Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	person_n	power_n	2,378	5	4.6585	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54068	Three queries propounded to the King and Parliament, in the fear of the Most High, and in the tender love of my soul to them	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1662 (1662)	Wing P1208; ESTC R220473	7,425	11

THREE QUERIES Propounded to the King and Parliament In the Fear of the Most High and in the tender love of my soul to them The PREFACE THe main thing conducible towards mans safety and happiness is to see things aright and he that seeth aright must see with a right eye There is an eye which cannot see the things of God there is an heart also which is insensible of his warnings and so runs into the pit There is also an eye to which God giveth the true sight which foreseeth the evil and seeketh an hiding place and an heart which feareth its Maker and waiteth on him for counsel distrusting its own understanding which it feeleth shallow and apt to err O that man might feel his want of God and receive a principle of divine life from him and be fixed and act therein If I should pray thus particularly for every one of you would ye be offended with me I have written somewhat here in the kindlings of my love and in the Light of Life which shineth in my heart O that the Lord would please to open a vein of the same Life in you and then would ye reade them in the same and in a secret sence of spirit feel what they are and from whence they come Now if it should please the Lord that any of you should feel any touches of heart and secret assent of soul to the truth of them O take heed of the fleshly wisdom and reasonings of the earthly mind which will soon rise up afterwards to wear out the sence of any good that God begets in the heart The QUERIES Quer. 1. VVHether ye do certainly and infallibly know what was the ground or cause why the hand of the Lord was so heavy upon this Nation and why he overturned the Government thereof and brought the Honourable into contempt Three things are supposed or taken for granted in this Query First That it was the hand of the Lord that did this It is he that hath the anguish of soul and the diseases of body at his command and afflicteth both mens bodies and souls at his pleasure And he also afflicteth Nations with the Powers and Authorities thereof when it seemeth good unto him Now this is the thing which is mainly to be eyed by particular persons and also by Nations in whatever befalleth them to wit the hand of the Lord in things 2. That there was a ground and cause for which the Lord did it The Lord is tender-hearted and loveth his creature delighting to do it good and doth not afflict it out of any pleasure he hath therein but upon a kind of necessity that he may bring down evil and bring up good in a Nation He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men It is no pleasure to the Lord to torment his creatures but to destroy the seeds of corruption and unrighteousness and to bring up the good Seed which he hath sown in the hearts of men this is a pleasure to him Now as your afflictions were very great and the alterations in this Nation strange so there was a consideration in the Lord's eye to countervail them or they had never been 3. That it is requisite and necessary for you certainly and infallibly to understand the ground why the Lord did this what his meaning was what he was offended at and intended to bring down what he was pleased with and intended to give scope to spring up and grow under this confusion which could not under the former settlement The reason why this is necessary for you is this Because unless ye certainly understand this thing ye may err and mistake in your present course setting up the same things now which the heart of the Lord was then against and endeavouring to suppress the same things which it is the will of the Lord should grow up and so may provoke the same hand against you again which truly I think is not good for you to do nor indeed can I think so of you as that ye willingly would do it Therefore pray to the Lord for the upright ballance to weigh a thing of such a nature in and of so deep concernment to you for if ye do run a contrary course to the mind of the Lord and he be provoked against you and stretch forth his mighty Arm and overthrow you it will then be too late for you to consider of these things Quer. 2. Whether when the Lord did overturn the former Powers with the glory and beauty of this Nation and raise up other Powers out of the dust as I may say even from among them of low degree If they had then answered what the Lord expected and required of them in their day whether they should have been continued by him in their dominion or no and whether ye should have had this day of tryal which it hath pleased the Lord now to afford you The day of Power and Government which the Lord had given you formerly was manifestly by his Providence come to an end and whether ever ye should have a day more was very doubtful All your Councils and Strength availed nothing save only to make the work the more difficult if not at length almost impossible And now the Lord was busie in trying several sorts of these what they would do for his Name and truly this I may say concerning them all though I would not reproach any that they did not answer the expectation of the Lord. But this I leave to you to consider Whether if they had answered the expectation of the Lord and done what his Soul delighted in and what in part they promised whether the Lord would have continued them in Authority or no I propose this that ye may take notice upon what ticklish terms ye then stood as to your future hopes and how easily your Authority and Greatness might have been for ever buried and that which was lately uppermost have continued so if it had seemed good unto the Lord that so ye may be sensible of what the Lord hath done in relation to you and pray that ye may walk worthy of it making use of it in the fear of his Name who hath all still in his hand and can still do what he pleaseth in this Nation Indeed he can yet bring down whom he will and he can yet set up whom he will and what he will do ye know not but in the fear of his dreadful Name and in holding your standing out of self-confidence because of your present strength is your safety Quer. 3. If ye do not certainly know what was the cause of the Lord 's former displeasure against you and of his so sore afflicting you but shall err in judgement and set up the same things again which the Lord then put forth his hand to throw down and also endeavour to crush and suppress that which the Lord then made way for the growth of whether this will not endanger your overthrow from the