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	child_n	sad_a	12	3	10.2960	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08803	Several discourses concerning the actual Providence of God. Divided into three parts. The first, treating concerning the notion of it, establshing the doctrine of it, opening the principal acts of it, preservation and government of created beings. With the particular acts, by which it so preserveth and governeth them. The second, concerning the specialities of it, the unseachable things of it, and several observable things in its motions. The third, concerning the dysnoēta, or hard chapters of it, in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence, and to vindicate the justice, wisdom, and holiness of God, with the reasonableness of his dealing in such motions. / By John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing C5335; ESTC R233164	689,844	860

fruit of the womb as a blessing and blesseth him that hath his quiver full of these shafts but now the poor man knoweth not how to understand this and it is hard for him not to repine at the multiplying of it a great error doubtless but such as for ought I know good people may fall into we cannot trust God to provide for those which he giveth us if this hath been thy error God but pays thee in thy own kind by shortning thy number and maketh thy own secret sinful wish now to be thy Plague and Torment but this ordinarily is the sin of the poorer and meaner sort of Christians 2. Didst thou not let thy heart run out too much upon thy Children God is jealous and it is the nature of jealousy not to suffer a rival in the object beloved be it a person or a thing God is the object and he will be the prime object of his peoples love desire and delight It is his Law Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength it may be thy Child had more of thy heart more of thy love and and delight than God had no wonder if he hath taken it from thee this is now usually the sin of those whose circumstances in the world are better they have a fair estate in the world and Children few enough to leave it to and in such cases it is a very hard thing to keep our hearts within due bounds but our affections are ready to overflow especially if there be nothing in the temper or behaviour of the Child that takes off the edge of our affections to it 3. Doth not thy heart smite thee for the neglect of thy duty to thy Child especially if it were of any years Thy duty in instructing it or thy duty in reproving and admonishing it Elie's Sons were indeed men grown but God cut off his Children though their personal guilt justified God in his severity against them yet Eli smarted in their punishments for honouring his Sons more than God for dealing too gently with them for their most enormous wickednesses Thou mayest also neglect thy duty towards them in instructing them in making them acquainted with the holy Scriptures in admonishing them to keep the Lords Sabbaths and seeing to their external Sanctification of them This is undoubtedly a second piece of thy duty upon such a dispensation and to be humbled before God for those sins which thy conscience smiteth thee for and suggesteth to thee as probable causes of this rod of God upon thee 3. It is doubtless thy duty whatsoever thou findest to be satisfied with Gods good pleasure Rachel mourned sinfully while she so mourned as that she refused to be comforted If thou findest that probably God hath punished thy sin in the sickness pain and death of thy Child it is indeed matter of humiliation to thee it offers thee a just opportunity to resolve for the time to come to amend thy errors as to any survivors which God shall lend thee but yesterday cannot be called back again God hath done what pleased him It may be in mercy to thy Child though it be in judgment unto thee thou hast no reason to quarrel or murmure at God for any of his dispensations If it be for thy Child 's Original sin still thou hast no reason to blame God he is just and righteous in what he hath done But if God hath done it to give thy Child a quicker passage to Heaven to bring it sooner to a state of perfection to deliver it from an evil to come here thou hast reason to admire and adore the Divine goodness rather than to quarrel at Divine Justice There are a great many things that may conduce to the relief of a godly man or woman disturbed at this dispensation of Divine Providence It is a very ordinary dispensation of God though therefore it may look like a digression from the principal argument of my discourse yet it may possibly be not so judged by some of you whose case it either at present is or may be to instance in some heads of arguments which occasionally you may make use of for the quieting of your Spirits 1. Consider what-ever was the moving cause on Gods part yet the will of God is revealed The will of God is such a thing to satisfy a Christian with as nothing can be more nothing greater We have our Heaven by the will of God fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom We have all our grace all our glory from the will of God and shall we not thankfully accept a cross when it is the will of our Father to lay it upon our necks We pray thy will be done and shall we murmure against it when we see it done This silenced Aaron David Heli Hezekiah it leaves no room for a good Christians reply to it it is our Fathers will that is enough It is our Fathers will revealed by an Act of his Providence The Lord hath given saith Job and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. 2. Consider how many sadder cases than thine there have been Thou hast lost a Child an infant Job lost all his Children when they were grown up feasting at their elder Brothers house Aarons was a sad cause he lost his two Sons grown up in an act of sinning yet he held his peace Helies case was sad to lose two such wicked Sons in a Battel Davids case was sad God had expresly told him the Child should dye because of his sin and that by it he had made the enemies of God to blaspheme What doth David do He fasteth he prayeth he humbleth himself before God so long as the Child lived and while he had any hope but when the will of God was revealed when the Child was dead he ariseth and eateth bread as he was wont to do he saith that he should go to it it should not return to him 3. Consider Let the case be as sad as it will yet if thou lookest round about it there is mercy in it either mercy to thy Child or mercy to thee or mercy to both if thy Child be gone to Heaven there is mercy in that if it be delivered from evil to come upon the World or that part of the world where it should have had its portion there is mercy in that David's case was as sad as one can well think of any of this nature yet there was this mercy in it the living monument and remembrance of David's sin and shame was taken away 4. Suppose that God hath for thy sin taken it away and thou canst not satisfie thy self but it is so yet consider God eternally punisheth none for the sins of their correlates God may punish persons with bodily and temporal punishments for the sins of their Parents but not eternally as to those punishments every soul shall bear no

produced to demonstrate to the world and that we cannot see this before is our weakness and imperfection The malice of men in the persecutions of Gods People looketh upon us with an horrid aspect these indeed God doth not effect but he hath willed they should be and hath told us they must come yea and he worketh too permitting others to bring them about and suffering them in the execution of their malice whom he could easily hinder but when these things are over we often see both infinite wisdom and goodness too in them How should the salvation of Sinners have been purchased if God had not permitted Judas to have betrayed his Master Pilate to have condemned him and the Jews to have nailed him to the Cross had it not been for the persecution of the Jews how should the Gospel have gone to the Gentiles But yet for a close of this discourse and that we may not mistake our Duty we ought not to be so far satisfied upon the Contemplation of this great truth but that 1. We must be piously affected with the sad Providences which God measureth out to his Church and People What saith the Psalmist If I forget thee O Hierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning The sad rebukes of Gods Providence ought by us to be laid to heart Though persecutions and other punishments be contrivances of infinite wisdom and products of certain and infinite love yet to the present sufferers they may be punishments of sin and marks of Divine displeasure and therefore ought not to pass over our heads without our taking some notice of them and the causing of some sad thoughts within us the crucifying of Christ was the product of infinite wisdom and goodness to the People of God but yet a just cause of sadness to the Disciples of Christ We must take things as they appear to us being not able to see to the end and bottom of Gods designs That they shall at last issue in the Glory of God and the good of his People is indeed matter of faith and will be matter of joy to us when we see it but in the mean time it is matter of sadness to us to see Gods Vineyard rooted up his People eaten up like bread and wicked men suffered to devour those that are more righteous than themselves 2. Again We have reason to be afflicted both for our own sins and the sins of others Although it be as to the event true that both our own and others sins shall issue in Gods Glory yet it is as true that God hath no need either of ours or any others lyes for his Glory and that God is both by our sins and the sins of others actually dishonoured That they are made to issue in Gods Glory is the product of Gods Wisdom not our oblique and irregular action or intention and therefore they ought to be causes of sad reflexion to us But thus far we may satisfie our selves 1. That as I said before the event was necessary and nothing that hath come to pass could with our utmost care and diligence have been otherwise than it is We may talk after the manner of men and reason after the measures of humane probabilities If such a thing had not been another had not followed but there is nothing issued in time but was ordered from all eternity 2. We ought again in this to be satisfied That of whatsoever the Lord hath promised nothing shall fail We are full of unbelief and when we see Gods Providence working as we judg directly contrary to what he hath promised we are presently giving up all for gone and lost but if every thing be wrought according to the Counsel of the Divine Will and the Holy Scriptures be such part of this will as he hath pleased to reveal to us God knoweth both what he hath said and how he hath laid things in his eternal thoughts and sooner shall Heaven and Earth pass away than any word he hath spoke Prov. 19.21 Isa 40.8 The counsel of the Lord shall stand and the word of our God shall stand for ever 3. And lastly As I have before told you we may be thus far satisfied That whatsoever doth or ever shall come to pass in the world shall serve Gods great ends because it is ordered by the Counsel of the infinitely wise God and therefore must necessarily serve his designs In the end of the world we shall say God could not have had so much Glory but for such a persecution such a disorder Surely the wrath of man shall praise him SERMON II. Heb. XI 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear THE last time I shewed you That God hath from eternity setled all events by an eternal purpose according to the Counsel of his Will nothing cometh to pass in time but what was determined before time I told you my design was to discourse concerning Gods Acts of Providence which are acts in time and particularly to discourse some things relating to actual Providence which do not fall into ordinary discourse and often give occasion of trouble to the spirits of Christians but in order to that I thought it reasonable First to discourse a little of Gods Settlement of all futurities things which were to be fulfilled in their season by an act of his eternal Counsel Nor can I yet come fairly at my intended subject without speaking to Gods first Act in time that was Creation concerning which we must suppose a Decree of God according to that known Rule in Divinity Decretum Dei ejus executio exquisitissime conveniunt nihil est in Dei opere quod non fuit in decreto nihil fuit in decreto quod non sequitur in opere That is the Decree of God and the execution of that Decree most exquisitely agree God worketh nothing but what he first decreed and he decreed nothing but hath had or shall have its issue in his working and when we say God doth any thing we by it do understand no more than a new effect of his eternal Will According therefore to the Counsel of his Will God first made of nothing the world and all that is therein And indeed according to some notion of Providence amongst Divines this is a part of it Now for a foundation of a short Discourse upon this subject I have chosen this Text. The Apostle subjoyneth the words of my Text to a description of Faith which he had given vers 1. Where he had told us That faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen In the second verse he had told us That by this the Elders had obtained a good report Here he saith By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God c. In the Text you have 1. A Divine assertion The worlds were framed by

they see nothing of God in these effects They say not this is the Lords doing and therefore it is not marvellous in their eyes They see Pestilences sweeping away Cities and Families fires laying populous Cities waste Enemies breaking in upon Countries and strangely over-running them the hand of God sweeping away whole Families but they see nothing of God in them they consider these as terrible things as misfortunes to which the state of Humane affairs is subjected their Eyes are upon the visible wheels that turn these things but they see not the wheel within the wheel the Psalmist calleth to us to come and behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath wrought in the earth Men see desolations wrought in the Earth but they see them not as the work of the Lord as desolations wrought by him This is what the Psalmist complained of and for which he prayeth against them Psalm 28.4 5 Give them according to the works of their hands c. Because they regard not the work of the Lord nor regard the operations of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up This is a sign of an Atheistical heart to see great changes and not to see God in them the Heathens had more of Religion than this came to I remember the Poet in his description of the ruine of Troy bringeth in Venus taking Aeneas of his mettal in the last defence of his Country and from taking Revenge on Helena the cause of it by shewing him the gods at every corner and post of the City helping the Grecians to fire it and to over-turn the walls of it It is very sad that amongst Christians there should be any that in the great changes which God worketh in Nations Cities Families cannot see the great and living God at work and using creatures but as instruments in his hand but this is but a seeing and beholding the works of Providence highly useful for the production of pious affections and such acts of duty as God requireth We have a further Duty than this incumbent upon us 2. It is not only our Duty to see and behold but wistly to consider and observe these things Psalm 107.43 Whoso is wise will observe these things and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord a Text which in this discourse I shall make a further use of Observation implieth the application of our minds unto the passages of Divine Providence which are before our eyes as we must not be careless and forgetful hearers of the word of God so we must not be careless and forgetful observers of the works of God It is said Gen. 37.11 that Jacob observed the saying Josephs saying in the repetition of his Dream relating to eminent providential workings So it is said Luke 2.19 That when upon the birth of our Saviour the Angels had spoke to the Shepherds and the Shepherds had published the glad tidings which they had brought to the City That all who heard it wondred at those things which were spoken by the Shepherds Mary kept all these sayings and pondered them in her heart To see a thing is one thing to make our minds to stand upon it to consider it and to ponder upon it is another thing This is also our Duty as to meditate on the Lords words so to meditate on the Lords works twice the Psalmist hath it I will meditate on all thy works Psalm 143.5 I muse on the works of thy hands So Psalm 77. v. 12 I will meditate also on all thy works and talk of thy doings It is our great fault that we suffer the impression of Gods works to go off our hearts too soon We hear of great changes we see great desolations God works in Kingdoms Cities and Families at first they make a little impression upon us we startle at them but by the next day they are as a tale that is told the sound is out of our ears the impression is off our minds this is now not to observe the works of the Lord not as we ought to consider the operation of his hands 3. It is thirdly our Duty modestly and humbly to search out the causes of Providences towards our selves especially We are commanded to hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Thus did Josephs brethren Gen. 42.21 when they were in prison they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother when we saw the anguish of his soul when he sought to us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Job prays Job 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me this is but a searching and trying our ways an excellent help and necessary medium in order to a true repentance Indeed it is our great errour that we are very prone to search out the causes of severe Providences upon others The Barbarians seeing a Viper cleave to Pauls hand conclude him a Murtherer but we are very slow and backward to enquire into the meritorious causes of Gods severe Dispensations to our selves Yet as to others as it is our Duty to observe the Providences of God to them so we may modestly and humbly search out the causes of them Thus did Jeremiah venia praefata having first recognized God in the Justice and righteousness of his proceedings Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord in thy Judgments when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments why doth the way of the wicked prosper c So the Prophet Habbakuk ch 1.13 Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he But as to this searching into the causes of Divine Providences I put in those two words modestly and humbly Indeed God is so plain and open in his Judgments sometimes that the provocation is wrote and that in capital Letters in the front of the punishment Thus it was in the case of the Sodomites the Egyptians the Benjamites Sauls bloody house Haman the final destruction of the Jews c and thus it is still very often The Drunkard dies in his drunkenness but it is not always so The Judgments of the Lord are a great deep This enquiry therefore into causes must be modest and humble we must no more caecutire in revelatis as to the works of God than as to the word of God if we see a blood-thirsty and deceitful man not living out half his days a Dart striking through the liver of the Adulterer these are open things And when we see prophane vile wretches devouring those that are more righteous than they when we see God plaguing men according to his own heart chastening them every moment not giving them time to swallow their spittle These are secrets of Divine Providence of which we must be careful that we pass no ungrounded censure yea and we must search humbly too Our judgment in these cafes will amount to no more than a

against him he adviseth him to do this by breaking off his tyrannical oppression and shewing mercy instead of that cruelty with which the former part of his reign had been stained Now mark the argument If saith he it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity I know your margents tell you it may be read It shall be an healing to your error about which some less judicious Papists make a stir but their own great Arias Montanus reads it it shall be a prolongation of thy peace Their vulgar Lat. reads it perhaps he will pardon thy sins the septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perhaps God will bear long with thy sins c. However though indeed in that sense it doth not so sute my present purpose there is no doubt but restitution is an healing of the error of injustice and oppression amongst men though it be impossible that it should remove the guilt of sin before God But I have digressed too far Let my counsel be acceptable now to every sinner that hath any interest in the world any talent of riches or honour power or interest which he might improve in the doing of any thing which God hath commanded If he be one that hath no regard to his soul but meerly to his interest in the world it is the best improvement that he can possibly make of it If a man had set his heart against the God of Heaven and designed never intentionally to serve and honour him but to make the world and his belly his God without any belief of or regard to an eternal well-being yet it were his greatest policy to do things materially good in order to the obtaining of that portion in this life for him and his posterity upon which he is wholly intent 2. But secondly This observation speaketh aloud to all to take heed of blessing themselves upon their worldly circumstances It is a thing that we are very prone to to conclude to the acceptation of our persons and our works from our outward prosperity They neither signifie any thing to us as to the perfect goodness of the work nor yet as to any eternal reward no nor a lasting reward in this life We use to say Bonum ex causis integris malum ex quolibet defectu a work is made evil by any defect in it the least fly maketh the Apothecaries box of oyntment to stink the action must be formally as well as materially good not only what God hath required but it must be done with a true heart designing the glory and service of God and in a true manner according to that rule which he hath given us for the performance of it or it cannot be acceptable to a pure and holy God nor do these rewards signifie any thing as to our eternal reward and recompence A man may for a work be rewarded in this life and yet damned in the world to come he hath had his reward I remember Christ saith so of the Pharisees prayers and fastings Mat. 6. They have their reward the disciples of Christ that act sincerely they shall be recompenced in the resurrection of the just Hypocrites have their reward in the honour and applause they have in the riches and honour which God giveth them God is out of their debt No nor secondly which possibly to them is more terrible these kind of recompences are but temporary things for a little time Jehu had taken out all his payment from God for his service against the house of Ahab in four generations Assyria and Babylon had taken out their rewards for their services much sooner Vse 4. In the next place This Observation may be of very great use both for the comfort and incouragement of such whose hearts are right with God For their comfort as to what they have done for their incouragement to go on yet in their motions and designs for God 1. For their comfort It must be laid down for a substratum to the following part of my discourse upon this Theme That no man can be called a child of God but he who doth not serve God by the by tanquam aliud agens in the mean time eying some other design and setting up to himself some other end but he who in his actions sets himself with a full purpose of heart to seek and honour and glorifie God he may miss his mark either through the mistake of his eye or his hand but his face is thitherward that 's the white at which he aims he hath set the honour and glory of God before him as his mark and towards it it is that he presseth forward he may mistake as David did thinking something will be for the honour of God which will not or come short as to the issue not being able to bring his design to a desired issue but he taketh his aim right and setteth up his mark right Now failers in these cases when once discerned by the souls of Christians prove oft-times causes of great trouble and exceeding sad reflexions to them and nothing can be thought of as more proper to give them relief than what I have been at this time discoursing of That when God doth not cannot allow of the action as integrally good and perfect yet he will reward the good intention the design and purpose in the childs of Gods heart Methinks in this case it is a sweet text they are the words of Solomon upon the dedication of the Temple which he had builded 1 King 8.18 And the Lord said unto David my father Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name thou didst well that it was in thine heart Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house but thy son that is come out of thy loins he shall build the house unto my name There are in that text these things remarkable 1. David had an intention to build God an house 2. He did not build this house 3. God did not allow of the action God sent him word by Nathan he should not do it as you have heard before Yet 3. God accepted his good design his general good intention Thou didst well saith God that it was in thine heart 4. God did not only accept this good design and intention but he also rewards it Nevertheless saith he thy son that is come out of thy loins he shall build me an house thou shalt not have the honour of it but thy son shall have the honour of it David was undertaking a matter in the worship of God without any special direction God upon this createth an institution and legitimateth the action for his son I say it is an admirable text if it be well digested to relieve the spirits of the People of God under their troubles for their imperfect performances A Christian prays he sanctifieth a Sabbath he setteth himself to seek the Lord in any piece of instituted worship when he reflecteth upon it and compareth it with the perfect rule he sits down wonderfully