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
A90903	A summons for svvearers, and a law for the lips in reproving them wherein the chiefe disswasives from swearing are proposed, the sleight objections for swearing answered, the strange judgments upon swearers, forswearers, cursers, that take Gods name in vain, related. Which may be a terror to the wicked for swearing, and a preservative for the godly from swearing. With sundry arguments to prove the verity of the Scriptures, and excellencie of the decalogue, against all prophane and atheisticall deniers thereof. By Walter Powell, preacher at Standish, neer Glocester.	Powell, Walter, b. 1590 or 91.	1645 (1645)	Wing P3098; Thomason E1228_1; ESTC R203197	141,220	287

and frequent in reprehending for hee is patient and full of compassion There is nothing so cold as lead Sol. nothing so scalding if it bee heated nothing so blunt as Iron nothing so piercing if it be sharpened nothing so calm as the Sea in a boysterous weather nothing so tempestuous nothing so milde as the Elephant nothing so cruel if once intaged nothing so mercifull as God and if still provoked nothing so terrible to sinfull swearers that continue to take his name in vain hee will not hold them guiltlesse Now will God not spare but certainly punish such persons and shall man that was created after his Image in righteousnesse and true holinesse and must be just holy and pure as God is 1 Joh. 3.9 1 Joh. 3.9 Shall a man I say refuse to reprehend with tongue whom God will severely punish with hands God forbid If we are afraid to touch them with the scabbard of reprehension we would be much more a fraid to smite them with the sword of punishment the sharp edge of correction If wee confesse God before men wee shall be confessed before him at the last day but if wee deny him here we shall be denyed before him there Matth. 10 32 33. Mat. 10.32 33. Parents would not take it well at their children if they should heare them abused and evill spoken of by other slanderous persons and would not open their lips to reprehend the slanderer and stand in the defence of the credit and name of their wronged Father When Croesus as Herodotus relates was assaulted in the sight of his dumb Son they say the force of nature wrought so forcibly with him that it loosed the strings of his tongue and he cryed out Homo ne perdas Croesum O man kill not Croesus The story I leave to be defended by the Authour this is certain no outward action more cleares our inward grace of adoption arguing us indeed to be the sons of God then when wee are truly sensible of dishonour offered to our heavenly Fathers name wee imbark our selves in his quarrels Do not I hate them that hate thee and am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee yea I hate them with a perfect hatred Psal 139.21 as though they were mine enemies Psal 139.21 How many have vainly spilt their blood for the defence of their Mistresses beauty or their own imaginary reputation which had they done in the defence of God and his Religion against blasphemous swearers and hellish cursers they had undoubtedly purchased both the renown and the reward of martyrdome I finde this duty of reprehending Swearers but rawly performed Object 2. therefore I forbear also If one Judge in one Circuit hath spared the hanging of a malefactor Sol. must another Judge in the next Circuit therefore forbeare to punish him Shine thou as a light in the midst of a crooked and dark nation If thou refuse to do it also then thou increasest the number of wicked and crooked persons By Precepts we are to be directed which are good and not by examples which are bad Performe it thy self then shalt thou cause others to imitate thee and so make many where none were sincerely zealous before Wee say the Gardner is the cause that weeds do grow because he letteth them grow and so it may be said in Church and Commonwealth of them that will not rebuke sin because they will not be medlers but if we do but stand by Act. 7.5 8. 8.1 and look on as Saul did wee are made allowers of the fact When thou sawest a thiefe thou consentedst Psal 50.18 Peter makes the Jews murtherers Psal 50.18 Acts 4. because they were allowers of it I finde such ill successe when I do reprove Object 3. as that few have been bettered or amended thereby Though it be said of the belly Sol. Psal 58.4 Venter non habet aures yet it may be as truly said of the tongue of the Swearer Lingua non habet aures the tongue hath no eares for as the Swearer doth imitate the poyson of the Adder in his tongue so hee the deafnesse of the Adder in his eare stopping his earelike the Adder and will not hearken to the voyce of the charmer yet discharge thou thy duty and leave the successe to God No man doth cast away as it were and spend in vain so much as the Lord doth how many Sermons spends he in vain how many promises in vain how many threatnings in vain how many things commandeth and forbiddeth he in vain men nothing esteeming them and yet he ceaseth not Shall we herein expect to fare better then the Lord Shall we not as good children of so good a Father still labour in discharging our duty though by our admonition or correction we find little amendment considering we shall receive a reward not according to our successe but according to our labour 1 Cor. 15. Thou by Gods blessing many times shalt find such good successe even beyond hope and expectation as that thou wilt have just cause to rejoyce in the performing of thy duty and to praise God for his blessing upon it Naturall motions gather strength in moving do thou begin this duty whether of reprehension or punishment as thy calling and conscience shall round thee in the eare and then see whether though thou find some rubs oppositions and gain-sayings at the first yet the further thou wadest in this duty the more easie thou shalt find the passage and the means more ready to compasse thy intended purpose Thou shalt have greater comfort in thy conscience more respect to thy person more power in thy words by Gods blessing to prevail with them and they lesse power in their actions and their courses to gainsay thee They by this thy diligence may be converted and thou shine gloriously in heaven thou without this canst not have thy duty discharged or ever live comfortably on earth I believe Object 4. that they in their ordinary swearing mean no ill do it but in jest and for fashion I should but seem to shame them and seeke my own glory in reproving them If they are not ashamed to utter ill oathes will they be ashamed to heare good words Sol. If it be discredit to wander out of the way is it not a credit to return into the right way againe It is wonder that the imputation of a common swearer should be so odious and the practice so frequent amongst men wherefore either seem to be as thou art or else to be as thou wouldest seem either make care and conscience that thou rashly utter not oathes or else be content that a man call a Spade a Spade a Swearer a Swearer When Thespis the first Stage-player was asked if he were not ashamed to utter so many untruths in so worthy an audience he answered he did it in sport To whom wise Solon replied if we approve and commend this sport

imitation imitate God in your dutie whom you doe imitate indignity Swearing is a sin of such insolent growth that it scorns to be queld by the tongue or slain by the pen but like the Princes of Midian it cals for a Gideon himself the power of the Magistrate to fall upon it If ever then I would to God that in this time and in this point my voyce were like the voyce of some thundring Pericles my sides brass and my tongue as the pen of a ready writer that my words were tipt with an Adamant to make deep impressions in your souls touching this point Oh that I had the silven Trumpet of Hilarie the golden mouth of Chrysostome the mellifluous speech of Origen that my prayers might bee powerfull and words effectull to perswade and prevail with you that this dutie of oppressing the growth of swearing might not onely float upon the fugitive streames of the eare but also be landed upon the solid shore of your hearts Suppose there could not be found any other sin in the land suppose swearing had not any other sinne to beare it company suppose there were not any forraine enemy in the world to invade us yet the frequent use of this infernall language of the Devill would prove an Engine strong enough to batter our walls a sword keen enough to martyr our flesh an arrow swift enough to drink up our blood a plague overspreading enough to make a flaw in our State a breach in our peace a scar in our Church a hot Feaver a shaking ague sure enough to shake our land from one end to another and make all to quiver and tremble from the lowest Shrub to the tallest Cedar Doe you therefore that have conscience and calling in your severall persons and places resist oppose suppresse this proud sin that scornes to quarrell with any under God this stout sinne that is alwayes heaving at the foundation and strength of our Lord Oh suffer not this crafty Sinon to be lodged and succoured within the cabinet of your own souls to sit at your boards to jet in your streets to dwell in your houses to nestle in your eares without any check or controll why should this above all other sinnes submit it selfe to no censure or sharp reproofe If common Swearers saith Bishop Hooper bee suffered to sinne without punishment the sinne is so abominable that surely the Magistrates and whole common-wealth are like in time to smart for it The gangrene hereof not cut off in the Toe it spreads forwards till it putrifie the whole body The Persians made them slaves that could not be rulers of their own tongues Philip King of France ordained that whosoever by swearing blasphemed God yea if in a Taverne he should be drowned straightwayes Turneb in Ja. Maximilian the Emperour decreed that whosoever should bee deprehended for a vaine swearer should pay 13. shillings foure pence which money whoso refused to pay and repented not of the wickednesse should lose his head Henry the first of this land appointed the payment of fourty twenty ten three shillings four pence according to the degrees of the swearers to be imployed for the poore The Romans Egyptians Grecians Scythians Turkes Justinian the Emperour Lewis of France appointed and inflicted severall punishments as you heard before upon the heads eares lips goods bodies lives of Swearers And now after so many dehortations from this sinne and severall judgements upon the sinners what cause or reason have our rash fearfull Ruffian-like swearers to expect freedome from the like punishment from the hands of men seeing they deserve greater at the hands of God then either with the Roman Swearers to be thrown down from an high rock that have endeavoured by their continuall cursed swearing for every trifle to pull down God from the height of heaven Or with the Grecian Swearers to lose their eares since by their swearing they have infected the eares of others Or with the French Swearers to bee scared in their lips that have not been a bridle to their words Or with the Egyptian swearers to lose their heads because it harboured such bloody Traytors against God and man heaven and earth Or with the Scythian swearers to be punished with losse of goods because oft by their swearing they have wronged others in their estates Or with the Turkish swearers to have no admission to the government of others that could not guide their own unruly tongues Or with the Persian swearers to be made slaves to other because they could not be masters over themselves and their sayings Or with Philip of France his swearers to be drowned in water because by their sinne they have caused the fish to be destroyed in the Sea Or with Maximilian and King Henry the first their swearers to be punished in purse for the good of the poore because for their swearing the land hath not yeelded like food and aliment for their bellies or cloathing and indument for their backes as otherwise it would Or with Justinian his swearers to be put to death because they have assayed afresh to crucify the Lord and giver of life Or with the English King his servant-swearers to be whipped in their body for making it a cage of unclean birds a stie of filthy hogges and a den of Hellish theeves which should have been preserved as first it was created an Habitation for God a member of Christ and a Temple of the holy Ghost 1 Job 4.15 1 Cor. 6.15.19 Oh that some good Phineas who is zealous of the name of God would break us the ice and take in hand to purchase and procure from our Senate the now assembled Court of Parliament some sharp and cutting Statute if purse penalty onely to preserve the poore from perjury and rich from impiety that might snap the growth and stanch the bloody issue of this heynous sinne the taking of Gods name in vain Verily God would say of such a man as he did of Phineas This good man that was zealous for my glory Numb 25.11 hath turned away my anger from you Surely happy should bee that day immortall should be that memory and renowned ever should be the name of that man by whose zealous endevour so good a work should be effected his memory should never perish but wheresoever there should bee mention of his name there also should the good work that he had done be spoken of for a memoriall of him and every man would say Oh that was the man that first hindered the blaspheming and furthered the sanctifying of Gods glorious name that was carefull to banish swearing first out of his own heart secondly out of his house thirdly out of the countrey before swearing banished him out of all Oh that we were so happy as once to see that day that so our wayes might be prosperous our sorrow easie our comforts many our life holy our peace permanent and our salvation certaine That this may be so all yee that desire to rest with

to their purses or posterity who nothing care what shall become of their soules so as they may have profit here and leave their children rich behind them But what profit doth it prove in the end The son is counted a Gentleman before the world for the goods sake and the Father is reckoned before God and his holy Angels a fire-brand in hell The sonne is Lord of many possessions the father is a wretch and hath nothing The sonne is replenished with dainties joy and pleasure the father is filled full of bitter sorrowes and intolerable torments The sonne singeth playeth danceth and maketh merry the father weepeth sorroweth and wisheth himselfe never to have been born Behold how Dame Perjury rewardeth her servants at the later end Mark what Claudianus the heathen Poet concludeth touching perjury In prolem dilata ruunt perjuria patris Et poenam merito filius ore luit Et quas fallacis collegit lingua parentis Has eadem nati lingua refudit opes The perjuries of the Father escaping punishment in this world fall upon the sonne and look what riches the tongue of the deceitfull father hath gathered together even the very same hath the tongue of the sonne paid home again and wast fully spent The Jurers or witnesses through rashnesse and want of admonition by the Magistrate are suddenly brought to this fearfull sinne of perjuty for want of sober advice and mature deliberation through hast and in affection to the one party are prone to slide into this dangerons pit Whereas at the taking of their oath they should be exhorted so uncorruptly to look upon the matter to deale so truly and uprightly and to give so just a verdict even as though it should be presented and offered up to the high and everlasting Judge Jesus Christ Magistrates likewise that promise with a solemne oath to doe all things accordingly to equity and justice and to accept no person in judgement but to maintain the good and punish the evill to exalt vertue and to punish vice if contrary to their oath they deale unrighteously oppresse the succourlesse judge for favour condemne the good save the evill persecute the favourers of Gods word maintaine the Papists they are then forsworn and shall not uscape the punishment of perjury Bishops and Pastors that promise faithfulnes to be earnest preachers to set forth Gods word and live according to the same if they doe not labour in the harvest of Gods word doe not lead an honest and vertuous life they are forsworne and shall not be held guiltlesse The man and wife that promise faith and troth to each other that they will in all estates and extremities lean each to other the man to love his wife as himselfe and hold himselfe contented with her the woman reverently to feare and obey her husband in the Lord if they breake this promise and one delight not in another but each seek after strange flesh they are then forsworn and shall not escape the punishment of perjury The subiects that promise obedience and willing service to their Rulers if they breake their promise and resist high Powers are forsworne and shall not escape the plagues of perjury As for all Knights of the Post false and forswearers who like Putiphars wife doe onely shew the garments of honest men to prove their dishonest cause I wish them no other punishment then that which Philip of Macedon inflicted upon two of his subiects in whom hee saw no hope of grace Vnum à Macedonia fugere alterum persequi jussit he made the one of them to run out of Macedonia and the other to drive him A faire riddance of them both as is in the proverb without a Sessions Isocrates the Orator gives an excellent caution to all those who for the least advantage adventure to take an oath Take an oath saith he that is put unto thee for two causes either that thou mayst deliver thy selfe from a filthy crime or that thou mayst preserve thy friends that are in perill and danger but for money see thou sweare by no God although thou sweare righteously For to some thou shalt seem to forswear thy selfe and to some to bee desirous of money Surely a divine saying of an heathen man and worthy to bee written in Marble and brasse yea in the hearts of men Wherefore if the thought of the shame before men will not yet let thee feare and danger of the punishment from God restrain us from this so dreadfull and damnable a sin Foelices faciant si aliena pericula cautos It is well for us if the sufferings of others keep us from sinning Let no man think that God will leave that unpunished in us which he hath not pardoned in other that had not so many examples of punishment before them as are before us Let us feare to partake in their sinnes lest that we share also in their punishments for where sinneis framed in the Antecedent there punishment is inferred in the Consequent unlesse Gods mercy and mans penitency make a separation between the cause and the effect the beginnning and end And so I passe to the last of the wayes that at first I proposed whereby Gods name is taken in vaine to wit by cursing wherein I dare passe my word I will be very brief lest this discourse that at first was intended but a narrow entrance to bee passed through in the space of an houre should swell into a wide Ocean even not to be sailed over in the length of a Summers day Gods name is taken in vain by cursing There is a certaine multiplicity Doct. 4. severity of punishment attending all those that by cursing doe take Gods name in vain Because they transgresse against the precept of God in the Law Reason Exo. 22.28 Mat. 5.44 Rom. 12.14 Vse 1. Levit. 19.14 and the precepts of Christ in the Gospel Let us then men and brethren bee exhorted to suffer the consideration of this truth not onely to swim in our braines but also to sink into our hearts that wee bee carefull to prevent this hideous sinne this uncharitable sin that so directly aimes at mans hurt and at Gods prerogative Royall Vengeance is mine Deut. 32.35 and I will repay it Deut. 32.35 The main motives that may preserve us from falling into and recover us from sinking in this sin are these two 1 The greatnesse of the sinne Two motives 2. The grievousnesse of the punishment due to and waiting on the same The greatnesse of the sin appeares because 1. The curser breaks the first Table touching God in taking his name in vain 1 The greatnesse of the sin hee hath no love or feare of God in him seeing he makes God the executioner of his lust and revenge Levit. 19.14 Lev. 19.14 2. The curser breakes the second Table touching man Jam. 3.9 seeing hee discovers the inward malice of his heart by the outward pollution of his hell-hatched words in defiring his ruine

the example should not discredit the truth hereof seeing we read how Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt Gen. 19. Gen. 19. And Corah with his company swallowed up into the earth Numb 16. Numb 16. Happy are we if the punishments inflicted upon others doe make us repent and leave our own known fins and all such bitter cursings fearfull imprecations against our selves and others such as are these I pray God I may never stirre or I may rot alive or my eyes may drop out of my bead I would I might never speak more if it bee not true or I may sink into the earth or that these hands may never open again or the Devill then take me if I do this or I pray God this bread or drink may be my poyson or I may never enjoy good by any peny that ever I shal have or being offended with others The pox take thee the plague consume thee a murraine on thee the Devill fetch thee alive or would to God thou never hadst been born or seen the Sunne or I pray God I may never see thee again with a world of such fearfull sinfull direfull wishes But wee read of some that wished such dangerous wishes to themselves Object and many fearfull curses upon others If David Sol. Job Jeremy through violent passions and distempered perturbations were overtaken with any such sinfull wishes and imprecations yet they are no warrant for us to doe the like They are not set as land-markes to lead us to the shore of safety and imitation but as floating Boyes to cause us to avoid the rocks of like sinnes and inperfections David wee see in that dolefull Ditty upon the death of his deare darling Absolom discovered much passion and too much naturall affection both blind and sinfull in these words Would to God I had died for thee O Absolom c. If he had died for him he should have died the death that he died withall Now should it have been requisite that a faithfull King should have died for a rebellious subject so loving a father for so unnaturall a sonne a blessed father of all Israel for a cursed sonne of Belial Then would and might the Damosell singers have turned their joyfull melodies Saul hath slain his thousand and David his ten thousand into mournfull Elegies Saul was slain by the sword on his heart and David was slain by the haire of his head hanging by the boughes of an Oke as a recompence of his haughty ambition in the aire between heaven and earth as unworthy to live either with God above or with men beneath that being the cause of his destruction which he had made the cause of his exultation that should have proved his griefe and shame at his death which he accounted his glory and delight in the time of his life See how many inconveniences and reproches both to David in particular and to the Israel of God in generall would have ensued if his sinfull wish had been granted unto him The occasion of Jobs and Jeremies distempered wishes you may read Job 2.13 Jerem. 12.15 and 20. and 14. and then easily untie the knot of ambiguity But David boasted of the hatred hee bare to some persons which hee wished not well unto Object Doe not I hate them that hate thee Psalm 139. This hatred was bred in David of the exceeding love of God Sol. and not properly of the love of himselfe or the hatred of others Hee that loveth himselfe earnestly doth surely hate his enemies but not the enemies of God Touching Moses and Pauls wishings Moses and Paul Exod. 32.32 Rom. 9.3 though some think them to be sinfull as Calvin doth Moseses yet most deem otherwise Some think their speeches to be parabolicall to shew the intention of their desire such as was Rachels Give me children or else I die Gen. 30.1 Gen. 30.1 Some taking the wishes to be conditionall if it be possible or if it please God Calvin Some thinking they preferred the safety of the people before their own souls But this is against the rule of Charity for though other mens souls should bee dearer unto us then our owne bodily life yet my soul should be dearer unto me then all other mens souls in the world Yea Tostatus further addeth if all the souls of the Saints yea of the Virgin Mary should perish unlesse my soul perish Citiùs eligcre deberem omnes ill as perire quam animam meam I ought rather to make this choyce that all their souls should then my own soul should perish But the meaning of Moses in that wish was to preferre Gods glory above all things his own name to be blotted out rather then his enemies should have occasion to cast forth blasphemy against the Lord. He rather aimed at Gods glory then at his own salvation to be preferred The salvation of our souls is pretious but the glory of God ought to bee more pretious unto us saith Simlerus So Pauls meaning in wishing to be accursed was Rom. 9.3 rather then Gods glory should bee diminished or blemished by the scandalous imputation of the Gentiles in the rejection of the Jews his chosen people to whom pertained the promises the covenants the services adoption and glory of God Any other dreadfull wishes or imprecations that we read of by the Saints of God in the Scriptures seeming to wish hurt or ruine to the persons against whom they are powred out they are all either indefinite or propheticall Indefinite without naming any particular person or if definite naming some particular person then are they conditionall intending in the first place if God have so ordained it conversion if not in the second confusion or if they be both definite and absolute then are they propheticall Non tam vota quam vaticinia speeches of men inspired not so much wishing what they foretell as certainly foreseeing and foretelling that of themselves they wish not Vt in verbis quasi male optantis intelligamus praedict a prophetantis saith Saint Augustine or if they wish it it is because they know by revelation it is the will of God or that it makes for the glory of God When David and Paul prayed for the destruction of their enemies Psal 109. from the sixth verse to the 21. or for false teachers to bee accursed Gal. 1.8 9. and the wicked that trouble the godly to be cut off in the 2. Corinthians they are predictions rather then maledictions they wished destruction not as revengers upon them but rather that their wickednesse might end thereby They prayed not as private persons wishing revenge on their enemies but as publick persons desiring Gods justice to be shewed which prayers are not unlawfull yet very cauteously to be followed If we at any time pray for Gods plagues upon incorrigible sinners it must bee in the generall supposition of their uncurable unreclaimable impiety saying indefinitely with Paul 1 Cor. 16.22 If any