Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bless_a	crime_n	great_a	20	3	2.1094	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66341	The advancement of Christs interests the governing end of a Christians life a second sermon preached before the Right Honourable Sir John Shorter, Knight, Lord Mayor of the city of London at Grocers-Hall, January the 9th, 1687/8 / by Daniel Williams.	Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2644; ESTC R13642	27,450	42

We cost him dearer than our utmost Service can amount to All our Graces and Gifts are from him by a new Dispensation and held by a new Tenure You have an Emblem of it in the Redemption of the First Born and in the Ransom of all Souls How much more may Christ use the words to Philemon which Paul uttered only as an Instrument of his Conversion Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest me even thine own self besides Doth he wrong us if he calls for our Gifts our Estates yea our Lives when he continues them to us after our manifest Forfeitures and gave them to us if Believers as he is Head over all things to the Church So that if it be a Duty to be just to God as Creator or just to Christ as Redeemer all our Lives and Abilities must be devoted to his Interests 4. No man is a Christian indeed that dedicateth not himself Life and all to Christ And so if it be a Duty to be a Christian this devotedness is a Duty as it is essential to our Christian State. It 's true you may bear the Name but you cannot be the thing designed by that Name if you devote not all to the Honour of the Lord Jesus and design it as the chiefest purpose of your Life to propagate his Interests Can any Man be his Subject who contributes not to his Affairs what in him lieth Consent to be his is the greatest Fundamental of Religion and this includes a solemn Surrender of all to him Union betwixt Christ and his Members makes their Interests common his Interest is their Interest and they are to submit to his Conduct as their Head in what their usefulness must consist Their Character is They follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth Their Motto is I serve the Lord Christ. Religion is not a State of Freedom to live to our selves under the Covert of Gospel pardon but an Obligation and Inclination to live to our Blessed Lord being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ. Therefore you must account Christianity a Crime or you must profess the true Faith and plead Christs Cause to the utmost R. 5. It is as much Mens Duties that profess to be Christians to dedicate their Lives and all to the interest of Christ as it is to avoid Perjury Sacriledge and Hypocrisy These Crimes are too horrid to necessitate Arguments to prove that forbearance of them is a Duty Your Conviction that to neglect this Dedication is thus Criminal I hope will suffice To this End let me reason with you Is it not Perjury to violate your Baptismal Vow Yea sure the greatest And did not you then vow to fight under Christs Banner renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and that you would never be ashamed of Christs Cross Is not your neglect of Dedication of all to Christ an express violation of this Vow When you fear or grudge performing a Christians Work dare not profess the true Faith and Worship of Christ nor engage in the supports of his Gospel and Truths are not your Estates and Abilities dedicated to the Devil and your Lusts Is not Christ deserted Is not his Cross refused when you prostitute the Concernments of your Saviour None can do more for Christ than the Baptismal Vow includes What Perjury then lies at your Doors who are no way concerned for him Is it no Sacriledge to alien duly dedicated things to common use without divine Allowance Were not your Souls Bodies Gifts and all you have dedicated to the Lord Jesus when you were Baptized in or into the N●me of the Father Son and Spirit This Surrender was professed and Gods Propriety and Disposal acknowledged All past under the Rod and Gods Name was enstamped on all thus devoted to his use Now when you neglect to honour Christ and serve his Interest with your Substance Time and Gifts do not you with-hold what was Consecrated and apply it to your own carnal Ends and Use Every idle cowardly Christian keeps back what is Gods and not his own Every Apostate doth the same more grosly Every Enemy to any Concern of Christ employs the Consecrated Things of Christ against him So that here is Sacriledg at your Door if you improve not all for Christs Interest in your Places And this Perjury and Sacriledg is double in any Ministers or Magistrates who are under Vows and Dedications additional to what is common to all Christians Is it not Hypocrisy solemnly to profess to intend do and be what we neither do nor are Now can you deny that you profess to intend Christs Service to advance his Name and Interests and be for his Praise as Witnesses to him in the World You appear and would be thought such in professing to be his Followers For on these Terms he admits Men to wear his Name If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow me There he injoins that Self have not the disposal of us or ours That we follow him in his Testimony and Designs which he is carrying on in the World and abett these still tho the Cross be our daily Associate All this thou pretendest And now when thou refusest to dedicate thy Life to Christ dost not thou betray Christ with a Kiss affront God and abuse Men by delusive Mockery and wearest that Title of Hypocrite which thou brandest the upright with Oh! think of this you who spend your Time and Estates as fuel to your Lusts not once laying to heart any Engagement on you to employ them to higher Ends. R. 6. All living Christians are chosen Ones appointed by Christ to advance his Interests in their Day Great are the Purposes our Lord is accomplishing And tho his immediate Power or the Ministry of Angels would be effective of them yet he honours Mortals as Instruments therein He overturns Satans Throne erects and propagates his own Kingdom leads Men into Truth and Holiness by the Ministration of Men like our selves tho the effective Virtue be from him All are obliged to concur but living Saints are under a more peculiar anointing for it and more especially entrusted with it in their respective Stations He saith of every godly Magistrate This is the Son of Man whom I have made strong for my self Of every holy Parent as of Abraham For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. It 's true of every upright Minister That he is set for the Defence of the Gospel Yea every private Christian is among them who are an holy Nation a peculiar People that they should shew forth the Praises of him who called them into his marvellous Light. The weakest Christian hath some Influence and is furnished suitably to what Christ intends by him Is it not a great Duty to discarge this glorious Trust and

licentiousness or countenancing them therein Their corrupt hearts are under the government of lust and the World being their Idol the Devil may thereby gild over any Pill and employ them in most undertakings The God of this World wants not means to hire affright or allure them by and these seldom are unsuccessful unless when God overacts their Inclinations or in his Providence prevents the gainfull offer or when he chaineth some loss shame or such sensible evils with their serving Satan's turn at present But with most Sinners in most of his Concerns the Devil gains concurrence and that by means grateful to the Flesh. Ecclesiastical grandure supporteth uninstituted Officers in the Church vast incomes and exorbitant power tempt to Idolatry to an universal Headship and a world of vile Appendants Ignorance must be countenanced lest these emoluments be exposed to hazard Superstition will be contended for as its pomp is pleasing to a vain mind dead Forms are abetted as lulling Conscience asleep which is needful to the quiet of an unregenerate heart where the Gospel-light is by Christ forced on them Mahumatism and Pagan Idolatry were introduced by methods adapted to mens lusts and are maintained by reasons from worldly Interests This way usually Satan attains his ends by miserable men but sometimes he doth by strong delusions hurry them without apparent motives yea by his service expose them to hardships ungrateful to Nature tho vicious A strange impetus reconcileth them to torments yea and death in the Devil's work God permitting him to impress their Imaginations and act their Souls in an amazing manner Thus many errors are suggested and propagated One way or another all ungodly men willingly serve the Devill 's Interest How are most of Mankind employed in this slavery by Satan yea their Lusts oft carry them to intemperance impiety violence 〈◊〉 when unsolicited Oh dreadful aspect of an Apostate World Prop. III. Men are naturally disposed to resist the Interests of the Lord Jesus especially as far as they are opposite to their own carnal Inclinations or Interests Christ is sure of an Enemy where a carnal mind prevaileth and no endowment short of Grace prevents the opposition The Wise resist his Doctrine as foolishness It 's a stumbling-block to the Jewish Church tho entrusted with Divine Oracles and a long expected Messias is rejected by them because he appears void of pomp and to purposes more spiritual than a carnal mind could relish The best Natures become cruel from a blind zeal and the very devout turn Persecutors of Religion as abominable to their unrenewed minds Satan paints the Servants of Christ as factious turbulent and dangerous and so engageth the Powers of the Earth to the highest vigor in their extirpation The Rules of his House are oft opposed as inconsistent with some Maxims of Policy Ignorance and strong Delusions cause many to sacrifice the real Interests of Christ even from seeming regards to him where Providence hath forced some reverence to his Name tho enmity against his Laws and Nature do still abide It 's true that ungodly men may bear with the external profession of Religion when education hath familiarized it and they find it can consist with the dominion of a carnal heart nay they greatly like a dead form of Christianity because it suits all men to be of some Religion and no other can quiet their Conscience in its awakened foresight of Eternity when enlightned at all by the Gospel but still their Enmity vents its dislike against the Inwards and power of Religion tho the Form thereof is become thus necessary They despise worshipping God in the Spirit as unintelligible because unfelt A lively Ministry is hated as disquieting their feared Consciences They loathe the strictly Pious as a Reproach to themselves A progress in Reformation in the Church is obstructed from inward antipathy to any further Advance to Christ and hazard to secular Interests thereby Or it looks too trivial to be contended for by them to whom all Religion is indifferent further than as rivited by long Custom Yea they oppose it from a proud Conceit that it would reproach their former usage as erroneous and imperfect Indeed sometimes the Prophane grow zealous for some Cause of Christ but never for the Sake of Christ. Applause security to their own Interest or long Custom awaken their Concern God by his Providence supports his own Cause by Evil Men their Estates Honour Emulation Quarrels and the like influence their Endeavours in that which proves a Service to the Truth They are often zealous for a lower Degree of Reformation in opposition to a greater not seeing that that lesser Degree ceaseth to be the Interest of Christ when it becomes an Impediment to or Rival with Reformation in greater Instances But however the Ungodly may be thus over-ruled to comply with any thing which belongs to Christ their prevailing Inclination is to betray all of Christ which they profess when damage to their fleshly Interests attends it Yea in a quiet Season their Religion dwindles into an empty From the Truths of the Gospel are supplanted by encroaching Errors and Christianity so clogg'd and eclipsed in evil mens management that it hardly retains what deserves that Name To this opposition in the nature of Man to the Inrerests of Christ must be ascribed the wonderful Degeneracy of Christian Churches And as far as the remains of Corruption influence the Best Men Christ shall suffer by them in his Concernments His Name shall endure reproach and his Ministers damage his Church is divided Love destroyed the Conversion of Sinners hindred Advances in Godliness obstructed and many such ways our sinful Natures disserve yea oppose the Interests of our Blessed Lord. This should make the Pious watchful as not ignorant they have Lusts which the Devil may improve to the damage of Christ. And it should make the Ungodly suspicious when they contend with many good men that it is not the Interest of Christ they are engaged for which they are so far likelier to mistake and oppose than those more Holy persons are Prop. IV. Obligations and a Call to Service result from and are measured by mens different Places and Capacities for the advancements of Christs Interests All should be devoted to it but all are not equally capable of it nor called to express it in the same Instances None should usurp another's Station under pretence of Service yet all must be diligent to the utmost of their own Talents God hath wisely ordained variety of Callings with a tendency in their Nature to his Use Providence disposeth and fitteth men to these several Offices The faithfulness of the meanest is regarded Servants do serve the Lord Christ when their meaner Employs are cloathed with an obediential Respect to him Two Mites from the Poors stock is a commended Offering and a Book of Remembrance treasureth the concerned Thoughts and edifying Discourses of them that fear the Lord