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	soul_n	world_n	1,708	5	4.6899	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61391	The husbandmans calling shewing the excellencies, temptations, graces, duties &c. of the Christian husbandman : being the substance of XII sermons preached to a country congregation / by Richard Steele.	Steele, Richard, 1629-1692.	1668 (1668)	Wing S5387; ESTC R30650	154,698	309

from me ye Evil-doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God But this Excess of the Husbandman is not ordinary but chiefly at the great Festivals and yearly Wakes And then he is in exceeding fault For though it be convenient for friends sometimes to meet together and be chearful yet the principal end of such Observations must not be forgotten which was to praise God and not pamper the flesh To spend time in religious exercises and feasting only to attend upon that But by no means to dishonour God by excess or keep such feasts as Jesus Christ would not keep you company in or like Nabal to be prodigal once a year and penurious ever after The wise Husbandman will not do so Temperance and Chearfulness are constant dishes on his Table He that will be devout to God or charitable to others must not be indulgent to himself SECT II. II. THe Second Abuse of Husbandry is Cruelty to the Creature An unreasonable unmerciful use of the Creature whereby a man beats the heart out of his Cattel the heart out of his Ground yea the heart out of his Servants and Children It is said Prov. 12.10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel He regards his very beast out of pity not only out of policy but pity Now to weary out and break the spirits of the harmless and laborious beasts out of an immoderate desire to do much work or get much gain this is an abuse in Husbandry and a spot upon Christians If God should give thy Horse or Oxe a tongue to speak as he did to Baalams Ass how unanswerably might they ask thee What have I done to thee that thou hast smitten me these three times Numb 22.28 Why art thou so unmerciful to one that cannot speak for himself You must remember they are your fellow-servants and you but Stewards and not Lords over them You are the Lords reasonable Servants and they are his unreasonable Servants You are both made of the same Mold and it is only the goodness of God that hath made you better and if you want Grace you are worse than they Use therefore that Mercy and Moderation that beseems a man of Bowels a man of Religion Consider if God have not sometimes taken away some of thy Cattel for thy cruelty to the rest and sometimes blasted thy business which with so much impatience thou hast pursued A man would think Bedlam were broke loose to see the mad frantick passion you sometimes are in with your Cattel when they give you no cause but by being ●…norant that is you are outragious with them because they are beasts O the heat the rage the oaths the curses the nonsense the stripes nay sometimes the maims you bestow upon them for little or no cause at all where 's the mercy now where 's the patience where 's the meekness that becomes your reason your profession The worst of them are more tractable to you than you are to God your Oxe knows you better than some of you know God for he 'l follow you when you carry his meat before him but you will not follow after God though all your fresh springs are in him your Cattel will quietly submit to the Yoke while you wrangle and wrestle against any Yoke that 's put upon you Bewail therefore and amend this ●…oolish Crueltie and shew mercy below thee as thou expectest mercy from above For it is often found that mild and moderate endeavours conduce more to thrift than the impatient hurrying and cruel wringing of worldly men Gods blessing which alone makes rich accompanying that former but seldom this latter way who sooner or later revengeth the cause of his meanest Creatures upon those that cruelly oppress them SECT III. III. THe Third Abuse of Husbandry Drudging that is a base merci●… Plodding in the world an enslaving both soul and body to it a serving it when a man should serve himself of it wherefore the Holy Ghost saith Hab. 2.13 Behold is it not of the Lord of Host that the people shall labour in the fire and people shall weary themselves for very vanity It is a very great judgement from God and folly in man to do it To take such excessive care and pains as even to broyle in the fire through extream labour and all this for vanity for very vanity It is no way fit that Christs servant should be the worlds ●…rudge that thou who wast made a little lower then the Angels shouldst make thy self equal with the Beasts The comfort of thy life is much better than the riches of the world And it is neither thy wisdome nor dutie to destroy the Substance for the Accident to gain the world and lose thy self to get a living and hazzard thy life Object All our toyling will but maintaine our charge with all our drudging we do but li●…e It 's easie to talke but we alone feel what it is to pay such a Rent and maintain suc●… family they that blame our toyle will not keep our Children and therefore ought to let us alone Answ. 1. It is most sad in outward respects if it be so that so excellent a Creature as man should be forced to w●…ar out his spirits to 〈◊〉 a living and spend all his dayes in extream labour for food and rayment And 〈◊〉 to such 〈◊〉 hearted Land-lords and ●…ch of their 〈◊〉 conscionable P●…liffs also that impose such heavy Rents for poor men their fellow Christians to live on As the Emperour said of evil Herod it were better to be his Swine than his Son so one may truly say it were better to be their horses or dogs than their Tenants for they have more expressions of love and kindness from them and easier service imposed on them than their Tenants have What a wofull thing is it that one man nay one Christian should so ride upon and oppress another That the Landlord should surfet with plenty and the Tenant starve with want the Land-lord sing the Tenant suffer the one swim in the others sweat and tears and live in the others death This is horrible injustice which the great Land-lord of you all will revenge Alas the Lace of one Sute of yours would clothe all his family your extravagant Sa●…ces would purchase a full belly for them the week about Such an abatement of Rent as would do you no hurt would make your Te●…ant and his Children sing all the year and bless God for you Did you see their intollerable pains their homely and scanty fare●… and hear their frequent sighs and pitco●… moan your hearts must be harder than rocks if they did not relent Abate therefore for pities sake of your ●…gour let not your little finger be heavi●… than your Grand-fathers loins rememb●… you are all of the same dust and what 〈◊〉 you that you have not received And kno●… that your mercy will lose you nothing the ●…ating of