Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	faith_n	lord_n	1,391	5	3.9699	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36187	A brief recognition of New-Englands errand into the wilderness made in the audience of the General Assembly of the Massachusetts Colony at Boston in N.E. on the 11th of the third moneth, 1670, being the day of election there / by Samuel Danforth.	Danforth, Samuel, 1626-1674.	1671 (1671)	Wing D175; ESTC R24911	19,567	31

are set upon Yea and in some particular Congregations amongst us is there not in stead of a sweet smell a stink and in stead of a girdle a rent and in stead of a stomacher a girding with sackcloth and burning in stead of beauty yea the Vineyard is all overgrown with thorns and nettles cover the face thereof and the stone wall thereof is broken down Prov. 24 31. yea and that which is the most sad and certain sign of calamity approaching Iniquity aboundeth and the love of many waxeth cold Mat. 24 12. Pride Contention Worldiness Covetousness Luxury Drunkenness and Uncleanness break in like a flood upon us and good men grow cold in their love to God and to one another If a man be cold in his bed let them lay on the more clothes that he may get heat but we are like to David in his old age they covered him with clothes but he gat no heat 2 Sam. 1. 1. The Lord heaps mercies favours blessings upon us and loads us daily with his benefits but all his love and bounty cannot heat and warm our hearts and affections Well the furnace is able to heat and melt the coldest Iron but how oft hath the Lord cast us into the hot furnace of Affliction and Tribulation and we have been scorched and burnt yet not melted but hardened thereby Isa 63. 17. How long hath God kept us in the furnace day after day moneth after moneth year after year but all our Afflictions Crosses Trials have not been able to keep our hearts in a warm temper Now let me freely deliberate with you what may be the Causes and Grounds of such decayes and languishings in our affections to and estimation of that which we came into the Wilderness to enjoy Is it because there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread Numb 21. 5. Our soul is dried away and there is nothing at all besides this Manna before our eyes Numb 11. 6. What is Manna no bread Is this Angelical food light bread which cannot satisfie but starves the Soul Doth our Soul loath the bread of Heaven The Lord be merciful to us The full soul loatheth the honey-comb Prov. 27. 7. What then is the cause of our decayes and languishings Is it because the Spirit of the Lord is straitned and limited in the dispensers of the Gospel and hence our joyes and comforts are lessened and shortned O thou that art named the house of Jacob is the Spirit of the Lord straitned are those his doings Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Mic. 2. 7. Surely it is not for want of fulness in the Spirit of God that he withholds comforts and blessings from any neither doth he delight in threatnings and judgements but his words both promise and perform that which is good and comfortable to them that walk uprightly The Spirit is able to enlarge it self unto the reviving and cheering of every man's heart and that should we experience did not our iniquity put a barre 2 Cor. 6. 11 12. O ye Corinthians our mouth is open unto you our heart is enlarged Ye are not straitned in us but ye are straitned in your own bowels The Spirit of God dilateth and enlargeth the heart of the faithfull Ministry for the good of the people but many times the people are straitned in their own bowels and cannot receive such a large portion as the Lord hath provided for them What then is the cause of our coolings faintings and languishings The ground and principal cause is our Vnbelief We believe not the Grace and Power of God in Christ Where is that lively exercise of faith which ought to be in our attendance upon the Lord in his holy Ordinances Christ came to Nazareth with his heart full of love and compassion and his hands full of blessings to bestow upon his old Acquaintance and Neighbours among whom he had been brought up but their Vnbelief restrained his tender mercies and bound his Omnipotent hands that he could not do any great or illustrious Miracle amongst them Mat. 13. 58. Mark 6. 5 6. He could do there no mighty work and he marvelled because of their unbelief Unbelief straitens the grace and power of Christ and hinders the communication of divine favours and special mercies The word preached profits not when it is not mixed with faith in them that hear it Heb. 4. 2. We may pray earnestly but if we ask not in faith how can we expect to receive any thing of the Lord Jam. 1. 6 7. But though Unbelief be the principal yet it is not the sole cause of our decayes and languishings Inordinate worldly Cares predominant Lusts and malignant Passions and Distempers stifle and choak the Word and quench our affections to the Kingdome of God Luke 8. 14. The Manna was gathered early in the morning when the Sun waxed hot it melted Exod. 16. 21. It was a fearful Judgement on Dathan and Abiram that the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up How many Professors of Religion are swallowed up alive by earthly affections Such as escape the Lime-pit of Pharisaical Hypocrisie fall into the Coal-pit of Sadducean Atheism and Epicurism Pharisaism and Sadduceism do almost divide the Professing World between them Some split upon the Rock of affected ostentation of singular Piety and Holiness and others are drawn into the Whirpool and perish in the Gulf of Sensuality and Luxury If any question how seasonable such a Discourse may be upon such a Day as this let him consider Hag. 2. 10 14. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth moneth in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord by Haggai the Prophet saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Ask now the Priests concerning the law saying If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage or wine or oyl or any meat shall it be holy And the Priests answered and said No. Then said Haggai If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these shall it be unclean And the Priests answered and said It shall be unclean Then answered Haggai and said So is this people and so is this nation before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands and that which they offer there is unclean It was an high and great day wherein the Prophet spake these words and an holy and honourable Work which the people were employed in For this day they laid the Foundation of the Lords Temple ver 18. nevertheless the Lord saw it necessary this very day to represent and declare unto them the pollution and uncleanness both of their persons and of their holy Services that they might be deeply humbled before God and carry on their present Work more holily and purely What was their uncleanness Their eager pursuit of their private Interests took off their hearts and affections from the affairs