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	sin_n	will_n	3,206	5	6.5361	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B09543	The great sin of formality in God's worship: or, The formal worshipper proved a lyar and deceiver. Being the subject of a sermon preacht on the weekly lecture in Boston. / By Joshua Moodey ...	Moodey, Joshua, 1633?-1697.	1691 (1691)	Wing M2522; ESTC W24941	19,180	50

all Grace takes away all occasion of boasting There are some actings of pride in the best to their shame and confusion of face when they reflect thereupon but usually or mostly they are false in their Worship that trust to it and of them it may be said they trust to a Refuge of Lies and under falshood do they hide themselves Isa 28. 15. Because all their Worship is so Were our Services never so good yet if trusted in when we have done them we make a lye an Idol of them and shall find them to be a lye to us much more when there is so much d●ceit attending the best of our doings and so much lameness leanness and deformity in the chiefest of our Sacrifices 3. Hence see also the reason why God is angry oft times at the Prayers of his People viz. because he ha●es lying of which he finds so much in them Psal 80. 4 And hence there is so little success in praying so few Answers of their Prayers Those that are lying Services to God will be lying Services to us also nothing will come of them but Provocation and Punishment We know that God heareth not Sinners Joh. 9. 31. Lyars and Deceiters as they shall not dwell with him Psal 101. 7. so neither shall their Services come before him with Acceptance Let none of us that are conscious to our selves of a great deal of that Guilt in our Services quarrel with God and say Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not Isa 58. 3. That Context will answer them and us and this Text will stop our mouths It 's said Hab. 3. 7. The labour of the Olive fails it is in the Hebrew lies i. e. their labour about the Olive in planting pruning dressing from which they expect some fruit produces nothing nothing comes of it so will the labour of such a Worshipper prove his Prayer was a lye to God and it is very just it should be ●ound a lye to him USE II. Of Conviction Let this Doctrine also be improved unto Conviction and upon due serious and strict Examination Conviction will follow Is there not too too much of this lying Worship to be found among us Here is a great deal of worship and many Worshippers And those Worshippers that seek God daily and approach into his presence frequently are either Regenerate or Unregenerate for we may not believe that all outward Worshippers are inwardly sincere Now as to the Vnregenerate especially if they are so knowingly and continue so contentedly all their worship is a meer lye all their devotion is a meer cheat and so an abomination unto God they do nothing else but beleagure and beset him with lies are always fighting God with their lies and many perhaps the Body of Israel whom the Lord thus treats in the Text were such As to the Regenerate they are not wholly freed from this way of lying there are some Remains of Guile and Hypocrisie which like dead flies are dropping into and corrupting the Oyntment or Incense of their best Performances And for our Conviction let us look back on the particular Instances given in the several parts of Worship besides what further Reflections every diligent curious self-examiner may make upon himself Think with our selves what a Trade of lying we have driven with God how many of those Abominations we have wrought in his sight how many plain lyes we have told him to his face and let us be vile in our own eyes in that we have so often done that which is so vile in his The Lord expects very deep Humiliation for our so great and frequent Dissimulation in his Worship whatever Infirmities God may bear withal in his Children he will not tolerate lying in them dealing falsely in his Worship we must very particularly repent of and reform USE III. Let this serve for a word of solemn Dehortation from this great and frequent sin that is so commonly found in the midst of us Oh all ye VVorshippers of God be perswaded to put away your lying and let your deceit no longer lodg with you Do not come to the House of God to tell him a pack of lies from day to day Trouble him with no more deceitful and vain oblations for shame leave off lying Paul charges them Eph 4. 25. with Col. 3. 9. to put away lying one to another But this Doctrine presents us with a more solemn and necessary charge and that which if taken notice of and complied with would curge the other Lye not to the God of Truth Eli was mistaken when he said to Hannae 1. Sam. 1. 14. How long wilt thou be drunk put away thy Wine But alass that there should be such just cause to say to many VVorshippers in the House of God How long will you tell 〈◊〉 in Gods VVorship put away your deceit from you so inforce this Disswasive Let us consider 1. The Greatness of the sin 2. The ●oreness of the punishment 3. The good of performing true Worship in a right and sincere manner 1. The greatness of the sin 1. It is Lying And I need say no more It 's a sin though so generally practised yet every where spoken against It is a sin which mans corrupt nature is dreadfully addicted to they go astray from the Womb speaking lies Psal 58. 3. And yet it is a sin condemned by the light of nature condemned by the verdict of every mans Conscience that is not blinded or bribed asleep or seared Men hate to be imposed upon with lies and will be more ready to forgive a very great fault than a little one when aggravated with lying It 's reckoned among the seven Abominations that the Lord hates Prov. 6 16. ●0 yea and accounted big enough to make two of the seven if not three of t●em though in a different sense 2. But more than so it 's lying to God and that sin cost Ananias and Sapphird their lives Act. 5 4 c. And it 's no small wonder of Patience and Long-suffering that the Lord makes no more such Examples among the great Troops of lying Worshippers that compass him every day especially considering what a jealous God he is in point of Worship To have a Company of Hypocrites come before God from time to time only to fill his ears with lies must needs be highly provoking and it is very strange that the Angel of the Lord is not sent forth to make them all dead Corpses Spiritual Judgments are doubtless secretly inflicted upon them which are the more dreadful because the less observable 3. It 's rank Atheism nor could men persist in such a course if they did realize the Being of God or had not in their own imaginations framed to themselves a God like themselves According to our sentiments of God in our Hearts so are our Carriages toward him in his Worship Deceitful Worshiping of him speaks us very much deceived in our Conceptions about him 4. It i● extream insolence daring boldness and