Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	lord_n	5,077	5	3.6205	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33970	A modest plea for the Lords Day or rather the summe of the plea made by divines for the Lords Day as the Christian Sabbath, against those who contend for the old Sabbath of the seventh day, in order from the creation / by J.C., D.D.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5327; ESTC R43109	56,915	142

the Earth and deprive their souls of the great advantage which they might have by it and certainly this is no light thing to those who know their Saviours walks in the midest of the golden candlesticks and surely they should be near him where he is To evidence this I perceive many of them wholy absenting themselves from all religious meetings on the Lords day the only solemn time observed by all Christians near them it may be in prudence and to avoid scandal they do not openly labour but neither are they will that day worshiping God If any of them will that day go hear a Sermon I appeal to them whether they go as to a Sabbath duty with that preparation with that faith in the promises to them who keep the Lords Sabbath as they should go who expect a blessing from the Lord of the Sabbath Ah! my brethren is it nothing to you Is it nothing to you to have your places empty at the Lords solemn assemblies to be out when the joint-fighs prayers and tears of Gods people are poured out before the Lord if indeed you could judge none fearing God but your selves it were some plea but I know you have more charity why are you then divided from them why will you then lose the advantage of their prayers and deny them the advantage of your prayers I must profess were there nothing else to keep me off this very one thing would keep me off from that opinion Eccl. 3.10 Woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up Of the gifts and graces of how many precious ministers and the advantage you might have from them do you deprive your selves Have your souls no need of their interpretations of Scriptures their opening Gospel mysteries their powerful exhortations and arguments for holiness their directions for your Christian conversation I beseech you reflect upon your own souls since the time that in zeal to this opinion you divided your selves from the generality of Christians Have your souls prospered as formerly Have you so increased in the knowledge of God Have you had such love and zeal for God have you so grown in any exercise of grace Indeed it is not reasonable for any to think that you should you have not had the means This is not an age in which the Lord worketh in a way of miracles but produceth his great works by means fitted to them Our brethren must be very partiall to themselves and their present teachers if they think them for gifts and graces comparable to those godly and able ministers under who● ministry they formerly sate The Historian sayes of Mr. Thrask that besides a voice he had nothing we know how little judgement Brabourn had in any thing but this one point And how little Mr. Tilham had there needs no further witness then his own book where is vanity and wickedness enough Souls cannot feed upon a meer aiery empty roaring voice it is the word of God they live upon the word of God truly judiciously and faithfully opened and powerfully applied I appeal to our brethrens consciences whether they judge their present teachers so able and fit for this work as the Godly able ministe● of Christ who have wholly given up themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to the search of the mind of God in them I do not speak for every one that hath the confidence to wear a gown But I am sure our brethren know and will acknowledg● that all parts of England are filled with some number or others of able faithful preachers Now certainly it is no small disadvantage to our brethren to deprive themselves of all the gifts and labours of these servants of God while they walk alone erecting teachers to themselves CHAP. VIII That for any to deprive themselves of the liberty God hath indulged us to labour six dayes in each week is not without guilt IT is the Apostles Precept that we should stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free and doubtless we are no more to deprive our selves of that liberty which our great Creator hath indulged us than to throw away the life health or estate with which he hath blessed us It is one thing for us as our free-will offering to set apart one of the dayes which God hath given us for our own occasions for the service of God another thing for us to think our selves obliged to do this and to do it in a pretended Conscience to a command when we have no such command Since it hath pleased God to cast my lot in the Countrey I must profess I have most heartily pitied some of my Brethren baptized into this perswasion to see them in the time of Harvest by their perswasion hindred of a third part of their time from making use of those seasons which the gracious God hath indulged them for gathering in the fruits of the Earth The seventh day of the week they rest being perswaded it is the Lords Sabbath and the next day again either out of conscience to a command or to avoid scandall and danger of the Laws and I have sometimes thus said with my self Alas for my Brethren they are zealously affected they would not else for a private opinion indanger the loss of their Crops which God hath given them how good were this zeal if it were in a good cause but hath God required such things at their hands hath not the Lord said Six dayes thou shalt labour and do all thou hast to do Suppose these men by this devotion to lose their crop or a great part of it or at least to lose much in it c. what satisfaction could they have other than from their own fancy will it in the great day of account appear any ot●er than a self-robbery for a Will-worship either it will prove so or the whole Christian World is mistaken and hath been so from the very time Christ ascended up into Heaven Can my Brethren think That the Spirit that dwells in all Believers and leadeth them into all truth should leave all the Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and come and reveal himself in this singular notion unto them Can our brethren think it is not possible that in this thing they should be mistaken Surely they cannot think but if whole Churches may err and if they can think that all the Churches of God in this thing have for 1600 years been mistaken they may be mistaken Further yet is it not ●robable that our Brethren should be mistaken Our Brethren must confess that the far greater number of Christians are of another mind yea and not only of those who are Christians at large baptized and owning Christ as the Saviour of the World but ●f those who are Christians indeed I mean who have not only imbraced the Doctrine ●f Faith but in whom is the work of Faith ●ith power purifying their hearts and who 〈◊〉 all their conversations

A MODEST PLEA FOR THE LORDS DAY OR RATHER The Summe of the PLEA made by Divines for the Lords Day as the Christian Sabbath AGAINST Those who contend for the Old Sabbath of the Seventh Day in other 〈◊〉 in the Creation By J. C. D. D. Mar. 2.28 The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sa●●●th Acts 6.14 We have heard him say That this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the Customs which Moses delivered us Gal. 4 10. You observe DAYES and Moneths and Times and Years 〈◊〉 11. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed labour in 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed in the Year 1669. To those Christians especially my Neighbours in the County of Norfolk who are zealous for the Observation of the Seventh Day Sabbath Brethren MY heart's desire and prayer to God for you all is that you might be saved For I bear you record that you have a zeal of God only if I make a doubt whether it be according to knowledge or no yea if I tell you I verily believe it is not according to knowledge I am sure your ingeunity is such that you will pardon it to me considering that my own perswasion and practice is differing from you and Charity which alwayes begins at home will not allow me to judge my self to practise upon ignorance though I am also one o● them who but know in part yet 〈◊〉 hope I desire to practise according to my knowledge Which if you will b● so charitable as to suppose I must judg● your zeal not to be according to knowledge And let me tell you as there is no more sacred fire than that of zea● when it hath its due fuel and is exercised in a just and good cause s● there is no more dangerous fire when i● hath a mistaken object The zealou● soul runneth and as the man who runneth if he be in a right way come quicker than another to his journey end but if he be out of his way ● is sooner than another at a further distance from home So it is with th● zealous spirit I must profess let 〈◊〉 person be of what perswasion he will I must have a reverence for him if perceive that he differeth from me ou● of Conscience because he dareth not t● sin against God It is a noble temper to be afraid of sin If a person pretends conscience for a particular opinion and practice and in the mean time be a common drunkard swearer liar blasphemer unclean person one that lives as it were without God in the World making no conscience of reading the Scripture praying bringing up and governing his Family in the nurture and fear of the Lord only pretends conscience as to baptizing of Children keeping the Seventh day Sabbath this man is an hypocrite and dissembles with God and men for there is an uniformity in conscience and it would certainly oblige him to avoid known and confessed sins as much as what he doth fancy is a sin and as much oblige him to all as to any known duty But where I see a Christian walking close with God in the general of his conversation and differing from me in this or that point because he thinks he cannot without sin believe and practise what I do I cannot but love and honour him and be very far from their Religion who think it the best and most Gospel way to cudgel him into my Perswasion A Gaol or a Fire and Faggots never yet cured an erring Conscience Such Brethren though overtaken with a fault are certainly according to the Apostles counsell to be restored in the spirit of meekness and to be dealt with like rational Creatures argued and treated and perswaded out of their mistakes not cudgelled out of them This Brethren hath caused me to send this little Book amongst you so penned as I think you will not judge it to have any thing of bitterness in it and in so small a volume as I cannot despair but that you will bestow the reading of it nor will it ask you long time You will find in it the most of what hath been said by Divines in this case I have contracted their larger Discourses that I might not tire your patience and made what they have said in Latine or in more Scholastick terms plain to you by a free and familiar style The singularity of your dissent doth certainly call to you for the use of all possible means to finde out what indeed is the Truth of God in this point and there cannot be a greater witness against you of your want of sincerity than an unwillingness to read or hear what hath been or is or shall be said against you For though indeed there be some Articles of Faith some Principles of Religion about which it is a Christians wisdom not to admit disputes yet this is not such 't is no Fundamental in Religion that the seventh Day from the Creation is the Sabbath It is none of those points in which you cannot erre without breaking your union with the Head Christ yet is it no light point for it breaks communion with all Churches and that is no light matter And the Scripture sayes we are members of Christ and members one of another Although an erring Conscience obligeth him that is troubled with it to do nothing against it yet certainly he that hath it or hath reason but to suspect he hath it stands highly obliged to use all means to reform it and although the differing complexion of a Christians Conscience may oblige him for a time to walk divided from his Brethren yet he ought not to do it without many thoughts of heart because of his division and while he walks alone in obedience to his Conscience he ought also to sit alone and to keep silence To sit alone pondering with himself what is said on both sides and without prejudice weighing arguments in the ballance of the Sanctuary comparing spiritual things with spiritual And to keep silence both as to the publishing his singular and novel ●●●●●●ns keeping to that excellent 〈◊〉 of the Apostle Rom. 14.22 Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God It is a mad fancy of some who think that every opinion in Religion is worth breaking the Churches peace for and also keeping silence as to inveighing against and reviling others otherwise perswaded and practising For which way went the Spirit of God from the multitudes of their Brethren unto them And besides who knowes not that there is the same distance betwixt their brethren and them and none can usurp such authority but those who will arrogate to themselves infallibility and take away the judgement of discerning which is the very root and basis of the Protestant Religion You know Brethren what Fetters I have upon me as to my publick Ministry If I were free I question whether I by it should have any capacity to serve your souls while you are under this mistake If I may do it with these