Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	forwardness_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	12	3	8.3767	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39695	The touchstone of sincerity, or, The signs of grace and symptomes of hypocrisie opened in a practical treatise upon Revelations III 17, 18 being the second part of the Saint indeed / by John Flavell ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.; Flavel, John, 1630?-1691. Saint indeed, or, The great work of a Christian opened and pressed.	1698 (1698)	Wing F1202; ESTC R40933	101,310	218

not the upright be unjust to themselves in censuring their own hearts they are bad enough but let us not make them worse than they are but thankfully own and acknowledge the least degrees of grace and integrity in them and possibly our uprightness might be sooner discove●ed to us if in a due composure of spirit we would sit down and attend the true answers of our own hearts to such questio●s as these are Question 1. Do I make the approbation of God or the applause of men the very end and main design of my Religious performances according to 1 Thes. 2. 4 Col. 3. 23. Will the acceptation of my duties with men satisfie me whether God accept my duties and person or not Quest. 2. Is it the reproach and shame that attends sin at present and the danger and misery that will follow it hereafter that restrains me from the Commission of it or is it the fear of God in my soul and the hatred I bear to sin as it is sin according to Psal. 19 12. and Psal. 119. 113. Quest. 3. Can I truly and heartily rejoyce to see Gods work carried on in the world and his glory promoted by other hands though I have no share in the credit and honour of it as Paul did Philip. 1. 18. Quest. 4. Is there no duty in Religion so full of difficulty and self●denyal but I desire to comply with it and is all the holy and good will of God acceptable to my soul though I cannot rise up with like readiness to the performance of all duties according to that pattern Psal. 119. 6. Quest. 5. Am I sincerely resolved to Follow Christ and holiness at all seasons however the aspects of the times may be upon Religion or do I bear my self so warily and covertly as to shun all hazards for Religion having a secret reserve in my heart to launch out no farther than I may return with safety contrary to the practice and re●olution of upright souls Psal. 116 3. Psal. 44. 18 19. Rev. 22. 11. Quest. 6. Do I make no Conscience of committing secret sins or neglecting secret duties or am I conscientious both in the one and other according to the rules and patterns of integrity Matth. 6. 5 6. Psal. 19. 12. A few such Questions solemnly propounded to our own hearts in a calm and serious hour would sound them and discover much of their sincerity towards the Lord. SECT III. ANd as upright hearts are too apt to apply to themselves the threats and miseries of Hypocrites so Hypocrites on the contrary are as apt to catch hold of the promises and priviledges pertaining to believers To detect therefore the soul damning mistakes of such deceived souls O that these following Rules might be studied faithfully applyed to their conviction and recovery Rule 1. It is not enough to clear a man from Hypocrisie that he knows not himself to be an Hypocrite All Hypocrites are not designing hypocrites they deceive themselves as well as others many will say to me in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name c. Matth. 7. 22. Hell will be a meer surprisal to multitudes of Professours a man may live dye in a blind ungrounded confidence of his safe condition and not fear his ruine till he begin to feel it Rule 2. Zeal and forwardness in the cause of God and for the reformation of his worship will not clear a man from the danger of Hypocrisie Iehu was a zealous reformer and yet but a painted Sepulchre In the year 1549. Reformation grew so much in reputation even among the Nobles and Gentry of Germany that many of them caused these five letters V. D. M. I. AE being the initial letters of these words v●rbum domini manet in aeternum i. e. the word of the Lord abideth for ever to be wrought or embroidered or set in plates some upon their Cloaks and others upon the sleeves of their Garments to shew to all the world ●aith my Author that forsaking all Popish Traditions they would now cleave to the pure doctrine and discipline of the eternal word And no doubt they would have been as good as their word if what was embroidered on their cloaks had been engraven on their hearts but come see my zeal marrs all Rule 3. It is no sufficient evidence of a mans own integrity that he hates hypocrisie in another for as one proud man may hate another and he that 's Covetous himself will be apt to censure another for being so Lusts may be contrary to one another as well as all of them contrary to grace so may an hypocrite loath that in another which yet he alloweth in himself nay 't is the policy of some to declaim against the Hypocrisie of others thereby to hide their own Hypocrites are none of the most modest censurers of others Psal. 35. 16. A salt j●st seasoned their meat Rule 4. The meer performance of private duties will not clear a man from Hypocrisie the influence of education or support of reputation or the impulse of a convinced Conscience may induce a man to it and yet all this while his heart may not be carried thither with hungry and thirsty desires after God it is not the matter of any duty that distinguishes the sound and unsound professour but the motives designs and ends of the soul in them Rule 5. The vogue and opinion you have got among Christians of your sincerity will not be sufficient to clear you from the danger of Hypocrisie Christ tells the Angel of Sardis Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead The fall of Hymeneus and Philetus could never have shaken the faith of the Saints as it did had they not had great credit in the Church been men of renown for piety among them Rule 6. Your respects and love to them that are the sincere and upright servants of God will not clear you from the danger of being Hypocrites your selves for the bare loving of a Christian is not Characteristical and evidential of a mans own Christianity except he love him qua talis as he is a Christian or as he belongs to Christ so his sincerity becomes the attractive of thy affection There be a thousand by considerations respects that may kindle a mans love to the Saints besides their integrity SECT IV. WEll then if thou wouldst indeed see the unsoundness of thy own heart propound such heart sounding Questions as these to thy self Quest. 1. Do I engage my heart to approach unto God in the course of my duties or do I go in the round of duties taking no heed to my heart in them if so compare this symptome of thy Hypocrisie with that in 2 King 10. 3. and that Ezek. 33. 31 32. Quest. 2. Am I not swai'd and moved by self-interest and carnal respects in the wayes of Religion the accommodation of some worldly interest or getting a name and reputation of Godliness if so how