Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	justification_n	justify_v	meritorious_a	2,124	5	11.4575	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85783	The Christian in compleat armour. Or, A treatise of the saints war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickednesse, and chiefe designe he hath against the saints. A magazin open'd: from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual armes for the battel, help't on with his armour, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole warre. The first part. / By William Gurnall, Minister of the Gospel in Lavenham. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1655 (1655)	Wing G2251; Thomason E824_1; ESTC R207679	343,381	430

commonly made of the Christians wood First he tempts to sin and then for it Satan is but a creature and cannot work without tooles he can indeed make much of a little but not any thing of nothing as we see in his assaulting of Christ where he troubled himself to little purpose because he came and found nothing in him Though the devil throws the stone yet 't is the mud in us which royles our comforts 'T was in vaine for the Philistines to fall on Samson till his lock was cut take heed therefore of yielding to his enticing motions these are the stumbling block at which he hopes thou'lt break thy shins and bruise thy conscience which once done let him alone to spin out the cure Indeed a Saints flesh heals not so easily as others drink not of the devils wassel there is poison in the cup his wine is a mocker look not on it as it sparkles in the temptation what thou drinkest down with sweetnesse thou wilt be sure to bring up again as gall and wormwood Above all sins take heed of presumptuous ones thou art not out of the danger of such Sad stories we have of Saints falls and what follows then Take him Jailor saith God Deliver such a one unto Satan and if a Saint be the Prisoner and the devil the Keeper you may guesse how he shall be used O how he will teare and rend thy conscience Though that dreadful Ordinance is not used as it should be in the Church yet Gods Court sits and if he excommunicate a soule from his presence he falls presently into Satans clutches Well if through his subtilty thou hast been overtaken take heed thou stayest not in the devils quarters shake the viper off thy hand ply thee to thy Chirurgeon green wounds cure best but if thou neglectest and the winde get to it thy conscience will soon fester Ahab we read was wounded in battel and was loath to yield to it it is said he was held up in his chariot but he died for it when a soule hath received a wound committed a sin Satan labours to boulster him up with flattering hopes holds him up as it were in his chariot against God what yield for this afraid for a little scratch and lose the spoile of thy future pleasure for this O take heed of listening to such counsel the sooner thou yieldest the fairer quarter thou shalt have Every step in this way sets thee further from thy peace A rent garment is catch't by every naile and the rent made wider Renew therefore thy repentance speedily whereby this breach may be made up and worse prevented which else will befall thee SECT II. 2ly study that grand Gospel-truth of a souls justification before God acquaint thy self with this in all its causes the moving cause the free mercy of God Being justified freely by his grace the meritorious which is the blood of Christ and the instrumental faith with all the sweet priviledges that flow from it An effectual door once open'd to let the soul into this truth would not only spoil the Popes market as Gardner said but the devils also when Satan coms to disquiet the Christians peace for want of a right understanding here he is soon worsted by his enemy as the silly hare which might escape the dogs in some covert or burrough that is at hand but trusting to her heels is by the print of her owne feet and sent which she leaves behinde followed till at last weary and spent she falls into the mouth of them In all that a Christian doth there is a print of sinful infirmity and a sent by which Satan is enabled to trace and pursue him over hedge and ditch this grace and that duty till the soule not able to stand before the accusation of Satan is ready to fall down in despair at his feet whereas here 's a hiding place whither the enemy durst not come the clefts of the rock the hole of the staires which this truth leads unto When Satan chargeth thee for a sinner perhaps thou interposest thy repentance and reformation but soon art beaten out of those works when thou art shewen the sinful mixtures that are in them whereas this truth would choak all his bullets that thou believest on him who hath said Not unto him that worketh but unto him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Get therefore into this tower of the Gospel-Covenant and rowle this truth as she that stone on the head of Abimelech on the head of Satan SECT III. Thirdly be sure Christian thou keepest the Plains Take heed that Satan coop thee not up in some straits where thou canst neither well fight nor flie Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had the Israelites in when they cried They are entangled they are entangled There are three kindes of straits wherein he labours to entrap the Christians Nice Questions obscure Scriptures and dark Providences First he labours to puzzle him with nice and scrupulous questions on purpose to retard the work and clog him in his motion that meeting with such intricacies in his Christian course which he cannot easily resolve thereby he may be made either to give over or go on heavily therefore we have particular charge not to trouble the weak heads of young Converts with doubtful disputations Sometimes Satan will be asking the soul how it knowes its election and where he findes one not so fully resolved as to dare to own the same he frames his Argument against such a ones closing with Christ and the promise as if it were presumption to assume that which is the only portion of the Elect before we know our selves of that number Now Christian keep the Plains and thou art safe 'T is plain we are not to make Election a ground for our faith but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our Election Election indeed is first in order of divine acting God chooseth before we beleeve yet faith is first in our acting We must believe before we can know we are elected yea by believing we know it The Husbandman knowes 't is Spring by the sprouting of the grasse though he hath no Astrology to know the Position of the Heavens thou mayest know thou art Elect as surely by a work of grace in thee as if thou hadst stood by Gods elbowe when he writ thy name in the book of life It had been presumption for David to have thought he should have been King till Samuel anointed him but then none at all when thou believest first and closest with Christ then is the Spirit of God sent to anoint thee to the Kingdom of Heaven this is that holy oyle which is poured upon none but heires of glory and 't is no presumption to reade what Gods gracious purpose was towards thee of old when he prints those his thoughts and makes them legible in thy effectual calling here thou

an houre of temptation 97 Death to be thought of 362 370 Decay Grace subject to decay 78 Declining Saints subject to decline in grace 334 And to take care to recover ib. The wrong a declining Christian doth to God 335 To his brethren ib. To himself 336 How to know whether grace be declining 337 338 How to recover declining grace 343 344 Degrees Further degrees of grace denied that Saints may stir up what they have 45 Despair Temptation to despair from defects of humiliation 121 Devil The devils nature spiritual 250 And what a dreadful enemy he is 252 Distrust To distrust Gods willingnesse lames faith to distrust his power kills it 26 Doctrine Strange doctrine not hastily to be embraced 272 Doing Doing required of Christians 317 Duty When duty too great for us we should not run from it but by faith lay it on God 41 How we do the duties God appoints not as he hath appointed in three particulars 65 Three rules to know whether we eye God in a duty or not 66 Satan cavils at the Saints duties 118 Constant and diligent performance of duty required of Christians notwithstanding they be sure never to fall away 388 Thoughts of heavens glory should quicken to duty 394 E. Earth Earthly Many professe heaven and practise earth 314 Earthly things to be improved for an heavenly end 317 To be pursued with an holy indifferency 318 How to keep earthly things 319 Arguments to call men off from earthly things to heavenly 322 Earthly things are uncertain 325 Election Satan pusles Saints about their Election 130 How to evade his sophistry therin 131 Endeavours God accepts weake endeavours with sincerity as full obedience 373 Envy Envy of others gifts how to get victory over it 282 The evil of envying gifts of others in three particulars 283 Enemy Satans policy to make God and the Saints enemies 146 How God defeats him therein ib. Errour Errour indulgent to the flesh 107 Three lusts from whence most errours spring carnal reason pride and fleshly liberty 108 Satan labours to corrupt the Saints with errour 267 His design therein 268 What need Christians have especially in this age to watch against errour 270 Foure preservatives against errour 271 Evidence Old evidences for our spiritual state carefully to be kept 135 What to do when they are out of the way 136 Evil day How afflictions are called an evil day 373 The evil day to be thought of and provided for 358 362 363 How to provide for the evil day 367 369 Vprightnesse in a Christian course a comfort in the evil day 370 Exercise Why we ought to keep grace in exercise 82 83 Grace must be exercis'd or sinwil 90 Expectation The expectation of believers shall never be disappointed 31 F. Fall Saints falls end in the advance of their grace 144 Gods love to Saints after their fals no encouragement to sin and why 147 c. Why God communicates his love to such 149 Final falling away This doctrine of the Saints final falling away crosseth Gods designe in the Gospel reflects on Christs honour wounds the Saints comfort 385 c. Faith Satan in tempting strikes at the faith 149 How he is disappointed ib. Feare Feare makes uncapable of counsel 3 Of distrustful feares how we shall bear affliction 131 Satans policie in them 132 Three considerations to quiet the heart tempted with them ib. The sin of fearing man because flesh 177 How we may come not to feare flesh 178 A soveraign cordial to weak believers against feare of not holding out to the end 387 Flesh Why sin is called flesh 172 We conflict not with flesh singly but back't by Satan ib. Best policy to disarme our flesh before Satan comes 173 Man is flesh 174 We must not be proud of flesh 175 Nor trust in man because flesh 176 Nor feare flesh 177 G. Grace Gifts are ornaments but grace is armour 60 Grace how it depends on God and why 17 18 Grace left weak that supporting power may be great 47 Better no grace then counterfeit in two respects 68 The concatenation of graces where the whole chaine in 2 Pet. 1.6 7. is drawn out 74 75 Grace to be exercised 82 83 Grace in the Saints lives not endured by those that like a Profession 88 When a soul is proud of his grace 285 'T is no excuse that its grace we are proud of 286 Grace not to be rested on for our acceptance with God 289 Resting on grace hinders its thriving 296 And hinders the soules comfort 297 Grace subject to decline See Decline Without true grace no perseverance 377 Where true grace is that soule shall persevere 381 Gifts The variety of the gifts of the Spirit 275 A double evil of pride in gifts ib. Great gifts without grace yield no solid comfort 277 Saints not to be troubled at the meannesse of their gifts 277 Reasons against pride of gifts 278 Wherein it discovers it self 280 Glory See Heaven Gospel The reason of Satans spight against the Gospel 58 Government See Rule H. Heare People should not be weary of hearing the same truthes often 333 Heart The more of the heart in a sin the greater the sin 262 No sins more made of then heart sins 263 The root of final Apostasie want of a through change of the heart 380 Afflictions discover the naughtinesse of the heart 354 Heaven Heavenly The Saints wrestling life should make him long for Heaven 170 No easie matter to get Heaven and why 203 371 Satans designe to plunder the Christian of what is heavenly 307 How the Christian is heavenly 308 A check to men for refusing Heaven 312 They are the devils agents that hinder from what is heavenly 313 Trials whether we are heavenly 315 To be with God in heaven the highest preferment 394 Thoughts of Heaven how profitable 395 Heresie Heresie why rank't among the deeds of the flesh 271 Holinesse Holinesse in a Saint awful to the wicked 91 Hopes False hopes very dangerous 365 Humble Humility Saints dependance on God a ground of humility 22 To be humble when most afflicted necessary 49 Two particulars discover whether we be so or not ib. Satans arguments to prove a soul not humbled 122 The fallacy of them 124 I. Ignorance Ignorance enslaves a soul to Satan 227 It lets sin in by troops 228 Locks them up in the heart ib. Shuts out the means of recovery 229 The misery of an ignorant state 238 Instrument Why Satan chooseth to tempt by instruments 103 Foure sorts of instruments he useth to seduce others 104 105 Day of Judgement The day of judgement a day of justification to the godly 392 Justification Ignorance in the doctrine of justification the cause of long troubles of conscience 129 K. Knowledge How the knowledge of a natural man differs from a Saints 56 What is required to get divine knowledge 242 243 Three things to be observed in our search after knowledge 245 L. Lazy Against lazy Preachers 333 Light Sinners hate