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	see_v	1,466	5	3.4614	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61630	Thirteen sermons preached on several occasions three of which never before printed / by the Right Reverend Father in God Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester.; Sermons. Selections	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1698 (1698)	Wing S5671; ESTC R21899	215,877	540

Happiness too much here And therefore S. Luke subjoyns these Commands to the Parable of the Rich Man whose heart was in his Barns and Store-houses and took great care to lay in Provision enough for a sensual and voluptuous Life But to shew the unspeakable Folly of such vain Contrivances it was said to him This night shall thy Soul be required of thee and then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided II. I come now to our Saviour's Commands with respect to the Government of our Speech And he seems to be very severe as to this when he saith That every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the Day of Judgment What a heavy Account then are those to make whose time is so much taken up with idle and impertinent talk and who can hardly forbear it when they should be most serious Is it unlawfull then to speak any more than is just necessary to express our Minds May we not imploy our Speech sometimes for our innocent Diversion and Entertainment if we keep within the bounds of Prudence and Religion I do not see that our Saviour forbids it For the idle Words he speaks of there are profane false abusive malicious Reproaches of Religion and the means to confirm it as appears by his bringing it just after the mention of the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost So that all such Abuses of Speech which entrench on Piety and Good Manners or Truth and Sincerity are certainly forbidden by him But there is one particular Vice of Conversation which he hath with most force of Argument forbidden and yet which is a great shame to any that would be called Christians none more common among some who would pretend to understand the Methods of Conversation and the best Modes of Speaking and that is the profane Custom of Swearing I take it for granted that all are Christians among us ti●l they disown it themselves and however men may act they are not willing to renounce all hopes of Salvation by Christ I beseech them then to consider what a Contempt of his Authority is implied in this too fashionable sort of Profaneness The other Duties I have mentioned have a great Difficulty in them as to our Tempers and Inclinations but nothing of that Nature can be so much as pretended as to this For no man could ever say that he had a Swearing Constitution or that it was an Infirmity of his Nature There is nothing in it but the Tyranny of a very bad Custom which every Prudent Man as well as Good Christian will see Cause to break But what a Reproach is it to the very Profession of Christianity among us for so plain so easie a Command of Christ to be broken so commonly so unconcernedly so impertinently as is every day done and yet they call Christ Lord Lord In all Ages there were some pretended Christians who did not sincerely obey the Commands of our Saviour but their Hypocrisie was of a finer and more Artificial make this is gross and rude without the common Respect which is due to the Religion we all profess to be that or hope to be saved by Some say a Custom in it self is no Sin because it is no Act but certainly a customary breach of a plain Command is so much greater a Sin as it implies a greater Contempt of him that made it and when Custom hath taken away the Sense of the Fault it is so much more aggravated by it It is really a matter to be wonder'd at that among Persons professing a better sort of Breeding as well as Christianity a vitious Custom so untempting in it self so unbecoming the Decency of Conversation so Affronting to the Divine Majesty so directly contrary to the Commands of Christ should get so deep a rooting in ordinary Conversation that it seems almost impossible to be reformed But till men do think of breaking off such a Practice as this I despair of ever seeing them reform other things which have a deeper root in their natural Inclinations and have greater Advantages as to this World III. The Commands of Christ extend to the whole Course of our Actions so as that we lead a sober righteous and godly Life 1 As to Sobriety Take heed to your selves saith Christ lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness These are somewhat hard words for that which our Age hath learnt to express in much softer terms of Eating and Drinking well Luxury seems a thing quite forgotten to be a Sin among those who are most quilty of it and Intemperance thought so uncertain a thing as though it were impossible to tell when Persons are guilty of it 'T is true that Temperance may vary as to the Degrees and Limits of it and we do not pretend to define it by Grains and Scruples But still there ought to be a Governing our Appetites according to Reason and that is Temperance But what is Reason in this Case Some send us to the Brutes to find out what Reason is and they tell us it lies in a plain simple Diet such as the Beasts use without provoking or raising the Appetite But I know not where God hath forbidden the use of Art as to our Eating and Drinking and if this were so we must practice Temperance only in the use of Water and Acorns If meer Satisfaction of Nature were the exact Rule of Temperance then eating or drinking any thing beyond it were a Sin which would fill the Minds of those who are afraid to sin with infinite Scruples and make all Feasting unlawfull Yet our Saviour was present at one in Cana ●f Galilee and did a Miracle relating to it But we need not run into Niceties in this matter for Intemperance is either an over-charging of Nature so as to make it sink or totter under the load or it is a wanton humouring and pleasing the Appetite not for the service of Nature but for the Pleasure of Eating and Drinking Or it is as S. Paul calls it making a God of their belly by Sacrificing their Time their Study their Estates in order to the filling and pleasing of it Any of these ways it is no Difficulty to understand what Intemperance is I wish it were as easie to avoid it 2. As to Righteousness Our Saviour hath given one admirable Rule which all Persons agree to be of excellent use in all Contracts and Transactions of men with one another v. 31. And as ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise Which is an universal Rule of Justice and Equity if it be understood of what we would have others to do to us according to Reason and not according to the Partial Affection we are apt to have to our selves For this Rule is founded upon the second great Commandment as our Saviour calls it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self 3. As to Godliness He lays the

here given but the sight of the eye and the way of the heart i. e. outward Appearance and inward Inclination and these are the beloved Rules of the most sensual and voluptuous Persons and they judge of Happiness only by the pursuit of them Here is nothing mention'd of Reason or Conscience or a regard to Vertue in the Restraint of Natural Inclinations Nay here is nothing of that Severity which Epicurus himself thought necessary towards the maintaining of a pleasant State of Life which he granted could never be done without some Restraint of Men's Appetites and Inclinations to the Pleasures of Sense and it is not to be imagined that Solomon should give young Men greater Liberty than the corruptest Moralists did Therefore I cannot look upon these words as a Permission for them to do what is here expressed but as a full Description of that Method of Living which the jolly and voluptuous Corrupters of Youth would instruct them in Rejoyce O young Man in thy Youth and let thine heart chear thee c. II. We have here the most powerfull Check and Restraint laid upon all these sensual Inclinations of Youth But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Which words are the wise Man's Correction of the foregoing Liberty or the Curb which Reason and Religion give to the pursuit of Natural Inclinations wherein every Word hath its force and ought to make a deep Impression upon us For 1. Know thou Thine is not then the same cafe with Creatures that have no understanding they are not capable of any Check from themselves having no Law of Reason or Conscience within them to controul or govern the● sensual Desires but God hath given thee not meerly a brutal Appetite but a rational Soul capable of understanding the differences of Good and Evil and the Reasons why some things which appear pleasant are very difagreeing to the Principles of humane Nature i. e. to that Order Decency Modesty and Regularity which the more elevated Frame and Capacity of Mankind do require 2. For all these things as light and vain as you esteem them as soon as they are over and forgotten by you as secretly and closely as they are committed as much as you endeavour to palliate and excuse them yet but for all these things God will certainly bring thee into Judgment Therefore you have all the Reason in the world to consider what you do since every thing will be brought to Judgment whether it be good or evil as Solomon concludes this Book Which shews the great regard God hath to the Good or Evil of ou● Actions and if the great Judge of the World hath so certainly we ought to have it and never think our selves at liberty to do what we please in gratifying our Lusts and pursuing our Natural Inclinations to Evil. 3 God will do it If there were no God to call thee to an Account yet there are some Actions of Vertue so agreeable to Mankind and some Vices ●o loathsome and deformed that there would be sufficient cause for them to love the one and to abhorr the other If we could suppose such a Frame of things things and such sorts of Beings as we now see and no God to make them which is most absurd and unreasonable yet we must suppose these Beings to have Natures and Properties distinct from each other so that we could not imagine Men to become Beasts and therefore they must not act like them but preserve that Decorum or Agreeableness in their Actions which is suitable to the peculiar Excellencies of humane Nature And there are some Sins so much below the Dignity thereof that no Circumstances no Suppositions can make them fitting for Mankind to commit them which shews that the Nature of Good and Evil is no Arbitrary thing but is founded in the very Frame of our Beings and in the Respects we owe to our selves and to one another And since there is an Infinite and Supreme Being which hath absolute Power and Command over us and gives us both our Beings and the Comforts of our Lives it is most absurd to suppose it not to be a fault to hate his Goodness or to despise his Mercy or to slight his Power and to contemn his Authority For in all these there is something repugnant to the common Sense of Mankind and to all Principles of true Honour and Justice And there are such common Principles of Morality arising from our necessary Relation to God and each other which are of so clear and convincing Evidence that every one that considers them will grant that wicked Men may as well go about to dispute their Beings as their Sins and may as easily prove that they are not but only appear to be as that no Actions are really evil but only by false Glasses appear so to be But however vain Men may deceive themselves God will not be mocked for he not only sees and knows all our Actions but he will bring us to an Account for them 4. God will bring thee into Judgment It is a dreadfull Consideration to a Sinner that God knows all his false Steps all his secret Sins all his Falshood and Dissimulation with God and Men And there is nothing which Men of Art and Design hate more than to be discover'd and found out in all their double and deceitfull Dealings but to have these not only privately discover'd but exposed and laid open to the view of the World and not only so but to have every Circumstance examin'd and every Action scanned and that by the great Judge of all the World whom nothing can escape nothing can deceive nothing can withstand whose Justice is inflexible whose Knowledge is incomprehensible whose Power is irresistible and whose Vengeance is insuppo●table This we cannot but imagine must strike an awe and terrour into the Minds of Men when they are pursuing the Pleasures of Sin that for all these things God will bring them into Judgment But notwithstanding these and many other Expressions to the same purpose in Scripture wherein God hath declared that he will certainly Judge the World in Righteousness at the Great Day that the Secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed that we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and that God will render to every Man according to his Deeds And notwithstanding it is a thing in it self very reasonable from the Consideration of God's Justice and Providence and the Nature and Consequences of good and evil Actions yet the generality of Mankind go on as secure and careless as if there were no such thing or that they ought not to be concerned about it Therefore I shall not spend time in the Proof of that which I take for granted you all believe and I am sure have Reason so to do but I shall enquire into these things which are most practical and therefore proper for our Consideration at this Time 1. How a