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	great_a	just_a	2,599	5	5.2900	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44695	A sermon preach'd on the late day of thanksgiving, Decemb. 2, 1697 by John Howe ... ; to which is prefixed Dr. Bates's congratulatory speech to the King, Novemb. 22, 1697, in the name of the dissenting ministers in and about London.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.; Bates, William, 1625-1699. Congratulatory speech to the King, Novemb. 22, 1697.	1698 (1698)	Wing H3040; ESTC R6550	23,177	33

it in its Causes and they are principally these two the Wickedness of Men and the just Vengeance of GOD thereupon These two concurring and falsing in together must be understood to be the Causes of so great a Calamity among Men in this World And I shall only consider these two in their Complication and not speak to them distinctly and separately VERY Plain it is That War is a Mark of the Apostacy and Stigmatizes Man as Fallen from GOD in a 〈◊〉 ●evolted State It is the Horrid Issue of Mens having fo●saken GOD and of their being Abandon'd by Him to the 〈◊〉 of their own Furious Lusts and Passions The Natural and the 〈◊〉 Effect of their having sever'd themselves and broke loose from the Divine Government From whence are Wars Are they not from your Lusts Jam. 4. 1. GOD most Justly Punishes Mens Injustice not by Infusing Malignity which he needs not into their minds and Natures and which it is impossible He can be the Author of whose very Nature it self is Goodness and Purity and Love but having Forsaken Him Rebelled against Him Disclaimed Him as their Ruler Refused any longer to be Subject to Him they are Forsaken of Him and left to take Vengeance for it on one another of which there cannot be a greater Instance than that when Controversies do arise between Men and Men between Nation and Nation Kingdom and Kingdom one People and another it is presently to be Decided by a Bloody Sword This speaks a Monstrous Degeneracy in the Intellectual World and from the Original Rectitude that belongs to the Nature of Men which in his Primitive State did stand in a Temperament of Reason and Love That there should be Differences about Meum and Tuum in a Creature of that Constitution is it self an Horrid Thing but then that such Differences are to be Determined only by Violence that presently they must hereupon Run into War Good GOD What an Indication is this That Reason Wisdom Justice and Love are fled from this Earth And it speaks Rebellion against GOD in the Highest Kind 't is a Subversion of the most Fundamental Law of his Kingdom over the Intelligent World Thou shalt Love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart with all they soul with all thy mind with all thy might and thy Neigbour as thy self 'T IS impossible there should be any such Thing as War in the World but by the Violation of this most Fundamental Divine Law the Principal and most Important Thing that this Government does as it were Consist in over reasonable Creatures their Loving Him above all and one another as themselves This Law observed must make this Earth another Heaven This Law Violated and Broken makes it another Hell Man being Faln from GOD and having lost their Acquaintance with Him and all Relish of Divine Things think to Repair their Loss out of this Sensible World whereof no Man thinks he hath enough Desire of more blinds their Eyes that they cannot Judge of Right and Wrong Hence every Man's Cause is Right in his own Eyes Appetite is the only Measure they Judge by And Power whatsoever of it any one can grasp the Instrument by which they Execute their perverse Judgment A Dismal Spectacle and Subject of Contemplation to the Inhabitants of the Purer and more Peaceful Regions To behold a Divine Off-Spring the Sons of GOD now Transform'd into Sons of the Earth and Tearing in pieces one another for what some Posses and others Covet YEA and to a Calm Uninteressed Spectator on our own Globe this can be no grateful prospect to View the History of all Times and Nations and take Notice how full it is of such Tragedy Countries from Age to Age made Akeldama's Fields of Blood on this Account of extending or Confining Empire and Dominion of Invading anothers or Defending ones own BUT hereupon it is not strange when a World of Intelligent Reasonable Creatures are thus gone off from GOD and in Rebellion against him in the most Fundamental part of his Government that He suffers them to be the Executioners of His Just Wrath upon one another AND if we thus look upon War First in this it s Complicated Causes it is the Opprobrium the Reproach of Humane Nature of Intelligent Reasonable Creatures BUT Next look upon it In it self and what is it but the Destruction of Humane Lives of Creatures made after the Image of GOD Of whom He has so High a Value and whose Lives even for that very Reason He is pleased to Fence and Secure by a Severe Law Whoever sheds Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of GOD made He Man But here is a Formed Design of Destroying Humane Lives by multitudes Lives of Creatures bearing the Image of GOD. AND by how much the more Necessary this is in many Cases so much the more Grievous and Calamitous a Thing it is that when to Cut Off and Destroy by multitudes so Precious Things as Humane Lives is Tragical and Horrid not to do it is so much Worse Yea That War it self is become an Art and that the Valour and Skill which belong to it are Laudable Excellencies is all Aggravation of the Sadness of this Case AND if we do consider the Consequences and Effects which do ensue upon such War How full of Horror and Frightfulness are they And those most of all that are least of all thought on and that lye most out of view For besides that Property is gone and no Man knows what to call his own Laws lose their Force Magistrates their Authority and Reverence Civil Government is Disobey'd and Despised Common Order is Violated and Turned into Confusion Families torn in pieces Countries laid Waste and Desolate Towns and Cities Sack'd Ravag'd and made Ruinous Heaps Besides all this I say the Sacred Rites and Mysteries of Religion are Neglected and Profaned its Holy Solemnities interrupted Worshipping Assemblies are broken up Men have little Opportunity left them to mind their great Concerns with GOD and for another World Care for Immortal Souls when it is most Necessary is thrown out of doors and Reasonal Creatures that should be employed in Adoring and Worshipping their Great Creator the GOD of their Lives are Employed in Designing the Mutual Destruction of one anothers Lives And it may be that is least consider'd which carries the most of Horror in it that multitudes are hurried down to Perdition neither Dread●d by themselves nor Apprehended by the Destroyer Souls are passing in shoals into Eternity they not considering it who are sent nor they that send them And what sport does this make for Devils those Envious Apostate Spirits that first drew Men into a like Apostacy that when GOD had given this Earth to the Children of Men Assigning to themselves a worse abode amidst Infernal Darkness and Flames they should be Tearing one another in pieces about this their Portion under the Sun making GOD's Bounty to them the Occasion of their

Licentiousness of the Press that the Contagion of the Dead may not Corrupt the Living This will be a most pleasing Sacrifice of Praise to the Blessed GOD who has Preserv'd Your most Precious Life in Raging War and from more Imminent Dangers by the Dark and Cruel Conspiracy of Wicked Enemies WE Humbly Renew the Assurances of our inviolable Loyalty and our Continual Prayers That GOD would Preserve Your Sacred Person and make Your MAJESTY always Happy in Your Government and Your Subjects Happy in their Obedience PSALM XXIX the latter part of the Last Verse The Lord will Bless his People with Peace The Whole Verse is The Lord will give Strength to his People The Lord will Bless his People with Peace YOU so generally know the Occasion of this our Solemn Assembly at this Time that none can be in Doubt concerning the suitableness of this Portion of Scripture for our Present Consideration OUR Business is to celebrate the Divine Goodness in Preserving our King Abroad and Restoring him Home in Safety after he had been the Happy Instrument of bringing about that Peace which puts a Period to a long Continued Wasting and Dubious War under which We and all Europe have groaned these Divers Years And if we find the favourable Workings of Providence to concur and fall in with a Divine Word pointing them to GODS own People as this for Instance The Lord will Bless his People with Peace i e. He will vouchsafe this Blessing to his own People in the fittest Season as it must be understood this adds so much the more grateful and pleasant Relish to the Mercy we are this Day to acknowledge It cannot but do so with Right Minds unto which nothing is more agreeable than to desire and covet such Favour as GOD shews to his own People and to be made glad with his Inheritance Psalm 105. 4 5. from an Apprehension that there must be somewhat very peculiar in such Mercy as GOD vouchsafes to his own to a People Peculiar and Select severed and set apart for himself from the rest of Men. 'T IS true indeed that Peace abstractly considered is neither the appropriate nor the constant Priviledge of such a People they neither alone enjoy it nor at 〈◊〉 Times when it is brought about even for them they have other ●arta●ers But yet such Favours of Providence as are of larger extent and re●ch to many besides GODS own People have a more peculiar benign Aspect upon them and are attended with reference to them with such Consequences as wherein others without being made of this People of his are not Sharers with them Some Intimation there is of this in this Psalm which the Title speaks a Psalm of David and which some think to refer unto the Wars managed by him in his Time with the Moabites signified by the Wilderness of Cadesh and the Syrians signified by the Cedars of Lebanon of whom he speaks in the Prophetick Stile as if by the terrible and amazing appearances of GOD's Power against them they were Thunder-struck like the Trees of a Forrest or as the Hinds that are wont to inhabit amongst them And so it is concluded and shut up with this Epiphonema in the End of the Psalm The Lord will give Strength to his People the Lord will Bless his People with Peace i. e. He is in War their Strength and their Felicity in Peace in War He is the Author of all that Power wherewith they are enabled to oppose and overcome Potent Enemies And in Peace he is their truly felicitating Good and makes them by his own vouchsafed Presence a truly blessed People IT is the latter of these Peace unto which the Present Occasion confines us And concerning that we might in the 1. PLACE Note from the Text That wheresoever it is brought about GOD is the Author of it GOD will Bless his People with Peace That Title which the Scripture gives him The GOD of Peace with the many Expressions of like Import wherewith it abounds can leave them in no Doubt concerning the Divine Influence and Agency in bringing about the grateful Intervals of Peace after desolating Bloody Wars who have any Reverence for the Sacred Oracles And indeed to insist upon such a Subject as this in a Case so plain so acknowledged amongst Men that believe the Bible were to Reproach the Auditory as if it were made up of Scepticks and Atheists or of them that did not believe this World was made by GOD or that it was made by him only by some casual Stroak and without Design that he cared not for his reasonable intelligent Creatures when he had made them what became of them nor did at all concern himself in their most considerable Concernments I shall not therefore insist upon this which seems rather slid in and supposed in the Text or taken for granted For among a People in visible Relation and Subjection to GOD it had been as great an incongruity industriously to assert and prove such a thing as it would be by an Elaborate Discourse to prove that there is a Sun in the Firmament unto Men that continually partake and enjoy its Light and Influences and to whose Sense the Vicissitudes and Distinctions of Day and Night by its Presence and Absence are brought under constant Notice every Four and Twenty Hours I shall therefore I say pass on to what appears more directly to be the Design of the Text. And that seems to be twofold First To represent to us in general the great Blessing of Peace wherein when GOD sees it sit he is pleased to make his own People Partakers with others Secondly Because it is not without Design that it is said He will Bless his People with Peace unto whom 't is plain this alone is not an appropriate Priviledge it seems further designed to intimate and couch in the Concurrence and Concomitancy of such things as superadded to Peace will make it a compleat Blessing The Lord will Bless his People with Peace He will give them Peace so and upon such Terms and with such Concomitants and Consequences that to them it shall prove a real and a full Blessing These two things therefore I intend to insist upon 1. TO shew you how valuable a Good and in the Large and Common Sense a Blessing Peace is as it stands in Opposition to Bloody and Desolating Wars And then 2. I shall shew you what Additions and Concomitants are necessary to make it a compleat Blessing such as may be appropriate and peculiar to GODS own People and so make use of the whole 1. I shall shew you Briefly how valuable a good Peace is in it self as it stands opposed unto Bloody and Destructive Wars And this will best be seen by stating and viewing it in that Opposition and by representing to you somewhat of the Horror of War which we may do by viewing it in its Causes in it self and in its dismal Consequences wherewith it is wont to be attended CONSIDER