Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	christian_a	discretion_n	great_a	20	3	2.1094	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

in Mercy and mighty to save He will not forsake his that be godly nor shall they be confounded in the perilous Time So says this Psalmist and so infinite Passages of Holy Scripture besides Places which deserve the rather to be considered because when Art and Nature have done their utmost still nothing goes so far toward inspiring Men with true Courage and undaunted Presence of Mind as an Innocent Life and a stedfast Faith These only can furnish Men with that threefold impenetrable Defence of which no Terrors can disarm them A Good Cause A Good Conscience and a Good God 6. There is yet a Sixth Particular behind and that is Readiness to succour all them whom the like Dangers and Disasters have reduced to want your Relief For how are you thankful if the escaping these do not open your Bowels to such of your Brethren who actually suffer what you had also felt if God in Mercy had not put a difference between You and Them I have already hinted that both Common Humanity and Christian Charity jointly plead in this Cause And plead they do with Arguments which since too strong to be answer'd should be too powerful to be deny'd And in regard where no Man's Abilities extend to the supply of all that want great Discretion is requisite in the Choice of fit Objects for our Charity I should not be just to the occasion of our present Meeting did I forbear to say that no Poverty sustained upon Accounts purely secular no Liberality which proposes to it self Civil Advantages only hath a better Title to our Gifts than that wherein disabled Seamen and their necessitous Families are concern'd Their Claim in truth is such that I know not whether this Relief should not be rather call'd a Debt than a Gift The Wealth of this Nation is in so great part imported by those in the Merchants Service and the quiet Possession of the whole so manifestly secured by those in his Majesty's that what we bestow in this way is but some small proportion of that which the Receivers have either help'd to get us or have hind'red the Enemies taking away from us And are we Men if we can suffer so vile a Reproach as the seeing Those whose Industry hath filled our Stores whose Valour hath fought our Battles at the Expence of whose Sweat and Blood it is that our Portion is grown fat and plenteous If we can bear I say to see These or their Relicts perish when Wounds and loss of Limbs when Sickness or Age or an untimely Death have rend'red Them or Theirs incapable any longer not only of serving the Publick but of supporting themselves The Rule of Equity the Sense of our own Benefit and the Common Interest which depends so much upon giving all due Encouragement I had almost said in giving all Honour and Respect even to the meanest Subjects who suffer in their Countries Cause require not only Compassion but Generosity from all in Circumstances to extend it But most of all from You whom God hath so deliver'd and so bless'd as to make that very Employment the Foundation of Your better Fortunes by which so many of your Brethren have ruin'd theirs And Act for Registring and encouraging of Seamen if such Reasons needed to be seconded by Examples We in this juncture God be blest abound with them The Great Council of the Nation have wisely found their Honour and Safety concern'd to make a lasting Provision for this purpose And the Glorious Preserver of our Rights and Liberties accounts it no Indignity to a Royal Palace Greenwich Hospital to be converted into a comfortable Retreat for decay'd and a fruitful Seminary for growing Commanders and Mariners He who hath been so liberal of his own Blood for our Defence could not but bear a just and very tender regard to Them who shed Theirs in it And You who have so well imitated the Courage of your Prince will I doubt not be as powerfully provoked to Charity by the same Argument and Example The weighty Trust already reposed in your hands and the careful and wise Management of it do not only prove the Disposition of faithful Stewards but promise that of bountiful Benefactors Omitting therefore any farther Enlargement upon a Subject which speaks so movingly for it self I conclude all with hearty Prayers to God That He who hath shewed you the Works and Wonders of his Goodness so plenteously would give you Grace to be unfeignedly thankful That he would make you successful Instruments of promoting his Glory and the Publick Good by your Examples by your Authority by reforming the Vicious and suppressing Debauchery and Profaneness in all under your Command by doing valiantly for your Country and by shewing Mercy to your Brethren in Distress In one Word that God would grant us a Succession of Good and Gallant Men to maintain the Safety and Dignity of this Nation thus continuing ever to make the Sea our impregnable Bulwark and our Fleets what they so long have been the Protection of our Friends and the Terror of our Enemies And to these Prayers I 'm sure not only You but every true Englishman will say Amen FINIS

Curses and Instruments of Ruine And Sufferings by a prudent Virtue may be exalted into the most valuable Mercies The former may be plentifully imparted to the Wicked and the latter made the Portion of the Just But still this hinders not why speaking of these Dispensations at large the Psalmist here and we by his Example may not attribute Mens Calamities to their Faults which had provoked God and their better Successes to some behaviour well-pleasing in his sight V. 9.10 Thus we find Mens being bound in Affliction and Iron charged upon their rebelling against the Words of God and contemning the Counsel of the most High And Fools are said because of their Transgression to be plagued with Sickness V. 17 c. to abhor all manner of Meat and to draw nigh to the Gates of Death It is confest that no such Cause is positively assigned here but sure there is nothing particular in the reason of the thing which should forbid us applying it to Storms and Shipwrecks as well as to Imprisonment and Bodily Diseases But in the Mercies mentioned throughout this Psalm there is no Place for probable Conjectures for in every one of these express Notice is taken of its being a Reward to them who fled to God for Succour and took Sanctuary in Him when other Helps and Comforts had forsaken them And hence the Duty of Praise is urged as a necessary Instance of Gratitude for so ready an Acceptance so successful a Return of such Prayers For that you see is the constant burthen of this Holy Song When they cried unto the Lord in their Trouble V. 8.13.15 19 21 28 31. and he delivered them out of their Distress O that Men would therefore praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare the Wonders that he doth for the Children of Men. Without entring then into any Niceties concerning this Matter or shewing how far temporal Good and Evil are from distinguishing Characters of the Divine Affection and Displeasure though at the same time the One be most truly the Effect of God's Goodness and the Other of Man's Sin I shall take it for granted that all who consider the different Events of humane Life to be the Work of God do likewise allow them to be wrought with some wise Design and that each sort requires some Use and Improvement to be made of it in proportion to its Nature and Quality And thus much is sufficient to ground my other general Head upon wherein I proposed to shew II. Secondly What Influence the Consideration of Mens Dangers and Deliverances being all from God ought to have upon Them whose own Experience hath convinced them of such a watchful and powerful Providence such as is over those particularly who by going down to the Sea in Ships and following their business in great Waters have seen the Works of the Lord and his Wonders in the Deep The only Fruit insisted on here is Thankfulness nor had the Prophet occasion to demand more for this alone when rightly grounded and diligently cultivated is so noble a Product and of so large Extent that as to be reproached with Unthankfulness is a Character of universal Infamy so to be truly thankful for the Mercies of God is in the just Latitude of the Word but another Name for a Good Man and a Good Christian For 1. No Man doubts but this implies never dying Remembrances and very warm and affectionate Resentments of the Benefits we have received And in regard that out of such abundance of the Heart the Mouth will naturally speak from hence will follow 2. Free and publick Declarations of God's Love and Mercy upon all fit Occasions Nor yet only so but 3. A constant Care not to displease or affront One who hath been so bountiful to and tender of Us. For to profess grateful Resentments without attesting to them by respectful Behaviour is manifest Insincerity and to proclaim our Obligations to a Person whom we disoblige in return is to reproach our selves with the greatest Baseness and to publish our Hypocrisy to all the World Nay 4. True Gratitude will think it self concerned to vindicate the Honour and promote the Advantage of its Benefactor And That which is so toward God will study to advance his Glory and by Example Perswasion or such other Methods as the Person 's Circumstances qualify him for will labour to gain over others to a reverent and just Opinion of Him and of that Religion which he is pleased in condescension to call his Cause and Interest and the doing him Service 5. A Man truly Thankful for Succours received heretofore will with great Contentedness and a chearful Faith depend upon God in any Distresses for the time to come Even our Friends upon Earth take it ill to be distrusted who yet have little in their Power and but seldom very much in their Will But what can be a greater Indignity than to suspect the Care or be uneasy under the Conduct of that Friend above who cannot deceive who will not forsake us especially after many sensible and surprising Experiments both of his Inclination and his Ability to do us good 6. Lastly They who are Thankful for past Deliverances will be compassionate to others in the like Danger and Distress The Remembrance of their own Case will dispose them to this Tenderness as Men and as Christians they will need no other Incitement than this single Reflection That they who relieve the least of their Lord's Members do it to Himself So that This is in effect a paying back the Kindness a Thing which true Gratitude eagerly takes all Opportunities of doing And though the Return be not made either in Kind or in Quantity yet it is such as poor Mortals are capable of such as argues their Wishes and Readiness to do more and such as He whose Debtors they are is content to accept for good Payment These are all so genuine so necessary Evidences of Thankfulness and the Reasonableness of them is so obvious that I shall not hold my self obliged to enlarge upon our Engagements to them No Benefactor among Men looks upon himself well treated upon other Terms and he who declines any of these upon proper Occasions all his dissembled Professions ought and will be sure with Wisemen to go for nothing And therefore all I shall do more is only to apply my self to this Assembly with regard to each of the foregoing Particulars and so conclude 1. First then For the begetting in you becoming Resentments for the Mercies of God in your Preservation I shall not I need not attempt any artificial Description of the infinite Hazards or surprizing Providences peculiar to that manner of Life in which the Education and Affairs of so many now before me have engaged them The Wonders and the Works of Wisdom which conversing with remote Countries hath made you Eye-witnesses of nor the Difficulties and sundry kinds of Death which distant Climates and especially your Passage to and from them