Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	grace_n	justification_n	work_n	6,035	5	6.7945	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97271	A touch-stone to try (by our knowledge, belief, and life) whether we be Christians in name onely, or Christians in deed. Or, The character of a true beleever, that walks in some measure answerable to the gospell, his Christian profession, and the millions of mercies he hath received. / By R.Y. of Roxwell in Essex.	Younge, Richard.	1648 (1648)	Wing Y193B; Thomason E1150_4; ESTC R208624	54,772	52

grieving that he can performe no better service to so good a Master He will not as too many most sordidly doe take liberty to sin because God is mercifull and forbeares to execute judgement speedily or deferre his repentance because the Thiefe upon the Crosse was heard at the last hour but he will even therefore the more feare him because he is mercifull and therefore be holy because he is not under the Law but under grace § 66. And lastly having thus done and performed his utmost not to merit by it but to expresse his thankfulnesse to him that hath done performed and suffered so much for him he confesseth himselfe an unprofitable servant and that in all he comes farre short of performing his duty yea he ackcowledgeth that it were just for God eternally to condemne him Well may he be comforted by the graces which God hath given him as an earnest penny of those eternall Mansions in Heaven but he will not be exalted by them because they are not his graces but the Graces of God in him and wrought by his Spirit yea he so abhorres to attribute or ascribe ought to doing that he counts his very righteousnesse no better then filthy raggs ascribing every good thought word and action which proceeds from him to Free Grace for he lookes back to the rock out of which he was hewne and is not onely humbled thereby but forced with an holy admiration to wonder at the marvellous and extraordinary change which God hath wrought in him and also instructed to trust onely to Christs obedience in whom onely our good workes are accepted and for whom alone they are rewarded To shut up all he indeavours so to live as if there were no Gospel and so to dye as if there were no Law § 67. Onely it remaines that you looke your selves in this glasse and try your selves by this touchstone for though others may give a shrewd ghesse yet the Mother knowes best whether the Childe be like the Father or no and the signes of Salvation are to be sought in our selves as the cause in Jesus Christ our Justification is to be proved by the fruits of our Sanctification and though faith alone justifieth yet justifying faith is never alone but ever accompanied with spirituall graces the beauties of the soule and good workes the beauty of graces yea they are as inseparable as the root and the sap the Sunne and its light and as Fire may be discerned by heat and life by motion so a mans faith may be discerned by the fruits of it Nor can any one be deceived except he desires to deceive himselfe for every particular man is either the Childe of God or the Childe of the Devill as Chrysostome hath it for there is not a meane betwixt them and there be more differences betweene the Children of God and the Children of the Devill then there are between Men and Beasts whereof I have named not a few for whatsoever you may find the one herein set forth to speake think or doe the other does the contrary and to have the true Character of an unbeleever you need but read this Character of a true Beleever backward understand all by the rule of contraries and be satisfied I speake this to Naturians onely for the regenerate man knowes the one to be so by what he is and the other by what he hath been neither is there one of all these signes or characters but each experienced Christian findes it in some degree written in his heart as his conscience can beare me witnesse And would you know whether you belong to Christ This will informe you you will by helpe from above endeavour to bring into captivity every thought and thing to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 1 John 2.4 but so have not you in the least so long as you love not or any way oppose the people of God for the very first part of conversion is to love them that love God 1 John 3.10 yea in reason if the Image of God by faith were repaired in thee thou couldest not but be delighted with those that are like thy selfe And what saith St. John He that pretends interest in God or Christ and keepeth not his Commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 John 2.4 and in the third Chapter and eighth Verse he affirmes plainly That all wilfull sinners are the Devills servants And indeed let men flatter themselves or pretend what they will it cannot be denyed but the fruit tells best the name of the Tree the conversation above all shewes who carries the bridle of the will whether God or Satan and did not men purposely shut their eyes and stop their eares and harden their owne hearts least they should see and heare and so be converted as our Saviour himselfe speakes Matth. 13.15 they could not but know that the whole Bible beates upon this It is Saint Pauls everlasting rule Rom 6.16 Yea are his servants to whom ye obey And Saint Peters infallible Doctsrine 2 Pet. 2.19 Of whom a man is overcome unto him he is in bondage And Saint Johns In this are the Children of God knowne and the Children of the Devill whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God but of the Devill 1 John 3.8 10. And after this manner does our Saviour reason with the Jewes John 8.33 to 48. See then whose commands ye doe Gods or Satans if Satans then saith Saint John Let no man deceive you through vaine words for he onely that doth righteousnesse is righteous and he that doth unrighteousnesse is of the Devill 1 John 3.7 8. wherefore if thou art a common Drunkard or a continuall Swearer or an usuall companion of Harlots or an accustomary Deceiver or a frequent slanderer of thy Neighbour or an open and common Sabbath-breaker or canst thou boast of sinne and mischiefe or defend it If thou makest no conscience of Praying in thy Family if thou callest evill good and good evill if thou hatest thy Brother for doing that which is good as Caine did Abel if Ismael-like thou mockest or Cham-like thou scoffest at the religious or usest bitter iests against them though it be under the notion of Round-heads Puritanes Sectaries Black-coates or the like if thou raisest slanders of them or furtherest them being raised if thou dost rejoyce at the secret infirmities of the godly or open scandalls of Hypocrites if thou dost carpe and fret against the Word refusing to heare it or withstandest the preaching of it if being a Minister thou disgrafest or revilest the godly in thy preaching so making sad the hearts of the righteous or justifyest the wicked so strengthening them in their evill courses by preaching unto them peace if thou hast a base esteeme of Gods people and their wayes and thinkest the worse of a man for scrupling small matters if thou makest Religion a cloake for villany if thou dost borrow or run in debt without care to pay againe if thou delightest in

being obtained And be he never so rich he is not high minded neither does he trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God For in his prosperity he forgetteth not his former low estate but is ever meditating upon and admiring the Lords goodnesse towards him Yea he sets a Memorandum upon every remarkable mercy that he may not forget it and admires that God should set his delight and love upon him and chose him above many others and this makes him strive to surpasse others in his love and service to God againe Whereas unbeleevers when they are waxed fat with the good blessings of God they will spurne with the heel and forsake God that made them not once regarding the strong God of their salvation but provoke him with strange gods and other abominations but it fares not so with the Beleever neither doth he so requite the Lord. And as he is thankfull to the Author so likewise to any that he shall make instrumentall for his good thinking himselfe bound to remember and requite good turnes 12. § Secondly if he falls into adversity or any kinde of distresse he knowes it is sent of the Lord in love and to doe him good and to give him occasion of rejoycing afterwards He well considers that scarfe any thing more proves us his then his stripes that stripes from the Almighty are so farre from arguing his displeasure that contrarily there are few better tokens and pledges of his adoption and love and that they are bastards and not sonnes who are without correction And so it is that as many as God loves he rebukes and chastens And as it is sent for his good so it doth him good crosses in his estate diseases in his body maladies in his minde are medicines to his soule the impairing of the one is the repairing of the other His sinne dyes with his fame or with his health or with his peace or with his outward estate Yea it both lessons his sins and increaseth his graces for God sends him affliction both for his instruction and reformation to scoure away the rust of corruption and to try the truth of his sanctification for the increase of his patience and the exercise of his faith and the improvement of his zeale and to provoke his importunity and to double his obligation to greaten each other grace and to augment his glory Againe he inflicts a lesse punishment to avoyd a greater and by smarting in his body state or name he is saved from smarting in his soule He is chastned that he may be converted not confounded his worser part to wit his Body state or name is impoverisht that his better part that is his soule may be saved in the day of Judgement But see it in some particulars as first how it makes him humble and thankfull for he not only calls to minde his owne unworthinesse of the least mercy he still injoyes and how he hath provoked the Giver for he is ever meditating of what Christ hath done and suffered for him and how he hath provoked Christ But he also compares what he suffers with what he might have suffered arguing thus with himselfe he that hath taken this from me might have taken more he that afflicts me for a time could have held me longer he that hath touched me in part could have stricken me in whole he that laid this upon my body hath power to lay a greater Rod both upon my body and soule without doing me the least wrong And so goes on I was borne a childe of wrath and whereas God might have left me in that perishing condition and chosen others he hath of his free grace adopted me and left others And this makes him cry out O the depth as a mercy beyond all expression saying further O my soule thou hast not roome enough for thankfulnesse And the truth is if we could but seriously thinke upon our deliverance from Hell fire it alone would be thought cause enough to make us both patient and thankfull though the things we now delight in be taken from us And sure I am nothing can be too much to endure for those pleasures in Heaven which shall endure for ever O that we could keepe fast in our memories but these two things and upon all occasions make use of them and consider withall that the least mercy is beyond our best merit And no better remedy for impatience then to cast up our receits and compare them with our deservings But secondly Gods corrections are his instructions his lashes lessons his scourges school-masters his chastisements advertisements to him by feeling of smart he learnes to decline the cause Yea this hath taught him to fly from the workes of darknesse at a great distance and to consider as well the bitternesse of what will follow as the sweetnesse of a momentary pleasure and so cleared his sight that he can now discerne sinne in all he thinkes and speakes and does for he is ever bewailing his wants and weaknesses the hardnesse of his heart want of faith c. Thirdly it abundantly increaseth his joy and comfort for admit Satan and the world should deprive him of all outward comforts at once yet God at the same time will supply the want of these with comforts farre surpassing and transcending them as first the assurance of the pardon of sinne alone is able to cleare all stormes of the minde it teacheth misery as sicknesse poverty famine imprisonment infamy c. even to laugh for then let death happen it matters not when a Malefactor hath sued out his pardon let the Assizes come when they will the sooner the better But to this is added the peace of conscience the marrow of all comforts otherwise called the peace of God which passeth all understanding and surpasseth all commending for never did man finde pleasure upon earth like the sweet testimony of an appeased conscience reconciled unto God cleansed by the blood of the Lambe and quieted by the presence of the Holy Ghost As the Martyrs felt who even clapt their hands for joy in the midst of the flames and were even ravisht before they were permitted to dye so great and so passing all expressing is the peace and comfort of a good conscience Againe thirdly affliction bringeth with it the company of God himselfe I will be with you in tribulation saith God Psal 91.15 As when those three were cast into the fiery Furnace Dan. 3. there was presently a fourth came to beare them company and that was God himselfe ver 23. to 27. and his presence makes any condition comfortable were a man even in Hell it selfe See more Acts 13.52 And as his sufferings abound so his consolation also aboundeth 2 Cor. 1.5 Indeed the unbeleever laughs more but that laughter is onely the hypocrisie of mirth they rejoyce in the face onely and not in the heart nor can it be solid comfort except it hath his issue from a good conscience whereas Gods Word teacheth and a