Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	evil_a	good_a	4,841	5	4.5571	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29106	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable Lord-Mayor, the Aldermen, and citizens of London, at St. Mary Le Bow, on Thursday, November 5, 1696 by Samuel Bradford ...	Bradford, Samuel, 1652-1731.	1697 (1697)	Wing B4119; ESTC R19690	16,720	34

subjecting them to the Punishment which their Crime deserv'd His Goodness was very conspicuous in saving the Lives of so many innocent Persons design'd as a Sacrifice to the cruel Zeal of those Ungodly Men and in preserving together with them the Liberty and the Religion of our Nation Nor was this all but this Conspiracy farther redounded to the Glory of Almighty God as it became a means of begetting in the People of this Land an honest Aversion to that Church which allow'd and encourag'd such Wicked and Destructive Enterprizes as this And perhaps the keeping this Day for so many Years together in Memory of so remarkable a Deliverance from so Barbarous a Design did in an especial manner help towards the keeping the Nation awake and rendring them constantly jealous of whatsoever plausible Pretences that Church might make for the future I am sure in the I ate Reign when we were in fresh danger from the same Quarter the Zealous Observation of this Day and the Discourses that were Preach'd and Printed upon this Occasion were of very considerable Use And if we pass from that to the other Occasion of our present Assembling we shall find a new Instance among our selves of God's over ruling the Evil Actions of Men to his own Glory Our Enemies indeed in this later Case were so fair as to deal more above-board with us and plainly to let us know what they were designing and perhaps they will justify themselves as less wicked because more open in their Attempt But whoever well considers the Illegal and Unrighteous Practices that were used in order to the subverting the Legal Government of this Kingdom and rooting out God's true Religion from among us may see cause enough to own the Divine Wisdom and Goodness in bringing Good out of Evil in this instance also 'T was the Effect of no less than Divine Wisdom to bring about our Deliverance at a time when we were so closely beset on all sides as to have no visible way of Escaping left us When after the Endeavours of many Years all things at last seem'd to Conspire to the effecting what our Enemies had Design'd when they were confident of Success and began to Triumph over us as already in their Power it pleased God all on a sudden to give such an unexpected Turn to Affairs that instead of a Lawless Power and the Romish Religion being setled among us they were by a Concurrence of divers Causes render'd more unlikely to prevail for the future than ever The Government chang'd from Popish to Protestant the Strength of the Kingdom given over into other Hands many Wholesome and Necessary Laws made to prevent the like Danger hereafter which we had then incur'd And this Kingdom which seem'd the only One wanting to turn the Balance of Europe and which was then in a fair way to have done it made to become the Great Bulwark of the Liberties of all Europe and the main Support of the Protestant Religion in the World And so much may suffice for the First Observation I laid down I proceed to the II. Viz. That notwithstanding all this 't is a Detestable and Damnable Principle That Vnlawful means may be used in order to the bringing about an End that is good You see with what Abhorrence the Apostle in the Text disclaims it adding That their Damnation is just who either avow or act upon it 'T is in truth such an open Defiance to God and Goodness such a flat Contradiction to Truth and Reason as well as to Christianity that it very well became him thus to express himself concerning it The same Apostle has elsewhere likewise testified his Sense of this Matter namely When giving an Account of his own Behaviour before he became a Christian he says That he verily thought that he ought to do what he did contrary to the Name of Jesus viz. Shutting up many of his Saints in Prison giving his Voice against them when they were put to Death punishing them oft in every Synagogue and compelling them to Blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them and persecuting them into strange Cities Acts 26 9 10 11. All these things he says he verily thought that he ought to do and yet for having done this he arraigns himself in another place as a Blasphemer a Persecutor and Injurious 1 Tim. 1.13 Which Crimes he accuses himself of not as it may be objected meerly because the Christian Religion which he thus madly opposed prov'd to be God's true Religion but moreover because he used irregular and unlawful Methods in opposing it even though it had been a false Religion as he then suppos'd it was If the Christian Religion had not been from God he had not then indeed been a Blasphemer as he here calls himself but he would nevertheless have been a Persecutor and an Injurious Person in dealing so hardly and inhumanly with those who sincerely and honestly Profess'd it and were otherwise perfectly Innocent and Inoffensive nay Righteous and Holy Men. Our Blessed Saviour hath in like manner declar'd his Sense to the same purpose when speaking to his Disciples he telleth them That the Jews after his departure from them would put them out of their Synagogues and not content with that That the time would come that whosoever should kill them should think that he did God service John 16.2 And this our Lord not only foretells that the Jews would do but he speaks of it as an heinous Crime in them for so it follows Ver. 3. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me They have not known me else they would not deal thus despitefully and cruelly with my Servants And they have not known my father else they would not do such Acts of Violence such unrighteous and unnatural things to innocent and honest Men under a pretence of serving him and promoting his Glory And as the New so the Old Testament also hath fully born it's Testimony against this detestable Principle of doing Evil that Good may come We have a remarkable Passage in the Book of Job utter'd by Job himself who was not so much as initiated in the Jewish Religion but as far as appears was a pious and good Man upon the Principles of Natural Religion only which Passage being Recorded in the Canon of the Old Testament is a full proof that God hath both in Nature and under the Jewish Dispensation as well as by Christianity declar'd his disallowance of the Principle I am speaking of The words of Job are these which he spake in the bitterness of his Soul when his Friends unkindly charg'd him with Hypocrisy intending thereby to Apologize for God in laying such heavy Afflictions upon him Job 13.7 8. Will you says he speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Will ye accept his Person Will ye contend for God He declares you see against going about to justify even God himself by lying and falsehood Not that God