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	salvation_n	3,234	5	7.4195	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66253	Preparation for death being a letter sent to a young gentlewoman in France, in a dangerous distemper of which she died.	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1687 (1687)	Wing W253; ESTC R5512	22,586	170

and get out of the number of these unhappy creatures you shall certainly find your part in them 6. FOR the last you are infallibly to believe what God has promised especially that he will give pardon of sin and everlasting salvation to all humble and repenting sinners and for what refers to your own particular you are confidently to rely upon his word that if you perform your part Christ will never fail in his and that therefore you ought to fulfill those duties which he commands and to which alone this promise of Reward is given 7. IT is a question which my little experience lets me know do's oftentimes trouble very good Men that certainly their faith in this last instance is not right because they still find it accompanied with fears and doubts of their own Salvation But Madam you must consider that the faith which God requires in this matter is only this That he will certainly reward all those that believe in him and obey his Commandments This we are undoubtedly to assent to but now for the particular application of this Faith to our selves that deserves no more of our assent nor can indeed warrantably have it than what is founded on the serious consideration of our own performances Now though our conscience bearing witness to our sincerity may give us great cause to hope we are in a State of Salvation yet is it no part of any man's Faith undoubtedly to believe it Nay rather some degree of fear and trembling mixt with it may be a good means to secure us in our duty whilst a confident dependance is very often ill grounded and may create such a negligence as will certainly ruine us 8. LET your endeavour therefore be to fulfill God's commands to repent as often as you fail of it and to hope for pardon and acceptance of him Infinite reason you have for all this and this will be sufficient for your present comfort and for your future acceptance But if still either * the greatness of the danger or * glory of the reward * either your desires of becoming better * or a true and humble sense of your own unworthiness which is almost the perpetual case of the best persons keep your Soul under an awe and a concern and will not suffer you to rise up to that confidence which some Men I fear unwarrantably themselves pretend to I am sure unwarrantably require of others Assure your self that whilst you firmly acquiesce in the general belief That God will reward all them that love him and doubt of your self only because you fear whether you do this so well as you ought this doubting shall prepare you to receive the reward of your Humility but never bring you in danger of any punishment for your infidelity Sect. II. Of Repentance REPENTANCE is usually defined to be a change of mind an absolute entire conversion of our Souls from sin to God. It is not a thing to be done at certain times as when we give an Alms we exercise a particular act of charity but 't is a state of life and consists in a continual sincere practice of all those duties which God has required and a hearty sorrow confession and resolution of better obedience as often as we violate any of his commands 2. THE passage to it is difficult and uneasie It contains many steps which the habitual sinner will find it hard to overpass I shall here consider only four of the more principal and which are ever found in that Christian who truly lives in a State of it 3. THE first is To have a true sense of sin of its Odiousness and of its danger i.e. YOU must firmly be convinced that every sin you commit sets you at enmity with Heaven and will if not forsaken render you uncapable of it That to persevere in any evil course is the way to make you unhappy in this Life and shall certainly throw you into everlasting torments in the next Of all this you must seriously perswade your self and that not lightly and in general deceiving your own Soul but bringing it home to your particular concern in it affecting your mind and engaging your utmost endeavours to avoid that evil which is thus odious to God and thus dangerous to your Everlasting Salvation THE second step to this Duty is To have a hearty sorrow and contrition for your sin 4. AND this you must endeavour after not by being frighted and terrified and so upon that account troubled as often as you reflect on those infinite evils your sins are like to bring upon you There is no Man living so wicked but would do the same But Madam you must really sorrow that you have ever sinn'd That you have provoked so loving and merciful a Father That you have disobey'd so gracious a Redeemer and all to gratify your passions in some baser instance which you ought to abhor upon these grounds alone though there were no punishment awaiting your transgressions 5. NOR must this sorrow and contrition be only for the grosser evils of our unregenerate estate but even when we live best we must repeat it as often as we transgress the divine command nay we should employ it too even upon the weaknesses the frailties the pollutions of our natures our very proneness and inclination to sin for however these unconsented to are no actual transgressions yet are they matter of sorrow and grief to every true Christian and therefore ought to be part of his humiliation also THE third preparatory to this Duty is Confession 6. AND this so necessary to our pardon that we have no promise of any forgiveness without it To fulfill this you must not satisfy your self to acknowledge to God Almighty in general That you are a sinner but you must carefully remark and particularly enumerate also at least the several kinds of sin whereof you know your self guilty You must shew your sense of them by aggravating them with all the unhappy circumstances and heightning accidents of them and for the rest you must comprise your unknown and lesser sins under some such general confession as that of the holy David Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults 7. YOU will Madam doubtless expect that I should here add somewhat of another sort of Confession which I have sometimes had the honour to discourse with you about I then told you that unless some Accident rendred it so I did not esteem it absolutely necessary The expediency of it I must confess I ever much approved and have often wish'd others would do so too and the reasons I have at large given you may be summed up into these 1. That St. James has advised us to confess our faults one to another Chap. 5. 16. and pray one for another 2. If we have injured another then we ought to go and confess our fault to him as ever we mean to obtain the forgiveness of God. 3. But if our sin