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	great_a	see_v	1,964	5	3.3848	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61415	An admonition concerning a publick fast the just causes we have for it, from the full growth of sin, and the near approaches of God's judgments : and the manner of performance to obtain the desired effects thereof, which ought to be other than our Common Forms, and with stricter acts of moritication than is usual amongst us : with an abstract of Mr. Chillingworth's judgement of the state of religion in this nation in his time : and of a letter from the Hague concerning two sermons preached there in the French church at which were present divers of the English nobility.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.	1691 (1691)	Wing S5415; ESTC R19528	31,813	42

else of the more Diabolical humours of Pride Malice Revenge and such like c. When we are come to Years capable of Instruction many which is lamentable to consider are so little regarded by themselves or others that they continue little better than Pagans in a Common-wealth of Christians and know little more of God or of Christ than if they had been bred in the Indies A lamentable Case and which will one Day lie heavy upon their account which might have amended it and did not But many I confess are taught to act over this Play of Religion and learned to say Our Father which art in Heaven and I believe in God the Father Almighty But Where are the Men that live so as if they did believe in earnest that God is their Almighty Father Where are they that fear him and trust him and depend upon him only for their whole Happiness and Love him and Obey him as in reason we ought to do to an Almighty Father Who if he be our Father and we be indeed his Children will do for us all the good he can and if he be Almighty can do for us all the good he will and yet how few are there who love him with half that affection as Children usually do their Parents or believe him with half that simplicity or serve him with half that diligence And then for the Lords Prayer the plain truth is we lie unto God for the most part clean through it and for want of desiring indeed what in word we pray for tell him to his Face as many false Tales as we make Petitions For who shews by his endeavours that he desires heartily that God's Name should be hallowed that is holily and religiously Worshipped and Adored by all Men That his Kingdom should be advanced and inlarged That his Blessed Will should be universally Obeyed Who shews by his forsaking sin that he desires so much as he should do the forgiveness of it Nay who doth not revenge upon all occasions the affronts contempts and injuries put upon him and so upon the matter Curse himself as often as he says Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us How few depend upon God only for their daily Bread viz. the good things of this Life as upon the only giver of them so as neither to get nor keep any of them by any means which they know or fear to be offensive unto God How few desire in earnest to avoid Temptation Nay who almost is there that takes not the Devil's Office out of his Hand and is not himself a Tempter both to himself and others Lastly Who almost is there that desires heartily and above all things so much as the thing deserves to be delivered from the greatest Evil Sin I mean and the Anger of God c. And this were ill enough were it in private but we abuse God Almighty also with our Publick and Solemn Formalities we make the Church a Stage whereon to act our parts and play our Pageants there we make a profession every Day of Confessing our Sins with humble lowly and obedient Hearts and yet when we have talked after this manner Twenty Thirty Forty Years together our Hearts for the most part continue proud as impenitent as disobedient as they were at the beginning We make great Protestations When we assemble and meet together to render thanks to God Almighty for the benefits received at his Hands and if this were to be performed with words with Hosanna's and Hallelujahs and Gloria Patri's and Psalms and Hymns and such like outward matters peradventure we should do it very sufficiently But in the mean time with our Lives and Actions we provoke the Almighty and that to his Face with all variety of grievous and bitter Provocations we do Daily and Hourly such things as we know and he hath assured us to be odious unto him and contrary to his nature as any thing in the World is to the nature of any Man in the World and all this upon poor trifling trivial no Temptations c. Our Tongues ingeminate and Cry aloud Hosanna Hosanna but the louder Voice of our Lives and Actions is Crucifie him Crucifie him c. If I should reckon up unto you how many direct Lies every Wicked Man tells to God Almighty as often as he says Amen to this Form of Godliness which our Church hath prescribed if I should present unto you all our acting of Piety and playing of Humiliation and personating of Devotion in the Psalms the Litanies the Collects and generally in the whole Service I should be infinite c. We profess and indeed generally because it is not safe to do otherwise that we believe the Scripture to be true and that it contains the plain and only way to infinite and eternal Happiness But if we did generally believe what we do profess if this were the Language of our Hearts as well as our Tongues How comes it to pass that the Study of it is so generally neglected c. Seeing therefore most of us are so strangely Careless so grosly Negligent of it is there not great reason to fear that though we have Professors and Protestors in abundance yet the Faithful the truly and sincerely Faithful are in a manner failed from the Children of Men What bút this can be the cause that Men are so commonly Ignorant of so many Articles and particular Mandates of it which yet are as manifest in it as if they were written with the Beams of the Sun for example How few of our Ladies and Gentlewomen do or will understand that a Voluptuous Life is Damnable and prohibited to them Yet St. Paul faith so very plainly She that liveth in Pleasure is dead while she liveth c. How few of the Gallants of our time do or will understand that it is not lawful for them to be as Expensive and Costly in Apparel as their Means or perhaps their Credit will extend unto Which is to Sacrifice unto Vanity that which by the Law of Christ is due unto Charity and yet the same St. Paul forbids plainly this Excess even to Women Also let Women he would have said it much rather to the Men Array themselves in comely Apparel with Shamefac'dness and Modesty not with Embroidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or Costly Apparel and to make our Ignorance the more inexcusable the very same Rule is delivered by St. Peter also 1 Epist. 3. 3. How few Rich Men are or will be persuaded That the Law of Christ permits them not to heap up Riches for ever nor perpetually to add House to House and Land to Land though by lawful means but requires of them thus much Charity at least that even while they are providing for their Wives and Children they should out of the Increase wherewith God blesseth their Industry allot the Poor a just and free proportion And when they have provided for them in a convenient manner such as

Iniquity thereof in one notorious Part and that is Abuse of Apprentices after great Sums of Mony received with them I my self have had no less than four Sons as soberly Educated and as well esteemed as most before they came to be Apprentices and who behaved themselves afterward without any great Extravagancies placed here to suitable Trades with no little Pains and Charge yet after all ruined and undone by the Iniquity and Wickedness of their Masters and their Partners But I have seen the Judgments of God upon two of them already and to him I have committed my Cause with the other two This I write upon my own sad Experience and could say as much of my own Knowledge in the case of some others Of which I have written heretofore in a Paper Entituled Relief of Apprentices and mention it now as a Common Cause worthy of Consideration amongst others of the Magistrates for averting the Judgments of God from the City And while I write this of a Case wherein I my self have been so much concerned I cannot but be sensible of the case of some others which I often see and hear of and in Faithfulness to God and to the State and Charity to the poor People take notice of it upon this occasion And that is the Pressing of Men and sending them out of the Realm to Sea or beyond Sea by Force and Violence against their Wills I cannot find or learn upon Enquiry that there is any Law or Statute since those made in the Reign of King Charles I. are expired for the Pressing of Mariners and Sailers much less of Land-Men And if there be not I am sure it is contrary to a Principal Fundamental Right of the People whose Goods much less their Persons or Liberty cannot be touched but by Order of Law and their own Consent in Parliament and would frustrate the principal Design and Reason of the Habeas Corpus Act and render it ridiculous and contemptible in Cases of greatest Exigence and most needing its Relief The Rights of the Poor ought to be preserved inviolable as well as of the Greatest And they who can be content to see their own Rights violated in the meanest of their Countrimen while their own Persons and Estates are untouched do not deserve to have them preserved and may expect that they or their Posterity may by the just Judgment of God be deprived of them Nor can I see any Reason why the Poor of the Land who enjoy so little of it should be frighted from their Employments and forced from their Families Friends and the Trades and Labours to which they have been used to hazard their Limbs and their Lives against their own Wills to defend and maintain the Superfluities and Grandeur of the Rich Or how the Death of such in the Service being forced against their Will tho by Law unless they first forfeit their Right by their own ill Behaviour can be excused from Murder in the sight of God Nor Lastly How we can expect that either such should do any Great Service or that the Blessing of God should be with us in the use of such unreasonable Means If we enquire into the Methods of our Ancestors in such Case we shall find them more just and reasonable more prudent and honourable and more prosperous and successful when Men of Honour and Interest covenanted with the King to bring in their several Numbers raised them among their Tenants and Neighbours and led them themselves so that there was a mutual Love and Confidence between the Leaders and Soldiers But this mode of Pressing if I be not much mistaken is a novel Invention a base Project of the Authors of Ship-Mony put on now even while a Parliament is in being to the Prejudice of the King as well as of the Nation to furnish such Officers with prest involuntary Soldiers who have little Interest of themselves to raise Volunteers and whom few are willing to serve under And since it is done while a Parliament is in being which could have given Authority for it it may justly be looked upon as no ordinary Abuse to the King himself but as one of the Treacherous Policies of some Evil Persons to prejudice his Government and Cause make his Government offensive and suspected by the People and his Cause seem absurd while his Authority is abused to violate the Rights of the People which he came to preserve and in a Fundamental Point and contrary to his Coronation Oath and thereby to justifie or excuse the Miscarriages of his Predecessor For all this it plainly and directly tends to It is true there is a Necessity that Men must be had But Necessity will not excuse Injustice to the Poor with so great Violation of Common Right and when without either it may be supplied Let not such be excluded from the Service who are able and willing to serve in their own Persons and have Interest and Reputation to bring in Seamen and Soldier Let the Salaries Pay and Profits of Great Officers especially who sit at home and are out of danger be reduced to Moderation and those who venture all have a proportionable Encouragement both by good Pay while in Service and of Good Provision in case they be disabled and we shall want no Men nor need any Pressing And let but good Discipline be exercised as it ought to be in respect of the Manners of Officers as well as of Soldiers and Seamen and we shall not want God's Blessing But to leave these things to the Consideration of the Parliament and of the City of the Evil Manners before mentioned those which are Secret Sins only by Secrecy in the Commitment and as they are concealed from Men but otherwise are well enough known to all to be Sins though they have not so much of Scandal as those which are openly committed yet may they have other Aggravations which may equal that and require no less Severity of judging our selves if we would not be judged of God As to the rest which either in their own Nature are not so palpable or easily discernible from what is Lawful or by common Opinion and Usage of the World are reputed Lawful and Harmless nay commendable and some perhaps excused and Patronized in opposition to Popery it is to be considered 1. That some are condemned as wholly unlawful not only by the Judgment and Practice of all the ancient Christians for many Ages and comprehended in that ancient Solemn Renunciation required of all admitted into the Society of Christians by Baptism viz. Of the Devil and his Works the World and the Pomps Glory and Vanity thereof and the Flesh and its Lusts and Desires but also by the express Doctrin of the Holy Scripture both under such General Comprehensive Names as the Flesh Gal. 5. 17. Lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5. 16 2 Pet. 2. 18 2 John 2. 16. The Old Man Eph. 4. 24. The Natural Man I Cor. 2. 14. Desires of the Flesh Eph. 2.