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	good_a	king_n	1,792	5	3.4864	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61276	The sea-man's obligations to gratitude and a good life a sermon preach'd in the parish-church of Deptford, in Kent, June 5, 1699, before the corporation of the Trinity-house at their annual meeting on Trinity-Monday / by George Stanhope ...	Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5227; ESTC R34593	14,022	32

for this very purpose Psal 15.14 that they might keep his Statutes and observe his Laws And in another Place this is mention'd as the dreadfullest aggravation of that Peoples wickedness that they forgot and rebelled against God Psal 78. who had done so great things for them But what need I urge Christian-Instances and Arguments when nothing can be plainer from the very Nature of Gratitude than that each Person ought to make his diligence in pleasing God hold proportion with the marks of his having been the peculiar Care of his Providence and be as signally religious as he hath been signally blessed If then as was before observed the Affairs of so many here present have been so full of hazard and their Deliverances so full of wonder it will lye upon their Consciences very seriously to examine what sort of requital they have made for these Mercies Most certain it is God does not save Men from the Sea and the Sword that when they come ashore they may give themselves up to the Devil's Service and walk before him without fear in Unholiness and Unrighteousness all the days of their life He expects to have his Name called upon after another manner than in Oaths and Curses and blasphemous Terms of Defiance and Contempt He will account severely with those Wretches who dare his Vengeance and cry aloud to him to rot those Bodies and to damn those Souls which he with so Fatherly a Tenderness hath rescued from Destruction My Design herein is not to upbraid or accuse but seasonably to warn the Men of this Profession that they wo●ld consider in time how large an Article in their last great Account the Good Providence of God over them in their Dangers and Necessities will one day make and that it were better infinitely better for them to have fallen by the Enemies hand or to have been drown'd in the depth of the Sea than to have survived both to no other Effect than that most sad one of enflaming their Reckoning and heating their Furnace seven times hotter by their horrible Ingratitude and Abuse of such marvelous Loving Kindness 4. But I said before Fourthly that a true Principle of Thankfulness will not allow Men to be contented with their own private Virtue but will render them zealous Promoters of God's Glory by winning over others to his Service The Methods and Opportunities for effecting this differ greatly according to Mens different Stations and Capacities in the World But I esteem my self happy in addressing this day to several worthy Persons whose Authority and Posts of Command may be exceeding useful in this Particular Persons whose good Example may inspire and whose Discipline may enforce the Exercise of Religion At least these could not fail to discountenance Vice and give a check to the Insolence of open Immorality and Profaneness You are my Brethren Men of Honour and that Character will not endure that your Prince or your Friend should be ill treated in your Presence Can it then consist with this Character patiently to see and hear the King of kings and your best Friend above affronted and reviled Your Honourable Society derives its Name from the holy and ever-blessed Trinity and will not that Title reproach every Member of this Body who without punishment or due rebuke shall suffer the Majesty of the Father to be despised the Blood and Wounds of the Son to be invoked in sport and derision and contemptuous despite to be done to the Spirit of Grace The most glorious Improvement of Navigation would be to spread Christianity wider and enlighten the still dark Corners of the Earth with saving Knowledge and the readiest way of compassing this noble end would be by making the Light of those who already profess the Gospel so to shine in barbarous Countries that our good Works might recommend and demonstrate the Excellence of our Faith Live then my Brethren as becomes them whom the Lord hath redeem'd and deliver'd from Perils various and Deaths oft Live so that Strangers who are not yet acquainted with the Doctrine of Jesus may read it plainly in your Conversations Live so that having first reform'd your selves you may with boldness and a good grace reprove and set about reforming others And let those under your Conduct see that you are in very good earnest and that you think the Honour of your Post concerned for no sort of Order and Discipline more than for that which hath respect to Virtue and Religion It hath been said formerly Qui nescit orare ascendat mare that he who would learn to be devout should go to Sea And I dare say You would be loath to have such an Infamy fall upon Your days as that of reversing the Observation and having the Sea thought the ready Course for transforming Men into Infidels and Brutes As therefore you have done in the Cause of your King and Country so behave your selves valiantly in the Cause of your God Vice it is true hath gathered strength and with an unusual confidence seems to bid all good Men Battle But Vice is never so triumphant that Resolution may not bring it under Let but that Gallantry appear in this Point so peculiar to the Fleets of England in others that of bearing down upon the Enemy again and again and the day is certainly your own Sin carries Shame and Cowardice in its very Nature and cannot rally often And be assur'd this is a Conquest which when once throughly obtain'd would bring more Comfort to your selves and more true Honour to your Memories than those which at the Expence of so much Blood and Toil transmit the Names of this Fraternity down to succeeding Generations Nor are you ever more properly in your Post than when encount'ring this Adversary for the Sins of a People and especially of that part whose Duty it is to fight for the rest are always the most destructive Enemy that can make War upon any Nation 5. When your Zeal for God and the Publick hath thus exerted it self then are you rightly prepared for the Fifth Branch of Thankfulness that of Trust in God amidst any Dangers which shall hereafter threaten or attack you And however dismal these may appear yet your former Experience of that Power and Goodness which hath so signalized it self on your behalf will be of mighty use towards drawing down upon them with Bravery For God is never weary of doing good but his past Blessings are so many Pledges of more and better provided we be careful not to stop the Current nor by our Unworthiness and Abuse of those already received put a Bar to his Intentions of future Favour toward us If then your own lawful Occasions or your Country's Defence shall call you out again to the like hazardous Attempts remember under the shadow of whose VVings you were safe heretofore and that he is the the same yesterday and to day Heb 13 8. Isai 63.1 Psal 37. and forever even the Lord rich

Divine Providence And then Secondly II. I shall shew what Influence this Consideration ought to have upon all who have had the Experience of such a watchful and powerful Providence over them I. First I say the Dangers and Deliverances proper to a Sea-faring Life are eminently the Effects of a Divine Providence The same Reason which convinces every thinking Man that this material World and each part of it must needs have been framed by some Eternal and Infinite Being will when pursued through its just Consequences teach us to conclude also that these things now can no more govern and preserve themselves than they could originally make themselves The wond'rous Order and regular Process observable in Natural Causes and Effects do indeed illustrate the Wisdom and Management but they do by no means weaken the Belief or take away the Necessity of a Higher and Super-intending Power For that these lower Agents do in most Cases operate alike proves them to be confined to Rule and Method but that they do not always produce the same Effects is no less an Evidence that they are under the direction of a Supreme Cause which checks and limits and over-rules their Influences as he sees fit Thus both the regular and the excepted Cases conspire to prove the Being and Providence of God Since there is in all the Works of Nature so much Constancy as argues the World to be govern'd by an intelligent Being and yet so much variety in Events and so surprizing Changes too as evidence that Being to be an Agent free in his Determinations and absolute in his Dominion that none of the most uniform Productions are fixed by a fatal Necessity none of the most efficacious Means so sure of succeeding as never to be put by their ordinary Course none in a word exempted from the Countermand of his Disposal We shall do well then to conceive of Almighty God as of a wise and watchful Pilot always at the Helm and steering his own World taking the advantage of natural Instruments and letting this great Vessel drive before them so long as these like prosperous Gales and favourable Tides make way for his good Purposes But when they bear down hard and grow too violent then interposing his Skill and Strength shifting the Course or checking the Current or by some other Arts to us unknown bringing the most furious the most irresistible Efforts of Created Nature in Subjection to the Counsel of his own Will And if this be as certainly it is the State of Providence and the World in general then where these Interpositions are most frequent and visible where such Agents and Causes as seem most ungovernable do yet submit to such Restraints and become flexible and useful where Humane Measures which can only proceed upon regular and ordinary Operations are most impotent and manifestly at a loss there we cannot with any fair and probable Reasoning but ascribe such Events as are contrary to or above the reach of Matter and Motion to the marvelous Address and commanding Efficacy of that wise and powerful Lord Psal 103.19 who as this Psalmist says elsewhere sitteth in the Heavens and ruleth over all from the beginning Upon this Account we may very well imagine it is that the Scripture does upon all occasions take such particular Care to assert and inculcate that Government which God exercises over the Winds and the ●eas For these are parts of Nature fierce and impetuous above the rest various and uncertain in their Motions the most unaccountable the most unmanageable of all the Creatures in this lower World and by consequence the most pregnant Testimonies of an over-ruling Providence in all those astonishing and mighty Alterations which we so frequently perceive in them Hence God is said to a Jer. 5.22 set bounds to the Sea b Hag. 2.7 to shake it c Job 38.8 to shut it up with doors to d Isai 50.2 dry it up to e Nah. 1.4 rebuke it to still f Psal 89.8.65.7 its roarings and silence the noise of its waves when they rebel and that g Psal 93.5 though its waters be mad and rage horribly yet still the Lord who dwelleth on high is mightier So again the Winds are very emphatically stiled the h Psal 148.8 Winds of God and the i Job 37.9.10 Breath of God with these he is said to blow and the waters swell These k Psal ●35 7 he brings out of his Treasures with these he l Psal 29. and 148. rends the Mountains scatters his Cold and Frost m Job 37.10 straitens the Waters and hardens them like solid Metal And farther yet for these he is said to make n Job 28.25 Weights and Measures to o Isa 27.8 stay their roughest and most tumultuous Insults quell all their boisterous Rage and with a Peace be still hush their Noise and Confusion into a profound Calm And to go no farther than this Passage now before us the Works and Wonders here ascrib'd to God are expressed V. 25 c. by the Storm arising at his Word the Waves of the Sea rolling and foaming tossing Men up to Heaven and sinking them down again to Hell driving them to their Wits end and damping the very stoutest of them all and yet even then when neither Courage nor Conduct neither Hearts nor Hands are of any longer Service God continues the same still He is not deaf to Men's Prayers nor are these rudest and most rugged of all Elements deaf to his Reproofs but even the Storms fulfill his Word and blow but by Commission He finds no difficulty in quieting the Tempest and smoothing the Face of the Deep but raises and instantly fixes the hearts melted down with Anguish and Despair just before and makes them glad by setting them at rest Ver. 30. and bringing them to the Haven where they would be This gets him an indisputable Title to such Men's Praises The succouring them in an Extremity when humane helps could avail nothing when even Hope it self was lost when any Power less than divine must have been defeated in the Attempt to deliver them But in all Cases of this Nature it is not enough to be satisfied that God is the Doer and Disposer of them unless we be likewise careful to observe with what design he does them and what those Purposes are which he would have served by the hardships we sustain the dangers we are threat'ned with and the surprizing Rescues from or Successes after them Now though we are not allow'd to judge of the Proportion of any Man's Virtue or Guilt or God's Love or Hatred toward him by that measure of Good or Evil which befals him in this present Life Yet thus much in the general is true that all Afflictions are and ought to be received as Chastisements of Sin and all Deliverances acknowledged as Marks of God's Favour and Kindness Blessings 't is true may by our own Mismanagement be converted into