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	necessary_a	produce_v	6,956	5	9.5140	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41476	A sermon preached before the Honble Society of Lincolns-Inne, upon the 26th of July, 1685 being the thanksgiving-day for His Majesty's victory over the rebels / by John Goodrick ...	Goodrick, John.	1685 (1685)	Wing G1144; ESTC R7981	11,287	39

God in the ordering these Events 4. The comfort encouragement good Men have to depend upon God at all times he is with them and is their refuge 5. Draw some Inferences from the whole pertinent to this solemn Occasion I begin with the first of these To consider the Power and Providence of God in ordering the Events of War and Peace For the Psalmist here speaks of his Enemies combined together with rage and malice for his destruction and also of his deliverance from their designed Mischief Wherefore upon this experience of God's Power and Goodness he in a solemn manner summons all good Men to come and behold i. e. seriously to consider God's Providence in these matters sometimes causing Desolations and at other times making Peace and Tranquillity in the Earth And this appears true both from the Person the Author of these Events and the nature of the thing First from the Author of these Events Know that I am God As he is the Creator so he is the Governour of the World and nothing happens in the course of things but what is ordered by his over-ruling Power The most minute things here below are directed by his alwise Providence how much more the great and weightier Affairs of Kingdoms and Nations His Power is visibly seen in the Mutations and Changes in inanimate Beings and sublunary Bodies and the whole course of Heaven and Earth are manag'd by his Governance But more especially this is apparent in the rise and fall of Kingdoms and Nations For he pulleth down one and setteth up another He scattereth the People that delight in War And when he speaketh Peace who can give Trouble I will not spend time to cite Instances of this nature recorded at large by the Greek and Latin Historians The many Alterations in the Jewish State their Success and Victory their Decay and Overthrow are remarkable proofs of the point in hand Whilst they were obedient to the Law and Commands of God who was their Supream Governour with what few Numbers and almost incredible Success did they overturn and conquer mighty Nations and People strong as the Anakims and all this as Moses tells them not by their might and strength but by the Power of God But when they fell back from his Service they were oppressed by their Neighbour Nations carried captive into strange Countries their Land made miserably desolate by Nebuchadnezzar God's Scourge And in tract of time abandoned to all the Infelicities that Omnipotent Power was pleased to threaten and inflict upon them So true is that which is spoken by Daniel concerning the same Nebuchadnezzar in this very case God doth according to his Will in the Army of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his Hand or say unto him What dost thou Dan. 4. 35. But we have a remarkable Instance of this matter of fact nearer home For we cannot but remember the best of Kings once the Darling of his People the delight of their eyes and the breath of their nostrils supported by his own Power possess'd of the whole Strength of the Nation and wanting nothing either of Goodness or Grandeur to make him beloved at home and feared abroad yet after all this by the malice of wicked and turbulent Men given to change by popular Pretences by sly and false Insinuations made the Enemy of his Country the Mark to be shot at the Betrayer of his Peoples Liberties the Patron of Immorality and the Subverter of Religion By which he was hunted like David as a Partridg on the Mountains by Rebellious Arms devested of his Power seiz'd imprisoned under the formality of Justice illegally tried for those very crimes which they themselves were guilty of and at last fell a Sacrifice to that accursed Faction bringing the foulest stain upon our most Holy Religion the Honour of the English Nation and the highest Guilt and Desolation that can be mentioned in any Story On the other hand when God had permitted these sons of Belial to tire and weary themselves with their Iniquities He by his Almighty Providence turn'd all into a profound Peace and without Bloodshed restored our late dread Sovereign and this our now gracious King to their Rights together with our Religion and Liberties En Digitus Dei This is none other but God's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes As the Psalmist expresses it in the like case Psalm 118. 23. 2. The nature of the thing requires that God should order these Events For being infinitely wise he knows how to direct all Affairs and Actions to their best and noblest ends what is most for his Glory the Benefit and Welfare of Mankind When the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong When time and chance happen to all men i. e. that Events are contrary to their Causes and these sublunary things seem to be left to their own governance as it shall happen Then if Men will sit down and consider their own Reason will tell them that there is a Superintendant Power that manages second Causes else these would not fail of their proper Effects For let Men talk never so Captiously or Atheistically rather it will appear an avowed Truth That were it not for the interposition of the Divine Providence Force and Power would always prevail and necessary Causes would produce the designed Fruits For if it be demanded What should hinder They must assign that the Reason of it is either from themselves or from some other more potent Being If the first then they are not necessary Causes and it is to no purpose to speak of their force and energy when they are not able to effect that which is the proper Reason of their being such And if it be from without that they do not attain their end let those Scepticks if they can assign any other Being whatsoever besides Almighty God which can over-rule Events contrary to their Causes The truth is some Men because of their vicious lives and practices are justly afraid of the Dread Majesty of Heaven and therefore endeavour to dispute God out of the world rather taking up with the fantastical Hypothesis of Epicurus whose Contrivance is as silly as it is blasphemous or with the grave Notions of an imposing Leviathan who hath subjected the Supream Deity and his Attributes Vice and Vertue to the over-ruling Power of the Magistrate and these sublunary things to a fatal necessity Rather I say beguiling themselves with these trifles than owning a Providence to govern them or a God to judg them But would Men impartially consult their own Reason that would tell them without the help of Revelation That it is absolutely necessary in order to the solving the Doubts that do and will arise to grant the Being of a God and his Providence and that he does direct the issues and events of things For as the Psalmist says Psal 58. ult so that a Man shall say Verily there is a reward