Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A31174
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Salvation laid on its right foundation, or, The free grace of God prov'd to be the only ground of, and to have the alone stroke in, the matter of our salvation being the sum of two sermons / preach'd to a county auditory by an admirer of grace, and the freeness of it.
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R. C.
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1698
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Wing C113A; ESTC R34781
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22,006
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33
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unworthy of this salvation whereof it hath pleased God in the Riches of his Grace to esteem us worthy therefore let it be your work to Rely upon and Rejoyce in this Grace and Favour against all the Suggestions of Satan and your own Heart touching your Weakness and Vnworthiness and let not these ore whelm you but rather plead them as the occasions by which Grace will be manifested and shew it self to be what it is Thus did Paul who when speaking of Christ's dying for sinners says 2 Tim. 1.1 of whom I am chief Thus David Psal 25.1 Luke 15.1 in begging the pardon of his sins says for they are great Thus the Prodigal I have sinned against Heaven and before thee Here is no mention of any Worthiness or Towardliness in them above others No there is none of this Stuff in any of their Pleas they quit all that to rely on Free Grace and meer Mercy they knew that to look for Salvation from any thing on this side that would be to forsake a Living Fountain and rest on a Cistern a broken Cistern and feeding themselves with Dreams and Fancies which when they a woke would leave them hardly bestead and hungry and therefore would by no means sit down under the shadow of that Gourd Vse 3. Thirdly Is it so thao we are saved by Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then by way of Exhortation be stirred up to Two Things First To be Adorers of it And Secondly Endeavour a walking suitable to it And First Is it so that we are saved by meer Grace Then magnifie and adore the Matchless Love of God in the discovery of his rich Grace to any of your Souls It is rich mercy that God would not betrust us with salvation in our own keeping but has laid it on the sure Foundation of his own Grace but the mercy is heightned and so might our Praise in that God has not only done thus for us but also revealed it to us Oh! The heighth and depth of this Love that what has been hid from Ages and is at this day hid from Millions of Souls should be revealed to such worthless Creatures that others should be left groping in their Natural Darkness seeking for help and find none And that God should make our way so clear is a mercy we can never admire enough Alas Had we a Thousand Hearts and every heart cut into Ten Thousand Peices and every peice capable of Admiring and Adoring this Love it were all too little But then Secondly As we must be adorers of it so we must endeavour a walking suitable to it where we Read That the Grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared unto all Men We see what Lesson it teaches 〈◊〉 2.11.12 That denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Beware of turning the Grace of God into wantonness when Ministers Preached up the Riches of Gods Grace don't think it is to bolster you in your Sins but that by a Sense of the Riches of Gods Grace your hearts might be drawn out to walk worthy of it unto all pleasing as the Apostle expresses it Pos 1.10 If it have not this effect then hear your dreadful Doom that thou art yet in the Gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity And have as the Apostle told Simon Magus Neither Lot nor part in this matter 〈◊〉 8.21.23 Tho salvation is made sure to us by Grace Yet self-denial and duely walking is what we must press after as the matter of our Imployment in this Life and as that which clears up our further hopes of salvation by Grace in another And altho we are saved by Grace yet let us not sin that Grace may abound Let us take heed of that for that would be a horrid conclusion To take encouragement to sin from the Freeness of Gods Grace would be a baâ—e requital Salvation by Grace requires another Guess kind of requital than this a requital of the highest Love Gratitude and Obedience that can be manifested Any Ingenious Spirit must needs confess that it is highly base and ingrate to requite Evil for Good seeing we are saved by rich free Grace and meer Mercy Let the Apostles Exhortation to the Romans prevail with you I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercies of God Rom. 1â— that you present your bodies a Living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service Oh! be intreated by that matchless mercy of Free Grace that you don't trample upon God's Love but seeing we have such Promises of Life and Salvation by Grace be Honouring of it in a walking suitable to it Oh who would Abuse Love by taking Liberty from the Freeness of God's Grace to sin Who among you is not ready to blame Judas for betraying so good a Master And who would not abhor the Conspiracy of such a Subject whose Life his Prince hath spared of meer Grace The Prophet Ezra argues thus with the People Ezra â— after their Deliverance out of Bondage Seeing that our God hath punished us less than our Iniquities deserve should we again break thy Commandments Let us Reason thus with our own Souls seeing God in the Riches of his Grace is inclined to save such a worthless Creature as I am and to bring me to the Glory and Dignity of Saints and Angels shall I go on to sin against such Endearing Love as this Some says an Holy Man of God please themselves with a strange kind of Doctrine such as never entred into the mind of God That seeing they are saved by Grace they may live as they list in Rebellion to God and Godliness following Iniquity with greediness and yet go to Heaven Certainly had God opened such a Gap to Wickedness He could never have justly complained of the Deluge of Impiety that overflows the World Far be it from the Holy God whose Purity abhors Impiety to allow such Licentiousness No no God's Aim in the Large Discoveries of his Grace is to make you and I and every Soul in Love with it and to fall down in highest Adoration before it For when the Soul is truly made sensible of the Free Grace of God in Christ it makes that Soul cry out in Joseph's Language Gen. 39 9. Oh how shall this Soul thus saved by Grace dare to sin against the God of all Grace Oh that this might be the continual Frame of our Souls that the God of Grace may have no Cause to complain of us as of Israel Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord O Foolish People and unwise Salvation laid on its Right Foundation SERMON II. EPH. II. 8. For by Grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God HAving finished the former part of the Text wherein we have proved the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace we come to see the way God takes in conveying this Salvation down to us through Faith
and this is what we now own and Preach and shall Triumph in in the great Day â—se 3. But Thirdly seeing it is so that Works are no way a procuring Cause of our Salvation then hence le ts be exhorted to renounce all our good Duties whatsoever our Praying Weeping Fasting let 's no way sacrifice to our own Net but reject all those in regard of resting on them as Causes of our Salvation It is not of our selves says the Apostle no nor of any we can do in the 9th of Deuteronomy 4. and there the Lord strictly charges the Children of Israel concerning this very thing Say not in thine Heart for my Righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess the Land The Lord abhors the naming our Righteousness before him as a Cause of our Salvation he 'll have us pass all over to the Free Grace of God in Christ confessing all our Righteousnesses to be as filthy Rags and esteeming them as Dross and Dung to win Christ desiring with the Apostle To be found 〈◊〉 3.9 not having our own Righteousness which is of God by Faith By Grace are ye saved thro Faith and that not of your selves It is the Gift of God we are now come to the last Clause it is the Gift of God Hence note by way of Doctrine that Salvation is matter of Free Gift not desert Christ's Language to his Disciples is a Confirmation of the Point Fear not â—ke 12.32 little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you a Kingdom He does not say they were to have it upon desert but the Father out of his Grace and good Pleasure would bestow it as a Gift Eternal Life is the Gift of God Rom. 6. ult it were horrid and desperately sinful to think God gives us Heaven in a way of Exchange for our good Works the Scripture shews that the Word Gift is properly taken for a Bequeathing without the Desert of any thing in us or good Works that can come from us nothing more Free than Gift And thus let us look upon our Salvation as the Free Gift of God by way of Use is it so that Salvation is bestowed not upon our desert but as a Gift of Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then hence we learn to what we must betake our selves namely to the Riches of God's Free Grace we are to rely upon this and for ever discard and cashier that Groundless and Blindfold Opinion of Salvation Job 9.15 partly by Grace and partly by Works imitating Holy Job who says Tho he were Righteous he would not answer God and would plead it but make such Supplication to his Judge Oh! that Free Grace were more exalted and proud Man and his empty Performances more debased Secondly Seeing Salvation is bestowed not upon desert but as a Gift of Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then take heed what you hear and how beware of those Teachets and Doctrines that tend to justle out Christ and Grace to make room for Self-Righteousness in the matter of our Justification and Salvation who would have you work for Life still to work for Salvation is to work for Life Beware that you are not Imposed upon by such as would turn the Gospel into Law But then lastly Seeing Salvation is bestowed not upon Desert but as a Gift of Free Grace then let such as have closed with this Truth sit down and take the comfort of it Sun your selves in the Light of this Grace Eat your Bread Rom. 5.5 and drink your Wine or Water with a merry Heart Since God hath accepted you since his Grace and Love hath been shed abroad in your Hearts Are you in the number of those who are Wise and Noble according to the Flesh then as one fitted with an holy Amazement admire that the great God to whom you are no more than others your Consorts that are left and who commonly choosest the base and foolish to magnifie his Grace should thus go out of his way Cor. 1.27 to call in you to tast of this Heavenly Banquet of his Free Grace and undeserved Favour And if you are a Man of low degree poor weak foolish and of no account among Men even as one that is not and hath the Lord regarded you in your low Estate and magnified you by revealing the Freeness of his Grace unto your Soul Hath He drawn you to tast of his Free Grace and to see your Salvation by it Hath He taken you from the Dunghil to set you among Princes even the Princes of the World to come This is that Exaltation the Poor should always Rejoyce in What though you are in low Estate now â—â—m 1.9 and others swim in Streams of Honour and worldly greatness What though you are Chastened every Morning yet think not you are hardly dealt with Remember your good things are to come they are growing in the other World and your Harvest is hastening on a pace What though the Skies be red and lowring God has his Bow in the Cloud set there as a sure Sign between Him and you What though the Billows of Troubles and Temptations go over your heads you shall not be Deluged by them By Free Grace you are hedged about and Walled up to Heaven in this Free Grace and undeserved Favour Let us Exult and Triumph yea let all the Sons of God Shout for Joy FINIS ERRATA Notwithstanding the Authors Attendance upon the Press these Errata's have escaped which be pleased to Correct with your Pen In the Dedication l. 1 for his r. the p. 15 l. 7 for so r. to p. 17 l. 5 for Communion r. common ib. l. 27 r. Men these 16 l. 34 for that r. your p. 19 l. 5 r. sheweth mercy p. 20 l. 1 after so r. that ib. l. 11 for might r. ought