Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	speak_v	word_n	1,386	5	3.9429	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43815	The best and worst of Paul, and his character in both conditions	Hill, Thomas, d. 1653.	1648 (1648)	Wing H2021; ESTC R25713	23,294	25

Revelations that are not made thus to publick persons and wherein there is not alwayes that infallibility throughout in the whole though so far as the Spirit reveals himself to any he is infallible but it is not so to them because they are not publick persons and that act by a publick Commission there are Revelations to particular persons now what is the difference betwixt those two why they are for themselves others for the publick therefore they are infallibly and extraordinarily acted and they know it so to be as Paul said you shall finde in the 16. of the Acts there when he was called to Macedonia it is a very good place for this purpose and I desire it may be considered when he had that Revelation there that he must go into Macedonia it is said Paul come into Macedonia and help us you shall find he saith he went why he went immediately because he was assured that he must go in the 10. verse After that he had seen the Vision immediately indeavoured to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel to them If you will ask any man How will you know you have a Revelation I hope Sir I have it from God If he say so he hopes he hath it from God I le conclude it is no such extraordinary Revelation for if he had had an extraordinary Revelation from God wherein he was infallible then he had that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which here Paul found at least in a good measure and it would so far have discovered it self to him that he should have had a strong assurance that God called him and he must go but I remember a story A man had knocked down Images out of a window and then comes and consults with a Divine Sir think you not I had an extraordinary call to knock down these Images Do you think it yes Sir then I know you had not for if you had had an extraordinary call then you would have had an assurance too from God that he had called you So that if there be an infallible Revelation there is a certain evidence goes along with it hence I conclude Many people that talk so much of Revelations have not these extraordinary Revelations because they have not these Certainties But then there is also a Spirit of vvisedome and Revelation that Paul prayes for for all his Ephesians in the 1. Ephesians 17. 18. that their eyes might be opened by the Spirit of wisedome and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ that they may know the hope of their calling but vvhat these are for our selves and vvhereas the other Revelations to publick persons are extraordinary ones and that others may have discoveries and others are to be obliged to observe them As suppose I or you or any particular Saint in this congregation vve should go to prayer and read a Chapter and it may be have a hint a beam of light that vve understand this in reading of a Chapter that vve never savv before though vve reade it an hundred times I le blesse God this is a new light God comes in to me and gives me a degree of the Spirit of wisedome and Revelation but vvhat is the difference novv here is the grand mistake amongst many men and I desire it may be rightly apprehended this Revelation I blesse God for may be of good use to mee but this is no obligeing rule and light for others as the Apostles was when their Revelations were extraordinary If you vvill say I have this light and you must follovv my light here you are mistaken unlesse you are a publick person for vvhat is thy revelation here that light that God is pleased to give thee is for the satisfaction of thy soul or it may be for thy ovvn guidance but not oblige and impose upon others and this is a grand deceit now a dayes when many an honest-hearted Christian for so I believe many of them are very honest-hearted and have much communion with God and receive many good hints from him in prayer and reading of the Scriptures and attend upon ordinances if they will make use of this to themselves well and good if the Lord prosper them in it but if they will come and say I have had this Revelation and you must believe as I believe and do as I do because God hath shewen me such things there brother you are mistaken for God gives thee a Revelation not to propose a new rule that thou shouldest impose upon others as he did to the Apostles that were persons extraordinarily acted assisted and directed and had a Commission for that purpose but he gives thee this private discovery for thy own private satisfaction and advantage and if thou use it to that purpose thou hast much cause to rejoyce in it and blesse God for it But it may be you will object and say But I must make use of such Revelations I must name the word I would to God there were no occasion for it as the Antiscripturists speak men that dispute against the Scriptures and will not allow the Scriptures to be the word of God and disparage them in comparison of their Revelations A strange thing if they consider that place in Peter they had a Revelation indeed they had seen and heard a voyce in the Mount in the 2. Peter 1. 19. We saith he have a more sure word of Prophesie whereunto you do well to take heed A more sure word of Prophesie when he compares a voice in the mount from heaven yet he calls it a more sure word of prophesie whereunto you do well that ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place till the day dawn and the day-starre arise in your hearts not as they will expound it not that you must take heed to the sure word of prophesie till Jesus Christ come into your hearts and then throw away the Scriptures O most rotten and unsavoury and I dare say an ungodly exposition but you do well to take heed to those discoveries that are made in the propheticall Scriptures in the old Testament there speaking comparatively untill Jesus Christ dawn in your hearts give light rise and there gloriously appear * till there be a more full Gospel-light for that he speaks of as you shall see Gerard and some others upon the place but I must proceed let me adde this further you that will say Revelations must be our Rule because the Scriptures are so dark and you do not understand the translations you do not know them and there are such varietie of translations in severall places you cannot tell what to think to this let me answer in the first place and It is a very good hint that Austin hath if so be there are two diverse places of Scripture and wherein there are divers readings whether the old Coppy or this Coppy or that Coppy

be true we cannot tell saith he but the more the better this is Austins answer the more the better the greater variety of readings and a greater commendation it is to Scripture because though there be some vaiety of readings in regard of particular words yet you shall find all those readings agree in the substantialls it is a great commendation now and my brethren Scripture is not so much the words as the sense and if the sense be the same as to the fundament all points in all places the multitude of various readings is no disparagement for it is rather indeed a wonder that it is so well and a marvellous work of providence that a Bible running through so many hands writing first and then printing and now so many hundreds above thousands of years together divers thousands as you know a great part of the old Testament was that there should be no more mistakes an admirable work of providence But then I will ad'e this further Many of those mistakes that are it is an easie matter to reconcile them I confesse it is not very obvious to all but learned men that are Antiquaries and Criticks and are able to consult with books and have seen ancient Copies c. they are prepared to reconcile As there is a difference now in Mark and John concerning the times there about Christs suffering one saith the third hour and another saith the sixth how shall we reconcile them learned men have seen ancient Copies where they are both the same an ancient Copy of the 19. of John naming the third hour We have a place in the 27 of Matthew 5. where it is said there as I take it the Prophet Jeremy if you please to turn to the 27. Chapter or look it at your leasure at the 9. verse then was that fullfilled that that was spoken by Jeremias the Prophet some tell us Jeremiah and Zachary written contractively in the Hebrew are the same and some say among the Hebrews and others say Zachary was Jeremiahs scholar and therefore called by that name but here is a short answer salves all I can tell a man that hath seen a Copy six hundred years old where there was neither Jeremy nor Zachary in but the Prophet there is a short and full answer There is another place in the 1. Corinthians it is very considerable and the 15. there saith Paul I protest by your rejoycing that we die daily some reade it I protest by our rejoycing in the 31. verse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it is not I on all the learned men I dare say in this assembly or in any other can possibly determine whether is were to be read ours or yours whether our rejoycing or your rejoycing because they are both a truth yet I could tell you what is answered learned Criticks give this answer that the ancient Greeks did pronounce the Eta and the Upsilon much alike and then when a copie came to be transcribed he that did write did not look upon the copie but heard one dictate and read to him now they did pronounce Eta like Upsilon and so the mistake might be easie he that writ could not well tell whether he said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they being alike in the pronunciation and upon this very ground might be the mistake now many such places I might name Do not thou decline the word of God and flie to Revelations know thou there is and do thou carefully maintain that sweet harmony that is between the word of God and the Spirit of Revelation and if the sauie Spirit that did endite the word do speak in thy mind and work in thy heart then indeed thou hast a great deal of cause to rejoyce and then thou mayest safely go on but cursed will they be in their practises that do divide those things separate them that God hath conjoyned together word and spirit do not thou advance Spirit to the dsparagement of the word make use of the word in a concurrence with the light of the Spirit and improve the Spirit for a more full discovery of the word I much hasten Lest I should be exalted through an abundance of Revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh least I should be exalted The Lord is most carefull to suppresse to hinder the thriving of his people in any sinfull course therefore saith he lest I should be exalted through the abundance of revelations he gives him a thorn lest I should be exalted above measure why so willthe Lord hinder it thus He knows that we are naturally prone to corrupt even the best things and this the nature of Pride whereas all other evills rise out of evill Pride springs out of the ashes of good and whereas we should glorifie God with our good things we do engrosse those good things to our own glory and so most sacrilegiously rob God The Lord knows this and therefore in such cases will be most carefull to hinder us from undoing our selves he loves us so dearly even as a father loves a child if he sees the knife though it be a very good thing and very usefull will cut the childs fingers he will take away the knife from the child though the child cries after it if the Wife come to love the servant once better then her Husband though he is a most usefull servant an excellent steward an admirable secretary a very good and dexterous and faithfull Bayliffe yet because he gets into the husbands place and hath that room in his wives affections that is peculiar to him and she begins to be disloyall towards him he will turn his servant out of doores why because he will not have his Wife to be undone nor suffer his own glory to be eclipsed Therefore let us humbly kisse Gods rod and listen what language it speaks and he who hath appointed it even when he smites know this to your comfort he can smile upon us and when other men think the sentence of death is passed upon us it may be he is then enlightning of us when others think he is marring and undoing of us he is making and doing us most good when others think by humbling providences he is blasting us then he is raising us and preparing us for great mercies O how good a God have we Take us in the very worst in the lowest condition of our Christianity in the blackest and bitterest part of it when we suffer even then God is dealing like a wise Physitian even giving us recovering or preventing Physick and hence it is that the Apostle saith the God of all grace who hath called you to eternall glory make you perfect after you have suffered a while make you perfect strengthen stablish settle you there is no lesse then four words as if he should