Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	efficient_a	end_n	final_a	2,172	5	9.9792	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87806	Five seasonable sermons. As they were preached before eminent auditories, upon several arguments. / By Paul Knell Master in Arts, of Clare-Hall in Cambridge. Sometimes chaplain to a regiment of curiasiers in His late Majesties Army.	Knell, Paul, 1615?-1664.; Knell, Paul, 1615?-1664. Israel and England paralelled.; Knell, Paul, 1615?-1664. Looking-glasse for Levellers.	1660 (1660)	Wing K678; Thomason E1766_2; ESTC R209658	76,872	199

rod of iron and break us in pieces like a potters vessell If a man will not turn he will bend his bow Now the farther back ye draw the bow-string ere ye shoot the more forcibly the arrow flyeth when ye shoot So the longer God delayeth to punish us for our sins the more harshly will he handle us when once he beginneth with us He hath long begun with us I know but without our repentance he will not make a full end if we continue in sin our sufferings shall be of long continuance if we keep not the Laws of God the Laws of the Land shall still be kept from us if we will not suffer Christ to raign over us God will not suffer our Lord the King to raign To summe up all therefore in one word let us repent and be converted or if we do not this for our own sakes yet let us do it for our poor Kings sake who in my conscience hath a long time suffered for our sins Let not us brethren forget God and he will never forget us he will speedily remember King Charles and all his troubles let us by a new life shew our thankfullnesse for Gods former loving kindnesse and this will encourage him to confer new benefits upon us he will be our God We shall be his People as he hath been good to us in former so will he be in after-ages to us and our posterity for evermore he will turn Ours and our Soveraigns captivity as the rivers in the South he will turn our heavinesse into joy he will take off our Sackcloth and gird us with gladnesse he will put a new song into our mouth even a thanksgiving unto our God though the Prologue have been Tragical yet the Catastrophe shall be Comical God will make good to us that promise Zech. 8.19 The fast of the fourth moneth and the fast of the sift and the fast of the seventh month and the fast of the tenth shall be to us joy and gladnesse and chearfull feasts Which God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to grant unto us for the merits of his eternal Son our blessed Saviour FINIS A LOOKING-GLASSE FOR LEVELLERS A Sermon PREACHED At ST. Peters Pauls-wharf Upon Sunday Sep. 24. 1648. LONDON Printed in the year 1660. A LOOKING-GLASSE FOR LEVELLERS LUKE 20.14 But when the Husbandmen saw Him they reasoned among themselves saying This is the Heir Come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours THe first particle is discretive and severeth the Text from the foregoing verses wherein our Saviour holdeth forth as it were a dark Lanthorn to the chief Priests that seeing they might see and not perceive and that hearing they might hear and yet not understand Or rather he sheweth them their faces in a glass wherein they might plainly see what manner of men they were The Looking-glass is this present Parable of the Vineyard wherein he insisteth chiefly on three things First He sheweth the Descent and Pedegree of the Priesthood A certain man planted a Vineyard and let it forth to husbandmen Secondly He upbraideth the ingratitude of these husbandmen in abusing their Landlords servants they beat them they intreated them shamefully they wounded them they killed them Thirdly he threatneth a punishment for their ingratitude which is no less than a Re-enter the Lord shall destroy these Husbandmen and shall give the Vineyard to others But more punctually to survey and view this Parable by this Certain man the Planter of this Vineyard we are to understand the worlds Creator God himself By the Vineyard his Church confined for a long time to Judea Isa 5.7 By the Husbandman to whom the Vinevard was let out we are to understand the Chief Priests who by their Doctrine and Example were as it were to prune and dress Gods vineyard that so it might be fruitful in good works By the Servants sent to demand some of the fruit of this Vineyard we are to understand the inspired Prophets who were sent by God to call the chief Priests to repentance to bring forth fruits worthy of amendement of life Trium autem mentiofit c. saith Aretius God is said to have sent severally three Servants to the Husbandmen because three is a perfect number and is therefore used to shew Gods uncessant desire of their conversation Vncessant I say it was for though it knew a little Intermission yet it knew no termination though the word of the Lord were preci●us in the dayes of Eli even then God raised up Samuel to reprove the lewdness of the Priests there was no time there was no place but the Jewish Priests had Prophets sent among them Before their captivity in Babylon they had Isaiah Jeremy Amos Micah Zephany and others In time of their captivity they had Ezekiel and Daniel After their captivity they had Haggai Zachary and Malachy And the last was not the least for among those that were born of women there was not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist But what entertainment found these Servants amongst their Masters Tenants just such as we that will not preach Treason meet with in these dayes just such as the Messengers of Truth have ever found Convitia Verbera Vulnera as Stella speaketh Revilings Blowes Wounds nay very death it self Isaiah was sawn asunder Jeremy and Zechary were stoned Amos had his brains beaten out with a club Micah was thrown down head-long from a rock and all the rest did the Jews either kill or at lest hunt after them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Stephen asked them Which of the Prophets did not their Fathers persecute Acts 7.52 Yet see the never wearied goodness of Almighty God though the chief Priests had killed his Prophets and had stoned them that were sent unto them yet he did so long to do them good that Nullum non movebit lapidem he will leave no stone unrolled no not the Corner-stone he had but one bosome Son and he sendeth him to them for his rent presuming that for shame they would not send him away empty they will reverence saith he their young Land-Iord when they see him But when the husbandmen saw him they reasoned among themselves saying This is the Heir Come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours The Text then ye see is a conspiracy against Christ where we meet together the four causes of it First here is the Efficient cause or Conspiratours the Husbandmen Secondly the Material cause or person conspired against the Heir when they saw him Thirdly the Formal cause or manner of their conspiracy they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him Fourthly and lastly the Final cause or end of their conspiracy which was that they might be Lords of the Mannour that the inheritance may be ours These are the parts of which in order briefly and very plainly I begin with the first part the Conspirators which are Coleni the Husbandmen If the first Man had been a good husband there

had been no Husband-man the Earth need have had no Mid-wife she would have brought forth of her self But Haec maledictio Adae c. saith St. Bernard this was a curse entailed on Adam's sin that for his sake the ground it self was cursed his barrenness in obedience made the very Earth grow barren Which may therefore serve to mind us sinners of repentance the husbandry of the hand may teach us the husbandry of the heart even to break up our fallow ground and sow in tears But I must not insist upon these Georgicks I must lead you from corporal to spiritual husbandmen And these are the painful Preachers of Gods word For as the Earth must be plowed and harrowed by the Country-man before she will ever bring forth her increase So the men of the earth must be directed and corrected by the Church-man before they will bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse The Clergy like the Prophet Elisha are a kind of Plow-men They that do as it were drive the plow are ordinary Ministers They that hold the Plow are the reverend Bishops the Plow would not go so well should Episcopacy be abolished Let these Labourers therefore have their due they are worthy of their hire And let them likewise have a respectful estimation set upon them for the Courtier cannot live without the Country-man the King himself is served by the field Ec. 5.9 As then where no Husband men are the people sterve So Likewise where no Ministers where no vision is the people perish Which admonisheth Gods Husbandmen the Clergy to be industrious There is no profession more laborious than that of Husbandmen who in the sweat of their face most commonly eat their bread And herein they are a pattern and ensample unto us who indeed should labour more abundantly than they all because they labour but to sustain mens bodies we to feed their souls We must therefore abound alwayes in the work of the Lord we must preach the word as St. Paul charged Timothy not slothfully but painfully we must labour in the Gospel we must be instant and eager and earnest in our preaching in season out of season in time of peace in time of War we must reprove we must rebuke we must exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine as the Apostle speaketh And as we must be fervent so we must be perseverant in our office having put our hand to Gods plow we must resolve not to look back we must not with Demas forsake our function and embrace the world nor must we cease to exercise it till we just put off this Tabernacle though there be never so great danger in the exercising of it Husbandmen will not give over plowing for a shower of rain nor must we give over preaching because of persecution though we are never so superannuated though we are such as Paul the aged or though so feeble that with St. John we must be carried to the Pulpit Neither must we lord it over Gods heritage like these chief Priests in our Text who that they might be Lords of the vineyard conspired to murder the right Lord of it the conspirators our Text telleth us were Coloni the Husbandmen And so likewise Pontius Pilat told our Saviour thine own nation and the chief Priests have delivered thee unto me Joh. 18.35 What prodigious unthankful miscreants were these there can be no Epithet bad enough for such Traitors For they that taught the people taught they not themselves They that were dressers of the vineyard durst they conspire against the owners of it Durst men of the Temple venture on the worst of treasons Well we see by this the truth of that old axiome Corruptio optimi est pessima the best wine maketh the sharpest vineger if Clergy-men once turn Traitors they are incarnate dviils So our Saviour stiled the Traitor Iudas thus likewise all Synod-traytors may be stiled And so I passe from the first part of the Text the Efficient cause of this conspiracy or the Conspirators the Husbandmen to the second the Material cause of it or the Person conspired against which was the Heir when the Husbandmen saw Him The Heir The wise God of peace and order will not have every man his own carver for the best weapon would then be the best evidence the strongest arm would be the surest title But as he hath ordained a succession of Men so of Esates their children must be their Heirs they must leave their substance to their Babes Dominio non fundatur in gratiâ they that call themselves babes of grace all things are not theirs had not Iacob supplanted Esau this gracelesse one had been Isaac's Heir For the inheritance was ever chalenged by the Eldest son and therefore this title of Heir must needs be due to Christ who was the first-begotten of his heavenly Father the first-born of his earthly Mother the first-born of every creature the first-born among many brethren by right of primogeniture he was the Heir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith the Apostle Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and they that dwell therein Psal 24.1 And he that is owner of all things maketh his Eldest Son a promise of them he promiseth to give him the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 The Devil I know made his brags once that he was the Heir of the World when he shewed our Saviour all the Kingdomes of it and told him they were His But as he was a Murderer so he was a Lyar from the beginning It is true Abraham had a promise that he should be heir of the world as the Apostle testifyeth Rom. 4.13 But though to Abraham and his seed there were such a promise made yet Christ for all this was still to be the Heir it is the same Apostles observation Gal. 3.16 He saith not to seeds as of many but to thy seed as of one which is Christ But here we must not be mistaken for though our Saviour be stiled the Heir yet we must know that his inheritance is no temporal but a spiritual inheritance his Kingdome his Church his heritage is not of this world And as we Christians are not of it so our inheritance properly is not in it we are heires to a better country that is an heavenly though not by nature yet by grace though not by birth yet by faith we are made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light we are heirs of God coheires with Christ we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us where we shall see the Son of man siting on the right hand of God where we shall see our pierced Saviour not to our terrour but our triumph where we shall see him with no other but with these same eyes the same numerical though not the same mortal eyes where