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	let_v	3,168	5	4.0636	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48381	A sermon preach'd in the Cathedral-Church at Ely, July the 24th, 1698 on occasion of His Majesty's proclamation against atheism, and profaneness, &c / by Charles Lidgould ...	Lidgold, Charles, d. 1701.	1699 (1699)	Wing L1978; ESTC R15964	16,733	28

endeavour to put a stop to this torrent of Wickedness ready to overwhelm us will we hope meet with its desir'd success and the Zeal he shews for God's Honor prevail with Heaven to avert those Judgments we have otherwise all the reason in the World to expect because we have so justly deserv'd them Which all among you who have any regard for the Glory and Service of Almighty God and observe how both of them are slighted and despised cannot but be sufficiently sensible of And that therefore if God should in Anger remove those who for the present stay his destroying Arm nothing could be expected but unavoidable ruin and destruction How much therefore do all that are duly apprehensive of these things stand engag'd to add themselves to their number that there may never sail a Generation of Men that by their Zeal to suppress Wickedness and the powerful Oratory of their Prayers and Tears may intercept the Calamities that would otherwise befall us Which brings me to The third and last Thing I proposed to your Consideration namely how much it concerns us both by our own Repentance and our best endeavour to reclaim others to prevent those Judgments that will otherwise most certainly overtake us Reformation Which happy End if Claudian's Regis ad exemplum be true there was never a clearer Prospect of attaining than at this present We have already liv'd to see what Influence a Prince's Life can have on his Subjects I wish the Effects thereof were not still too visible But the being convinced of this by our own Experience gives us still the fairer hopes that we may once again see the Power and Efficacy of so great an Example to nobler Purposes That instead of that Luxury and Voluptuousness that has of late Years infected the Land we may begin to be seasoned with better Principles from an Imitation of our present King Whose Example does not only shew it feasible and will we hope render it fashionable but his Resolutions likewise to Countenance Piety and Vertue and Discourage Wickedness and Vice make it still more eligible ' to be good and virtuous upon the score of Men's Interest in this World which is but too generally pursued with the greatest eagerness And that I may shew you what farther encouragement we have for the setting our hands to this desirable Reformation let me observe to you another Cause of the Looseness and Immorality of the Age Namely the Principles of some late Philosophers greedily imbib'd by several who thought it an Accomplishment to have so much smattering that way that they might be able to chatter in Philosophical Terms and the falling in of these Principles with the Gratification of their Lusts gave them still the greater Relish To which tho' we cannot but own the mighty Interest of Atheism and Irreligion Yet we see Almighty God that he might not leave himself without any Witness among the Inquirers into Nature and that our Horizon might not be quite darkned by such a black cloud as was overspreading the Face of it has rais'd some bright Luminaries that have not only set Nature in a clearer Light and made her glorifie and proclaim her Author but some of them as if they were desirous to retreive the Credit of their Profession and make amends for the Dishonor God and Religion have suffered by several that were eminent in it have likewise vindicated the Cause of Revealed Religion not enduring to see the Holy Scriptures become the sport and May-game of such as would endeavour with their little Wit and Raillery to make them guilty of Nonsense and Contradiction So that now God be thanked we find even the Physician 's Religion to be true and Orthodox and that there are those now among them to whom the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour does not appear as of old to the Greeks and of late to too many among us Foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 but as it is to those who are Christians indeed the Power and Wisdom of God Let us all resolve unanimously to become Champions in this Cause The Defence whereof must begin in the Reforming ourselves and taking care that no body be able to charge us with any thing that may discredit it For there is certainly nothing that weakens the Cause of Religion more or gives greater occasion to the Adversaries thereof to contemn and blaspheme it than to see such as would seem its most zealous Assertors let their Practice run directly counter to the Precepts it enjoins Hor. de Art Poet. Nam dicentis erunt si factis absona dicta If our Actions give our Tongnes the lye Romani tollent Equites Peditesque cachinnum We shall be so far from convincing any of the Reality of what we Profess that we shall but make ourselves the subject of their scorn and laughter Whereas if they see the force and Power of our Arguments in our Lives and that we do not offer with the Pharisees to lay such Burthens on them that we will not touch ourselves they will then judge us to be in earnest and look upon us as persons that believe what we affirm Then may we boldly venture on that great Work of reforming others and hope to gain Authority to what we say Then would Wickedness not appear so bare-faced nor Profaneness dare to support it self by that which has of late usurp'd the Reputation of Wit Namely the scoffing and deriding all that is Virtuous and Sacred If there be Men of good Natural Endowments that employ their Parts this way if there be such as are really witty and ingenious that are withall very lewd and Atheistical the more 's the Pity But blessed be God there are likewise such Gentlemen among us that are every way at least as accomplished as they wanting no Wit to recommend them to Conversation who are also at the same time Friends to Religion and highly concerned to see any endeavour to droll it out of countenance 'T is true there is for the most part an innate Modesty that attends Goodness which as this decays usually wears off so that Lewdness is generally stocked with Confidence enough which in the way of Raillery often passing for Wit clearly t●iumphs over the other And by this means the Modest Man is frequently discouraged from venturing on the vindication of Goodness against so much Confidence and Assurance especially when perhaps there may be none else in Company to to side with him therein Now I dare say would such Men of Parts as have withall a due Sense of Religion labour to overcome this Discouragement by plucking up a good Spirit and joyntly agreeing among themselves to make Atheism and Profaneness so far the subject of their Mirth as where ever they meet with it to ridicule and expose it Which I doubt not but there those that can do with as much facetiousness and pleasantry as they pretend to who employ it against God and Religion If this I say were but done as