Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	lord_n	love_n	love_v	2,989	5	6.7075	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46661	Invisibles, realities, demonstrated in the holy life and triumphant death of Mr. John Janeway, Fellow of King's Collegde in Cambridge. By James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel	Janeway, James, 1636?-1674.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Borset, Samuel.	1674 (1674)	Wing J471; ESTC R217020	74,067	160

carry on the work that he had some hopes was well begun he laboured to build sure and build up that he might be rooted and grounded in the faith stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord. Wherefore he followed him not only with private warnings and frequent patheticall counsels and directions but with letters one of which spoke in this language Another of his Letters of Private warning and Pathetical Counsel YOU live in a place where strict and close walking with God hath few or no examples and most are apt to be 〈◊〉 their company and Gods own children are too apt to forget their first love our hearts are apt to be careless and to neglect our watch we are ready to grow formal in duty or less spiritual and then it may be less frequent and Conscience is put off with some poor excuse and thus Religion withers and one that seemed once a zealot may come to be Laodicean and some that looked once as if they were eminent saints may fall to just nothing It 's too common to have a name to be alive and yet to be dead Read this and tremble lest it should be your case When we are lazy and asleep our adversary is awake when we are sloathful and negligent then he is diligent I consider your age I know where you dwell I am not unacquainted with your temptations Wherefore I cannot but be afraid of you lest by both inward and outward fire the bush be singed Though if God be in it it cannot be burnt up Give me leave to be in some measure fearful of you and jealous over you and to mind you of what you know already Principles of civility will be but as broken reeds to stay our souls upon without those higher principles which are planted in the soul by the working of the spirit of God O remember what meltings sometimes you have had remember how solicitously you did inquire after Christ how earnestly you seemed to ask the way to Zion with your face thitherward Oh take heed of losing those impressions you once had take not up with a sleight work True conversion is a great thing and another kind of business than most of the world take it to be O therefore be not satisfied with some convictions taking them for conversion much less with resting in a formal lifeless profession There is such a thing as being almost a Christian nay as drawing back unto perdition and some that are not far from the kingdom of Heaven may never come there Beware lest you lose the reward the promise is made to him that holdeth fast and holdeth out unto the end and overcometh Labour to forget what is behind and to press forward towards things that are before He that is contented with just grace enough to get to Heaven and escape Hell and desires no more may be sure he hath none at all is far from being made partaker of the divine nature Labour to know what it is To converse with God strive to do every thing as in His presence design Him in all act as one that stands within sight of the Grave and Eternity I say again do what you do as if you were sure God stood by and looked upon you and exactly observed and recorded every thought word and action and you may very well suppose that which cannot be otherwise Let 's awake and fall to our work in good earnest Heaven or Hell are before us and death behind us What do we mean to sleep dulness in Gods service is very uncomfortable and at the best will cost us dear and to be contented with such a frame is a certain symptom of a hypocrite O How will such tremble when God shall call them to give an account of their stewardship and tell them They may no longer be stewards Should they fall sick and the Devil and Conscience fall upon them what inconceivable perplexity would they then be in O live more upon invisibles and let the thoughts of their excellency put life into your performances You must be contented to be laughed at for preciseness and singularity A Christians walking is not with men but with God and he hath great cause to suspect his love to God who doth not delight more in conversing with God and being conformed to Him than in conversing with the world and being conformed to it How can the love of God dwell in that man who liveth without God in the world without both continual vvalking vvith him in his whole conversation and those more peculiar visits of him in prayer meditation spiritual ejaculations and other duties of Religion and the workings of faith love holy desires delight joy and spiritual sorrow in them Think not that our vvalking vvith God cannot consist vvith vvorldly business yes but Religion makes us spiritual in common actions and there is not any action in a mans life in vvhich a man is not to labour to make it a religious act by a looking to the Rule in it and eying of Gods glory and thus he may be said to vvalk vvith God To this vve must indeavour to rise and never be content till vve reach to it and if this seem tedious as to degenerate nature it vvill vve must know that vve have so much of enmity against God still remaining and are under depravation and darkness know not our true happiness Such a soul is sick and it hath lost its taste vvhich doth not perceive an incomparable sweetness in vvalking vvith God without whom all things else under Heaven are gall and bitterness and to be little valued by very true Christian But We are all apt even at the worst to say that we prefer God above all things But we must know that we have very deceitful hearts And those who being inlightned know for vvhat high ends they should act and vvhat a fearful condition even a hazard in our case is these I say will not believe their own hearts without diligent search and good grounds Rest not in any condition in which your security is not founded upon that sure bottom the Lord Jesus Christ Labour to attain to this to love God for himself and to have your heart naturalized suited to spiritual things O for a heart to rejoyce and work righteousness O that we could do the will of God with more activity delight and constancy If we did know more of God we should love him more and then God would still reveal more of Himself to us and then we should see more and more cause to love him and wonder that we love him no more O this this is our happiness To have a fuller sight of God to be wrapped up and filled with the love of Christ O let my soul for ever be thus imployed Lord whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I can desire in comparison of Thee You hear what kind of language he spake and you may easily

Mr. Janeway now begins to cast about how he might best improve what he did already know and turn all his studies into the right chanel grace did not take him off from but made him more diligent and spiritual in his study And now Christ was at the end and bottom of every thing how did he plot and contrive how he might most express his love and thankfulness to him who had brought him out of darkness into his marvellous light to this end he sent up and down packets of divine letters in which he did discourse so substantially and experimentally of the great things of God that it would not at all have unbecome some gray head to have owned what he did write He was not in a little like young Elihu whose words he used to excuse his freedom with persons of years whose souls he did dearly pity He said days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom but there is a spirit in a man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed c. O then how sweet was the favour of his graces He could not but speak the things which he had seen and heard and even invite all the world to taste and see how good the Lord was He began first with his Relations begging and wooing of them to think of their precious and immortal souls and to lay in speedy provisions for a death-bed and eternity O with what compassion did he plead the cause of Christ with their souls what Pathetical expressions did he use what vehement expostulations how frequent how particular in his applications to them O with what gravity and majesty would he speak of the mysteries of the Gospel Read what his language was when he was between eighteen and nineteen years old in a Letter to an antient Minister that he stood related to who at that time walked very heavily His Letter Reverend Sir THere are two things the want of which I have had xperience of in your Family though not in every degree yet in that intenseness of degree wherein they ought to be which are the real power of Godliness and Religion and then that which is the fruit of the former that chearfulness delight spiritual joy and serenety of mind which is to be had in Religion and no where else and that not in Religion in its weakest degrees but in a real vigor power and life and in a more close constant walking with God from a tender sense of the worth of souls especially those of your family and knowing the duty which my relation to it doth lay upon me and having confidence of their will acceptance of it I have undertaken to open my thoughts unto them In most Families in England I fear there is neither the form nor the power of Godliness where there is no fear of God no regard of him no acting under him or in reference to him These are in my opinion twice dead nay not so much as having the dead carcase of Religion objects of pity they are and O how few are there that spend one passionate thought upon them Others there are who some way or other it may be from tradition from good Parents it may be from knowing the fashion of those in their rank it may be from the frequent inculcating of good instructions from Christian Friends or Godly Ministers or some strugling eruptions of Conscience have gotten the outward husk or shell of Religion without any kernel or solidity at all and this generation doth usually trust to this their Religion that it will bring them to a place like a sleeping place in Heaven or keep them out of Hell though they live without God in the World These are poor creatures too making haste to their own destruction and know it not yea thinking that they are in a fair way for Heaven O that there were never a Family to which we are related which gave too sad cause of fear that it were in such a case or neer such a case as this is A third sort of people there are and but few of these neither which have the reality of Religion but yet in much weakness coldness faintnefs dimness and intermission like Nilus's brood above half mud still beginning to have some life in their head a little in their heart but the feet of their affections and actions have little or no motion And where shall we find a Christian that is got any higher than this yea that doth in good earnest strive to get any higher Now there are higher attainments to be reached after there is a having our conversation in Heaven while we are upon Earth neither doth this consist in some weak disconrses about God Heaven and the things of Religion it consists not in the meer praying twice a day and in keeping the Sabbath in an usual manner in its order it consists not in a few thoughts of Religious objects comeing into the mind in a common way and as easily got as lost But true Religion raiseth the soul to longings hungrings and thirstings not without some enjoyments Religion in power is to act for God with strength vigor earnestness intenseness delight cheerfulness serenety and calmness of mind The fruits of the spirit are joy in the Holy Ghost and Peace fear disquiet and terrors are usually the introduction to a better state but they are not of the essentials of Religion yea the contrary frame of spirit is to be striven for To speak yet more plainly and to tell you Honoured Sir what fears and jealousies are with reverence to your self and tender affection to all your family I fear that you your self are subject to too many desponding melancholy thoughts The causes whereof give me leave with submission to guess at The first I think may be your reflecting on your entring upon the ministry without that reverence care holy zeal for God love to Christ and compassion to souls which is required of every one that undertakes that holy office it may be there was rather a respect to your own living in the world than of living to God in the world be it thus be it not as bad or be it worse the remedy is the same These have a wondring power in them which will be felt to be grievous when felt as they are in themselves but continual sorrow and sad thoughts do keep this wound open too long and are not available to the having of it cured Wounds indeed must be first opened that they may be cleansed they must be opened that their filth may be discovered in reference to a purging and healing but no longer than the balm of Gilead is to be applyed that they may be healed And when Christ is made use of aright he leaveth joy and comfort yet a constant

have its proper effect upon us to make us to desire earnestly to be like our beloved When shall we put on his beauty O how lovely should we then look Let us put off that deformity that is upon our Souls which makes us so unlike to Christ yea which makes us loathsome in his Eyes Pride Passions Worldliness are those Soul-deformities which keep Christ at such a distance from us and which hinder his more sweet frequent and intimate converse with us It is only that of Himself which Christ seeth in us which he delighteth in For in Him is the perfection of all Beauty and excellency and whatsoever loveliness is in any thing else comes from him is like him and leads to him Would we know how much we are beloved of him let us see how much we are like him for He cannot but love that which is like himself and if we would be like him we must put on love for God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and god in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. Thirdly If we ought to walk towards one another as members of the same body whereof Christ is the Head what can speak a closer union than commembership No man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it But we do not feel the power of this oneness as we ought to do We are many and where there is division there will be dissention that we may therefore be more one let us be more in putting off our self and going into Christ Here let us look into the loathsomness of our natures whilest off from God which is the cause of all this confusion and if we cannot see its deformity in its self let us see it in reflection in its bitter effects and when we see our own deformity we shall see less cause to love our selves and more cause to love others Let us look upon our oneness in Christ and see if we can thence become one in affections Christ saith I and the children which thou hast given me we have one spiritual Father we are brethren let us love as brethren The cause of this union is our being made partakers of Christs nature and baptized into the same spirit with him and if we have at any time experienced the more lively and full incomes of this spirit of Christ how did it set the heart on fire The soul is then too narrow to contain its own affections how dearly then could we look upon a Saint How did pride and wrath vanish and melt down into meekness humility and love Did we never experience what this meaneth Then let the remembrance of the sweetness of it renew it in us O a life of spiritual love is a life indeed a Heaven upon earth This is a good rule when vve find our selves in a spiritual temper let us examine our selves then and inquire how vve like such a frame Let us remember the Voice of the spirit in us and labour to have our judgment and affections always after so ballanced Fourthly Are vve members of Christ vve do not say vve do not love Christ If vve do indeed love Christ let us love him vvherever vve find Him Christ is in all those that are His. Let us fear offending Christ in his for vvhat is done to them He vvill take as done to himself It vvill be said in that great Day In as much as ye did it unto these ye did it unto me Let us think vvhat vve vvill of it at present the vvorld vvill find this true to their cost And if vve act as in Christ vve shall find our selves as much concerned for him as for our selves and more too Oh the vvrongs that are done to him vve shall reckon done to us If vve are Christs Christs interest vvill be ours and his injuries ours If vve are Christs vve vvill be as fearful of offending of any of his as of vvronging of our selves Christ himself is above the reach of our vvrongs to be touched by them in himself but in his Members he suffers to this very day If then Christ and vve are one and Christ and all his are one let us love Christ in his let us rejoice in Christ in his members let us indeavour to requite Christ in his members let us fear grieving the spirit of Christ in grieving the spirits of any of his dear ones Wound not Christ in vvounding the heart of his beloved O the pretiousness pleasure and profit of this love I beg of God to give you a full injoyment of that sweetness and the joyful fruits of it the Lord refresh you vvith a quick and constant sence and sight of his eternal love towards your soul to vvhich the assurance of true Christian love by the effectual vvork of the Comforter may bring you By this vve know that vve are passed from Death to Life because vve love the Brethren If it shall please the Lord to give me leave to see you again I shall come vvith strong expectations and earnest desires of seeing a sweet alteration for the better in you in your deportment and carriage towards one that did deserve better at your hands And vvhat an effect hopes of this nature frustrated vvill produce I beseech you to judge I pray God fill you vvith peace and joy My hand is vveary vvith vvriting but my mind still runs forth in desires and prayers for you I hope the Lord vvill take away all cause of vvriting any more of this subject unto you Your Letter gave me hopes of a good beginning I beseech the Lord to carry on vvhat he hath begun to the glory of his goodness that I may at every sight of you see more of the image of Christ in you and more of the power and beauty of this grace of love and that I may find you drawn nearer to Heaven and see you vvith Christ in Heaven vvhen time shall be no more I leave you in the Arms of Love John Janeway By all this you may easily perceive what spirit acted him and how much he was troubled for any divisions amongst the people of God Indeed he was of so loving and lovely a disposition that he even commanded the affections of most that knew him and so humble he was that he was ashamed to be loved for his own sake I can never forget a strang expression that I have heard from him concerning one that had a very ardent love for him I know this saith he that I love no love but what is purely for Christs sake would Christ might have all the love He alone deserves it for my part I am afraid and ashamed of the love and respects of Christians He saw so much pride peevishness and division amongst Professors that it did not a little vex his righteous Soul and made him think long to be in a sweeter Air where there should be nothing but union joy and love He could not indure to hear Christians speak reproachfully one of