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	sin_n	world_n	1,507	5	4.7924	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63921	Two discourses introductory to a disquisition demonstrating the unlawfulness of the marriage of cousin Germans, from law, reason, Scripture, and antiquity by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1682 (1682)	Wing T3319; ESTC R11417	26,430	68

may be called its utmost health and life and vigour so is the decay of them a proportionable sickness and disease and the final banishment or total absence of them may be call'd its death for it cannot certainly be doubted if men were generally without pitty on the one hand and without gratitude on the other but this must needs extremely loosen and unty the bands of human society and produce a strange coldness and indifference in men to one another if there were no Truth in mens words no Faith in their dealings no Security for the most perfect innocence from the malevolence of slanderous and calumniating Tongues if not only our faults should be aggravated beyond their due extent but even our best actions misrepresented if Arbitrary Power were the only Measure of Action and if neither any mans person nor his estate were secure from violence and rapine it would be impossible that the World should subsist one moment but all things must immediately run into disorder and confusion XXXVII Again what hath been said of the Social or Political Vices such as of the immediate inconvenience of which our Neighbour is the Object the same may be said also of all personal enormities or of those Vices whose immediate damage separated from the blasting influence of their example terminates in our selves that they carry their own Punishment along with them and though they be never so concealed yet for all that my principles do not make them Lawful for that only is Naturally Lawful which hath no Natural inconvenience attending it and that is Naturally of the highest Obligation which carries along with it the greatest Natural recompence and reward for as to that which is indifferent that is which hath neither advantage or inconvenience going along with it I may do as I please and am by Nature left as undetermined as the thing it self is which is proposed to me as the Object of my choice but when on the one side it hath a Natural Punishment attending it and on the other a Natural Reward these are the Signatures and Indications of a Law and these Rewards and Punishments proceeding not from the sentence of a mortal Judge or from the hand of an Executioner Bailiff or Beadle but from the Immortal and Eternal Nature and tendency of things themselves the Punishment will as certainly tread upon the heels of the crime as effects follow their causes though no man else have any knowledge of it or be at all sensible of those painful consequences of an immoral Action or a wicked life which Nature intended only for the Offender himself XXXVIII Intemperance and lust though smothered up in never so prosound and deep a silence will yet notwithstanding be sure to have their Natural Effects both upon our Bodies and Minds and by that means they will betray us at last though we mannage our business with never so much cunning and though we keep our own council never so well the Gout and Stone may tell tales though we hold our peace and Dropsies and Consumptions will betray their own causes and the sins of those that are affected with them if it were possible as it is hardly to be believed that it is that habituall wickedness should be a secret to the world XXXIX But though our Vices should not prevail so far as to bring any such painful or languishing disease upon us yet there are other Natural Punishments far short of this that will express our shame the dullness of a mans countenance the inactivity and want of usual briskness in his mind the decay of his Natural parts and abilities for business or inquiries into truth the dumpishness of his Spirit the Dejectedness of his looks the want of that courage and Vivacity of Spirit which is the effect of innocence and the reward of it these do at once betray and punish him as well from abroad as at home within himself he loses his interest and gets disgrace into the bargain from without good men shun him and even the moderately bad have no Delight and Pleasure in his conversation and this is common to all that have been very guilty in any kind but more especially of Treachery Deceitfulness and Injustice that they hang down their Heads they are ashamed of the Day and afraid of the Sun they dread the very appearance of a good man and they take but little pleasure in the company of one another XL. For it is so ordered by divine providence for the good of the World that as there are Natural Punishments even from without that do as constantly follow wicked and unlawful courses as the shade haunts the light or light follows the Sun and Natural rewards that are with no less constancy and certainty annext to every thing that hath the name and esteem of good and virtuous among men so there is also antecedently to any of those outward effects an inward calm and serenity of mind while it continues in innocence there is a harmony and agreement between it self and Virtue though no reward from without should ever be bestowed it injoyes it self in the sense of its own Brightness and untainted Beauty and there is a congruity between that and goodness which being once broken there arises presently a sense of pain as troublesome and vexatious to the mind as the breaking of a Bone or the dislocation of any Joynt or Member in the Body the Soul is ruffled disturbed and discomposed and the Musick being spoilt to which it was used to dance it hears nothing now but harsh and unpleasant sounds which put it into a disorderly and unequal Motion XLI Moreover the same merciful and gracious Being that hath with so much tenderness provided for the happiness of particular persons by enduingthem with such natural tendencies to goodness after all the Calvinistical Declamations of the Pravity and Beastliness of human nature and with such Passions as shame and Sorrow and Repentance for the Punishment of our sins and for an Example to others and for the restoring us to the primitive health and integrity of our minds it being but necessary that the Wound should be searched before it can be healed hath also endued every man more or less with a sense of Pity and Compassion for others of whose Sufferings we are made sensible by a certain Sympathy and Harmony of Nature that we may give our selves case by doing good and that we may be helpful and subservient to the Interest and Happiness of each other for God Almighty knew very well that no man could subsist by himself neither would it have been so much for the Happiness of human life that we should have been able to do it the Comforts of Friendship and mutual Obligation being far preferrable to the solitary Self-happiness of an Independent State in any but an infinitely perfect Being who hath all Goodness and Blessedness in himself and therefore it is certain that when upon a fit occasion offered we shut up our Hearts

from relieving the Necessities of our Brother in Affliction or Pain and stifle this Divine sense of Pity and Compassion which is most prevalent in Wise men and which if it be not wholly owing to that cause is in part at least the effect of a Reflection upon the uncertainty of human Affairs is at once a great sin and a grievous Folly together it proceeds from want of skill in the true state of the World and from want of a due Submission to that Almighty Will and Power in the person of our Brother which may when it pleases inflict the same Calamities or Wants upon our own XLII It is very clear from the nature of things themselves that there is a Connexion betwixt Hunger and its proper Food betwixt Sickness and those Medicines which are provided by nature for its Cure we have all of us the same Appetites and the same Organs fitted and intended by Nature for the same uses and therefore we must all of us be supposed to have a natural right to all those necessary Enjoyments which tend to the Maintenance and Preservation of life neither can any man pretend a right to Superfluity that is to that of which he is in no absolute need or to that of which he makes no use when the Necessities of his Neighbour call upon him to part with it for his Relief for this is to abuse the Gifts of Fortune against the intention of Nature who hath provided sufficiently for all and intended that all the Wants of her Creatures should be supplied out of her abundant Store XLIII Besides that those Powers and Faculties which we find within our selves as well of Body as Mind were not designed by God and Nature meerly for our own use but for the mutual Benefit and Advantage of each other as is plain from this That they are so plainly fitted for that purpose as sit as the eye is for seeing or the ear for hearing and therefore he that seeing another reduced to any Extremity or Want shall stand lazy and unactive by when it is in his power to help him does manifestly betray that trust which God and Nature have reposed in him by giving him that strength of Body and those Faculties of Mind which are so exactly fitted for the mutual aid and assistance of each other XLIV Not that we are to spend our whole strength and to lay out all our Thoughts in a sollicitous Provision for the safety or subsistance of others for we are in the first place to consult our own Happiness which is inconsistent with a too sollicitous carking for our selves and much more for others and besides a very small Proportion of every mans care and time will be sufficient in order to this end XLV Neither are we obliged to squander away our whole Estates in charitable uses because they cease to be Charitable when we are so unkind to our selves and because an Universal Practice of such Profuseness would introduce an equality of Order and Power and consequently an Universal Anarchy and Confusion into the World which is very inconsistent with the Quiet and Happiness of it but it is enough in this case if a man shall contribute such a reasonable quota or Proportion towards the relief of those that are in want as may be sufficient if imitated by others in their several Capacities and Abilities of doing good to supply all the real Wants and Necessities of Mankind but if any man will do more than this comes to so he do no prejudice to his Family and Relations for Charity begins at home all the harm he will get will be that he will have the greater satisfaction in himself the greater praise from men and the more exceeding Recompence of Reward from God who sees his Charity and approves the Image of his own Goodness drawn in little by the Bounty of his Creatures and Servants towards each other XLVI And if an evil day should happen to overtake him he will find that this is but casting his bread upon the waters from whence it will be sure to return again with plenty and flow in upon him with a mighty stream because besides the Providence of God which does not ordinarily fail to make a sutable Provision for Virtue in Distress and will not easily desert or abandon him who hath been so great an Example of Mercy and Compassion to others such is the nature of man likewise impress'd upon him by the Divine Wisdom and Goodness for the better preservation and maintenance of his noblest Creature that you shall find but very few who have not some sense of Gratitude about them or who will not charitably and affectionately remember what we have done for them when we are able to do no more for our selves and therefore we shall be sure to find to our exceeding Comfort and Satisfaction that the Alms and Charities which others have begged of us will interceed on our behalf from whence they came with an Importunity not to be resisted and either they whom we have relieved will themselves return the Kindness or if they are not able yet others will the sooner do it for their sakes and the naked whom we have clothed the hungry whom we have fed the Kindnesses and Civilities which we have shewn to all that have stood in need of our assistance will plead more strongly on our behalf than all the crafty Rhetorick of the most importunate and most practis'd Beggar XLVII Wherefore all these Instincts and Passions of the human Nature which I have lately mentioned being so wisely and so mercifully contrived for our own preservation and for the mutual assistance of each other are plain and manifest Indications of a Divine Providence governing the World and superintending human Affairs and therefore I am so far from extending this Principle of Interest no further than the publick view of the World that I think for any man to do so is the most foolish and Unphilosophical thing that can be conceived for since we can neither look into our selves nor abroad into the World but we find all things so full of Usefulness and Beauty since there is Nourishment and Sustenance provided round about us for our Bodies and since the Organization and Contexture of our own as well as of the Bodies of other Animals is so exquisitely fitted to digest and assimilate that Nourishment into it self since there is every where such plentiful Provision made not only for the Necessities but for the Pleasures of life since there is in all Animals a natural desire of maintaining and propagating their several Kinds since there is so much wise Contrivance and wonderful Curiosity in the spermatick or prolisick Parts and Vessels for the accomplishing the ends of Nature since there is in all Creatures not excepting the most sluggish and insensible of Beasts themselves a natural Tenderness and Fondness for the Preservation of their respective Broods which would otherwise be exposed to Want and Hunger to the Injuries