Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	christian_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	58	3	8.8607	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42551	The love-sick spouse, or, The substance of four sermons preached on Canticles 2.5. by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.	1665 (1665)	Wing G436; ESTC R42046	36,957	51

Daughters of Jerusalem thus go tell my beloved if ye find him that I am sick of love Here likewise in the house of Wine she is also sick of love there is an excitation of vehement affections to Christ sometimes through the absence of Christ sometimes in his presence the one is the sickness of hope the other the sickness of desire Hope deferred saith the wise man makes the heart sick and desires not fully satisfied do cause a languishing in the soul when Christ is either wholly withdrawn from the soul or the soul hath but a partial enjoyment of him it causeth this spiritual sickness The want of the thing beloved is a grievous torment to the lover Davids desire of enjoying God was such that it was even his death as it were to want God Pagnin Psal 84.2 it holds forth as Pagnine observeth that Davids soul either extreamly desired the Lord or even died upon the absence of God There is a kind of holy Antiperistasis a strong desire after Christ occasioned through the sense of his absence as we are hottest in seeking after precious things when they are absent and furthest from our enjoyment absence sets love on fire The impression of Christs kisses of his spiritual embracings and of his patient knocking 's at the door of the soul the print of his footsteps the remainders of the smell of his precious oyntments his shadow when he goes out of doors are coals to enflame the soul then is a Christians love to Christ strongest his bowels move the smell of his love like sweet smelling myrrhe is very sweet and piercing The Antients in their Hieroglyphicks painted Love with a Gate or Window in his Stomack wherein were written these two word procul propè afar off and at hand to shew that he that is a lover loveth as well in absence as in presence or rather his love burneth more strongly when he is absent from his beloved As the Harr panteth for the water brooks so my soul panteth for thee O God saith David Psal 42.1 2. My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God No Beast is more thirsty by nature than the Hart is and the Learned observe it is the female kind whose passions are more violent than the Males it is as if one should say no Hart nor Hind can thirst more after waters than his soul did after God and the word panting is to be observed by which David sheweth that he did not only work himself out of breath to enjoy God but also the little breath he had he spent it in breathing after God yea that he might shew his vehement desire he again repeats it My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God Moreover he sheweth his vehement grief for the want of Gods presence My tears have been my meat and drink continually as if he had said such abundance of tears fell from him that he might be said to feed upon them It is an Hell upon earth to be deprived of the presence of God in his Ordinances for what is the chiefest part of Hell but an eternal loss of Gods glorious presence and as the damned shall weep and wail for ever because they shall never enjoy God so the gracious soul will weep and wail as long as he is deprived of God in his Ordinances here upon earth CHAP. XII IS there such a vehement love in some Christians Vse 1 that they are sick of love for Christ then here you may see the cause why Churches at their first plantation and Christians at their first conversion are wont to be raised up to an extraordinary zeal for God it is because Christ hath shed abroad his love into their hearts and love makes them so zealous as they are Indeed carnal men stand wondering at so great a change that is wrought in a Christian that he doth not now run with others to the same excess of riot Many in Jerusalem were astonished at Paul that he in so short a time was so zealous for Christ that a little before was so mad against him that he was now become a Preacher of that saith which before he persecuted what was it that wrought so effectually upon his heart it was the love of Christ The love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.12 there was a strong and secret compulsion upon the spirit of Paul that he could not chuse but be so affectionate toward Christ and his truth and else where he saith We can do nothing against the truth but all for the truth we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard Try the strength of your Love to Jesus Christ Vse 2 there are many that pretend they are greatly in love with Jesus Christ that are but feigned Lovers therefore I shall give you the properties of this vehement love to Christ 1. It is a transcendent love such a man loves Christ above all other things he can look upon all things with Paul as dross and dung in comparison of him he desireth nothing else in comparison of him Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Psalm 73.25 God and be only was the object of his desire whom have I in heaven but thee Is not glory and happiness joy and peace in heaven is there not a Crown of righteousness a Crown of immortality and glory there are not these things desirable Is not the sight of and fellowship with Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect desirable no these are not the things which David desireth in heaven it is God only that he thirsteth for let me have God and I have all things without God and Christ even heaven it self is not heaven so upon earth are there not riches and honours and many other desirable things no saith he there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee Vehement love to Christ drives away a Christians love to other things as the flower of the Vine dissipates Serpents An ancient Lover said that Love had made a Butt of his heart where as soon as it had shot all its arrows it threw it self as an enflamed dart into the bottom of his breast to set him all on fire I have read of another that was so full of love to Christ that when he saw an Epistle or Letter wherein the name of Jesus was not premised it much tormented him saying Saracens had more devotion for Mahomet a man of sin setting his name in the front of their Letters then Christians had for their Redeemer some took delight to ask him many questions From whence comest thou he answered from love Where dwellest thou in love Whom seekest thou after my love he answered them nothing but the word Love You may set bounds and limits to your love to the world to friends to one another Amor nescit reverentiam quod amat amat aliud novit nihil August but who can express the greatness of