Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A33720
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A discourse of Christian religion, in sundry points preached at the merchants lecture in Broadstreet / by Thomas Cole ...
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Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing C5029; ESTC R964
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181,099
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443
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all discouraging thoughts that may arise in thee Deut. 7. 17 18 19. If thou shalt say in thine heart these Nations are more than I how shall I dispossess them Thou shalt not be afraid of them but shall well remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharaoh and unto all Egypt Thou shalt not be afrighted at them for the Lord thy God is among you and he will put out these Nations by little and little v. 21 22 We complain things go on but slowly there is little done God chuses to do things by little and little consider what hath been done and don 't make it less than it is it may seem little in comparison of what shall be yet in it self as it is 't is very great And therefore let us argue as David did 1 Sam 17 37. Psal. 3. 7 8. Psal. 9. 10 11. Psal 143 5 6 7 8. so Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20. 7 9 12. so Paul 2 Cor. 1. 10. God that hath delivered and doth deliver and we trust will yet deliver The remembrance of what God hath done and doth do will strengthen our Hope in him for the future 3. Converse much with the Scriptures especially with the Promises that through Patience and comfort of the Scriptures you may have hope Rom 15. 4. How did David raise his Hope from the Word of God Psal. 119. in many places v 42 72. and elsewhere in that Psalm When a man gives his word to us again and again we believe him and reckon our selves sure of what we ask having so many repeated promises that it shall be done The Word of God is a living Word in this respect because as often as we mingle it with Faith it represents God speaking afresh to us in particular Faith hearing this again and again is more confirmed Faith at first came by hearing and the oftner it hears God speaking in his Word the more it is strengthned in a lively Hope of all that God hath promised 4. Look upon it as your Duty to Hope in God He hath commanded us because he knows we are apt to doubt and question his Promises It is not presumption but Duty to Hope in God relying upon his free Grace and not upon our own deserts which never begets a true humble Christian Hope but a proud arrogant Confidence in a mans self Whereas the fiducial Confidence of Hope is always derived from Faith Eph. 3. 12. 5 thly and Lastly Look unto the God of Hope Live in a constant dependance upon his Spirit to work it in you It is through the Power of the Holy Ghost we abound in hope Rom. 15. 13. That we are brought under the Power of a Christian Hope which arises from such hidden causes such deep grounds not known to flesh and blood that none but God can demonstrate the reasonableness and certainty of our Hope He knows how to beget us again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead which is more than a Promise It is the actual accomplishing of that in another that makes it credible to us that God can raise the Dead and that as he hath raised up Christ so he will also raise up us at the last Day To the former directions add these Two things following If you would ground your Hope aright upon Christ within you so as to come under the Power of it Then 1. Consider well whether Christ be indeed in you whether you have felt the quickning influences of his Spirit in your own Souls Christ is your life Col. 3. 4. comp with John 11. 25. Consider then whether he be indeed your Life use all your Spiritual senses about this it is no easy matter to understand this Mystery There are many who lead a Natural Rational Moral Life under a Christian Profession and may be estranged from the Life of God all their Days You see how Paul distinguishes in the case lest he should mistake himself or be mistaken by others Gal. 2. 20. I live saith he yet not I but Christ liveth in me And so may a Saint now say I understand Gospel Mysteries yet not I as a man by the Light of my own Reason but as a Man in Christ in the Light of Faith by which I know not only that such things are revealed in the Word but also that they shall be accomplished unto all those who rely upon Christ Neither can I give any other reason for their accomplishment but so it is Written and thus saith the Lord. This is to speak like a Christian when we resolve all into Christ becoming fools in our selves that we may be wise in him The Life I now live in the Flesh saith he I live by the Faith of the Son of God take away that Faith and all my Hope as a Christian vanishes away You had need have a true Spiritual Light rightly discerning of Spiritual things to know that Christ is in you as your Life It cannot be known but by Faith Though Faith be very rational in all its arguings from Gospel Principles yet Faith it self is not properly an act of Reason but rather an act above Reason it carries the Understanding above its Reason to act my Understanding so as to assent to that which I have no Natural Reason for This is the knowledge of Faith a strange way of knowing which the world counts Foolishness Supernatural truths don't rise up into our Minds as the product and consequent of our Reason this is humane knowledge according to our Logick But all supernatural truths are let down through the Word by the Spirit of God into our Understandings they are too deep too mysterious and profound to be conveyed to our Understandings by the ordinary course of Reason And therefore God opens another door and lets them into the Soul by Faith Thus he writes his Law in our Hearts puts his Truth into our inward parts Where is the Scribe Where is the Wise Where is the Disputer of this World How doth God confound the Wisdom of the Wise from whom he hides these things which he reveals to Babes and Sucklings Poor humble Souls they have the knowledge of the Heavenly Mysteries and the World knows not how they came by it Whence hath this man this wisdom and this knowledge having never learned say they of Christ Matth. 13. 54. comp with John 7. 15. They wonder'd that any not brought up in their Schools should be more knowing than themselves It is an astonishment to the World to consider what knowledge poor humble Saints have of things which they do in no wise understand 2. Have a care of too gross conceptions of Christ within you You must understand the Text Spiritually As Reason brings Natural things into your Minds and gives you an Intellectual Vision of them So Faith brings Heavenly things into your Minds and gives you a Spiritual Vision of them Christ is first known to us by Faith There is no knowing him but by Believing in him no coming to
A DISCOURSE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION In Sundry Points Preached at the Merchants Lecture in Broadstreet By THOMAS COLE Minister of the Gospel in London LONDON Printed by R. R. for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCXCII THE Preface to the Reader I Dictate nothing to thee I only offer my thoughts about some Points if you find them agreeable to the line and measure of the Word of God receive them if not you cannot do either your self or me a greater kindness then to reject them To take all for truth that we read in humane Authors hath filled the world with Error therefore search the Scriptures whether things are so or no and impartially pronounce that judgment which the Word gives of them whether for or against them I pretend to no new discoveries neither do I affect to be wise above what is Written an improvement of known truths is all I aim at Here is no new unscriptural Light hung up I only snuff the Candle that is already burning seeking to free the Truth from some Obscurities that hinder a right perception of it I am persuaded the chief if not the only cause of difference among real Christians lies not so much in different thoughts as different expressions they mean right but are understood wrong We are not so Angelical yet as to have an intuitive knowledge that looks Truth directly in the face and judges of it as it is But we range about in a discoursive way inferring one thing from another the least error in the Premises affects the Conclusion and leaves a blemish upon it that renders it suspected by all wise men If our more refined thoughts aud speculations in some abstracted notions of truth that we please our selves with lose something of their beauty and lustre when put into Words we must allow for the grossness of the medium thorough which they pass all things being handed to the Intellect by our senses we must phansy something before we know any thing Common sense that rises from particulars may present very unintelligible species to the understanding and occasion much confusion there by those false images of things upon which right notions of truth cannot well be built To avoid these Vncertainties Ambiguities and indistinct Conceptions that our own words are apt to lead us into our surest way is to ground our judgment upon the Infallible Word of God not receeding from the literal Interpretation of Scripture so far as it agrees with the Analogy of Faith and the general scope of the Bible in other places We must not suppose a Figure where there is none nor Allegorize plain Texts into a foreign sense not intended by the Holy Ghost In all our Expositions of such plain Scriptures we should justifie the Letter of the Text and not force a sense of our own upon it which the words will not bear this is the real cause of those unscriptural Expressions that some men cloath their false Conceptions with They cannot speak as the Scripture speaks which argues thoughts within very disagreeable to the Word of God all their Labour and Study is to distinguish the Scripture out of its own sense into theirs that they may have some shew of Divine Authority to maintain their brain-sick Notions which this giddy Age abounds too much with The use of Reason in Divine Mysteries lies in Three things 1. In observing what is plainly laid down in Scripture that it is so and so Written 2. In understanding the true sense and signification of Scripture-terms 3. In discerning the natural consequences of plain truths how one thing follows by a rational deduction from another But as some men would have it we must first look into the nature of the most incomprehensible Mysteries of the Gospel and draw up a Rationale of the Bible that reason may judge what is fit to be believed before we give any credit to the Word of God which is to make our selves the first judges of Gospel-truths and in effect to slight all Divine Testimony If I keep not always the common road but now and then step out of it all I have to say is this I count not my self obliged to go thorough thick and thin for Company especially when I see a nearer and a cleaner way There is some latitude even in the narrow way to Heaven we may take a compass and go wide of each other yet have our faces fixed upon the same point and meet at the same place at night Where there is the greetest agreement among Saints in any point of Doctrine yet we may find some difference in their conceptions of the same thing we are not yet come to that Vnity of knowledge which will make us intirely one in our perfect state In the mean time let us not except against that diversity of gifts and operations that flow from the same Spirit One may follow another though his pace be slower though he tread not directly in his steps who goes before nay short steps often repeated may rid more ground than long deliberate paces one shows how far he can stride the other how fast he can go and a nimble Feet is better than a long lazy Leg that out-strides those whom it cannot out-go I shall give thee only this brief Account of the ensuing discourse I suppose thou hast read the Title Page if thou thinkest thy self concerned in so weighty a Subject read on if not I fear thy hope is only in this life Paul will tell thee what a miserable man thou art 1 Cor 15. None in the world more wretched than thy self So I leave thee to give thy self a reason if thou canst why thou slightest the Hope of Glory and art so unconcerned in the next state of things when this world shall be no more The Knowledg of God in Christ requires frequent and fervent Prayer serious Meditation and diligent searching the Scriptures which testifie of Christ God never made himself visible to man but in the person of Christ Incarnate who is the express Image of the Father best able to make the truest representation of God to man being himself both God and man What is occasionally spoken of some other Points viz. Of the Law of the New Covenant of the Instrumentality of Faith in Justification of Repentance and New Obedience as required in all who are Justified though not unto the Justification of any I refer to thy serious consideration My design is not to satisfie the captious reason of the Disputers of this world but to speak to the experience of humble Christians If I do that I shall have witnesses enough to the truth of what I say Though some may not understand in a Christian Faith is the best understanding Were there more of this among our men of Reason Gospel-Mysteries would not seem such unintelligible Notions as they do to many who think there is no ground of certainty but Logical Evidence The Divine Authority of the Scripture