Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	great_a	nature_n	1,832	5	4.9469	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67427	A sermon preached to the natives of the city and county of Worchester in the church of St Laurence Jewry at their solemn meeting, June 28. 1681 / by George Walls ...	Walls, George, 1644 or 5-1727.	1681 (1681)	Wing W623; ESTC R7593	14,178	36

A SERMON Preached to the NATIVES Of the City and County OF WORCESTER IN THE Church of St LAVRENCE JEWRY at their SOLEMN MEETING June 28. 1681. By GEORGE WALLS M. A. and Student of Christ Church Oxon. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Samson Evans Bookseller in Worcester and Robert Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet MDC LXXXI Nehem. VIII at the 10th Verse Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepar'd THIS solemn Assembly and great Meeting as exactly answers and fully complies with some great circumstances of this Feast of Tabernacles meant in my Text in some of the highest reasons of it's institution and most admirable rules for its observation as if Moses had been interested in the Original appointment and Nehemiah and Ezra had directed us too how to keep the Feast For if we consult Deut. 16. we shall find it design'd though there were other causes of its institution for the benefit of the Fatherless and Widow where 't is said Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles and thou shalt rejoyce in thy Feast thou and the Stranger and the Fatherless and the Widow And that there might juster occasion be ministred for their rejoycing the males were not to appear at this Feast before the Lord empty but every man was to give as he was able according to the blessing of the Lord his God which he had given him And on the last day of it which in the 7th of St John is called The great day of the Feast and amongst the Hebrews The day of retention from the People's being retain'd as Fagius conjectures in order to a publick collection there was a stock of money raised which though some Learned men have appropriated to the service of the Altar and the buying in of the Sacrifices may besides very reasonably be supposed meant for their support also to whom portions were allotted in my Text. For though their interest was manifest in the contribution supposing it was made for no other purpose than Provision of Sacrifices for as much as they did feast on these at solemn times and were equally concern'd with others in the atonements made by them 't is not improbable but they might have a more particular interest and immediate share in the distribution especially if we consider what care they had of their Poor as appears among other instances from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conclave Masseceth Schekalim è versione Joh. Wulferi p. 132. silentûm as 't is rendred by a late Author a chest into which devout Persons were us'd privately to convey their Charities for the relief of Poor Children one of which the Talmud tells us was in every City though something of the Jew mix'd it self with these best Actions of theirs for we are there told that only good mens Sons were to have relief thence But if we read the foregoing part of the Chapter we shall find a nearer resemblance betwixt these two Feasts still for besides the Charitable intendment of it they took a care to joyn Prayers to their Alms and the devotion was as solemn as the Feast For the People gather'd ver 1. themselves together as one man and spake to Ezra the Priest who stood upon a Pulpit of wood as appears from the 4. verse of the Chapter and blessed the Lord the great God and all the People answer'd Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bow'd their heads and worship'd the Lord with their faces to the ground And it follows that he read or expounded to them in the Book of the Law of God that is he pray'd and Preach'd before his Country-men at the Feast The resemblance betwixt the two Feasts being thus stated I shall consider 1. The good influence and natural effects of such Meetings 2. The advantages and usefulness such kind of Charities the conseqences of these meetings have over all private ones 3. The great motives and encouragements we have to acts of charity and beneficence 1. The good influence and natural effects of such Meetings First Such Meetings give a weight and credit revive and renew as it were the obligation pay a respect and are a kind of annual homage to that so considerable relation of Neighbourhood under which God chose to represent men when he propos'd them to one another as the objects of Universal and perfect love Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And if the Duties of mutual love kindness assistance and good Offices which are due to Neighbourhood were but well perform'd all the disorders of the world would be cur'd and mischiefs prevented men would live at perfect peace and happiness would over-spread the face of the Universe since all the harm and inconveniences men receive are from those that are near them their Neighbours And therefore the keeping up the Authority of this relation of Neighbourhood is no small Duty no ordinary encouragement of vertue and preservation of Peace And though the Athenians were so ill natur'd as to leave the rest of mankind out of their Prayers yet they could not forbear to desire the blessings of Heaven on those who liv'd within the Confines of their own Country O Jupiter let thy rain fall upon all the good Lands of the Athenians Secondly These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love-Feasts were the places and occasions wherein Christians in the first Ages of the Church grew into one Body one affection one Friendship And the growth and establishment of Religion seems to derive much thence for as much as such Meetings were frequent and easier to be had than other Religious Assemblies because they gave less jealousie and scandal to the Heathen Persecutors and did not appear to have such tendency towards the introducing of a new Religion Feasting being what they themselves practised as well as the Christians And that they were to no great degree alarm'd by this Christian practice seems probable from the long continuance of these Feasts which we are told were in use till near two hundred years after Christ and then too were laid aside upon prudential considerations and only by consent And though corruptions and abuses at length crept into them and Satan came and presented himself amongst the Sons of God at these Feasts too those miscarriages were the effect of their other conversation and these spots not contracted by but appearing only in their Feasts of Charity For the quality of some and reputation of others and the great security that so numerous a Body gives to it self are such strong Guards against disorder and irregularity in such Conventions that the same causes that make this on several accounts a great do in some sort make it a Religious Assembly too This works off the ill influences of a private conversation and the sowrness of none at all roots up or stifles those seeds of prejudice and dislike that insensibly slide into our natures