Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	affliction_n	punishment_n	sin_n	1,661	5	5.5146	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92190	Jacobs ladder, or The protectorship of Sion, laid on the shoulders of the Almighty; in a description of the sufficiency of providence, suitable in these times of tentation. With Jacobs wrestling. / By Francis Raworth of Shoreditch.	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing R373; Thomason E1507_2; ESTC R209489	136,597	367

the Lord hath inriched me and the Devil hath robbed me but as if he never heard mention made either of the Devil or the Chaldeans The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Hee is not angry with Chance and Fortune and falls not out with Stars and Constellations David saw God on this Ladder Psal 44.12 13 14. like a good child he fathers the rod on God his Father Thou hast cast off Thou hast cast down when Gods rod was on his back he puts his hand on his mouth and his mouth in the dust Luther saw God on this Ladder when he observed though the Christs-cross be no letter yet he learned more by it than all the Letters of the Alphabet and that God never sent him on any special Errant or business but he first sent his mind by some special affliction And Alfred saw God on this Ladder who alwayes prayed that God would bestow some tryal on him to keep down his love to the World and draw up his love to Heaven Lorinus reports of Grashoppers formerly in England which depopulated England that on one wing they had written Ira in black letters upon the other Dei in golden The Saints are afflicted that is anger but by their God that is golden Hear the rod saith God and who hath appointed it Is that proper language buts its one thing to feel the rod and another thing to hear it God preaches to man a Lesson not only by his Word but by his Rod and as the Word must be felt before it can be heard so the Rod must be heard before it can be felt to purpose Repent prov●de for Eternity now do it or it may be you may never is the dialect of the rod as well as the word God appoints this man a cup of consolation and that man a cup of sorrow and he appoints how many drops shall be in their cups and all the world cannot put in a drop beyond the Lords measure Afflictions are a rod Schela crucis Schola lucis quae nocent docent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they have honey at the end of them How sweet is it while the rod softens the heart and the hony opens the eyes Afflictions are called darkness in Scripture but they have enlightned the eyes of many who else might have walked in everlasting darkness How many may read legibly their sins in their punishments and need enquire for the cause of no other physitian God lays some sick in their own beds of wantonness and so hangs them at their own doores Lord says one Christian lying like Jacob at the foot of the Ladder I am thy vine and let me rather bleed than wither I am thy Apple-tree let me rather be lopt to grow than cut up to burn Lord says another frown on me rather than not to look on me let the Lord take me into h s hands and correct me rather than that I should have nothing to do with God or he should have nothing to do with me How many souls have occasion to say If the Lord had not plowed me with Afflictions and dunged me with Reproaches what barren ground had I been how had I wandred if the Lord had not sent his dogs to fetch me to his Fold I had certainly been cast away if I had not been cast down How had I surfeited on Pleasures and Friends if the Lord had not called me from the Banquet Adversity hath whipt many a Soul to Heaven which otherwise Prosperity had coached to Hell How glorious is it to see God in Riches in Friends in Honor in Persecutions in Crosses in Sicknesses God casteth down and my God lifteth up The Lord often writes angry Epistles to his children yet observe still at the bottom of the Letter he subscribes Your loving Father Hippocrates called the Pestilence the divine disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we call the spots thereof Gods mark the Falling-sickness of old was called morbus sacer because it was the immediate hand of God O Lord may every Soul say It matters not what my condition be So it but lead or whip me home to thee Secondly Providence is visible in publick Afflictions and Affairs of the world 1 In the publick troubles and distractions of Nations I create light and I form darkness Isa 45.7 Sin is mans creature and Afflictions are Gods creatures every Affliction bears the image of its Maker and God is not ashamed of his own handy-work Sinful man is the meritorious but Providence is the efficient cause of Evils Man is the cause of moral evils God of penal evils in the City Amos 3 6. Afflictions are Gods Thunder and Lightning Famine and Pestilence are the Kings evils onely caused and cured by God the Lords dreadful Ambassadors to a Nation they have their message to deliver and they will have audience Let God but fire our fields and blast our Corn as Absolom did by Joab we come presently Wars and Judgements are Gods Troops he is their Generalissimo they move according to his Orders he sounds his Trumpet and beats his Drum and all the Plagues and Punishments of Providence are in Arms when God saith charge they charge when retreat they retreat O Sword of the Lord how long before you are quiet here was a cry to the Sword but the Sword of the Lord answered you must speak to the General himself I am at his command Jer. 47.6 Not many years since we cryed out Oh the Sufferings and Alarms and Field-fights when will you cease in England but they never ceased till God bid them cease It is the honor of a King to discharge the first peece of Ordnance against the Enemy The Lord I am sure had the honor of beating the first Alarm and sounding the first Retreat in England Man may speak of Peace in but God onely can speak Peace to a Nation In Revel 6.10 they cry How long Lord they knew God had the time in his hand and he onely could tell how long They cryed not to the Tyrants how long will yee persecute how long will yee oppress the Saints But to the Lord How long before thou come to revenge Oh say many if it had not been for such and such men wee had never had wars and if it had not been for their ends and designs we had had an end of our Troubles ere now as if Providence were but a stander by or a looker on while men playd their Games or acted their parts But Jacob sees that Assur is the rod of Gods anger and that when his children are purified the rod shall be thrown into the fire and burned Sees that when God hath scoured his Plate he will throw the wisp on the dunghill that when he hath built his house the scaffold shall be pulled down England would be as full of Judgements as it is of Sin if men were the Makers and Masters of Judgements Men alone though never so wise or powerful cannot make either staves

be as Chaff yet to cover his Wheat and though they be as Straw to bear up his Ears If Paul had not been such a Persecutor Paul had not been such a Professor Josephs Breth●en aimed at his ruin but God Gen. ult aimed at his advancement All things work together for Sions good Rom. 8.28 Before Sion is built here lies a peece of Timber there lies the Brick and there lies the Morter all things seem to be in a confusion but tarry till the Lord hath done and you will see no d●sorder but order no confusion but beauty All things you see not onely work but work together the word in the Greek is compounded Look not onely on Gods way but on his end what God hath joyned together let no man separate The child could blame his Father when he sees him tread the grapes the Father he thinks will mash and mar all but when he comes to years of discretion he knows that the best way to keep the Grapes from withering is to turn them into wine Let man use what means he will against the Church God hath still the security of the end If his Wisdom prevent not disorders his Power can order disorders Men may bend their Bows and shoot their Arrows against God but all in vain for it is impossible that ever this glorious Archer should once shoot over or short the Archer and the Mark being one and the same Man too often puts darkness for light but the Lord onely can and will bring light out of darkness Thirdly This Ladder is conversant about all evils and actions all evil actions personally and publickly 1 This Ladder of Providence reaches as far as sin Providence by which generally I understand the execution of Gods Decrees in time sometimes possibly the Decrees of God and God decreeing is conversant about sin four waies Scivit non sanxit praedixit non praescripsit 1 Providence foresees sin The Lord fore-saw the treachery of Judas and yet simply did not fore-ordain it and yet the prevision of God is infallible Did not Judas may some say then sin necessarily I Answer God fore-saw he would sin as he fore-saw but God fore-saw that he would sin freely therefore in that sense he sinned freely Because we sin therefore our sin is fore-known not therefore we sin because it is fore-known God foretold the infidelity of the Jews to Christ he foresaw their sins not his own The Jews committed a sin which God compelled them not to who is displeased with sin but onely foretold that they would do it because nothing is hid from his fore-knowledge Fore-knowledge in God is as Memory in us Memory presenteth us with things that are past so Prescience presents to God things that are to come Now as Memory is not the cause why things past were done so Gods Prescience is not the cause why future things shall be done God fore-sees and fore-ordains those things that are good but onely foresees but fore-ordains not those that are evill 2 Providence extends further Non fit praeter quod fit contra Dei voluntatem In withdrawing the Influence of Grace Psal 105.25 Deut. 2.30 Rom. 14.22 23. Deut. 29.4 God gave them not an heart to understand now when Providence withdraws its aid the creature falls necessarily and yet freely The Sun is not the cause of darkness for it does not positively infect the Air with darkness but onely removes its Beams So when the Spirit of God who blows where he listeth and is arbitrary in its influence withdraws its influence of light and life the Soul is presently possessed with darkness and sin or as the staff falls to the ground not because it is thrown down by the hand but because it s forsaken by the hand God is the Author of mans condemnation for as a Judge he punisheth transgressions against his Law Multi ne laberentur detenti nulli ut laberentur impulsi but he is not the Author of mans corruption The Nurse lends not her hand the Child presently fals now the cause of falling is not the hand of the Nurse but impotency and weakness in the Child God throweth down none but raiseth up many faln he healeth many woundeth none The principle of our falling James 1.13 is in our selves but the principle of our standing is in God 3 Providence extends further In moving the natural Faculties of man He preserves in man what he hath given to man both Nature which is the principle of natural Actions and the Will which is the principle of voluntary Actions Vulneramur in naturalibus spoliamur spiritualibus by his power determining their motions and freely inclining them to any indeterminate actions Wherefore one and the same Action may be both good and bad according to the difference of principles good in the kind as from God and common Nature but evil in particular as from the inbred Corruption of man for the immediate cause of every sin is the Will of the sinner In every sinful action there are two things the act and the defect God is the Author of the act but not of the defect As in the striking an untuned Harp the fingering is from us but the jarring is from the Instrument In God we move without the aide of Providence Cain could not have stretched out his arm but to turn so good a gift of God to so ill a purpose as to kill his Brother that was the proper sin of Cain God may remove impediments of sinning he may propose objects in themselves indifferent as threatnings preaching of the Law Rom. 7.8 and how easily doth man fall when God goes from him and Temptations come to him 4 Providence extends further about sin God wills that sin be God wills not the nature yet he wills the being of evill To affirm that God is the Author of sin impairs the Justice and Goodness of God for he can no more be the Author of sin than one contrary is the Author of another than light is of darkness or good of evil● It is not the God of the world but the God of this world is the Author of sin and to affirm that God onely permits sin seems to impair the Government and Providence of God Deo sciente sinente fit peccatum non utique nolens sinit sed volens for God doth not suffer sin to be without his will Permissio est quoddam genus voluntatis Judas hath a Will to betray his Master I will not says God stop his design but I will draw a preservative for mans salvation out of that poyson The world shall know that out of the unnaturalest Treason that ever the Sun beheld I can work the most glorious effect God found the will of Judas earnestly running to sin he run of himself God staid not behind but ran with him but to another end Judas and God run as it were in the same Race Judas to satisfie his Lust God to declare his

me the first rudiments of Christianity not so much how to spell the Name of God or Christ as how to spel out the Name of God in Christ. What cause have I to bless the Lord that you instructed mee how to beleeve before I was tempted to doubt you knew that I came so full of poison into the world and therefore you could not too soon administer physick to expel it you looked on Original sin as like a common fire in a Town in my soul and you searched not so much how it came as how to quench it you did not prevent but prepare a way for the workings of the Spirit How happy was I that you did not with some judge it prejudicial to the guidance of the Spirit to be indoctrinated in a form of Divine Knowledge I remember I have read somewhere that Luther when he heard how that little children prayed against the Turk said In the name of the Lord let them go on for as they want the knowledge of men so they want the malice of men and God may hear them I must acknowledge I lived long in the world before I knew what it was to die to the world and many years had the profession of Religion before I was acquainted with the experience yet I bless God even then when I had not Saving Grace for my own Salvation that I had any Restraining Grace for the good of others How did you pray for me when I was not able to pray for my self your heart was tender when mine was hard my prayers now are to the Lord that though I yet carry a body of sin about me and in my own sense have been often a sinking that yet you would praise God with me that a Nephew of so many prayers hath not perished indeed Your condition now calls for my counsel but I will not undertake to teach my Teacher onely humbly telling you what once with delight you taught me out of that School of Wisdom Pro. 3.11 Despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction What though you have been cast down will you conclude that you are cast away when your God hath on purpose cast you down that he might not cast you away You know that Gods fish thrive best in salt waters that the Walnut-tree is most fruitful when it is most beaten that David was never so tender as when he was hunted as a Partridge and Jonah never so watchful as when he was alive in his Sepulchre in the Whales belly It is true you are Husbandless but yet not Fatherless my once dear Uncle is now singing out the praises of the Lamb in the new Jerusalem the singleness and sincerity of his Light Love and Life did tell his acquaintance he was a Traveller thither now you dare not mourn because he rejoyceth and can you mourn while he rejoyceth Oh! that you would rather consider what a comfort you once had than what a comfort you now want rather to meditate of your going to him than grievingly to think of his going from you My dear Aunt let me use that phrase that was spoken to a friend on such an occasion You know well that you have need of his joy but he hath no need of your tears Your Husband was also your Brother and if that maxim be true that the union of Grace is stronger than the union of Nature then I am perswaded you mourn not so much for the loss of an Husband as of a Brother in Christ yet though the stream be cut off you have the Fountain I would speak more of this but I shall forbear lest while I go about quite to extinguish I should unawares revive the grief chew not this Pill but swallow it whole and it will not prove so bitter I beleeve you are more perplexed with the publick evils of Sion But in this you may consider the Lord wounds that he may not kill and overcasteth the face of his Church with a cloud that the Sun of Righteousness may at length shine out the more clearly and that those storms and waves are happy that shall drive the Ark nigher to her Harbor It is certain All things shall work together for their good that love God It is your happiness your comfort lies not in the lives of others but in your own experience that while others tack about after every wind of Doctrine you still steer your course according to the compass of the Scriptures that while some think it zeal to fall in love with every fond opinion that presents it self on the Stage of the world that you have chosen your Love and love your choyce in the Practice of Piety mortification and conformity unto God That while others talk much of God that your study is rather how to speak with God himself than of God to others That while they love to gaze on the Infirmities of others onely that you love rather to weep over your own sins in your Closset than to cry out against the sins of others in the Market place but herein you know you are not justified and I trust you would much rejoyce that you had something more you might account nothing for Christ Go on dear Aunt Put on the whole Armor of God that when you have withstood you may stand and when you have stood it out on earth you may sit down in a Throne in Glory Perseverance is the Crown of Grace and Heaven is the Crown of Perseverance You could not mourn as the Martyr said for the absence of the Bridegroom if you did not belong to the Bridegrooms Chamber Ride on in Faith though the way may be the dirtier the nigher you come to your journeys end The Sun shines most amiably towards its descent eye not the stream through which you wade but the firm Land to which you go Look not on your Race so much as on your Crown your storms and Tempests Doubts and Fears as your Port and Harbor Here is your Seed-time hereafter is your Harvest Here is your Hell of Difficulties and Desertion hereafter is your Heaven of Light and Peace You shall not alwaies climb with the Angel but one day stand on the top of the Ladder with the Lord You shall not alwayes wrestle with Jacob the Day will ere long break and then farewel hardness of Heart and temptations to Despaire and mourning for Sin and doubting of Gods Love for ever When you shall lodge in the Arms of your Physician then no more complaint of your wounds When you shall walk in white with a Crown on your head in Heaven you shall not want the gracious company of an Husband as a fellow Member of Christ to comfort or as a Preacher to instruct you There are no tears falling down the Spouses Cheeks in glory Comfort your self with these things that while you wait with Hannah for the Consolation of Israel you may at length when death shall knock at your door which cannot probably be