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
A52043	Meroz cursed, or, A sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn fast, Febr. 23, 1641 by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M762; ESTC R19516	35,043	59

MEROZ Cursed OR A SERMON PREACHED To the Honourable House OF COMMONS At their late Solemn FAST Febr. 23. 1641 By STEPHEN MARSHALL B. D. Minister of Finchingfitld in Essex Published by order of that House PSALM 122. Vers. 6 9. Pray for the peace of Ierusalem they shall prosper that love thee Because of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy good LONDON Printed by R. BADGER for Samuel Gellibrand at the Brasen Serpent in St. Pauls Church yard 1641. TO THE Honourable HOUSE of COMMONS Now ASSEMBLED in PARLIAMENT IT is fit my obedience should last as long as your commands for so I have alwayes interpreted your Requests and desires to be As I never had the confidence to present you with any thing properly mine so neither will I bee guilty of that Injustice as to deny you any thing so truly your own as is this fruit of my poore yet willing endeavours It is yours truly but most principally the Churches whose both you and I and all that you can doe or I speak are If it may be serviceable to you and you by it made more serviceable to the Church and cause of God I have my option But I am resolved not to make that use of my experience of your patience in hearing the Sermon as to try it further with the length of a Dedication Only I thinke it my dutie to second my proposition with my prayers That God would vouchsafe a blessing to your endeavours for his Church and to you for your endeavours These shall be the constant and earnest desires of Your Servant Stephen Marshall A SERMON PREACHED At the late FAST BEFORE The COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT IUDGES V. XXIII Curse ye Meroz said the Angell of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty RIght Honourable and beloved it hath been a custome almost amongst all Nations after any notable Victory to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their Triumphant Songs wherein the illustrious acts of their owne worthy Leaders and the shame and confusion of their enemies were celebrated preserved and so delivered over to posterity The Romans had their Salii Priests who after any victory went dancing through the City singing their Hymes and Paeans to Mars and the rest of the favourable Gods And the Grecians sometimes in Verses sometimes by Sculpture used to set forth their famous Battels and Victories yet alwayes attributing the highest glory of all to their Gods who● they supposed to bee present with them Protectors over them and fighters for them This course I thinke the Devill learned from the Lord Jehovah's dealing with his owne people who alwayes directeth them thus to celebrate his noble acts and their great deliverances Thus Moses and Aaron sang unto the Lord when he triumphed gloriously over Pharaoh and all his Host making them sinke like a stone to the bottome of the Red Sea Thus the women in their song and dance celebrated their victory over the Philistims And this whole Chapter is nothing but a Triumphant song setting forth in an elegant and lofty verse the great Victory which Barak and Deborah and a small army with them had gotten the Lord marching before them against King Jabin and his Generall Sisera who for twenty yeares had mightily oppressed the children of Israel In which song First all prayse and glory is given to Jehovah the Lord of hoasts the Prince who lead them by whose strength alone the victory was obtained Prayse yee the Lord for the avenging of Israel I will sing unto the Lord Lord when thou wentest out of Seir c. Then the Song descends to the due praises of their generall Barak and his assistant Deborah yea the severall Regiments and Companies both of Horse and Foot doe receive the praise and reward of their courage and valour And not only so but the Song proceeds to Stigmatize and brand with reproach and marke out for punishment all such companies as had played either the Traitours or the Cowards or were otherwise wanting to their duty in this great expedition Reuben had other Sheepe to turne hee tarried amongst his Sheepfolds to heare the bleating of his flocke Gilead durst not crosse the Water Dan cowardly withdrew into his Ships Ashur durst not come from his owne coasts God takes notice and remembers them all and lets them know he had great thoughts of heart about it and in time would reckon with them for it But above all his wrath was most incensed against Meroz a people of whom wee finde no mention in the whole Booke of God nor I thinke in any other Story but onely in this place upon this unhappy occasion you can know no more of them than what this place tels you and these few reliques of them remaine as the lake of Sodome as a monument of their sin or as a Mast of a Ship swallowed up in the quicksand to warne passengers to take heed of that dangerous place or as Lots Wife turned into a Pillar of Salt to season others This their short Chronicle I may call their Grave-stone which seemes to hold out such an inscription as they say Sennacharibs Tomb had Looke upon me and learne to be godly So theirs Looke upon mee and learne your owne duty Looke upon me and take heed of disserting the cause and Church of God when they stand in neede of you A Text and Theme exceeding seasonable Seasonable to the times wherein we live when abundance of mighty enemies rise up against the Lord and against his Church Seasonable to the temper of most people who generally minde their owne things and not the things of Christ Seasonable to the occasion of this dayes meeting which is purposely for the helpe of the Lord and his cause and people now distressed in Ireland But to me it seemes most of all seasonable for this present honourable Assembly who all should be as the Lord their Horses as his Horses their Chariots as his Chariots they being all called to bee Leaders and Captaines of the Lords Host. The Lord make it but as profitable as I am sure it is seasonable and I doubt not but we shall be exceeding gainers by it In this Text which I may call the doome of Meroz there are these two things First the Author of the doome or sentence the Angell of the Lord Curse yee Meroz said the Angell of the Lord Secondly the Sentence given against them Curse ye Meroz c. Wherein likewise consider these two things First What their fault was Secondly What their punishment was Their Fault yee have in these words They came not out to the helpe of the Lord to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty Their Punishment was a curse and a bitter one Curse ye Meroz Curse yee bitterly or as the word signifies in cursing curse the

though but a corruptible crowne There is comfort in doing good to one but to advance the good of many especially of the Church of God how honourable how glorious is it Thirdly Gods cause is a successefull cause no weapon can prosper that is formed against it and every tongue that rises up in judgement against it shall be condemned The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it This Gamaliel saw when he advised the councell of the high Priests and Pharisees and Rulers to refrain from opposing the Apostles If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it it is in vaine to fight against God Since then the Churches cause is Gods cause and consequently a good cause a noble and succesful cause you may easily hence conclude the happinesse that accompanies the promoting of it And on the contrary as easily discern how cursed a thing it is not only to undergo the disgrace of mannaging a wicked and base enterprise but to fail of that which wicked men use to cherish themselves with the hopes of the comfort of reward and obtaining their desires Secondly consider our relation to the Church And that affords three other excellent arguments to prove men blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the Church of God First whatsoever abilities any man enjoyes wherewith he may any wayes be usefull they are all given him to this very end to make him serviceable to the Church All the manifestations of the spirit are given to profit withall All the gifts which Christ powred out when he ascended up on high are for the perfecting of the Saints and the building up of the body of Christ As every one hath received a gift so let him minister as good stewards of the manifold graces of God The Church is the common storehouse to which all our wealth must be carried Salus Ecclesiae suprema lex Which being so the happinesse of every thing being the attaining of the end for which it was appointed and the curse of it the perverting of it to a wrong end they must needs be blessed who serve the Church and he must needs be cursed that deprives the Church of its own due Salomon saith that he that withholds corne in a time of famine the people shall curse him though it were his owne corne but suppose a man had the keeping of the provision of the whole town corne which were none of his owne he only intrusted with the keyes of it and should let the people starve for want of that food which he should keepe purposely for them or that a man had the keeping of a Magazen for an Army to furnish them with what might make them victorious and their safety and victory hazzarded if not lost through his default were not this man a villaine and a traitor to his country Secondly Consider how neare the relation is betwixt the Church and us except we be of the malignant Church of the Dragons army and then no more need be said to prove men cursed The Church is our Mother and all the Saints are our Brethren a Relation which all Lawes of God and man do fasten duty upon The eye that mocketh at his father or despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the vally shall picke it out and the young Eagles shall eate it Paul thought he did no more than his duty when he had great heavines and continuall sorrow in his heart and could wish himselfe accursed from Christ for his Brethren his kinsmen who were Israelites Thirdly All our own blessednesse stands or falls with the blessednesse of the Church The Church is such a corporation or mysticall body as hath in it all the properties of a naturall body wherein no members can be happy in an abstracted sense but as parts conjoyned with the whole because every part hath besides the neare relation to the whole a subsistency in it which is the foundation of any other good it receives And so consequently the good or gaine of the whole is the gaine of every member and whatsoever tends to the dissolution of the whole cannot but be destructive to all the parts As when a company of Merchants have but one joyned stocke every penny gained or lost is gaine or losse to them all Or as it is with a company of passengers in the same Ship save the vessell and you save all sinke the Ship and every mans Cabbin is cast away Now this is a more prevailing argument than reason can make it is grounded in nature which must prevaile with all Nature makes heavy things to ascend rather than the whole should be endangered by a vacuum Nature teaches the tongue to cry out when the toe is trod upon the hand to work that the belly starve not the feet to runne that the back be not cold Every man finds this in the naturall body and Gods Spirit dwelling in all the Saints workes the same spirituall disposition in them that are partakers of the divine nature That there be no Schisme or division in the body of Christ but that all the members may have the same care one for another That whether one member suffer all the members should suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members should rejoyce with it By this time I hope it is cleare that if we look upon Gods promises or threatnings mens experience in all ages or the Churches interest in God his neare union with it his affection to it his owning the Churches cause or if we consider our own engagements to the Church our neare conjunction with it and under God the dependance of all our comforts and wellfare upon it we may and must conclude that all men are blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the church of God The rest of the time I shall spend in the Application of it that what is thus cleare to your judgement and conscience may by Gods blessing take due place in your hearts and conversations And there are but two collections which I shall make for use The first briefly for terrour and reproof the second more largely for exhortation and duty First for reproofe This speaks very sadly against two sorts of people whereof God knowes there are many hundreds of thousands who yet professe themselvs to be Christians As first Are all they cursed that doe not thus helpe the Lord against the mighty what then are they who instead of helping the Lord against the mighty do help the mighty against the Lord who instead of joyning all their strength and giving all their assistance to the Church in her distresse doe give all the assistance they can to the enemies of the Church that they may do mischief against the Church What shall we thinke of these men How many are there who have as it were entred their names into the