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	law_n	work_n	2,920	5	6.2264	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29118	Elijah's nunc dimittis, or, The authors own funerall sermons in his meditations upon I Kings 19:4 ... / by Thomas Bradley ...	Bradley, Thomas, 1597-1670.	1669 (1669)	Wing B4132; ESTC R7187	60,180	133

they lived and they that did not so they were reproach't as In utile pondus terrae an unprofitable burden to the Earth Fruges consumere nati as if they were borne onely to devoure the good things of the Earth He was an honest Moralist that spake it Mortem non timore quia ita vixi ut frustra me natum non existimem I am not afraid to dye because I have so lived as that no man may think that I was born in vaine a testimony that may shame many Christians that so live and dye as if they were born in vain improfitable burdens to the Earth Terrible is the doome of the unprofitable servant in the Gospel Take the unprofitable servant binde him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness He doth not charge him as being an hurtfull servant but as an unprofitable servant not with wasting his Talent but with not improving it Beloved God looks we should be profitable servants that we should bring glory to his name honour to the Gospel and that we should doe good in our Generation that the world should be the better for our comming into it not the worse Can any man imagine or can it stand with reason to think That the most holy God and wise Creator of all things should Create such a Creature as Man is for nought and not look for service from him and glory out of him Why there is no Creature that he hath made though never so mean and despicable but he looks for glory by it and service out of it in it's kind Natura nihil facit frustra The God of Nature hath made nothing in vain And shall Man the most excellent piece of the Creation next unto the Angels be unserviceable and bring in nothing to the glory of the Creator Man endued with such rare gifts and abilities to doe good withall both to himself and others Did the Creator endue him with such rare excellencies above the rest of the Creatures such as Understanding Will Memory Affections Reason Judgement Knowledge Conscience for nought No surely To whom much is given of him much will be required great receipts will make men liable to great accounts A time will come when they shall give an account both of their Time and of their Talents how they have used and improved them what good they have done with them Beloved That man shall never dye comfortably which hath not in his life time in some sort answered the end of his Creation The end of his Creation is to glorifie God to doe good to men in his Generation and to further the salvation of his own soule Blessed is that servant whom when his Master cometh he shall finde so doing Vses 1. It reproves all carnall careless and secure Christians if I may call them such and not rather Epicure or Atheist that make no Conscience at all of doing good sure they think salvation will come of course and God will drop down happiness into their laps while they sit still and never look after it What shall we eat or what shall we drink or where withall shall we be cloathed are the things that take up their care and thoughts but the Vnum necessarium that one thing that is necessary wholly layd aside Surely a great part of the world are very Atheists they either think there 's no heaven at all or they are much mistaken in the way to it and the means of attaining it We must work walk runne fight the good fight of Faith Strive to enter in at the streight gate through many tribulations many sufferings many cumbatings there are corruptions to be mortified Lusts to be crucified Temptations to be resisted afflictions to be suffered spirituall wickednesses to be wrastled withall Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam multa tulit fuitq pius sudovit alsit Christianity is no idle Calling it will take up the whole man and the whole time it will keep us doing in the practise of all Christian duties and the exercise of all Christian graces 2. This reproves the Sc●pticks and ●nosticks of these times whose Religion lyes all in their Braine and in their Tongue the Practique part of Christianity they lay by and place it all in Theory and speculation they have found out a neerer way to Heaven then ever our Fathers knew an easier and a cheaper they can talk thems●lves thither and dispute themselves thither and all this while sit still and neither work nor walk for it at all the good works which Christianity calls for they pay with good words their devotion is turn'd into disputing their faith into faction and their charity into contention the mayne of Religion they place in hearing of Sermons Pliny writes of a certain Serpent Aure concepit Ore parit That it conceives in the Eare and brings forth at the Mouth as fit an Embleme for such professors as can be They conceive by the Eare in an insatiable desire of Hearing and bring forth at the Mouth by endless disputing and discoursing But as to the Hand by working or the Foot by walking their Religion reacheth not without which all the rest is but vain as St. James tells us Therefore Set me as a Seale upon thine heart and as a Bracelet upon thine Arme saith the Church to Christ Cant. 8.6 Upon which St. Bernard thus Glosseth In corde sunt cogitationes in brachiis sunt operationes ergo super cor super brachium The heart is the seat of affections the Arme the Instrument of actions Set me therefore as a Seale upon thy heart and as a bracelet upon thine arme that with the one I may ever affect and with the other effect the things that please thee Beloved Not onely the Law but the Gospel every where calls for good works at our hands Be zealous of good works Titus 2.14 Fruitfull in good works Col. 1.10 And let ours also learn to shew forth good works What though they be not Causa Regnandi The cause why we shall reigne yet they are Via Regni The way to the Kingdome and the way which God hath appointed we should walk in thither What though they doe not justifie nor merit yet they are profitable for necessary uses By them is our Heavenly Father glorified the Gospel of Jesus Christ honoured and adored they are evidences of the soundness of our Faith the sincerity of our profession they bring comfort to the Conscience here and there is a certain reward for them in Heaven though not Propter opera yet Secundum opera according to our works to be given unto us Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them And happy is he which hath store of them in that day to prayse him in the gates And thus much of the first inference drawn from Elijah's third Satis est that is I have done enough Those that are for God must doe