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_n	great_a	sin_n	2,406	5	5.2098	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40374	Scotland's present duty, or, A call to the nobility, gentry, ministry and commonalty of this land to be duely affected with, and vigorously to act for, our common concern in Caledonia, as a mean to enlarge Christ's kingdom, to benefit our selves, and do good to all Protestant churches.	Philo-Caledon.; Foyer, Archibald.; Ridpath, George, d. 1726.; Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing F2048; ESTC R13808	23,400	30

we not fervently plead that the Ruine may not fall under our Hands 11. How can we expect but that we ●hall be Contemned and I●sulted by the Nations about us in our privat Negotiating and Tra●ique yea almost made ashamed to own our selves for Scots Men and our great Attempt that hath made so much Noise in the World shall become every where the publick Jest Is their any Man of Sense but mu● be af●ected at these fore Evils which we have just cause to fear as the Consequents of our giving up Caledonia 5. Let us then consider a little theseSins which we ought to look upon as the procuring Causes of the said Stroke we have already metwith and which may prove yet more Afflicting if Mercy prevent not We ought to deal Impartially and not spare our Sins when God's hand is upon us we are called to search them out narrowly and to hide none from the Lord. 1. This Nation hath never yet been duely humbled and exercised with Sorrow and Mourning for the Sins of the Land which have been of a deep Dye we have been still mincing our Iniquity for fear of offending of some late Actors without minding how God is offended with us We have not to this day made a full and free Confession of our National Sins amongst which our Covenant-breaking seems to me to cry loudest and stare us in the Face for whatever may be said of the Politick and sinister Ends of some in contriving and carrying on the Covenant of their mingling and thrusting some things into it to serve a Turn of its being Calculated for these Times and Circumstances and so in its Complex form not so proper for the present State of things of its being a League with other two Nations who have thrown it off as such and the like Yet it cannot be denyed that in the Main it was as well as the National Covenant that went before it throw the Land a most serious and awful Engagement of the Nation to Christianity and Godliness with uplifted hands to the most High God and the highest and most solemn piece of Reformation that ever this Church and Kingdom attained unto and performed by the bulk of the People with the greatest Moral Seriousness And how can our resiling from and shameful Breach of these awful Vows but draw upon us dreadful Guilt and Iniquity not to be forgotten till it be bitterly Mourned for How much Innocent Blood hath been shed what horrid Aversion to Purity and Holiness and fearful Blackslidings have been found amongst us in which our Kings our Priests and People have been deeply involved and yet to mention these things renders a Man suspected of Schism But how can we Thrive till we be more explicite and full in Confessing and bitterly bewailing these and all our National Sins before the Lord. 2. We are guilty of black Ingratitude to God for the late happy Revolution for the Singularity as well as the Greatness of that Deliverance when we were upon the Brink of being swallowed up nor did we improve it as we ought to have done 3. Gospel Ordinances and publick Worship are more dispised amongst us than any where All People in the World do attend more reverently upon their several ways of Worship than we do upon ours Heathans and Jews Mahometans and Papists Hereticks and Schismaticks are at much more pains in their erronious Courses than the professing People in Scotland are generaly upon the Service of the living and true God Any Triffle meer Laziness Prejudice Contempt Hatred keep many of our great Ones from Gospel Ordinances How then can God prosper us in our Undertakings 4. Gross Injustice and Oppression Envy Malice Back-biting Self-seeking narrowness of Spirit Worldly-mindedness Lying and Treachery Uncharitableness and want of Brotherly Love are our Epedemick Distempers How then shall we think to be Blessed in our Designs especially since all these Sins are aggravated in us by their being against Light daily Warnings 5. We did not seek the Lord and plead for his Favour in a due manner in the beginning of this great Enterprise with serious Resolutions to reform our Hearts and Lives Time was when the People of God upon such a weighty occasion and when the Nation was setting about so important a Work would have been fervent in putting up their Suites to Heaven and had remarkable Returns of Prayer It was very comfortable to see what impression and frame some Reverend Ministers of the Commission were under in Summer last when Mr. Sheild was engaged in this Service with what Affection Warmness and Weight they observed how our Forefathers would have embraced and improven so signal an Opportunity of Spreading the Gospel of bringing Honour to God and to the Church of Scotland and doing Good to Souls if it had been in their offer And what an edge was upon the Spirits of all in their Meeting at Glasgow and the solemn Day of Prayer held there upon the account of our dear Brethren and that Interest And it is no less discouraging to observe how far that Zeal and Fervour that then appeared is now abated that we have not hitherto set apart a Day of Humiliation upon account of this sad Distress and of Prayer for these who were sent out with so publick and solemn a Blessing from this Church that we are now turn'd so slack and remiss and that we began no sooner is more formidable and threatning than all the Opposition of the Devil the Pope the Spaniard or any other Enemy and ought to be heartily bewailed by us with admiration of the Goodness and Patience of God that we are not yet worse smitten for our ill-deservings 6. Our vain pride and Confidence at the beginning of this Affair our Carnal Expectations from it our trusting not in God but in an Arm of Flesh If we had succeeded without Rubs in our way we had burnt Incense to our own Drag we had waxed fat and kicked against the Lord and forgotten that the Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness and Riches thereof and forgotten what weak silly Creatures we are without him 7. There may be many Sins both of Omission and Commission to be confessed and mourned for in the management of our Expeditions both with respect to persons imploied and Methods followed which I cannot undertake to condescend upon but these ought to be searched out acknowledged and amended Tho ill Men may have outward success for a time vet the Favour of God cannot be towards them Th● Six Hundred Danites sent to take in L●ish did succeed yet their Posterity went first into Captivity of all Israel In a business of this nature Men should be more considered according to their worth and real usefulness than the Moyen of their Friends and such as they depend upon recommending them 8. Great care should have been taken to set up a strict discipline over those who were sent to punish Vice and set up Morality and good Order amongst them And