Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	live_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	30	3	8.9659	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

things is not easily lost VIII Then Habitual commission of sin begets contracted Hardness of heart and fearlesness of all Gods Judgements and threatnings and contracted hardness added to natural hardness is a great progress in sinning Thy Conscience is seared thy heart hard as the nether milstone past feeling When Pharaoh hardened his heart his sinning was great Exod. 8.15 Now thou stiffenest thy neck against all admonitions Act. 7.51 and hardenest thy heart against reproofs Prov. 29.1 Now thou actest as if thou wert above controul and if thou couldst wouldest shake off the very Sovereignty of God Exod 5.2 And Pharaoh who was come up to the degree of hardness said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce to let Israel goe I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel goe So hardened Sinners reply to Gods Ministers exhorting them to let their sins and lusts goe saying at least in their hearts Who is the Lord whose Name you use we know not the Lord neither will we let our sins goe nor our pleasures and profits goe Now thou sayest to the Lord Depart from me Job 21.14 My tongue is mine own who is Lord over me Psal 12.4 Now thou gloriest in thy wickedness that is thy shame Philip. 3.19 Thou rejoycest to doe evil Prov. 2.14 and makest a mock of Sin Prov. 14.9 and makest a sport in doing mischief Prov. 10.23 Oh if thou couldest vapour it thus at the day of judgement and make as light of torment as now thou dost of sin if thou couldest brave it out thus before Christ at his comming and Russian like bid defiance to an almighty God and angry judge thy case were not so miserable but thou canst not alas thou canst not doe it Now thou art stout against the Lord Mal. 3.13 But then thou shalt sneake and crouch before him IX Then Judiciall Hardness is added to contracted Hardness thou hast hardned thine own heart and God will harden it also Now when Naturall Contracted and Judicial all meet in one mans heart how hard must it needs be and how great a sinner is this man in the sight of God you read sometime Pharaoh hardned his heart ●●mself Exod. 8.15 and sometimes that God hardned Pharaohs heart also Exod. 10.20 So God giveth men up to their own hearts lusts which is a greater judgement unspeakably greater than all bodily Plagues Read Rom. 1.21 to the end Psal 81.11 12. Rev. 22.11 Isa 6.9.10 Hos 4.14 17. But here conceive of God aright when the Scripture saith God hardneth mens heart it is not to be understood as if God were the author of their sin no more than the Sun can be the efficient cause of darkness for how shall the chiefest good be the authour of the greatest evill For 1. God doth not infuse any wickedness into their hearts 2. Nor doth God tempt them to sin James 1.13 he may try them but not tempt them to sin 3. God commands no man to sin for Gods command would make it no sin as in the case of Abrahams Sacrificing his Son or the Israelites taking the Jewels and Ear-rings of the Egyptians except such things as are intrinsecally evill as are hating of God and blaspheming of God and these things God cannot command as he is said that he cannot lye Tit. 1.2 4. God with greatest severity forbids mens sins he chargeth you upon pain of damnation upon perill of Hell torments that you sin not but commands men to repent and mourne for sin therefore doth forbid them to be hard and stupid under sin 5. Neither doth God co-operate or concurre to the wickedness of their actions though without derogation to Gods honour we may say he doth concurre to their wicked actions For in him all live and move and have their beings Act. 17.28 The action materially considered as it is an action or motion is good and so God is the cause of it but the action formally considered is evill and so God is not the author of it as when you spur a lame Horse you are the cause that the Horse doth move but you are not the cause of his halting 6. But God doth permit and suffer men to harden themselves he doth not give them preventing grace but denieth that which he is not bound to give which would keep off this Hardness from them So God is said to give men over to their own wicked hearts to let them alone and leave them to their lusts Rom. 1.24 26. and to give them over to a Reprobate mind 2 Thes 2.10 11. 12. But if some should say bare Divine permission cannot be the reason why God should be said to harden mens hearts no more than he would be said to steal because he suffereth men so to doe Some therefore adde 7. That Hardness of heart may be considered either as a sin and so God is not the author of it or as a punishment and so it may be from God as the same thing in divers respects might be a sin and a punishment of former sin and a cause of future sinning so the same thing in divers respects might be from God and from the creature as Absaloms Rebellion against the King was an hainous sin as from him yet it was also a punishment of Davids sins 2 Sam. 16.22 But the Scripture asserts two things however 1 That with God dwels no evill and he cannot be the cause of sin and yet 2 expressely saith that the Lord hardned Pharaohs heart Exod. 10.20 Though we know not the manner that doth not lessen the dreadfullness of the judgement but when God doth judicially harden then men are almost ripe in sin and for hell X. When God hath judicially hardned them they let loose the reignes of their lusts and now are fit for any wickedness and stop not at the most abominable and loathsome practises Now they can blaspheme and mock God and deride holiness and act like incarnate Devils when the people in Act. 14.8.11 saw the wonderfull works wrought by the Apostles they said The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men but when we see the most abominable and sordid practises of wicked men might we not say the devills are come up to us in the likeness of men When men are judicially hardened they will commit sins against nature Rom. 1.24 26. c. And could wish there were no God nay now they are when they have given themselves over to work wickedness and God hath given them over too when they say we will be filthy and God say you shall be filthy eager and greedy after sin they weary themselves in committing iniquity and yet are not weary of iniquity and do even scorne at threatnings and mock at judgements 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Men walking after their own lusts say where is the Promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Is 5.19 That