Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	day_n	lord_n	1,882	5	3.6758	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29931	The wicked mans plot defeated, or, The wicked man laughed out of countenance as it was represented in a sermon preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11, 1656, by Thomas Baker.	Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More.; Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More. Gods provenance asserted in another sermon preached at St. Buttolphs, Aldergate, London.; Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More. Christs comming to judgement deciphered in a third sermon.	1656 (1656)	Wing B524; ESTC R28339	42,799	212

them before they di● Nay those that have afflicted the Righteous man self-convicted of the guilt of these their barbarous and savage practices and knowing that the time is at hand when they shall see him stand with great confidence before their faces as it is VVisd 5. may you heare in great anguish of spirit antedating their owne sad Destiny and wailing out their own dolefull Elegie This is he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverb of reproach we fools accounted his Life madness and his end without Honour now is he numbred amongst the children of God and his lot is amongst the Saints whilest we in the mean time have in vain wearied our selves in the wayes of wickedness and destruction we have erred from the way of Truth and the Sun of Righteousness is not Risen upon us We say in our ordinary proverb that he Laugheth well that Laugheth at last Indeed the success of a wicked Man whilest hee groweth Elated with his politick and mischievous practices upon the Righteous prospered may afford him such a kinde of Superficiall Merriment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as may wet the Mouth but hath little of vertue in it for the warming of the Heart Yea and minister unto them such matter of Flickering Laughter as that like that of the Preachers fool Eccles. 7. 6. it shall make a crackling Noise as Thornes under a Pot. But or ever the Pots of their Hearts be made hot with th●se thornes Indignation our Prophet is peremptory Psal. 58. 8. shall vexe them and lye heavy upon them as a thing that is Raw. Or as our New Translation readeth it God shall take them away from this their Ioy as with a whirlewinde Their Laughter shall in conclusion appear to be no other then Risus Sardonicus as the Laughter of those that have eaten of the Herbe Sardoa whose forced Merriment though it may outwardly set them a Grinning yet is inwardly still Griping and Galling them Continua Anxiet as nec mensae tempore cessat to make the Poet speake the Language of Canaan Even in the midst of Laughter their hearts are sorr●wful and the end of such mirth is always heaviness Prov. 14. 13. So that then just reason may St. Iames seem to have for the Allarming of the Rich Men of his time those that by unjust practices have heaped them up Riches Go to now ye Rich men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you you have lived in Pleasure on the Earth you have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter you have Condemned and Killed the Iust and none resisted you Jam. 5. But Mourn you shall and Weep your Laughter shall be turned into mourning and your Ioy into heavines Jam. 4. Yea the Lords own word it is to those that forsake him forget his Holy Mountain and prepare a Table for their Troopes Esa. 65. My Servants shall Rejoyce but you shall be ashamed my Servants shall Sing and Laugh for joy of Heart but you shall Howl for vexation of Spirit And then as the Preacher Eccles. 7. 3. Sorrow is better then Laughter sarre better shall it in conclusion appear for the Righteous to live for a time in a sad condition under their Enemies persecuting Hands being fully assured that the time is at Hand that their Hearts shall so Rejoyce as that their Joy no Man shall take from them as our Saviour sometimes to his Discipes in the like case Joh. 16. 22. Then with their Persecutors that may perhaps for some short space Revel in all manner of jollity and exercise an uncontrouled Tyranny upon them when at last yea perhaps suddenly they shall become sensible that the Lord all this while Laugheth at these their unhallowed practices clearly discovering his Day of Sadness to be at hand Which fitly bringeth us to the view of the sec●nd Observable in this Defeat of the Wicked Mans Plot the Cause thereof which we may here see to be two-fold The One Subalternate Other Principal And first are we to begin with the Subalternate the near approach of this his Day His Day is commeng In the 19 of St. Luke's Gospel a clear intimation have we that what Hierusalem there had every sinner still hath a twofold Day a Day of Merciful visitation and a Day of Drereful Vengeance A Day of visitation O that thou hadst known in this thy Day A Day wherein as God visited Hierusalem for three continued years by the preaching of his Sonne so doth he sinners still by the voice of his Successors his lawfully ordained Messengers and Ministers And a Day of vengeance Behold the Day of the Lord God of Hosts the Day of vengeance commeth wherein he will Avenge him of his Enemies Jer. 46. 10. Even of those that as we may not amiss Gloss this of the Prophet by that of the above-praised Evangelist in the 44 of the above praised Chapter that shall appear such Enemies not to him onely but themselves as to have neglected the Day of their visitation The first of these is the Day wherein God vouchsafed us a fair opportunity of walking even of walking in Newness of Life Are there not twelve houres in the day saith our Saviour Joh. 11. 9. if any Man walk in the Day he stumbleth not because he seeth the Light of the world And yet who seeth no● how far even the best of us are from being such good Husbands of this Day as according to that our Prophets Euloge of Man Psal. 104. 23. to go forth to our work and Labour even this our work and Labour of Newness of Life untill the Evening and therefore to say to our Couches of Idlenes as the Angel sometimes to Iaob Gen. 32. 26. Let me go for the Day breaketh that we are rather so farre prone to turn the Day into Night as to trifle away every hour of this Day in stretching us upon our Ivory Beds in Dreaming them out in secure slumbers in drawing down Deep Carouses in wantonning in Lustful Embraces in studying of politick Contrivances how we m●y rea●iest swallow up the Estates and so suck the Bloud of our innocent Neighbour And yet the Light of this Day like those Northern people that have the Equinoctial for their Horizon we will needs have as have they in their proper seasons still Lasting And as those that labour of a Vertigo conceive all things to Run Round by reason of the Dizziness that is in their Brain for that we are Idly disposed we will needes have the Time of this Day so far from passing that we will neede● perswade our selves that we have a like command upon it as had Ioshuah sometimes upon the Sun and Moon Josh. 10 12. Stand thou Sun in Gibeon and thou Moon in the Valley of Ajjalon so that at our words it shall stand at a stay to keep us company in th●s our Idleness And for any other Day we put it far away from us as it is Amos 6. 13. and cause the seat

of violence to draw near and as it is in the verse immediately following the Text We draw out our Swords and bend our Bows to slay such as are of an upright Cōversa●ion Yea we scoff at the tidings of any other days approach as those in the Apostle 2 Pe● 3 4. at the News of the comming of the Day of Judgment where is the Promise or rather Menace of its coming Or if much ado we will be drawn to heare of any such thing we yet say as those in the Prophet Esay 56. 12. To morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant Cras Cras procrastinat And still every Day that shineth out upon us shall in our presumptions still be sped of a New and Fresh Morrow to attend it The Spirit of God in the mean time whose peculiar office it is to bring all things to the Remembrahce of these he inspireth Joh. 14. 26. becommeth every where throughout the Sacred Volu●es an uncessant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of another Day the wicked Man is to expect Those that come after him saith Holy Iob of him shall be astonished at the comming of his Day as they that went before him were affrighted Job 18. 20. Remember the children of Edom O Lord in the Day of Hierusalem you know is our Prophets Address unto him in her behalf Psal. 137. 7. how they cried Down with it Down with it even to the Ground I saw is the Lords own word wherin he no less justly then sharply taxeth his people of Israel that in the Day wherein strangers carried away the Forces of your Brother Jacob and Forreigners entred into the Gates and cast Lots upon Hierusalem that you Rejoyced ●ver the childred of Judah in the Day of their Destruction and spake proudly in the Day of their Distress Obad. 11. 12. And it is that other Prophets just Exe●cration upon the Wicked after that hee hath capitulated with the Almighty about their prosperity Prepare them O Lord for their Day even the Day of slaughter Jer. 12. 3. Yea this Day of the wickeds prosperity it pleaseth the same Lord oftentimes to contract and so to speed their Day or rather Nights of Vengeance that their Sun goeth down at Noon and the Earth is Darkened with them in the clear Day as it is Amos 8. 9 Yea when God distributeth sorrowes unto them in his Anger and the Night of their Destruction commeth upon them their Candle that they might now at last hope should afford them some poore weake Light of Comfort is not seldome put out as it is Iob 21. 17. And so as it is 5. 14. of the same Book they meete with Darknesse in the Day-time And then strange may it not seeme to hear that the Knees of this Profligate wretch as Baltasars shall appeare to tremble when he shall now finde this Day or rather this Day made Night as it is Amos 5. 8. unawares to overtake him which he had put farre away from him Especially when hee shall heare the Almighty vying an high Roare of Laughter with his loud-yelling Accent of Anguish of Spirit upon his clear Fore-sight of this Days neare Approach Which is the more Principal cause of the Defeasance of th● the wicked Mans Plot and in the next Place calleth for your consideration The Lord shall laugh him to scorn for he hath seene that his Day is comming The word Is comming you see is of an Indefinite Expression and so far from pointing out the present Minute of this Days Appearance At which whilest debauched Miscreants and to every good worke Reprobate will not unlikely be ready to catch Advantage and shall therefore with the five Foolish Virgins Mat. 25. betake them to slumbrings and sleepings and with that Evil servant in the 24 of the same Gospel to Eating and Drinking and smiting his Fellow servants whom therefore his Master comming in a Day that he looketh not for him and in an Houre that hee is not aware of shall cut in sunder and appoint him his Portion with Hypocrites He that shall but duely poize things in the Ballance of the Sanctuary ●n the Scales of a Religious consideration whose Feare is as his Faith the Evidence of things not seen will look upon this Day of whose Indefinite and Indeterminate Advent hee is here thus cautioned as if he saw and felt it already come At least as Damocles did upon the Pendant Sword which may every Minute drop downe about his Eares and make an immediate Dispatch of him And therefore it is well worthy our best observation that when the Prophet Ezekiel 7th of his Prophesie giveth the Inhabitants of Hierusalem a shrill Allarum of their inevitable Destruction at Hand the Future and Present Tenses he so intortleth and interweaveth as that he seemeth to make both of equal certainty I will shortly pour out my Fury and accomplish mine Anger upon thee vers 8. That you see for the Future And yet vers 6. we hear of nothing else but the found of Present Destruction An End is come the End is come it watcheth for thee Beho●a it is come Nay the Final Desolation of this very Hierusalem though it be not Actually Accomplished until Two 〈◊〉 Forty years after our Saviours 〈◊〉 Yet are the People of that Present Generation Forewarned thereof by him as if it were already put in Execution Behold your Howse is left unto you dese●le Mat. 23. 38. So that then see I Uncleanness Excess Sacriledge Barbarisme Cruelty Blasphemy Hypocrisie all manner of Iniquity to abound in an Age and yet not to scape with Impunity onely but to be sped of all manner of successfull Prosperity shall I now conclude that they shall finally escape for this their wickedness as it is Psal. 56. 7. No I look upon their Destruction as undoubtedly to come upon them as if I saw it Actually overtaking them Nay Ye say It will be Fowle weather to Day you know is our Saviours words to the Pharisees for the Skie is Red and Lowring Mat. 17. 3. See I Men to look with Red and Lowring Countenances portending nothing but Bloudy and Destructive Practices I justly conclude that there is a present Storme of Fowle weather that boadeth not others onely from them but even themselves Nay as the Floud commeth upon the old world and sweepeth them all away whilest they are Ea●ing and Drinking Building and Planting Marrying and giving in Marriage Matth. 24. 38. See 1 Men securely promising themselves an happy continuance and prosperous successe in their never-so Irregular Courses upon this Security of theirs I look as upon an undoubted Harbinger of the Day of their Destruction hard at the Doores But be it that it shall please the Lord for a time to suspend the Execution of his Vengeance upon these High-grain'd and Deep dy'd Sinners So that the Day thereof he yet seeth every Day nearer Aproaching may for some short space be forborne the Observation may in no wise escape us that the Hebrew word

sence therefore may justly challenge our best Attention and consideration Ingredimini sunt hic quoque Dii in every of the Blessings we are daily sensible of our parts it shall be still to contemplate his Power and Goodness for that in every of these it is easie to discern the God head Christ by the Apostle is termed the Fulness of him that filleth All in All Ephes. 1. 23. So that then he that filleth All in All and of whose Fulness Christ himself receiveth is onely God He it is that can as make Daniel look Fuller and Fairer with Pulse and Water then all the Children that eate of the Kings Meat and Drink of his Wine Dan. 1. 15. so send an Atrophy with the choisest Viands as he sometimes dealt with the Israelites Psal. 106. 15. He gave them their Desires saith our Prophet but sent leanness withall into their soules For mine own part as I have just reason I shal for ever publish and proclaim unto the world that I never saw Gods Providence so cleerly as since the time I have seen least of my visible Legal Means At least that he h●th raised me up such Meanes as I had never the least reason to hope for Yea since my Afflictions hath wrought in me some weak Desires let me be interpreted as God knoweth I speak without ostentation to please him I have found some that formerly have been mine enraged Enemies not to bee at Peace onely with mee but to have abounded in pregnant symboles of fast Friendship towards me And then as we finde the case to stand with Ioseph the bright Appearance of Gods Providence in his Eye so darkeneth the sight of his Brethrens Malitious practises as doth the Sun that of the Lesser Stars that now in conclusion he telleth them It is not you that sent me hither but God Gen. 45. 8. Gods Hand in the working of second Causes as Ezechiels Hand from under the wings of the Cherubims Ezech 1. 8. ought still so conspicuously upon all Emergencies to appear unto us as that they then still appear least in sight So that then as Samuel having received a Commission from the Lord for the Anointing one of Iesse's ●ons King over his People and for a time not a little perplexed about the choise of the Person hath David at last pointed out unto him 1 Sam. 16. 12. in the perusal of the Range and Series of all second Causes our parts it shall bee still signally to print and pitch upon this He as the Great wheel that setteth those Lesser a work and here by way of Eminence is said to Feed the young Ravens Which fitly bringeth mee from the Contemplation of the Person of the Master and his Care unto that of those of the Meanest quality in the Family the young Ravens And ●eedeth the yo●ng Ravens It is our Prophets word of the Great Master of this his Numerous Family of the world Psal. 104. 28. He openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness So Hospital and Magnificent is he that he shutteth not up his Gates against Rich or Poor but keepeth open House to all commers And this if he appear careful that the very Dogs bee not bar'd their crumbs as the Canaanitish woman sometimes in that her Pathetical Debate with our Saviour Matth. 15. 27. will hee not much more thinke wee carefully provide that the children be accommodated with the portions of Olive branches And as this Master himself to his Disciples instancing in these very Ravens in the Text here specified Luk. 12. 24. if he Feed them what just reason wee account our selves of an higher Estimate with him then they St. Chrysost●m hath observed of the Raven that of all Creatures she is Notoriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 void of Natural Affection as leaving her young ones as soon as they are Hatched neglecting in the least measure to provide for their sustenance And then well might the same Father magnifie Gods Mercy and Loving kindeness towards Elijah as Miraculous 1 King 17. 6. that he should Feed him by Ravens Creatures Naturally so unnatural that they neglect to Feed their own young And that therefore this Great Master for the supply of their negligence of Parental Care Feedeth them either with certain little Flies as the above-praised Chrysostome or as Cassiodore with the Dew of Heaven St. Gregory layeth down the time and withall giveth the Reason of this the Ravens unnatural Deportment towards their young for that saith he as long as they are but covered with their skin or but spoon feathered they are yet of a diverse colour from themselves and so having hitherto no Appearance but of a Bastard Brood hee would have them to be the less Faulty shal they all this while prove Remiss in providing for them And this is that which hee would have not obscurely intimated by the picture of Patience 38. of his Booke 41. Who provideth for the Raven his Food when their young ones cry unto God they wander for lack of Meat A lively Emblem of the Black Prince of Darkness and his Proselytes that will not countenance or encourage any as long as they have about them the white of Innocence untill they see upon them a Deep Tincture of their own Native Blackness Nay shall any appear but of grisled Hew but Neutrally affected towards the Gude Cause and come not out to help the Lord against the Mighty as for a long time they have had so have they still a Curse ye Me●oz in store to be Thundered out against them If the Daughter shall not appear in every Lineament to resemble the Mother as it is Ezek. 16. 44. shee shall utterly be disclaimed by her for her Daughter But when there shall be like People like Priest as it is Hos. 4. 9. when both shall consort in a cursed Harmony to bring in Anarchy and Confusion into a Church and State this Damnable Sympathy shal so unite their Hearts that the Lame shall so far Direct the Blinde and the Blinde support the Lame till at last it may be Feared or Hoped for rather that both may fall into the Pit of Destruction Nor may it escape us without special observation that they are young onely and not the old over-grown Ravens that God is here said thus Emphatically to Feed Those old Birds of Rapine that are perfect in the Trade of Preying for themselves that make no Distinction of the Flesh of Men of Wormes of Flyes of Fruits of Seeds as the Naturallists observe of these Birds but pel-mell flye at all whatever Goods or Possessions though even of the Church the Poor yea their own Nearest Relations to Gorge and Glut their Insatiate appetite withall they are not of this Masters Feeding as being no part of his Family But when my Father and Mother Forsake mee saith our Prophet the Lord Taketh me up Psal. 27. 10. Those that are left Destitute of all Humane Support and that even by those that by all