Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	great_a	part_n	2,184	5	4.0120	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95981	The purifying of vnclean hearts and hands: opened in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their solemne fast, January 28. 1645. in Margarets Westminster. / By Richard Vines, one of the Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the House of Commons.	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.	1646 (1646)	Wing V565; Thomason E319_12; ESTC R200558	18,186	35

but believe it when men are aloft and high and may more safelyer be dealt withall by stroaking then by the spurre then it is somewhat to come nigh the heels of truth for it may haply strike out his teeth 2. This doublemindednesse is a division of the heart from God 1. It is divided between the promises of God and the difficulties opposite when a man laies his dead body and the dead womb of Sara in the skales against the promise of having Isaac this is sense fighting against faith 2. Between conscience and lust conscience dictates lust bypasses the inferiour appetite mutinies against the superiour light and leades it captive video melior a probòque deteriora sequor 3. Between Religion and policy and then Religion commonly goes by the worse Jeroboam and the Kings of Israel to comply with their politick respects set up and continued a self-devised worship 4. Between God and the world or God and our own ends as they here in the Text when we make God a meer servant to our selves and move upon a private center of our own the heart is cunning and subtile in squinting towards its own ends visibly we will be for God under hand we seek our selves so the planets in their daily motion from East to West move as the fixed starres but they have another motion of their own which is creepingly by stealth and more unperceivable then the other Vse For the use of this point let me turne the words of the Text once more upon you by way of exhortation Parify your hearts ye double-minded cast out those dividing lusts policies ends which draw you away from God and pluck off those false byasses of self-interest and self-seeking which cause you to wheel off from the true mark or scope of all your desires and endeavours you will be found faulty if your hearts be divided Hos 10. 2. simplicity of heart is of great account with God there is asinina simplicitas columbina the simplicity of the asse and of the dove the former is a defect in the understanding the later is the grace of an honest heart and this sure is that which is of esteem with God In matters of judgement and justice between man and man you are to have two eyes to look both waies but as they that take aim shut one of their eyes lest the sight should be distracted so in your aims and ends your eye is to be single in intending God and not self let Christ increase though you decrease The greatest matter above-board and which all mens expectations and mouthes are full of is the setling of Religion and of the Church Religion is rerum-publicarum quoddam quasi coagulum that which caements Common-wealths together Cunaeus lib ● cap. 15. though now it be made the ball of contention and the great divider of us into parties we divide it and are divided being farre more then double-minded thereabout Oh that God was first set into possession of his right and that his Tabernacle was pitcht before any of the lots for our own liberties or interests were drawn This was the oath that David swore in his afflictions Psal 132. 2 3 He sware unto the Lord and vowed unto the mighty God of Iacob Surely I will not come unto the Tabernacle of mine house nor goe up into my bed I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eye-lids untill I finde out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Iacob and this is the first Article in our vow and Covenant What the reall impediments are doth not fall within my way but the self-interests are to be searched out Not yet say some and their reason is the same with that of the common sort of people against inclosures in former times If every mans owne should be inclosed they should lose their freedom of common and that liberty they usurped all the field over or as others hope that after we have turned round awhile we may haply returne to the same posture we were in before and having lost our way in the mist may come back again to the same place whence we set out at first If any say others let it be a George on horse-back that stands at door with a wooden dagger but keeps no body from going in the theef passes under his nose into the house as well as the true-man Not this say some of those that are toward the law for then haply many contentions might be quencht at the bottom of the chimney before they flame out at the top and such may be the want of grist as it may tend much to the hinderance of their mill Nothing that 's one say the Libertines for we have gon loose so long that now we cannot goe strait laced It s irksome to wilde birds to be coopt up in a cage under discipline Those that have been such proficients in the school of liberty in a few years as to commence teachers and preachers of the Word or have grown to be such illuminates as they pretend will no more rejoyce in or accept of a Government which may degrade them or resolve them into the first matter or elements of their composition then Souldiers of fortune as they are called can rejoyce in a peace concluded and setled There might be named many other such like ends and interests which carry stroke with men and are the causes of our divisions which would in great part be quenched if the game was plaid on all hands by conscience and singlenes of heart let us therefore search out those self-respects which lie close in us that we may finde the head of that Nilus which thus overflowes the banks That double-mindednes which keeps us at distance from God doth also keep us at distance from one another and therefore that we may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 2. of one accord I doe for my own part conceive it much conducing that whatsoever touching the settlement of the Church shall passe your hands may in the main parts thereof goe forth into the world seconded with the reasons and grounds of it for doubtles the reason which induced you to set the stamp of authority upon it will avail much to make it passe currently with others You know the Gorgons head which struck all men dumb in former times The Church the Church is not likely to have the same operation now in this seeing and searching age though men will willingly be subjects to your authority yet also as they are men they will be slaves to reason There is in your hands already Renowned and Honourable something which was printed by your appointment for your satisfaction in one main proposition which if it might see the publike light might give light to many who are yet in a cloud or mist So much for this point There is yet a second arising from these words Purify your hearts ye double-minded And that is A double-minded man through the uncleannes of his heart Doct. 2. keeps at distance from God and God keeps at distance from him He that is byassed with some predominant lust cannot close with God sincerely universally neither will God impart himself to such a man For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord Iames 1. 7. would any of you settle an acquaintance or friendship with a known Vertumnus that will be a parasite at one time and a Iud●s at another God is choice of his friends he owns not such as serve their lusts and are in heart divided from him I have no time left me for this point as neither for the consideration of both parts of this Text in connexion together clean hands and pure hearts nor lastly for the consideration of them both with reference to our drawing nigh to God and his drawing nigh to us wherein I might have shewen you how communion with God and the power of godlines are linked together Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded FINIS