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	produce_v	3,640	5	8.1636	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61278	A sermon preached at Grays-Inn chappel Novemb. the 26th. 1691 Being the day of thanksgiving, for the success of their Majesties forces, and reducing of Ireland. By George Stanhope, Vicar of Lewisham in Kent. Publish'd at the request of that honourable society.	Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1692 (1692)	Wing S5229; ESTC R221866	14,548	31

as upon some occasions either to make them act beside their Natural Power and Order or to produce such things without them to which according to the common course of the World they are necessarily required 3. Thirdly The occasion of his exerting these Powers in such a manner which is generally for the sake of all or part of Mankind 1. The first Evidence of this Power is his gracious Concurrence with Second Causes and enabling them to produce their usual Effects In all Employments and Designs of Life particular means and instruments are chosen for particular and distinct purposes and every thing will no more serve for every use than every Sence can perceive every Object He that would expect Moisture out of Iron or Heat out of Ice and he that hopes to hear with his Eyes and to see with his Ears were equally ridiculous Now the bestowing these several Dispositions upon things the determining them at first to their several Faculties and limitting their Powers to such peculiar uses rather than others is manifestly the wise disposal of a Superiour Mind And after that these Dispositions are thus bestowed and restrained yet still his Concurrence is necessary to bring these Abilities he has given to a good effect For even the most proper and likely means do sometimes fail of compassing their ends which they could never do if they had an absolute Sufficiency in themselves and did not depend upon some Higher Being for Perfection and Success As therefore the Ax is fitted for cutting but yet can only do it in such a place and at such a time and to such a degree as the Hand of the Artificer directs so are these lower Causes which this World contains no more in truth than so many Aptnesses and Tendencies able to perform only such things and in such proportions as the Great Maker and Mover of all is pleas'd to give Leave and Assistance If He but hold his Hand the whole Engine stands still if He withdraw the Powers derived from him then the Work is not only interrupted but all the Fabrick falls to pieces The swiftness of Pharaoh's Chariots could do him no Service when the Lord clogg'd the Wheels with new weight and made them drive heavily Exod. xiv 25. And all Creatures attend so entirely upon his Pleasure that as the Psalmist observes very well Psal civ 29. He need only hide his Face and they are troubled when he taketh away their Breath they dye and are turned again to their primitive Dust Of such absolute Necessity is the Almighty's continual Concurrence and so clear an Evidence of his Strength it is even when the most ordinary things are effected by even the most ordinary means 2. But because our Observation is wont to rest too soon and pursue things no farther than the lowest Causes and most immediate Instruments by which our Senses shew them perfected to us and because according to the common method of Nature effects are usually though not alwaies the same when the same course is taken to bring them about Therefore Almighty God does sometimes awaken mens Minds by the more sensible Tokens of his Presence and extort an acknowledgment of his Providence by some more wonderful and surprising Instances These are such as my second particular mentions when he either transcends or wholly supersedes these next Causes The former is done when he makes them act beside their Natural Power and Order the latter when he produces such things without them as they are necessarily required to the production of according to the settled course of the World Sometimes we find him transcending these Causes by stretching their Efficacy farther than Nature and Use have done as when a Barrel of Meal and a Cruise of Oyl 1 Kings xvil 11. c. Joh. vl 5 c. sustained several persons for a good while without wasting when five Barly Loaves and two small Fishes satisfied five thousand people when a raw unarmed Youth as David slew an experienc'd mighty Champion 1 Sam. xvii Goliah the Great infinitely his Superiour in strength and all the advantages of War when Jonathan and his Armour-bearer attack'd the Garrison at Mickmash 1 Sam. xiv and a whole Army of Philistines were put into disorder by two men In all these cases Nature outdid her self and the Event was very much above what we commonly find it or what Prudence and a well-weigh'd Judgment can fairly promise from any human means Upon other occasions he puts a Restraint upon Nature and sets a Bar to its Dispositions and Faculties as in shutting up the Lions mouths and faming that Hunger and Native Rage to Daniel Dan. vi which when this miraculous Confinement was taken off again returned with all its ravening force upon his Accusers And that yet more amazing preservation of the Three Children in the Furnace Dan. iii. upon whom not so much as the smell of Fire had passed tho' the persons that bound and cast them in perished at a distance with the Extremity of its Heat Again as Nature is sometimes thus disjointed and put out of course so is it at others wholly laid aside And this happens either when God produces things without any contribution of Second Causes as when he rained Manna upon the Israelitish Camp Exod. xvi Numb xi Psal lxxviii Ver. 25 28. Numb xxii and feathered Fowls as the Sand of the Sea when he impower'd the dumb Ass with Man's voice to rebuke the madness of the Prophet and when he sustained Moses forty days and forty nights Exod. xxxiv 28. without eating or drinking in the Mount Or which seems still to be a greater Violence when he makes those Causes subservient to quite contrary Effects as Exod. xiv in gathering the Waters of the Red-Sea together and fixing them like Walls and Rocks at one time and at another cleaving the hard Rock and melting it down so that the Waters gushed out xvii and Rivers flowed in the dry places These and infinite other Examples the Scriptures furnish us with wherein the Lord Jehovah shewed his everlasting Strength which will appear to be most fitly laid by the Prophet here as a sure Foundation for our Trust in him if we proceed to consider 3. Thirdly That that which gives occasion for the exerting this Duty is generally the Benefit of all or part of Mankind We cannot think at all and at the same time continue insensible what a cherishing and constant Care is taken of the whole World and how liberally our indulgent Creator extends his Mercy over all his Works Now both our Saviour and his Apostle have given us Authority to improve this Consideration to our own comfort and very great advantage That if God cloth the Grass of the Field Mat. vi 26 30. 1 Cor. ix 9 10. and feed the Fowls of the Air and take care for Oxen he does it for our sakes That he cannot in reason be supposed to neglect a Creature

A SERMON PREACHED AT Grays-Inn Chappel Novemb. the 26 th 1691. BEING The Day of Thanksgiving For the Success of Their Majesties Forces and Reducing of IRELAND By GEORGE STANHOP Vicar of Lewisham in Kent Publish'd at the Request of that Honourable Society LONDON Printed for Sam. Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. A SERMON PREACHED AT Grays-Inn Chappel Novemb. the 26 th 1691. ISAIAH xxvi Ver. 4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength IN order to understand the true Meaning of this Chapter it will be convenient to cast our Eyes back as far as the 24th where after having foretold a general Destruction and Desolation in the Land the Prophet comforts his People and himself with the escape of a Remnant but that Remnant so few in comparison and in such apparent danger of being swept away in the same common Ruin that they are with great elegance represented under the figures of the shakings of an Olive Tree Ch. xxiv ver 13. and the gleaning Grapes when the Vintage is done And in regard this Deliverance was to be terrible to their Enemies no less than wonderful in it self therefore Isaiah according to that loftiness of stile so peculiar to him breaks forth into Songs of Joy and Triumph such as might at once both magnifie the Goodness of Almighty God and make that people duly sensible how safe and happy they were under his gracious and powerful Protection And if some of the best Interpreters are not mistaken in referring that Calamity to the Ten Tribes led Captive by Salmanesor and this marvellous Deliverance of God's People to the rescue of Jerusalem from Sennacherib's Army the potent Adversary of this Kingdom from whose Rage God hath in some measure delivered us already and against whom we still implore the continuance of his Defence bears so near a resemblance to that insulting Assyrian that the Application is most easie and the Parallel naturally draws it self His grasping Ambition and haughty Cruelty which are so well known to have render'd him a Terrour both at home and abroad abundantly prove the fitness of this Hymn being made a part of our Thanksgiving Service and the necessity of my exhorting all that hear me to day to a firm and devout Confidence in God And therefore Though your Enemies be mighty and they that hate you wrongfully are many in number yet still Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength The Text plainly perswades to a Duty and backs that Perswasion with an Argument drawn from the Power and Providence of Almighty God for the enforcing whereof I shall First say something to the Prophet's Arguments and shew how secure a Ground of Dependence that Power and Providence of God is to us Secondly What this Duty of trusting in him for ever implies and when we may be said truly to discharge it And Thirdly I shall bring these general Considerations home to our selves and to the particular occasion of this present Solemnity 1. First I am to speak to the Prophet's Argument and shew how secure a Ground of Dependence the Power and Providence of God is to us It requires but very moderate Reflection and no extraordinary Depth of Thought to convince men that the Successes of their Undertakings and Accomplishment of their Hopes are not perfectly in their own power The vast and surprizing variety of Accidents that attend human Life demonstrates most sensibly to each particular person's experience the truth of the Preacher's Observation That the Race is not alwaies to the swift Eccles ix 11. nor the Battel to the strong And this teaches us at the same time the extream ●olly of depending upon our own Abilities and most probable Endeavours when we frequently see the events of things so little correspondent to them But though this perplexing Consideration have driven some to impute all to the undistinguishing hits of blind Chance because of the great disproportion between Mens Merits and their Fortunes and though others have been carried into a very distant but altogether as unaccountable an Extreme and bound up every thing in the Fetters of a necessary Fatality yet we are to remember these were such as knew not God nor had any just Apprehensions of his wise and steddy Government of the World and that we may and ought to possess our Souls in much more patience We can take more effectual Methods both for the conducting our Actions and for satisfying our selves with the different Conclusions of them to us We I say who have learned from the unerring Oracles of God where our Confidence is to be placed from whence we must expect the last Results of all and that what St. Paul has told us in another case is true also in this That it is not of him that willeth Rom. ix 16. nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy And after we have brought our selves to this general acknowledgment of God's over-ruling Providence there are several Attributes in his Nature which may strongly move us to take off our Confidence from all other though never so promising Objects and place it entirely in that alone Such for instance is his Goodness which ever inclines him to grant what is most advantageous and make all things work together Rom. viii 28. for the benefit of them that love him Such his Wisdom whereby he defeats all the most politick Contrivances of Men and manifests to the whole World how vain and inconsistent how thin and slight how like the wild sick Dreams of Feaverish men all their fond Imaginations are and such his Power which in despight of any opposition to the contrary effects the whole good Counsel of his Will and performs all his Pleasure Of this last more especially the Text takes notice and has recommended it from the Greatness and the Eternity of it In the Lord Jehovah is strength and that strength is everlasting What this Strength is originally and in it self we cannot comprehend but that it is inherent and essential to the Nature of God the Prophet hints by mentioning him under the Appellation of Jehovah which above all other his Titles doth most significantly set forth the Glory of His Majesty and the unchangeable Constancy of those Perfections we ascribe to him The external Operations then of this Strength are the most powerful Inducements to rely upon it And though even of these too a great part is a Secret to us nor can we pursue Providence through all the Labyrinths of its dark and wonderful Dispensations towards Mankind yet is there so much of it visible and evident as most justly commands our observation and is proper to fix our Confidence as particularly in these three Instances that follow 1. First The gracious Concurrence of Almighty God with Second Causes and his enabling them to produce their usual effects 2. Secondly His more wonderful transcending or superseding those Causes so