Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	see_v	2,875	5	3.5208	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52043	Meroz cursed, or, A sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn fast, Febr. 23, 1641 by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M762; ESTC R19516	35,043	59

and ye visited me not Verily I say unto you inasmuch as you did it not unto the least of of one of these ye did it not to me As if the Lord at that great day did take notice of nothing but what the carriage of all people hath been to or against his Church and children What greater evidence can there be in the world that men are blessed or cursed than this that they either do or do not help the Church of God This will yet be clearer if we consider the Church First as it stands in relation to God Secondly as we stand in relation to the Church First as the Church stands in relation to God when I speake of God in relation to the Church or the Church to God you must alwayes understand God in Christ Emanuel God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe And thus the Churches relation to God gives us two excellent grounds of this doctrine First the Church and the meanest member of it is united to him made one with him they are not only his servants his friends such as he loves but he and they make but one person I meane one mysticall person Insomuch that throughout the whole Scripture he that blesseth them blesseth him he that curseth them curseth him he that relieveth them relieveth him he that fights against them fights against him he that touches them touches the Apple of his eye all the relations which argue intimacy tendernesse and dearenesse meete in this conjunction betwixt God and his Church he is their Father they are his children he is their head they are his members he is their husband they are his wife yea they are called by his name and he vouchsafes to be called by their name Take but this for granted and you will make no doubt but all men are blessed or cursed as they do or do not help the Lord The Lord Jehovah is the fountaine of all blessednesse more than the Sunne is the fountaine of light from his favour and good will necessarily flows all happinesse and consequently all are blessed or cursed according as the aspect betweene God and them is malignant or benevolent This ground is fully laid downe in that forementioned placed Matthew 25. You did it to them therefore you did it to me you refused it to them therefore you refused it to me It is clearely there taught but I believe there is no man on earth that understands it or believes it fully And that very Text gives me a hint to thinke so Because the very righteous themselves though they do all to the Saints out of the good will they beare to Christ yet when Christ shall acknowledge this and say Come ye blessed you fed me you cloathed me you visited me They shall answer Lord when saw we thee an hungred or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sicke or in prison and administred unto thee It shews that themselvs did not fully understand how neare they were to Christ for whom they did all these things I have somewhere read a story of a Sarazen Embassador who being with a Christian Prince and seeing Nobles and great men to wait upon him and the Prince himselfe to waite upon a Table full of poore ragged people desired to know what they were to whom he shewed so much respect he answered to this effect they were the servants of his Lord and that he served his Saviour in them Well said the Embassador if your Lord have no better servants than these I desire to be none of them I care not for your Religion And truly it is a hard thing to perswade not only Sarazens but even Christians themselves that whatsoever is done to poore abjects the off-scouring of the world should be done to Christ himselfe No earthly Prince would do so equally to accept and reward him that should give a nights lodging or any succour to one of his meanest and basest groomes as if it had beene done to the person of himselfe or of his son Yet this is the very case betwixt Christ and his Church Secondly another ground from the Churches relation to God is this that as their persons are neerely united to him so their cause is his cause As they account every cause of God to be their cause so God accounts every cause of theirs to be his cause 2 Chro. 20. Moab and Ammon and they of Mount Seir came with a huge army against Jehoshaphat hee and his people being suddenly surprised betake themselves to prayer and seeke helpe from God Now marke what Gods answer was Be not you afraid nor dismaied by reason of this great multitude the battell is not yours but Gods Was not the battell theirs all they were worth lay upon that battell their wives and children their lives and liberties their countrey and religion lay all at the stake and yet the battell none of theirs that is not so much theirs as Gods so in the 74. Psalm When Asaph had laid down all the Churches sufferings the pulling down of their Synagogues the wasting of their Countrey the reproach and scorn cast upon them by their enemies he interests God in all this Arise O God plead thine own cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee forget not the voyce of thine enemies Thus is their cause Gods cause their enemies Gods enemies and indeed if we look into it narrowly whatsoever is done to them and their cause good or evill is done for Gods sake This then is a strong argument to prove men blessed or cursed according as they joyn with or oppose the cause of God Because first if it be Gods cause it is a good cause Secondly it is a noble cause Thirdly it is a successefull cause First I say it is a good cause The just Lord that is in the midst of his Church will do no iniquity The righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse Now you know it is a blessed thing to have a good cause though it be a meane cause David often pleaded this before God that his cause was just his cause was upright Let them shout for joy that favour my righteous cause And on the other side it must needs be a cursed thing to manage a cursed cause when David's cause was good his adversaries must needs bee evill and then he could foretell that they should be ashamed and brought to confusion clothed with reproach and dishonour who opposed themselves against him Secondly being Gods cause it is a noble cause a man may possibly among men have a good cause and the thing but a trifle a thing of no great consequence but if it be Gods cause let it appeare never so contemptible it is subservient to the highest end that can possibly be thought of The salvation of soules the glory of God c. Honour uses to put men upon hard and desperate services men will runne wrestle fight for a crowne

though but a corruptible crowne There is comfort in doing good to one but to advance the good of many especially of the Church of God how honourable how glorious is it Thirdly Gods cause is a successefull cause no weapon can prosper that is formed against it and every tongue that rises up in judgement against it shall be condemned The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it This Gamaliel saw when he advised the councell of the high Priests and Pharisees and Rulers to refrain from opposing the Apostles If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it it is in vaine to fight against God Since then the Churches cause is Gods cause and consequently a good cause a noble and succesful cause you may easily hence conclude the happinesse that accompanies the promoting of it And on the contrary as easily discern how cursed a thing it is not only to undergo the disgrace of mannaging a wicked and base enterprise but to fail of that which wicked men use to cherish themselves with the hopes of the comfort of reward and obtaining their desires Secondly consider our relation to the Church And that affords three other excellent arguments to prove men blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the Church of God First whatsoever abilities any man enjoyes wherewith he may any wayes be usefull they are all given him to this very end to make him serviceable to the Church All the manifestations of the spirit are given to profit withall All the gifts which Christ powred out when he ascended up on high are for the perfecting of the Saints and the building up of the body of Christ As every one hath received a gift so let him minister as good stewards of the manifold graces of God The Church is the common storehouse to which all our wealth must be carried Salus Ecclesiae suprema lex Which being so the happinesse of every thing being the attaining of the end for which it was appointed and the curse of it the perverting of it to a wrong end they must needs be blessed who serve the Church and he must needs be cursed that deprives the Church of its own due Salomon saith that he that withholds corne in a time of famine the people shall curse him though it were his owne corne but suppose a man had the keeping of the provision of the whole town corne which were none of his owne he only intrusted with the keyes of it and should let the people starve for want of that food which he should keepe purposely for them or that a man had the keeping of a Magazen for an Army to furnish them with what might make them victorious and their safety and victory hazzarded if not lost through his default were not this man a villaine and a traitor to his country Secondly Consider how neare the relation is betwixt the Church and us except we be of the malignant Church of the Dragons army and then no more need be said to prove men cursed The Church is our Mother and all the Saints are our Brethren a Relation which all Lawes of God and man do fasten duty upon The eye that mocketh at his father or despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the vally shall picke it out and the young Eagles shall eate it Paul thought he did no more than his duty when he had great heavines and continuall sorrow in his heart and could wish himselfe accursed from Christ for his Brethren his kinsmen who were Israelites Thirdly All our own blessednesse stands or falls with the blessednesse of the Church The Church is such a corporation or mysticall body as hath in it all the properties of a naturall body wherein no members can be happy in an abstracted sense but as parts conjoyned with the whole because every part hath besides the neare relation to the whole a subsistency in it which is the foundation of any other good it receives And so consequently the good or gaine of the whole is the gaine of every member and whatsoever tends to the dissolution of the whole cannot but be destructive to all the parts As when a company of Merchants have but one joyned stocke every penny gained or lost is gaine or losse to them all Or as it is with a company of passengers in the same Ship save the vessell and you save all sinke the Ship and every mans Cabbin is cast away Now this is a more prevailing argument than reason can make it is grounded in nature which must prevaile with all Nature makes heavy things to ascend rather than the whole should be endangered by a vacuum Nature teaches the tongue to cry out when the toe is trod upon the hand to work that the belly starve not the feet to runne that the back be not cold Every man finds this in the naturall body and Gods Spirit dwelling in all the Saints workes the same spirituall disposition in them that are partakers of the divine nature That there be no Schisme or division in the body of Christ but that all the members may have the same care one for another That whether one member suffer all the members should suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members should rejoyce with it By this time I hope it is cleare that if we look upon Gods promises or threatnings mens experience in all ages or the Churches interest in God his neare union with it his affection to it his owning the Churches cause or if we consider our own engagements to the Church our neare conjunction with it and under God the dependance of all our comforts and wellfare upon it we may and must conclude that all men are blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the church of God The rest of the time I shall spend in the Application of it that what is thus cleare to your judgement and conscience may by Gods blessing take due place in your hearts and conversations And there are but two collections which I shall make for use The first briefly for terrour and reproof the second more largely for exhortation and duty First for reproofe This speaks very sadly against two sorts of people whereof God knowes there are many hundreds of thousands who yet professe themselvs to be Christians As first Are all they cursed that doe not thus helpe the Lord against the mighty what then are they who instead of helping the Lord against the mighty do help the mighty against the Lord who instead of joyning all their strength and giving all their assistance to the Church in her distresse doe give all the assistance they can to the enemies of the Church that they may do mischief against the Church What shall we thinke of these men How many are there who have as it were entred their names into the