Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	grace_n	work_n	7,426	5	6.4759	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91754	Sions praises. Opened in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, aldermen and common council of London: on the day of solemn thanksgiving unto God for his long and gracious preservation of that great city, from pestilence, fire, and other dangers. By Edward Reynolds. D.D.	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1657 (1657)	Wing R1289; Thomason E915_4; ESTC R207479	16,805	36

11. Higher then the highest Eccles. 5. 8. there being none holy besides him 1 Sam. 2. 2. He is God alone among the gods there is none like him Psal. 68. 8 10. He is exalted far above all gods Psal. 97. 9. Who is a God like unto our God Mic. 7. 18. Exod. 15. 11. Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name for thou onely art holy Rev. 15. 4. In the next respect it implies 1. A Rejoycing in him as our onely Good Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Psal. 33. 1. So the Prophet concludeth his Tryumphal song Although the Figtree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the Stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hab. 3. 17 18. 2. A preferring him in our estimation infinitely above All as our soveraign and principal end living dying thinking speaking working walking so as that he may be glorified in us and by us Rom. 14. 7 8. 3. An acknowledging unto him his free and rich grace in all those manifold mercies and precious promises wherewith he hath blessed us in his beloved who are less then the least of all the goodness and truth which he hath shewed unto us For it is of the Lords mercies alone that we are not consumed An humble sence of our own misdeservings and utter unworthiness is essential unto this duty of praising God The Pharisees thanksgiving had a contradiction in it God I thank thee that I am not as other men or as this Publican Pride and praise are inconsistent whosoever arrogates to himself derrogates from God not unto us not unto us but unto thy name we cannot give glory to God till we disown it our selves Psal. 115. 1. when the Apostle begins and concludes with thanksgiving he doth not onely recounts Gods mercy but his own unworthiness I was a Blasphemer a Persecuter injurious ignorant unbeleeving the chief of sinners I thank Christ Jesus our Lord unto the King eternal immortal invisible the onely wise God be honour and glory 1 Tim. 1. 12 17. 4. Invocation of his name and dependance upon his grace as the onely fountain of all our comforts Sing shout publish ye praise ye and say Lord save thy people Jer. 31 7. As prayer makes way for praises when our petitions are answered call upon me in the day of trouble I will hear thee and thou shall glorifie me Psal. 50 15. So praises for mercies past do encourage and enlarge the heart to wait upon God for the supply of our present wants He hath delivered he doth deliver therefore we may trust that he will yet deliver 2 Cor. 1. 10. Lastly Obedience to his commands when the sence of his soveraign Authority over us as the Lord and of his special grace unto us as our God doth engage our hearts to glorifie him in an holy conversation for herein is God honoured when his servants do bring forth much fruit Joh. 15. 8 Hereby we put to silence the ignorance of foolish men and by our good works do cause enemies themselves to glorifie God as being ashamed to accuse their good conversation 1 Pet. 2. 12 15. 3. 15 16. Justin Martyr professed that the constancy of the Christian Martyrs was the means whereby he was converted to Christ We see the Duty and the Title upon which it is due The Lord for his Excellencies in himself Thy God for his Goodness unto thee Let us next consider the Subject from whom it is due Jerusalem and Sion God made all things for himself and will have the glory due unto his name from all his creatures Prov. 16. 4. all things are of him and therefore all things are to him Rom. 11. 36. But there are three different ways whereby this glory cometh unto him from his creatures 1. Per modum providentiae in a way of general Providence when the motions order influences beauty glorious contexture and admirable co-operation and concurrence of all creatures unto some excellent {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or consummate issue do shew forth the wisdom power and goodness of that supream Moderator who leadeth such variety of agents unto one end as the Artificer tempereth many colours unto the setting forth of one beautiful Table And thus Heaven Earth Sea Snow Ice Hail Birds Beasts are said to glorifie and to praise the Lord Psal. 19. 1 2. Psal. 148. 3. 10. 2. Per modum Justitiae in a way of judgment and severity when the Lord by the power of his Justice doth fetch glory out of wicked Angels and men and doth compulsorily drive them unto those ends which they never intended as the Smith by his Furnace and Hammer worketh-iron into those shapes unto which it could never have reduced it self And thus they whose whole study it is to dishonour God when they fly out of the order of his Precepts do fall under the order of his Providence and are made by their perdition to bring glory unto him For this purpose saith the Lord unto Pharaoh have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth Rom. 9. 17. And so the strong enemies of God who had been a terror unto his people are said to glorifie him when they are reduced to heaps and ruine never to be built again Isa. 25. 2 3. The Lord in the thing wherein they dealt proudly shewing himself to be above them Exod. 18. 11. 3. Per modum Obedientiae in a way of obedience when a creature doth voluntarily actively intentionally set it self to bring glory unto God and knowing the end unto which God hath ordained it to work Ephes. 2. 10. doth accordingly apply it self to conform unto the will of God therein and thus none can indeed praise God but Jerusalem and Sion his name is nowhere so great as in Israel Psal. 76. 1. whether we respect his own manifestations of himself in his word and gracious covenant which he hath magnified above all his name Psal. 138. 2. and which he hath shewed unto his Church and not unto others Psal. 148. 19 20. or his peoples chearful adoration of him and trust in him according to the tenor of that word and thus they who are called by Gods name are in special manner said to be created for his glory Isa. 43. 7. God hath done most for them taken them nearest unto himself Deut 4. 7. set them a part and fitted them for his own use Psal. 43. 2 Tim. 2. 2● most notably revealed himself and the secrets of his love unto them Matth. 11. 25. Psal. 25. 14. Joh. 14. 21. They are most able to praise him because they have his special and peculiar favour called the favour

Sions Praises Opened in a SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of LONDON On the Day of Solemn Thanksgiving UNTO GOD For his long and gracious Preservation of that great City from Pestilence Fire and other Dangers By EDWARD REYNOLDS D. D. LONDON Printed by Tho Newcomb for George Thomason and are to be sold at his Shop at the Rose and Crown in Pauls Church yard 1657. To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Titchbourne Knight Lord Mayor of LONDON The Aldermen and Common-Council of that great and famous CITY Right Honourable INstead of a Dedication I must make an Apology that this short Sermon hath been so long in the second birth of it from the Press for besides my various diversions indisposedness by reason of infirmities to spend much time together in revising transcribing and maturing short notes for a publick view I had at the same time another service of the like nature upon me which having been before begun I could not till finished conveniently attend this It pleaseth the Lord still so to continue those mercies to this City for the thankful recounting whereof he put it into your hearts to appoint this service that as the Duty was very seasonable when it was performed so I hope the publication though too long after may not be altogether improper to mind us all of the Lords great goodness in continuing those comforts unto us and of our duty daily to resume and revive the memory of them If this weak endeavor of mine to quicken you and my self unto that great work of praising God be through his blessing of any use to engage your hearts thereunto and to provoke you unto any of those expedients which you were in this Sermon minded of I shall have abundant cause of glorifying God for so great a fruit of so small a service and for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ Which is the earnest desire of Your Honors Most humble Servant in the work of the Gospel ED. REYNOLDS Sions Praises PSAL. 147. 12 13 14 15. Praise the Lord O Jerusalem praise thy God O Zion For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates he hath blessed thy children within thee He maketh peace in thy borders and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth his word runneth very swiftly GOD is All-sufficient unto himself and standeth not in need of any of his creatures to add any excellency unto him any more then the Sun doth of the light of a candle That which is wholly of him can contribute nothing at all unto him He hath all perfection Infinitely all the perfections of the Creatures without the finite bounds and limits wherein they injoy them Eminently in himself Our goodness extendeth not unto him It he be hungry he will not tell us for the world is his and the fulness thereof can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise is profitable to himself Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced to him agaim Yet though the Lord be thus wholly self sufficient and do not receive any thing from the creatures yet he is pleased graciously to communicate himself unto them in several prints and degrees of goodness as the Sun sheddeth light upon those bodies from whence it receiveth no retribution at all But of all Creatures he hath chosen his Church to be nearest unto him and to participate most of him that is a society of men which he hath formed for himself to be a-chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People As the Sun manifesteth its light unto us in the Moon more then in any other of the Stars so the Lord his Goodness and Wisdom in the Church more then in any other Creatures And now as the Moon receiving light from the Sun doth not swallow it up and bury it but reflecteth it and as it were reporteth and publisheth it abroad unto the world So the Lord having shewed mercies unto the Church requireth that they be not buried in oblivion but that the glory and praise of them be acknowledged unto him Great Luminaries have certain Beams as pipes and channels through which their light is derived and diffused upon others Thanksgiving is the Beam of an illightned soul whereby it maketh report of those mercies which from the Father of light hath been shed abroad upon it Every thing naturally returns to its original All Rivers run into the Sea unto the place from whence they come thither they return to go Eccles. 1. 7. A straight line drawn into length the further it goes is still the weaker but in a circle returning to its first point and original it recovers strength so the Creature the further it goes from God is still the weaker till it return back unto him again And the best way of returning unto him is by praising of him for praises are the language of Heaven where it is that men are pefectly taken home to God Yet as we said nothing is hereby added unto him but onely his own glory acknowledged and adored by the Church as when the Sun shines on a Diamond the lustre thereof is not encreased but reported And as we esteem those stones most precious which do most exquisitely admit and reflect the splendor of that light which shines upon them so they are the Lords bests Jewels as he calleth them Mal. 3 17. which can most notably set forth the glory of his name as he who can with greatest eloquence commend the vertues of an excellent person is the best Orator though his Oration doth not put excellency into the person but onely represent and set it forth unto others Not therefore for any advantage or accession unto himself who cannot be a gainer by his creatures but onely for our benefit and comfort is the Lord pleased to require praises of his people as the window admitteth the light of the Sun not for the benefit of the Sun but of the house into which it shineth And as God requires this duty at all times of his people so most then when he doth greatest things for them and this was the condition of the Church at this time which Interpreters refer to the State thereof after its return out of Babylon and therefore in the Syriack and Greek versions we finde the names of the Prophets Haggai and Zacharie prefixed as leading to the times whereunto the mercies here mentioned did relate The whole Psalm is an invitation unto praising of God Arguments thereunto are drawn First From Gods general goodness to the world vers. 4 8 9 16 17 8. Secondly From his special Mercy to his Church 1. In restoring it out of a sad and broken condition ver. 2 3. 2. In confirming it in an happy and prosperous estate both temporal in regard of strength peace and plenty vers. 12 13 14. and spiritual in regard of his Word Statutes and