Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	5,160	5	5.5664	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41200	A brief exposition of the first and second epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians by the reverend and learned Mr. James Fergusson ...	Fergusson, James, 1621-1667.	1674 (1674)	Wing F775; ESTC R21229	249,485	468

nursing mother who dimits her self to the meanest and basest of offices for the more warm and tender education of her children The grounds of which similitude are in the following verses Doct. 1. It is not enough that a Minister of Christ abstain from such scandalous sins of flattery greed and ambition as time-servers are guilty of but he must also labour for the exercise of such vertues as may commend his Ministry and gain respect for him in peoples consciences for Paul besides his freedom from such vices doth shew that his conversation was adorned with the exercise of several praise-worthy graces in this and the following verses But we were gentle among you 2. The Lords Ministers are not under pretence of eschewing base flattery to carry themselves too austerely retiredly and much less indiscreetly As they should not flatter men in any known sin so neither censoriously carp at every small thing wher●in is no ●ffence neither to God nor man Both of which extremities must be eschewed and Gods way which lyeth betwixt the two followed They should so please all men to edification Rom. 15. 2. as to flatter no man in what is really sinful They should so discountenance known sin in any man 1 Tim. 5. 20. as to be of an amiable discreet and gaining carriage towards all men for Paul having cleared himself of base flattery v. 5. sheweth here that he was of a meek and amiable deportment among them But we were gentle among you 3. So ticklish are people to be wrought upon in order to their spiritual good that a Minister who would prevail with them must study their humours and set himself to digest many provocations and to comply with their temper yielding unto them all contentment in all things so far as he safely may with a good conscience He must even become all things to all men that he may save some 1 Cor. 9. 22. for Paul implyeth that he did all this while he saith we were gentle among you 4. There is somewhat of tender affection and of care and diligence flowing from affection in a nursing mother towards her own Children which is exemplary and cannot well be imitated by any other And therefore mothers whom God hath made in all other respects fit to nurse their Children themselves should not without some pressing necessity deprive their little ones of their motherly care by putting the charge of them upon another for Paul implyeth so much while being to set forth the height of his affection towards these Thessalonians he doth use the similitude not of a mercenary nurse but of a nursing mother as is clear from his calling the Children whom she cherisheth her own Even as a nurse cherisheth her children 5. It is not so much to be regarded what pieces of duty a Minister doth discharge to a people as with what affection and heart they are discharged by him and a Minister who would have his pains facilitated unto himself and blessed unto the Lords●people should labour to put on towards them bowels of compassion and a kind of natural tenderness of loving affection such as is in a father or mother towards their babes Or if there be any affection more tender than another he should endeavour to put it on and express it in seeking after their spiritual good for Pauls affection was such as is in a nursing mother towards her own children Ver. 8. So being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us The Apostle doth give in this and the following verses five grounds of the former similitude all and every one of which doth prove his meek and amiable deportment among them as being so many branches of it And 1. as the nursing mother if she be ●ut for a little time absent from her children doth most vehemently long to see them that she may give them the breasts and other food convenient for them So Paul was affectionately desirous of them It implyes a vehement desire after them and speaketh as it seemeth the ardency of desire he had while he was busied with his handy labour v. 9. and they with theirs to have the Congregation again convened that he might preach unto them 2. As the nursing mother when she comes to her children hath an unspeakable delight to feed them with food convenient and with her own blood now turned to milk So Paul was willing or had such an inexpressible delight and pleasure for so the word signifieth not only to feed them spiritually and to impart the Gospel to them by his Preaching but also for their through confirmation in the truths preached by him to impart unto them or for them his very soul that is his life so called usually 1 Sam. 24. 11. 26. 21. because the presence of the soul in the body is the cause of life Now this gradation here used from his impar●ing the Gospel to the imparting of his life implyeth not that the Gospel is of less value than a mans life but that it is more difficult and speaketh greater affection in any to lay d●wn ●is life for others than to impart the Gospel to them 3. As the only reason which moveth the nursing mother to do all is motherly affection to her children and no hope of gain So was it with Paul even because they were dear unto him or beloved by him The words To exponed hold ou● several pieces of a sweet frame of spirit most necessary for a Minister And first he should be so disposed as to be ever in a readiness to close with any opportunity that providence doth offer for gaining of souls to God yea and to thirst after opportunities of that kind when one way or other they are withheld for thus was it with Paul he did vehemently long to have the Lords people convened that he might Preach to them So being affectionately desirous of you 2. Whatever he doth in the several duties of his calling he should do it not of constraint or with a kind of reluctancy for the simple exoneration of his Conscience and to stop the mouths of those whom he feareth may otherwise challenge him 1 Pet. 5. 2. but from an inward principle of delight and hearty good liking to his work for Paul was acted from such a principle we were willing or had an inexpressible delight and liking as the word signifies to have imparted the Gospel to you 3. The choice text wherein he should delight most to discourse and preach of should be the glad tydings of salvation to lost sinners through Jesus Christ a Redeemer for so did Paul we were willing to have imparted to you the Gospel or the glad tydings of salvation as the word doth signifie 4. He should be forecasting what the faithful discharge of his message may cost him what hazard loss or suffering he may be put to for it and resolving come what may come never

For therefore is the word falling away or apostasie set down indefinitely and without any restriction The second thing which was to fall our antecedently to that day is the revealing of the man of sin the great head and patron of this apostasie whom all accord to be that great Antichrist spoken of 1 Joh. 2. 18. and 4. 3. and the beast mentioned Rev. 13. 11 c. and the epithetes given him here declare so much though he be not expresly named Concerning whom the Apostle doth first foretel that he shall be revealed and made known though not so as that none should have any doubt concerning him for then how were it possible that all the world should wonder after the beast Rev. 13. 3. neither were such wisdom requisite to find him out and know him as is required Rev. 13. 18. yet so as they to whom the Lord hath given eyes to see shall evidently discern him Which revealing and making of him known was to be effectuated partly by the preaching of the Gospel which should discover him see v. 8. but chiefly by his coming to the height of his power and his exercising of open tyranny over the Church of God Next that the Lords people might the better know him when he should discover himself the spirit of God doth here describe him first from his nature he shall be a man and not a Devil as some did falsly imagine Now that he is called a man in the singular number with the article prefixed in the Original doth not inferr that he should be one single man and individual person without succession as the Papists imagine to defend their Pope from being the Antichrist here described but all in vain For 1. The same word with the article prefixed doth not alwayes point at one individual person but sometimes must be extended to many men or to any man indefinitely as Joh. 2. 25. 2 Tim. 3. 17. Secondly That the Antichrist cannot be only one individual person will be clear if we consider the many great things which Scripture foretelleth shall be effectuated by him whereof there is one here to wit the carrying on of that woful work of an universal apostasie from Christ and truth through the whole Christian world presently spoken of unto an height and head which surely behoved to be a work of more ages than one otherwise the argument here used by Paul would have been but of small force to prove that the day of judgement should not fall out in the present age because this falling away and apostasie behoved to be first It would have been I say of no force if that apostasie could have been brought about in the space of one age Besides the spirit of Antichrist was already working hidly and in a Mysterie in Pauls time see upon v. 7. and in Johns time 1 Joh. 4. 3. and was to continue until the time of Christs second coming see upon v. 8. and consequently he cannot be one only individual person But therefore thirdly By man or that man here is meant a series and constant succession of men of whom one was to succeed another in their grandeur power and wickedness against Christ and his Church as if they were all but one man acted by one and the same spirit even as the word High Priest in the singular number is taken Heb. 9. 7 25. and as Daniel chap. 7. under every one of the four beasts doth comprize a number of Kings succeeeding one another in the Babylonian Persian and Grecian Monarchies yea and as shall appear upon v. 7. the continued series and succession of Roman Emperours is spoken of as of one man withholding the Antichrist from coming to the height of his power and greatness Secondly the Antichrist in this verse is described from two of his titles first he shall be a man of sin It is an Hebraism implying that he shall be a notorious sinner himself Rev. 13. 5 6. and an Author of sin to others Rev. 13. 12 14. Like Jeroboam who caused Israel to sin 2 King 11. 10. Next a son of perdition that is one devoted to destruction Rev. 17. 8. as Judas was who therefore hath the same title Joh. 17. 12. and one who should destroy others and that both spiritually in their souls Rev. 17. 2. and corporally in their bodies Rev. 17. 6. for which cause he is called Apollyon or a destroyer Rev. 9. 11. Hence Learn first as love to ease and desire of freedom from trouble in the Lords people do make them antedate promised deliveries and dream of a triumph before they have entred the battel So the Lord in Scripture doth frequently s●t himself to dispossess his people of this lazy dangerous humour by shewing that they must first prepare for a long lasting battel before they can expect a compleat victory and full triumph for while these Thessalonians did dream of nothing but of a present delivery from all their trouble by Christs second coming the spirit of God doth here forewarn them to prepare for a long continuing battel with Antichrist and his followers for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first saith he 2. Not only particular Churches and persons but even the Catholick Church visible the elect only being excepted Matth. 24. 24. may fall away from the purity of the Gospel to dangerous and soul-destroying errours and therefore the Church of Rome can have no ground to plead for the contrary priviledge seeing not only her future apostasie is more than intimate Rom. 11. 20. but also it is here foretold that the Antichristian apostasie shall as a deluge overflow the whole visible Church yea and Rev. 17. 9. that Antichrist shall erect his throne in the City of Rome it self for saith he except there come a falling away first to wit a general apostasie See the Exposition 3. Not only are the saddest events which can befall the Church foreseen by God and powerfully overruled by him for his own glory and the good of his elect Rom. 8. 28. but he hath also in mercy fore-acquainted his Church with them that when they come to pass none should need to stumble at them for therefore it is that the Lord doth here forewarn his Church of this general apostasie except there come a falling away first 4. Even Satans Kingdom and his many instruments under him are most united in their woful work and in uniform means and wayes for carrying on their work of bearing down the Kingdom of Jesus Christ And therefore that union boasted of so much by Papists can be no infallible mark that they are the true Church for though Antichristianism shall be a Kingdom made up of divers members wherein shall be many successive heads in several ages see the exposition yet because of their unity and uniformity in driving on one and the same design they are all called by the name of one man and that man of sin be revealed 5. One step of apostasie from truth