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	world_n	3,255	5	4.3685	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39910	A discourse concerning God's judgements resolving many weighty questions and cases relating to them. Preached (for the substance of it) at Old Swinford in Worcester-shire: and now publish'd to accompany the annexed narrative, concerning the man whose hands and legs lately rotted off: in the neighbouring parish of Kings-Swinford, in Staffordshire; penned by another author. / by Simon Ford ...	Ford, Simon, 1619?-1699.; Illingworth, James, d. 1693. A just narrative or account of the man whose hands and legs rotted off.	1678 (1678)	Wing F1484; ESTC R28411	53,261	98

and a great breach of Charity also as implying a malicious design against our brother which we seek an opportunity to execute This seems to be the fault of those Disciples themselves who enquired of Christ concerning the man that was born blind for they first resolve upon it that this was a Judgment of God on him for some sin and then they came to our Saviour to resolve them Joh. 9.2 for whose sin it was his own or his Parents And it seems evident by the whole carriage of their discourses that Jobs friends though they unanimously first conclude among themselves that his sufferings were Divine Judgments upon him for some foul crime yet they are at a loss what crime of that nature to find him guilty of and therefore they tax him at all adventure with all the horrid Crimes they can imagine to draw a confession from him at least of some of them for the justification of their own uncharitable censure 3. That we do not hastily call such severe Providences of God towards such particular Persons Judgments whom we can charge with nothing that is notoriously sinful in the general Judgment of all Mankind or at least of all Christians For it is a great piece of uncharitableness as well as injustice which is too ordinarily practised in such places where the common Christianity is crumbled into Sects and Parties for dissenters of all sides to impute the sufferings befalling their opposites to Divine displeasure against them for holding such opinions as differ foom theirs or practising in some particulars otherwise than they do Now this ariseth ordinarily from a partial fondness which every one hath for his own opinion or way which inclines him to think God hath as great a kindness for it as himself and his Party have and to conclude all his Providences to be accordingly engaged to serve under those banners of distinction under which he hath listed himself whence such persons find it easie upon every unusual stroke of God upon any that are not every way agreeable to their humour to conclude that the very point in difference betwixt them is judged by God and their opposites confuted from Heaven by a Demonstration of Divine displeasure against them And such an unhappy Paralogism as this we are told by our Historians it was which in the dark times of Popery gave the cause in the opinion of an whole Synod against the married Clergy when the side of the Room where the maintainers of it sat fell down killing some and burting others For thereupon they that were for Priests single life cryed down the Cause of the faln Party with them as witnessed against by God himself and by that sorry Argument and Noise prevailed Now against this great mistake by the way we shall never be sufficiently armed except we govern our Apprehensions by these Two Principles 1. That God never appointed the dark Rule of Providence to us it is no other to judge Canses by whether right or wrong good or bad Judg. 20. 21 25. Oftentimes for secret ends of his own he blasts a good and prospers a bad cause as the had Cause of the Benjamites in two set Battels against the good Cause of the Eleven Tribes and the horrid and blasphemous Imposture of the Mahometans hath now for many Ages by the permission of Providence prospered wonderfully against the greatest part of the Christian world 2. That Gods great and signal Judgments of which we are discoursing are now adays rarely inflicted but for such Crimes as are generally condemned in the Judgment of all Mankind or at least the generality of Christians according as he designs the notice of them to be spread in a greater or narrower compass And the Reason is evident to wit because it cannot otherwise be rationally expected the Justice of them should be clearly and convincingly owned and so the good they are intended for must needs be hazarded to so many as are dissatisfied in the merit of the Cause that is taken to procure them But when a Divine severity justly makes an example of any person in the general opinion notoriously criminous they are all inexcusable who thenceforward do the same things they condemned in another Rom. 2.1 as the Apostle saith and confess Gods Judgment to have righteously befaln him for 4. That we publish not on the house tops in our Saviours phrase on another occasion that which is Mat. 10.27 it may be whispered in our ears only and few possibly no other persons know of For it may so fall out that our intimate acquaintance with some men and their circumstances may give us knowledge of their particular vices secret as to all the rest of the world and of Gods secret strokes befalling them in their persons or private concerns which we in our own thoughts may rationally conclude to be Divine Judgments inflicted for them Now in such Cases though we may with great charity declare our apprehensions hereof to the parties concerned themselves and admonish and exhort them on that occasion yet it were great uncharitableness to publish to others either the one or the other For when God intends as appears by his way of proceeding therein only a private correction it must proceed from a defect of charity in us if we by divulging it turn it into a publique Execution to the exposing our Brother to an open shame And the very justice of every petty School may convince us of the evil of so doing wherein the corrections given within those walls are forbidden to be divulged under a like penalty to that which the disgraced School-fellow suffered 5. That we apply not the severe strokes of God upon our neighbour to the satisfaction of our private spleen and revengeful Humour which is too ordinary when we think such as lie under them have wronged us or it may be they really have so and we conclude their sufferings are Divine Judgments befalling them on our Quarrel This was the uncharitable Consure of Shimei against David when he tells him that God had avenged on him the blood of the House of Saul by the Rebellion of Absalom For it is plain by the Text 2 Sam. 16.5 6 7 8. that Shimei was of the very family of Saul and it may be looked upon himself as in some probable vicinity to the Crown if the succession of it had continued in that family At least 't is probable that by the translating it from thence he found his hopes as to those preferments and other advantages which usually are attained at Court by those of the Royal Blood blasted and defeated It is true indeed that Gods Justice doth sometimes appear in the remarkable vindication of eminently good mens and his useful Instruments Causes but for every ordinary person upon every petty trifling injury to expect that he should do the like for him or suppose he doth it is too great a Presumption 6. That we judge not our Brethrens estate towards

my self to be obliged to make good these Two things 1. That there are some penal Events which can by no rational Person be justly attributed to meer chance or casualty or any like cause not capable of choice or design in its actings 2. That such penal Events as these must therefore be the effects of a Providence and that Providence Divine I. The first of these Propositions I prove by the following Arguments 1. There are some penal Events befalling men in this world which have been punctually threatned and foretold as they have in the Issue faln out and many of them so threatned and foretold in the very Circumstances with which they were accompanied in the Event As for instance 1. In reference to the generality of Mankind So in the first Threatning annexed to the Law given to our first Parents in Paradise Gen. 2.17 the daily experience of all Humane Nature taken notice of by Heathens themselves shews it to have been punctually fulfilled in the corruption and calamities generally befalling the whole race of Men. And that other in the Law given to Noah Gen. 9.6 that whosoever sheds mans blood by man shall his blood be shed is continually in the almost miraculous discoveries of Murders and bringing Murderers to condign punishment verified in the observation of the generality of Mankind to this very day As also is that of the wonderful ways by which Conspiracies against Sovereign Princes are brought to light according to the notable threatning to that purpose Eccles 10.20 2. And in reference to particular Persons and Nations See and compare Num. 20.12 27 28.24.27.12.15 Deut. 32.49.34.5 So in the exclusion of Moses and Aaron from Canaan it is taken notice of expresly in the account given of their deaths of Aarons by Moses his own Brother and of Moses his own by him that fills up his Story after his decease that it fell out to both of them according to what God had denounced And it were easie to add many more of the same kind to particular Persons But 1 Kings 13. that of the old Prophet to the disobedient Prophet at Bethel 2 Kings 7.19 20. that of Elisha to the incredulous Lord in Samaria those of Elijah and Micaiah to Ahab and Jezebel 2 Kings 21.19.23.22 28. shall suffice instead of all the rest whereof the Historical part of Scripture is full because they are so notoriously evident to all that know the Bible And as to Nations To omit the long Catalogue of all the plagues of Egypt threatned and inflicted in the circumstances mentioned in the relation of them that one great Instance of the often foretold Captivity of the whole Jewish Nation is so observable and so attested beyond all exception by the publick Records of that Nation held to this day by all their Posterity in veneration that there is no more nay not so much cause to doubt it then there is that England was conquered by William the Norman I shall close this Argument with two Instances so punctual in a circumstance of all others most unlikely to be lighted on by chance that I know not what can be objected against them to invalidate the force of them but an Exception against the Records themselves whence they are taken to which I shall therefore add a word or two anon The one is that of the Judgment denounced against Jeroboams Altar 1 Kings 13.2 and the Priests that offered on it to be executed as it was by Josiah 2 Kings 23.16 mentioned by his very Name about 300 years before the performance The other is that of the destruction of Babylon in order to the restitution of the Jewish Nation wherein Cyrus is also by his very Name Isa 44. ult 45.1 2. foretold to be the Person that as he did was to effect it Which Prophesie by the learned Grotius his computation was uttered 170 years and by that of Junius and others above 200 before he accomplished it or probably was in being And the very manner how he was to take that great Imperial City to wit by the turning away and drying up Euphrates is so lively described by the Prophet Jeremy that the Heathen Authors Herodotus Jer. 50.38.51.31 32. and others who give us an account of the event justifie the verification of the prediction the same way Now in these and the like Predictions of future Events with such circumstances there is no man but must allow a greater certainty with respect to the causes on which they depend then there can be in any products of meer Casualty Which is my first Argument 2. The second is this There are Instances of some penal Events that have been brought upon offenders in a way of formal Proceeding yea such as is usual even in Humane Judicatures For Instance When Joshua had forbidden the embezelling any part of the spoil of Jericho under the penalty of a Divine Curse Josh 6.18.7 16 17 18. Achan the offender falls under the danger of it Upon the discomfiture of the Host before Ai enquiry is made after the unknown Transgressor of that Law Then he is found out by the direction of a four-fold Lot that brought all the people down to his very family under a scrutiny till the Lot takes him Then follows his Examination Confession Judgment and Execution And not much unlike was the Process Jon. 1. by which Jonah was cast into the Sea and there imprison'd in the belly of a Whale till his Repentance procured his Release Now abating the extraordinary way of discovery in these two cases the rest of the Procedure in these Judgments in formed Methodically according to the order of Humane Justice And must these proceedings in so exact a Method too be attributed to meer Casualty May not the persons who have the confidence to assert this as well affirm that Malefactors are hanged at Tyburn by meer Casualty when they have been seized by order of Law committed to Newgate by warrant tryed at the Sessions-house and having received their Sentence upon the Verdict of a Jury been conducted to the place of Execution and there turned off the Cart by the known Officers thereunto by Law appointed 3. My third Argument is this In the actual punishing of offenders many times the Instruments made use of have been irrational Creatures and yet have by an unknown Influence been directed to act as if they were governed by Principles of Justice as well as Reason as putting an evident discrimination and difference betwixt them and the innocent when both of them have equally been within their Power In the famous case of the plagues of Egypt how came the Frogs the Flies the Hail and the Plague c. to seize only the Houses Cattle bodies of Egyptians and not touch an Israelite or any of his concerns when as it appears by the order for the sprinkling of the Jews houses with the blood of the Paschal Lamb for distinction they lived for the