Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	authority_n	lord_n	25	3	3.7045	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52050	The right vnderstanding of the times opened in a sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons, December 30, 1646, at Margaret Westminster, being the day of their solemne monethly fast / by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1647 (1647)	Wing M771; ESTC R6357	33,802	51

times of most prodigious wickednesse horrible abominations in mens manners I am confident never such abominable drunkennesse and generall loosenesse in that kinde never more universall liberty of whoring Incestuous mariages oppressions cruelty injustice malice revenge and every thing that might fill a Land with ungodlinesse Since wee or our fore-Fathers were borne never was there a greater deluge of wickednesse then in these our times and what have the Heads of Israel to doe at such a time Certainely you and all others at such times are called to mourne for all the abominations of the Times and you and all others are called to walke more exactly in that time to redeeme the time when the dayes are evill But You above all others are called out by God in such times to be his instruments to oppose these things the Ministers of God to execute vengeance upon those that do evill For these things I think you shall not need to trouble your selves to make new Lawes as excellent Lawes are already made against them all as I thinke any Common-wealth in the world hath but it concernes you to see that these bee put in execution It concernes you in times of oppression to deliver the poore and the oppressed out of the Talons and Pawes of them who teare them and crush them in pieces It concerns you to see that the Justices and other officers in the Countrey set not up these houses of Sinne Alehouses and Tavernes nor that when some well-affected put them downe Great men set them up againe and so in other abominations it concernes you to see that incestuous Mariages and such ungodlinesses go not unbranded and unpunished the Lord kindle zeale in your hearts that you may doe it that is one Our Times are times of abominable wickednesse Secondly Our times are times of Errors horrible Errors I meane not such Errors as are to bee found among Gods people to whom hee never hath given an equall light and notwithstanding which Errors himself beares with them and would have his people bear one with another but I meane our times are times of such Errors as are heretical and blasphemous such as concern our Christian faith and holy conversation in a very high degree it would weary you but to tell you the things that are generally knowne to spread as a Gangrene a new generation of men are risen up and spread all the points of Arminianisme universall Redemption Apostasie from grace Mans free-will multitudes of others cry downe the Law as not having any thing to do with Gods people others denying that the Saints of God should ever any more confesse sinne to God in prayer others questioning whether there bee any Church or Ministery this day upon the face of the earth and whether there shall bee any till new Apostles arise Nay beyond all these many denying the Lord Jesus that bought us with his blood to bee God or the Holy Ghost to bee God others denying the three Persons in the Trinity and consequently affirming that we and all the Christian world with us doe worship Idols in stead of God for if these men bee right they are Idols whom wee worship These and abundance of such horrid things as these are doe spread and scatter like wilde-fire every where in all corners of the Land to the great provocation of Gods wrath our reproach through the Christian world And what have our Heads to doe at such a time Certainly you and al others ought to mourn for these things and teare your clothes and your haires and your hearts that God should be so dishonored but for your duties who are in high Places for what is peculiar to you I 'll not dispute any controversie at this time but set down Two things which I know you must yeeld to One is Certainly you must search diligently into the Scriptures and enquire whether Jesus Christ would have you oppose your selves against these things that are so opposite to him If upon a diligent search you finde that hee hath not authorized you doe not you arrogate any authority that Christ hath not given you my Lie will never honour God though I should tell it for Gods glory and your thrusting your selves into an office Christ hath not called you unto will never be accepted by him But if Secondly Upon a diligent search it appeares hee hath given authority unto you then I am as assur'd that hee hath not left it to your arbitrement whether you 'll use it or no hee hath not left it to your will whether you will punish them but if you have power to stop them and doe not hee will lay them all at your doores and require them at your hands therefore search diligently what you have power to doe and then let not these things goe on to Gods dishonour But supposing you have authority What then is to be done I answer you must not take Blasphemies Errors and Heresies to bee such upon the reports of other men but as the Lord ordered them in the 13 of Deuteronomie so likewise must you doe Search diligently whether indeed such and such things are done and when they appeare to bee done out of the zeale of God doe that against them which the Lord would have you doe let not your Religion be thus contaminated suffer not your children to whom you ought to bee nursing Fathers to bee thus poisoned by such corrupt Doctrines nor devoured by such wolves This I know you will all subscribe unto This I desire above all may sticke with you that if the Lord hath given you power hee hath not given you libertie to forbeare such men God in mercy make you zealous for him that hath been zealous for you in all your troubles Thirdly Our times are times of wrath a great deale of wrath from the Lord is gone forth you know what dreadfull Vialls of wrath have been poured out in blood terrible quivers of destroying arrowes have been shot out in Pestilence all which tell you God is angry And what then have our Heads and Leaders to doe certainly all people should tremble when God is angry The Lyon roares what beast doth not tremble and every one must labour to pacifie him when hee is angry but you whom the Lord hath placed under him in such high place and authority must with Moses at such a time call to Aaron to run with his Censer you must labour to enquire out the Causes of it and execute the judgement and vengeance that God would have executed upon them who have procured it You must with Josiah 2 Kings 22.13 inquire what will appease him and with the King of Nineveh call upon every one to turne from the evill of his doings and your selves bee examples to the rest Fourthly Our times are times of Warre terrible warres unnaturall warres bloody warres as ever England knew and as yet the Armies are in the Field and though there bee no open Enemy

duties to bee done now herein will appeare Gospell-wisedome to walke so as that in these evill dayes you may redeeme the time and Solomon hath an excellent discourse of the same subject in the eighth of Ecclesiastes in the beginning of the Chapter hee gives a high Encomium of a wise man Who is saith hee as the wise man that is no ●an can bee compared to a wise man what is hee 〈◊〉 that knowes the interpretation of a thing hee that knowes what every businesse doth truly signifie and call for that is the wise man then hee tells you this mans wisedome will gaine him courage and credit hee will bee honored and esteemed then brings it downe to manifest the excellency of this wisedome in one particular case which is the most tickle businesse in the world for men to bee imployed in and that is in attending upon the affaires of supreme Governors in doing that which the higher powers command them for they will quickly bee angry and take offence therefore doe their businesse carefully and speedily as you should and if they bee angry goe not away in a pet c. But now lest some body should say Doe you meane that a man should doe all that Kings and supreme Magistrates doe command without further enquiry or delay No saith Salomon in the fifth Verse the wise man knowes both time and judgement the wise man that hath the interpretation of a thing knowes what is to bee done what is to bee refused and when things are to bee done most fitly or opportunely therefore none like the wise man So likewise Moses in the 32. of Deuteronomy about the 19. Verse O that this people were wise that they did but understand their last end that they but rightly knew their time and in the 90. Psalme which is another prayer of Moses Lord teach us so to number our dayes to make such a compute of our times that wee might apply our hearts to wisedome I might give you many other Scriptures which show that the Lord counts this to be true wisedome nay I 'le add this further the very light of nature hath taught the Heathens to judge this to bee true wisedome the seven Counsellors of that great Emperour of Persia in the first of Ester are said to bee men that knew the times the meaning is that they were wise Counsellors and among the Romans it is a Proverbiall Adage homo omnium horarum that is hee is a wise man that is a man for all houres knowes the businesse of every time of every place whatsoever hee is called to hee understands his affaires and in truth this may well bee called wisedome for it is wisedome it is not onely a part of wisedome but it is the very Systeme and comprehension of all wisedome I know there is a particular wisedome that men may have in some affaires as a Husbandman that knowes but how to plough his ground seasonably c. that is called his wisedome and the women that did but know how to spin finely c. Men may have a kind of wisedome in this or that particular trade and yet all the world may know him to bee a foole in everything else but that that is the true and reall wisedome which properly sets a man out to goe for a wise man properly stands in the true understanding of the times in reference to mens duties For both Philosophers and Divines doe agree that wisedome is made up of these two things the one is Intelligence which is nothing but the understanding of things in their nature as they are good or evill the other is Sapience which is the same understanding applyed to particular businesses as they stand vested with all their circumstances and that man that hath the understanding of affaires as they are circumstantianted with all things that goe with them and knowes how hee may dexterously and opportunely apply himselfe to them hee is the wise man that is the first proofe that the Spirit of God every where calls this wisedome Secondly The same Spirit of God doth ●sually call the want of this folly whatsoever other excellencies meete in any man if they want this the Scripture calls them fooles yea hypocrites wicked ones in the 8. of Jeremiah the Lord speakes in the 6 7 8 9. Verses after this manner How doe you say you are wise why doe you pretend to wisedome and hee speakes not to the vulgar people but to the Scribes their learnedst men that could handle their tongues and their pens best there was no wisedome in them they were fooles Why because saith God the Storke and the Crane and the Swallow know their seasons but this people knowes not the time of my judgements and therefore the Lord would not have them pretend to any wisedome but bee contented to bee counted fooles because they were ignorant of this and our blessed Saviour in the 16. of Matthew when the Scribes and Pharisees and the learned Doctors of the Law came and desired to have some further evidence from him by some signe from heaven that hee was the Messias Christ told them they were Hypocrites they were a sinfull and an adulterous Generation meerely because they did not understand the signes of the times A wicked and an adulterous generation would have more light you can tell by the Clouds when it will bee faire weather next morning and you can guesse by the morning whether it will be rain but yee hypocrites yee fooles saith hee you cannot discerne the signes of the times what the times signifies and calls for at your hands you have no understanding of this and therefore you may goe for a company of fooles and hypocrites and so left them and departed Nay thirdly which makes it yet more cleare The want of this knowledge of the times in reference to mans dutie is that which the Spirit of God uses to render as the onely cause of a peoples ruine whensoever a people are brought to ruine if they be a people to whom God afforded meanes to save them when they come to be ruin'd the Lord layes it wholly upon this that they knew not the times of their visitation This you 'le find in the 19. of Luke and the latter end of it when Christ about the 41. Verse came to take his farefull of Jerusalem and to die there from the top of the Mountaine he looked over the Citie and fell a weeping O saith hee that thou hadst but known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but they are hid from thy eyes then hee goes on and tells them what shall become of them the enemies shall cast a banke and not leave one stone upon another levell them to the ground and their Children in them for what I pray because thou knew'st not the time of thy visitation destruction came in onely at that breach they knew not the time of their visitation and elsewhere our