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
A62021	Signa coeli: the signs of heaven, or, A sermon on a text in the tenth chapter of the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah, at the second verse preached on ... the nine and twentieth day of March ... 1652 ... by John Swan ...	Swan, John, d. 1671.	1652 (1652)	Wing S6237; ESTC R33890	16,877	30

they defended with such obstinacy That when they were reproved of him and taught to do otherwise they answered That they would not do according to his Teaching but follow rather the desperate bent of their own Bows as I may say In worshipping the Moon as Queen of Heaven This you may see in the Four and fortieth of Jeremy at the Sixteenth and seventeenth Verses where the words be these As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not say they hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our mouth to burn incense to the * The Moon as in Job Chap. 31.26 Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem Of which they give this Reason For then say they we had plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil By which last words plenty of victuals were well and saw no evil it well appeareth That it was fear as much as any thing else which made them thus advance this practise And truly fear is an effect proceeding from the nature of Superstition and so far prevailing That it will there make gods where it doubteth most of danger As the Egyptians did in making Fortune a godess for they kept an annual feast in honor of her diety giving her thanks for the year which was past and earnestly imploring her favor for the year to come It was Plutarchs observation That the Superstitious always think the gods ready to do hurt By means whereof he accounteth them in worse case then Malefactors or Fugitives who if they once recover the Altar are there secured from fear where nevertheless the Superstitious are in greatest thraldom And from hence arose that ancient saying Primos in orbe deos fecit timor Fear first brought gods into the world And hence it also was That the Heathen in institution of their Sacrifices did offer as well to all their gods that they should not hurt them as for any help they expected from them And so in some sort it is even among us though called Christians for we have some that are troubled if the Salt do but fall towards them others that be afraid if a Raven do but crook over them or an Hare but cross the way before them or a Pin but lie with the point towards them for then forsooth they think the gods are angry with them they dare not therefore so much as stoop to take it up forgetting in the mean while what David saith in the 31 Psalm at the sixth or seventh Verse namely this I hate all those saith he who hold of superstitious or lying vanities but my trust hath been in the Lord. O what a misery it is to dote as some men do through the godless fear of foolish fancies But above all we have an example of the poor silly Indians who sacrifice their children unto the Devil at this very day because they be mainly afraid of him And of old as it is storied we have the example of Alexander Magnus who sacrificed to the Sun Moon and Earth that thereby he might divert the evil which as he feared was portended by an Eclipse but a little before And the Jews forementioned did not onely burn incense to the Moon whom they called the Queen of Heaven but did offer up cakes unto her also as in Jere. 7.18 From which kinde of Idolatry Job did thus acquit himself saying If I have beheld the Sun when it shined or the Moon when it walked in brightness or if my heart hath secretly enticed my mouth to kiss my hand unto it or by way of worshipping it then this were iniquity that ought to be punished Job 31.26 A smatch of which is still remaining even among us in some old doting Women who at the first sight of the New Moon do use to say Yonder 's the Moon God save her grace For from whence should that Speech arise but from the reliques of that Heathenish kinde of Idolatry which made gods of the Sun the Moon and the Stars But when Job spake against it he said It was iniquity that ought to be punished as you have already heard And well might Job say so because God Almighty had forbidden it as in Deut. 4.19 Beware lest thou lift up thine eyes to Heaven and when thou seest the Sun and the Moon and the Stars even all the host of Heaven shouldst be driven to worship and serve them which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all Nations under the whole Heaven By all or most of which hitherto mentioned we see that God Almighty would not have his people learn the way of the Heathen either in a servile slavish fear actively considered whereby they worship the Sun Moon and Stars or in a passive fear as in the Text whereby they are made afraid amazed or sore troubled in minde with thought of what may happen from the significations of the signs of Heaven For though they be signs and thereupon may and do signifie else they were no signs yet thus saith the Lord Be not afraid of them for the Heathen are dismayed at them All which in a word tendeth to this namely That the Prophet here teacheth Gods people to have their trust so firmly fixed on him that what disaster soever the Heavens in the course of Nature should at any time threaten unto them they ought not to fear it For as one truly speaketh Astra regunt homines sed Deus astra regit The Stars have a power over men such as it is but God ruleth the Stars Or as another saith Justè age Sapiens dominabitur astris Et manibus summi stant Elementa Dei That is Do godly deeds so shalt thou rule the Stars For then God holds the Elements from Wars Whereto agreeth that of Melancthon a great and famous Divine who speaking of this of Jeremy Be not afraid of the signs of Heaven saith Oh sweet consolation proposed to the Church of God and to all that call upon him For though the Prophet doth not say They signifie nothing nay rather in naming them signs doth declare they sometimes signifie or threaten great and sad things yet he would have the godly comforted and not be dismayed at them Not saith he because they signifie nothing but that the pious may trust that they shall be covered and kept of God even in those dangers For as Christ when he biddeth us not to fear death doth it not because death is not bitter but because he would have us know that even in death he is present to preserve us So here the Lord God in saying Fear not the signs of Heaven doth it not because they are not sometimes of an evil signification and may therefore produce effects of a sad event but because he would have our whole trust and confidence be

placed in him who hath made the Heavens and the Earth with all that therein is The Heathens indeed were afraid because they looked onely upon the secondary causes but you that be Gods children may look upon God the first cause and therefore though they were yet you need not be afraid of the signs of Heaven no though they promise no good For God is above them and can either mitigate the most direful influence that is as he stayed the course of the Sun in the days of Joshua or else can make even that which is the worst of all to work for the good of them that love and fear him as you may see in Rom. 8.28 in which place the Apostle speaks without limitation of any thing saying All things And if all things then even the worst of such things also as may be intended by the signification of these signs He that dwelleth saith David in the secret place of the most high Psal 91.1 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty Thus he in one Psalm and in another Be merciful unto me O God Psal 57.1 be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpast In which words David a man after Gods own heart teacheth us by his own example where to shelter our selves in troublesome times even under the shadow of Gods wings And then come life come death or come what will or can come it shall be no terror to him that makes God his refuge For though in this infirmity of nature mans minde is subject to fear as well as to any other passion and may therefore at the first be troubled when the Signs of Heaven do threaten the Earth with some direful influence yet when he hears the sacred voice of the Eternal say Be not dismayed at them he gives ear thereunto betakes him to God prayes for Faith endeavors for patience and all other Graces which may confirm him And so having put himself under Gods protection he resteth setled and quiet in minde waiting and expecting to see what it is that the Lord will do For though in it self it be a sad thing to see how the Pestilence sometimes rageth and sweeps away the people to see how Famine and the Sword devours to see the firing and subversions of Cities to behold the death of Friends and Kinsfolks the banishment of our selves our Wives and Children yet ought the godly to be so confirmed That through the fear of these things they may not be broken but be firmly setled and willing to walk with God in all his ways as well of judgement as of mercy which again was Davids course in the Three and twentieth Psalm at the fourth Verse For though I walk saith he through the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil For thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me And in the Six and fortieth Psalm at the first and second Verses God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be removed and though the Mountains be carried into the Heart or midst of the Sea Erigenda igitur mens est c. The minde therefore of a godly man ought to be elevated above all this corporal nature though the World should be broken and fall nor is it to be endured that the Word of God nor that our trust toward him should be shaken off By which trust as the mindes of the godly are guarded against present dangers so should they also be strengthned against the hurtful significations of the Stars as saith Melancthon In a word It is certainly true that the time will one day come when the whole World it self shall go to ruine before which time there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and Mens Hearts shall fail them for fear as our Saviour hath told us in Luke the One and twentieth Yet for all this saith Christ there when these things shall begin to come to pass then lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh By which phrase of lifting up the head is still declared That the right reading and meaning of the Text is so as at the first I shewed namely Be not afraid cast down fore troubled in minde or as those who hang the head at the Signs of Heaven what sad thing soever seems to be threatned by them for it is God that guides * A Star so called in Job 38.32 Arcturus and his sons and can if he please as well restrain the bad influences of any of the wandring Planets as binde up the sweet influences of the fixed Pleiades or loose the Bands of Orion how else had the Lord convinced Job of weakness and imbecility concerning these very things in Job 38.31 Moreover there is a Text in Job 9.7 where God is said to seal up the Stars in his anger This he doth for a punishment when he keeps back the Rain from watering the Earth as in the days of Ahab when there was no Rain for the space of three years together From whence again I argue That as he can seal them up from doing good for a punishment to offenders so in like maner he can seal or binde them up in his mercy from being hurtful though they may threaten great and sad things to this wicked world in which we live Or thirdly be it granted That as the case may stand between him and the World he will not absolutely hinder or perhaps not at all hinder the full and compleat operation of the Signs of Heaven but let them go on unbound as the Stars in their courses to fight against Sisera that is to use them as his Instruments for punishing an incorrigable sinful people Ephes 1.11 Yet for all that working all things not barely according to his will but according to the counsel of his will there is no doubt but he will dispose of all things as well in a merciful way to those that fear him as in a just way to those who obstinately sin against him and cause even the worst of things to co-operate or work together for the good of his children Rom. 8.28 To whom by these sad Signs of Heaven which beget a fainting fear in others he gives warning of his judgements and thereupon prepareth and stirreth them up to call upon him For as one truly saith Loquitur cum hominibus Deus non modo lingua humanâ per Prophetas Apostolos Pastores sed non-nunquam etiam ipsiis Elementis in formas imagines diversas compositis That is God saith he speaketh with men not onely with the Tongues of men by Prophets Apostles and Teachers but sometimes also by the very Elements composed or wrought into divers forms and shapes And if by the Elements then by the Stars and Lights of Heaven which work not onely upon