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	word_n	1,487	5	3.7692	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95612	The uncharitable informer charitably informed, that sycophancy is a sin, pernicious to all, but most of all to himself. By Faithfull Teate, minister of the Gospel of peace and truth.	Teate, Faithful, b. 1621.	1660 (1660)	Wing T619; Thomason E1921_1; ESTC R209965	36,242	85

so I call thee however others miscall thee wonder not that thine uttermost endeavors both in way of Integrity to God and Inoffensiveness to man cannot yet shield thee from the darts cast by malevolent mouths This was Pauls exercize Acts 24.16 who was nevertheless defamed and made as the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea the dear Disciple who was all as it were made up of love complains of a Diotrophes who did prate against him with malitious words 3 Ep. Joh. 10 Remember who hath said Luk. 6.22 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and shall cast out your name as evil for the son of mans sake but be sure that it be for his sake Verse 26. But wo be to you when all men shall speak well of you If you are reproached for the name of Christ happy are you 1 Pet. 4.14 15.16 c. but let none of you suffer as an evil doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters yet if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God on this behalf But give none occasion to the Adversary to speak reproachfully 1 Tim. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is to him that is set against you he that is set against you will be sure to find occasions but be you sure to give none The Ermin of Innocencie is a Robe worth the best mans wearing though it be spotted with black obloquies and poudered with aspersions And now poor friend finding thee like Job on a dunghill of disgrace though I come to counsel yet I cannot but first sit down and condole thee for I question whether any wounds save those of Conscience may reasonably go so deep in an apprehensive good man as those on his good name in the sufferings whereof Gods name suffers with him There are three persons that have been the subjects of the sorest afflictions that were ever sustained by men Joseph Job Jesus Amos 6.6 James 5.11 the afflictions of the first the patience of the second are grown to a Proverb Isaiah 53 3. and the third is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of sorrows 'T is said of the first Gen. 49.23 that the Archers sorely grieved him shot at him and hated him and the archest of those Archers was Potiphers wife Ge. 39.7.14 who devilishly first tempts him and then accuseth him that he forcibly attempted what he could not be tempted to by all the force of her flatteries and impudent importunities The second had his children his estate and his health all taken away onely his wife is left to be his Tempter and his friends to become his Traducers to lay the hypocrite at his door and 't is evident in his story that their hard words went nearer him than all the hardship before and therefore he complains Ye overwhelm the fatherless and dig a pit for your friend And as for the third Job 6.27 he complains by the Psalmographer of the reproach of men and that all they that see him shoot out the lip at him Psal 22.6 And the Apostle reckons it no small point of his passion that he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself Hebr. 12.3 And therefore Christ reckons his reproach with his gall and complains that it even broke his heart Ps 69.20.21 And therefore I cannot blame thee to lay thy sufferings in this kind to heart But yet look higher than the tongues of men even to the hand of God who can tongue-tie if he pleaseth every dog in Egypt Exod. 11.7 that they bark not at an Israelite Let him curse saith David of Shimei for the Lord hath said 1 Sam. 16.10 Curse David Not that David justified him but God that justly suffered him unjustly so to punish Davids sin And if we be observant we may not onely see Gods severity but his goodness in the permission nay commissioning of evil tongues against us It may be saith David the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day Verse 12. And therefore consider 1. Whether thou thy self have not sometime sinned against others in like kind wherein thou now sufferest from others Ec. 7.21.22 As the word maledico signifyes to curse or to speak evil of For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thy self hast likewise cursed or spoken evil of others 2. Whether there be not some guilt unknown to others or unthought of by thy self that God signally aims at in thus punishing thee by others A person unjustly condemned as was thought for firing an house to be hanged in a field persisted to deny that fact but confessed of himself that he had deserved to dy by the Laws both of God and man having secretly committed in that very field bestiality not fit to be named Especially if Good men speak evil of thee thou hast the more cause to suspect that all is not well with thee When Smicythus had accused Nicanor and urged that he should be punished for speaking evil of King Philip Not so said Philip Plut. Phil. Ma● for Nicanor is one of the honestest men in Macedon and therefore it is more fit to enquire whether the fault be not in us And thus though reproaches be like the water of the Severn thick and muddy yet if they have like that but a scouring quality so that we can but improve unjust accusations as just cautions we shall have cause to bless God for them as the said Philip would reckon himself beholding to the Counsellors of Athens for that they by speaking evil of him were a cause to make him the more honest man that by word and deed he might prove them liers which expression of an Heathen doth bring to mind that Apostolical Exhortation 1 Pet. 3.16 To have a good Conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ 3. Art thou traduced by men give the more diligence to attain and maintain the clearness and strength of a state of justification before God by an operative faith in the rightousness of Jesus Christ Isa 50.3 If he be near to justifie thee who can contend with thee Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifies Murus aheneus Nil conscire sibi How big can an Horace a Cicero or a Seneca talk of the Bulwarks of innocence and clear conscience But saith a Paul that was by a better light more able to see through a self-spun rightousness 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified And therefore Phil. 3.6 8 9. though touching the rightousness that was in the Law blameless he accounts that but dung that he may win Christ and be found in him not having his own rightousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the rightousness which is of God by faith There are special promises that the faith of a justified person may improve against obloquies and calumniations Job 5.15 16. made by him that saveth the poor from the sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty so that the poor hath hope and iniquity stoppeth her mouth Psal 31.22 Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues and many others of like import Lastly Let all the barkings of dogs at thee put thee more in remembrance that thou art a stranger on earth and make thee long more to be at home where as all tears shall be wiped from thine eyes so shall all reproaches from thy name Your Brethren that cast you forth for my names sake said The Lord be glorified Isaiah 66.5 but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed FINITUR Decemb. 1659. The Weapon-salve if ever I allow It shall be now Gods good Word saith that evil tongues are Swords Wounding by words Such weapons being well kept salv'd such wound Will either ne'er be made or soon made sound