Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	great_a	3,686	5	2.7944	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77508	The sacred ordinance of ordination, by imposition of the hands of the presbytery. As it was lately held forth in a sermon preached at the solemn ordination of ministers in the city of Norwich June 11. 1656. / By John Brinsley minister of the Gospel at Great Yarmouth. VVhereunto is also affixed the word of exhortation given to the persons then and there ordained, being usefull to all others of the same tribe. By Nic. Ganning, B.D. minister of the Gospel at Barnham-Broom.	Brinsley, John, 1660-1665.; Ganning, Nicholas, d. 1687.	1656 (1656)	Wing B4726; Thomason E1601_3; ESTC R208903	43,850	99

bee accessary to this Soul-murther If David so earnestly prayed Deliver mee from bloud-guiltinesse O God Psal 51.14 how much more should every good Minister pray against this worst of murthers for if God useth to make such inquisition after bodily murther which is the lesser and so severely punisheth it then much more will hee do it after the other which is the greater even the murther of souls Surely an evil and unfaithful Minister is one of the greatest partakers of other mens sinnes of any rank of men and hath herein the greater account to give unto God so that not without great cause did that good man pray Lord forgive mee my other mens sins And thus yee have the second general Head more briefly dispatched to shew you the great peril and hazzard yee runne if yee do not faithfully discharge such a weighty Calling as this is which yee have undertaken The Third and Last general Head remains yet behind and that is the great reward which yee may expect upon the faithfull discharge of your ministerial-office which though the ungrateful world should deny you yet yee should bee sure to receive it at the hands of God and that both here in this life and hereafter in the life to come And for the faithful Ministers reward here in this life First Yee have the Promise of Gods assistance that hee will bee with you in the work and will help to bear the burthen with you which is the Conclusion of all St. Matthews Gospel in the last verse of it Go ye and teach all Nations c. and loe I am with you alwayes even unto the end of the world Christ says hee will bee with them even unto the end of the world and therefore it must bee meant of all the faithful Ministers of the Gospel while the world shall stand for the Apostles were not to live to the end of the world And as yee have the promise of his assistance to help you forward in the work which many a faithful Minister hath experimentally often found beyond expectation so in the next place ye have the promise of his protection also to uphold and defend you against all the adversaries that yee shall meet withal in your Ministry For hee it is that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand Rev. 1.16 that is the seven Angels of the seven Churches which are the Ministers of them vers 20. Christ holdeth them fast in his right hand against all opposition either of world or Devil against them And hereupon hee so incourageth his Prophet Jeremiah in that very observable place Jer. 1.18 19 Behold I have made thee this day a defenced City and an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole land and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee saith the Lord to de●●●er thee And the like encouragement doth hee give to his Apostle Paul against all the opposition which hee should meet withall in the City of Corinth Act. 18.9.10 Bee not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this City Besides hee hath declared unto you in his word how ill he takes it at the hands of them that shall in any kind wrong you or misuse you yea or that shall not give that respect or esteem which is due unto you Luk. 10.16 Hee that despiseth you despiseth mee and hee that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent mee But for those that harm and injure you and set themselves as enemies against you there is a most formidable place of Scripture for them which I can never read without serious musing on it and gaining encouragement from it in no small degree it is a direful imprecation by way of prediction Deut. 33.11 And of Levi hee said Blesse Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands smite thorough the loins of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again And as he declares how he ill takes it at the hands of such as shall wrong you and disrespect you so on the contrary how well hee takes any kindness done unto you Mat. 10.41 42. Hee that receiveth you receiveth me hee that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple hee shall in no wise loose his reward And this did clearly appear in the good Shunamitish woman who shewed so much kindness to the Prophet Elisha as to provide all things needful for his entertainment as often as hee passed by her house 2 King 4.10 for God rewarded her with a Sonne being childlesse vers 16. and him raised to life again when he was dead vers 35. And though these rewards from without were not yet the sweet inward peace and comfort which ariseth to a mans self out of a consciousnesse of the sincerity of his faithfull discharging of the Ministery this alone were reward enough here below But in the second place the reward which you shall receive hereafter in another world the reward in heaven which remains for every faithful Minister that no doubt is exceeding great and such as may throughly encourage you and prick you forward to the work For though wee do not peremptorily determine with the School-men among the Papists that there are several Aureolae as they call them several distinct Crowns of glory for several ranks of Saints in heaven as one for Apostles another for Prophets another for Martyrs and the like among which they foolishly reckon one for Virgins too yet as we have sufficient ground in Scripture for several degrees of glory in heaven so we have enough there for our encouragement that the faithful Pastors of Gods Church will be more than ordinarily rewarded for their labour in the kingdome of heaven For besides our blessed Saviours Euge in the Gospel Well done thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithfull over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Mat. 25.21 Besides this we have a more expresse place in the Prophesy of Daniel Dan. 12.3 They that bee wise shall shire as the brightnesse of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousnesse as the Starres for ever and ever St. Paul calls the Thessalonians whom he had converted unto God his Crown of rejoycing in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Thes 2.19 and St. Peter tells us of an immarcessibilis gloriae corona a Crown of glory that fadeth not away which shall bee put upon every faithful Pastors head at the last day by Christ himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and chief Shepheard of his flock the Church as yee have it lively and sweetly laid forth 1 Pet. 5.4 The Elders which are

an example of the Beleevers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity and St. Paul to titus Tit. 2.7 In all things shewing thy self a pattern of good works And as well St. Peter as St. Paul 1 Pet. 5.3 Neither 〈◊〉 being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock One thing more there is which I count none of the smallest part of the Ministerial burthen especially in these times of ours and that is the Administration of the Sacraments for though I bee no patron of mixt communions as they call them or a promiscuous reception of all sorts unto the holy Sacrament of the Lords supper whether they bee ignorant or scandalous yet seeing every Minister as hee is called a Minister of the Word and Sacraments so it is his duty to do both mee thinks all the wisdome and discretion that can be should be used by him rather than wholly to fail of executing this main branch of his office Doubtlesse he ought as to be very conscientiously prudent so to be very prudently conscientious in this matter And so much the rather because it hath been alwayes the devils main policy to cast in a bone of contention into the Church of God about this holy Sacrament as appeared first by the Papists Transubstantiation and afterwards by the Lutherans Consubstantiation and now in our days by this so much controverted point of mixt Communions by all which the Church hath been so rent and divided as by nothing more as Lavater in that excellent peece of his Historia Saeramentaria hath evidently shown that old wily Serpent making that to bee the greatest cause of division among Christians which ought to be the greatest cause of union among them as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 10.17 Wee being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread And as it requires so much skill and so much prudence to manage well the function of the Ministery so in the next place is it not a work of much labour too and great pains surely it must be a very laborious work when in Scripture the Ministers of God are compared to Husbandem to builders to harvest-labourers to Shepheards to Watchmen to Souldiers to Nurses and the like To husbandmen and builders yee may see them both in one verse 1 Cor. 3.9 Wee are labourers together with God ye are Gods husbandry yee are Gods building To harvest-Labourers that yee have in the Gospel Mat. 9.38 Pray yee therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest To shepheards Ezek. 34.2 Sonne of man prophesy against the Shepheards of Israel To Watchmen Ezek. 33.7 Sonne of man I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel To Souldiers so St. Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.3 Thou therefore indure hardness as a good souldiers of Jesus Christ To Nurses so hee speaks of himself 1 Thes 2.7 We were gentle among you even as a Nurse cherisheth her children All which are no small laborious works And in the last place as for the dangers that attend this weighty calling of the Ministery and the enemies they have to grapple with they are very many and great for there is no kinde of men whatsoever that have more opposition usually against them than the faithfull Ministers of the Word they are the very Mark at which both the Devil and the world do especially aim indeed both Devil and world do strike at all good men at all that carry the Image of God about them but most especially at the faithfull Dispensers of Gods word their greatest rage have been always against them they know full well that to bee true of all faithful Pastors which was prophesyed of Christ the chief Shepheard Zach. 13.17 Smite the Shepheard and the sheep shall be scattered First The Devil hee rageth against the Ministers of God above all other men because hee knows they give the greatest blow to him and are the greatest pullers down of his Kingdome and therefore yee shall find him standing at the very elbow of Ioshua the high priest to resist him when hee went about so good a work as the rebuilding of the Temple Zach. 3.1 c. And yee know our Saviour told St. Peter that the Devil had a mind to winnow him as Wheat and not him only but the rest of the twelve Apostles for so the words run in the plural number Luk. 22.31 Simon Simon Behold Satan hath desired to have you that hee may sift you as wheat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the other Apostle St. Paul too who was none of the twelves hee tells us of a messenger of Satan to buffet him 2 Cor. 12.7 and more expresly that hee was hindred by him more than once from comming to preach to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2.18 Nay yee know hee was not afraid to se● upon Christ himself who was the great Prophet of his Church and the Prince of Pastors for hee was no sooner baptized and initiated into his prophetical office by a voyce from heaven saying This is my beloved Son hear him but presently hee was led up into the wilderness to bee tempted of the devil Mat. 4.1 Thus you see how the Devils greatest malice is always against the faithful Ministers of the word because it makes his Kingdome to fall down according to that saying of our Saviour to his seventy Disciples whom he sent abroad to preach I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven Luk. 10.18 down falls he when the word is powerfully preached as iudicious Calvin hath very excellently expounded that place And as Gods Prophets and Ministers have the Devil most raging against them so doth the world most rage against them too the men of the world set themselves against them on all hands That it was so in the time of the Old Prophets yee have it out of Christs own mouth Mat. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee Yea St. Stephen tells them which of the Prophets have not your Father persecuted Act. 7.52 And so it was with the Apostles afterward and other Pastors and Teachers of the Evangelical Church as well as of the Jewish the world have always been about their ears according as St. Paul tells us what fightings hee had with them 2 Cor. 7.5 and therefore he bi●s Tymothy in the name of all Gospel Ministers Fight the good fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 And the reason of it is the very same which our Saviour gives why the world so extreamly hated him Joh. 7.7 The world cannot hate you saith hee to his kindred but me it haterh because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil That is the reason then why the world so hated him and all his faithful Ministers since it is because they reprove vice in them men cannot indure to bee told of their faults They hate him that rebuketh in the gate Amos