Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	body_n	soul_n	1,426	5	5.4689	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92848	The best and the worst magistrate: or, The people's happiness and unhappiness, laid open in a sermon preached at the late election of the Lord Major for the famous City of London, Sept. 29. 1648. / By Obadiah Sedgwick B. in D. and minister at Covent-Garden.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.; Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.	1648 (1648)	Wing S2365; Thomason E465_8; ESTC R205183	23,226	32

thus abused 3. Sometimes unto Scorpions The Prophet Ezekiel is said Ezek 2 6. to dwell among Scorpions All wicked men are Scorpions and especially wicked Rulers There are four things which the Naturalists do observe in Scorpions 1. They are venemous Beasts full of poyson 2. They are mischievous Beasts apt to harm Pliny saith of them That they are Semper in ictu always Plinius Eglinus thrusting out their Stings 3. They are troublesome Beasts and therefore in those countreys where Scorpions abound the Inhabitants dare not to lodge low and are forced many times Ocreatos dormire 4. They are tormenting Beasts they lick you and wound you and torment you Their torment was as the torment of a Scorpion when he strikes a man Rev. 9. 5. Now all this are wicked Rulers they are as he spake of Nero Veneum terrae The poyson of Adders is under their lips they are full of mischief David saith That mischief is in their Psal 36. 4. 28. 3. 140. 9. 26. 10. heads Psal 36. 4. and in their hearts Psal 28. 3. and in their tongues Psal 140. 9. and in their hands Psal 26. 10. And besides all this they are but a torment and vexation to a people They have vexed the fatherless and widow Ezek. 22. 7. 4. Sometimes unto Wolves Ravening wolves Her Princes Eze. 22. 27 Zeph. 3. 3. are like wolves ravening the prey and evening wolves Her Judges are evening wolves and what the disposition of these are I need not discourse of amongst you 3. Thirdly survey a few of the actions of wicked Rulers and then judge whether they be not causes of woful mourning to a people Their actions or works have been such as have overthrown Religion and Justice and so consequently the Souls and Bodies of men and what more can be said to express lamentation and mourning 1. Concerning Religion in which bottom all our Souls are embarqued were it not most amazingly sad if a people should forsake the true God and set up Idols and Sacrifice to Devils nay Sacrifice their Sons and Daughters to Devils renounce the Son of God the Truth of Christ the Gospel of Salvation O in what a lamentable condition are such a people Yet wicked Rulers have done all this themselves and have caused Flagitiosissima feceri facinora secuti morem Imperatoris sui Salust in Iugurth the people to do all this by their examples by their perswasions by their commands by their threats by their power as you may read for some part of it in the History of the Kings of Israel and Judah and for the other part of it in Ecclesiastical Histories since Christ 2. Concerning Justice which is the Ark of a peoples safety how woful have the actions of wicked Rulers been against it Justice is like that goodly spreading Tree spoken of in Daniel The leaves whereof were fair and the fruit thereof Dan. 4. 12. much and in it was meat for all the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof and all flesh was fed of it yet wicked Rulers are in this respect onely like him that cryed aloud Hew down the Ver. 14. Tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit let the beasts get away from under it and the fowls from his branches Whatsoever tends to the utter subversion of Justice the same hath been done by wicked men when they bare rule At your leisure peruse the Scripture and that will report unto you Their neglecting of Judgement They judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them Isa 1. 23. They overpass the deeds of the wicked and the right of the needy do they not judge Ier. 5. 28. And their perverting of Judgement They afflict the just they take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from Amos 5. 7. 12. their right They turn judgement into wormwood and leave off righteousness in the Earth saith the Prophet Amos They justifie the wicked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him saith the Prophet Isaiah And are Isa 5. 23. not these the things which will make a land to mourn Amos 8. 8. 4. Lastly consider the Consequences which befal a people for all these things The times of Gods Judgement upon a people are mournful times and times of wickedness make times of judgement and the times of wicked Rulers do make the times most wicked and therefore expose them to the greatest of Gods judgements It were easie to shew unto you That God hath even for the wickedness of Rulers 1. Departed from a people forsaken them cast them off 2. Hath removed all their outward blessings the Corn and Wine and Wooll and Flax and Plenty and Peace and Honor. 3. Hath denyed them many blessings denyed them the fruits of the Earth the showers of Heaven the seasons of Harvest Help Succor Preservation Deliverance And 4. Hath inflicted upon them the sorest of judgements Plague Famine Sword and hath rooted them out of their Land and scattered them over all the quarters of the world And now I think you may safely subscribe unto the truth of this Assertion also That wicked Rulers do make a peoples condition very lamentable and mournful as on the contrary Righteous Rulers do make their condition very happy and joyful There remains nothing but the Application of all this to your selves and your present occasion which I shall finish in three Uses 1. The first shall be a word for you who come this day to choose a Magistrate or Ruler 2. The second shall be a word unto him whose lot it may be to be chosen by you this day 3. The third and last Use shall concern all of you whether Electors or Elected Magistrates or People and the Lord direct what I have to say unto all your hearts First For you who are this day to choose a Magistrate Vse I do humbly present unto your wisdoms three Advices Three Advices to those who are to choose a Magistrate Alvares 1. Be very serious One said That it was as hard a task to obey well as to command well and I think it is almost an equal weight of difficulty to choose a good Magistrate as it is to be a good Magistrate Alvares reports of the Aethiopians That they placed many empty Chairs about the Judge's Seat supposing that the gods came down and sate with him This was but a fiction and yet it served to work an awful care in Judges to sentence righteously Nevertheless this is a Truth That God himself looks upon every one of you in this work considers what you intend or act Magistracy is his Ordinance as wel as Ministery his Image of Authority shines in that as his Image of Grace appears in this his Honor is as much interested in the former as your