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	work_n	work_v	5,063	5	7.8717	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77987	Habakkuks prayer applyed to the churches present occasions, on Hab. 3. 2. And Christs counsel to the church of Philadelphia, on Rev. 3. 11. / Preached before the provincial assembly of London. By that late reverend and faithful minister of Jesus Christ Mr. Samuel Balmford, pastor of Albons Woodstreet.	Balmford, Samuel, d. 1659?	1659 (1659)	Wing B608; Thomason E1910_2; ESTC R209972	36,857	123

put on incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the Congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people And he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed Psal 30. 5. For his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning and 138. 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me And therefore in the midst of the years of the afflictive sense of Gods anger there may be expectation of a mercifull reviving therefore in the midst of the cords and bonds of servitude there may be expectation of a merciful breaking of them Et ubi funis tenacissimus fuerit rumpitur Where the cord is stiffest and strongest there it is broken suddenly saith Luther when God is pleased to shew mercy Use 1 Use 1. This Point serves first to stir us upto a comfortable exercise of Faith that God would be pleased to revive his work in the midst of these years c. Why what years are they I cannot say they are years of Gods peoples servitude or captivity under the Chaldeans or Egyptians blessed be God for those freedoms and liberties which are yet left unto us But we are in the midst of years of dissentions even among brethren of divisions and distractions of hearts and wayes of wars and bloody hostilities between the professed Members of the Church of Christ of various concussions and shakings of Foundations of confusions of tongues tenents and practices of eruptions and overflowings of errors and blasphemies of contempts cast upon Gods Ministers and Ordinances and dissentions or shatterings in pieces of Church Assemblies in manifold places In a word we are in the midst of these years wherein it seems to me God hath dealt or is dealing with our Nation as he threatned to deale with Jerusalem in 2 Kin. 21. 13. when withall he threatned to make that people a prey and spoile to their enemies I will wipe Jerusalem said he as a man wipeth a dish wiping it and turning it upside down God hath been wiping us and wiping us and in an overly way of cleansing and purging us but is he not so doing it as he is turning us upside down Surely then beloved we are in the midst of those years wherein we need to pray that God would revive his work and make it known and in wrath remember mercy True it is we know not what periods God hath determined to such years as we are in we see not our signs we have not any foretelling Prophets as the Psalmist complained Psal 74. ● Wee see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long It is not therefore with us as with the Jews Jer. 25. 12. And it shall come to passe when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that Nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the Land of the Chaldeans and will make it perpetuall desolations And 29. 10. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place Nor have we like grounds of duty as Daniel had Dan. 9. 2 3. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years wherof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes Yet this we may and ought to do 1. Hold to the general grounds and principles of faith 1. Believe that God hath revived his people in the midst of far sadder years than we have yet seen according to foregoing instances and others that might be given And 2. Believe and therefore the rather that God can revive his work in the most seeming difficult cases And 3. Believe that God will not forsake his own work to leave it to ruine or under imperfection and a languishing condition continually And 4. Believe that God is of such infinite mercy that in wrath he will remember it c. But I commend that of Bernard to consideration as an approved truth Deus olcum misericordiae ponit in vase fiduciae But then 2. We must not faile to do what we in this Congregation are solemnly in doing this day viz. we must ply God by prayers For we know that whatever God determines to his people though they know he hath determined it yet he requires and expects his people should seek unto him concerning it See Ezek. 36. 37. therefore did Daniel so pray c. Much more ought we in cases wherein we have no circumstantial grounds of assurance c. that we may obtain at length assurance and establishment 2. This may serve more specially to stir up to seek God for a reviving of his work of Reformation in the Church in the midst of these years of disturbance and hinderance of it For my part I take that to have been the work of God which was set afoot some years since in this Nation for a Reformation in our Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline But how hath it now and that for a good while lien still almost and how hath it been cast back How have close counter-workers undermined it and open enemies opposed it how miserably is it defaced How do some Deformations out-face it And how do scoffers mock at it like those Samaritans Nehem. 4. 2. will these few Jews revive the stones out of the the heaps of the rubbish c And we could point at the causes of all this Mainly The not countenancing and furthering of the work of Civil Authority But beloved if it be Gods work begun for his people as many of us here I presume doubt not but it is we may believe it shall be revived and perfected sooner or later against all unlikelihoods And accordingly we may pray that in the midst of the years of unlikelihood it may be revived that instead of having our Land darkned over us in the clear day and our Sun set at noon a curse denounced Amos 8. 9. light may arise unto the Church in the midst of obscurity c. Isa 58. 10. and so strength be raised in the midst of weaknesse and livelinesse spring up in the midst of dying languishings We may use that argument in respect of this work which the people of God And the work hath had but a little reviving as Ezra 9.

calls upon us to hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering without declining or tottering any way therefore in a fixed and firmly setled manner Heb. 10. 23. 2. Vigorous putting forth of strength in the way of contestation with others for the maintenance and defence of Truth and Purity of Doctrine and Worship and holy Government and practice so farre as is warrantable in a regular way We are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. and to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free that we be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage Gal. 5. 1. Quest But what need is there of such strong actings to hold fast Truth and Holinesse Answ There is need of some strength in a double respect 1. To hold up against inward faintings and languishings We know that every thing is ready to fall and drop out of our hands when our natural spirits faile within us and we are faine to take Cordials sometimes to strengthen our stomacks to retain what is taken down which otherwise either through nauseousness or other weaknesse would be quickly cast up again So it is too often in the case of the failing of gracious spirits in Christians through spiritual faintings they are too ready to let fall divers truths of God and to stick in the profession of them and to let fall practical exercise of holiness and 〈◊〉 let dissolve away the regular assemblings of themselves together And all this either through a nauseating wearinesse of such things by the great gathering of ill humours or through some causelesse fearfull pusillanimous apprehensions And therefore said Christ to the Church at Sardis ver 2. strengthen the things that remain which are ready to dye The remaining good things in a Church of Christ are sometimes through the weaknesse of inward Principles ready to languish and dye away and therefore need be strengthened Again there is need of strength 2ly To retain against external violences or forcible attempts of others to wring from Christ what they hold of good or to make them fling it away or shake it off from them Robore hic opus esse judicat quia plurima sunt quae fidelibus haec dona excutere possunt nisi tenere omnibus modis contendant saith Pareus in locum We might be encouraged by many examples of Martyrs yea some Heathen may be alluded to as that of Attilius the Roman who fighting for a Ship at Sea held fast on her with one hand after another till both were cut off Valer. Max. another whose hands were off held fast with his teeth so christians should mordicus tenere But I shall have occasion to speak more of this point by and by under one of the Motives in the Context Quest But it may be asked again What need the people of God be charged with care of duty of this nature since there be such precious promises made unto them that the Lord will keep them and preserve them and his graces in them so that they shall never depart or fall away from him nor ever be plucked out of his hand but be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation See Jer. 32. 40. Joh. 10. 28 29. 1 Pet. 1. 5. They that belong to the Lord shall retaine that which shall bring them or suffice to accompany them to everlasting glory and happiness and why then need they be solicitous about holding fast that which they have Answ We have to answer divers things First For particular persons even such as are elect and called and perswaded too of their interest in such precious promises they notwithstanding these promises are obliged by command from God to look to their own self-spiritual preservation and that in a subserviency to Gods providence for the accomplishment of his promises It was not said ungroundedly by that Ancient so it be rightly understood Qui creavit te sine te non servabit te sine te c. God hath ordered most wisely and justly that the first spark of grace which he giveth to his beloved ones should be employed and improved instrumentally under his own supreme agency for both their preservation and advance of their happy condition Therefore mark it the fear which he puts into their hearts that is that holy circumspect fear not secure presumption is made a preservative for their not departing away from him in that Jer. 32. 40. And though he keep them by his own power yet it it is through the continued acting and exercising of their faith that he keeps them unto salvation In that 1 Pet. 1. 5. Secondly For particular Churches gathered in visible communion and frame of Government there be no promises made unto any of them for ought I have heard and remember nor ever were that they should be perpetually preserved either without decay or without dissolution and therefore there is no cause why Church-members should be remisse and negligent in holding fast those Church-Ordinances Liberties and Priviledges which they enjoy at present if they regard the good of that collective body whereof they are because they have no ground of promise to pretend for security against a suddain change and alteration Yea thirdly suppose a promise made to a particular Church for its preservation for a time yet the Lord will not have that Church slacken her care and endeavour of preserving her self no not during that season My proof by way of instance is near at hand Christ made a promise to this Church at Philadelphia in the verse before my Text that he would keep her from the hour of temptation that should come upon all the world to try them that do dwell upon the earth and yet presently he forewarns her to hold that fast which she had This is very observable She might not expostulate Lord since thou wilt keep me what need I take any care of keeping my self No Churches as Churches must learn to serve under Gods promises and providences for their own good as well as particular Christians And Gods known purposed indulgences should not occasion his servants negligences How much more cause then have those Churches to take this warning which have no such special promises made unto them as none of the particular Churches of Christ for ought I know have at this day These things being in some sort cleared I shall pesent you with what I have further to say in the way of usual improvement of the Doctrine delivered Use 1. First I beseech you to make use of this Point by ●●y of Caution in reference to the Object We have heard what it is which the servants and Churches of Christ respectively are to hold fast Now because there is a tenacity a disposition to hold fast something or other in every one and yet every thing which one hath is not worth holding fast therefore let us try what it is only that we have be sure to hold fast that which