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	life_n	work_n	7,030	5	6.3476	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17218	Looke from Adam, and behold the Protestants faith and religion evidently proued out of the holy Scriptures against all atheists, papists, loose libertines, and carnall gospellers: and that the faith which they professe, hath continued from the beginning of the world, and so is the true and ancient faith. Herein hast thou also a short summe of the whole Bible, and a plaine manifestation, that all holy men who have pleased God, have beene saved through this Christian faith alone.; Alte Glaube. English	Bullinger, Heinrich, 1504-1575.; Coverdale, Miles, 1488-1568.	1624 (1624)	STC 4073; ESTC S108889	66,495	116

because we may not describe it after our owne judgement we will rehearse the words of the Apostle which writing to the Hebrewes saith after this manner Faith is a substance of things to be hoped for an evidence or certaintie of things which doe not appeare By the which definition it is manifest that when we set forth or teach this faith we meane no vaine faith no false opinion of faith no fond imagination of faith no dead faith no idle faith but a substantiall thing even a sure beleefe of things that are to be hoped for and a proofe experience or knowledge of things that are not seene This faith then is the instrument whereby we feele and are certaine of heavenly things that our corporall eye cannot see Now because none other vertue can so apprehend the mercy of God nor certifie us so effectually of our salvation as this living faith doth therefore hath the Scripture imputed our justification before God only unto faith among all other vertues not without other vertues following but without any other worke or deed justifying This is the faith of Christ which all the Scripture speaketh of This is the faith that S. Paul preacheth to justifie in the sight of God as S. Iames teacheth that works justifie in the sight of men and that it is but a dead faith which hath no works This is the faith without the which it is impossible to please God and of the which whatsoever proceedeth not is sinne This is the faith whereby God purifieth our hearts and whose end is salvation This is the faith that worketh by charitie or godly love is of value before God This is the faith whereby the holy fathers which were afore Christs incarnation did in spirit eat and drinke enjoy the same mercy of God in Christ that we are partakers of To be short this is the same faith whereby God saved those his elect of whō S. Paul maketh mention in the foresaid epistle to the Hebrewes and rehearseth many godly fruits of the same in their conversation This then is no new-fangled faith no strange faith no faith invented by mans braine but even the same that Gods holy spirit teacheth in the infallible truth of his Scripture and that Adam Abel Enoch and all the other servants of God were saved in Why doe men therefore either call it a new-fangled faith or report evill of us for setting it forth Why I feare me this is one cause The old faith that all those servants of God had whom the Apostle nameth in the eleventh to the Hebrewes had a life and conversation joyned unto it which was rich and full of all good works Therefore seeing there be so many bablers and pratlers of faith and so few that bring forth the worthy fruits of repentance it giveth the world occasion to report of us that our faith is but new-fangled They see us not fall to labour and taking of paines as Adam did They see not the righteousnesse and thankfulnesse in us that was in Abel They see us not walke after the word and will of God as Enoch did They see us not take Gods warning so earnestly as Noe did They see us not so obedient to the voice of God nor so well willing and content to leave our friends to forsake our owne wils our owne lands and goods at Gods calling and dwell in a strange country to doe Gods pleasure as Abraham did they see that wee chuse not rather to suffer adversitie with the people of God than to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season They see us not esteeme the rebuke of Christ or trouble for his sake to be greater riches than all the treasures of this world as Moses did To be short they see not in our garden those sweet flowers and fruits of Gods holy Spirit which were in them that had the old faith Ashamed may wee be therefore as many of us as either write teach preach speake or talke of the old faith if wee endevour not our selves to have those old heavenly vertues that were ever plentifull in all Gods true servants in every one I meane according to his calling Not that it is evill to teach or talke of the true old faith but this I say because that according to the doctrine of S. Iames they are but deceivers of themselves that are not doers of Gods word as well as hearers thereof And through such slender receiving of Christs holy Gospell it is now come to passe that like as we haue need of such an Apostle as was holy S. Paul to rebuke this vaine confidence that men put in their workes and to tell us that no worke of our doing but faith of Gods working doth justifie us in his sight Even so have wee no lesse need of such another Apostle as was holy S. Iames to rebuke this horrible unthankfulnesse of men that professing themselves to bee Christians and to hold of Christs old faith are yet dead unto all good workes receive not the word of God in meekenesse cast not away all uncleannesse and malitiousnesse are swift to speake to talke to jangle and to take displeasure are forgetfull hearers of the Word and not livers thereafter boasting themselves to be of Gods pure and undefiled Religion and yet refraine nor their tongues from evill visit not the poore the friendlesse and the desolate in their trouble neither keepe themselves undefiled from this world Reade the first chapter of his Epistle What an occasion might such an Apostle as holy Iames was have to write another yea a sharper Epistle seeing so many pretending to be of Iesus Christs old faith are yet so partiall have such a carnall respect of persons are not rich in faith despise the poore practise not the law of godly love talke and jangle of faith not having the workes thereof clothe not the naked helpe not the poore to their living regard not their necessitie have but a dead faith declare not by good and godly workes the true and old faith of Christ are but vaine beleevers have not the eflectuous the working and living faith that Abraham and Rahab had Reade the second chapter of his Epistle How would holy Iames reprove these bringers up of strange doctrines blasphemers backbiters belie●s of good men false teachers against Gods truth dissemblers with the same cary fire as they say with the one hand and water in the other pretend to be learned and yet bring not forth the workes of good conversation in meekenesse out of Gods wisdome but in frowardnesse and out of carnall doctrine How would he take up these that delight in malice and strife belie Gods truth are given to earthly fleshly and devillish wisdome are unstable full of all evill workes are not in the schoole of Gods wisdome and learning are not given to unfainednesse of heart are not peaceable are churlish uneasie to be intreated c. Reade the third chapter

from thy wicked purpose and offend not against thy brother But Cain did as all ungodly doe For he went forth and slew his innocent brother And afterward when the Lord would have brought him into the knowledge of his great sinne and pardon him he despised the voice of the Lord with craking and facing For the which cause the Lord was wroth with him and cursed him Then despaired he first and went forth and became yet more wicked dealt altogether ungodly set first his minde upon earthly things thought to exalt his name upon earth and builded the first citie which he called Hanoch hee begat sonnes and daughters but little feare of God was before their eyes in so much that the Scripture saith Adam lay with his wife againe and shee bare a sonne whom shee called Seth. For God said shee hath given me another seed for Abel whom Cain slew Seth also had a sonne and he called him Enos And then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Out of the which words it is easie to understand that as touching holy Adam hee held no more of Cain than as though he never had had childe For Adam feared God Cain with his progenie despised God and became the Serpents generation Wherefore when Adam had gotten another sonne he was of a good hope that in Abels stead God had given him another sonne which should doe right and of whom the root of the blessed seed should spread out afterward For the which cause also he called him Seth which by vs is called a plant meaning that God had set and planted him as a branch out of which the Messias should be borne For as for Cain hee doubted of him And from the same Seth proceeded the generation of the righteous untill Noe and from him to Abraham and so unto David and from thence forth unto Christ This Seth repaired our holy faith which received great hurt at the death of Abel This did Seth I say for as much as he being taught inwardly of God and by mouth or outwardly of Adam learned his children and their seed to put their trust in God and to comfort themselves in the blessed seed and to cleave unto the same For it is written manifestly And then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Till this time was Adam with Heva his wife only a true friend and server of God The generation of Cain was now well spread abroad and come to two hundred and fiftie yeeres and aboue but the more part lived without the feare of God unrepentant and ungodly Wherefore in as much as the generation of Seth now increased and the feare of God and right beleefe was among them the Scripture faith well And then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. And by this calling upon doth the Scripture meane the true right beleefe and Gods service that he most alloweth Of the progenie therefore of righteous Seth sprang the servants of God and presidents of our Christian faith As for the cursed generation of Cain and of the ungodly it was destroyed and drowned with the Floud To the holy genealogie of the true beleevers pertaineth the Patriarke Enoch of whom it is written that he walked before God that is he ordered his life and conversation altogether after the will of God being constant and upright no doubt in all that which God had spoken unto Adam Therefore became he also an example of the immortalitie of the soule and resurrection of the bodie and that all Gods servants shall be saved after this life For thus saith the Scripture And in as much as hee applied himselfe to walke after God God tooke him away and he was no more seene The holy Apostle Paul also in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrewes speaketh very excellently of Enochs faith so that no man may doubt but that hee had respect to the blessed seed and pleased God through Christ Moreover the enmitie betweene the children of God and of man that is the issue of the Serpent grew ever more and more so that on the one side the multitude of God increased and on the other side the multitude of the devill Yet at the last the multitude of the wicked was greatest For when the children of God withheld not themselves from the children of the world but tooke wives and husbands among them they begat rough people which had no faith at all and lived only after their owne lust and temptation forgat God utterly and regarded not the hundred and twentie yeeres which God gave them to amend Therefore was God constrained so to punish the unfaithful world once that all posterities unto the end of the world might have a terrible example of the just wrath of God whereby they might learne how ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse displeaseth God Thus the Lord brought the floud upon all the earth overthrew all that stood up and destroyed every thing that had life when the world had stood now a thousand six hundred and six and fiftie yeeres For so many yeeres finde wee in the fifth and seventh of Genesis where it is written that Noe was six hundred yeeres old when the floud came upon the earth Now if wee reckon the yeeres of the old Fathers in the fifth chapter untill Adam wee shall finde the foresaid summe And thus the issue of the Serpent had an end and all ungodly and unrighteous living was mightily supprest and destroyed of God And in this horrible destruction of the ungodly was faithfull Noe saved he being the eighth and preserved in the Arke through the grace and mercie of God Here our holy true Christian faith had the victorie and triumphed For Noe was of our faith even of the seed of God and put his trust in the blessed seed our Lord Jesus Yea the Arke or ship of Noe was a figure of Christ as we may easily understand by the words of S. Peter 1 Pet. 3. Seeing then that Noe was preserved through the Arke it followeth that hee was saved by Iesus Christ therefore is it manifest that hee first beleeved in Christ Noe also was hee with whom God first renued the covenant made with Adam For it is but one covenant onely even the foresaid promise and end made by God unto Adam Howbeit the same covenant was afterward at certaine times renued by reason of certaine occasions Here might Noe have thought that all the world and all men should utterly have beene undone for as much as the Lord said I am determined to destroy all flesh Therefore immediately he addeth moreover and saith But with thee will I set up my covenant that is to say whatsoever pertaineth to my covenant and what I have promised Adam alreadie the same will I surely and constantly make good and though I now destroy the world yet will I performe my truth through thee For I will preserve thee alive that the blessed

taken from it Now did God make a Testament or bequest with Abraham and promised him therein that he would give him a seed in whom he and his children should be saved And the same salvation did he expresly appoint in one and not in many Wherefore wee must adde nothing unto Gods bequest seeing he hath promised vs salvation in Christ only and not in many that is to say in no creature not in our owne power and workes of the Law neither must wee thinke that the Law was afterward added to the intent as though Christ were not able to save us or as though we might obtaine salvation by our owne workes out of the Law For thus followeth it in Paul word to word This Testament I say which afore was confirmed to Christward is not disanulled or made of none effect by the Law which was given beyond foure hundred yeeres thereafter For if the inheritance begotten by the Law then is it not given by the promise But God gave it freely unto Abraham by promise These are Pauls words out of the which every man may understand that to the generation of man salvation is given only of the grace of God through the promise and through no deserving at all and that the law of the promise that is to say the bequest and Testament of God is nothing minished but that the summe remaineth without blemish namely that salvation is given us freely But here might one aske Seeing that the salvation is clearely enough expressed afore the Law and is ascribed only unto the grace of God why would God then adde the Law why was he not content with the Testament alone Therefore followeth it now in Paul Why then serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions till the seed came that was promised These are Pauls words which are thus to be understood The Law was not given because of the promise to make it of none effect and to teach that men are saved by workes and not through the grace and free liberty of God but it was given because of transgression that is to say because that the people of God in Aegypt had transgressed the way and truth of their Fathers and knew no more what was sinne right or unright wherein stood salvation or damnation for they were corrupt through the long dwelling among the Idolaters of Aegypt Therefore did God ordaine them the Law out of the which they might learne the will of God what sinne right or unright is and to know themselves to goe into themselves and to consider how that the holy workes which God requireth are not in their owne power for the which cause all the world have great need of a Mediator And thus the Law was given to further the promise namely that wee through the Law might be led only unto Christ For thus followeth it in Pauls words And it was given of Angels by the hand of a Mediator A Mediatour is not a Mediatour of one only but God is one Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid Howbeit if there had beene given a law which could have given life then no doubt righteousnesse should come of the Law But the Scripture hath shut up all under sinne that the promise should come by the faith on Iesus Christ given unto them that beleeve Before faith came that is to say Iesus Christ in whom we beleeve we were kept and shut up under the Law unto the faith which should afterward be declared Thus was the Law our Schoole-master unto Christ that we might be made righteous by faith c. By these words of Paul may every man understand now for what cause the Law was given and how it is not contrary to the promise of the foresaid seed but rather bringeth us from our selves and from all creatures only unto Iesus Christ The Law therefore confirmeth the first promise concerning the blessed seed and teacheth that wee obtaine all salvation in him only Howbeit it is also a rule of our life informing us what wee ought to doe and what we ought to leave undone Yet on our side is all unfruitfull where faith is not But where faith is it ceaseth not through love to worke good according to the Law all honour and praise being referred unto God to men nothing but unperfectnesse God also among his people wrought many things whereby hee set the cause of Iesus Christ clearely afore the eies of the people as it is expressed afore by the Lambe of the Passeover Likewise is it where as Moses hanged up a Serpent in the wildernesse that all they which were stung and poisoned of serpents should behold the brasen serpent hanging and not die but be saved alive Wheras doubtlesse the outward beholding of the brasen serpent saved not them that were poisoned but it was God which would so declare that his Sonne should be hanged upon a crosse to the intent that every one which were poisoned and defiled by the old serpent and sinne should beleeve in the Sonne of God and live in him For so is it written Sap. 16. They had a token of health according to the commandement For who so converted was not made whole by the outward thing which he saw but by thee which art the restorer of health and Saviour of all And yet saith Christ more clearely Ioh. 3. And like as Moses set up the serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Sonne of man be lift up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternall life And as touching this the holy Apostle Paul bringeth in another sentence 1 Cor. 10. and saith Brethren I would not haue you ignorant of this that our Fathers were all under the cloud and all passed thorow the sea and were all baptised under Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat one spirituall meat and drinke of one spirituall drinke But they dranke all of the spirituall rocke that followed them which rocke was Christ Besides this if we consider the declaration of the lawes of the first Table which teacheth how we shall behave our selves right toward God to love worship and honour him to serve him and to cleave only unto him we shall finde in the same first Table the whole cause of Christ For all that afterward was ordained and appointed concerning the Tabernacle the Priesthood and the Oblations pertaineth to the summe of the first Table for as much as the Scripture and the mouth of God calleth it his law precept commandement use and statute ordinance and service And if thou aske How can God which is a spirit be served with outward visible and fleshly things as the foresaid ceremonies of the Iewes are I answer Such outward rites of the people of God were sacraments and tokens of heavenly invisible good things and were not the heavenly riches themselves Wherefore they neither served nor pleased God

that used and did such service without faith and lifting up of the minde But they that put their trust in God cleaving only unto him and lifting up their hearts higher and remained not in the visible thing those pleased God Whereas they had but one Altar and one place appointed where they should doe sacrifice it signified the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ and that he should be offered up but once and that in one place for the sinne of the world Therefore whereas the high Priest also every yeere went into the inward Tabernacle with bloud it signified that our Lord Iesus should come into this world and shed his bloud once for all to forgive and cleanse our sinnes and so to ascend unto heaven Yea all oblations and all sheddings of bloud in the sacrifices of the old fathers signified the death of our Lord Iesus Christ Nothing was cleansed among them without bloud which signifieth that all the purging of our uncleannesse is done by the bloud of Iesus Christ And all the Priesthood which was ordained for to teach to pray and make intercession to offer and doe sacrifice represented the office of our Lord Christ which came into this world to teach us the truth and righteousnesse then to offer himselfe to the Father for our sinnes and after the sacrifice done to rise up againe from death to ascend unto heaven there to sit at the right hand of God and even there as a true high Bishop to appeare alway in the presence of God and to pray for us This is the summe of the rites and ceremonies of the old fathers the understanding of the figures and the spirit of the letter whereof holy Paul hath written much in the most excellent epistle to the Hebrewes Out of all this is it easie to understand how that these rites and ceremonies of the fathers were sacraments and given to the people of God Not that they with the letter and outward visible and corporal thing should sufficiently serve God which is a spirit but that they should lift up their mindes above the same to the spirituall things pondering the mercy of God out of the which hee being moved is become gracious unto us And when he might have damned us for our sins and misdeeds he spared us for his Sons sake whom he gave unto death and his innocent death hath he accepted for our sinnes Such a faithfull consideration which is the true beleefe pleaseth God and with such a faith is God served and such a faith would the Lord have taught and planted in us with the foresaid rites and ceremonies Therefore all they that pleased God among the old fathers pleased him not for the letters sake but by reason of the spirit When the sacrifice also and ceremonie was executed after the ordinance of God in the congregation the beloved friends of God had not only respect unto the outward thing but much rather beheld they Christ with the eyes of faith and thought thus Behold the will of God hath ordained to do sacrifice for sinne now are we all sinners and debtors unto God in so much that he hath power and right over us that like as the beast which is now slaine and offred dieth and hath his bloud shed Even so might God now also kill us all and condemne us for ever Neverthelesse he hath taken us to his mercy and promised us a seed which should thus die on the Crosse and cleanse us with his bloud and with his death restore us unto life which thing no doubt shall as surely come to passe as this beast is slaine and offered now afore our eyes And like as the bloud is sprinkled over the people for the bodily cleansing so shall the bloud of Christ be sprinkled upon our soules c. And out of such a thought and faithfull consideration of the sacrifices grew repentance and sorrow for their sinnes a gladnesse praise comfort and thanks-giving unto God the mercifull Father And to this doe serve certaine Psalmes which were made concerning the sacrifices To this also serve all the rebukings of the holy Prophets and the refusing of the oblations For the externall pompe and shew of the offerings without faith in God and the blessed seed is nothing worth yea it is rather abominable unto God as thou seest in the first chapter of Esay Thou wilt aske Might not God have taught and shewed his people the cause of Iesus Christ of true beleefe none other way than through and with such cost pompe and glory of sacrifices and other gorgeousnesse of the Church I answer If the people had not fallen to more wickednesse in Egypt through their dwelling among the Idolaters but had constantly and stedfastly remained as did their fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob then might they well have continued by the old short simple forme as it was among the holy fathers But now had they seene in Egypt an outward costly Gods service with temples altars sacrifices priesthood holy daies ornaments c. Likewise the idolatry increased daily in all the world so that now there was utterly no people which had not their owne outward ceremonies wherewith they served God To the intent then that God might retaine his people within the compasse of faith in one God and in the blessed seed promised afore to the intent also that they should shew no outward service to any other gods or take upon them to serve God after the manner of the Egyptians or of other heathen he appointed an outward Gods service and commanded to doe the same unto him and else to none and in the same pleased it him to set forth all the cause of the foresaid seed till he came and performed all things in deed that they had figuratively in their sacrifices Moreover God according to his wisdome of his speciall mercy and good heart that he hath unto mans generation would with these outward tokens tender our weaknesse which of spirituall heavenly things hath better understanding when they are shewed unto it by corporall visible things God therefore through such corporall representations laboured to shew unto that grosse and fleshly people the heavenly cause of his Sonne Neverthelesse the corporall visible things were given for no longer but untill the time of the fulfilling But now that Christ hath appeared and fulfilled and performed all that was written and figured of him in the Law and the Prophets the figure ceaseth and the outward sacraments of Moses law are of no more value to be exercised and used Thus much be said of the ceremonies Whereas beside the ceremonies there is much written also in the Law concerning civill policie ordinance judgement to live peaceably and well in citie and land of buying and selling of warre and peace of inheritance and proprieties of lawes matrimoniall of punishment of the wicked of the judgement and counsell of lending and borrowing c. It is no newes at all