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	soul_n	time_n	1,787	5	3.7088	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61300	The good masters plea, against the evill servants cavill Discovering the vanity of those men, who judge the service of God to be vaine. Delivered in certaine sermons upon Malachi, 3. 14. Being a taste of the labours of that reverend, faith full, and holy servant of God, Nicholas Stanton, M. of Arts; late preacher of the gospel of Christ, at the parish of Margarets in Ipswich, in Suffolk.	Stanton, Nicholas.	1650 (1650)	Wing S5251; ESTC R222417	42,730	188

THE GOOD MASTERS PLEA AGAINST THE EVILL SERVANTS CAVILL Discovering the vanity of those men who judge the Service of God to be vaine Delivered in certaine Sermons upon MALACHI 3.14 Being a taste of the labours of that reverend faith full and holy servant of God Nicholas Stanton M. of Arts late Preacher of the Gospel of Christ at the Parish of Margarets in Ipswich in Suffolk MALACHI 1.10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doores for nought neither do ye kindle fire on mine Altar for nought LONDON Printed for William Weekely and are to be sold at his shop at Ipswich and Iohn Rothwell at the Signe of the Fountaine and Sunne in Pauls Church-yard 1650. TO The Right Worshipfull the Bayliffes Burgesses with the rest of the inhabitants of the Towne of IPSWICH And in particular to the Authors Christian Auditors Worthy and well-esteemed friends THat generall and good respect which the author of this treatise found amongst you whil'st he was living hath well perswaded us that the reviving of any little piece of his would be very welcome after his death The restoring of a dead man to life 2 King 13.21 by the touch of the Prophet's bones was an extraordinary and indeed no lesse then a miraculous putting forth of the power of God and therefore no sufficient ground for the common preserving much lesse for the superstitious adoring of the bodily reliques of Saints departed Yet we must needs acknowledge that great reviving which many drooping hearts have found and felt by the Spirituall reliques of Gods faithfull servants in workes of this nature as it holds forth a sweet manifestation of the Grace of God going along with the endeavours of his servants so is it no lesse warrant for the preserving and publishing such Posthumes as these whereby the authors being dead Heb. 11.4 doe yet speake and after a sort out-live themselves putting also a kind of new life into their dearest friends who being most deeply affected with their death could have found in their hearts to have said with Thomas if the will of the Lord had beene so Joh. 11.16 let us also goe that we may dye with him I say the resurrection of their labours before hand which did seeme to have been buried with them doth not a little revive their friends Io. 11.23 24. and is next in comfort to the resurrection of their Bodies at the last day 1 Thes 4.13.14 c. or to the assurance of the happy condition of their Soules in the meane time For this cause wee were not a little encouraged to bring this child of light into publike view being well assured that all such as loved the parents will be very glad to see the face of it And if it should happen which is the sad case of many a poor Orphan to meet with hard usage from the hands and tongues of such as use to shew little kindnesse either to the living or to the dead we make no question but that great Lord Protector whose service it plead's for will also plead for it and under him we are bold to commit it to your care and patronage The work it selfe speaks much of the mind and spirit of him that compos'd it and is like the sweet sent of a perfuming Candle which continues a great while after the Candle it selfe is put forth and removed out of the roome It is a work fit for these times wherein the eyes of too mans professors are so dazled with looking up to their priviledges they know not how to looke downe to their duties Heb. 13.2 The author was like Moses a faithfull Servant in the house of God and wee are perswaded his maine designe was to draw Others also from the vassalage of Satan to the service of God Act. 26.18 in which worke Phil. 4.1 God hath crown'd his endeavours with so many seales of his ministery 1 Cor. 9.2 as well amongst your-selves as in other places that if wee should hold our peace Luk. 19.40 many stony hearts converted into flesh and made children of Abraham Mat. 3.9 would speake to the praise of Gods grace in this usefull instrument In the opening and applying of this Scripture hee hath notably discovered the vanity of those men who judge it a vaine thing to serve God It is most true 1 Cor. 15.33 that evill words much more evill principles in the heart doe corrupt good manners The activity or unactivity of men outwardly doth most certainly spring from internall principles most deeply rooted and closely rivetted in their spirits amongst the rest a world of hurt is done by this one common and hurtfull principle in the World it is in vaine to serve God What makes men either so desperatly Active for the worst of Masters or so shamefully unactive for the best but this secret perswasion that commeth not of him Gal. 5.8 that calleth them Now wee know a disease clearly discovered in the cause is in the high-way of cure The wisdome and spirituall skil of this heavenly physitian Pro. 20.27 hath much appeared in this kind who by the candle of the Lord hath made so deep search into the privy Chambers of the Soul and most inward thoughts of men that by the cleare discovery of the guil and self-deceit of their hearts in the service of God they might be throughly convinced of the error of their wayes 1 Cor. 14.25 and so the secrets of their hearts being made manifest they might fall downe on their faces and worship God reporting that God is in his Ordinance of a truth If the communicating these labours may through Gods blessing conduce to that happy end as wee are assured it was the maine ayme of this faithfull Stevvard in preaching of them so we hope it shall be our utmost end in the publishing thereof For this cause Eph. 3.14 we desire to bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and to begge of you that the Authors Plantation 1 Cor. 3.6 may be watered by your Prayers and teares also that God giving the increase his name may have the Glory of all that Service which is done in obedience to his commands and his poore servants may enjoy the comfort of all his precious promises Isa 45.19 who never said to the seed of Iacob seeke ye me in vaine By the grace and in the strength of this God wee are bold to engage our selves 2 Cor. 8.5.4 5. first to the Lord and then unto you by the will of God Your Servants for Jesus sake Matthew Lawrence Robert Stansbye Isaac Basil To the Reader Christian Reader THou shalt finde 1 Sam. 14.18 Absolon having no son to keep his name in remembrance he set up a Pillar this Godly Author whose modesty was far enough of from affectation of Printing as all know that knew him having no naturall issue though spiritually he brought forth many sonnes and daughters unto

had the very best that they had knowing that the better any thing is that they offer to God the greater is the reward that God wil give to them for it For this wil make a soule free for God As David who knowing what a bountiful pay-master the Lord was would not offer him sacrifice 2 Sam. 24.24 of that which should cost him nothing Why just thus doe earnal hearts in doing the Lord service as these people did in offering him sacrifice they bring him the torn blind and lame Yea is there no help but I must doe duties heare pray repent give almes and the like wel then I l'e shift as as wel as I can if I must heare I 'le hear at my leisure when I have little else to doe If I must give it shal be of that which I got by usury bribery or the like If I must pray in my family it shal be the last thing I doe immediately before I goe to bed being half asleep and halfe awake If I must repent I wil doe it when I am ready to dye and goe out of the world when I feel the house crack and it be ready to tumble downe about my eares then wil I seeke out for another habitation and so for other duties This is the practice of carnal hearts thus to turn the Lord off with the worst which is a cleare evidence against them that they Judge his service to be but vaine service Thirdly this truth may be evidenced by their wearinesse in their serving the Lord though in a slighty and formal manner as this people in that place before named are charged with this very thing Malac. 1.13 yee have said what a wearinesse is it and yee have snuffed at it c. And thus are carnal hearts soonest weary though in some regard they have by far the least cause Of all men one would thinke that these people should not be weary of serving the Lord that are at so little paines and cost and so formal therein It might rather be thought that the people of God which doe so put out themselves and spend their spirits in the service of the Lord that they should rather be weary then such as are slighty and formal therein turning the Lord off with lip-labour and bodily exercise And it is true indeed if wearinesse in the service of God did arise from the expence of Spirits then the godly should be sooner weary then those that are carnall but indeed this is not the cause of it but rather a dislike of the service it selfe from an indisposition in the heart being carnal to a duty or service that is of a spirituall nature hence it is that the people of God who love the service of God after such time as they have been much with God in the duties of his service and have both wearyed their bodies and wasted their strength and spirits yet delighting in the Law and Service of God after the innerman are not yet weary of the duty or service it selfe but wish that they had fresh strength and Spirits For it is one thing to be weary in the service of God and another thing to be weary of the service of God The first may befall a gratious heart or child of God but the latter is the property of those that are onely carnall And againe there is much difference betweene that wearisomnesse that ariseth from inabilities to hold out any longer in the duty or service and that which springeth from a dislike of the duty or service it selfe both in the affections from that contrariety that is in the heart being carnal to the duty or service as spiritual as also in the judgement from secret feares and thoughts of losing its labour and so being in vaine The earnal heart is weary of the service of God in this last manner as wel as in the first and that upon this last ground also whereby the truth in hand is evidenced Fourthly it is clearly evidenced that they think the service of God in vaine By those base and hard thoughts which they secretly harbour of such as serve God more and better then themselves this is a thing very commonly found in carnal hearts and who wil serve God a little to be bitter in censuring of them that serve him much those that keep their times and go their pace and are of their Last and straine they can like wel enough But such as exceed them they suspect for too much nicenesse what wil not common Prayers please them but they must have conceived Prayer wil not praying with others and in the family suffice but they must Pray alone and in their closets wil not one Sermon a day content them but they must hear all day long and are not Sermons on the Sunday sufficient but they must run to Sermons and Lectures in the week too c. Thus condemning the generation of the righteous and such as are better then themselves These thoughts and speeches proceed from carnal hearts which conceive in themselves that the service of God is altogether in vaine for if they did really beleeve that it were good and profitable to serve God a little then it would follow even by the rule of common reason that it is much better to serve him more and so still the more the better Take a man which beleeveth that such a worke or Trade is gainefull and profitable though he himselfe cannot work or earne that way by reason of age or infirmities yet wil not hee condemne those that can and doe but wil blesse them and their condition wishing that he were in the same himself Alas saith he I am grown old my sight and strength decayes that my work is gone I can make no earnings but lose my time c. Oh but such or such they are happy for they can work and earne I am glad that others can though J cannot but I would I could work for I know it is profitable worke and wil bring in great advantage to him that labours in it whereas another it may be slights that work and trade and condemnes them of folly that follow it most and all out of ignorance and that because they thinke it to be but labour in vaine Thus it is concerning the service of the Lord and the trade of godlinesse those that are truly godly wil rejoyce that others serve God and can do it better then themselves I am a poore ignorant creature a dwarfe and a nurling and grow very slowly but I am glad to see others grow my Spirit is straitned and bound up but others are large hearted for God and God lets out himselfe to others though he be a stranger to my Soule I am hard hearted and cannot mourn for my own or others sins and for the afflictions of Gods Church and people which I ought to doe but cannot Oh but such or such they can doe these things wel blessed be God I am glad that any