Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	good_a	love_n	2,550	5	5.7551	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92783	A dying fathers living legacy, to his loving son or, lively rules from the rule of life, to bee lived by every mothers childe. / By F.S. Gent.	F. S.	1660 (1660)	Wing S22; Thomason E2105_2; ESTC R210143	23,056	152

A Dying Fathers Living Legacy to his Loving SON OR Lively RULES from the Rule of Life to bee lived by every Mothers Childe Prov. 4.1 Hear O yee Children the instruction of a Father and give ear to learn understanding By F. S. Gent. Printed for the Authour And are to bee sold by Elisha Wallis at the gilded Horse-shooe in the Old Bayley 1660. Dear Childe I Have been at work for thee heart and hand it lieth upon thee as a duty now to perfect what I have begun to get these notions into thy heart by prayer and let others read them in thy life by practise The Speculative part of Religion is not comparable to the practical Begin in the Spirit oh but take heed you end not in the flesh Satan is subtile I know his devices the world is tempting take heed of its flatteries the heart is naught beware of its deceits Keep thy heart with all keeping and yet do what thou canst Corruption will break out but let not sin have a free passage to go in and out at pleasure Mind nothing but the one thing necessary union with Christ and never let it be thy aim to make thy self glorious in the world but to glorifie God in the world They only that follow holiness in this life shall attain to happiness in the life to come Be as holy as ever thou canst the more holy here the more happy hereafter without holiness no happiness It is not thine but Christs Thou wilt finde an opposition in the practice of Religion when you think your self surest then suspect your self most though thou shouldest get a foyl yet lay not down thy weapons and say I will fight no more Hee that continues faithful unto the death shall receive a crown of life Get wisdome and get understanding the fear of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from iniquity that is understanding so shalt thou crown the work and not only rejoyce the heart of thy Father on Earth but our Father in Heaven and Elder Brother and Sweet Comforter Unto whose protection I leave thee F. S. Reader THese sententious words or proverbial sentences are left as a Legacy by a dying Father to his Son Expect not Method but apply thy self to meditation which was by the Author chiefly intended Youth is active It is good for us to busie them in the best things to write our children copies to write after or write over A good life is better than good lines Most men especially young men are led much by example It is best so to walk before our children as that they may see Christ in us and follow him Christ is the best copy to write after and the best pattern to follow Christianity is more than Christ to bee known it is the life of Christ to bee followed The Author is not willing to have his name known for reasons best known to himself and yet both reason and Religion too put him upon the work having his own experience to witness such beginnings successeful If through goodness it prove profitable either to thee or thine Let God have all the glory but let not prejudice hinder from closing with truth What is Manna the worse for being brought to thee in an earthen vessel The Apostle rejoyced that Christ was preached though they that preached him did it out of envy Here is my rejoycing that what I have done was out of pure love to poor souls and not to seek or purchase a fame among men Help mee with thy prayers that all these truths might bee put in practice by thee and mee thine and mine so wilt thou not onely ingage the Authour but many more to subscribe themselves Thine in the Lord F. S. A Dying Fathers Living Legacy to his loving Son REligion is necessary not in the way of nature to our beeing but in the way Grace to our well-beeing In all matters of Religion get Jesus Christ to bee thy Partner Reason perfects us as wee are men Religion as wee are Christians With God it is not how Rational but Religious Religion doth not consist in externals but in the motion of the soul after God God will not bee content with outsides The saving light of the Spirit is when that which is light in the head is heat in the heart and light in the Conversation Common light comes from the Spirit but saving light is that which is with the Spirit Do not determine thy estate by head-illumination but by heart-illumination Many Christians are in the dark meerly from their light True light where ever it is there is a desire after more light the light of the righteous shineth more and more Where ever this true light is it layes hold on Christ for life as it leads us unto Christ by faith so it leads us after Christ by practice They onely that live to Christ shall finde Christ to bee gain to them at death To mee to live is Christ to dye is gain Phil. 1.21 BEfore you put your hands into the worlds bosome put your heart into Gods hands As God hath bound you by precept to pray so hee hath bound himself by promise to hear Though prayer can make no change in God yet it may make an alteration in you Wee come to learn our duty from our request Wee pray not that Gods will may bee altered but accomplished not to alter his counsel but his sentence Though God bee resolved to shew mercy yet hee requires submission Though duty doth not merit mercy yet duty is Gods order to mercy Do not rest without prayer Oh but take heed do not rest in prayer External duties are means to convey grace but no arguments to prove the truth of grace The performance of duty is no sure sign of a mans acceptation with God but the neglect of duty is a sure sign of a mans abomination unto God However all external duties are as nothing so long as a man is an old man yet the nothingness of a duty that arises from the doer must bee no prejudice to Gods Authority or breach of mans duty A new creature is not so all in all that external duties must bee neglected seeing they are means appointed by God to make him more a new creature YOur prayers must not bee offered up as righteousness but with righteousness You cannot pray without a promise Gods promises are the Saints best prayers All things promised must be prayed for under the notion of promised things Promises are the ground of prayer and the ground of faith in prayer Promises are the rules of what wee may pray for in faith and faith is the ground of what wee may expect with comfort As God gives promises to ground faith so hee addes providences to build it up As the soul lives by faith so faith lives by promise Promise A Promise is a word-revelation arising from meer mercy out of the purposes of Gods heart concerning good to fallen man in Christ Jesus You had never known Gods

purposes but by his promises The impulsive cause of Gods making promises was his love the meriting cause Christ They are purging healing raising up only as Christ is folded up in them The promises are the plaisters upon which the blood of Christ is spread the blood of Christ gives virtue to the promise They are all made in Christ and performed in Christ purchased by his blood and executed by his power The Saints are therefore heirs of promise because members of Jesus Christ Promises have a being because of Christ After the breach of the first Covenant God had never declared his good will to man in a second Covenant but for the sake of Jesus Christ and it is by our being in him that wee lay claim to those promises All promises are made for him and in him unto us so far as we are incorporated into him and are members of Jesus Christ All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Thy interest in one promise is worth all thy interests Gods promises which could not bee too dearly bought yet they are freely given Gods promises are free in respect of the making of them yet they are conditional in respect of the performance of them The promises are tendered without exception but not without condition Though they are made out of free mercy yet they are performed in relation to our subservient duty God never promised life absolutely but upon condition In the first Covenant Do and live In the second Covenant Believe and live Now faith is so poor a condition as puts no worth in us to receive and therefore justified freely of his grace You are saved of grace but through faith and it is therefore of faith that it might bee of grace If God made a promise to thee when thou wast wallowing in thy blood then certainly God will make it good By promising God hath made himself a debtor to himself God hath made promises of pardon consider not thy own weaknes so much as the strength of Gods promise look not to thy unworthiness but upon the truth worth and excellency of the promise GOds outward proceedings of providence do sometimes seem to contradict the truth of his promises Gods promises speak healing when Gods providences seem to speak trouble yet the position holds true that it is Gods purpose under all the pressures and troubles of his Church to deliver them There are two things that may bee written upon the Church of Christ Holiness and Victory Whatsoever the difference is betwixt the enemies of the Church and the Church Christs party shall overcome This should make us live by faith and not by sense If you look upon things necessary or contingent in both these providence rules There is a special providence over every hair of a childe of God all his hairs are numbred If a hair cannot fall from the head without providence the head shall not fall from the body without providence Troubles are the issues of neglected providences Labour to relieve thy self in thy greatest straights in Covenant-promises Hard throws have been made advantages to the birth of sweet mercies Though trouble may bee thy condition yet rest shall bee thy portion Though affliction may bee thy exercise yet deliverance shall bee thy inheritance providence orders all actions and agents to her own end Actions may move very strangely in our view and yet very orderly to the greatest good as their supernatural end Give not way then to sinkings and despondencies of spirit in any trouble in the lowest conditions and greatest sufferings there is yet ground of hope When vain is the hope of man then comes the salvation of God When the morning is darkest then comes the day When troubles are at the highest then deliverance is at the nearest Things wonderful to us are yet easie with God marvellous in our eyes and yet familiar with him Awaken thy heart to pray Nothing shall bee too hard for him to do whose heart God carries forth and holds up to beleeve and pray unto him Nothing hath been done without it nothing can bee done against it Providence GOds Providence is an act of infinite power and wisdome whereby hee preserves and governs all things in order to his glorious Mercy and Justice Gods will being immutable in its determination his Providence must needs bee infallible in its administrations Gods Providence is not limited by means therefore trust Providence when you see no means Let nothing puzzle you that doth not puzzle God When God makes use of means it is not from the deficiency of his Power but from the riches of his Goodness To establish the means and deny the providence of God determining the end is a part of Atheism to establish the providence of God determining the end and despise the means is great prophaneness Use means yet withall trust and attend Gods providence for the obtaining of the end True faith sets God highest in means sees God out of means and waits upon him in the opposition of means Endeavours are appointed by God not to alter his will but perform it and in what wee obtain not our desires wee testifie our obedience Use means as if there wereno God trust in God as if there were no means Bee not over-perswaded of particular means The water-man thinks his boat will save him but perhaps it is a twig To neglect helps is to tempt God to trust in them when we have them is to commit Idolatry with them WHen you come to pray look to what God hath promised and in prayer look into the promise When you pray labour to avoid two things calling upon God in your own strength and expecting an answer from God in your own worth You may direct your prayer to Father Son and holy Spirit but not as one separated from the other When you go to pray you give God a visit frequency of worship doth maintain a respect between God and you It is then very seasonable to attend upon and apply our selves to the work or duty of prayer when the working or grace of the Holy Ghost doth beget a disposition in us to pray When grace doth offer a seasonableness to pray you shall find it affords a sufficiency of strength for prayer Seasons of grace last not alwaies it is not at our command to have the Spirit of God moving in us when you know the motions of the Spirit act accordingly to them Keep heavenly things as thou wouldest keep heaven it self Strive for spiritual life A dead man and a dying Christian are two sad sights A dead prayer leaves a dead Spirit behinde it A dull Spirit is the fruit of a dead prayer A dead heart argues a dying soul God is coming into that soul with comfort who is mighty in duty Consolation and supplication go together When wee do our present duty God will not remember our former sin Pray unto God for a better praying heart there will nothing prevail with God if prayer will not The