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	true_a	2,848	5	3.8360	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66358	A sermon preach'd before the King and Queen at White-Hall, May the 4th. M.DC.XC. by William Wake ...	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1690 (1690)	Wing W266; ESTC R4855	16,394	40

this Consideration perhaps may and I doubt not shall prevail with God to make greater Allowances for the slips and infirmities of such persons than of those who have not so many Difficulties to encounter with Yet cannot this be any Excuse for those who by this means suffer themselves to be utterly drawn away from their Duty and engaged in a Course and Habit of Sin But on the contrary will aggravate their Guilt the more for that knowing their Danger They nevertheless neglected to look to themselves and to take that due care they ought to have done to preserve their Innocence And 1st For the first Advantage that of Time I have before observed that this is a Benefit which such persons seem to put the least Value of all upon though one of the most considerable and I must now add that being thus neglected by them it proves for the most part a Snare and a Temptation to them And this is one of the chiefest Causes of their Sin and Ruine The man who lives by his Industry and in the sweat of his brow eats his bread he wants indeed the Opportunity of paying that constant Attendance which others may do upon the Solemn Exercises of Piety and Devotion His Thoughts are taken up with the Affairs of this Present Life how to carry on his business and supply his needs And this hinders his Soul from having its Conversation so much in Heaven whilst his concerns after the things of this lower World renders him very often unable I had almost said unfit to contemplate the Joys and Glories of the other But though he cannot therefore be so active in the more immediate Service of God Almighty yet he spends his time in serving the Order of his Creation He is Honest and Innocent And his Business though it hinders him from rising so high in Religious Attainments as those who have Greater Leisure may yet at the same time keeps him from their Temptations too and from falling into any Great and Dangerous Irregularities Whilst those who have more Time for the discharge of their Duty and whose Thoughts and Considerations have no need to be thus employ'd upon an anxious sollicitude after the things of this World are yet oftentimes far enough from raising them up to those of a better They are Idle and Lazy They look upon it to be one part of their Birthright indeed the great Priviledge and Characteristick of their Condition to have nothing to do And then the Tempter never fails to stand ready for them And Experience shews how easie the Transition is from the doing of Nothing or that which is as good as Nothing to the doing Ill. 2. For the Second Benefit that of Quicker Parts and a more ingenuous Education It is indeed an Advantage not so apt to prove a Snare to Men as the other but yet such as may be abused to very wicked purposes And the Church has in all Ages had but too many Instances of this kind to shew how much more capable Men of a brisk Wit and a Comprehensive Knowledge are of being eminently Wicked and doing a great deal of Mischief to Religion than other Men. What is it but this that has given Birth to most of those Satyrs and Pasquils wherein we find not only the Mysteries of Christianity but even the Practice of all Religion exposed to scorn and ridicule I shall not need to send you back to Julian and Porphyry and the like profess'd Enemies to the Christian Faith for Witnesses of this Our own Age and even our own Country has bred up those who at the same time that they have call'd themselves by the sacred Name of Christ have nevertheless bid defiance to his Gospel and esteem'd it a piece of Wit and Gallantry to burlesque Scripture and laugh the greatest Articles of Religion out of Countenance Who have employ'd their Parts only to find out some new Colours for Scepticism and Infidelity To free themselves from the Practice of Religion now and to harden themselves against the Fears of Damnation hereafter But shall not God visit for these things Shall not his Soul be avenged on such Wretches as These Yes the time is coming when he shall turn all their Laughter into Mourning and bring those Evils upon them they now pretend to scoff at the very Name of And give them a sad and Eternal Conviction how much they were mistaken in their Notions when they thought Profaneness to be Sense and to make a mock of Sin and Damnation the only sure and approved Evidence of a Man of Depth and Knowledge And that when all is done what Job so long since observed is indeed the very Truth Behold the Fear of the LORD that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil that is Understanding And when thus even Mens Parts and Education those best Advantages to Vertue and Piety may be turned into a Snare and a Temptation much more 3dly Will those other Benefits yet remaining of Riches and Power and Greatness be found to fall under this Reflection which are both infinitely more Easie to be abused and not at all less able to minister to their greater Guilt and in the consequence of that to their more certain destruction The Truth is whether we consult our Reason or our Experience What Use such persons commonly do make of these things or What without a great deal of Care they will be apt to make of them we shall find but too much cause to conclude what I am now asserting to be most true That if on the one hand Riches and Greatness and Power and Advantages that both enable and engage those who have them to do much more good in their Generation than other Men yet they may and without very great heed will be apt to expose them to many Temptations too And instead of rendering them more excellently Good make them only more exceedingly Wicked than otherwise they either would or could have been And I shall not need to spend the time in a solemn proof of that which our Saviour thought to be so very plain as to make it almost a General Rule a kind of Aphorism in Christianity That a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of God and of which if you please we will take the Instance of our Text for the Application Son remember That thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus Evil things But now He is Comforted and Thou art Tormented And now to conclude this first Point Is it thus evident as we have seen that persons of a greater Quality and higher Station in the world do lie under much greater Obligations and have an higher and more difficult duty to fulfil than other Men And have we so much Reason to believe that those very Advantages which encrease their Obligations are at the same time but too apt to prove their greatest Lets and Hindrances in the fulfilling of them It must then remain that