Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	child_n	father_n	great_a	1,899	5	3.4004	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49758	Parents groans over their wicked children several sermons on Prov. XVII, 25, published for the benefit of all, but especially of good parents and their children / by Edward Lawrence ...	Lawrence, Edward, 1623-1695.	1681 (1681)	Wing L654; ESTC R5524	46,723	144

Do nothing but what ye are willing should be known if ye would not have your Parents and Masters and the Magistrates and your Friends and Foes know your lies and lusts and theft and prophaning the Lords-day and your haunting evil company do not practise these things ye need not fear who knows how holy and just and sober and chast ye are Religion can boldly shew its shining face to God and man but sin makes you sneak and cowardly and base and fearful and imprints marks of dishonour and shame upon your looks and countenances and fills you with horrour and consternation when ye are discovered Consider seriously that all from whom your greatest shame and misery will come do know you the devils know you and will accuse and disgrace and torment you for the same sins they tempted you unto and they will not help you to hide your sins when time of grace and repentance and pardon is past your own hearts and consciences know you and will awake out of their present sleep to condemn and sting you and God who is greater than all knows you and all your secret sins are in the light of his countenance and he will bring them all to judgment and it will then fully appear to Angels and Devils and to Saints and Sinners what ye are 5. Therefore be not such now as ye dare not at the hour of death profess your selves to be Religion and Godliness is at all times to be profess'd before God and Angels and Men Rom. 10.10 For with the heart man believeth and with the mouth confession is made to salvation But what monsters would ye appear to your selves if ye did profess your selves to be what ye are Suppose ye were reading this but one hour before ye dye and must say We are now falling into the hands of the living God and by that time that the glass is run out and the clock strikes next we are to give account of our selves to the Judg of all the World Dare ye then say We profess our selves to be haters of God and children of the devil and despisers of our holy parents and that we chuse the way to hell 6. Consider what account ye can give in being such burdens of the earth and in being so grievous and chargeable to all who are concerned with you Is it nothing to you to be as biles or scabs in the body or as smoke or a stinking smell or an infectious disease in the house and family where ye are or as weeds in garden to cumber and annoy your place Ye will pay dear one day for all the sighs and groans and tears which ye have caused to your afflicted parents and friends it will sting you to think that so many have been losers by you and that your parents and brethren and sisters have been so much wasted and impoverished by your costly lusts and that ye have given cause to all your wicked companions to curse the day that ever they knew you and that ye have fill'd so many other parents besides your own with grief and bitterness by infecting and defiling and debauching their children and methinks I hear all these saying to you as Joshua said to Achan Josh 7.25 Ye have troubled us but the Lord shall trouble you Lastly I shall ask you this one question What would ye have your parents to do with you their love makes them to be continually concern'd for you but they know not what to do with you for all the means which they have yet used for your good hath but aggravated your guilt and their grief whilst they kept you at home ye did break all the good orders and rules of government in the family at set-times for meat and family-worship either your places were empty or fill'd with sin ye disquieted your parents wasted the estate defiled or disturbed your brethren and sisters and troubled the house night and day When they sent you to School ye plaid the truants grieved and dishonoured your Masters debauch'd your School-fellows and were a reproach and scandal to the School If they set you to be Apprentices ye hated and wrong'd your Masters and were a plague to the family If any of you were sent to the University ye were the rake-hells of the Colledge and the Society was sick of you till it had expell'd and cast you out if after all other means were us'd your parents sent you to Sea the Atheism and Wickedness of some of the Seamen did you more hurt than all the Wonders of God in the deep waters did you good so that ye return'd as if the Sea had made you like it self more raging and boisterous than before insomuch that your miserable parents can do nothing but spend their days in mourning for your sins and in praying for your salvation and in labouring to bear patiently your ruine and to be content to live and die the fathers and mothers of fools And now Children I will take my leave of you and shall leave you to the God with whom ye have to do and with whom ye must have to do for ever he is the God who will plead the cause of his own Name and Honour and of Religion with you and who will plead the cause of your distressed parents with you a God whose wrath ye can neither escape nor bear there is a war betwixt this God and you and if ye can make it appear that ye are greater and wiser and stronger and better than he ye may go on But my design in all this discourse is to perswade you to believe and repent and obey the Gospel and so to make peace with God through Jesus Christ and for your encouragement I do assure you that the grace of God and the Merits of Christ are as sufficient to save you from all your horrid abominations as if ye were as innocent as when ye were new-born God and Christ and Angels and your Parents and Friends and all Saints are ready to rejoyce in your conversion and salvation and your iniquities shall never be mentioned against you but upon your unfeigned turning to him God will as he is represented in the Parable of the Prodigal son meet you in mercy and fall on your necks and kiss you and entertain you with all the blessings of the Gospel saying These my children were dead and are alive they were lost and are found FINIS

Parents Groans OVER THEIR Wicked Children SEVERAL SERMONS On PROV XVII 25. Published for the Benefit of all but especially of good Parents and their Children By EDWARD LAWRENCE M. A. sometimes Minister of the Gospel at Baschurch in the County of Salop. 1 Sam. 2.25 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel and Joseph Collier at the Bible under the Gate on London-Bridge 1681. To my beloved Children Deborah Samuel Edward John Thomas Elizabeth Mary Benjamin Nathanael and to all the Children of Christian Parents My dear Children I Am sensible of my unworthiness and unfitness to be seen in Print it is now above Twenty years since by the power and goodness of God I was unexpectedly rescued from the jaws of death which was the reason I then published that little book called Christs Power over bodily Diseases and I had never been the Author of a book of this Title had not two of you but especially one made me the Father of fools I shall here say no more particularly to you two but that sound repentance and the fruits thereof in a setled reformation of life will yet be your glory and my joy but if ye hate to be reform'd which God forbid I shall mourn till I dye for the loss of Children but ye will be tormented for ever for the loss of God Children I have not of the things of this world to leave you I do acknowledge the wisdom of God in not judging me sit to be intrusted with these things but it 's enough for us if we can call God our own though we cannot call the riches of the world our own some of you do with comfort remember how we have often worshipped God together in singing with delight those words Psal 37.16 17 18 19 20. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked c. I here leave you this Letter of the counsel and advice of your aged and loving and faithful Father who sees death looking him and you in the face and beholds the Judg before the door this will speak to you when death hath silenc'd me and it speaks the same things which God and Christ and your own Consciences speak to you and it speaks to you as it were in the hearing of the world 1. Put a true value on your own Beings for ye cannot love God and Christ if ye do not love your selves ye are of that kind of creatures who are made much higher than all other visible creatures and but a little lower than the Angels ye are capable to know and chuse and love and delight in God and to speak of him and to entertain your selves continually with him ye are of those creatures in whose happiness God glorifies all his perfections he made this world for man he commanded his only-begotten Son to sacrifice himself for man and sent him to be born and to live and dye and to rise again and to intercede in heaven for man he hath reveal'd all the Truths of the Christian Religion for the good of man and therefore ye should think it greater madness to sell your precious souls and bodies to the Devil and your lusts for the short and dirty pleasures of sin than to sell a purse of gold or a cabinet full of jewels for a bag of chaff or cherry-stones and should account it below you to give your selves to any but to God 2. Know that as your Beings are great so your happiness or misery will be very great Riches or poverty sickness or health this present life or the death that deprives you of it are things too little to make you blessed or miserable all the curses of God or the blessings of the Gospel will be upon you presently and ye can neither live like men nor like Christians till ye know what it is to be sav'd or damn'd and what it is to lose or enjoy God 3. That ye may escape the wrath and obtain the glory set before you let it be your chief end and interest to know and honour and enjoy God use the creatures as his witnesses to testifie and declare the being and glory of God to you for God hath not only made and appointed them to fill your hearts with food and gladness but also that in the use of them ye may feel and find and fill your souls with God but especially behold the glory of God as he is presented to you in the glass of the Scriptures that he may have that name in your hearts which he hath in his word Present him to your souls as God over all blessed for ever that ye may conclude that he who is so infinitely good as to be his own happiness is sufficient to make you happy And that this God may be your eternal life and happiness ye must know and behold his glory in the face of Jesus Christ who is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and therefore behold his glory as the Father of such a Son and as the Lord of such a servant for Jesus Christ is the Lords Christ Luk. 2.26 Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.23 and executes his office of a Mediator in obedience to the will and to the glory of God the Father whose glory ye may behold in his calling him to such a high office in his accomplishing him for the execution thereof in prospering him and making him successful in his whole work in giving him such a blessed seed in making him victorious over all his enemies and in rewarding him for his great service and obedience so that according to the intent of the Scriptures forenamed ye must labour to get such a sight of the glory of God shining upon you in the face of Jesus Christ as will make an impression of his image in your souls And therefore loathe and abhor sin which is against the glory of God and which is the only evil that can make you lose such a glorious God And for this reason be convinc'd of the vanity of this world which is but a poor thing when the glory of God shines on your souls for ye will be most blessed in him when this world shall be dissolv'd and pass'd away And let this make Jesus Christ glorious and acceptable to you whose office and work it is to redeem you from all sin and misery and to make you blessed for ever in the likeness and enjoyment of this glorious God And let this also cause you to endeavour to fill all persons with the great Name of God and Christ that ye may gain them all the hearts and love and service ye can and therefore in all company let God and Christ have your good word 4. Know that to love and delight in God is the best imployment for the days