Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	great_a	see_v	4,001	5	3.3205	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78555	A motive to peace and love. Delivered in a sermon at Pauls the first Lords Day in June, anno Dom. 1648. By Humfry Chambers, D.D. and pastor of Pewsy in the county of Wilts.	Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.; City of London (England). Lord Mayor.	1649 (1649)	Wing C1916; Thomason E467_12; ESTC R204211	25,089	38

may seriously looke upon it and consider whither we have not cause to be greatly humbled and to acknowledge where the root lyes of all our imbittered inbred contentions it is in the Prophet Isaiah Isai 9.18 19 20 21. I confesse is is a very terrible Scripture unto all those that doe not know how to looke beyond the Kingdome of England for their comfort nor do know how to looke upon the God of Heaven for their refuge and refreshment in the worst of times the Lord saith thus at the eighteenth verse Wickednesse burnes as the fire it shall devour the brieres and threnes and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoake through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land darkned and the people shall be as the fuell of fire no man shall spare his Brother and he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungrie and he shall eat on the left hand and shall not be satisfied they shall eat every one the flesh of his owne arme Manasseh Ephraim Ephraim Manasseh and they both shall be against Judah for all this his anger is not turned away but his wrath is stretched out still Oh that we might in this our day lay this to heart and learne that whilst manifold wickednesse remaineth in height amongst us the fire is kindled which if infinite mercy prevent not will burne us up with all our multitudes and glorie and cause us cruelly to consume one another in the heat of intestine contentions yea though the Lord by many and mighty deliverances seeme willing as hitherto he hath done to plucke us as a firebrand out of the fire yet if our wickednesse still prevailes we shall have cause to feare that for all this his anger will not be turned away but that his hand will be stretched out still A second cause of this division which the Scripture pointeth out is abundance of Pride the holy Ghost chargeth all contention upon that account Onely by Pride cometh contention Prov. 13.10 When men are of that temper that every man will goe highest there can be no other fruit of it expected but sharpe and suddaine contentions When the Inhabitants of a City are contented to walke the same streets and every man to take or give the wall as his place is or as it casually falls out all is quiet and all at Peace But should they pitch upon this resolution every one to take the wall and no man to give it the issue would soone be justling quarrelling and mutuall violence threatning the speedy ruine of the place I desire to leave it upon your consciences in the sight of God whether you may not in this see much of the cause of our contentions of our civill uncivill contentions at this time Great height and haughtinesse of spirit reigneth in the land every man almost would be first and uppermost and when that cannot be then comes the quarrell charged indeed upon other causes but flowing really from the spring of pride which if it still rise and runne as at present will never cease to fill up the measure of our state contentions Another ground of our miserable contentions which the Scripture pointeth at is Self-seeking It is very sad with a State when as the Apostle said of the Philipians All seeke their owne not the things that are Jesus Christs I adde nor those things which conduce to publique welfare when it is true of any State or Kingdom that the members thereof grow so selfish that they looke upon all publique transactions through the spectacles of private interests It is not possible but that such a State must be miserably rent if not speedily ruined with manifold contentions State-Hipocrisie is a chiefe and knowne nurse of State-Enmity whilst men under the hood of publique pretentions carry on designes steered meerly by private intentions and interests and professing to minde publique good make publique goods their common prey no marvell though they quarrell and fight on with another about parting I shall leave this likewise to all your consciences in the sight of God to consider whether this hath not beene and is not still a great cause of the bitternesse and civill enmity that prevailes in the land let me say this as in the presence of God if there be any which is greatly to be feared who have the heart blood of Ireland and the bowels of England lying at the bottome of their full Bags and Chests or faire Houses and Mannours which they have gained in these loosing times under what glorious pretence soever of a regard to the publique they shrowd themselves God will finde them out and their sinne shall finde them out and a time shall come wherein those men shall know that they can never wash their selfish hands in innocencie from being guilty of continuing that bitter destroying Enmity that doth now prevaile in our land Questionlesse abominable self-seeking is one of our great Staterending evills at this day One thing more by the Scripture we may learne That sinfull lusts maintained in regencie are a great cause of the quarrells which abound in the world Who seeth not that finfull lusts impatient of suppression or restraint either legall or religious began our publique quarrells which stand upon the same ground unto this day finfull lusts ruling in men who are resolved not to be tamed nor tyed up from accomplishing of them make them highly to act in the way of civill contentions and enmity against every one of what ranck soever who acts against their lusts The Apostle James doth expresly lay downe this root of contentions amongst men Whence comes Warres and Fightings amongst you Warres amongst you intestine Warres and Fighting whence come they come they not hence saith the Apostle even from your lusts that warre in your members Jam. 4.1 When as men have unruly lusts fighting within them then they prove unruly and ready to fight against all those that would restraine them in their evill waies They pretend so many causes of their discontent and enmity against those with whom they are at variance but when it comes to the tryall the reason why they are so much displeased and enraged against others appeareth to be this Because they seeke to restraine them from their living by the rule of their unruly lusts There be many men at this day that would make the world beleeve that an endeavour to set up Presbyteriall Discipline for the purging of the Church from scandalous offence is a great cause of those quarrells and contentions that are amongst us but I beleeve that to one man that takes distaste at the Presbyteriall Discipline out of conscience or any grounded pretence of conscience there be an hundred shall I say nay many hundreds that doe hate it and oppose it and all those that are friends to it upon no other account but this Of their lusts because they be afraid to be restrained thereby

enmities and contests be nourished and strengthned amongst those that are neerly joyned together in the bond of Christan religion and should be so likewise in the truth of Christian love they be in greatest danger of what is expressed in my Text That by biting and devouring one another they shall come at last to be consumed one of another And thus much be spoken to the Doctrine of my Text Now I come to the Application of this point Use 1 And first I should desire all men to consider whether the present Doctrine doth not looke sadly upon us at this day whether this Doctrine doth not speake terror more then all the Armies and conspiracies in the world unto this City and all the Cities of the Kingdome unto this State singly considered and complexedly together with the annexed Kingdomes unto our Church and almost every branch and parcell thereof I see no so terible an indication of common ruine approching unto us as this that men are left so generally so sottishly with malicious despite to bite and devour one another not laying it to heart that they are ready to be consumed one of another First Inprosecution of this use I suppose to speake first to civill contentions and divisions and whilest we have them onely in our eye this Doctrine is like to Ezekiels role that was written within and without it was written lamentation mourning and woe For is there not such a spirit of intestine rage and bitter enmities gone out not only into this Citie but into the whole Land that it is as it were the very meat and drink of many to be biting and devouring one another both publiquely and in secret in word and print And whilst it is thus is it not lamentable to consider how we stand upon the brinke but that the God of Heaven doth worke beyond thought in miracles of power for our preservation how we stand I say every moment upon the brinke of common destruction I shall not adventure it belongs not to me to speake a word as a Statist concerning either the causes or remedies of this miserie but as a poore servant of Jesus Christ I desire to speake a little of both from Scripture information And first If any man demand what is the cause that England is wholly given up to savage felf-crueltie and all the Cities thereof to rejoyce in the plucking out of their owne Bloud and Bowels and the Inhabitants thereof to sport themselves in mutually biting and devouring one another surely the multitude doth much mistake the cause of this mischiefe every man almost thinkes he sees the reason hereof here and there without himselfe in the folly falseshood and politique miscariages of others and very few looke into their owne soules and unto heaven to see the true cause of this growing miserie but it is certain that whoever are the instruments the root of this our miserie lies in our owne breasts and lives There is shall I say a shamfull I thinke it may be better called a shamlesse practise of notorious wickednesse in severall kinds amongst us continued to this day we have talked of a reformation and I beleeve that the hearts of many have groaned after it And further I beleeve that the desire of it hath beene acceptable to the God of Heaven and let me say one thing more I doe yet beleeve that wee or our posterities shall live to see a happy reformation and that all this which hath beene done and suffered in relation thereunto shall not be in vaine But in the present state of affaires amongst us when we looke for a reformation we cannot but see aboundance of corruption prevailing in the Land yea those that stand upon the watch-Tower being required to speake the truth can say no more nor lesse of us then what you finde in the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 6.28.29 They are all grieveous revolters they goe about with slanders they are all corrupters the bellowes are burnt the lead is consumed in the fire the melter melts but in vaine for the wicked are not plucked away and therefore what can the conclusion be without the incomprehensible actings of mercy but as it followes Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them I cannot but speake and yet the truth is there is no need of speaking in a case so notorious and universally acknowledged before hand concerning some yet but a very little parcell of those sins that doe outface as it were God and men amongst us at this time There is that abominable pride and wantonnesse to be read in the faces of men and women in their gates gestures ' and attires There is that heavy oppression and hatefull prophannesse yet remaining in our land There is that grosse hypocrisie under severall liveries walking in our streets for the body of hipocrisie is now adayes worne upon a great many kinds of Cloth and Colour by men who have learned the abominable art of making God and religion to serve turnes There is that unjust partialitie that manifest contradiction to divine truths that leud and loud lying both in word and print abounding amongst us that in regard of these and many more sins the messengers of God may truly speake of us as the Prophet wrote of old concerning the Jews The shew of their countenance witnesseth against them they have declared their sinnes as Sodome they hide them not For there is no hiding nor concealing of these and many the like notorious sins they are to be seene without secret search upon the faces of the multitude And can we then wonder that there should be an evill spirit of contention from God when there is such an evill spirit of contention against God maintained in the middest of us Can it seeme strange that when we quarrell with and fight against the God of Heaven the God of Heaven should leave us in judgement to quarrell with and fight against one another God is the same to a Nation as to a man when the waies of a man please him he makes his enemies to be at peace with him but when as the waies of a man are contrary to the Lord the Lord walkes contrary to him and usually leaves very friends to walke in a way of contrarietie towards such a person And so it is with nations when the wayes of a nation please the Lord he will make their enemies to be at peace with them but when the wayes of a nation are contrarie to God God will walke contrarie to them and make their very friends their Enemies nay make them to themselves their greatest Enemies that they shall need no Enemie whilst they cruelly meditate and act their owne ruine according to that in the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 13.14 I will dash them saith the Lord one against another the fathers against the children I will not pittie nor spare nor have mercy but I will destroy them I desire to leave one Scripture with you that you