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	time_n	year_n	3,093	5	4.9048	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85880	The trumpet in Sion, sounding a general alarm in the nation. By J.G.G.	Gailhard, J. (Jean).	1700 (1700)	Wing G42A; ESTC R232835	76,533	150

to discourage Vice and Immorality who having sold their Soul to the Devil to do his Drudgery make no scruple to sell themselves to Men to do all their Will and Pleasure Therefore no wonder if Men so ill qualified do for Self-Interest betray their Trust He who is not True to God will be False to Man thô in different ways some above-board others under and indirectly some by openly opposing their Friend's Interest others with neglecting withdrawing and upon occasion deserting the Service These indeed are loud and crying sins which yet cannot excuse the Folly of those who Intrusted them with what 's near and dear As no Prudent Man will Trust a Bloody Man with his Life So none that is Wise will lay his Estate in the hands of one who is needy and greedy But the Silliness of some and Dishonesty of others do prepare matter for a Judgment to come Thô I already have given some hints against Bribery yet the matter is of too high a concernment to be lightly passed over the more because now more than ever like a mighty Stream it hath overflown all beyond bounds and measure One can neither look nor go any where but 't is to be seen and met with it hath poisoned our very Springs Oh! the abominable wickedness Thus at first the Devil under a specious pretence blinded the understanding of our first Parents corrupted their Heart and seduced them to Rebellion against and Disobedience to their Maker To go about Bribing Men is to do the Devils work and tempt them to commit evil to turn Rogues and Knaves to betray their Judgment Conscience Truth Trust Good Name Friends Relations Countrey with whatsoever ought to be near and dear even God himself as much as ever for Money Judas betrayed his Lord and Master and if they could would deliver him too and to Damn their own Souls I would be for cutting off a Hand that offers a Bag of Gold sooner than that which takes it for if there was no Giver there would be no Receiver and none would be Tempted if there was no Tempter who is the Devil's Tool And to Tempt and Seduce is a damnable Office which in Men argues a mean a base and a wretched Soul A generous Spirit will scorn to take any advantage of the Frailty Corruption and Wants of another or to lay Snares and a Stumbling-block before the Weak which is so contrary to a Christian Frame This is not Policy but Knavery for True Policy is grounded upon Justice and Honour guided by Prudence Wisdom and Experience and through reasonable means tend to good ends Knavery is an effect of a dark Understanding whereof Cheating Tricking Deceiving with over-reaching are the Ingredients When any Person and Party are reduced to such miserable Shifts which banish Honesty out of the World and makes way for themselves to be served as they cause others to be 't is a clear sign that they are at their Wits end and despair of the Goodness and Success of their Cause seeing they would promote it by unlawful means Sometimes they would make specious pretences and even God's Holy Name subservient to their pernicious ends who to them will say as formerly he did to his People Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine Iniquities (a) Isai 43.24 And having for a while winked at and suffered them to go on in their unworthy courses of Bribing Suborning Corrupting Seducing and taking Advantage of the Weakness Blindness of Mind or Falseness of Heart of others will at last send a blast upon all their contrivances and as in a moment overthrow what through sinful means they had been building for bad ends and to them say as be doth to the Sea (b) Job 2.11 Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and here shall thy proud waves be stayed And as (a) Ch. 5.12 13. he disappointeth the devices of the crafty and taketh the wise in their own craftiness may be when they least think on 't God to confound all their great contrivances will send Death with this Errand come to give an account of thy self By what is said against the Bribers I intend not to excuse the Bribed in any station or capacity whatsoever no more than shall be those who yield to the Devil's Temptations for both Tempter and Tempted are guilty It availed Adam nothing to cast the fault upon another that is his Wife nor Eve to say The Serpent beguiled me For God passed Sentence of Condemnation upon all Three Is it not a great Crime Is it not a great folly in one to sell his Soul for Money or other worldly Advantage Yet there are those Men in the World who to do an ill thing will assoon and as often take a Bribe as a Lawyer will take a Fee to speak for a Client To Beg is become a Trade full of Abuses which daily may be seen in the Streets 't is a Seminary of Idleness Lewdness c. I know some are fit Objects of Charity but others use it as a Cloak to their evil Designs which ought to be enquired into Remember the Apostles Rule (b) 2 Thess 3.10 That if any will not work when he can neither should he eat Here we have a parcel of Boys known by the name of the Black Guard who by a loose manner of Life inure themselves to all kinds of Vice So there are many young Girls who under the notion of Begging are seen up and down the Streets to drive on the Trade of Pick-Pockets and Whoring As to the Men when they grow older they become wandring and sturdy Beggars and at last High-way Men which if timely minded and remedied might be prevented and consequently their being condemn'd to the Gallows Here I cannot forbear taking notice of a thing which thô it may be is not properly and in it self a Sin yet with Humble Submission to those whom it may concern I say it may become a Sin in its Adjuncts and Consequences for it affords occasion enough of Sin in those uncharitable Sermons which our Boanerges do upon the Anniversary Day fulminate against the Dead and the Living and thereby shew they know not what a Christian Spirit is This is too much like the Antichristian Practice of Popes who every Year on a certain day cause a Bull full of Curses to be read One would think that after Fifty years time there should be a Prescription for such things and 't would be well to forget and forgive that which keeps up Divisions and intails hatred and Revengefulness upon us and our Posterity as if of late we had not Breaches enough but we must still continue the old ones and Superstitiously keep an Anniversary for the Ashes of a Man and with such Religious Circumstances as make the thing much the worse which upon another occasion God grievously complain'd against That (a) Ezek. 43.8 by setting man's threshold by his thresholds and their post by his

are those not the Wise except it be in their own Conceit but Fools for long ago by Solomon's Pen God hath proclaimed them for such when he said Fools make a mock at Sin Prov. 14.9 now in Solomon's and David's stile the Fool is the Wicked Man who at the latter end shall appear to be the greatest Fool of all No jesting with Holy Things nor with God who will not be mockt and Men who believe otherwise are much deceived and if their Conscience tells them not before shall at last find they were so Sabbath-breaking is one of the Chief and Epidemical Sins of the Nation Every one that can read Scripture may know how strict and severe God was against Sabbath-breakers by his immediate command they were (a) Numb 15.32 35. stoned to death The holy Observation of that day was what he mostly required of that People not only now and then here and there but he made it the Fourth Commandment of the first Table of the Law greatly complain'd of the breach thereof and severely punish'd it upon Persons and the whole Nation There is the same reason for the Christian Sabbath in Scripture call'd the (b) Rev. 1.10 Lord's Day and several breakers thereof God hath in the Christian Church made Examples of his Judgments A great one we had in this Nation of that Prince who at several times having with Stage-Plays polluted the lord's-Lord's-Day and by means of a Book of Sports allowed and encouraged others to do so was out of the same Place where he had seen them acted brought upon the Scaffold where he lost his Life I do not pretend to dive into the secret Causes of God's Judgments but I must take notice how the Circumstance of the Place is very remarkable and we may be allowed to say how upon that Ground as well as upon others (c) Ps 76.12 God is terrible to the Kings of the Earth This is Matter of Fact Thô in his Son's Reign Piety was little regarded yet then we saw Acts of Parliament for the better Observation of the Lord's-Day to come out but now 't is thought not to be worth looking after in (d) That of 29 Ch. II. 1677. one of those Acts the Sale of any Wares Merchandizes Fruits Herbs Goods or Chattels whatsoever upon the Lord's Day or any part thereof was forbidden upon pain that every Person so offending shall forfeit the same Goods so cryed or shewed forth or exposed to sale Sabbaths were never more prophan'd then of late and now The generality of People make Play and Sport Days of them On that day we see Markets set up in many Places Children publickly at play Taverns Alehouses Coffee and Chocolate-Houses doors open and full of People and those Beasts which in the 4th Precept God had a regard to must not rest upon that day though upon every other in the Week they labour with all imaginable hardness which is a Cruelty for (e) Prov. 12.10 a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast Yet these must be for the Service of many Sabbath-breakers When the Drunkard is so fuddled that he without Reeling and Staggering cannot go he must have a Coach to carry him home We have but one true Christian Holy-day which ought to be employ'd only for Holy uses He who makes no Conscience to break the Lord's Holiday will make no Scruple of breaking any of the Ten Commandments and he who delights to observe it will the use Authority to make others observe it too 'T is strange yet true that some who in the Church have been and still are most fond after the reading of every Commandment of the fourth as well as of every one else to say Lord have merey upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law such as Pocklington Heylin and the Highest Church-men in their Writings Sermons and Discourses declared much against the Morality of the Sabbath or Lord's-Day how then can they pray to God to incline their Heart to keep a Law which they believe and profess to be abrogated But if herein one was to consult with Man's Opinion besides the Judgment of several Divines that of the good Pious and Learned James Vsher Primate of Ireland is with me of greater weight then the Authority of all Anti-Sabbatharians and all know how much in his judgment and practice he was for the strict observation of the Lord's Day One thing more though by the by and not to my present purpose I shall observe out of the Words Incline our Hearts to keep this Law it appears how the Opinion of those who compiled the Common-Prayer-Book and appointed these words to be said after every Precept was that Men cannot incline their Hearts to keep God's Law but must pray to God to do 't and consequently that to believe and obey doth not depend upon Man's Will but upon God's working upon and inclining it There is another crying Sin in the Nation which hath several branches as Lying Swearing Cursing and Perjury We have a sort of People who in this kind offend in the least Degree yet thereby contract a Guilt upon themselves out of an ill Habit and Custom upon most or any trivial account saying O Lord O God which is to take that Holy Name in vain and a Breach of the Third Commandment But others worse impiously take the Lord by his Bloud Wounds c. and swear by the Creatures 't is abominable sometimes to hear in the Streets Children of Eight and Ten years old and upwards to Curse and Damn themselves and others which ought to be the Care of Parents to prevent a horrid Sin God hath given us a Tongue to Bless not to Curse him nor our Neighbour or our selves yet some as soon as they are able to speak rap out Oaths A Curse in God's Name never falls without an Effect either against the Curser or Cursed That abominable Sin of Perjury and Swearing falsly in God's Name is too common Forswearing Covenant-breaking and Burning are so grievous a Sin as that in every judgment we undergo we may therein see a Grain of it as the Jews did in theirs in relation to the Golden Calf The Sin of Vncleanness is Loud and Epidemical in its several branches of Fornication and Adultery and there is too much cause to name Incest and Sodomy for which the Earth affords no sufficient Punishment therefore in Fire and Brimstone God as it were rained down Hell from Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah Uncleanness is among People of all Conditions Ages and Kinds now as common frequent and publick as between Dogs and Bitches without Curb and Restraint put upon 't so that Whoredom is certainly one of the Master Sins of the Nation Bawdy-Houses are tolerated and even in high Places want no Advocates to speak for them at any time specially towards the Evening one can hardly go up and down the Street but he meets with Inticements and Temptations Sometimes an honest Woman who goes about her