Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	holy_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	69	3	8.5406	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36329	Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life, in and after a time of great mortality, by a wasting plague (anno 1665) answered in XIII directions / by Tho. Doolitel.	Doolittle, Thomas, 1632?-1707.	1666 (1666)	Wing D1895; ESTC R35664	157,743	310

perform thy promise unto God when thou canst never break it but when God is looking on 10. Keep a lively and a tender conscience and diligently hearken to its admonitions that thou keep thy purpose cominations while thou art purposing to come short of thy purpose and accusations afterwards if thy conscience is not faithful unto thee thou wilt be false unto thy promise and fail of thy purpose but if it be do not choak the voice of conscience for it is thy monitor and remembrancer to put thee in minde of the bond ●nd obligation that lies upon thee to a holy life by virtue of thy own resolutions and vows in time of great mortality 11. Make a prudent choise of some wise and holy Christian for thy most intimate associate One that knows thy ways and practise most that is most acquainted with the manner of thy life and hath most occasion to be most in thy company supposing him to be faithful prudent pious tell him what hath been the purpose of thy heart when the terrors of the Lord were upon thee not onely against sin in general or in respect of holiness in general but what was the purpose of thy soul and the resolution of thy heart against this sin if it be convenient in particular which thou hast been most prone unto and the particular duty thou hast resolved to be constant and diligent in which thou hast found thy heart most backward to and engage him as he loves thy soul and the promoting of the work of God in thy heart that he will carefully observe thee and if he discern thee to be backward to thy duty that he would admonish thee if forward to thy sin that he would reprove thee and in all deal faithfully with thee this would be an exceeding help to perform our promises and purposes of holy living and such a friend as this is to be prized above his weight in gold and such a friend as this is better than a brother if you finde him let him not go 12. Seriously consider and work upon your heart till you feel your soul affected with it that Gods purposes concerning you and your good and eternal peace is the same at one time as at another and he performes all his promises which he maketh unto you God doth not one time purpose for to save you and another time purpose to condemn you and why should you then be unconstant in your purposes towards God one time to purpose that you will serve him more and glorifie him more and at another time be careless to order your life according to the intention of your heart When you finde your hearts begin to slink and goe from the purpose and promise that you have made press your self with affecting thoughts of the Immutability of Gods purposes to you and this might help you to constancy in your purposes towards God 13. Steel your heart with an holy courage against all oppositions in your way of performance Take heed of slavish fears which enfeeble your resolutions and put a stop in the way of an holy life you have resolved upon fear of danger and of death made you to resolve to keep close to God and yet your fear of death and fear of danger for holiness sake will hinder your living up to those Purposes and Resolutions Fear of death natural and from God was the occasion of your resolving to practise an holy life but fears of death violent and from men will be the cause of your breach of promise so to doe Therefore resolve to live up to your Resolutions though loss of Estate Liberty or Life should attend you for so doing 14. Fill your heart with an holy Zeal for Gods glory and if you be zealous for the glory of God you will be couragious against all Impediments and Obstructions of an holy conversation Courage is opposed to slavish Fears and Zeal is opposed to Lukewarmness And Lukewarmness is inconsistent with the practice you have resolved upon You have purposed to pray more fervently than you were wont to do but if your heart be as lukewarm in Religion you cannot do it you have purposed to lay out your self more for the good of souls to endeavour to help others in their way to heaven but if you be as lukewarm as before you cannot do more than you did before But if your heart be enflamed with zeal for God more than before you will perform all your Religious undertakings with more life than before you will pray with more life and preach with more life and speak to men about the things of God and another world than you did before and this is the performance of your Purpose 15. Be much in daily Reflexions whether you live up to your Resolutions or no. Review your life every night reflect upon your Duties and the manner of performance of them Survey at night before you sleep the actions of the day whether they have been according to the Rule of Gods Word what temptations did assault you and how you did resist them what corruptions did rise in your heart and how you did subdue them what Ordinances of God you have sate under and how you did improve them what Talents God hath entrusted you with and how you have employed them what company you have been in and how you did behave your self If you do not call your self frequently to account you will live below your Purposes and not perceive it 16. Be often renewing your Purposes and Resolutions for an holy life Frequent acts do beget and strengthen habits Actually renew your Purpose to pray to God to walk circumspectly to discourse of the things of God and it will at length be habitual to you so to do If you finde upon reflection and self-examination that your Purposes are weakened and your heart draws back from that pitch of holiness you did intend to labour after binde your heart thereto by the renewal of your Purposes If you finde you have broken your Resolutions do not resolve to continue so to do but repair them If the Mariner be driven back by windes and storms yet he keeps and renews his purpose of sailing unto his intended Harbour If a Traveller fall in his Journey he gets up and resolves to hold on his way 17. Presse your heart with the evils of coming short and with the benefits of living up unto your Resolutions The evils of this I shall speak to in the third general Head that follows next in order The Benefits of keeping the purpose of your heart are many and great Your sins will not be so many your sins will not be so strong for Resolutions against sin that are firmly made and carefully kept do exceedingly weaken sin and if you should sometime sin your sin will not be so great when God doth see you keep the firm purpose of your heart against it though sometimes you are overborn and bowed down yea

believing thoughts of this when the Plague is over will have some special influence upon thee to make thee endeavour to do according to the purpose of thy heart in dying times 4. Consider Holiness is as pleasing unto God at one time as another and if God was pleased with thy purpose it will be more pleasing if thou proceed unto performance The moving reason of your purpose in the time of your distress was that you judged it pleasing unto God and would you please God at one time by purposing and displease him at another by non-performance Would you please God at one time by resolving to reform and displease him at another by nonreformation Sin and holiness is the same in the eyes of God at all times but it seems it is not so in thine if sometime thou dost purpose to forsake sin and at another dost willingly commit it if sometime thou approvest holiness and p●●●osest to follow after it but at another time thou art remiss in thy pursuit 5. Work this upon thy heart that sin is as destructive to thy soul and pre●udicial to thy peace and comfort at one time as another Though sometime the circumstance of time might aggravate a mans sin and make it more hainous as a man to be drunk upon the Lords day yet sin committed at any time is damnable and sin loved at any time is damnable though sometime we feel the effects of sin in sickness on our bodies and terrors and fears upon our consciences and then have greater and more affecting apprehensions of the evil of it yet you can at no time when you have your perfect health lay sin in your bosom but it may sting you unto death In your sickness you thought that sin would undo you that your evil actions would certainly damne you therefore you did resolve against it think so still and let those thoughts abide upon your heart and they will carry you in the strength of Christ to live as you did purpose 6. Work this upon your heart that holiness in act and a godly life in act will be more sweet unto your soul than it was onely in your purpose And that a holy life should be esteemed by you at one time as well as another because it will be as sweet and profitable to you at one time as another if you thought it would be for your good to purpose holiness and to resolve to live to God and this did something quiet your heart if you had dyed that God had given you a real and unfeigned resolution and fixed purpose of heart to lead as you could with utmost diligence a Gospel conversation how much more will it be a comfort to your heart to see your purposes end in performances and your resolutions come unto a real thorough continued Reformation Get the same thoughts of holiness in time of safety as you had in time of danger and this will help you to live holily as well as to purpose so to do 7 Keep upon your heart a constant daily sense of your own mortality and of your nearness to another world What is the reason that men under sickness are more apt to purpose to forsake sin and to promise to mend and to reform than in time of health but because they have greater apprehensions of death in its nearer approaches unto them and things as neer do more affect than things apprehended as further off and was it not the thoughts of the nearness of death and your daily danger of it that did quicken you to resolve against sin and for God and to winde up your resolutions something higher than at other times Why you have reason still to walk in daily expectation of your dissolution though the plague be stayed If the plague be removed out of your habitation yet sin is not removed out of your heart there is the meritorious cause of death still in you and there are natural causes of death still in you and you must as surely dye as if the Plague were raging and you may assoon dye we dye a thousand ways death might be as near to you by some other disease and you may fall by some other disease as so many have done by the Pestilence though you were not one of those that dyed eight thousand in a week yet you may be one of those that dye eight or five hundred in a week Doe not say the bitterness of death is past that now there is no danger do not put far from thee the evil day What if so many do not dye every week as when thou resolvedst to be better yet thou mightest dye every week An Apoplexy or a Feaver or Dropsie might fetcht thee to thy grave who hast through Mercy and Patience escaped death by the Plague think with thy self when thy heart is negligent of thy former purpose When and why was it that I resolved to give my self more to a holy heavenly life When the Plague did come nigh unto my dwelling and because I thought every day I might have dyed Why it is my daily danger if not by the Plague yet by some other disease that will as certainly be the cause of my dissolution as if it were the Plague Thou didst purpose because thou thoughtest death was neer then perform because death is still as near yea it is nearer to thee now then when thou madest this resolution for the more days thou hast lived since the fewer now thou hast to live it was near then but to thee it is nearer now 8. Frequently possess thy heart with serious believing thoughts of judgement to come When men and when thou amongst the rest shall give an account to God of all thoughts purposes promises vows that thou hast made to God to walk before him in an holy life But what account canst thou give to God when thou hast not performed what thou purposedst If it was not good to purpose and to promise to forsake thy sin and live to God Why didst thou purpose If it were Why dost thou not perform If thou fail now thou wilt be self-condemned at the bar of God thy purposes and promises will be brought forth against thee and God will charge thee before all the world with breach of promise unto him 9. Work this upon thy heart that thou walkest daily in the sight and presence of that God that exactly doth observe whether thou art the same in thy practice when thou art well as thou wast in thy purpose when thou wast sick God did see thy purpose and he did hear thy promise made in thy distress and time of fears and his eye is upon thee to observe how thou livest and what thou dost and do men keep their promises made to men as some do from no other principle then because the eyes of men are upon them to observe them and they would not lose their reputation by falsifying of their promise and wilt not thou much more