Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	accuse_v	accuser_n	add_v	13	3	5.9103	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27062	Two treatises tending to awaken secure sinners viz., 1. The terror of the day of judgment, from 2 Cor. 5. 10, 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel, from Matth. 22. 5 / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Terror of the day of judgment.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Danger of slighting Christ and his gospel.	1696 (1696)	Wing B1443; ESTC R16419	109,733	266

must willing or unwilling there is no avoiding it appear stand forth or make your appearance and there have your Hearts and Ways laid open and appear as well as we Before the Judgment-seat of Christ i. e. before the Redeemer of the World to be judged by him as our Rightful Lord. That every one even of all Mankind which are were or shall be without Exception may receive that is may receive his Sentence adjudging him to his due and then may receive the Execution of the Sentence and may go from the Bar with that Reward or Punishment that is his due according to the Law by which he is judged The things done in his Body that is the due Reward of the Works done in his Body or as some Copies read it The things proper to the Body i. e. due to the Man even Body as well as Soul according to what he hath done whether it be Good or Bad i. e. this is the Cause to be tried and judged whether Men have done well or ill whilst they were in the Flesh and what is due to them according to their Deeds Knowing therefore c. i. e. being certain therefore that these Things are so and that such a terrible Judgment of Christ will come we perswade Men to become Christians and live as such that they may then speed well when others shall be destroyed or as others Knowing the Fear of the Lord that is the true Religion we perswade Men. Doct. 1. There will be a Judgment Doct. 2. Christ will be the Judg. Doct. 3. All Men shall there appear Doct. 4. Men shall be then judged according to the Works that they did in the Flesh whether Good or Evil. Doct. 5. The End of Judgment is that Men may receive their final Due by Sentence and Execution Doct. 6. The Knowledg and Consideration of the terrible Judgment of God should move us to perswade and Men to be perswaded to careful Preparation The ordinary Method for the handling of this Subject of Judgment should be this 1 st To shew you what Judgment is in the General and what it doth contain and that is 1. The Persons 2. The Cause 3. The Actions 1. The Parties are 1. The Accuser 2. The Defendant 3. Sometime Assistants 4. The Judg. 2. The Cause contains 1. The Accusation 2. The Defence 3. With the Evidence of both 4. And the Merit The Merit of the Cause is as it agreeth with the Law and Equity 3. The judicial Actions are I. Introductory 1. Citation 2. Compulsion if need be 3. Appearance of the Accused II. Of the Essence of Judgment 1. Debate by 1. The Accuser 2. Defendant called the Disceptation of the Cause 2. By the Judg. 1. Exploration 2. Sentence 3. To see to the Execution But because this Method is less sutable to your Capacities and hath something humane I will reduce all to these following Heads 1. I will shew what Judgment is 2. Who is the Judg and why 3. Who must be judg'd 4. Who is the Accuser 5. How the Citation Constraint and Appearance will be 6. What is the Law by which Men shall be judged 7. What will be the Cause of the Day what the Accusation and what must be the just Defence 8. What will be the Evidence 9. What are thos● frivolous insufficient Excuses by which the Unrighteous may think to escape 10. What will be the Sentence who shall die and who shall live and what the Reward and Punishment ●s 11. What are the Properties of the Sentence 12. What and by whom the Execution will be In ●hese particular Heads we contain the whole Doctrine of ●his Judgment and in this more familiar Method shall ●andle it I. For the first Judgment as taken largely comprehendeth all the sorementioned Particulars as taken more strictly for the Act of the Judg it is the Trial of a controverted Case In our Case note these things following 1. God's Judgment is not intended for any Discovery to himself of what he knows not already he knows already that all Men are and what they have done and what is their Due But it is to discover to others and to Men themselves the ground of his Sentence that so his Judgment may attain its End for the glorifying ●his Grace on the Righteous and for the convincing the Wicked of their Sin and Desert and to shew to all the World the Righteousness of the Judg and of his Sentence and Execution Rom. 3. 4 26. and Rom. 2. 2. 2. It is not a Controversy therefore undecided ●in the Mind of God that is there to be decided but only one that is undecided as to the Knowledg and Mind of Creatures 3. Yet i● not this Judgment a bare Declaration but a Decision and so a Declaration thereupon the Cause will be then put out of Controversy and all farther Expectation of Decision be at an End and with the Justified there will be no more Accusation and with the Condemned no more Hope for ever II. For the second Thing who shall be the Judg I answer The Judg is God himself by Jesus Christ 1. Principally God as Creator 2. As also God as Redeemer the humane Nature of Jesus Christ having a derived subordinate Power God lost not his Right to his Creature either by Man's Fall or the Redemption by Christ but by the latter hath a new farther Right but it is in and by Christ that God judgeth For as meer Creator of innocent Man God judgeth none but hath committed all Judgment to the Son who hath procured this Right by the redeeming of fallen Man Joh. 5. 22. But as the Son only doth it in the nearest Sense so the Father as Creator doth it remotely and principally 1. In that the Power of the Son is derived from the Father and so standeth in Subordination to him as Fountain or Efficient 2. In that the Judgment of the Son as also his whole Mediatorship is to bring Men to God their Maker as their ultimate End and recover them to him from whom they are faln and so as a Means to that End the Judgment of the Son is subordinate to the Father From hence you may see these following Truths worthy your Consideration 1. That all Men are God's Creatures and none are the Workmanship of themselves or any other or else the Creator should not judg them on that Right 2. That Christ died for All and is the Redeemer of the World and a Sacrifice for All or else he should not judg them on that Right For he will not judg Wicked Men as he will do the Devils as the meer Enemies of his Redeemed Ones but as being themselves his Subjects in the World and being bought by him and therefore become his own who ought to have glorified him that bought them 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 2 Pet. 2. 1. 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. 1 John 2. 2. Heb. 2. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 6 7. 3. Hence it appeareth that all Men were under some Law of

with the Mammon of Unrighteousness and ventured all his Hope in this Vessel And now he findeth the Wisdom of that Choice in a rich Return God made him so wise a Merchant as to sell all for this Pearl of greatest Price and therefore now he shall find the Gain As there is no other true Happiness but God in Glory so is there nothing more sutable and welcome to the true Believer O how welcome will the Face of that God be whom he loved sought longed and waited for How welcome will that Kingdom be which he lived in hope of which he parted with all for and suffered for in the Flesh How glad will he be to see the blessed Face of his Redeemer who by his manifold Grace hath brought him unto this I leave the believing Soul to think of it and to make it the daily matter of his delightful Meditation what an unconceivable Joy in one Moment will this Sentence of Christ will fill his Soul with Undoubtedly it is now quite past our Comprehension though our imperfect Forethoughts of it may well make our Lives a continual Feast Were it but our Justification from the Accusations of Satan who would have us condemned either as Sinners in general or as impenitent unbelieving Rebels against him that redeemed us in special it would lift up the Heads of the Saints in that Day After all the Fears of our own Hearts and the slanderous Accusations of Satan and the World That we were either impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites Christ will then justify us and pronounce us righteous So much for the Condition to which they are judged 2. The Reason or Cause of this Justification of the Saints is given us both 1. In a general Denomination and 2. In a particular Description 1. In general it is because they were righteous as is evident Mat. 25. 6. The Righteous shall go into Life everlasting And indeed it is the Business of every just Judg to justify the Righteous and condemn the Unrighteous And shall not the Judg of all the Earth judg righteously Gen. 18. 25. God makes Men righteous before he judges them so and judgeth them righteous because they are so He that abominateth that Man who saith to the Righteous Thou art wicked or to the Wicked Thou art righteous who justifieth the Wicked and condemneth the Righteous will certainly never do so himself Indeed he will justify them that are Sinners but not against the Accusation that they are Sinners but against the Accusation that they are guilty of Punishment for Sin but that is because he first made them just and so justifiable by pardoning their Sin through the Blood of Christ And it 's true also that he will justify those that were wicked but not those that are wicked but Judgment findeth them as Death leaveth them and he will not take them for wicked that are sanctified and cleansed of their former Wickedness So that Christ will first pardon them before he justify them against the Charge of being Sinners in general and he will first give Men Faith Repentance and new Obedience before he will justify them against the Charge of being Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites and consequently ●mpardoned and doubly guilty of Damnation This twofold Righteousness he will first give Men and so constiture them just before he will declare it and sentence them just 2. The Reason of the Sentence particularly described is from their Faith and Love to Christ expressed in their Obedience Self-denial and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I was thirsty and ye gave me daink I was a Stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came to me Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Mat. 25. 35 to 41. Here is 1. The causal Conjuction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which observe 1. How it is that Man's Obedience and Self-denial is the Reason and Cause of his Justification 2. Why it is that God will have the Reason or Cause thus declared in the Sentence For the first observe that it 's one thing to give a Reason of the Sentence and another thing to express the Cause of the Benefit given us by the Promise and judged to us by the Sentence Man's Obedience was no proper Cause why God did in this Life give Pardon of Sin to us or a Right to Glory much less of his giving Christ to die for us And therefore as to our constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth justify us for or because of any Works of our Obedience legal or evangelical But when God hath so justified us when he comes to give a Reason of his Sentence in Judgment he may and will fetch that Reason partly from our Obedience or our Performance of the Conditions of the new Covenant For as in this Life we had a Righteousness consisting in free Pardon of all Sin through the Blood of Christ and a Righteousness consisting in our personal Performance of the Conditions of the Promise which giveth that Pardon and continueth it to us so at Judgment we shall accordingly be justified And as our evangelical personal Righteousness commonly called inherent was at first only in our Faith and Repentance and Disposition to obey but afterward in our actual sincere Obedience in which Sense we are constitutively justified or made righteous here by our Works in James his sense James 2. 24. so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification one from our Pardon by Christ's Blood and Merits which will prove our Right to Impunity and to Glory the other from our own Faith and holy Obedience which will prove our Right to that Pardon through Christ and to the free Gift of a Right to Glory and To this last is to be pleaded in Subordination to the former For Christ is become the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. He therefore that will be saved must have a Christ to save him as the Author and an Obedience to that Christ as the Condition of that Salvation and consequently both must be declared in the Judgment The Reason why the Judg doth mention our good Works rather than our believing may be because those holy self-denying Expressions of Faith and Love to Christ do contain or certainly imply Faith in them as the Life of the Tree is in the Fruit but Faith doth contain our Works of Obedience but only as their Cause The Works also are a Part of the personal Righteousness which is to be enquired after that is we shall not be judged righteous meerly because we have believed but also because we have added to our Faith Vertue and have improved our Talents and have loved Christ to the hazard of all for his

see then that it is not meerly for want of good Preachers that Men make light of Christ and Salvation the first News of such a thing as the Pardon of Sin and the Hopes of Glory and the Danger of everlasting Misery would turn the Hearts of Men within them if they were as tractable in spiritual Matters as in temporal But alas it is far otherwise It must not seem any strange thing nor must it too much discourage the Preachers of the Gospel if when they have said all that they can devise to say to win the Hearts of Men to Christ the most do still slight him and while they bow the Knee to him and honour him with their Lips do yet set so light by him in their Hearts as to prefer every fleshly Pleasure or Commodity before him It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with all Vse 3. But for closer Application Seeing this is the great condemning Sin before we enquire after it into the Hearts of our Hearers it beseems us to begin at home and see that we who are Preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our selves The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred Office of revealing the Excellencies of Christ to the World should make light of him themselves and slight that Salvation which they do daily preach The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our Estimation of Christ and do this great Work so negligently that we have cause to be ashamed of our best Sermons but should this Sin prevail in us we were the most miserable of all Men. Brethren I love not Censoriousness yet dare not befriend so vile a Sin in my self or others under pretence of avoiding it especially when there is so great Necessity that it should be healed first in them that make it their Work to heal it in others O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and Salvation are made light of by the Preachers of it But 1. Do not the negligent Studies of some speak it out 2. Doth not their dead and drowsy Preaching declare it Do not they make light of the Doctrine they preach that do it as if they were half asleep and feel not what they speak themselves 3. Doth not the Carelesness of some Mens private Endeavours discover it What do they for Souls how slightly do they reprove Sin how little do they when they are out of the Pulpit for the saving of Mens Souls 4. Doth not the continued Neglect of those things wherein the Interest of Christ consisteth discover it 1. The Churches Purity and Reformation 2. It s Unity 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly Lives of too many discover it losing Advantages for Mens Souls for a little Gain to themselves and most of this is because Men are Preachers before they are Christians and tell Men of that which they never felt themselves Of all Men on Earth there are few that are in so sad a Condition as such Ministers and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they preach methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it Vse 4. Beloved Hearers the Office that God hath called us to is by declaring the Glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of Mens Souls I hope you think not that I come hither to Day on any other Errand The Lord knows I had not set a Foot out of Doors but in hope to succeed in this Work for your Souls I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their Salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text is the Cause It is one of the Wonders of the World that when God hathso loved the World as to send his Son aud Christ hath made a Satisfaction by his Death sufficient for them all and offereth the Benefits of it so freely to them even without Money or Price that yet the most of the World should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his Word Why here is the Reason when Christ hath done all this Men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that Men should be restored to God's Favour and be saved but Men are actually unwilling themselves God takes not pleasure in the Death of Sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33. 11. But Men take such pleasure in Sin that they will die before they will return The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physician and hath provided them a sufficient Plaister of his own Blood but if Men make light of it and will not apply it what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the Reason of their Perdition This sad Experience tells us the most of the World is guilty of It is a most lamentable thing to see how most Men do spend their Care their Time their Pains for known Vanities while God and Glory are cast aside That he who is all should seem to them as nothing and that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all that God should set Mankind in such a Race where Heaven or Hell is their certain End and that they should sit down and loiter or run after the childish Toys of the World and so much forget the Prize that they should run for Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this Business as the All-seeing God doth to see at one View both Heaven and Hell which Men are so near and see what most Men in the World are minding and what they are doing every Day it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined O how should we marvel at their Madness and lament their Self-delusion O poor distracted World what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the Word to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another World then they had been excusable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it Had he left it doubtful there had been some excuse but it is his sealed Word and they profess to believe it and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not Beloved I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this Crime but seeing it is the commonest Cause of Mens Destruction I suppose you will judg it the fittest Matter for our Enquiry and deserving our greatest Care for the Cure To which end I shall 1. Endeavour the Conviction of the Guilty 2. Shall give them such Considerations as may tend to humble and reform them 3. I shall conclude with such Direction as may help them that are willing to escape the destroying Power of this Sin And