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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	lord_n	love_n	love_v	2,989	5	6.7075	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26788	A funeral-sermon for the reverend, holy and excellent divine, Mr. Richard Baxter who deceased Decemb. 8, 1691 : with an account of his life / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1107; ESTC R21548	38,382	145

necessarily included in saving Faith This Scripture-Account distinguishes between that substantial Faith that is proper to the elect Children of God and the Shadow of it in the Unregenerate the one is the intimate and active Principle of Obedience the other is a dead Assent without Efficacy a mere Carcass and Counterfeit of Faith A sincere Believer as fervently desires to be saved from the Dominion and Pollution of his Sins as from the Guilt and deadly Malignity a carnal Man desires an Interest in Christ as a Saviour that he may securely enjoy his Lusts. The crafty and cursed Serpent deceives Men to their ruine by citing Scripture and misapplying it The Promise is sure Whoever believes shall be saved and he easily perswades them they are Believers 'T is strange to astonishment that Men who have Reason and Understanding should presume in a high degree of the present Favour of God and their future Happiness as if they were his dear Children when their Enmity against his holy Name and Will is evident in their Actions We can never have too firm a dependance on God's Promise when we are qualified for that Dependance Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father to you saith the Lord Almighty Faith that purifies the Heart and Conversation invests us with this blessed Privilege and all the saving Mercies annex'd to it 2. From the spiritual Relation between God and Believers there naturally and necessarily results a sincere dutiful child-like Love to him correspondent to his beneficent and fatherly Love to them This God indispensably requires and specially delights in Thou lovest Truth in the inward Parts Filial Obedience is inseparable from filial Love in its Reality For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments Our Saviour distinguishes between sincere Lovers of him and pretended that they who love him keep his Commandments but they who love him not keep not his Commandments The Obedience that springs from Love to God is uniform respects all his Commands for the two filial Affections an ardent Desire to please God in all things and an ingenuous Fear of displeasing him in any thing are inseparably joined with our Love to him The Obedience that proceeds from Love is free and voluntary from Inclination as well as Duty How passionately does the holy Psalmist express his Affection O how I love thy Law In the Covenant of Grace God promises to write his Law in the Hearts of his Children not only in their Minds and Memories but to endear it to their Affections There is much difference between servile and constrain'd Obedience and filial chosen Obedience as between the Motion of a living Man from the Soul the inward Spring of Life and the Motion of an Image or Statue from forcible Weights and Wheels From filial Love proceeds godly Sorrow if at any time by Carelesness and Surprize or an over powering Temptation on his Children do what is offensive and odious in his sight When they consider their unkind and unthankful Returns for his Mercies they look to their Heavenly Father with Grief and Shame and down upon themselves with Abhorrence and Indignation They are wounded with the sting of that Expostulation Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise Is he not thy Father who bought thee From filial Love proceeds a Zeal for his Glory If I be a Father where is my Honour A Child of God is dearly concerned that his Name be reverenced and magnified his Laws be observed his Worship maintained that his Interest be advanced in the World He has a burning Zeal against Sin and presumptuous Sinners The Prophet Elijah says I have been jealous for the Lord of Hosts for the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant and thrown down thine Altars Those who with an indifferent Eye see the Cause the Truth the Interest of God depress'd in the World do renounce the Title of his Children From the Relation to God as his Sons proceeds a sincere fervent Love to all the Saints St. John infers Every one that loveth him that begat loves him that is begotten Grace is not less powerful in producing cordial mutual Affections between the Children of the same Heavenly Father than the subordinate Endearments of Nature Notwithstanding the civil Distinction between them some high and rich others mean and poor yet there is a spiritual Equality the lowest Saints are Princes of the Blood-Royal of Heaven To him that has washed us from our Sins in his Blood and made us Kings and Priests to God be Glory for ever The filial Relation to God inclines and encourages all sincere Christians to resign themselves even in their most afflicted Condition to the Wisdom and Will of God Our Saviour meekly yielded up himself to his cruel Enemies upon this Consideration The Cup which my Father has given me shall I not drink it The Saints in imitation of Christ and upon the same Ground entirely resign themselves to the Divine Disposal for their Heavenly Father loves them better than they can love themselves Finally The filial Relation to God is productive as of lively Hopes so of ardent Desires to be with him Love makes them to esteem Communion with him here in his holy Ordinances as the Joy of their Lives The Psalmist when banish'd from the Tabernacle breaks forth in his impatient Desires When shall I come and appear before God that is in the Place where he communicates his Grace to those that worship him But our Father is in Heaven as his Throne and most gloriously exhibits himself to his Saints there The Earth is the Element and Residence of carnal Men of their Souls as well as their Bodies They desire their Inheritance may be on this side Jordan and are content to leave the Heavenly Canaan to those who like it But those who are born from above desire to be dissolved that they may be in their Father's House and his reviving Presence for ever 3. Let us be perswaded to prepare for the reception of our Souls in the next World The present Life is a Passage to Eternity and 't is so short and fading so uncertain and hazardous that 't is our principal Wisdom without delay to secure our Souls in the future State Our Saviour says I must work the Work of him that sent me while it is Day the Night cometh when no Man can work Now is the accepted Time now is the Day of Salvation 'T is our indispensable Duty and main Interest now to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling In the state of Death there is an Incapacity to do any thing in order to Salvation There is no Work nor Wisdom in the Grave and all the Offers of Salvation cease for ever The Sufferings of the Son of God are not a Ransom for Sinners in that

Lord Chancellor the Earl of Clarendon I shall onely observe that in reading the several parts of the Declaration Dr. Morley was the principal manager of the Conference among the Bishops and Mr. Baxter among the Ministers and one particular I cannot forget it was desir'd by the Ministers that the Bishops should exercise their Church Power with the counsel and consent of Presbyters This limiting of their Authority was so displeasing that Dr. Cosins then elect of Durham said If your Majesty grants this you will Unbishop your Bishops Dr. Reynolds upon this produced the Book entituled The Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and Sufferings and read the following Passage Not that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in One Man by the joint Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters I have offer'd to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any One Man also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men Besides it will be a means to take away that burthen and odium of affairs which may lie too heavy on one Man's shoulders as indeed I think it did formerly on the Bishops here The good Doctor thought that the Judgment of the King 's afflicted and inquiring Father would have been of great moment to incline him to that temperament but the King presently replied All that is in that Book is not Gospel My Lord Chancellor prudently moderated in that matter that the Bishops in weighty Causes should have the assistance of the Presbyters Mr. Baxter considering the state of our affairs in that time was well pleased with that Declaration He was of Calvin's mind who judiciously observes upon our Saviour's words That the Son of Man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend Qui ad extirpandum quicquid displicet praepostere festinant antevertant Christi judicium ereptum Angelis officium sibi temere usurpant They that make too much haste to redress at once all things that are amiss anticipate the Judgment of Christ and rashly usurp the Office of the Angels Besides that Declaration granted such a freedom to Conscientious Ministers that were unsatisfied as to the Old Conformity that if it had been observed it had prevented the dolefull Division succeeded afterward But when there was a motion made in the House of Commons that the Declaration might pass into an Act it was oppos'd by one of the Secretarys of State which was a sufficient Indication of the King's averseness to it After the Declaration there were many Conferences at the Savoy between the Bishops and some Doctors of their Party with Mr. Baxter and some other Ministers for an Agreement wherein his Zeal for Peace was most conspicuous but all was in vain Of the Particulars that were debated he has given an account in Print Mr. Baxter after his coming to London during the time of Liberty did not neglect that which was the principal Exercise of his Life the preaching the Gospel being always sensible of his duty of saving Souls He Preacht at St. Dunstans on the Lord's-days in the Afternoon I remember one instance of his firm Faith in the Divine Providence and his Fortitude when he was engaged in his Ministry there The Church was Old and the People were apprehensive of some danger in meeting in it and while Mr. Baxter was Preaching something in the Steeple fell down and the noise struck such a terror into the People they presently in a wild disorder run out of the Church their eagerness to haste away put all into a tumult Mr. Baxter without visible disturbance sat down in the Pulpit after the hurry was over he resum'd his Discourse and said to compose their Minds We are in the Service of God to prepare our selves that we may be fearless at the great noise of the dissolving World when the Heavens shall pass away and the Elements melt in fervent heat the Earth also and the Works therein shall be burnt up After the Church of St. Dunstans was pull'd down in order to its re-building he removed to Black-Fryars and continued his preaching there to a vast Concourse of Hearers till the fatal Bartholomew In the Year 1661 a Parliament was call'd wherein was past the Act of Uniformity that expell'd from their publick Places about two thousand Ministers I will onely take notice concerning the Causes of that Proceeding that the Old Clergy from Wrath and Revenge and the young Gentry from their servile Compliance with the Court and their Distaste of serious Religion were very active to carry on and compleat that Act. That this is no rash Imputation upon the ruling Clergy then is evident not onely from their Concurrence in passing that Law for Actions have a Language as convincing as that of Words but from Dr. Sheldon then Bishop of London their great Leader who when the Lord Chamberlain Manchester told the King while the Act of Uniformity was under debate that he was afraid the Terms of it were so rigid that many of the Ministers would not comply with it he replyed I am afraid they will This Act was past after the King had engaged his Faith and Honour in his Declaration from Breda to preserve the Liberty of Conscience inviolate which promise open'd the way for his Restorat●on and after the Royalists here had given publick Assurance that all former Animosities should be buried as Rubbish under the Foundation of a Vniversal Concord Mr. Baxter was involv'd with so many Ministers in this Calamity who was their brightest Ornament and the best Defence of their righteous though oppressed Cause Two Observations he made upon that Act and our Ejection The one was that the Ministers were turned and kept out from the publick Exercise of their Office in that time of their Lives that was most fit to be dedicated end employed for the Service and Glory of God that is between thirty and sixty Years when their intellectual and instrumental Faculties were in their Vigour The other was in a Letter to me after the Death of several Bishops who were concurrent in passing that Act and exprest no Sorrow for it his words were for ought I see the Bishops will own the turning of us out at the Tribunal of Christ and thither we appeal After the Act of Uniformity had taken its effect in the Ejection of so many Ministers there was sometimes a Connivance at the private Exercise of their Ministry sometime publick Indulgence granted and often a severe Prosecution of them as the Popish and Politick Interest of the Court varied When there was Liberty Mr. Baxter applyed himself to his delightful Work to the great Advantage of those who enjoyed his Ministry But the Church-Party oppos'd vehemently the Liberty that was granted Indeed such was their Fierceness that if the Dissenting Ministers had been as wise as Serpents and as innocent as Doves they could not