Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	break_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	21	3	8.3767	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29533	Two treatises both lately delivered to the Church of God at Great Yarmouth, and now published as useful and seasonable by John Brinsley ...	Brinsley, John, 1600-1665.	1656 (1656)	Wing B4736; ESTC R36519	171,517	320

their lives and conversations that they may he exemplary to others That is that which both Paul and Peter require from them in the places forecited 1 Tim. 4. 12. Tit. 2. 7. 1 Pet. 5. 3. Quest. But wherein should they he so exemplary unto others Answ. In setting forth of this I will not go from the word I have in hand Onely send them to the Stars which I shall propound as patterns to them in those things wherein I would have them to be patterns to others 1. Let them be Examples to others in Purity Such are the Stars pure creatures Not a spot not a blemish to be seen in any of them I mean in the fixed stars True indeed in the Moon there are spots but not so in any of the fixed stars which are most properly the Ministers Embleme They are all pure And such all the Ministers of Christ should labour to be Pure The Priests under the Law must not have a blemish Levit. 22. Patterns of Purity This is one thing wherein Paul would have Timothy to be a Pattern in that place forenamed 1 Tim. 4. 12. Be thou an example of the believers But wherein why among other things in Puritie And again Chap. 5. 22. Keep thy self pure And herein should all the Ministers of Christ be exemplary to others In purity of Conversation keeping themselves unspotted of the world free from the evils of the times and places wherein they live that their lives be not spotted with any scandalous crimes Which if they be they will be like those spots in the Moon obvious to every eye and no small blemish to their holy function 2. As in Purity so in Zeal Stars as they shine so they sparkle Therein differing from the Moon as a Diamond doth from a Christal The one shines but it is but with a pale wan light The other both shines and sparkles And so should it be with the Ministers of Christ Whilest they shine in purity they should sparkle with zeal Such a light was Iohn the Baptist not onely shining but burning John 6. 35. shining with holiness and burning with zeal And such should all the Ministers of God be as pure so zealous That is the thing which the Spirit requires from one of these seven Angels the Minister or Ministers of the Laodicean Church Rev. 3. 19. Be zealous And so should all the Ministers of Christ be zealous for God for his truth for his worship and service zealous against Errours Heresies all kind of doctrinal or practical wickedness Such were Moses and Phineas whose zeal standeth upon record to their eternal honour And such was Paul of whom the story tels us Acts 13. 9. that when he saw Elimas the Sorcerer opposing him as he did not so much his Person as his Doctrine Being filled with the Holy Ghost saith the Text he set his eyes upon him His eyes even sparkled with a holy indignation against him And so when he came to Athens and there saw the City so wholly given to Idolatry his spirit was stirred within him saith the Text Acts 17. 16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exacerbabat spiritus ejus his spirit was sharpned it had an edge set upon it it was so stirred that he could not but break forth into an open and tart reproof And so was it with our blessed Lord and Master the Lord Iesus However in his own personal concernments none more patient that Lamb of God yet in the cause of his father none more zealous The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up It is spoken of Christ Iohn 2. 17. Such was his holy zeal for the service and honour of God his Father that it was as a fire in his Breast continually feeding upon his spirits so busying and taking up his thoughts that it made him even regardless of himself And such should be the zeal of his servants his Ministers Onely let them see that it be a well tempered zeal Not fiery not furious In this do Stars differ from Comets Blazing-stars Both sparkle but the one in a temperate the other in a furious way as if they would set the world on fire Such zeal the Ministers of God must be ware of When Iames and Iohn having had some affront offered them and their Master by the Samaritans wo refused to receive them propound to him this course of proceeding against them wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven to consume them he presently makes answer to them with a Check ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9. 54 55. Giving them to know that their counsel did not suit with their calling neither did it favour of a truly Ministerial spirit which should be a spirit of meekness and gentleness Zealous the Ministers of God may be ought to be But let it be for God and not for themselves And then let their fervour be tempered with a wise and holy discretion Let them sparkle where need is but let it be like Stars not like Blazing-stars Thirdly As in Puritie and Zeale so in Humilitie Hereof the Stars are very proper Emblems as Lapide hints it upon the Text. Which though they be vaste bodyes most of them far bigger then the Earth yet how little doe they seem to be And such should the Ministers of the Gospel be what euer they be for place for partes for gifts yet they should be little in their owne eyes· So was Paul however not Inferiour in place or gifts to any of the Apostles which being thereunto provoked by his emulous Adversaries he sometimes asserts and stands upon 2 Cor. 11. 5. I suppose I was not any whit behind the cheifest of the Apostles And againe in the Chapter following verse 11. he inculcates the same In nothing am I behind the very cheifest Apostles Yet in his owne eyes how low was he Even the least of them So much we may heare him elswhere acknowledging 1 Cor. 15. 9. I am the least of the Apostles Yea the least of Saints So he tels his Ephesians cap. 3. verse 8 Vnto me who am least then the least of all Saints is this grace given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double diminitive Less then the Least i.e. for the least So little was this great Apostle to himself Even as nothing That is his Expression elswhere in that place forenamed 2. Cor. 12 11. In nothing am I behind the very cheifest Apostles though I be nothing Thus whilst he tooke notice of the abundant grace of God to him in bestowing such gifts as he had done upon him yet with all he acknowledgeth his owne nothingness How in and of himself he was nothing nothing without Christ even as the stars are nothing without the Sun of no use good for nothing Such was Paul in his own eyes And he would not seeme over great in the eyes of others It is the reason which he giveth why he did forbeare to speake somewhat of himself which

which deserveth both sighes and tears So much that Instrument which hath this day called us together hath proclaimed to the world And surely so we shall find it if we seriously consider the state of things both abroad and at home Look a broad we may see or hear of that which deserveth to be laid to heart The sad state of our poor persecuted brethren in Piemont whose condition not long since hath been recommended to the needfull charity of this Nation As also that hand of God which hath lyen so heavy upon our neighbours on the other side where the destroying A●gel hath been and yet is at work doing sad executions To which I might add the present state of our brethren in Scotland But we shall not need to go abroad It was that which our Saviour said to the woman of Ierusalem whom he saw out of a feminine temper and some of them happily out of affection unto himself lamenting him going to his Passion Daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your children Luk. 23. 28. And truly the like may be said unto us at this day weep not so much for others as for your selves Such is the state of this nation that if rightly considered it may be conceived to deserve a weeping over which that you may be brought to do let me desire you to approach and take a veivv of it This it was that drew tears from your Saviours eyes viz. his approaching and beholding of Ierusalem When he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it That you may be like affected towards this your native countrey let me give you a sight of it Which I shall do in a three fold prospect desiring you to look upon it these three wayes considering what it was what it is and what unlesse God be pleased graciously to step in by a timous prevention it it is like to be First What it was how happie under that long continued peace which for so many years together it enjoyed to the admiration if not envy of other Nations But again how unhappy under the late Civill Commotions which like a fire breaking forth in our own bowels what sad devastations did it make to the effusion of much precious bloud which is yet so fresh as that the memory of it cannot but deeply affect the hearts of all those who bear any true love to the land of their Nativity Such it hath been Secondly But what is it Here I shall not go upon any private account whether my own or yours which if I should I might draw up a large Catalogue of sins and judgements under which at the present this nation lyes and groans deserving to bewept over But I have a publick one put into my hand That Declaration which hath occasioned this our meeting I find it taking notice of three or four particulars Besides the late Rebukes those I suppose received on the other side of the world where not a little English blood was shed to the no small dishonour of the Nation which hath not been acquainted with such repulses The tares of Division Abominable blasphemies Dreadful appostacies with the Impediments of Settlement and Reformation These are held forth as the just occasions and grounds of this dayes Humiliation And truly if rightly looked upon as we see a reality in every of them so we shall find that there is never a one of them but giveth the people of God to do over this Nation what their blessed Saviour here did over Ierusalem to weep over it First The tares of Division which vvhilest the Husbandmen slept the envious man hath sowen and that so thick as the whole field is over run with them insomuch that they threaten to eat out the heart both of Church and State Divisions of all sorts Divisions both of Heads and Hearts in jugdement and affection in Church and State So as it may novv be said of the people of England as once it vvas of Israel Hosea ● 2. I Their he arts is divided God haing taken away his spirit of unitie and concord from them he hath given them over to Seditions Factions Sects Schismes And is not this a just cause of mourning Such are divisions in the State In or for The divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart Judg. 5. 15. Much more in the Church O what means that noise of Axes and Hammers in the Temple In the building of it there were none of these heard 1 King 6. 7. Surely this is for the breaking down of the carved work thereof at once Psal. 74. 6. Secondly Abominable blasphemies And those not onely the suddain eruptions of prophane and impious tongs by cursing and swearing for which the Prophet saith the land of Israel mourned Jer. 23. 10. But deliberate blasphemies studied and resolved blasphemies Blasphemies against Iesus Christ and against his holy Spirit divesting both of their Divinity denying the satisfaction of Christ blasphemies against Scriptures Ordinances Ministery even spitting in the face all religion And is not this a just ground of mourning The Iews of old never heard a blaspemous word but their manner was to rend their garments 2 King 18. 37. 19. 1. Matth. 26. 65. Act. 14. 14. O what cause have Christians then to rend their hearts at the hearing and seeing of such blaspemies as daily fly abroad among us The like whereunto are not to be found in Rome it self though she be the mother of abominations Revel 17. 5. And hath the name of blasphemy written upon her forehead Rev. 13. 1. 17. 3. Thirdly Dreàdful apostacy and backsliding among many who being like stars fallen from heaven fallen from their Principles into dangerous destructive desperate damnable errours and heresies have not onely forsaken but also persecute that truth and that way which themselves before made profession of and walked in Fourthly And in the last place The hindrances of settlement and reformation in the Church This the people of God in this Nation have desired looked longed for earnestly wrestling with God and man for the obtaining of it And they conceived to have had some return of their prayers in a hopeful beginning of it But now how are all those hopes dashed Reformation being turned to Deformation the wals of Ierusalem being broken down and no Nehemiah as yet undertaking the rebuilding of them And are not these just grounds of mourning A sufficient cause why they who wish well to Ierusalem to the Church of God in this Nation should with their Saviour here weep over it Such is the present state thereof Thirdly Beyond which if it be lawful for us to look what can we see or expect unlesse God in mercy step into us by vvay of a gracious prevention but even Jerusalems fate utter ruine and destruction were there no other but the first of these those many and sad Divisions which are on