Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	place_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	20	3	8.4067	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26786	The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in several discourses / by William Bates.	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing B1105; ESTC R15956	218,835	562

in these Talents because they are usually abused to the dishonour of the Donor If the slothful Servant that hid his single Talent in a Napkin and returned it without advantage to his Lord was cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth a fearful Image of what will befal all unprofitable Persons how severe will their Accounts be who lavish out their numerous Talents to gratify their carnal Appetites and betray the Blessings of God to his Enemy the Devil Only the wise and good Servant that with prudent Contrivance and zealous Endeavours improves his Talents shall from the gracious Lord in whom are all Attractives and Remuneratives of our Service receive an excellent Reward Fifthly Another Rule of our Acceptance at the last Day is That we must with Courage and Zeal maintain in our rank and places the Cause of Christ. For thus he declares expresly Whosoever shall confess me before Men him also will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before Men him also will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven When the Truth Purity and Power of Religion in Doctrine Worship and Practice is discountenanc'd and overborn our Saviour commands and will reward our undiscouraged visible Constancy in it He will not only reign in our Hearts but be honoured with our Lips and in our Conversations We usurp the Title of Christians unless we adhere to our Duty in despite of all opposition The Temptations that usually withdraw Men from confessing and glorifying Christ are such as work upon the Passions of Fear and Shame And the consideration of the last Judgment will fortify us against both 1. Sometimes Religion exposes the Professors of it to the loss of all temporal Enjoyments and of Life it self And when the Honour of our Saviour requires such a Service of us when that Confirmation is necessary to recommend Divine Truth to the Belief and Affections of others when our chearful and couragious Example in suffering would animate those that are fearful to Constancy and Confession then from Cowardise to withdraw our Testimony is to betray him again When our Duty is attended with extream Dangers then the sincerity and perfection of our Love to Christ is brought to the strictest trial As true Carbuncles are discovered in the Night for the Darkness redoubles their Splendor so the fidelity of Christians is evident in Persecutions that enflame and excite their Zeal to magnify the Name of Christ in the sight of the World There is no Fear in Love but perfect Love casts out Fear But Fearfulness hinders the expressing acts of Love to Christ and betrays to Apostacy For as every Passion is a Perturbation so especially Carnal Fear that blinds and disturbs the Mind and hinders the serious consideration of the Reasons of our Duty and those Motives to persevere in it that are the Fountains of our Strength From hence the timerous are often treacherous and Faith lies buried under the cold pale Ashes of Fear Now the irregularity of this Passion is best cured by directing it to the most powerful Object As the Rod of Moses swallowed up the Rods of the Magicians so a stronger Fear will subdue that which is in a weaker degree Our Saviour therefore threatens those that for the fear of Men who can but kill the Body dare not own and defend his Truth and Cause that he will renounce them before his Father in the great Day the immediate consequence of which will be the destruction of Body and Soul in Hell If Earthly Potentates had a Jurisdiction over Heaven if Men were to be tried by their Laws at the last Day if their Power extended to Eternity they might exact unlimited Obedience to their Wills but Conscience is a more desirable Friend and terrible Enemy than Caesar and all temporal Tribunals are subordinate and accountable to the Supream and Eternal there is one Lawgiver and Judg who is able to save and to destroy for ever It is the worst Perdition to secure our selves by the neglect of our Duty when we ought to perish for the Glory of our Saviour He that saves his Life shall lose it 2. Shame wounds deeper the Breasts of some than Violence Zedekiah would rather expose his Kingdom and Life to the Fury of the Chaldean Armies than be himself exposed as an Object of Derision by surrendring it And Satan who understands the temper of Mens Spirits suits his Temptations accordingly The Purity and Holiness of Religion exprest in the Actions of the Saints is by the seurrilous Reflections and bitter Sarcasms of prophane Persons made contemptible This is as foolish and malicious as if a Slave should reproach the Son of a King that he was like his Father in his Countenance and Actions for by how much the resemblance of God's Holiness appears with more evidence and eminence in their Lives their Divine Relation is more certainly and justly to be acknowledged Yet how many are ashamed of this Glory And Zeal to vindicate the Honour of Religion is traduc'd and vilified either as the Effect of designing Faction or of the Indiscretion and Rashness of a weak Judgment and strong Passions In every Age the faithful Servants of God are by scornful Titles despised We are accounted saith the Apostle the Off-scouring of the World But a generous Christian looks upon disgrace for the sake of Christ as his Honour The Apostles rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name 'T is said of the Baptist He was not that Light but came to bear Witness to that Light intimating as if that were the next degree of Dignity to it And our Saviour speaking of the Proofs of his Divine Mission reckons up the Witnesses of such Dignity that 't is not possible for Sacred Ambition to aspire to higher Honour than to be in Conjunction with them they are John the Baptist his Miracles his Father and the Scriptures Let us appeal then from the light depraved Fancies of carnal Men to the wise and faithful Judgment and Authority of the Son of God He will at the last Day in the presence of his Father and all the Court of Heaven give an incomparable Crown to all that have despised Shame for his sake But those vile Spirits whose Courage of Straw is quell'd by vain Opinion and the Reproaches of Fools and have deserted the Cause of Christ shall then be clothed with Confusion for this we are assured by our Judg That whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels If the unnatural Brothers were astonish'd when the Governor of Egypt told them I am Joseph whom ye sold how much more will false Christians when the Lord of Glory shall tell them I am Jesus whom for base shame ye

As there will be no vain-boasting in Heaven where the Reward is the Gift of pure Bounty so there will be no righteous Complaint against God in Hell where the Punishment is inflicted by powerful Justice He that voluntarily sins by consequence chuses the Punishment due to it 5. The estimation of an Offence is taken from the disposition of him that does it When 't is done with pleasure and obstinacy there is no place for Favour Now final Impenitence alone makes Sin actually and eternally damning to the Sinner Those that notwithstanding all gracious Means live continually in Rebellion against God those that impenitently die in their Sins those that desire to live here for ever that they might enjoy their sweet Sins those that are so hardned and naturalized in their Vices that if they were revived and brought again into this World of Temptations would certainly return to the Pleasures of Sin is it not righteous that their incorrigible Obstinacy should be punish'd for ever Is it not just that those who would continue under the dominion of Sin should forfeit all their claim to the Divine Mercy For if we consider them as unrepentant and irreclaimable from their Wickedness there are in them the just provocations and true causes of God's final rejection and hatred and if we consider God as revealed in his Word and Works his essential Properties Wisdom Purity Justice necessarily work upon such Objects in such a manner How zealous an Indignation did the Son of God express against the obdurate Pharisees You Serpents you Generation of Vipers how should you escape the Damnation of Hell They in despite of all his Miracles the equal Expressions of his Goodness and Power resisted his Authority blasphemed his Person and slighted his Salvation Now though other Sins are of an inferiour Nature and weaker Evidence yet Obstinacy added to them makes a Person unworthy and uncapable of Mercy From hence the Misery of the Damned is without Redemption without Hope without Allay for ever II. I shall now proceed to consider the Evidence of the Facts that is produc'd as the Reason of that Judgment The temper of Divine Justice is very observable in the particular Judgments recorded in Scripture In the first process of Justice on Earth we read that God made the enquiry of Adam Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat and by palpable Evidence convinc'd him before he condemn'd him Thus before the fiery Vengeance upon the wicked Cities the Memory of which will never be extinguish'd The Lord said to Abraham Because the Cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their Sin is grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done according to the Cry of it that is come up unto me viz. whether they were so numerously and excessively wicked if not I will know God is pleased to incarnate himself in Man's Expression to declare more sensibly to us that he never punishes with precipitation but after an equal trial of the Cause Thus we read of that profane King of Babylon Belshazzar That he was weighed in the Ballance and found wanting before he was sentenc'd to be deprived of his Kingdom and Life And the Destruction of the Antichristian State is attended with solemn Hallelujahs for the Righteousness of that Judgment And in the last Day the Righteousness of God's Proceedings shall be universally manifest and magnified 'T is therefore called the Day of the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Now in order to this the Scripture informs us that all the Works of Men shall be brought into Judgment even every secret thing whether good or evil And the Apostle saith That we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad All Sins whether secret or openly visible shall be accounted for Those Sins that have been acted in the most secret Retirement so that no Eye of Man could take cognizance of them Sins concealed from the Eye of the Day the Light of the Sun and from the Eye of the Night the Light of a Candle shall then be made manifest Nay the Sins of the Thoughts and Affections of which Satan could not accuse Men when the inward Fire of Lust or Malice is not discovered by the least smoak or sparkles by no expressions all those shall be brought to Judgment God will judg the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ. The Sins of Omission of our Duty that are so numerous from carelessness and diversions from slothfulness and delays and that now so little affect us for we are more sensible of what we do than of what we have not done the guilt of all these shall then be heavily charged on the Conscience of the Sinner I was an hungry and you gave me no Meat I was thirsty and you gave me no Drink was the Accusation of the Reprobates from the Judg himself To him who knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him it is a Sin The neglect of improving all the Means Advantages and Opportunities of doing or receiving Good will be a great part of that Judgment The Lord called his Servants to an account for the Talents committed to their Trust and required Profit in proportion to their Number and Worth All Sins of Commission in Youth and Age whether gross Sensuality as Lasciviousness Lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings and abominable Idolatries and all excess of Riot shall be accounted for to him who is ready to judg the quick and the dead or Acts of Unrighteousness to others He that doth wrong shall receive according to the Wrong he has done And Sins of a lesser guilt for which the most are not touch'd with grief or shame shall then be produc'd in Judgment All the Sins of our Words so easily committed and not so easily observed shall then be call'd to a heavy remembrance The Judg himself tells us I say unto you that every idle Word that Men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment And if vain Words the Signs and immediate Effects of a vain Mind shall sadly encrease our Accounts how much more all the contentious fierce and revengeful Words the detracting false contumelious and injurious Words the impure filthy and contagious Words the prophane blasphemous and impious Words that slow from the evil Treasure of the Heart O their dreadful Number and oppressing Weight And all the Aggravations and Circumstances of Mens Sins that raise their Guilt to such fearful heights shall be enumerated in order to Judgment For thus 't was foretold Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and all their hard Speeches