Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	father_n	love_n	love_v	2,869	5	6.9733	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58143	Light sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart This is to go abroad among all people who are honest-hearted, especially amongst the inhabitants in Fourns Fells, in Lancashire, and among all who have known me after the flesh, that all honest people may see what I was in profession, and also what I now am by the grace of God. From him which hath come through great tribulations, who hath even left all for Christ, and hath not whereon to lay his head, but is forsaken of father and of mother, and of kinred also, even for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God, whom the world calls, Thomas Rawlinson.	Rawlinson, Thomas.	1657 (1657)	Wing R369; ESTC R220567	29,951	42

from amongst the Sons of men to bear his Name among the Heathen in truth and righteousness according to my measure who hath given me life in the blood of the everlasting Covenant of Light and Peace who hath pluckt my Feet out of the myre and clay and hath set them in a plain Way that I may for ever walk in the Light of the Lord where no occasion of stumbling is But now Friends Where is all your love ye had towards me Is it all lost and gone Doe ye not love the World and few the things of Jesus Christ for they that love the World hath not the love of God in them And since it pleased God to reveal his Son in me who hath chosen me and called me by his grace out from my Fathers House from my Kinred also do not even many of you hate me without a cause and even scorns me and even wags your heads at me and gazes upon me and saith Lo this is he and some sayes that they pitty me and are sorry for me that I should choose a Way that is so contemptible and despised amongst men Friends To the Light of Christ in all your consciences I speak What evil have I done since I owned Christ Jesus my everlasting Light to be my Teacher whereof I may be ashamed Convince me Is it an unrighteous thing with you to choose to follow that which is good in the sight of God and of all honest men even to follovv after righteousness and truth and to turn from darkness unto the light and from the power of Satan unto God And vvas not the Way of God alvvaies despised and rejected of men even Christ Jesus the Light the Way the Truth and the Life Have ye never read that the Stone vvhich the Builders rejected and despised that the same is become the Head of the corner A man of sorrovvs despised and rejected of men and how that Herod and his mighty men of VVar set him at nought So it is possible that that which is highly esteemed amongst men may be abomination in the sight of God and that which is chiefly despised amongst men and set at nought with them may be chiefly owned and highly estemed with God and precious For my wayes are not as your wayes neither are your wayes as my wayes saith the Lord So it is plain That whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution and must be hated of all men For whosoever departs from iniquity makes himself a prey to the Heathen and becomes a reproach and a by-word among the people for righteousness sake So ye that say ye pitty me and are sorry for me this I say Be not troubled for me but pitty your selves your children so weep not for me because my Father according to the flesh hath shut his doors against me who hath despised and forsaken his ovvn child contrary to nature as one not worthy to inhabit under his roof who may be ashamed of his profession a hard hearted man even without natural affections who hath exceeded the Heathen vvho knovv not God in his rage and cruelty I pray God that it may not be laid to his charge For my part I am vvilling to suffer the loss of all things if the will of God be so rather then to turn from the righteous vvay of the Lord my God choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season now when I am come to years And now if God should even deal with him who is my natural Father according as he hath dealt with me as to shut him out of his Kingdom for ever vvere it not just and equal but far be it from me to desire any mans destruction but rather desires that the thoughts of his heart may be forgiven him that he might come to repentance but truly this I know from the Lord that if he come not to repentance that vvhat he hath done against me he shall find it heavy in the dreadful day of the Lords Vengeance when he comes to revvard him according unto his VVorks Truly when I think of this my soul even mourns and vveeps for him vvho now Dives-like is feeding upon his many dishes and hath forgotten God that made him for I told him before that he put me from him That I was willing to abide with him and to serve him faithfully as it becomes a Son to honor his Father and said that it was fitting for him to suffer me to stay with him in his House until such times as he could find any unfaithfulness in me in what things as he should please to commit unto my care and then he might after that he could convince me of unfaithfulness have some ground of cause why he would put me from him but to put me away without cause for a thing of nought this is a thing altogether unjust contrary to all reason and equity And as for any part of disobedience on my part towards him I know of none unless refusing to follow after the Priests as he would have had me and I told him that I could not find any profit by them and why would he therefore have me to follow after a people that cannot profit For God hath said That they shall not profit the people at all And this shall all people find true by woful experience That they shall never profit by them while they follow them for I would as gladly have profited by them as any if it had been possible but the Priests being a covetous wicked lying people a generation of Vipers who never was sent of God how should they therefore profit the people at all as by the Scriptures of truth I can prove them to be lyars and deceivers all out of the Doctrine of Christ and of the Apostles and it is not requisite that we should follow lyars and deceivers and blind guides so I could not but turn from them when I saw their wickedness and lying against God and so in this thing it was better for me to obey God rather then my parents according to the flesh it being a matter of conscience towards God and it had been but fitting I should have had my liberty of conscience towards God to worship but my natural Father would not suffer me to have this liberty but hath shut his doors against me and hath put me from him upon this account For not following the Priests any longer So hath he not even hated me without cause when as both before he put me away and since I have proved the Priests to be lyars and deceivers according to the Scriptures therefore hath he not herein exceeded the Heathen for a hard-hearted man against his own child let all honest men judge for the very first day I went unto a meeting of the people of God the same day at night I returned again unto my Fathers House and the doors was shut against

me and then I called unto my Brother William and bad him let me into the House and he told me that he durst not let me into the House I asked him Why He said That his Father had sent all his children and servants to bed that he went throughout all the House himself to see that all the doors was locked and bolted against me and did charge them all that if I did come not any of them to let me into the House if they did any of them he said that he would turn them also out of the doors with me So William told me these things and that he durst not let me into the House so unto this day I remain a sufferer for righteousness sake and truly I believe that I should not have put pen to paper in reference as to all my sufferings from my natural Father had I not heard how he hath reported it that I ran from him and the like So for the right informing all peoples understandings as to the truth of this matter I have briefly in few Words declared something of what hath been done by him towards me and of what Words passed between us but I might have intimated much more of his rage and cruelty sore usuage of me but that I am against laying open nakedness and have onely cleared my own innocency as touching false reports of running from my Fathers House and the like as also his own Family and others can witness against him to the contrary for me if they wil but testifie So let him consider and look back and see what he hath done against the innocent that seeks not his own who seeketh no revenge but suffereth all things endureth all things and envieth not but in the peace which the World cannot give nor take away rests satisfied in his Fathers love from above and so refers his cause unto him that seeth in secret who rewardeth openly and taketh vengeance For vengeance is mine saith the Lord So I have boldness towards God in all my sufferings and tribulations yea verily I have the answer of a good conscience towards God and man herein Gods Witness in me even the Spirit of truth which bears witness to my spirit that I suffer for well doing and who shall then condemn me And because I cannot for conscience-sake worship the beast nor follow the blind guides any longer I am persecuted and forsaken of Father and Mother and of Brethren and Sisters and of Kinred too and these things have they done unto me that the Scriptures might be fulfilled according to Christs Words who said Ye shall be hated of all men for my sake and marvel not if the World hate you for it hated me before it hated you if ye were of the World the World would love you for the World loves its own but because I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you because ye are not of the world even as I am not of the world said Christ to them that followed him in the regeneration who turned people from the darkness to the Light Christ And he that forsaketh not Father and Mother Brethren and Sisters Husband Wife or children and his own life too for my sake and the Gospel said Christ he cannot be my disciple and he that taketh not up his Cross and followeth not after me he is not worthy of me but every one that hath left Father or Mother Brethren or Sisters Husband Wife or Children or House or Lands for my Names sake and the ●ospel let him rejoice that he is counted worthy to suffer it said the Lord Jesus Christ for he shall not lose his reward but shall receive an hundred-fold in this life and in the world to come everlasting life So it is evident That whosoever will ●ive godly in Christ Jesus must suffer For he that departs from iniquity makes himself a prey to the wicked and to the unrighteous and sinners So Friends think it not strange I run not with you to the same excess of riot into all uncleanness and filthiness and sorrow not for me for the sorrow of the World works death so speak not evil of the things ye know not least ye speak evil against God and though I am counted as the off-scouring of all things unto this day and hath not whereon to lay my head being forsaken of Father and of Mother and counted as one not worthy to live nor to inhabit under them who could not have so much as a servants place under them for I told my Father before he put me from him That I was willing to abide with him and to serve him faithfully and to labour with my hands in the thing that is good yet would he not suffer me to inhabit under him but in all this what evil have I done So I have comfort towards God notwithstanding all his cruel usuage of me and though Father and Mother hath forsaken me yet the Lord hath not forsaken me neither left me comfortless but hath been with me in all my afflictions to support me and though they through the hardness of their hearts hath had no pitty on me but I was even cast out for righteousness sake as though I had been some great transgressor Where are my Accusers If I have done evil let them bear witness of the evil but if well for cleaving unto the Lord why are they so offended in me I could even desire that the Lord would not reward them as they have rewarded me who are even without natural affections and without any pitty towards me yet the Lord hath had pitty because his mercies fails not who in his favour hath redeemed me and hath had compassion when no eye pittyed for he hath said it Thou hadst a little strength and hast trusted in me therefore I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Thou hast hated iniquity and loved righteousness therefore walk before me and be thou perfect and I will help thee I will be with thee and go before thee all the Way that thou shalt go So in the Arms of his everlasting Love doth the Lord carry me and in his hand doth he hide me that so in the pure love of God I might remain under the shadow of his Wings for evermore and in his Name to trust which is a strong Tower for the righteous to flye unto for God hath given me an entrance into the eternal inheritance with the Saints in light Surely I have made a good choice blessed be the Name of the Lord for evermore who hath put it into my heart as to choose the good Way and the fear of the Lord wherein dwelleth righteousness So I am perswaded in my heart to cleave unto the Lord my God with my whole heart that the Lamb of God I may follow wheresoever he goes though I dye with him bearing his reproach for through Christ that strengthens me I am more then a Conqueror and have in measure conquered Death