Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	justification_n	work_n	9,756	5	6.9844	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36360	Divine contemplations, and spiritual breathings of Mr. Henry Dorney	Dorney, Henry, 1613-1683?	1684 (1684)	Wing D1930; ESTC R41100	252,036	444

not talk with thee and look upon thy face and yet work too The presence of my Christ makes any toil to be perfect freedom Methinks I can easier find in some measure my work throughout the whole Scriptures though that requires also the teachings of the Spirit necessarily than I can know how to compose my heart to keep the Faith of Union and Communion with God fresh and so to work and labour in the strength of that Fellowship whatever I do in the World When I am earnest in Contemplation I fear I fail in the matter of Action when I am acting I fear losing the Marrow of my Communion with my God Here lies Divine Skill to put both these together as being of the same nature and tending to the same end each of them helping and not hindring one another And to this end I desire help from on high to find out my way and method that I may so run that I may at length finish my course with joy The Spring of all Christian Conversation How to hold Communion with God in worldly business is Justifying Faith which cleanseth the Soul and quickens it at the same time by Union with Jesus Christ and as in the order of Nature Life is first infused before any Action of Life can appear so Faith being the accepting and digesting vertue which receives in a way of spiritual digesture Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life doth cleanse and save the Soul which new Life puts forth Actions of its own nature which Actions do add a Perfection of Growth and Manifestation but not of Essence to that new Life of Justification Regeneration and Reconcilement All good works of a holy Conversation are the improving of that Life but neither the cause nor matter of it the cause of it is the meer Grace and Favour of God Ephes 1. 4 5 6. the matter of this Life is the Spirit of Jesus Christ quickning the Soul through Union with it and from thence grows Action as the delightful Exercise of the Life of the new Man So that my more or less improvement must not question the Essence of this Life the least Action notes Life as well as the greatest though the vigour thereof be in a different measure and if I doubt of Life I cannot produce it by Action Leaves will not put life into the Tree but I am in that case by Soul-resigning and Self-renouncing Recumbency of heart to lie down upon Christ to receive Life from him All Life lies in the Root and comes thence by naked believing whereby God through Christ vents his own Life by meer Grace in my Soul that all Actions of Holiness may be no other than the Life of God working in me Now that the Soul may both enjoy its Communion with God and also act with vigour the works of Righteousness in an active Conversation there must be Order and Uniformity in every Action suitable to the Spirit of Communion with God without Order there can be no Peace but Confusion 1 Cor. 14. 23. and without Uniformity also arising from the Root of Union that is between the Action and the Spirit of the Actor there can be no Peace for Unity breeds Peace Ephes 4. 3. by making things different or distinguishable to agree in one by some common and uniting likeness or other And because this Uniformity seems naturally to offer it self to Consideration in the first place I would let a few thoughts pass upon it In all Christan and morally good Actions forbearing to speak of ungodly Actions which are plainly opposite to the Spirit of Holiness no Action though it be in it self materially good ought to be left to its own swinge but always ought to move in the hand of the Spirit as it gives direction by and suitable to the Word The natural motion of a Wheel is to run downwards yet we read Ezek. 1. 19 20 21. that the Spirit of the living Creature being in the Wheels it guided the Wheels from their natural motion to the pleasure and Will of the Spirit that was in the Wheels up or down hither or thither as the Spirit moved them the Spirit and the Wheels were made one in motion by reason of their Union And even so in all good Actions spiritually performed there is a Union betwixt the Principle of Holiness in the new Man and the outward Action that is done which forms the Action into a homogeneous suitableness to that inward Principle and prevents discord betwixt the Action and the Principle Thus it was with Job when he said My heart shall not reproach me Job 27. 6. And hence comes a peaceable Execution of any Actions when the Principle of Holiness does spirit the Action and the Action outwardly manifest a justifying Concurrence with the Principle in and by which it acts the Action and the Principle having the same united Tendency to the Will of God And as Union and Symphony betwixt a gracious efficient Principle and a gracious Action renders it a comfortable Service whatever the work be which is done so the Order betwixt these two do add a further supply to carry on a heavenly Conversation here on Earth The goodness of every Action as to Comfort in the Execution thereof ariseth from Communion with God for whom and to whom that Action and Service is performed Although both be the Exercise of the New Man yet each of them act in their own order the heart is first under true warmth within and then the suitable discoveries do follow Psal 39. 3. While I was musing saith David the fire burned and then spake I with my tongue A good Action loseth its inward beauty when it keeps not its inside order it is numbred amongst dead works and moves but in a ghastly manner when the Spirit within moves not first much like to the irrational Actions of a Man who walks up and down and talks by some strength of fancy when he is in a dead sleep all the while But when the Root of Communion with God bears the Soul forth unto fruitfulness in any Service that Service is comely because it springs naturally from a Spirit of Faith in the New Man and carries along the nature of the New Man in whatsoever is done These two being observed would so carry on the course of Christianity that in the various affairs of this life inward Peace would not be broken there would be readiness at all times to pray praise and rejoyce Thus Abraham and Enoch walked with God and this is the glorious Promise They shall walk up and down in the name of the Lord Zach. 10. 12. All good Actions being thus rooted and ordered have the Glory of God in their eye and run forth in way of duty and carry with them the encouragement of Acceptation with God And although the Actions of such a man may visibly be successless yet his heart is never wrung with disappointment because his secret Communion with and Subjection to

better than himself highly commending the smallest degree of true Worth in any other where-ever he saw it And if any carried themselves unworthily towards him in Speech or Action or had injuriously treated him he would take little notice of it but to requite it with good He would pity them and pray for them and study how to answer them with kindness seeking occasions how to manifest his Love to them according to the Gospel-Rule c. His Meekness was admirable His Meekness he shewing all Meekness unto all Men Tit. 3. 2. wherein he was a true Disciple and Follower of his Lord and Saviour who albeit he had great natural Courage yet it was so sweetned with this Grace that it became very Ornamental to him And in his own Case and Concern he was scarce ever seen or known to be angry His Patience discovered it self His Patience much in his last Sickness that when great pains were upon him and of long continuance he seemed to bear all without the least repining That though he had many bodily Faintings yet no inward Frettings He groaned much but it was in order to be cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life He Dove-like mourned but it was unto the Lord Jer. 12. 11. And he lamented after him 1 Sam. 7. 2. He poured out his Complaint before him Psal 142. 2. but his Complaints were only of and against himself always justifying the Wisdom Goodness Faithfulness and Love of God in all that he endured Which also was conspicuous in the whole Series of his fore-going Life and more particularly in these occasional Sayings which issued from his rich Mind and heart I am more afraid I shall not have a full Draught of the Good these Trials offer than that I desire to be delivered out of them We in distress are apt to mind only our getting out of them but God minds our Good by them God's design in afflicting his People is purging work and they should strike in also for the promoting of that design that they may have the Good he aims at by it We would fain wind out of Trouble and God would wind us out of the World and out of our selves that is his End and blessed be his Name he will accomplish it He was observed under the greatest outward Losses never to complain but still to say Let us labour to improve them and understand the Mind of God in them and that he did believe God would cause it to work for good He often adored the Wisdom and Goodness of God in all his Dispensations though never so dark And relishing the necessity and excellency of this Grace he further recommended it to others by many Expressions which were such as these We should not be as Mopes and dead things under Afflictions but lively in the Actings of Faith Patience and Humility And that we are not to be ashamed of them nor discontented under them That God afflicts us that we might be more rootedly useful where he gives opportunity afterwards and to bring us out of our Sins That as Sin brings us into Trouble so Trouble is sent to bring us out of Sin and for the Exercise of Grace And speaking more particularly The Lord deliver me out of one Cross and fit me for another for Crosses I do expect and the Graces of God's Spirit must have Matter for their Exercise while I am in this World Moreover he said That we should labour after an even frame of Spirit And that a Christian should not rest till he hath brought his heart to this Indifferency that under any Trouble or Trial it be all one to him whether God doth grant him the things prayed for or give him Patience Satisfaction and Quiet of Spirit in the want of them and so to leave the whole matter to God for him to make the Choice And that we should when under any Confusion or Disorder of Mind beg of God that as he once did order and methodize a Chaos and of it did frame a World so he would take thy Confusions and settle and quiet thy heart That as he did set in order things then so he would deal with thy heart now And that we should consider wherein lies the difference between the Redeemed and the Men of this World but in this the one have their Portion here and the Portion of the other is reserved He further urged these Persuasives to Patience under Afflictive Providences That God intends our Good as before noted And if he aims and designs our Good he will be sure to strike there where the voice of his Rod may be heard and the smart of it felt And will thrust his Probe into that part most festered and search it to the Quick and cause the Corrasive he applies fully to cleanse the Wound before he lays on the healing Plaister And if God saw Prosperity to be better for his People than Adversity they should not be exercised with it at all for God always gives his People the best things And that 't is pity anything should be matter of Sorrow or Joy unto us now which will be no Sorrow nor Increase of our Joy in the other World And that Joy or Sorrow in the having or losing outward things argues that they are our Sun and Shield and not God for as a Candle in a Room where the Sun shines 't is little regarded or minded That though it be used for or about some particular use or thing yet 't is the Sun we live in and by And that 't is enough for us to have God for our Treasure who is a boundless Treasure Therefore our Eye should be upwards much And if there be any Joy it should be on a spiritual Account or any Sorrow it should be because our spiritual Trade goes not on Also that we should consider that there be many of God's People come not tot the Trial of their Faith whilst they have any outward Prop to rest upon But when God reduceth them to the loss of all as to the Creature they seeing themselves in a desperate Case indeed then God doth his Work upon them and that is Glorious Work Yet 't is a miserable thing to make use of God only as a helper in times of Straits and Dangers when we find Help no where else His Resignation to God was His Resignation to God his daily Work and under various Afflictive Providences was used to say That that was a poor Religion that could not make a Life of God abstracted from all Creatures And often he would speak from his own Experience That the most undoing Providences were the most gaining times to his Soul He also discovered his Proficiency in this excellent part of Godliness in such Directions and Sayings as these We should give up our selves to God in every Petition and pour out our Souls to him even as he gives himself to us in every Blessing And we should so give up our selves to