Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	look_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	19	3	8.7348	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96527	The Saints travel to the land of Canaan Wherein is discovered seventeen false rests below the spirituall coming of Christ in the Saints. Together with a brief discovery of what the coming of Christ in the spirit is; who is the alone rest and center of spirits. By R. Wilkinson. A member of the army.	Wilkinson, Robert, member of the Army.	1648 (1648)	Wing W2251B; ESTC R230885	100,825	160

zeal in persecuting the Church Act. 22. 3. and out of conceit he did God good service Rested satisfied We know the Scribes and Pharisees who were the most Zealous for Sabbaths and prayer and other points of Worship yet they make it their Rest but come to our daies and see if we swarme not of the same only seeming professors of God who are very Zealous for the same things and from their very Zeal are made to Rest with high thoughts of their condition But how far this zeal which is most commonly led with more affection then Judgement will bring man into a form of Truth First It will leade man into a whole conformity to what it doth conceive to be truth that it shall according to what it hath serve God in all good conscience Acts 23. 1. and according to the Law to be unblamable and untaxable Then his conversation shall bee very strict in the observation of what the Law requires and hee shall act the same with much vehemency of spirit taking all opportunities for the doing of the same Secondly It will carry the soule on to suffer cheerfully what he may meet withall in this very particular Thirdly he may by Zeal afflict his body sore 1 Co. 13. 3. with fasting and mourning under pretence the one to honour and obey God the other for dishonour brought to God So as he may be almost spent in body and spirit and estate in prosecuting the things of God according to his light Farther hee may out of Zeal come to Gospel precepts and may be Zealous for that light in externall formes which is there required to be obeyed so as he may gather Churches and may suffer much in the conforming to and practising with so much vehemency the Ordinances cōmonly practised by the Churches in the Apostles and our daies so as his Zeal may lead him out to teaching and helping forward that worke studying night and day to finde out matter to furnish himselfe for edification so as for paines in the Churches and for Zeal to observe the severity of those formes and any thing required to bee practised in the said Churches so as now it will have commun●on in Ordinances with none but those of his own stamp judgement being mightily carried forth to judge and pity those who are opposers of that light Now this soul through Zeal may goe thus farre yea to act up to the highest things the Scriptures doe require in matters of visible practise and yet be not at all taught in the Spirit neither got into the life and power of what he doth professe but meerly zealous for shadowes and wants the power so as he is commanded by the form and not the forme by the power dwelling within him Now grant farther That such a soule did act in truth according to this dispensation yet notwithstanding in this particular there were no cause of Rest for nothing visibly seen flowing from the Creature ought to be its Rest but some invisible flowings into the Creature which is being and substance from which and unto which a Soule through Zeale for God acts Also a Creature thus zealous Rests not at home but reformes abroad also beginning with his own family and so goes abroad to others and labours for a reformation and practises the same with much Zeal so as he can not endure the visible appearance of any sinne in himself or others He may help with much Zeal the purging of Cities and Nations of drunkennesse or swearing or any open prophanesse he may be for punishing of evil doers in this particular with much severity and seeming to be much troubled at the neglect of it he may rejoyce much in this practise and may help forward this work in a Nation very much and yet this no Rest at all also he may be zealous yea mad of Zeale for the worship of his God in reference unto others not only taking all opportunities to inform them in the same but using all Coercive powers for confirming them thereunto so as he may be an instrument to bring families and most part of Cities into this outward conformity to the matters of worship and here hee lookes upon an action done of great moment and weight and partly makes this an evidence of his true enjoyment of God by Reason of his zeale for God and the effect thereby produced which is the good of many Now the cause of a Souls thus Resting partly flowes from want of the information in judgement of the great deceite of the heart in putting man by zeal upon such publique actions and then to cause it to Rest and further it conceiving it's Zeale for God and from a principle of God not being acquainted with a Pharisaicall Zeale to be se●n of men or to get a name amongst men or that Zeal which men have but not according to knowledge or the Zeale Paul had before conversion which excels both for vehemency and downrightnesse is the Zeal of many a Professor who are at Rest in our daies Now a poor Creature because he is made to suffer freely and to hazard life and liberty in the prosecution of his Zeale he is much puffed up under these considerations 1. That now this is a suffering with and for Christ and therefore he shall reign with him and enjoy much from him 2. That this is a parting with all for Christ and a great point of self-deniall and so an evidence of a disciple of Christ when indeed the Soule is in himselfe and hath not at all attained that estate to forsake himselfe Therefore let every heart though never so Zealous for God take notice that his heart may deceive him in his Zeale and his affection may blinde his judgement and so it proves blinde zeale Or Secondly Consider that though it be such Zeale as is good and to be approved of in it's dispensation yet not at all to be Rested upon nor to be an evidence of any true enjoyment of God though he pretend God in the fore-front as Jehu did The fifth false Rest THe next Rest of a Soule though I might not have spoken of it because I have partly given it forth yet that things may be the more opened it s the Creatures Righteousnesse or sanctification and outward holinesse wherein both in carriage and words he doth most sweetly in probability savour of high enjoyments of God This is to be a testimony of the same to others though not to himselfe yet notwithstanding his Rest is to him a high evidence of the true and reall possessings of God when alas it is continually a vanishing Rest and evidence and when the Creature stands in need of it it is taking its wings and flying away and proves a miserable comforter in the saddest straits of a Soule But first Let us consider that true holinesse of a person made manifest in actions flowes from the justification of a Soule made manifest in the Spirit so that the truest holinesse or outward sanctification

Rest or evidence of the true enjoyment of God in me which is any way done by or acted from mee but something in the which I am a passive and no active in which must be something of God coming in from God which doth give a testimony of truth to me and reveales the true Rest in me And if I Rest otherwise my Rest is not that which I take it to be So that it 's alone the power or glory of something coming to mee and not the actings of that to God from me which is all the hearts Rest of a Saint But there lyes so much deceit in the heart Jer. 17. 9 10. that the Truth must be known by undeniable testimony in man before the makings of it fotrh can in truth be discerned but as I said before man lyes in darknesse until there be something in the soule which is a cleare light giving the creature to know Truth from truths Testimony for any action of deceit from the heart to God as so pretended will not be without reason and ground yea and Evidence proved to bee true by the heart but still this Light which is God within is that which discovers man to himself yea the winding of deceits in the heart though never so cunningly acted by the heart The Sixt false Rest THe next Rest is deep Humiliations strange castings down of spirit wherein the creature is made to goe through sad torments of spirit and hath gone through a hel in his own Conscience he having passed through many sad dangers and having been ready to Destroy himself or lay violent hands upon himself and daily mourning under the apprehension of these particulars following First Under the apprehension of an angry and revenging God looking upon him as one ready to destroy him and altogether unsatisfied concerning him but expects the speedy execution of vengeance and wrath to be powred down upon him without measure here the soul lyes tortred continually ready to despaire of any hopes of recovery yet trying if he can get such a measure of humiliation as will Answer the greatnesse of the evils committed against God which did procure it Secondly He lyes mourning under the apprehension of a condemning Conscience Looking upon him selfe thus That if his heart Condemne him how much more will God who knoweth all things Thirdly under the view of ●hose grosse evils committed against God wherein sin flowes in apace in the view of it and they are Laid in order before the souls eyes Psalm 50. 21. which are so loathsome to him under this consideration that they have brought him into a condition of misery damnation wrath and slavery for ever unlesse he can get so much deep afflictings of spirit he looks upon himself as altogether uncapable of enjoying mercy Whereupon he fals a mourning and greeving fearing continually destruction until it be got into such an estate of breakings of spirit as it thinks answers the greatnes of its evils when it hath done thus It makes a Rest upon it and counts it an evidence of its acceptance with God not knowing that its heart may deceive it and though it pretends thus to do yet it may be out of fear and for false ends to get salvation and not from love or salvation Revealed to it but only it is broken because it hath brought misery upon it selfe Secondly If it be of God then it is made to see the vanity of its Rest here and to wait for the enjoyment of him alone who can apply a remedy to its wounded spirit but if false it looks upon such deepe humiliation to be a Cure to it or an assured Testimony of the love of God towards it here it 's put upon fasting and starving the body taking revenge upon it self Who hath been a cause of bringing it into this extreame misery untill it hath almost destroyed it's body with pining and afflicting of it When indeed this is n●t a Sacrifice which God much delights in if man Rest in it For to afflict a mans soul and to houl upon h●● Bed and to Fast yet may all this be Hipocriticall and forced from the creature under the notion of destruction without it or a way to attaine grace and favour by it Now true Soul-breakings flowes from Love-meltings The Love Majesty and Glory of God being discovered to man do truly break man so that he doth not Rest upon his brokennesse but upon him who by love brake it The proud Pharisees did exceed in this and many others who made it their Rest and blessed them selves in so doing and said they fasted so often and wept to much and were so and so afflicted when indeed they lived upon it and gloryed and Rested in the same I know though it might be confessed this is the way of God yet it is not to be a Rest to any man For man is not able to judge of any Truth until the Light break in upon him which makes all things manifest and then shall man judge righteous judgement The heart will perswade man he acts from love when he doth not so and he humbles not himselfe to be seen of men or to get salvation or the removall of a condemning conscience or to stop the mouth of conscience or to get a frame of spirit that God might manifest mercy when indeed the heart is altogether it may be deceiving of it and yet not able to judge of the same by reason of that night of darknesse that lyes upon it wherein it is kept in the clouds Now the cause of the creatures Rest in this particular lyes here First In those many deliverances wrought out for him in this condition as if the Children of Israel should have been satisfied and Rested after God had brought them out of the Land of Egypt or that after they were brought through the Red Sea they should have made that their Rest evidencing thereby that God would bring them into the Land of Canaan when though God had delivered them yet afterwards he did destroy them So with many which God hath wrought strangely with in this particular in delivering them from strong temptations and making them to see much of power yet afterwards they do not wait for the enjoyment of the promise but murmur against God and fall at last upon making a God to themselves of the glory of their wisdome and strength and naturall parts and light and they fall down and worship the same as though this was that God who did deliver them and so Rest satisfied believing they are worshipping and enjoying the true God Secondly The creature reasons thus Surely it is God which doth discover sin unto me for if Satan should discover it it were the way to destroy his owne kingdome therefore my sight of sin and my sorrow and mourning for it and those deepe afflictions which I have had for sin must needs be of God and surely it is both love from God and love to God that doth thus