Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	fruit_n	good_a	tree_n	4,830	5	9.4106	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01548	A sparke tovvard the kindling of sorrow for Sion A meditation on Amos 6. 6. Being the summe of a sermon preached at Sergeants Inne in Fleet-Street. By Thomas Gataker B. of D. and pastor of Rotherhith.	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1621 (1621)	STC 11675; ESTC S102988	39,090	56

suretie or safetie when destruction is euen at their doores That which may iustly make vs to feare some sudden surprisall considering the great securitie that hath so generally ouerspread vs a rechlesse people like those of Laish because we thinke we sit sure as if we had made a couenant with death and destruction and though all Christendome were scourged yet should we be sure to scape scot-free or as though we were seated out of the reach of Gods rod and needed not therefore to feare his wrath But vt de via in semitam regrediamur leauing these generals to come neerer home and confine our selues to a narrower compasse in my Text obserue we these particulars 1. The Negatiue Non it is a negatiue sinne that they are charged with not so much the doing of that they should not doe as the not doing of that they should 2. The dutie required of them but wanting in them dolor aegritudo griefe sorrow yea sicknesse for so the word properly signifieth as being a sinne not to be grieued at the heart yea not to be heart-sore and sicke againe with griefe as things then stood 3. The ground of this griefe of such and so great griefe contritio a breach a fracture a rupture or a contrition rather a breaking to shiners as the word properly importeth a most heauie and extreme calamitie though not personally on themselues yet on those that ought to be right neere and deere vnto them their brethren which calamitie what it was is not here particularly expressed but is described elsewhere Their affliction was bitter by the incursion of strangers their enemies for there was nothing almost shut vp nor left them nor any at all that helped them 4. The person thus afflicted Ioseph put sometime for all Israel in generall because Ioseph was a principall Patriake and vpon the disinheriting of Reuben the double portion part of the birthright being deuolued vnto him his issue made two Tribes sometime more specially for the Ten Tribes as because they had two of the Ten so for that also Ieroboam the first King to the Ten Tribes was of that stocke of the posteritie of Ioseph Here mentioned the rather as Augustine imagineth because Ioseph was famous among his brethren both for the euill that he endured and for the good that he did As I take it in way of allusion to the practise of Iosephs Brethren when they had stript their brother Ioseph and put him into a pit where they meant he should perish and had left him there in much anguish of minde and desperate distresse it is said they sate them downe to eat and drinke not regarding the miserie that he poore soule was in the whilest till they spied the Midianites vnto whom they sold him for a slaue So that that then which the Prophet here complaineth of and reproueth in them is this that though their brethren the seed of Ioseph and the other Tribes that adhered thereunto were in great distresse in grieuous calamities such as they seemed to be euen broken to peeces with the violence and extremitie of them and such as might well haue made them euen sicke againe with sorrow yet they gaue themselues wholly to eating and drinking to feasting and banqueting to riot and reuelling neuer once minding or taking to heart the miseries of their poore distressed brethren no more regarding their ruefull and forlorne estate then Iosephs brethren did his when either they had cast him into the pit or had sold him away for a slaue This you see is the Summe and the Substance of this short Sentence Let vs now proceed to the Instructions that may be raised out of it And first from the negative Note Non wee obserue that There are priuatiue sinnes as well as positiue As well the omission of necessary duties as the commission of contrary euils and enormities may make a man stand guiltie of sinne in Gods sight and bring Gods wrath downe vpon persons and people Not seruing of God and not sacrificing is a sinne as well as prophane seruice yea not sacrificing as well as the prophanation of a sacrament or sacrifice may bring pestilence vpon a people He that obserueth not the Passeouer in his due time or that humbleth not his soule at the solemne time of fast that soule shall be cut off from among his people It was the not slaying of Agag that lost Saul his Crown and the not circumcising of Moses his first borne that had like to haue cost Moses his life And not the robbing only but the not releeuing and compassionating of the poore was the rich mans ruine and shall be sufficient matter to condemne many at the last day And the reason hereof is manifest For 1. there are Affirmatiue as well as Negatiue precepts The Iewish Rabbines haue taken a curious account of the Commandements in Moses and they reckon them to be 613. in all whereof 365. negatiue iust as many as there be dayes in the yeere and 248. affirmatiue iust so many say they as there be limmes or bones in mans body to shew that all parts of man are at all times to be imployed in the doing of Gods will But to let passe such their ouer-curious and superstitious obseruations certaine it is that there are in Gods Law as well affirmatiues as negatiues yea that as euery affirmatiue includeth a negatiue so euery negatiue hath an affirmatiue infolded in it and that there is a curse imposed as a penaltie as well on the breach of the one as on the breach of the other and that the one is as well broken by the omission of that that therein is enioyned as the other by the practise of that that therein is inhibited 2. Christian men are in the word of God compared vnto trees and those not arbores infaelices such as by kinde and nature are vnfruitfull and beare no fruit or bad fruit but such as by nature are fruitfull and beare good fruit as vines oliues figs and the like Now in such trees barrennesse or vnfruitfulnesse alone is cause sufficient to set them apart for fewell And therefore not the wilde vine only that bare bad fruit but the barren vine and the fruitlesse figge and euery tree that either beareth not or beareth not good fruit is adiudged to the fire The vse whereof is 1. to meet with a vaine conceit that many are possest with There is a kinde of negatiue Diuinitie and negatiue Christianitie that carrieth many away grown rife among men they are good Christians and why so they are neither Papists nor Puritans Heretikes nor Schismatikes They can easily tell what they are not not so easily what they are And so for life and conuersation they thanke God with the Pharisie they

are neither adulterers nor drunkards nor railers nor back-biters nor liers nor swearers nor oppressors nor extortioners And it were to be wished that some could say so much All this is well but this is nothing neere all A man may truly say all this and yet be farre enough from sinceritie And vnlesse thou goe further then all this thou art farre enough yet from that that thou shouldest be yea and professest to be when thou makest profession of Christianitie It is not the omission of euill only but the practise of pietie charitie iustice and equitie that God requireth of thee And howsoeuer therefore thou maist conceiue that he is a good man that doth no euill it is most certainly and vndoubtedly true on the other side that he is an euill man that doth no good The second vse hereof is to exhort and incite vs to a diligent practise of those good duties that God requireth of vs and not to content our selues with a bare forbearance of euill but to applie our selues to a carefull and conscionable performance of all such religious offices as our callings either generall or speciall publike or priuate exact of vs. For would any of vs endure idlenesse slothfulnesse in our seruants though neuer so honest or innocent otherwise But we are Gods seruants and no more will he endure the like in vs then we would in them And therefore not only the riotous and wastfull Steward that embecilled his masters goods but the idle and thriftlesse Seruant also that employed not his masters money shall be bound hand and foot and cast out into vtter darknesse to his euerlasting destruction The messenger of God if he deliuer not Gods message though he teach no false doctrine yet because he teacheth not at all may bring a woe vpon himselfe Woe vnto mee saith the Apostle if I preach not the Gospell And Goe and speake to them saith God to Ieremy all that I command thee or else I will destroy thee So that Gods Minister may damne himselfe as well by his silence and by saying nothing as by soothing men vp in their sinnes If he hold but his peace as others may perish by him so he may perish with them he may perish for them And the ministers of iustice not only if they doe iniustice but if they doe not iustice and yet that is a kinde of iniustice too may draw downe Gods iudgements vpon the whole state Execute iudgement betimes saith God and deliuer those that are spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor lest my furie goe forth like wild-fire that no man can quench And the rich that God hath blessed with temporall estates though they rob not Lazarus yet if they releeue him not if they be not ready to communicate when the necessities of Gods Church and children require it may haue their part for their vnmercifulnesse with the rich glutton in hell fire But what duty was it in the neglect whereof this people were found faultie and for the want whereof they are challenged by the Prophet in this place It is griefe and sorrow yea such store of griefe as might make them heart-sicke withall Where in the second place we obserue That It is a sinne sometime not to be sorrowfull yea not to be euen sicke againe with sorrow Such and such things saith the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians are reported to be among you Et vos non doluistis and your fault it is that you haue not sorrowed that you haue taken the matter no more to heart And Thou hast smitten them saith the Prophet Ieremy sed non doluerunt but they haue not sorrowed they haue hardned their hearts against thine hand And They haue stricken me saith the drunkard sed non agrotaui but I was not sicke they haue beaten me but I felt it not I was neuer the worse and because neuer the worse for it therefore neuer the better And in this place But they are not grieued or they are not sicke againe with griefe The reason hereof 1. As it is a follie to be grieued without cause or to be grieued more then there is good cause for to be grieued where there is nothing but matter of ioy so it is no lesse follie yea a spirituall phrensie to reioyce where there is iust cause of griefe and a fault not to haue our griefe and our sorrow proportionable in some sort to the causes and occasions of it The former argueth a kinde of deadnesse the latter some degree of madnesse either of them an vnsoundnesse of iudgement 2. Sorrow is as physicke though nothing toothsome yet wholesome though not simply good of it selfe yet very vsefull yea needfull and necessary for some persons at some times More behouefull for men many times is mourning then mirth It is a bitter pill or potion that may make a man deadly sicke for the present which yet for him to refuse when his Physitian prescribeth it that is when God inuiteth to it and giueth cause of it may proue as much as his life is worth Not to adde that the seed of true ioy is here sowen in sorrow and for sinners crasie ones sicke of sinne there is no way to sound ioy but by sincere and serious sorrow That which may 1. minister occasion vnto vs to consider seriously of the nature of sinne what miserie it hath brought in vpon all Adams posteritie For this sorrow is a simple that was not knowne in the world till man by eating of the forbidden fruit came to be acquainted with sinne It is a weed that sprung vp presently vpon our first parents transgression Thornes and thistles briers and brambles were before though not in that abundance that they now are this weed was not at all before The seed of it was sowen in the sinne of our first parents and to this day the world could neuer againe be rid of it It came in with sinne it will continue as long as sinne lasteth and it shall cease when sinne ceaseth but till then it shall not we shall neuer want matter of sorrow more or lesse so long as we liue here Yea sinne hath brought in such a necessitie of sorrowing that whereas it was a sinne for our first parents to haue sorrowed in Paradise yea or not to haue ioyed exceedingly in their then present happinesse now it is a sinne for the sonnes of Adam not to be sorrie hauing as they haue full oft iust occasion of sorrow And there is not nor can be any iust cause or occasion of sorrow but either sinne it selfe or the effects and fruits of it And therefore if naturally we abhorre griefe and shun sorrow let vs blame sinne let vs shun sinne let vs learne to abhorre sinne that hath giuen the cause of it That is the desperate disease that hath caused vs to stand in