Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	power_n	will_n	1,439	5	6.6180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60144	Practical reflections on the late earthquakes in Jamaica, England, Sicily, Malta, &c., anno 1692 with a particular, historical account of those, and divers other earthquakes / by John Shower.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1693 (1693)	Wing S3680; ESTC R31944	73,148	226

our Sins in England and London are such as may make us fear the like or worse If there were nothing but the Misimprovement of our past Mercies we had reason to fear it For what Blessing is there more than ordinarily valuable but we have had If Peace if Plenty if Victory if the Gospel we have had it But what unanswerable Returns have we made under all such Obligations All the Ways by which Eminent Mercies are abused and God provoked we have practised Some of these we have not valued at all Others we have soon forgotten As to some we have given the Praise and Glory not to God but to our selves or our Friends or the Instruments of Conveyance Some I fear the most of these Blessings we have misimployed to the Dishonour of God and therefore our very Mercies may make us tremble Yea further that Drowsiness and Security and Spirit of Slumber that hath seemed to seize the Generality of Professors amongst us at this Day is a just Ground for our present Fears i. e. The general Unconcernedness about the State and Posture of things amongst us with relation to God's Presence or Departure It cannot be well with such a People they cannot but be in exceeding Hazard who when their Neighbour's House is consumed to Ashes or is yet on Fire are fast asleep on their Beds For this God threatens to search Jerusalem with Candles to punish the Men that are settled on their Lees who said in their Hearts the Lord will not do Good or Evil Zech. 1.12 CHAP. VI. Earthquakes usually reckoned the Forerunners of other Calamities We have had many Signs and VVarnings and a long Season of Divine Forbearance though we are guilty of the like Sins as have brought destructive Judgments on other People The Land full of Sin Publick Societies only punish'd in this VVorld BUT to come more particularly to consider the late Earthquakes There are many things that should affect us with an holy Awe and Fear of God and his Judgments upon those Instances of his Severity in Jamaica in Sicily and by the lesser one we felt September the 8th 1692. It is not to be overlook'd that most of the ancient Historians do observe that this kind of Calamity has been the Presage of further Judgment * Cicero speaking of an Earthquake Orat. 30. de Haruspicum Responsis speaks to the like purpose Etenim haec Deorum Immortalium vox haec paenè Oratio judicanda est cum ipse Mundus cum Aer atque Terra motu quodam novo contremiscunt inusitato aliquid sono incredibilique praedicant in quo constituendae nobis quidem sunt Precationes Obsecratio quemadmodum monemur Sed faciles sunt Preces apud eos qui ultrò nobis viam salutis ostendunt Nostrae nobis sunt inter nos Irae dissidiaeque placandae And in another Place discoursing how in the second Punick War C Flaminius neglected the Signs of Futurities to the Ruine of the Republick his Army destroyed and himself stain He adds Magnum illud etiam quod addidit Caelius eo tempore ipso cum hoc Calamitosum fuerit Praelium tantos Terrae Motus in Liguribus Galliâ compluribusque Insulis totâque in Italiâ factos esse ut multa Oppida corruerint c. De Divinatione lib. 1. §. 35. And afterward §. 43 50. speaking of other Earthquakes he adds Quibus Portentis magno Populo R. Bella porniciosaeque seditiones denunciabantur Inque his omnibus responsa Haruspicum cum Sibyllae versibus congruebant And in another Place he reckons Earthquakes among those things Quae nuper Bello Octaviano magnarum fuerunt Calamitatum Praenuntiae Cicero de nat Deor. l. 2. §. 13 14. And even such as have no great Kindness for Religion Machiavel himself not excepted have acknowledged this to be true as to Matter of Fact Socrates † Socrates Eccles Hist l. 4. c. 11. in his Ecclesiastical History speaking of the Earthquakes that hapned in Bithynia and the neighbo●ring Countries in the Days of Valentinian and Valons takes notice of them as Signs of the Shakings and Convullions the Tumults and Diserders which should afterwards follow in the Christian Churches The whole known World both Land and Sea was then shaken and it s like the then unknown too which might seem to be a Prelude to the future Confiagration or Destruction of the whole Thucidides mentions an Earthquake in Delos which in the ‖ Thucidides de Bell. Pelop. l. 2. Memory of the Grecians never shook before that it was interpreted for and seemed to be a Sign of what was to come afterwards to pass in a most bloody War We know that Earthquakes were foretold before the Destruction of Jerusalem and the final Destruction of the World Matth. 24. That there shall be great Earthquakes in divers Places How far this may be understood in a Metaphorical Sense is worth considering because though some of those Signs may be taken in a literal Sense others cannot as how the Stars should fall down from Heaven And the declared Suddenness of Christ's Coming to judg the World pleads for the Application of these illustrious Signs to the Destruction of Jerusalem And so it was literally as to Matter of Fact before the Destruction of Jerusalem as * De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 12. Josephus relates So before the End of the World or the Day of Judgment the last of the last Plagues Rev. 16.18 we read of a great Earthquake such as was not since Men were on the Earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great I know many make light of these things because they are capable of being solved by natural Causes But the Hand of God is not to be overlooked in such things under whose Government and Influence all natural Agents act and are over-ruled as to the Time and Degree of their Acting especially such rare and unusual Instances as Earthquakes All second Causes in their several Motions need the Continuation of the Divine Power and Influence in order to their Operations as well as their Subsistence God uses all Creatures to be the Instruments of his Will and to serve his Purposes Natural Agents and moral are all under his Direction Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour and stormy Wind fulfil his Word Psal 148.8 Blasting and Mildew Drought and Barrenness an Infectious Air Pestilential Diseases c. however brought about by natural Causes are under Divine Government and act by virtue of his Influence He gives Order to the Destroying Angel in a Pestilence 2 Sam. 24.16 He saith to the Sword Go through the Land Ezek. 14.17 Now though I will not say that always these things are Presages of further Calamity and Judgment to a particular People yet because they have usually been followed by some such and we have many other moral Prognostications of Divine Displeasure it should call us to a humble Consideration of the Grounds of our Fear as to National Calamities And there are