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	great_a	sin_n	2,789	5	5.0653	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53283	The soveraign efficacy of divine providence ... as delivered in a sermon preached in Cambridge on Sept. 10, 1677, being the day of artillery election there, by Mr. Urian Oakes...	Oakes, Urian, 1631-1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing O23; ESTC R31763	31,659	48

him with the Beasts of the Field and teach you better Manners by some severe Correction Do not Sacrifice to your own Nets and burn Incense to your Drags as if by them your portion were fat and meat plenteous Hab. 1. 16. but ascribe all to God There is that deep Wickedness in the Hearts of Men that if they get any thing by any Fraud and crafty fetches and overreaching of their Brethren in a sinful way they will be too readie to attribute that to the Providence and Blessing of God and say it was God's Providence that cast it in upon them when they have been craftily and sinfully designing it and bringing it about but when they have gotten any thing honestly by their Wisdom and Prudence and Industrie they are too ready to forget Providence and ascribe all to themselves See the Evil of this and remember that no People in the World have greater cause of Thankfulness than we have to God who hath governed Time and Chance on our behalf marvellously O Bless Him for good Success not only when you cannot but acknowledge your own Insufficiency but also whe●●ou have apprehensions of the greatest Sufficiency of Second Causes And Blessed for ever be the Lord who hath Pleasure in the Prosperity of his Servants Psal. 35. 27. Secondly Acknowledge God also in all your Frustrations and Disappointments so as to resent his Disposals and Dispensations towards you in a gracious manner We have met with manie Disappointments in the l●te Warre and in other respects We should see God in all When He blasts our Corn defeats our Souldiers frowns upon our Merchants and we are disappointed now acknowledge the Hand of God Ordering Time and Chance according to his Good Pleasure Justifie God in all and bear such Frustrations patientlie When you have done your Dutie be quiet though the Event doth not answer your Endeavours and Hopes Take heed of quarrelling at GOD's Disappointments Do you know VVhom you have to do with I was dumb I opened not my mouth because Thou didst it Psal. ●9 9. If we look at faultie Instruments or at meer Chance onely we shall be apt to murmur It is the observation of One That the Reason why men are more apt to fly out into Cursings and Blasphemies for their bad Luck as they call it in those Vnlawful Games of Cards and Dice than in other Exercises that are governed by Art and Skill ariseth partly from the very nature of those Games because when they have tried their Lot or Chance over and over and their Expectation is deceived they think that that Power that governs the Lot or Chance is Adverse to them They cannot blame their own Art or Skill when no Art can infallibly determine the Event but curse their bad Fortune And if we look at Disappointments as our bad Fortune and Chance onely looking no further we shall be apt to fret and quarrel but if we do indeed see God ordering our Lot for us it may and ought to silence us When Magistrates have done their Duty according to the Law of God and of the Country and endeavoured faithfully to give check stop to the Inundation of Profaneness and Heresy and yet the bad Genius of the Times and degenerous Humour of the People and this or that Emergency happens that frustrates the Success of their Counsels and Endeavours truly they may sit down and mourn indeed but yet humbly submit to the All disposing Providence of God When Ministers have laboured faithfully and yet Israel is not gathered and their Labours seem to be in vain not successful in converting Sinners they may weep in secret indeed but yet patiently bear the Unsuccessfulnes of their Ministry from the Hand of God When Souldiers have shewed themselves valiant and faithful and done what they can and yet are worsted They must acknowledge God's Hand in it and that the Battel is the Lord's 1 Sam. 17. 47. who governeth the Warre and determins the Victory on what side He pleaseth All men have Briars and Thorns springing up in the way of their Callings as well as Husbandmen and meet with Difficulties and Crosses there in Get the Spirit David had 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. and so acknowledge God in every thing as to submit humbly to his Disposals even when they are Adverse and cross to your Desies and ●xpectations Thirdly Be always Prepared for Disappointments Do not promise your selves Success from the Sufficiency of Second Causes God may determine otherwise We should be forewarned and forearmed that we may not Xenìzesthai 1 Pet. 4. 12. strange at it when it comes to pass or be dejected and discouraged Events are not in the Creatures power The Lord sometimes disappoints men of greatest Sufficiency over-rules and controlls their Counsels and Endeavours and blasts them strangely Time and Chance happens to them If Adam had stood though he would not have had the Determination of Events Successes in his own hand yet God would have determined them for him according to his hearts-desire and he should never have been disappointed But since the Fall as no Man hath power to determine Events which is God's Prerogative so it is just with God that every man should meet with Crosses and Disappointments and this is the Fruit of the Curse under which all natural menly and as for the People of God though they are delivered from the Curse of the Law in the Formality of it so that nothing befalls them as a Curse how cross soever it be yet they are not yet absolutely delivered from the Matter of the Curse as appears by the Afflictions they meet with and Death it self And indeed it makes sometimes for the glory of God to disappoint Men of greatest Abilities When men do not see and own God but attribute Success to the Sufficiency of Instruments It 's time for God to maintain his own Right as Dr. Preston speaks and shew that He gives or denies Success according to His own good Pleasure God is much seen in Controlling the ablest Agents blasting their Enterprizes yea more many times than in backing them blessing their Endeavours in an ordinary Course of Providence Herein the Wisdom of God is much seen It is best sometimetimes it should be so with respect to God's Int'rest and Glory His Power also appears in giving Check to the Ablest Instruments and turning all their Designs another way than they Intended His Mercy also to his People is seen herein for it is best for them in some Cases to be defeated and disappointed His Iustice also appears herein in his correcting and punishing the Self-confident sinful Creature with unexpected Disappointments So that it is our Wisdom tolook for Changes and Chances some Occurrents and Emergencies that may blast our Undertakings that Faith and Prayer may be kept a going and lest if such Frustrations befall us unexpectedly we either fly out against God or faint and sink in Discouragements At the first going out of our Forces in the

Actions of Men He regulates and governs all the Actions of Second Causes as to time place degrees and all manner of Circumstances He is not the Author but He is the Ord●rer of Sin it self 8. That He serves Himself and his own Ends of all Second Causes He makes them all in all their Operations subservient to his own Designs and that not only natural but rational Agents that act by Counsel And not only such of them as are his professed willing Servants Many serve God's ends beside their Intentions and against their wills I will do this and that saith God by the Assyrian howbeit he meaneth not so Is. 10. 6 7. Wicked men and Devils do God's will against their own will and beside their Intentions Ye thougt Evil against me saith Ioseph to his Brethren but God meant it for good c. Gen. 50. 20. God elicites what good He pleases out of the actions of his Creatures Whatever this or that Agent proposeth to himself yet God alwayes attaineth His Ends. He serves Himself of the very Sins of his Creatures and brings good out of them He makes that which is not Bonum honestum to be Bonum conducibile and though Sin is not good yet as God orders the matter it is good in order to many holy Ends that Sin should be in the World as Austin observes 9. That He useth means in themselves unfit and improves Agents of themselves insufficient to bring about his own Purposes produce marveilous Effects Yea and it is as easy with Him to do any thing by weak and insufficient as by the ablest most accomplished Instruments There is no restraint to the Lord to Save by many or by few 1 Sam. 14. 6. it is nothing with Him to help whether with many or with them that have no power 2 Chron. 14. 11. Despicable Instruments sometimes do great Things in His Hand 10. That He renders the aptest means ineff●ctual and the Vndertakings of the most sufficient Agents unsuccessful when He pleases He hath a Negative Voice upon all the Counsels and Endeavours and Active Power of the Creature He can stop the Sun in its course and cause it to withdraw its shining He can give check to the Fire that it shall not burn to the hungry Lions that they shall not devour and He can order it so that the men of might shall sleep their sleep and not find their Hands He can break the Ranks of the most orderly Souldiers take away courage from the stoutest hearts send a pannick Fear into a mighty Host and defeat the Counsels of the wisest Leaders and Conducters He can blow upon and blast the likeliest Undertakings of the ablest Men. In a word the Lord being the Absolute First Cause and supream Governour of all his Creatures and all their Actions though He hath set an Order among his Creatures this shall be the cause of that effect c. yet He himself is not tied to that Order but Interrupts the course of it when He pleases The Lord reserves a Liberty to Himself to interpose and to Umpire matters of Success and Event contrary to the Law and common Rule of Second Causes And though He ordinarily concurreth with Second Causes according to the Law given and Order set yet sometimes there is in his Providence a Variation and Digression Though He hath given Creatures power to act and Man to act as a Cause by Counsel and hath furnished him with active Abilities yet He hath not made any Creature Master of Events but reserves the Disposal of Issues and Events to Himself Herein the absolute Soveraignty and Dominion of God appears 2. Otherwise the Lord might possibly suffer real Disappointment and be defeated of his Ends in some Instances He might be cross'd in his Designs if any of his Creatures could doe what they will without absolute Dependence upon Him He could not be sure of his Ends what He designs in the World if He had not command of all Events that may further or hinder them If there were any active power in Creatures that He cannot controll or any one event that is out of his Reach and absolutely in the Creature 's power exempted from his providential Command it would be possible tha● He might be defeated of his Ends and so far unhappy as to his voluntary Happiness which results from his having his 〈…〉 in the World and compassing all his Ends in the works of Creation and Providence God hath made all Things ●●eth all Things and manageth all Things according to the Counsel of his Will in away of subserviency to Himself and his own Occasions which He could not do universally and mi●●str●bly if He had not the absolute and infallible Determination of all Events in his own Hand But His Counsel shall stand and He will do all his Pleasure Is. 46. 10. Thus much for the Explication and Confirmation of the Doctrine USE I. Of Instruction in these Particulars 1. We see what a poor dependent nothing-Creature Proud Man is Depending absolutely upon God for his Being Actions and the Success of them Men of greatest Sufficiency cannot get their own Bread or bring any thing to effect in their own strength Let their Abilities be what they will Swiftness for the Race Strength for the Battel Wisdom for getting their Bread c. yet they shall stand them in no stead without the concurrence and Blessing of God Man saith he will do this and that but he must ask God leave first He saith To day or to morrow I will go to such a place and buy and sell get gain whereas he knows not what shall be but it shall certainly be as the Lord will The way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps nor perform any thing that he purposeth without divine Concurrence or Permission He hath not the Success of any of his actions in his own power nor doth he know that any thing he doth shall prosper One would wonder poor dependent man should be so proud Any little thing lifts him up When the Souldier on such occasions as these is in his Bravery in his military Garb drest up for the purpose with his Buffe Coat his Scarfe his rich Belt his Arms a good Horse under him O what a goodly Creature is he in his own Eyes and what wonders can he do in his own conceit and yet he hath as absolute need of God's Assistance if he go forth to Battel as any naked unarmed man He cannot move a step or fetch his next breath or bring his hand to his mouth or leap over a straw or do any thing without help from God in whose hand his breath is and whose are all his wayes Dan. 5. 23. It 's strange to see how the hearts of men are lifted up with nothing O cease ye from Man for wherein is he to be accounted of 2. We see that there is and there is not Chance in