Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	argument_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	12	3	7.8792	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56745	The mystery of the Christian faith and of the Blessed Trinity vindicated and the divinity of Christ proved in three sermons preach'd at Westminster-Abbey upon Trinity-Sunday, June the 7th, and September 21, 1696 / by the late Reverend William Payne ... ; in the press before his death, and by himself ordered to be published.	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1697 (1697)	Wing P906; ESTC R35097	36,960	108

and Denomination to a New Sect of Followers this has made a great many in former and latter Ages set up for new Opinions in opposition to the Antient Faith and endeavour to pull that down that they might erect Trophies of vain-glory to themselves upon the ruins of it It is not so easie always nor so well indeed for others to judge this of them but if they would judge themselves and search impartially into their own Hearts they would find the Truth and meaning of what the Apostle says Tit. 3.11 That such an Heretick is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of himself and best knows and is Conscious to himself of the undue and faulty Reasons and the sinister and by-ends and designs which were the secret Springs and corrupt Causes of his Heresie of his Espousing such a singular and Novel Opinion out of a spirit of Contradiction or a proud Conceitedness of his own Parts Wisdom or Learning above others or perhaps for some more Worldly and Carnal Reasons to serve a Party or carry on an Interest according to the Character the Apostle gives of such an Heretick of old 1 Tim. 6.4 5. He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings perverse Disputing of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is Godliness And who for filthy Lucres sake taught things which they ought not as he charges them in another place Tit. 1.11 And in our days I doubt some mens opposing the Faith and others contending about it is more contending for this World and some Interests in it then for any thing else Envy and Emulation and a Competition about those being more at the bottom of some Disputes among us than a Zeal for the Faith falsly so called and only hypocritically pretended But this if it prove not a Corrupting the Faith is to be sure not Holding it in a pure Conscience For 3. We must hold this Mystery of Faith with a Christian good Temper and not lose that whilst we are contending for the other nor let our Contentions grow so warm and intemperate so fierce and cruel as to forget and violate the plain Morals of Christianity whilst we are over-earnestly disputing for the Faith of it or perhaps only for some false and mistaken or at best some useless Opinions and over-nice and subtle Controversies about it This has been the fault of those who have contended more for Victory than Truth and more for their own Credit and Vain-glory than the Christian Faith who though they may be in the right as 't is ten to one that they are not for Truth seldom dwells with such a Spirit of Rage and Pride and Passion but rather with a quite other Temper yet they greatly deserve the Cause they so unduly manage And as they never are like to convince their Adversaries so they give others just ground to suspect that they apply want of better Reason and stronger Arguments with weak and impotent Calumny and with undecent and unbecoming Reflections This is as Criminal and as Unchristian as the Error or the Heresie they are so zealous against and 't is to be doubted 't is rather a false Fire and an Hypocritical Zeal not for the Cause of God so much as their own and that this is kindled not from the Altar but some other place and blown up by some private pique and sinister designs that thus blazes out to such an outragious degree as to consume and destroy not only its Adversaries if it were in its power but even the most vital and substantial parts of Christianity Peace Love and Charity and contends for the Christian Faith with such a most Diabolical and Unchristian Temper This is very far from the Spirit of Christ and Christianity and however precious the Faith be yet the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 13.2 if we had all Faith and understood all Mysteries and all Knowledge yet without Charity we are nothing however great we may be in our own Thoughts and such a zeal of sowreness and bitterness as it is generally without Knowledge so it is alwayes without Religion and though it hold the Mystery of the Faith and do not rather pervert and corrupt it yet to be sure this also is not according to the Apostles advice in a pure Conscience Lastly This implies holding it with a good Life in general and with a Conscience so pure as to be free from all Sin and all wilful Wickedness For what does the most Pure and Orthodox Faith signifie if our Lives are Heretical and Unchristian For there is no Heresie so damnable and destructive and so contrary to Christianity as a bad Life and living by Principles of Immorality and no Orthodoxy is comparable to a good Life and a Christian Conversation God will sooner forgive a great many Errors which may proceed from weakness of Judgment and want of Information and be joined with probity and sincerity of Mind rather than one Act of wilful Wickedness and Immorality which is committed always against the Light of a Man 's own Conscience as well as against the Light of the Gospel and where there can be no pretence or plea of Ignorance to excuse it Christian Faith in the whole compass of it is designed to be a powerful and operative Principle upon our Hearts and Lives to be a Seed that is not to be sowed in barren ground but to grow up in all the priviledges of Holiness and Righteousness and to produce not only the Leaves of a formal Profession and the Blossoms of Christian Faith but the sound and substantial Fruit of all Christian and Divine Vertues This Faith is not only to float in our Heads and overflow our Tongues but to sink down into our Hearts and become the Vital Principle of a truly Pious and Holy and Vertuous Life Christianity is not only to teach us a new scheme and set of Opinions and to make new Articles of Faith for us but to make us walk in newness and holiness of Life to set the best Precepts of Morality and lay the best Models of Vertue before us and engage us to follow them by the greatest Arguments and the strongest Obligations and if our Faith do not engage and prevail upon us to do this it will be so far from saving us that it will only more highly condemn us and increase and double our Eternal Damnation Which God of his Infinite Mercy prevent through Jesus Christ our Merciful Redeemer THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST PROVED SERMON III. JOHN x. 36. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God THIS is the Defence of our Blessed Saviour against the Charge of the Jews who were enraged at his saying that he was the Son of God for that it seems he had said of himself by the words of my Text and that he and his Father were one