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	lord_n	see_v	3,711	5	3.5921	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50176	The wonderful works of God commemorated praises bespoke for the God of heaven in a thanksgiving sermon delivered on Decemb. 19, 1689 : containing reflections upon the excellent things done by the great God ... : to which is added A sermon preached unto a convention of the Massachuset-colony in New-England ... / by Cotton Mather.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728. A sermon preached to the honourable convention of the governour, council, and representatives of the Massachuset-colony in New-England on May 23, 1689.	1690 (1690)	Wing M1171; ESTC W24924	55,477	128

voice more awful than that of the loudest Thunder saying over us as in Hos. 9.12 Wo to them when I depart from them And Wo to us indeed we are in a most woful estate if it come to that How can we endure the mention of it without our most importunate Deprecations O our God leave us not We can have a prospect of nothing but horrible Disorders Agonies and Vexations if we lose the Presence of our Lord We ly open to no less than a fearful Dissipation and more than all our late Oppressors would rejoice to see brought upon us We have lately been complaining of Burdens that were grievous to us but I may warn you of our danger to feel one Burden more which will infinitely exceed them all t is that in Jer. 23.33 What Burden I will even forsake you saith the Lord. Behold a Burden that will sink us into a bottomless Abiss of Calamities The Presence of GOD This is no less than the very Soul of New-England We are dead and gone if that withdraw When Israel was nimbly enough possessing themselves of the promised Land which God had given them such a CHARTER for they perished in the Attempt for in Deut 1.42 The Lord said go not up for I am not among you Alas if we don 't in the first place look to this That God be among us we cannot avoid all manner of Dissappointments Desolations Let us Consider Secondly What uncomfortable Symptomes we have had of God's not being with us It seems as if God had fulfilled that sad Word on this poor Land in Deut. 31.17 I will forsake them and many evils shall befal them so that they will say in that day Are not these evils come upon us because God is not among us There is a vast number of Calamities which have given us lamentable cause to fear That God has forsaken us Why have we suffered such a Blast both on our Trade and on our Corn that the Husband-man complaines I looked for much and lo it came to little and the Mariner complains I went out full came home empty T is Because our God is not among us Why have we had Fire after Fire laying our Treasures in Ashes What means the hear of this Anger that Boston the most noble and vital Bowel of the Territory hath with a twice repeted Conflagration suffered such a Loss of that which in the Body politic answers to Blood in the Body natural T is Because our God is not among us Why have we had War after War made upon us by a Foolish Nation Why have the worst of the Heathen had renewed advantages to disturb our Peace And why have so many of our Brethren and Neighbours been made a prey to the most Savage Murderers in the world It is Because our God is not among us Give me leave to say as in Judg. 6.12 If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us But we may find Humiliation enough to convince us of this deplorable thing from what we have endured upon the Loss of our Government She of old said unto our Lord Jesus in I-h. 11.21 Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed So If the Lord had been here t is possible we had not Died. If the Lord had been with us would he have made our Wall so feeble that as they said of Ierusalem the going up of a poor FOX upon it should break it down If the Lord had been with us had all the wild Creatures that passed by this Vineyard found such Opportunities to be plucking at it No Our God would have kept us as A vineyard of red Wine and lest any should have hurt us He the Lord would have kept it night and day If the Lord had been with us had you ever thought you had seen cause to Declare as you have lately justly done That a Company of abject strangers had made a meer Booty of us Had Had we ever felt the sore grievances of an illegal arbitrary Government No The God of Heaven was not with that oppress'd people to whom He said in Isa. 1.7 Your Countrey is desolate your land Strangers devour it What shall I say It was an Appeal made in Ioel 1.2 Hear this ye old men hath this been in your dayes Even so I may say to the old men within the hearing of it My Fathers You Remember how we were when God was with us pray was it so in your dayes as it has been in ours Were you visited with Plague after Plague in a long Series of heavy Judgements as We your poor Children are Surely They will tell us God is not with us as He was with them In all these matters our Case may at least have some Correspondence with that in Luc. 23.28 He made as though He would have gone but they constrained Him saying Abide with us Let us Consider Thirdly If we are not With God we shall be guilty of an Apostasie and that under very shameful very direful Aggravations too We shall be Apostates and O let us not be so lest our God say My soul can have no pleasure in them But if we are so we shall be of all Apostates the most inexcusable Let us Consider what Fathers we have had they were with God I may say of 'em as in hos 9.8 They were with my God they are gone to be so forever What an unaccountable thing will it be for us to have that Character which we have been so much cautioned against There arose another generation which knew not the Lord What Shall the Grandchildren of Moses turn Idolaters and shall the Children of Samuel become the Children of Belial Shall we forget the Hope of our Fathers or forsake our Fathers Friend The very Graves of those blessed men every Post every Stone upon their Graves is a Witness against us if we do With dismal Accents Methinks their very Ghosts will groan unto us Alas Is our posterity come to this Nay Abraham would be Ignorant of us and Israel would not acknowledge us if we should be so degenerate as to lose the Presence of the Lord. Let us also consider what Warnings we have had It may be said unto us as in Jer. 25.4 The Lord hath sent unto you all His Servants the prophets This Countrey has been blessed with a most faithful Ministry by which I suppose every Assembly in this Territory has been called upon to Be with God and to keep with Him Especially the Sermons which our ELECTIONS have put the Embassadours of God upon Preaching and Printing of these have been so many loud Warnings unto us That we leave Him not In them we have been faithfully warned That our true interest is Not to Lye unto God We have been Warned That the latter end of our Misbehaviours will be Destruction from the Lord. We have been Warned That We must Repent and do our first Works or have the Candlestick of the Lord Iesus

it has procured more than Ten of the Complaints that have been made against us And therefore we not only challenge an Interest among the Reformed Churches in whose Comforts we cannot but Rejoice as we have most inquisitively and affectionately mourned in their Sorrows but we also expect the Friendship of all those particular persons who are well affected unto the stones of Zion and take pity on the Dust thereof As 't is a thing too observable to be denyed or concealed That tho' we are a very unworthy people yet the Haters of New-England stil find themselves pushing hard against the Great Stone so I believe none of those Noble Persons who have been sincerely concerned for our Wellfare will ever see cause to Repent of it but Goodness and Mercy shall follow them all their Days Blessed be the God of our Fathers that albeit we are as an Outcast yet it may not be said No man has cared for us There were Three Knights among our first Patentees it calls for our Extreamest Gratitude if there have been more of That or Another Quality willing to be our Patrons And Sir whereas you have been pleased your self to let the World know how much you are desirous to see New-England flourish you will pardon it if One born and bred in that Countrey and a Son of the Colledge there take the Liberty to acquaint you That we are not insensible That you are my Fathers Friend is a thing that Lays me under Obligations but your being New-Englands Friend is a thing which we would All Resent and though the Dedication of these two Little Sermons to your Name does not Take of the best Fruits of the Land as a Present for you yet I humbly ask your Acceptance of them as a part of our Acknowledgments Among the other Curiosities of New-England One is that of a mighty Rock on a perpendicular side whereof by a River which at High Tide covers part of it there are very deeply Engraved no man alive knows How or When about half a score Lines near Ten Foot Long and a foot and half broad filled with strange Characters which would suggest as odd Thoughts about them that were here before us as there are odd Shapes in that Elaborate Monument whereof you shall see the first Line Transcribed here Sir I take leave to add That the English people here will study to have the Kindnesses of their Benefactors not less Durably hut more Intelligibly Recorded with them than what the Indian People have Engraved upon Rocks And therefore it is That you shall now publickly find your Person and Family mentioned in our prayers to the God of Heaven for your Enjoyment of all the Prosperity engaged unto them that Love Ierusalem The Voices that ascend from the Thrones of the Lord Jesus here are asking for you Grace and Glory and every good thing and among them there are my own Wishes That the Son and the Church of God may find you their KNIGHT which is to say in English an hearty Servant and that in the day when such a Word will be esteem'd above ten thousand Worlds you may hear a Well Done from the mouth of our Glorious Judge 'T is with these that I subscribe my self SIR Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant Cotton Mather PRAISES Bespoke for the GOD of Heaven In a Thanksgiving SERMON It is Written in Isai. XII 5 Sing unto the Lord for He hath done Excellent Things This is Known in all the Earth OUr Blessed Saviour being to Preach upon a Text fetcht out of that very Book from whence we have now taken ours began His Holy Sermon with sayings This Day is this Scripture fulfilled in your Ears 〈◊〉 is by an unhappy Encounter of Gods Mercies and your Desires that upon the Reading of the Text now before us I may in like manner close the Book and say This day is this Text fulfilled amongst us Truly t is known abroad that our God has done excellent things and for this cause we are with no less Grounded than Solemn THNKSGIVINGS endeavouring to Sing unto the Lord. Behold a Word of the day in its day here provided for you May our further considering and understanding of the Text but promote our fuller Conformi●y thereunto and more exactly imprint the shapes of this Heavenly Mould upon us As the Noble Prophet Isaiah is in the Books of the New-Testament quoted perhaps no less than threescore times thus the Dayes of the New-Testament are those which his Prophecies have their frequent and special References to Among other Employments of this Angelical and Evangelical Pen one was the preparing of Sacred Songs for the use of the Church in the circumstances which there had been predictions of and so besides the Psalms which common conjectures have ascribed unto this Prophet the composing of the forty-sixth particularly which in imitat●on of the great Luther we may at this day make the Anodyne of our cares we have two inspired Songs in this Chapter laid before us in the first of the Songs the Confessors of God endeavour themselves to celebrate the praises of that Eternal one in the next they endeavour to excite and engage others unto a consort with them in this glorious Exercise And here we have the Text which we are now to descant upon In that Day ye shall say But What day is That day we must be beholden unto the foregoing Chapter for an Answer thereunto We there find that there will a Day come when the Lord will set His Hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his People which will be when the Tribes of lost Israel are converted unto the Faith of the Lord Jesus when according to the Language of the New-Testament All Israel shall be saved There will a Day come when the Root of Iesse shall stand for an Ensign for the People which will be at the second coming of our Lord when according to the phrase taken by our Saviour from this very place the sign of the Son of man shall appear There will a Day come when the Lord shall with the Breath of His Lips slay the wicked which will be when Antichrist shall perish by the fiery approach of the Lord Jesus to take vengeance on His wickedest Enemy when according to the phrase taken by the Apostle also from this very place The Lord shall consume that wicked one with the breath of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightnesr of his coming T is that day which the Song now before us is peculiarly calculated for But certainly we that are only getting into the Dawnings of that day are not excluded from all medling with it no it is written for our Admonition In the Words to be now Handled we have two Things First The Doings of God are here mentioned It is said He hath done Excellent Things or as the Original imports Great Things and High Things or as it may likewise be rendred Magnificent and Illustr●ous Things

they live in Heaven upon Earth But as for Dayes of Thanksgiving observed in the Assemblies of good men all men have seen the wonderful successes of them New Englands Prosperity has more visibly followed upon its Thanksgivings than upon its Humiliations as in times both of War and of Sickness has been more than once perceived We have seen the fulfilment of that Word in 2 Chron. 20.22 When they began to sing and to praise the Lord set ambushments against their Enemies Praises thousands of high praises be to our God that we may have a Day to celebrate His praises But that our praises may be awakened and that no man may make a Iar in our Harmony Consider how Reasonable these praises are for us all O consider with our selves Who is God it is He that Humbles Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven Consider Who is Man a poor Worm yea a cursed Viper Now that this GOD should look upon this man Lord What is man that thou shouldest be mindful of him Yet the Eternal God has been doing of Excellent things which we not only behold but also enjoy There is not one of us all who has not excellent things to be this Day praising the Almighty for They whose case is never so bad yet have cause to carry on this Day of Thanksgiving with us in that it is no worse The most miserable person in all this Congregation may with an eye to his own condition say like him in Psal. 119.156 Many are thy mercies O Lord. If I could find out the most unhappy and the most complaining person among you all even to that person would I say God has done Excellent things for thee and some that never sinned so much yet suffer more than you Consider Likewise how profitable these Praises will be to us all Behold an Expedient for the obtaining of all the Blessings that can be wish'd for It was said in Psal. 67.5 6. Let the people praise thee then our God shall bless us If the Earth send Vapours up to Heaven Heaven will make Showers to descend on the Earth Let our praises be continually ascending from us and they will soon issue in those things that are called The Showers of Blessing When we have a Jealousie of a Leaky Vessel we try it by first putting of Water before we trust Better Liquors in it if we that have little more than Water to comfort us will yet not permit it to Leak without Praises from us then God has more Excellent Things to do for us To be always Begging and Craving as a Dog for his Morsels ad Spem futuri semper hians without multiplyed praises unto God this is a most vile Disingenuity 'T is no less than a Loss of yea no less than a Curse on all our Blessings which we incurr by not praising the giver of them But the praising Soul may fill himself with such a Ioyful Hope as that in Psal. 71.14 I will Hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more Those that are sollicitous least God should Loose any of His Praises are the persons for whom God will be concerned that they don't Loose any of His Blessings these are they that shall experimentally understand the Loving kindness of the Lord. Man wouldest thou have any Excellent Things done for thy self Then bring thy praises for what Excellent Things have been done in the world I suppose by this time we have generally got our Hallelujahs ready but you call for a Catalogue of those Excellent Things which they are to be fixed on 'T is a Feast that you are this Day to be treated at and before you go out of these Doors a Feast you shall have I shall set before you a short Account of some Excellent Things which I intend as a Feast for your praises and believe me though your praises had and O that they may have no less than an Eternity to be Feeding on those matters in they never would be glutted never cloyed First The Excellent Things done by God in the Works of CREATION call for our Praises It was once the out-cry of the Psalmist in a Rapture Praise the Lord from the Heavens praise the Lord from the Earth praise the Lord all ye His Armies Truly 'T is our Business to praise Him for the Heavens and for the Earth and for all those Armies which He has replenished the World withal We have a good pattern for us in Psal 104.24 33. says the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy Works in wisdom hast thou made them all Well and what is now incumbent upon us that have the view thereof It follows I will sing praise unto my God while I have any Being Methinks the Children of Men too much imitate the Spider when they Look after nothing but building a little House for themselves and concern themselves with nothing but the petty Affairs thereof We should remember that we are Citizens of the WORLD and as far as we can we should visit every Corner of it with our Praises to Him of whom and for whom is all I make no question but that we do in a blessed manner Antedate Heaven by doing so The Praises of God are Exhibited in every part of the World and we forfeit the priviledge of Reason if we do not put as many of them as we can into our A●knowledgments There are above six Thousand Plants growing on that little Spot of the World which we Tread upon and yet a Learned Man has more than once found One Vegetable enough to make a Subject for a Treatise on it What might then be said upon the Hundred and fifty Quadrupeds the Hundred and fifty Volatils the five and Twenty Reptiles besides the vast multitudes of Aquatils added unto the rich variety of Gems and Minerals in our World Our own Bodies are to use the Phrase of the Psalmist So Fearfully and Wonderfully made that one of the Ancient Heathen at the sight thereof could not forbear breaking forth into an Hymn unto the praise of the great Creator 'T is impossible that any thing should be better shaped Indeed All the Things that we have every Day before our eyes have a most charming prospect in them and the very Deformities which the Flood has brought upon this Terraquecus Globe are made Beauties by the Disposals of the Lord that sat upon the Flood There is not a Fly but what may confute an Atheist And the Little things which our Naked Eyes cannot penetrate into have in them a Greatness not to be seen without Astonishment By the Assistence of Microscopes have I seen Animals of which many Hundreds would not AEqual a Grain of Sand. How Exquisite How stupendous must the Structure of them be The Wholes that are sometimes found more than an Hundred Foot in Length methinks those moving Islands are not such Wonders as these minute Fishes are But alas All this Globe is but as a Pins point if compared with the mighty Universe