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	think_v	4,338	5	3.9369	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56599	Angliæ speculum a glass that flatters not : presented to a country congregation at the late solemn fast, April 24, 1678, in a parallel between the kingdom of Israel and England, wherein the whole nation is desired to behold and consider our sin and our danger / by a dutiful son of this church.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1678 (1678)	Wing P744; ESTC R33026	21,160	44

heavy sentence which the Prophet pronounces in the next Chapter against such a cross-grain'd and gainsaying people Read it and be seriously affraid lest it should be our portion Isa 6.10 11 12. Make the heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Hearts and convert and be healed Then said I Lord how long And he answered until the Cities be wasted without Inhabitant and the Houses without Man and the Land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed Men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the Land O dreadful doom VVhat means do we use that none like it may pass upon us wherein do we difference our selves from that rebellious Generation what tokens are there that we intend to become more obedient to the Voice of the Lord our God and to meet him in the way of his Judgments by a timely repentance We talk indeed often of repenting and acknowledge that we shall perish unless we repent but still every Man goes on in the way of his wicked heart and doth not at all repent of the evil of his doings After all the Plagues the great Plagues and of long continuance which God hath sent upon us and after all our Fastings and Humiliations and Confessions that we are a wicked people who justly deserve sorer Judgments we continue still the very same that we were unless this render us still more wicked and justly obnoxious to his severer displeasure that we will not amend those things which we our selves confess are so provoking to his Divine Majesty and so destructive to us We are met this day to confess we are very great Sinners and to beseech God to bless our Dread Soveraign and his Kingdoms and to avert his Judgments from us which our provocations deserve But how do we hope they should be averted meerly by our sorrowful Confessions and Prayers and Supplications for Mercy They rather accuse us as obstinate Offenders and may hasten his Judgments if we do not what in us lyes to amend those faults which we say we are sensible will bring them upon us Why then do we not seriously set upon this necessary this saving work of thorow amendment and reformation of our lives Gods Anger we pretend to believe is not yet quite turned away but his Hand we fear is stretched out to give us another stroke And the cause is visible no body denies that the reason is because we do not repent Why then do we not heartily ingage in that long neglected duty of repentance which we know will do the business and save us all this trouble sadness sorrow and more blows which we may be sure are prepared for the back of such Fools as wilfully refuse to go in the only way which they see leads unto their Peace and Happiness Let me ask a few more questions I. Are we indeed so foolish as to think that God will be thus angry with us for nothing that He can send one Plague after another and make a miserable Destruction and spoil among the best of his Creatures here on Earth when there is no cause for it but meerly to satisfy his own Will Doth He delight in the death of Sinners or willingly grieve the Children of Men Is it any contentment to him to see us kill one another to behold our Carcases fall by the pestilence to rot and corrupt the Fruits of the Earth which He hath made it naturally to produce Doth He love to turn a pleasant Garden into a Wilderness or to vex those whom He hath made capable of so much pleasure with any other Mischiefs and Calamities We are all better instructed sure than to harbour any such Opinion of the Just and Gracious Lord of all since no good Man can take any delight in the meer Miseries Cryes and woful Lamentations of the most inferiour Creatures II. What then do we think of our Condition Doth Gods Anger exceed the cause though there be some reason for it Is it disproportionable to the provocation And do we fancy him more displeased than he need If we think his Justice and Goodness are so great that they will not suffer that He should smite when there is no offence we may be as confident they will forbid that the stroke should be above what the offence deserves He never sends heavy Punishments for light Crimes nor Common General Judgments for some Private Offences But as Men sin so they suffer When a great Calamity overspreads a Nation it is we may be sure for a great and contagious Iniquity And when those Plagues are of long continuance as Moses speaks it is because that Nation goes on still in its Trespasses III. But though in those days the Prophet said Our God shall wound the Head of his Enemies and the Hairy Scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his Trespasses Psal 68.21 yet now perhaps you think there is no such danger and that all these are but fanciful Applications which we make when from Gods proceedings against his ancient people we put you in fear of further severity which you may expect if you do not repent of your evil doings Doth this Imagination rise in your minds to obstruct the passage of these Truths to your hearts Read then I beseech you and attend to the Second Lesson appointed for Evening Prayer this Day and there the Apostle will teach you another Lesson 1 Cor. 10.6 Now these things speaking of what befel the Israelites were our Examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Nor be Idolaters nor commit Fornication nor tempt Christ nor murmur as in the following Verses he shews they did to their cost and then concludes as he began V. 11. Now all these things hapned to them for Types and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come Why then do we not without any delay repent and turn to God since it is so apparent both that we are Offenders great Offenders in an high and insolent manner and that all those woes which I have so often mentioned in the Prophet Isaiah are a warning to us to beware of these Sins or presently to renounce and forsake them all when their danger is discovered to us especially when we have suffered already so sadly for them and felt such heavy strokes of God's Revenging Hand which is not yet with drawn but seems to be stretched out still Why I say are we so sensless so Fool-hardy so desperate as still to live in all those wickednesses which are so hateful to God though one Judgment have come tumbling upon another and still there are more behind For his Anger is not turned away let me repeat it as the Prophet doth four or five times but his Hand is stretched out still To resolve this question it will require a new