Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	eternal_a	good_a	life_n	4,162	5	5.3241	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52049	Reformation and desolation, or, A sermon tending to the discovery of the symptomes of a people to whom God will by no meanes be reconciled preached to the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast, Decemb. 22, 1641 / by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1642 (1642)	Wing M770; ESTC R235206	36,106	57

had provoked him though hee were dead betweene thirty and forty yeares before Iosiah ended his dayes yet his provocations were the cause that God would never bee reconciled to his people though hee was reconciled to Manasses person before hee dyed I purpose not any exact or large handling of this Text nor is it possible to bee done in one Sermon I shall onely cull out such things as are most intended by the holy Ghost and most sutable to the occasion of our meeting And first let us in a few words consider it in relation to the former Verse and secondly as it lyes in it selfe As it stands in relation to the former description made of Iosiah and the high praises which God there bestowes upon him I thence observe That when God raises up any excellent instruments to appear in his cause they are most graciously accepted with him though their endeavours should come to nothing There shall be glory and honour and immortality and eternall life to themselves though there be indignation and wrath tribulation anguish and woe upon the people whom they would willingly doe good unto This you see plainly in this Text Ioshiah sets up a building which was instantly throwne downe sticke and stone yet never man received better wages and greater reward than hee did God hath raised up many instruments to doe him service who have had admirable successe in their way Moses brought Gods people out of the bondage of Egypt carried them through a desolate wastefull howling wildernesse and that miraculously for forty yeares together Ioshua gave them the possession of the promised land and left them in it in peace David subdued all their enemies about them untill they were all put under the soles of their feet leaving them neither adversary nor evill occurrent Solomon built Gods Temple and established the Church in the purity of Gods Worship and Ordinances and the Common-wealth with admirable peace and prosperity yet not any of these more magnified by the Lord than Iosiah whose work came to nothing This is my first observation and it hath these two branches first it implies that the endevours of rare Instruments may come to nothing that men may bee stirred up with admirable spirits to attempt great things for God and yet their work miscarry Secondly that though their work come to nothing yet themselves shall be highly magnified with the Lord I could easily give abundant testimonies and instances of such whom God hath raised up with extraordinary spirits men that wee might think had been fit to carry the world before them who have effected little or nothing Elias for one a man as it were made of fire who at one time called a Parliament of the King and all the Heads of Israel together convinced them of their halting between God and Baal and wrought so at the present that all the people cryed out the Lord is God and seemed to have their hearts brought back again to the Lord their God and likewise that eight hundred Idolatrous Priests and false Prophets were put to the sword yet the very next day he was faine to run away to save his life undertaking a journey of forty dayes to keepe himselfe from the fury of Iezabel Ieremy was another rare man one of the most zealous Instruments that ever God employed insomuch that he said of himselfe that he was a man of contention to all the earth and Gods word was in him like fire in his bones which hee could not keep in yet this man in his almost forty years preaching could neither prevaile with King nor Princes Prophets Priests nor people all grew worse and worse and himselfe in the end was carried away by a rebellions company into that accursed land of Egypt and there died And it hath beene often observed that the Lord hath seene it fit for reasons best knowne to himselfe to let abundance of the Worthies whom he hath employed even so far as men could judge to perish in the worke he hath set them about But secondly what ever their successe hath beene amongst men they have been never a whit lesse regarded or rewarded by the Lord for this the Scripture is plaine Esay 49. 5. There the Prophet in Christs name and in his owne name and in the name of all Gods instruments concludes That though they spend their strength for nought and in vaine yet surely their worke is with the Lord and though the people be not gathered yet they shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and their God will bee their strength And Paul saith 2 Cor. 2. 15. We are a sweet savour to God in them that perish as well as in them that are saved And there is plaine reason for it because sincere endeavours to doe Gods service is our whole worke but the successe of these endeavours is Gods worke Now the Lord hath tied himselfe in his covenant to reward every man according to his owne worke and not according to the worke of another God never required at the hands of any Minister to save soules or at the hand of any Magistrate to preserve a Nation of any husbandman to produce a crop out of the ground c. this belongs only to himselfe he only requires at their hands to be his servants to obey his will wherein if they be faithfull they shall not misse of their reward God compares Kings and Princes and other of his servants to nursing fathers and nursing mothers Now you that are persons of quality if you put forth a childe to nurse and can have perfect information that the nurse loves attends suckles your childe and performes all the duties belonging to a nursing mother this nurse I say is by you esteemed and rewarded whether the childe live or die yea it may be the more when the childe dies because you see her afflicted in losing your childe which she would gladly have enjoyed I doe but name this you are wise to apply it to your selves you Right honourable and beloved are employed in great services God hath raised you up to attempt glorious things for his name for the purging of his house and the establishing of this great people in the peace of the Gospel how farre God will use any of you I cannot tell and how farre this unworthy Nation will acknowledge your indefatigable paines I cannot tell as yet you have the prayers and blessings of all sorts of people high and low rich and poore that wish well to Sion But however goe on yee Worthies of the Lord with sincere hearts to doe what God requires at your hands and whether this Nation be gathered or not you shall be glorious in the eyes of God and the Lord will be your strength Iosiah you see had the greatest commendation of all others notwithstanding the Lord turned not from his fierce wrath and this is all I have to say from the connexion of the words that

wilfull disobedience obstinate stubbornesse and intractablenesse is expressed by divers similitudes all tending to the same purpose They refuse to hearken stop their eares as not willing to hear Gods counsel they pull'd away the shoulder as an Oxe or Bullock that shrinks back from the yoak or as one that should carry a burthen pulls away his shoulder when he should take it and lets it fall so these deale with the easie yoak and the light burthen of Gods commandements Yea they make their hearts as an Adamant Stone there is in them a stiffe and wilfull resolution to sin whereby their hearts are as intractable to any goodnesse as the hardest sort of stones Flints or Diamonds are to be wrought by the toole into any fashion we desire when you have said all you can against their wantonnesse uncleannesse prophanness pride covetousness c. you prevaile no more than when an hammer strikes upon an anvile Their hearts can easily reject all yee cannot beat a splinter off from them then immediately it followes in the next verse Therefore there came a great wrath from the Lord of Hostes These are the sons of Belial these are the vessels of Gods wrath Now to apply this to our selves it might first teach all who are reconciled to God by Christ what infinite cause they have every day of their life to blesse that grace of God which hath not appointed them unto wrath but by the blood of his own sonne hath delivered them from wrath to come and provided for them everlasting glory and happinesse Secondly it may likewise teach all that feare God never to envie the prosperous estate of any child of Belial though waters of a full cup be wrung out for them though they swim in wealth and honour and pomp in this world and have all their hearts can desire and in the meane time account it their glory that they carry not the Lords yoak never envie their lot If any here knew of half a score good fellowes set at a banquet of wine furnished with all the helps of mirth and jollity if hee knew withall that the shot to be payd for it must be every mans heart blood he would be loath to be one of the pack with them I confesse it is hard not to be troubled at the prosperity of wicked men even David and Ieremy found it a hard thing not to envie their prosperity But stay till the shot be payd enquire how able they will be to undergoe the wrath of God enter into the Sanctuary understand their end and thy envie will bee at an end but these I intended not to insist upon There is one only proper use for the present occasion and that is this you are met this day together to Fast and Pary and mourne before the Lord and as I touched before hereby you acknowledge that the wrath of God is kindled and that your selves are called to take a course to turn away Gods wrath and I verily believe this is the very end you aymed at in calling us the unworthy Ministers of Christ to your help this day that wee might bee assistant to you in whatever might turn away the wrath of God from you Now two things were at large pressed upon you in the morning as well befitting the work of this day The one was to rent and break and teare every one of your hearts in the sense of your sins kindly and throughly to humble you in the sight of God The other was to provoke you to a strong resolution to leave the waies of sin in time to come In which two things humiliation and Reformation stands the very life of unfained repentance and the spirituall part of a Religious Fast without which all our abstinence and sackcloth and bodily exercises in watching hearing c. are meere abominations in the sight of God I rejoyce that you had these things set so home in the morning some of my work being thereby spared But the bringing this lesson home if God set it on to your hearts may help to fasten the counsell given you in the morning as a nayle in a sure place I shall endeavour to further your humiliation and reformation from the meditation of the fearfulnesse and dreadfulnesse of the wrath of God I must therefore entreat you all Honourable and beloved since you have vouchsafed to call for the labour of a poor man to help you let mee be as free with you as if you were so many meane people my duty this day is to doe that which Ieremy did God calls him in a mourning time and saith goe to the King and Queen and say come yee down sit in the dust humble your selves So I say to you comedown forget that any of you are Earles or Lords Knights or Gentlemen lay for a while these thoughts aside and give mee leave to ask you two or three Questions and be so faithfull to your own soules as to think how you can answer them before the Lord Are yee not children of Belial that is the very thing which you must answer in your own bosome that is are there not amongst you such as refuse to carry the yoak of Christ who will not take Christ to be your Saviour as he offers himselfe to you in his Gospel you will have him upon other termes than to make him your King Prophet and Priest you would have him to deliver you from hell but hee shall not bee your Lord so as for you to resigne up your selves to him as a dutifull wife resignes up her selfe to her husband And for your conversations you will doe what is good in your own sight if you have a minde to sweare you will sweare you will lie bee uncleane dissemble these things please you well and you will doe them Now hear what I say what thy outward quality or condition is I know not but this I know persons of your quality do not use much to be scared men are affraid to speak any thing that may make you tremble but you must be scared or we shall doe no good to you You are now called to have your hearts rent I have that to say might rent the very cawle of your heart even this oh thou miserable and wretched worme great is the wrath of God that is kindled against thee This terrible Lyon roares against thee a dreadfull fire is kindled a horrible tempest is ready to fall upon thy head showers and floods of fire and brimstone are even ready to be powred out upon thee how art thou able to live with everlasting burnings how wilt thou dwell with devouring fire Thou that art crushed before a moth how can thy heart endure or thy hands be strong in the day that God shall deale with thee Thou that dar'st not think of lying one day upon a wrack that canst not endure for two or three dayes to be wrung with the cholick that art not able to beare the thoughts of lying

under the tearing of a Quartane Ague from Michaelmas to Easter how wilt thou bee able to stand under the fall of such a huge rock as the wrath of the Almighty God which every moment is ready to break downe upon thee How wilt thou doe when these rivers of fire and brimstone shall be powred out upon thee and thou no more able to stand before them than a few dry leaves are able to resist the huge breaking in of many waters Oh beloved would you with due care apply these things to your own hearts and present them to your souls as things present how would they bring down the most stubborn spirit how would they help to break the hardest of your hearts before the Lord But there are two things which keep most people frombeing affected with them The first is These things are looked upon as things a farre off Now it is a rule in Opticks That things farre off though they be marvellous great yet seeme very little a Starre that is bigger than all the earth seemes no bigger than a candle being many miles distant from us So while men look at the wrath of God as they did at the Prophets Vision The Vision that he sees is for many dayes to come and he prophesies of the times that are farre off And put the evill day from them All these threatnings are but light matters Secondly it fares with most men in this point as with some men that have shrewish wives though their businesse lie within doors yet they have no heart to be there for feare of chiding So though it be the most necessary work to think of these things yet because their unquiet consciences upon the least serious meditation are ready to gnaw and teare them and make them sleep uncomfortably they labour to drive off the thought of this thing as farre as they can and will not think of Gods wrath due to sinne from yeers end to yeeres end Whereas if men would bring it in rempraesentem and keep their eyes open to behold it as a thing which unavoydably will come upon them how admirably would it work upon mens hearts To this end let me tell you a story which I have often read to this purpose It is reported of a certaine Christian King of Hungary who being on a time marvellous sad and heavie his brother that was a resolute Courtier would needs know what he ailed Oh brother saith he I have been a great sinner against God and I know not how I shall appeare before him when he comes to judgment These are said his brother melancholy thoughts and makes a toy of them as Gallants use to doe The King replyes nothing for the present but the custome of that Countrey was that if the Executioner of justice came and sounded a Trumpet before any mans doore the man was presently to be led to execution the King in the dead time of the night sends his Deaths-man and causeth him to sound his Trumpet before his brothers doore who hearing and seeing the messenger of death springs in pale and trembling into his brothers presence and beseeches the King to let him know wherein hee had offended O Brother replyes the King thou hast loved me and never offended me and is the sight of my Executioner so dreadfull to thee and shall not I so great a sinner feare to be brought to judgment before Jesus Christ If we would thus suppose with Hierom that we heard this Trumpet sounding Arise ye dead and come to judgment it would work to the purpose O set yóur selves therefore in Gods presence and behold the Lord shaking his lap as Nehemiah when hee shook his lap and said so God shake out everyman from his house Thus will I shake into eternall destruction all the children of Belial and then evidence be brought in against thee how great soever thou art amongst men that thou hast a huge pile of sin heaped up against God and still hast gone on to adde drunkennesse to thirst opposing God his wayes and his cause refusing grace offered freely not willing to be at peace with God while thou hast any meanes to fight against him when all these things shallbe laid open before thee and as thy iust reward God strike theea full blow and sinke thee to the bottome of hell where thou shalt wish that thou hadst been a toad or as one in desperation sometimes wished that thou mightst live there a thousand yeers so thou mightst have any hope in the end that the wrath of God might cease towards thee Would not these things then work upon thee Couldst thou then passe such a day as this without trembling Couldst thou be before the Lord and not have thy heart rent and torn Be perswaded therefore once more to bring it home to thy own soule and say as he said of his green fig this grew in Carthage yesterday This wrath this sea of misery may break in upon me the next moment I am yet joviall and merry but Gods vengeance with woollen feet follows me close at the back and will overtake me if I cannot mourn at the hearing of wrath I must burn at the feeling of it The good Lord melt our hearts with the feare of these things lest we be swallowed up in them And then for the second part for your Reformation would the Lord make this day a day of Reformation to this honourable Assembly what glorious things would be done by you Now what more effectuall motive what Furies whip would more restraine from the practise of sin or more drive to seek a shelter under the wing of Christ and to get into the safe condition of the servants of God than the beholding of this devouring fire these everlasting burnings which sinfull men will never be able to abide I know such is the depravation of mans nature that if there were any possibility of avoiding Gods wrath without leaving their sinnes many men would resolve with that wicked Cardinall not to leave their part in Paris for their part in Paradise And with that noble man which Luther speaks of who professed that if this life of going from whore-house to whore-house might last ever hee would not envie any mans going to heaven But this will not last There is great wrath prepared for the workers of iniquity And therefore my humble request is that if any of you finde your hearts unwilling to submit to that godly counsell given you in the morning of turning to God doe but think what your sinnes which you prize so much will cost you They say the Pope hath a book called Taxa camerae Apostolicae wherein men may know the rate of any sinne upon what termes a man may keep a whore be a Sodomite or murder his Father c. But here is a rate-book where any of you may know what a beloved sinne will cost you not a farthing token lesse than to lie under the devouring fire of