth in the Presbyterian way; before the citie at Saint Paul's London. Fifth in the Independent way; never preached. With an epistle rendring an account of the author's designe in printing these his sermons, as also of the sermons themselves. / By Ab. Wright, sometimes Fellow of St John Baptist Coll. in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3685; Thomason E1670_1; ESTC R208406	99,151	247

said to give almes of what they have cheated and robbed unlesse they cannot tell the persons whom they have injured or the proportions in such cases they are to give those unknown portions to the poore by way of restitution for it is no almes Onely God is the supreme Lord to whom those escheats devolue and the poor are his receivers And therefore are said in my Text to receive you into everlasting habitations which is my last generall part of the division beeing the end and motive to good works That when yee fail c. In the handling of which part I shall First propose to your consideration three brief positions and then proceed to a more full explication of this generall head For the Positions the First is this that if men were their own friends they would make others so with their Mammon and while they are on earth provide for heaven Blessed are the mercifull for they shall receive mercy was our Saviours in the Gospell God's promises though they be gracious yet they are confined and he onely shall receive mercy that shewes it The Almighty being therefore bountifull to us that we might be so to others promising that if we feast those that cannot bid us againe and build for those that cannot lodge us againe We shal be made partakers of that Mariage-feast and those habitations whose maker and builder is God If men then were their owne friends they would make others so with this Mammon Why should the rust of that gold rise up in judgment against thee the right use of which will place thee with those that shall sit in judgment Turning thy Talents into Cities and saying the foundation of that building whose walls reach up to heaven And that is our First Po●ition But can good workes purchase these eternall habitations By no meanes And therefore Our Second Position is this That not our good workes But Christ's merits are the formall cause of our Salvation For neither the vertue of the works they bee but the fruits of charity nor the vertue of charity that is but the fruit of faith nor the vertue of faith that 's but an instrument to apprehend Christ but he alone our Saviour alone by his merits hath made this purchase and prepared those mansions for us And yet mistake me not there is no lesse necessity of good workes then if you should be saved by them that though you cannot be saved by them as the meritorious causes of your glory yet that you cannot be saved without them as the necessary effects and arguments of that grace which brings glory Which is our Second Position upon the point Our third runns thus The poor by their praiers receive us into those eternall habitations which Christ bestowes and confers upon us Now the poor here meant in the Text are either Pauperes spiritu the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God Mat 5. or Pauperes sacculo the poor in purse and these by their prayers shall receive thee into heaven For as Christ is said to receive those almes on earth which the poor put up and not he so the poor in heaven are said to receive us into everlasting habitations which Christ shall bestow and not they Can you conceive how the Queen of Sheba and men of Nineve shall rise up at the last day In the same manner but for a better end shal the men women and children of your Hospitals rise up and testify on your behalf saying Sweet Jesus had it not been for these and these Benefactors we had perished for want As therefore Saint Paul said to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 1. Ye are our hope cause these at the last day would witnesse how he had laboured for their salvation so may every one of you say of all those to whom you have done good You are our hope for that they shall testifie your good works before men and Angels justifie that sentence which shal receiv you into everlasting habitations These are the three brief Positions I mentioned Now that we may come to a more full explication of the point these everlasting habitations according to several Expositors are severally interpreted for first to be received into these everlasting habitations is to be taken into the protection of God according to Psal 90. 1. which is interpreted by the next Psal 1 ad 4. ver from which first interpretation our position shall be That it is better to give away all that wee have to the poor and have God with nothing then all the world without God To have God with nothing did I say Nay in having him wee have all things saith Saint Cyprian de Coen Dom. cum Dei sint omnia Since all things are God's to him that hath God nothing can be wanting except he be wanting unto God nothing saith the Father no good thing saith the Prophet the young Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall want nothing that is good Psal 34. Though all earthly persecutions entrench thee and miserie seems to come upon thee like an armed man and thou art fallen into the jawes of those enemies whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword yet Angels shall encampe about thee and the Lord of Hosts shall be thy buckler and thy shield the neighing of the horse the noise of the trumpet shall not invade thee or if they do and at such a strait that the arme of flesh growes weak yet his mercie is great unto the heavens and his truth reacheth unto the clouds the glorious hoste above shall muster all their forces to assist thee the starrs shall fight for thee and thunder speak loud unto thy enemies Thus in the height of miseries God shall be thy castle and strong tower and under the shadow of his wings shall bee thy refuge till these calamities bee overpast God never leaveth his in their extremities whether in the Cave or in the Mountain in the Den or in the Dungeon hee is alwaies there both in his power and assistance and somtimes in his person too when all natural supplies grow hopelesse God purveies for his children by his miracles rocks shall burst with water and Ravens provide bread and clouds drop fatnesse and heavens shower mannah and Angels administer comforts which when we are naked shall cloath us and receive us or rather usher us into these everlasting habitations Now besides this exposition of the words these everlasting habitations may receive a double interpretation one in respect of the everlasting fame and glorie of your name in this world the other in regard of your everlasting reward in the next and that first branch hath a double relation one to your self the other to your posteritie truly even this part of the reward and retribution namely in this life is worth a great deal of your cost and alms that God shall establish your posteritie in the world and in the

the way to the next and that by way of commendation quia prudenter ●git non quia fraudulenter not cause he dealt dishonestly but wisely so the verse before my text that he carried the businesse cleanly handsomely the manner how you may read from the 5 to the 8 ver of this Chapter and therefore make you friends learn of him saith Christ Had it been learn of me as our Saviours precept was Matth. 11. 29. it had been an admirable pattern nay had it been but Solomon's lesson Go to the pismire Pro. 9. I should not have marvelled for she would have taught honest providence but learn of an unjust Steward can there come any goodthing from one so evil Yes For the children of this world are in their generation wiser then the children of light so the 8 ver of this Chapt. therefore learn of him what to do To make you friends How Of the unrighteous Mammon Why That when yee faile they may c. Which three Queries will direct us to three General Parts for our division The first is the quid the matter to provide for our selves by making us friends The second the cujus the manner to use the best means to get them unrighteous Mammon The third the cuibono the end that when yee faile they c. Of which in their order beginning with the first the quid the mattor to provide for our selves by making us friends And that I think is good counsel at any time and as ever so most especially now when brotherly affection is become so changeable and double-faced as 't is hard to find a true friend and liberalitie is grown so indirect and improper that 't is shewen now adaies rather to enrich a Closet or Parlour then a Christian in clothing of walls sooner then men Now the friends here meant are the Angels say some who are made out friends by works of mercie towards our brethren but the common tenet is the friends in my text are the poor quos Deus permisit egere ad illorum nostram probationem whom God suffers to want for the exercise of their patience and our charitie and the ordinarie exposition of make you friends it give Alms make you friends by works of Charitie which shall be the subject of the first part of my discourse and so much the rather because the doctrine as well as the practice of it is almost forgot The Divinity of Justification by Faith alone like one of Pharaoh's lean kine hath clean devoured the fat ones And therefore my first particular position or doctrine rais'd from this general thesis shall be to rectife your understanding in this deep point of Justification by Faith and Justification by Works to reconcile these two and make them one The Position is this That Faith Works must alwaies be united ever go hand in hand in a believer It is evident to all except they be blinde that the eie alone seeth in the bodie ●et the eie which seeth is not alone in the bodie without the other sences the fore-finger alone pointeth yet that finger is not alone on the hand the hammer alone striketh the bell yet the hammer that striketh the bell is not alone in the clock the heat alone in the fire burneth and not the light yet the heat is not alone without the light the helme alone guideth the ship and not the tackling yet the helme is not alone nor without the tackling Thus we are to conceive that though Faith alone doth justifie yet that Faith which justifies is not alone but join'd with Charitie and good Works Saint Bernard's distinction of via r●gni and causa regnandi cleareth the truth in this point Though good Works are not the cause why God crowns us in heaven yet we must take them in our way to heaven Mat. 5. 16. It is as impious to deny the necessitie as to maintein the merits of good Works The first reason of the point wherfore Faith and good Works must alwaies be united alwaies go hand in hand in a Believer is because that God hath joined good works and salvation together in his Word and what God hath join'd let not man put asunder Now doing and life working and salvation running and obteining winning and wearing overcoming and reigning in holy Seripture evermore follow one the other wherefore the young man puts the question to our Saviour Mar. 10. 17. and the people likewise and the Publicans and the Souldiers to Saint John Luk. 3. 10 12 14. and the Keepers of the prison to Saint Pau● Act. 16. 30. and the Jew● to Saint Peter Act. 2. 37. What shall we do Not what shall we say or what shall we believe but what shall we do This is the tenour of the Law Do this and thou shalt live Levit. 18. 5. Deut. 5. 33. And the Gospel also runs in the same tune Mat. 7. 24. And again No● the hearers but the doers of the Law shall bee justified James 1. 22. A second reason of the point is because that though Faith justifie our Works before God yet our Works justifie our Faith before men Though the just shall live by his Faith Hab. 2. 4. Yet this his Faith must live by his Charitie Let us therefore take from hence first a word of Cantion not to turn the doctrine of Free Justification into carnal libertie nor impose upon Christ's mercie what it will not bear nor indeavour to sever faith from good Works least we sever our soul from life I grant when we have done all we can we may nay we must say we are unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. None may trust in their own righteousnesse but on the contrary all ought to pray that they may bee found in Christ not having their own righteousnesse Epb. 3. 9. yet their righteousnesse must exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees or else they shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. 20. In the second place this will serve for a word of Reproof for all those that separate Faith and Works Tell not me whoever thou art of Faith without thy Works nor of Praiers without thy Almes nor of piety without thy compassion nor of real without thy charitie if the hands be not Jacob's as well as the voice I fear thou wilt appear before God for no better then a meer Impostor and Cheat. If wee are good trees by our fruit men shall know us Mat. 7. 15. by your fruit not by your blossoms of good purposes or your leaves of good profession but by the fruit of your actions What is your devotion when it is peevish or your zeal when it is malicious or your puritie when it is schismatical or your conscience when it is factious a mover a ring-leader of sedition Too too many in this rotten age wherein we live are speakers not workers as if ostendere fidem the Apostle Saint James his shew thy Faith by thy Works were o● tendere

sufficient argument why others should not Thus if Jeroboam transgresse he makes an Israel to sinne and if Aaron set up an idol a whole nation will worship it Holinesse then becomes every man wel but best of all publick persons and that not onely for example of good but liberty of controlling ill The snuffers of the sanctuary made to purge others must be of pure gold themselvs Thus Herod feared John not ' cause he was a powerful teacher but a Just man This holinesse casts a more dazleing lustre then any other accomplishment what-ever But let that passe and suppose this Thummim be not with the holy One admit the Priest sinnefull shall the people notwithstanding follow his doctrine his doctrine whose life is not the use his voice whose hand points a contrary way Nothing more for what if the sacrificer bee unclean is the offering so was the glory of Israel the Arke any whit lessened when it came from the Philistines did the breath of the Lord his answers passe by the lesse regarded ' cause a Saul Prophesied Scripture is scripture though the Divell speake it no mans sinns should bring the service of God into contempt nor may good be refused ' cause the meanes are accidentally evill Non ergomerita personarum sed officia sacerdotum considerentur saies Ambrose in his 5 Chapter de iis qui mysteriis initiantur and 't is a grosse dull capacity that can't distiuguish 'twixt the worke and the instrument the weakenesse of the person and the power of the function You know no unclean viands were for the table of an Israelite no birds of prey ●it company for a Prophet yet Sampson made much of his hony though in a putrified Lion and if Ravens are sent to preserv an Eliah he willingly accepts their courtefie and dislikes not the meat ' cause the waiters were black These then of the Law are lesse scrupulous then some of the Gospell who disdaine the graces of God when not served in the pure●t vessels that loath their Mannah if not out of the Tabernacles golden pot all Urim not coupled with Thummim The other part of the Donative Urim is a large word and reciprocal with sapience in Tully the science of humane and divine matters whence it seems the Levites divinity and scholarship are not synonima's at least not this and preaching Lo a vision appeared to me saies Ezekiel a whirlwinde and a fire to ●hew the Prophets of the Lord must have light with them as well as noise understanding as tongue Gods Ministers are Angels and these called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their manifold knowledg I speak this meerely for that there is a generation which square out the Divines studie by the Scripture Canon onely all other rules being crooked and of no use Would you know the reason The lesse learning the lesse stipend and indeed good Letters have not a little pined away since Divinity began to officiate at the tables end for the trencher Now 't is true Scripture was ever the Levites predominant element but if you 'l make him a perfect mixt body the Arts too are necessary ingredients And therefore though Hadrian the sixt in his tract de ver a philsophia cries down humane learning with a noise of Fathers yet he concludes utilem esse scientiam gentilium dummodo in usum christianum convertatur that to shave and par● the captive woman then espouse her was ever held lawfull matrimony Look backe upon the two famous patterns of Jewish and Christian divines Moses learned in all the wisdom of the Aegyptians and S. Paul wise in all the learning of the Grecians a great artist and a good ling●i●● and no lesse may we expect from the rest of the Apostles to whom it was not said ●ollow me and strait way be fishers but follow and I will make you fishers They were to learne ere they were to teach to be Discipls before Apostles No man is born an Ar●isicer his soul coming as naked into the world as his body not having so much freedome as to set up in the meanest-trade without serving an apprenticeship And for that dabitur in illa hora to speake without conning was a promise made to the Twelve when they should be called to the barre not to the pulpit This place how ever some have made it scandalous requires both learning and industry and thus much S. Paul intimated when he sent for his bookes finding as great want of them as his cloak in winter Yet here notwithstanding this Urim is os so large an extent as compassing the whole body of knowledge we must remember that our most acute and clearest illumination is but dull and glimmering and though it be said to be Gods yet 't is not meant of that light which is tanquam lux in lucido sed lumen in diaphano not as the Sun but as the shine And therefore if any in this fraile tenement of flesh shall dare to hope for the masterreach in Gods secrets of state such I mean as put the great Apostle to his gaze with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee mistakes his measure and forgets that his dwelling is in the dust And why should I call for day where God will have night and covet to see that brightnesse whose least ray will instantly blind me it being too strong an object for the weake eye of mans understanding I will rather admire God in his actions and be content to know the Almighty no farther then his Word shall reveal where this light leaves mee I will cease the quest and boast of my ignorance never desiring that Urim that illumination which leades to utter darkenesse nor that Thummim that holinesse which will unholy mee And this points at my last particular the party endowed with this gi●t the Holy One. Wee are all Gods but not all Gods holy Ones This title is proper to the Priests hiraldry a jewel only for Aarons brest-plate And certainly the office being sacred the name must be answerable Now the Levite was thus styl'd from a two-fold holinesse that of his life which you have heard and another of his person For all sanctity is not inward nor is all Thummim perfection that of the soule Gods holy one must be his faire one too without blemish no lesse in body then in mind Thus under the law no monstrous issue no blind seer might offer the bread of his God Levit. 21. And shall the Evengelicall Ministration be worse served then the Legall while the Sacrifice is more noble shall the Priest be lesse onely the fattest in the herd the fairest in the flock were the oblations of the Law and shal the poorest onely of the Tribe the most de●ormed of all the issue be the offerings of the Gospel The Lords house is no hospital neither the sacrifice nor the Priest must be admitted unsound or imperfect and if not a maim'd lambe much lesse a maim'd Levite God of all things will