Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	great_a	1,828	5	2.5580	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47028	A sermon of the absolute necessity of family-duties preached to the united parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth & St. Mary Woolchurch-Haw in Lombard-Street / by David Jones ...	Jones, David, 1663-1724?	1692 (1692)	Wing J936; ESTC R11711	21,102	40

to be saved by his Salvation And if you would know the reason of it he tells you in the very next Words that the reason of it was this The Master of that House was the Son of Abraham and therefore he was bound to bring up his Family in the Service of God as his Father Abraham had done before him For if Peter or any one else that is Chief or Head of a Place do fall away from his Duty then others also yea a very Barnabas himself will be drawn away too And therefore tho he himself discharge his own Duty well enough yet if he takes not care that all under him discharge theirs also he is guilty of their Sin God never increaseth a Man's Family but at the same time he increaseth his Charge and his Care too It is not enough for a Master of a Family to do the Duty of a Man but he must also do the Duty of a Master of a Family And thus it is not enough for a Constable or a Church-warden or a Justice of Peace to do the Duty of a Master of a Family and to look after his own Affairs at home but he must also do the respective Duties of Constable Church-warden or Justice of Peace Thirdly The Fourth Commandment commands every Master of a Family to take care of his Son and Daughter his Man-Servant and Maid-Servant yea and even of the very Cattle and Strangers that are within his Gates that is within his Jurisdiction or Protection And certainly That God who commands every Master of a Family to take care of his Servants does much more command him to take care of his Children And that God who commands every Master of a Family to take care of his Cattle and his Strangers that is his Lodgers and his Sojourners does much more command him to take care of his Servants For a Christian Servant is really more than a Servant he is above a Servant he is a Brother beloved Philem. 16. Yea rather There is no difference between either Bond or Free for we are all but one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. Fourthly Every Master of a Family is bound to do as much Good as he can in his Generation Or as the Scripture speaketh of the Patriarch David he is bound to serve his Generation And whoever that Master of a Family is who does not bring up his Family in the Service of God he does not bring it up to serve his Generation But he is so far from serving it that he does it all the Disservice imaginable For as Aristotle observeth in his Politicks Families are the first Societies in Nature and they are the Ground and Original of all the rest Families are the Nurseries and the Seminaries of a Common-wealth They are the same to a Kingdom that a Fountain is to the Streams that flow from it Or that a Cause is to the Effects that come from it And as the Streams can never be good when the Fountain is bad and as the Effects can never be good when the Cause is bad So likewise No Kingdom can ever be good as long as the Families of the Earth are out of course And therefore the best and indeed the only way to make Godly Parishes and Godly Countries and Godly Kingdoms is to being where we ought to begin It is in the first place To make Godly Families And therefore a Minister is not only bound to Teach his People in Publick but he is also to Teach them in Private He is not only to go and meet them in God's House but he is also to go and meet them in their own Houses if he may be admitted without any extraordinary Rudeness offered to his Person and Message He is to go from House to House and to set up a Godly and a Strict Discipline in their Families And let no Man imagin that he has not Authority enough to do this For St. Paul did it Acts 20. 20. And what he did is written for our instruction that we might do so too Assure your selves Every Minister has as much Power to demand God's Rent out of every House that is to call them to an account for the Improvement of their Spiritual Talents as any Gentleman's Steward has to call for and demand his Masters Rents from his Tenants Matth. 21. 24. And Wo be to Us if we do not exercise this Power And Wo be to them that will not suffer us to put it in Execution But serve us as those Wicked and Barbarous Husbandmen served the Lord's Servants who went to demand the Fruits of their Lord's Vineyard either beat us or stone us or kill us or send us away empty and cast us out of the Vineyard ver 35 39. From the Families it is that Vertue or Vice a good or a bad Example does first arise and spead it self both far and near And therefore the Families are to be carefully looked after in the first place One Atheistical Family is enough to infect the whole Neighbourhood It sendeth a Son into one House a Daughter into another a Servant into another and some Body or other almost into every House And every one of them like so many infected Persons do poyson and infect all those with whom they converse But what do I say that one Atheistical Family is enough to infect the whole Neighbourhood When it is plain That One Man One Jeroboam is enough to infect the whole Church and State and to make all Israel to sin even for many Ages after his Death One Achan troubled all Israel and brought a severe Judgment upon them all by his own single Trespass Josh 7. throughout the Chapter One incestuous Corinthian made all the Church of Corinth to be puffed up and involved them all in his Fault because they had him not Excommunicated 1 Cor. 5. 2. One infected Member infects all the rest And we Christians are all of us but so many Members one of another And therefore The care of one ought to reach to and affect us all Rom. 12. 5. 15. Fifthly No Master of a Family can have any Assurance of his own Goodness unless he endeavour to make all his Family good as well as himself He can have no sure sign of Grace in himself unless he endeavour to make all about him to grow in Grace For even Nature teacheth us that if a Needle be but touched with a Loadstone it will draw others along with it And the very Birds of the Air teach us the same Lesson And why should not I send you to them for Instruction as Solomon sends the Sluggard to the Ant for Good Husbandry The very Birds of the Air teach us the same Lesson For they no sooner find a little heap of Corn themselves but they presently Chirp and call their Fellows to come and partake with them And therefore we find that God does frequently make this to be the mark of a sound Christian that is himself thoroughly Converted when his

with them in Prayer not only in that Form there prescribed But also to that Effect as briefly as conveniently they may And if the Church Commands us to do so in Publick much more does it Allow us to do so in Private And therefore even according to the Church of England it self A Prayer of ones own Making may be lawfully used in Private Families as well as a Set-Form And therefore seeing these things are so I do First of all make this humble Request to all Dissenters Seeing the most Learned and the most Pious Authors of your Perswasion have Printed and thereby have Allowed the use of Set-Forms of Prayer for Family-Duties And seeing that all among you have not the Gift of Ex tempore Prayer Therefore be pleased to Pray to God by a Set-Form rather than not Pray to him at all When you cannot make a Prayer of your own be pleased to make use of one already made to your Hands Or to make use of your own Comparison Take Crutches when you cannot go without them Take the Help of others when you cannot help your selves And that this is no unreasonable Request is plain from this following Instance An Ingenious and a Pious Merchant of this City my Good Friend Lodged in his Youth in a considerable Dissenters House And after some Observation he perceived that he and his Family never went to Prayers Upon which he very fairly took his Landlord aside and asked him the reason why he had no Family-Duties in his House And his Landlord gave him this Ingenuous Answer Iown my self guilty of Sin in doing as I do and I do not know how I can possibly avoid it For I cannot Pray Ex tempore and I reckon it unlawful to Pray any other way And let all Unlearned Men of that Perswasion lay their Hands to their Hearts and see whether this be not more or less their own condition And that 's my First Request And my Second Request is to the Church of England-Men and 't is this Seeing the Church does not oblige you to use the Common-Prayer-Book in your Families Yea seeing it does rather oblige you to use some other Prayers unless you have a Priest to Officiate Yea farther Seeing its Canons do leave you at liberty to use a Set-Form or else to make a Prayer of your own to the same Effect as conveniently as you may Yea and further yet seeing it gives you this Liberty even in Publick before your Sermons Then do not you be as superstitiously for as some few others are superstitiously against Set-Forms Let not those that Pray Ex tempore Despise them that Pray by a Form And let not those that Pray by a Form Judge them that Pray Ex tempore For I do not in the least doubt but they both do it to the Lord. And I do not in the least doubt neither but the Lord hath received them both The only Misery on 't is this We both agree very well when we understand one anothers meaning But we scarce ever vouchsafe to give one another a Meeting that we may understand one another Let then the Dissenters be but pleased to Pray by a Form in Our Families and we will come and Pray Ex tempore in Theirs Or if they cannot condescend to this let them but be of the same Heart tho they cannot be of the same Mind with us Let us love one another and freely converse together without any Jealousie or Suspicion And then tho we should chance to be like Christs Coat of divers Colours and various Judgments Yet we may be like it also Seamless and all of a piece knit together in one common Bond of Charity We may hold the Faith in Vnity of Spirit in the Land of Peace and in Righteousness of Life And that this is no unreasonable Request neither is plain from this following Instance About three or four years ago I was acquainted with a Learned a Sober and a Wealthy Country-Gentleman of the Church of England And upon some Assurances that he gave me of his Friendship both by Word of Mouth and by Letter I took him to be my Friend And one Night being in his House and being desired to read Prayers I readily complyed with so good a Motion But finding the Second Lesson to be a difficult Chapter in the Epistle to the Hebrews which I my self did not well understand I exchanged it for another against the Vanity of Apparel as I thought of more Edification to some Persons who were there present But the Gentleman belike took it ill that I should offer to change the Chapter and asked me the Reason why I durst do so To which I gave these Answers First I did not well understand that Chapter my self and 't was not very likely that his Family could understand it better Secondly If I had understood it better I would not have read it notwithstanding Because another was more useful for some Persons there present who were in my Judgment but too vain and light in their Apparel Adding that where-ever I should chance to be I would always do that which would do most good to my Hearers tho it were to my great Disadvantage in this World Thirdly I had the express Order of the Church for what I did For the Admonition to all Ministers Ecclesiastical Printed before the Homilies has these Words Where it may so chance some one or other Chapter of the Old Testament to fall in order to be read upon the Sundays or Holydays which were better to be changed for some other of the New Testament of more Edification it shall be well done to spend your Time to consider well of such Chapters before-hand whereby your Prudence and Diligence in your Office may appear so that your People may have cause to glorify God for you and be the readier to embrace your Labors to your better Commendation to the Discharge of your Consciences and their own And yet for all this and a great deal more to the same purpose that I then said to him he so stifly and so obstinately stuck to the Kalendar that He wholly disregarded the Edification of his Family the Breach of Friendship and the excellent Order of the Church From both which Instances not to give you any more I humbly conceive that both my Requests are not at all unreasonable or unseasonable And God of his infinit Mercy grant that they may be both Duly weighed and Conscientiously Practiced And God grant also that the Rigid and High-flown Men of both sides may be Disallowed and Discountenanced And that the Moderate and Sober Men of both sides may be only approved and encouraged That so Our Moderation may be known unto all Men and that our Jerusalem may be a City that is at Peace and Unity with its self And Oh how willingly would I go and meet them half way Yea How willingly would I go and meet them to their own Houses And God grant all Men may be of