Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	army_n	great_a	king_n	2,073	5	3.6840	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51229	A sermon preach'd before the King at St. James's, April 16, 1696 being a day of publick thanksgiving for the discovery of a horrid design to assassinate His Majesty's person, and for the deliverance of the Nation from a French invasion / by ... John, Lord Bishop of Norwich.	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1696 (1696)	Wing M2554; ESTC R321	17,039	38

killed the King the Nobility and the Representatives of the People And is there not reason to believe that the same Evil Spirit which pusht on the Romanists in the days of our Fathers to such horrid impiety did govern these wretched Men in the Present Plot which in some respect does exceed that former Treason For at the same time that the Life of the King was to be taken away by Wicked Traytors at home there was an Army in readiness to have made a Descent upon us from abroad sufficient not only to destroy the Lords and the Commons who represent the People but the People themselves and there is great cause to think they would have made the Sword drunk with Blood before they had put it up It is most unaccountable how any Protestant should have been concern'd in it and yet it cannot be denied that some there were of that Religion and Church which abhorreth such Doctrines they were of that Church but had departed from it before they did engage in these Horrible Designs I say it is unaccountable since in the time of the late King they wish restored their Religion the Laws the Rights and the Liberties of the Nation were in a manner all subverted and the King on whose Power all their hopes of restoring him are built is one that caused all his own Protestant Subjects who would not forsake their Religion to be imprisoned banisht or put to death by which Severities he hath rooted them out of their Native Soil and left no appearance of them in their own Countrey Is it to be thought he would treat Strangers more tenderly than he has done his own People or that he would tolerate the Exercise of the Reformed Religion in this Kingdom after he had conquered it who has extirpated it in his own where his Subjects had a right by Law to enjoy it and were not guilty of the least undutiful Behaviour to provoke him to violate their Rights And here I should have thought it necessary to do an Act of Justice to our Religion in renouncing and disavowing the late Proceedings of those Clergy-men who absolved two Persons that were condemned for Treason and at their death shewed no tokens of Repentance for that Detestable Crime as being contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England and scandalous to all good Christians in her Communion had it not been done already as far as can be in the present Circumstances by the Bishops of the Church and I doubt not with the hearty Concurrence of the rest of the Clergy While such Pernicious Opinions as these find favour in the World and there are men bad enough to practise them we have great need to fly unto God for Protection We cannot reflect upon the inhumane Slaughter intended both of our King and of our People without horror and detestation we cannot think of our Wonderful Deliverance without hearts full of Joy Praise and Thanksgiving ready to be offer'd to God our Gracious Deliverer Great is the Lord and marvellous Worthy to be praised there is no end of his greatness Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Men shall fear and declare the works of the Lord for they shall wisely consider of his doings Indeed a little consideration and thought will convince us that all Deliverances whether private or publick whether of single Persons or of whole Nations are due to God All men are sensible that they cannot preserve themselves they find no power within them either that was the cause of their being or that can certainly secure their Estates their Credit or Friends or prolong even their own Lives Men seemingly to themselves and others in sound health are in a day or two's time carried off by a Malignant Disease Death surprizing them when they had set it at a great distance and scarce allow'd it any room in their thoughts So Thefts and Fires and other Accidents sweep away their Estates against which the nicest Care and strictest Guards are no absolute Security Greater Uncertainties do attend War and Peace Publick Councils and the State of Kingdoms Counsels through want of knowledge of many things may be wrong taken or the Wisest by Treachery may be discovered or defeated small circumstances of things change the fate of Battels things which were not observed or so much as thought of when they began and they that assured themselves to return Conquerors from the Field have been carried away Prisoners Such as pretend to be our Friends may be plotting against us and our truest Friends may not have skill and strength to deliver us or be out of the way when we stand in most need of their help And as we discover no sufficiency in our selves or Friends on Earth to save us from trouble and danger so have we no ground or warranty to address our selves to the Souls in Heaven of Saints departed since we have no assurance they know how or what we do nor that they could help us if they had knowledge of our Affairs Much less can we apprehend how they should hear the Prayers of some Millions of Persons dispersed thro' all Countries put up at the same time which is in effect to allow them Omniscience and Omnipresence two of the Properties of the Divine Nature It is therefore intolerable Presumption in the Writers of the Church of Rome to suppose such Powers and Authorities to be lodged in the Virgin Mary and St. Ann her Mother and other Saints which are peculiar to God himself They must have very false Notions of God and of his Creatures who imagine either that he can transfer or that a Creature is capable of receiving those Attributes which are in their own nature incommunicable and which without a Contradiction cannot be separated from a Being infinitely perfect There is therefore nothing we can firmly rely on either for the safety of our Persons or the private Comforts of this Life or the Publick Good of our Country but God himself Upon him it is we must call in time of trouble and he will deliver us The Heathens had such a just sense of humane Frailty that they did attribute all the great Turns in their Condition to something above their own power To the Will of God they ascribed the good success of their Affairs and hoped by his Aid to be delivered from Calamities That the happiness of his planting was the more durable That when he will punish there is no escaping for the Strong That his displeasure might be appeased by their humbly addressing themselves to him And tho sometimes they talk of the influence Fortune has over humane Affairs yet they acknowledg it to be subject to the pleasure of God Wherefore in their Prayers they style God their Father that is the Author of their Life Health and Goods They dedicated Honses to Religious Uses and had several

kinds of Verses which they appropriated to the Service of the Gods Before Battles and after Victories they return'd them solemn Thanks and part of the Spoils of War they devoted to God and offered them in Sacrifice as an acknowledgment that the event of things is in his disposal And though their Temples were stately and well adorned and the Spices rich and sweet which were burnt upon their Altars and their Prayers accurately composed yet the wisest of them thought that the Piety Innocence and Purity of their Minds would be more grateful and acceptable to God than the Costliness of their Sacrifices and the Eloquence of their Language And these Notions which the Pagans had of God did result form the Idea and Conception of a Being infinitly perfect for if God be Almighty nothing can be brought about by any Power which does not depend on his and spring from him So if he be Omniscient not any thing can come to Pass without his privity no event can be casual or uncertain with respect to him who sees and knows Effects while they are in their Causes and disposeth of them according to his good pleasure For of him and through him and to him are all things To whom be Glory for ever Secondly I proceed to shew that some Deliverances are more evidently from God as having the plain and visible Mark of his hand imprest upon them First The glory of those Deliverances more especially are to be given to God which happen to Men without their own Wisdom and Contrivance and where they had ussed no precautions against them When at the same time Men arrive at the knowledg of their danger and of their deliverance there can be no boasting of their own foresight nor place to praise the Scheme of Policy formed by themselves God often surprizes his People with great Mercies of which they had not the least expectation that they may not have so much as a pretence to thank any but him for them So our Preservation from the late horrid Conspiracy is not to be imputed to the Wisdom of our Counsels but to the Providence of God which so awakened the Consciences of some of the Malefactors that they made a voluntary discovery of it And that which should more deeply affect us with our Escape and engage us to give God greater Thanks for it is That this execrable Plot was ripe for Execution and the Blow ready to be given when by his Mercy it was detected 2. Those Deliverances are to be looked on as coming more immediately from God which we receive after no hope was left of flying from the Mischief which was imagin'd against us When altho ' we might foreseee the Storm yet we had no power to ward against it or to put it by Tho' we might know out danger yet it was too big for us we were not able to deal with it the little Strength we had to defend out selves bearing no Proportion to the mighty Force of the Enemies who intended to assault us Now to be saved after Men had despaired of a Deliverance and when their Adversaries were secure of a Conquest must be owned to be the visible Work of the Lord of Hosts It is the wise Method of Divine Providence often to let us miscarry in those Designs of which we were sure and confident and to bring those good things to pass of which we had no hope both to convince us of our own Infirmity and to induce us upon all occasions to address out Prayers unto him who is able to save us in our greatest Distress Thus his People of Old when in the time of their trouble they cryed unto him he heard them from heaven and according to his manifold mercies he gave them saviours who saved them out of the hand of their enemies Neh. 9. 27. This was our Condition before the late happy Revolution when much Endeavour was used to suppress our Holy Religion and to discountenance those who profest it when our Laws that guard our Lives and Properties were dispens'd with and the Yoke of Popery was ready to be ty'd on our Necks and we saw no way of escaping then God in his Goodness was pleas'd do make His present Majesty the great Instrument of our Preservation 3. The Providence of God is very apparent in these Deliverances which are brought to pass by the Disappointment of our own Counsels and Resolutions which had they taken effect according to our Minds wou'd have prov'd of dangerous consequence to us for so little do we see into things that God often saves us by frustrating the very Designs we had laid for our Preservation And this holds as well in the Private Concerns of particular Men as in the Publick Affairs of Nations There is hardly any good Man but in the Course of his Life has found reason to thank God for having deny'd him the things he had most set his Heart upon he being sensible that much of the good Circumstances of his present Condition is owing to his former Disappointments Nay upon due Consideration wise Men are satify'd that if they had had their Will in Matters that once they eagerly pursu'd it wou'd have undone ' em And the joyful cause of our present Solemnity is an eminent Instance of God's Mercies of this kind for one Branch of our Deliverance is fully due to his Providence which wou'd not permit us to put our own Counsels in execution for had our Fleet pursu'd the Expedition that was according to Human Understanding prudently design'd the Passage wou'd have been laid open for the Army that was in a readiness to invade us and there were but few Forces left then in the Kingdom either to have hinder'd their Landing or to have put a stop to their Progress 4. We may manifestly discern the Hand of God in those Deliverances which proceed from Causes over which we have no power Of this sort are all those that are produc'd by the Wind or the Sun or the Rains or the Frost or other remarkable Changes of Weather Histories of all Ages do testifie that the greatest Victories both by Land and Sea have had their great Turn from those things that were quite out of the command of the Mighty and the Proud and were entirely directed by the Wisdom of Providence Seafaring Men oblige themselves to perform their Voyages to such Ports and by such times if the Wind and Weather favour them that is if God pleases And what is expresly contain'd in their Contracts is imply'd and ought to be own'd in all Enterprizes relating to Affairs of highest Nature and under the conduct of the wisest Men. Under the former Head of this Discourse we consider'd our Deliverance as proceeding from a Disappointment of the Methods that were taken for our Defence and here we observe that that Disappointment was caus'd by the Winds and at that time also when we apprehended they blew against us and in favour of