Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bear_v	good_a	great_a	1,656	5	2.4302	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34429	An exhortation to firmness and constancy in true religion in a sermon preached at St. Mary Islington, Feb. 2, 1689/90 / by Shadrach Cooke ...	Cooke, Shadrach, 1655?-1724?	1689 (1689)	Wing C6037; ESTC R20683	19,785	32

I may say with the Apostle Beloved if in these things our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And this will be such a Qualification as will keep us steady and immovable against all Opposition We shall have that Conviction from within and those regular Motions in our Hearts as will dispose us to a sutable Behaviour in all our Actions For as a good Tree cannot bring forth corrupt Fruit so a Mind well Principled and Indued will be evermore happily disposed to Subdue and Conquer whatever may tempt us to this Sin And believe me it requires a firm and well settled Faith to bear us up against all those Hardships and Difficulties that oppose us in our Christian State Whence you see how necessary and requisite it is seriously and often to consider the Case between God and our Souls to become every day more and more confirmed and settled in the great and weighty Concerns of our Faith and our Religion And hereupon we may do well in our present Circumstances to consider the Nature and Excellency of that Faith which is professed among us that we grow in it more and more and be firm and constant to it For we enjoy God be blessed a Faith truly Orthodox and Catholick in the best and purest Church upon Earth That doth not prohibit or lock up the holy Scriptures from any but doth enjoyn and practice the constant and daily Use and Reading of them Where Sacraments are administer'd as Christ enjoyn'd them in a most grave solemn and decent Manner Whose Prayers are most pious and heavenly every way suted to our several Wants and Necessities and able to warm our Souls with a most fervent Zeal and Devotion Let us study to improve in the knowledge and practice of this Faith which will happily secure us from all dangerous Errors and Superstition Here we are taught and enjoyn'd due Obedience to God strict Loyalty to our Prince Love and Charity to all Men. Its Doctrins are Sound and Orthodox It s Discipline Pure and Primitive And as many as walk by this Rule peace be on them and on the Israel of God And now having so Good so True and Sound a Faith and Religion if we desire and expect that God should preserve and continue it to us Let us hold fast this Profession of our Faith without wavering That nothing prevail upon us to injure desert or betray this truly Catholick and Apostolick Faith as professed in the Church of England The more we consider of or know it the better shall we like it and become the firmer in it upon a due and serious Examination and right Understanding of it We shall find it will both deserve and instruct us in a firm Constancy and Resolution against all Opposition and Difficulty whatever Finally my Brethren be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might Put on the whole Armor of God that ye may able to stand against the Wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers against spiritual Wickedness if the darkness of this World on High places wherefore take unto you the whole Armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil Day and having done all to Stand Eph. 6.10 4. It may be again requisit herein to set before us the Pattern and Example of Christ who was eminent in all Perfections but especially Remarkable for this insomuch that he himself tells us For this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear Witness unto the Truth Which he never dissembled but constantly asserted with the greatest Courage and Resolution I speak openly in the Synagogue So far was he from Fear or Cowardice and so compleat this Pattern that he underwent the extreamest Sufferings even unto Death for Truth and a good Cause This Captain of our Salvation being so Brave and Generous we are obliged both in Favour and Duty to imitate and resemble his Courage and Constancy and like him firmly maintain Truth and Integrity whatever it costs us This will resemble us to Christ at present and bring us to the Enjoyment of him hereafter Whereupon I shall conclude with the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.13 I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good Confession that thou keep this Commandment without spot unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ 5. For another prevention or direction against this great Evil let us often think and consider of that great and terrible Threatning here mentioned And that if we be ashamed of him and his Words in this Adulterous and Sinful Generation of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels And certainly frequent and serious reflexions on that great and glorious Appearance and that his coming in such a Solemn and Terrible manner to recompence Punishment on us should preserve us firm and steadfast in all holy Duties For should it not make us even now shrink and tremble to think with our selves that he will call us to a strict Account and punish us most severely for these things another Day How shall we look or what shall we be able to say when we come to appear before him in such Majesty and Honour Wherefore if we keep the Thoughts of this so great and terrible Appearance always fresh and settled in our Minds it will make us not dare to be guilty of so great a Sin as we will answer hereafter at our utmost peril For if we deny him he also will deny us 2 Tim. 2.12 6. Let us be strict and sincere in all holy Duties That we adorn the Doctrin of Christ in all things and walk worthy of our Profession A good Faith is the most of all indanger'd by an undue and irregular Practice If by our ungodly and wicked Lives we Dishonour our Religion we make a very forward step towards a denial of it and it may be just in God quite to remove it from us If therefore we would consult the Interest of true Religion and do design or would desire the security and continuance of it Let us walk conscienciously by the Rule we profess and not dare any longer to continue practices so repugnant to all Piety and Religion remembring what the Apostle threatens some Who because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie 2 Thess 2.10 But to compleat and perfect all we must be sure to superadd in the Seventh and Last Place our most humble and hearty Prayers to Almighty God That he by his Grace or Holy Spirit would assist us against this great and fatal Evil. That he would support us under all Dangers and carry us through all Temptations That he would stablish strengthen settle us That he would graft in our Hearts the Love of his Name increase in us true Religion nourish us with all Goodness and of his great Mercy keep us in the same That he being our Ruler and Guid we may so pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things Eternal That so Christ our Lord may not be ashamed of us when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.16 17. FINIS

Minds and such as is an Injury or Violation to our own very Consciences For that Man hath nothing to palliate or excuse his Crime that breaks through and violates the Sense or Perswasion of his own Conscience which is more to him than Ten thousand Witnesses And therefore though Men may be Deaf to this inward Guide and by their Lusts or fordid Interest be prevailed upon to contradict or stifle those internal Sentiments yet no Man can think them happy much less hath any reason to envy them what they thus obtain For this Candle of the Lord as is Solomon's Phrase for Conscience will sometime or other glare in their Faces or burn them to the quick and torment them severely for being thus Unjust Base and Treacherous to themselves And though we see it God knoweth too often that Men Sacrifice Peace of Conscience to base and unworthy Interest as if worse than the unjust Judge they did not regard God or Man nor themselves yet this Perplexity and Vexation which is inevitable hereupon will be a perpetual Plague and like a troublesome Ghost haunt and fret them where-ever or however they are And a Man is scarce capable of a greater Condemnation or Punishment than thus to decry or reprove his own Actions Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that Thing which he alloweth Rom. 14.22 4. And which doth ensue upon this The Case which is here Condemned by our Saviour is a Reproach even to humane Nature Firmness and Constancy of Mind is generous and manly an Argument of a brave and couragious Spirit such That is always accounted which can bear it self up and maintain its Integrity against all Opposition and Allurements to the contrary And therefore such resolute trusty Souls have evermore had the general esteem and commendation of good and wise Men. As on the contrary it s an undoubted proof and instance of an unmanly pitiful or dangerous Temper easily to forgo or yield up our Truth and Integrity the greatest Glory of our Nature so that he debaseth himself to the vilest degree and most miserable Condition that debauches the noblest Principle of his Soul as is the case of such who are ashamed of God and a good Cause Another Aggravation that we may add to this Is in the Fifth Place Even the present Insecurity of such Men or of such a Condition as is here spoken of by our Saviour And this consideration added to the rest cuts them clear off from all their holds Such base Hypocrisie and Dissimulation will not last long and doth but seldom answer such Mens designs in it for as Solomon saith The Lip of truth shall be established for ever but a lying Tongue is but for a Moment Base complyances and such unworthy practices in the cause of God and Religion do frequently carry Guilt in their Foreheads and do sooner or later prove ineffectual and dangerous to themselves and very often spoil or frustrate their own Actions or Designs And then all Men that see them shall laugh them to Scorn Whereas certain it is That Uprightness and Integrity a closs and steady Adhesion to an honest Cause and a good Conscience will be more approved of succeeded better for our Interest and carry us most happily thorough all Difficulty and Opposition while Base Cowardize and Dissimulation will render us Improsperous in all our Designs and make us every way Odious and Hateful to God and Man From whence we proceed to consider in the Fourth Place The Judgment and Punishment to be inflicted for it Of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels Where our Saviour as you see doth consign the Punishment of such base Deserters of him and his Religion to a future Judgment and Tribunal Whereupon by the way we may make these following Observations First This threatning of a future Recompence is not designed so as to imply an utter Exclusion of all present Punishment or Judgment to be inflicted on such Men they may be and frequently are met with and punished severely in this World The sting or guilt of Conscience will sometime fret and torment them for such base and unworthy Practices they are frequently exposed to the scorn of good Men and the contempt of the World and are no small Sufferers in their present Enjoyments These or the like Punishments do or may overtake such Offenders even now at present it being a Practice that is frequently injurious to Mens Secular Interest and Security as we heard before Thus with a future this may also refer to or not exclude a present Punishment as God in his Wisdom may think fit and convenient Though too in the Second Place this may imply what doth sometimes happen That wicked Men and among these such as are thus guilty may pass through this World with Ease or Impunity and perhaps to outward appearance meet with no Punishment no Retribution for so great Impiety For many good Causes God may for a while forbear or delay their Punishment to the great and general Day of Accounts when he will give to every one according to his Works So that we are not to judge from the present Impunity or which is more the Flourishing and Prosperous Condition of such Men though so guilty against God that he is altogether regardless of them and his Honour Though he doth forbear he doth not altogether forget them but will if not before call them to strict Examination another Day Whereupon we may observe again Thirdly That the mentioning of such a future Retribution may be and doubtless is with some design of showing or representing the greater Judgment or Vengeance of God that is treasured up against them as if such profligate Sinners could not be enough or sufficiently punished till Christ were invested with his Sovereign Power and Authority So that this is here mentioned as a very heightning Aggravation of their Punishment they may consider and tremble to think on it that their Doom is reserved for that Great and Solemn Assize Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my Words in this Adulterous and Sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels And its being thus expressed may show the Punishment of such to be very Severe and Terrible upon these following Accounts As it doth imply 1. Christ's utter Disowning of them 2. After the most disgraceful Sort or Manner 3. At the most solemn Time or Season 4. In Mens greatest Streights and Necessities And 5. A Consequence of most dreadful Ruin and eternal Destruction First This threatning here before us doth imply or signify Christ's utter Disowning of them and that is here represented to us these Two ways First By his being ashamed of them that is such shall be rejected by him and quite disowned from having any share or benefit in his Redemption and the Kingdom of his Father