Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	woe_n	world_n	worth_n	19	3	10.3732	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26917	Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace with motives opening the lamentable effects of their weaknesses and distempers / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1669 (1669)	Wing B1249; ESTC R15683	216,321	412

were done to himself Mat. 25. and hath commanded the strong to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves Rom. 15.1 2 3. and to receive one another as Christ received us Rom. 15.7 and hath told those that offend but one of his little ones that it were good for that man that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.6 and hath told him that suiteth his fellow servants that his Lord will come in a day when he looketh not for him and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. I wonder what men would have Christ do to free himself and the Christian Religion from the imputation of the sins of the Hypocrites and the weak distempered Christians Would they have him yet make stricter Laws when they hate these for being so strict already Or would they have him condemn sinners to more grievous punishment when they are already offended at the severity of his threatnings O what an unrighteous generation are his enemies that blame the Law because men break it and blame Religion because many are not Religious enough As if the Sun must be hated because that shadows and dungeons do want light or Life and Health must be hated because many are sick and pained by their diseases But Christ will shortly stop all the mouths of these unreasonable men and O how easily will he justifie himself his Laws and all his holy waies when all iniquity shall be for ever silent And though it must needs be that offences come yet wo to the world because of offences and wo to the man by whom they come Mat. 18.7 Luke 17.1 The wrong that Christ receiveth from hypocrites and scandalous Christians of all ranks and places is not to be estimated These are the causes that Christianity and Godliness are so contemptible in the eyes of the world that Jews and Heathens and Mahometans are still unconverted and deriders of the Faith Because they see such scandalous tyranny and worship among the Papists and such scandalous lives among the greatest part of professed Christians in the world whereas if the Papal Tyranny were turned into the Christian Ministry Luke 22.25 26 27. and 1 Tim. 5.17 and their irrational sopperies and historical hypocritical worship were changed into a reverent rational and spiritual worship and the cruel carnal worldly lives of men called Christians were changed into Self-denial Love and Holiness In a word if Christians were Christians indeed and such as I have here described from their Rule what a powerfull means would it be of the conversion of all the unbelieving world Christianity would then be in the eye of the world as the Sun in its brightness and the glory of it would dazle the eyes of beholders and draw in millions to enquire after Christ who are now driven from him by the sins of Hypocrites and scandalous Believers And this doth not contradict what I said before of the Enmity of the world to Holiness and that the best are most abused by the ungodly For even this enmity must be rationally cured as by the errour of reason it is sed God useth by the power of intellectual light to bring all those out of darkness whom he saveth and so bringeth them from the power of Satan to himself Acts 26.18 Men hate not Holiness as Good but as misconceived to be evil Evil I say to them because it is opposite to the sensual pleasures which they take to be their chiefest good And the way of curing their enmity is by shewing them their errour and that is by shewing them the excellency and necessity of that which they unreasonably distaste Acts 26.9 10 11 14 19. Luke 15.13 14 15 16. Acts 2.36 37. VI. Lastly In these Characters you have some help in the work of Self-examination for the tryal both of the Truth and Strength of grace I suppose it will be objected that in other Treatises I have reduced all the infallible Marks of Grace to a smaller number To which I answer I still say that the predominancy or prevalency of the Interest of God as our God and Christ as our Saviour and the Spirit as our Sanctifier in the estimation of the Vnderstanding the Resolved Choice of the Will and the Government of the Life against all the worldly interest of the Flesh is the only infallible sign of a justified regenerate soul. But this whole hath many parts and it is abundance of particulars materially in which this sincerity is to be found Even all the sixty Characters which I have here named are animated by that one and contained in it And I think to the most the full description of a Christian in his essential and integral parts yet shewing which are indeed essential is the best way to acquaint them with the nature of Christianity and to help them in the tryal of themselves And as it were an abuse of Humane Nature for a Painter to draw the picture of a man without arms or legs or nose or eyes because he may be a man without them so would it have been in me to draw only a maimed picture of a Christian because a maimed Christian is a Christian. Yet because there are so many maimed Christians in the world I have also shewed you their lamentable defects not in a manner which tendeth to encourage them in their sins and wants under pretence of comforting them but in that manner which may best excite them to their duty in order to their recovery without destroying their necessary supporting comforts O happy Church and State and Family which are composed of such confirmed Christians where the predominate temperature is such as I have here described Yea happy is the place where Magistrates and Ministers are such who are the vital parts of State and Church and the instruments appointed to communicate these perfections to the rest But how much more happy is the New Jerusalem the City of the Living God where the perfected spirits of the just in Perfect Life and Light and Love are perfectly beholding and admiring and praising and pleasing the Eternal God their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier for ever where the least and meanest is greater and more perfect than the confirmed Christian here described And where Hypocrisie is utterly excluded and Imperfection ceaseth with scandal censures uncharitableness division and all its other sad effects And where the souls that thirsted after Righteousness shall be fully satisfied and Love God more than they can now desire and never grieve themselves or others with their wants or weaknesses or misdoings any more And O blessed day when our most Blessed Head shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels and shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that now believe whose weakness here occasioned his dishonour and their own contempt when

purified and zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He called you a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ye are as lively stones built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 9. You are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.23 and are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light God hath delivered you from the power of darkness and translated you into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom you have redemption through his bloud the remission of sins Col. 1.12 13 14. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.16 17. All things shall work together for your good He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Vers. 28.32 Nothing but the illuminated Soul can discern the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the work of his mighty power Eph. 1.18 19. When we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. He hath brough us nigh that were far off so that by one spirit we have access to the Father by Christ and are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.5 6 7 13 17 18 19. We are members of the body of Christ we are come to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.22 23 24. Brethren shall the Lord speak all this and more than this in the Scripture of your Glory and will you not prove your selves glorious and study to make good this precious word Doth he say The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 and will you not study to shew your selves more excellent indeed Shall all these high things be spoken of you and will you live so far below them all What a hainous wrong is this to God He sticks not in boasting of you to call you his jewells Mal. 3.17 and tells the world he will make them one day discern the difference between the Righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not verse 18. He tells the World that his coming in Judgment will be to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in them that believe 2 Thess. 1.10 It 's openly Professed by the Apostle John We know that we are of God and the whole World lyeth in wicked●●●● 1 John 5.19 He challengeth any to condemn you or lay any thing to your charge professing that it is he that justifieth you casting the Saints into admiration by his love What shall we say to these things if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 He challengeth Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine or Nakedness Peril or Sword to separate you if they can from the Love of God He challengeth Death and Life Angels Principalities and Powers things present and things to come height and depth or any other Creature to separate you if they are able from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 37 38 39. Shall the Lord of Heaven thus make his boast of you to all the World and will you not make good his boasting Yea I must tell you he will see that it be made good to a word and if you be not careful of it your selves and it be not made good in you then you are not the people that God thus boasteth of He tells the greatest Persecutors to their faces that the meek the humble little ones of his Flock have their Angels beholding the face of God in Heaven Matth. 18.10 and that at the great and dreadful day of Judgment they shall be set at his right hand as his Sheep with a Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom when others are set at his left hand as Goats with a Go ye cursed into everlasting Fire Matth. 25. He tells the world that he that receiveth a Converted man that is become as a little Child receiveth Christ himself and that whoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in him it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.3 4 5 6. Mark 9.42 Luke 17.2 O Sirs must God be thus wonderfully tender of you and will you not now be very tender of his interest and your duty Shall he thus difference you from all the rest of the world and will you not study to declare the difference The ungodly even gnash the teeth at Ministers and Scriptures and Christ himself for making such a difference between them and you and will you not let them see that it is not without cause I intreat you I require you in the Name of God see that you answer these high commendations and shew us that God hath not boasted of you beyond your worth 9. Consider this as the highest Motive of all God doth not only magnify you and boast of you but also he hath made you the living Images of his blessed self his Son Jesus Christ his Spirit and his holy Word and so he hath exposed himself his Son his Spirit and his Word to be censured by the World according to your lives The express Image of the Fathers person is the Son Heb. 1.3 The Son is declared to the World by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost hath endited the Holy Scriptures which therefore bear the Image of Father Son and Holy Ghost This holy Word both Law and Promise is written on your hearts and put into your inner parts by the s●me spirit 2 Cor. 3.3 Heb. 8.13 and 10.16 So that as God hath imprinted his holy nature in the Scripture so hath he made this word the Seal to imprint again his Image on your hearts And you know that common eyes can better discern the Image in the Wax than on the Seal Though I know that the hardness of the Wax or somthing lying between or the imperfect application may cause an imperfection in the Image on the