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	justify_v	salvation_n	3,033	5	8.0315	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56683	The parable of the pilgrim written to a friend by Symon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1665 (1665)	Wing P826; ESTC R11931	349,344	544

be so confident No doubt of it or else it is meerly Presumption It is impossible that a mans relyance should be stronger with any reason then the rest of the acts of his faith are And therefore should we not speak of Faith in such words as will take in all that it hath to do both that which respects our duty as well as that which respects our benefit Take heed I beseech you again of a double mischief which is very visible one to others and the second to your self First beware how you speak of Faith so loosely to your neighbours in such terms as they may easily abuse Do not say that justifying Faith is meerly a relyance on Christ for Salvation For though you mean well and live better yet the wicked of the world never understand this aright which is the cause if you would know all that makes me so zealously oppose you in this matter They all lay hold on him and his righteousness to cover all the filthiness wherein they live Though you tell them that they ought to love him who hath dyed to procure righteousness for them yet they love their sins better and hope that he will love them never the worse for it It is impossible to perswade an Adulterer a Drunkard or any such person great numbers of which to my knowledge comfort themselves in their relyance on Christ to become better unless you give a better notion of Faith then this And then for your self I must warn you to take great heed that one piece of your Faith do not outgrow another Do not suffer it to shoot more upward then it doth downward and to grow in tallness more then in thickness and strength I mean let it not lift up it self to heaven in assurance of Gods love but proportionably to its rooting in love and obedience to him Let it not perk up in perswasions of Gods mercy but as it increases in strength and power to do him service It is a slender tree you know very weak and easily broken which springs up so much in length but carries no body and hath not a thickness answerable to its heigth Such is the Faith that mounts up in confidence without an answerable spreading and enlarging it self in the observance of all Gods commands and bringing forth all the fruits of a lively Faith Nay it is the very way to despair to be thus forward For as those tall and slender Trees by some strong blasts are apt to hang down their heads and touch the ground from whence they come So do these high confidences in a time of trial and when men come to see how ungrounded they were they are ready to end in as low a despair and great distrust of all Gods mercy Upon every occasion you shall see such people cast into horrid fits if they be at all observant of their duty which they think is some desertion by God but indeed proceeds from the too great forwardness of their Faith which did rise too high and had not strength enough to bear it up Nay if they began in this confidence and their Faith pitched thus high at the very first they ought to despair of Gods favour till their Faith hath purified their hearts They must come down again from the top of the tree and begin at the bottom in obedience to all God's Command These things with many others seemed so perspicuous to the man who had a great deal of honesty in him that his confidence was strangely abated And the Father making a little pause he altered the tone of his voice and modestly said I must ingenuously confess that I have been too rash in opposing and censuring of you I am not one of those that will resist clear convictions and contest meerly that they may not seem to be overcome but I acknowledge sincerely that I had too rude and confused notions of things which precipitated me into this confidence of disputing with you Be not troubled at it replyed the Father but rather think your self happy that you understand more then you did and that you have not lost but found Truth in the midst of a dispute And since you are so humble as to confess some of your faults I presume you will be thankful if you are told the rest Remember it then that it is very misbecoming to speak loud to accompany your discourse with too much action and to affirm any thing with too great a confidence and peremptoriness But know withall that I easily pardon them and pass them by because they are not so much your own as the faults of your Teachers from whom you learnt them and many more besides These are the least things that many of them are to be accused of for there is a certain wilfulness as it seems to me that possesses their hearts which will not let them exchange their unsafe imperfect definitions of Faith for those which are sounder and more compleat They are loath to acknowledge that they can err or speak unproperly They had rather defend that which is badly done or said than study to make it better And as men do in disorders of government they abuse their wit and study for reasons why it should be amiss rather then how it should be amended They will learn from none unless it be themselves They will reject the clearest light unless it shine out of their own minds They would have Truth confined to a party the very phrases of which if you do not accept it is enough to beget a quarrel Be not offended I beseech you at this plainness nor imagine that I intend to diminish your opinion of any men that are good but only to give you Caution that you do not think them to be better then are You may conceive me indeed no competent Judge of other mens discourses will you hear therefore what a very Wise man thought a good while ago of that manner of preaching which hath put you in that rude heat wherein we now saw you L. ●ac Advertis of Controv. His words are to this sense for I will not tye my self to say only what he hath said before me and they seem to be a very moderate Sentence upon some men then who have left many followers behind them They give saith he many pious Exhortations and they work of times compunction of mind but they are not skilled how to work a cure when they have made a wound They can make men sick of their sins but are not provided of efficacious remedies to purge them out They let them see their sores but then they are palliated and seldome thoroughly healed They know better how to bring Souls to that Question Men and Brethren what shall we do than how to give a good answer and resolve the doubt which they have raised They make men see they are very bad but know not how to go about to make them good They magnifie Faith and make all the world sound with