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	natural_a	nature_n	4,625	5	5.6875	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82007	A sermon preach'd before the King at White-Hall, Novemb. 5. 1696. By Sir William Dawes, baronet, D.D. and chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty. Publish'd by His Majesties special command	Dawes, William, Sir, 1671-1724.	1696 (1696)	Wing D456A; ESTC R231752	9,117	28

A SERMON Preach'd before the KING AT WHITE-HALL Novemb. 5. 1696. By Sir WILLIAM DAWES Baronet D. D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Publish'd by His Majesties Special Command The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Thomas Speed at the three Crowns near the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill MDCLXXXXVI A SERMON Preach'd before the KING AT WHITE-HALL Nov. 5th 1696. Job Chap. V. Vers 12. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprize HE that is God of whom we have express mention in the 8th Verse of this Chapter I would seek unto God saith Eliphaz to Job and unto God would I commit my cause and then having spoken very great things of God in the 9 10 and 11 Verses he goeth on to set forth his Praise in these Words of my Text He disappointeth the devices of the crafty c. The word which we here render crafty is us'd in a double sense in Scripture sometimes in a good but most commonly in a bad one In the 12th Chap. of Prov. v. 23. and in other places of that Book it is Translated prudent but generally it stands to denote such as are wickedly cunning as in the 83d Psal v. the 3d They have taken crafty counsel against thy People wickedly crafty no doubt since it was against the People of God and in the same sense you may meet with it in several other places of Holy Writ And that this sense tho' a very bad one belongs to the crafty in my Text seems to me to be very plain from their being represented there as Enemies to God as such whose devices he would disappoint And in this opinion I am farther confirm'd by the Vulgar Latin which renders the Word which we here Translate crafty * Maligm wicked or malicious This then I take to be the meaning of my Text that with how much art and subtilty soever wicked Men may lay their plots and ill designs there is a God who both can and frequently doth disappoint and baffle them make them vain and of none effect Psal 33.10 That God can do this will be deny'd by none who Believe a God an Omniscient and Omnipotent God and that he actually doth it by none that own his Providence and I hope I speak to such only at present as do both I shall not therefore spend any time needlesly in the proof of a truth which I look upon here as granted but immediately proceed to make the best use and improvement I can of it with respect to the design of our present Meeting And in order to this I will endeavour in my following Discourse First To show how and in what cases we may reasonably suppose the disappointments of crafty Mens devices to be from God And from hence Secondly To make you sensible how eminently God's Hand appear'd in those Deliverances of this Nation from the devices of crafty Men which we this Day Commemorate And then Thirdly and Lastly conclude with some Practical Inferences from the Whole First I am to show how and in what cases we may reasonably suppose the disappointments of crafty Mens devices to be from God from him I mean not as the common effects of his Ordinary Providence for in this sense all events whatsoever must necessarily be acknowledg'd to come from him but as the Extraordinary Effects of his particular and special Providence as his own more immediate and proper doing And here I shall not insist upon those which are plainly Miraculous that is either above or contrary to Nature because these are allow'd on all hands to belong to God but on such only as either visibly are the immediate effects of Natural Causes or at least are capable of being ascrib'd to them and being so make it difficult to determine when they are or are not the effects of nature when of nature proceeding in her common course and when of nature in a more than usual manner influenc'd and directed by God Now though it is absolutely impossible in such a nice case as this full of perplexity and variety to lay down such perfect and exact Rules as shall clearly and effectually reach and decide all questions about this matter yet we may certainly go a great way towards it if we heedfully observe these which follow First then when a disappointment shall be brought about in a way though not miraculous yet evidently strange surprizing and unusual we ought in reason to place this to God's account Thus for example when those very means by which crafty Men intend to accomplish their designs shall defeat and blast them when those that are engag'd in a bad cause shall all on a sudden be struck with a panick fear and forsake the defence of it when a considerable number of Conspiators all Men of art and contrivance shall neglect to make provision against their Discovery in some very plain and obvious case and thereby spoil their whole Plot when a man of notoriously lewd and wicked principles shall in an instant become scrupulous and think himself oblig'd in Conscience to reveal his ungodly devices and his accomplices in them and by so doing destroy a very hopeful design In these and many other such like cases of which we want not instances in History I dare appeal to any man of sense whither it is not more agreeable to reason to ascribe such disappointments to God Job 5.9 who doth marvellous things without number Psal 14.6.9 who turneth the way of the wicked upside down by whom sinners are made afraid Isa 33.14 Job 12.17 Prov. 21.1 and Hypocrites surpriz'd with fearfulness who leadeth Counsellors away spoiled and maketh the Judges fools and who turneth the heart of Man which way soever he pleaseth than merely because there is a Simple possibility not a Moral one of their being the events of natural chance to force them upon her Secondly The Hand of God is apparently visible in those Disappointments which involve Men either in those very Mischiefs which they had prepared for others or at least in others for their grievousness and soreness not unlike them Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 9. cap. 9. As when Maxentius not only fail'd of his design against Constantines Life but perish'd by that very same deceitful Bridge which he had laid for him as when a parcel of base and inhuman Traytours that Plot and Contrive how they may take away their Prince's Life not only are defeated in their Purposes but are brought to a scandalous and miserable end themselves This plainly seems to be the doing of him who delights to recompense Men according to their deeds Jer. 25.14 and to make the Mischief of the Wicked return upon their own heads Ps 7.16 and their violent dealings come down upon their own pates Thirdly When the Devices of wicked Men shall luckily meet with a disappointment just at that very time when they are ripe and ready for execution this is another very probable sign