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	reason_n	1,431	5	5.5448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62609	A sermon preached before the King and Queen at White-Hall, the 27th of October being the day appointed for a publick thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the signal victory at sea, for the preservation of His Majesty's Sacred Person, and for his safe return to his people / by John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1692 (1692)	Wing T1246; ESTC R17994	15,618	38

Provocation And this in a more Barbarous manner than the most Barbarous Nations ever did carrying Fire and Desolation wheresoever he went and laying wast many and great Cities without necessity and without pity And now behold what a terrible Rebuke the Providence of God hath given to this mighty Monarch in the full Carrier of his Fortune and Fury The consideration whereof brings to my thoughts those Passages in the Prophet concerning old Babylon that standing and perpetual Type of the great Oppressors and Persecutors of Gods true Church and Religion How is the Oppressour ceased the exactour of gold ceased He who smote the People in wrath with a continual stroke he who ruled the Nations in anger is himself persecuted and none hindreth The whole Earth is at rest and is quiet and breaks forth into singing The grave beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee even all the Captains of the Earth it hath raised up from their Thrones all the Kings of the Nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we are art thou also become like unto us How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning How art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North That is upon Mount Zion for just so the Psalmist describes it Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole Earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the North. Here the King of Babylon threatens to take Jerusalem and to demolish the Temple where the Congregation of Israel met for the Worship of the true God I will also sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North Much in the same Style with the threatnings of Modern Babylon I will destroy the Reformation I will extirpate the Northern Heresie And then he goes on I will ascend above the height of the clouds I will be like the most High Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave to the sides of the pit They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms that made the World as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof and opened not the House of his Prisoners God seems already to have begun this Work in the late glorious Victory at Sea and I hope he will cut it short in righteousness I have sometimes heretofore wondred Why at the destruction of Modern and Mystical Babylon the Scripture should make so express mention of great wailing and lamentation for the loss of Her Ships and Seamen Little imagining thirty years ago that any of the Kingdoms who had given their power to the Beast would ever have arrived to that mighty Naval Force But the Scripture saith nothing in vain Whether and how far Success is an argument of a good Cause I shall not now debate But thus much I think may safely be affirmed That the Providence of God doth sometimes without plain and downright Miracles so visibly shew it self that we cannot without great stupidity and obstinacy refuse to acknowledge it I grant the Cause must first be manifestly just before Success can be made an Argument of Gods favour to it and approbation of it And if the Cause of true Religion and the necessary defence of it against a false and Idolatrous Worship be a good Cause Ours is so And I do not here beg the Question we have abundantly proved it to the confusion of our Adversaries If the vindication of the common Liberties of Mankind against Tyranny and Oppression be a good Cause then Ours is so And this needs not to be proved it is so glaringly evident to all the World And as our Cause is not like theirs so neither hath their Rock been like our Rock our Enemies themselves being Judges And yet as bad an argument as success is of a good Cause I am sorry to say it but I am afraid it is true it is like in the conclusion to prove the best Argument of all other to convince those who have so long pretended conscience against submission to the present Government Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a good Cause and the most improper to satisfie Conscience And yet we find by experience that in the issue it is the most successful of all other Arguments and do's in a very odd but effectual way satisfie the Consciences of a great many men by shewing them their Interest God has of late visibly made bare his Arm in our behalf though some are still so blind and obstinate that they will not see it Like those of whom the Prophet complains Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at thy People Thus have I represented unto you a mighty Monarch who like a fiery Comet hath hung over Europe for many years and by his malignant influence hath made such terrible havock and devastations in this part of the World Let us now turn our View to the other part of the Text And behold a greater than he is here A Prince of a quite different Character who does understand and know God to be the Lord which doth exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And who hath made it the great Study and Endeavour of his life to imitate these Divine Perfections as far as the imperfection of humane nature in this mortal state will admit I say a greater than he is here who never said or did an insolent thing but instead of despising his Enemies has upon all occasions encounter'd them with an undaunted Spirit and resolution This is the Man whom God hath honoured to give a Check to this Mighty Man of the Earth and to put a hook into the Nostrils of this great Leviathan who has so long had his pastime in the Seas But we will not insult as He once did in a most unprincely manner over a Man much better than himself wheu he believed Him to have been slain at the Boyne And indeed Death came then as near to him as was possible without killing him But the merciful Providence of God was pleased to step in for his Preservation almost by a Miracle For I do not believe that from the first use of great Guns to that Day any mortal man ever had his shoulder so kindly kiss'd by a Canon bullet But I will not trespass any further upon that which is the great Ornament of all his other Vertues though I have said nothing of Him but what all the World does see and must acknowledge He is as much above being flatter'd as it is beneath an honest and a generous mind to flatter Let us then glory in the Lord and rejoyce in the God of our Salvation Let us now in the presence of all his People pay our most thankful acknowledgments to him who is worthy to be praised even to the Lord God of Israel who alone doth wondrous things Who giveth Victory unto Kings and hath preserved our David his Servant from the hurtful Sword And let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would long preserve to us the invaluable Blessing of our two Excellent Princes whom the Providence of God hath sent amongst us like two good Angels not to rescue two or three persons but almost a whole Nation out of Sodom By saving us I hope at last from our Vices as well as at first from that Vengeance which was just ready to have been poured down upon us Two Sovereign Princes reigning together and in the same Throne and yet so intirely one as perhaps no Nation no Age can furnish us with a Parallel Two Princes perfectly united in the same Design of promoting the true Religion and the Publick Welfare by reforming our Manners and as far as is possible by repairing the breaches and healing the ●ivisions of a miserably distracted Church and Nation In a Word Two Princes who are contented to sacrifice Themselves and their whole Time to the care of the Publick And for the sake of that to deny themselves almost all sort of ease and pleasure To deny themselves did I say No they have wisely and judiciously chosen the truest and highest Pleasure that this World knows the Pleasure of doing good and being Benefactors to mankind May they have a long and happy Reign over us to make us happy and to lay up in store for Themselves A Happiness without measure and without end in Gods glorious and everlasting Kingdom for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen FINIS Advertisement THERE is newly Printed and in few days will be publisht Sixteen Discourses on several Texts of Scripture By the late Pious and Learned Henry More D. D. in Octavo Printed for Brab Aylmer in Cornhil 1 Cor. 1. 25. Job 21. 30. Chap. 28. 12. Job 28. 28. Eccl. 9. 11. Job 38. 22 23. Ps 52. 1. Prov. 23. 5. Eccl. 5. 13. Prov. 1. 18. Job 40. 9. Judg. 10. 13. Deut. 32. 20. Jer. 6. 8. Isa 14. Ps 48. 2. Rev. 18. 17. Isa 26. 11.

For so Deborah explains the fighting of the Stars in their courses against Sisera They fought says she from Heaven the stars in their courses fought against Sisera the River of Kishon swept them away As if the Stars which were supposed by their influence to have caused those sudden and extraordinary Rains had set themselves in Battel-array against Sisera and his Army Therefore let not the mighty man glory in his might which is so small in it self but in opposition to God is weakness and nothing The weakness of God says St. Paul is stronger than men All power to do mischief is but impotence and therefore no mater of boasting Why boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou art able to do mischief the goodness of God endureth continually The goodness of God is too hard for the pride and malice of man and will last and hold out when that has tir'd and spent it self 3. Thirdly Let not the rich man glory in his riches In these men are apt to pride themselves even the meanest and poorest spirits who have nothing to be proud of but their money when they have got good store of that together how will they swell and strut as if because they are rich and increased in goods they wanted nothing But we may do well to consider that Riches are things without us not the real excellencies of our Nature but the accidental ornaments of our Fortune If they descend upon us they are the priviledge of our Birth not the effect of our wisdom and industry and those things in the procurement whereof we had no hand we can hardly call our own And if they be the fruit of our own prudent industry that is no such matter of glorying because men of much slower understandings do commonly outdo others in diligence and drudging their minds lying more level to the low design of being rich At the best Riches are uncertain Charge them says St. Paul that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches Men have little reason to pride themselves or to place their confidence in that which is uncertain and even next to that which is not So the wise man speaks of Riches Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings and fly as an Eagle towards heaven He expresses it in such a manner as if a rich man sate brooding over an Estate till it was fledg'd and had gotten it self wings to fly away But that which is the most stinging consideration of all is that many men have an evil eye upon a good Estate so that instead of being the means of our happiness it may prove the occasion of our ruin So the same Wise man observes There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt And it is not without example that a very rich man hath been excepted out of a general Pardon both as to Life and Estate for no other visible reason but his vast and overgrown Fortune So Solomon observes to us again Such are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain which taketh away the life of the owners thereof And why should any man be proud of his danger of that which one time or other may be the certain and only cause of his ruin A man may be too rich to be forgiven a fault which would never have been prosecuted against a man of a middle fortune For these reasons and a great many more Let not the rich man glory in his riches II. I proceed to consider What it is that is matter of true glory But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. That he understandeth and knoweth me Here are two words used to express the thing morefully understanding and knowledg which seem not only to import right apprehensions of the Being and Providence and Perfections of God but likewise a lively sense of these things and affections suitable to these apprehensions That he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord that is the Creator and the Sovereign Governor of the World Which exercise lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth The best knowledg of Religion and that which is the foundation of all the rest is the knowledg of the Divine Nature and Perfections especially of those which are most proper for our imitation and such are those mentioned in the Text lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness which we may distinguish thus Lovingkindness comprehends Gods milder Attributes his Goodness and Mercy and Patience Judgment signifies his severer dealings with men whether in the chastisement of his People or in the remarkable punishment of great Offenders for example and warning to others Righteousness seems to be a word of a larger signification and to denote that universal Rectitude of the Divine Nature which appears in all the administrations of his Providence here below for the Text speaks of the exercise of these Perfections in this world which exercise lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth Several of the Perfections of the Divine Nature are incommunicable to a Creature and therefore cannot be thought to be proposed to us for a Pattern as self-existence independence and all-sufficiency the eternity and the immensity of the Divine Being to be the original Cause of all other things and the Sovereign Governour of the whole World For God only is sufficient for that and to be a Match for all the World a nec pluribus impar is not a Motto fit for a mortal man A Creature may swell with pride till it burst before it can stretch it self to this pitch of Power and Greatness It is an insufferable presumption and a sottish Ignorance of the necessary bounds and limits of our Being to think to resemble God in these Perfections This was the ambition of Lucifer to ascend into Heaven and to be like the most High In our imitation of God we must still keep within the station of Creatures not affecting an independency and sovereignty like God and to be omnipotent as he is Hast thou an arm like God and canst thou thunder with a voice like Him as God himself argues with Job For in these things I delight saith the Lord. God takes pleasure to exercise these Perfections himself and to see them imitated by us and the imitation of these Divine Perfections is our perfection and glory in comparison of which all human wisdom and power and riches are so far from being matter of glory that they are very despicable and pitiful things Knowledge and skill to devise mischief and power to effect it are the true nature and Character of the Devil and his Angels those Apostate and accursed Spirits who in temper