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	punishment_n	sin_n	3,729	5	5.7335	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88628	An image of our reforming times: or, Jehu in his proper colours; displayed in some exercitations on 2 Kings 9 and 10 chapters: setting forth the opportunity was given him to do his work in. cause he had committed to him to manage. Also, his policie, zeal, profession, hypocrisie: with his sins, and their aggravations. reason for all this. In all which he is proved to be a particular character of our times: by which, as in a glass, we may see the state and condition we have brought our selves into, by our deviations. Concluding with a word to Jehu, Jehonadah his counsellor, and the despised persecuted people of God. /	[Lane, Edward, Col.].	1654 (1654)	Wing L335; Thomason E808_11; ESTC R207527	55,583	61

them to wit c. But before we come to the opening of these words which is our main intendment it 's necessary that we should see what help the whole history of Iehu will afford us to the clearing up of our work That which is requisite for us to observe as to our present business may be brought under these six Heads 1. The time that God took to have this work done in 2. The cause Iehu had committed to him to manage 3. His policy 4. His zeal 5. His profession 6. His hypocrisie First The time the opportunity or season God gave Iehu to do his work in It was as wicked a time as ever was in Israel wherein the poor people groaned under all sorts of Oppressions in their outward man as in the case of Naboth may be seen In things of a spiritual concernment in the Worship of God Baal and the Calves tell what a sad case the poor people of God were in then Prerogative and absolute Soveraignty advanc'd to the highest the Kings will and pleasure above Law as in the case of Naboth's vineyard and may be further seen in the complaint of good Obadiah What have I sinned that thou wouldst deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab to slay me The King's will was grown extreme boundless that a man so neer Ahab's person as Obadiah was Governour over his house so great and powerful a man should be so subject to the imperious fury of his Prince that he should incur the danger of death for a supposed telling of a lye that was the case if he should go and tell Ahab that Elijah was there and the Spirit of the Lord take him and carry him elsewhere and Ahab should not finde him he would slay Obadiah Surely Ahab was an absolute Soveraign had scru'd up Prerogative to the higest pin And this mans wife Iezebel was more absolute then he he rul'd the Kingdom but she rul'd the King for she made him more wicked then he was before that Ieroboam's sins could not serve his turn but he must have an Ahab's sins too She being a Sidonian brought him to worship her Idols and submit to her superstition to serve her gods and her Priests and who rul'd the King now think you Oppression and Superstition were brought up to the highest pitch and that by her means The times thus qualified gave Iehu an easie entrance into this work God order'd it so that the sense of the Oppressions and Superstitions of their Rulers wrought so upon the Souldiers hearts as made them of a willing minde to follow Iehu otherwise it would have been a difficult and hard matter for Iehu to have engaged them against their King * Who was a valiant man for he was wounded his wounds spake forth his valor which vertue is mighty ravishing and taking to the heart of a souldier He had a fit season to do his work in the harvest was ripe and he wisely thrust in his sickle How can he do amiss that hath God to direct him Now look back and behold the countenance of our late times consider our King and Queen the Prelates the Friers and Jesuitical Priests view the temper of the times the ways and courses were taken and you will presently be of my minde and say These two times though at so great a distance of time are complexion'd exceeding like each other and with Solomon thou wilt cry out There 's no new thing under the sun but the present age many times commits the same sins former ages have done and fall under the same punishment and possess the same ruine if they differ in any thing it 's but in the circumstantial aggravations of their sin and so may breed like difference in the effects Secondly for the Cause Jehu had in hand to manage It was as excellent as noble a Cause as ever man had the prosecution of What was it but the execution of God's wrath and vengeance upon his and his peoples enemies and the deliverance of his people from their bondage and oppressions that lay upon them both in matters of Worship and their outward concernments The people of Israel groan'd under the hand of their oppressors as you may read in the story of Naboth and they were compel'd to worship idols in stead of the true God the best whereof were Jeroboams calves characteristically called his sins and the more gross were Baal and other the gods of the heathens Now the Prophet gives Iehu full commission to execute the vengeance of God upon these Tyrants the enemies of God nad his people as you may read in 2 Kings 9.7 8 9 10. The other part of the Cause to wit deliverance and liberty for the people of God to worship the true God is plainly intimated in Chap. 10. vers 31. But Iehu took no heed c. God expected he should walk uprightly before him as David did wherefore did God give him commission to make the house of Ahab like to the house of Ieroboam but to let him know that he expected his turning from Ieroboam's sins as well as Ahab's and that he should take away the peoples oppressions and bondage in matters of Worship as well as in their outward estate Yea one reason why God would have Ahab thus dealt with is that he might avenge the blood of the prophets which blood was shed in defence of the true Worship of God And what was it that made God so wroth with Ieroboam and Baasha but because they made Israel to sin by compelling them to forsake the true God and his Worship 1 King 14.9 10. and 16.2.3 So that it 's clear that the cause Iehu had the managing of was the execution of God's wrath and deliverance of his people from all bondage and oppressions What a neer affinity there is between this Cause of God in these times of Israel and the Cause this present generation have had the managing of for these many yeers last past yea that it 's one and the same is so obvious to every serious eye that it would be but time lost to bring arguments to prove it Thirdly Let us consider the policie of the man view his intellectuals a little and we shall see that according to the received opinion of our times that grace is but a secondary qualification in Rulers and Magistrates natural gifts and accomplishments to be sought after in the first place he was as fit for the Magistracie as any man of that Judgement would fix upon A very embleme of our times This Policie of his discovers it self in divers particulars 1. By a faigned humility his companions without question read something in his countenance whereby they conceived that the matter which was communicated to him was of some importance upon which one of them demands Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee He answers The man you know and his communication you know As much as to say It 's no matter let it alone the thing shall die

build upon and which were so notably built upon as had not an Almighty providence prevented the seed of the Serpent had utterly destroyed and devoured the seed of the woman in our Land these are the darlings these would some in our days have pull'd up by the roots and so have made thorow-work of it but they are not permitted and that upon strong reasons of State too You will then bring all into confusion presently we must go prudently and wisely to work and do things more gradually otherwise we shall lose all If you pull up the foundation will not the building necessarily fall to pieces But doth not this dilemma say You would not have the son of David to reign And is not this ●ur darling Secondly Iehu's sin was cleaving to rules of State-policie and he obeyed not the minde and will of God in his present generation It was policie of State that set up those golden Calves to secure the kingdom and he made it appear it was his opinion That all the Laws of God and men were to stoop to Reason of State and that Princes have a latitude beyond all men given them by God that as gods they may by the implicite Laws of their own brest do their will and pleasure and although they break all the Laws of God and Nature yet they are righteous still And why Why forsooth they will tell you it's reason of State to prevent an extraordinary unpresidented evil that hangs over our heads ready to fall upon us and such must have extraordinary and unusual remedies otherwise the Ant will be too hard for the Lion and his power majestie and great glory will be tumbled into the dust But what became of all this policie what was the fruit of it why it brought ruine upon him and his house as the story evidences He that seeks his life shall lose it by the very same evil ways that men take to secure themselves in their state their ruine shall inevitably come all their craft and cunning shall not be able to prevent it Iehu kept his kingdom for a while but he was not beholden one jot to his wicked policie for it but to the abundant mercy of God who would not let him go unrewarded for his so great service in destroying the house of Ahab and Baal out of Israel Because thou hast done that which is right in mine eyes c. he should have the kingdom to the fourth generation a little while and what comes then nothing but utter ruine and destruction And the Lord said unto him Hos 1.4 Call his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu Consider this O England's Princes and tremble lest God make you a by-word and a hissing to the Nations round about you State-policie reason of State ruin'd this when time was Saint-like Iehu Give God your whole hearts and he will give you the whole possessions of the Lord Jesus purchased by his blood But Secondly more particularly to set down what those sins of Ieroboam are that Iehu would not depart from We have a full description of them in 1 King 12. vers 28. to the end of the Chapter and they were First Idolatry withdrawing the people from the true God telling them that the golden calves were their Gods that brought them out of the land of Egypt Secondly Putting the true Priests from their service and making Priests or Ministers of the lowest of the people Thirdly Devising a new worship for these calves their golden Gods For the first IDOLATRY A sin so provoking unto God as that it had cost the Israelites their utter ruine at their first commission of it had they not had a faithful Mediator to plead their cause with God Exod. 32.10 11. a sin that deprived them of the presence of God Exod. 33.3 a sin against which there is so much wrath of God pronounced by all the Prophets and of which God had much complained how it grieved his holy Spirit and provok'd him to anger yet nothing would warn Jeroboam nor Jehu but for the love of this world the honours vanities thereof they would stick by it no perswasion would move them to depart from it Behold saith Jeroboam thy Gods O Israel c. as if he had said and Jehu's actions spake the same language these Calves had wrought those wonderful revolutions as had then happened to Israel that there was no more of a deity manifested in them then was in these calves a prophane speech making it evident Ieroboam's God was the God of this world the Devil having shewn him the glory of this world he falls down worships him that so it may be his portion to enjoy it thus Ieroboam and so Iehu drew the people from their God by preaching to them when their expectations were raised high great after their going up to Jerusalem to worship and that upon apprehensions of an Almighty and extraordinary providence of God bringing things so marvelously about giving such extraordinary success to their proceedings that this apprehension of theirs was but a fancy as great things had been done for by others as these and as great revolutions had been made in the world in times of old and yet all things remain as you see as at the beginning and by such-like Arguments as these perswade the people from their belief of the Omnipotency and faithfulness of God in performing his promises and so bring them by this means to submit to their innovations and usurpations being thus blinded not being able to see by faith God's making bare his arm bending his bow sharpening his arrows and whetting his sword to fulfil his promises made to his chosen ones And surely it 's too too evident that we are after these mens example running to our old Idolatry onely new gilded over with specious pretences and under another form the serpent the old dragon having furnished us with a new mold to cast our Image in and helping us by his wisdom to bring our old calves into the new fashion If we have done all that God hath commanded what means this bleating of the sheep and lowing of the oxen no but in stead of pulling down and taking away the remainders of Idolatry we are setting up new Idols under other and more specious pretences every way of our own invention though it be never so good in it self to never so righteous an end yet if it be not of Gods appointment it 's Idolatry it 's superstition will-worship and it may justly be asked Who required this at your hands surely God did not but your Idolatrous calvish hearts that are full of many inventions Secondly Taking away the true Ministers of God in his worship and making other Priests of the lowest of the people this was another of Jeroboams heinous sins that Jehu departed not from having taken away the worship of God he takes away his Ministers