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	life_n	see_v	2,826	5	3.2572	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52049	Reformation and desolation, or, A sermon tending to the discovery of the symptomes of a people to whom God will by no meanes be reconciled preached to the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast, Decemb. 22, 1641 / by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1642 (1642)	Wing M770; ESTC R235206	36,106	57

had provoked him though hee were dead betweene thirty and forty yeares before Iosiah ended his dayes yet his provocations were the cause that God would never bee reconciled to his people though hee was reconciled to Manasses person before hee dyed I purpose not any exact or large handling of this Text nor is it possible to bee done in one Sermon I shall onely cull out such things as are most intended by the holy Ghost and most sutable to the occasion of our meeting And first let us in a few words consider it in relation to the former Verse and secondly as it lyes in it selfe As it stands in relation to the former description made of Iosiah and the high praises which God there bestowes upon him I thence observe That when God raises up any excellent instruments to appear in his cause they are most graciously accepted with him though their endeavours should come to nothing There shall be glory and honour and immortality and eternall life to themselves though there be indignation and wrath tribulation anguish and woe upon the people whom they would willingly doe good unto This you see plainly in this Text Ioshiah sets up a building which was instantly throwne downe sticke and stone yet never man received better wages and greater reward than hee did God hath raised up many instruments to doe him service who have had admirable successe in their way Moses brought Gods people out of the bondage of Egypt carried them through a desolate wastefull howling wildernesse and that miraculously for forty yeares together Ioshua gave them the possession of the promised land and left them in it in peace David subdued all their enemies about them untill they were all put under the soles of their feet leaving them neither adversary nor evill occurrent Solomon built Gods Temple and established the Church in the purity of Gods Worship and Ordinances and the Common-wealth with admirable peace and prosperity yet not any of these more magnified by the Lord than Iosiah whose work came to nothing This is my first observation and it hath these two branches first it implies that the endevours of rare Instruments may come to nothing that men may bee stirred up with admirable spirits to attempt great things for God and yet their work miscarry Secondly that though their work come to nothing yet themselves shall be highly magnified with the Lord I could easily give abundant testimonies and instances of such whom God hath raised up with extraordinary spirits men that wee might think had been fit to carry the world before them who have effected little or nothing Elias for one a man as it were made of fire who at one time called a Parliament of the King and all the Heads of Israel together convinced them of their halting between God and Baal and wrought so at the present that all the people cryed out the Lord is God and seemed to have their hearts brought back again to the Lord their God and likewise that eight hundred Idolatrous Priests and false Prophets were put to the sword yet the very next day he was faine to run away to save his life undertaking a journey of forty dayes to keepe himselfe from the fury of Iezabel Ieremy was another rare man one of the most zealous Instruments that ever God employed insomuch that he said of himselfe that he was a man of contention to all the earth and Gods word was in him like fire in his bones which hee could not keep in yet this man in his almost forty years preaching could neither prevaile with King nor Princes Prophets Priests nor people all grew worse and worse and himselfe in the end was carried away by a rebellions company into that accursed land of Egypt and there died And it hath beene often observed that the Lord hath seene it fit for reasons best knowne to himselfe to let abundance of the Worthies whom he hath employed even so far as men could judge to perish in the worke he hath set them about But secondly what ever their successe hath beene amongst men they have been never a whit lesse regarded or rewarded by the Lord for this the Scripture is plaine Esay 49. 5. There the Prophet in Christs name and in his owne name and in the name of all Gods instruments concludes That though they spend their strength for nought and in vaine yet surely their worke is with the Lord and though the people be not gathered yet they shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and their God will bee their strength And Paul saith 2 Cor. 2. 15. We are a sweet savour to God in them that perish as well as in them that are saved And there is plaine reason for it because sincere endeavours to doe Gods service is our whole worke but the successe of these endeavours is Gods worke Now the Lord hath tied himselfe in his covenant to reward every man according to his owne worke and not according to the worke of another God never required at the hands of any Minister to save soules or at the hand of any Magistrate to preserve a Nation of any husbandman to produce a crop out of the ground c. this belongs only to himselfe he only requires at their hands to be his servants to obey his will wherein if they be faithfull they shall not misse of their reward God compares Kings and Princes and other of his servants to nursing fathers and nursing mothers Now you that are persons of quality if you put forth a childe to nurse and can have perfect information that the nurse loves attends suckles your childe and performes all the duties belonging to a nursing mother this nurse I say is by you esteemed and rewarded whether the childe live or die yea it may be the more when the childe dies because you see her afflicted in losing your childe which she would gladly have enjoyed I doe but name this you are wise to apply it to your selves you Right honourable and beloved are employed in great services God hath raised you up to attempt glorious things for his name for the purging of his house and the establishing of this great people in the peace of the Gospel how farre God will use any of you I cannot tell and how farre this unworthy Nation will acknowledge your indefatigable paines I cannot tell as yet you have the prayers and blessings of all sorts of people high and low rich and poore that wish well to Sion But however goe on yee Worthies of the Lord with sincere hearts to doe what God requires at your hands and whether this Nation be gathered or not you shall be glorious in the eyes of God and the Lord will be your strength Iosiah you see had the greatest commendation of all others notwithstanding the Lord turned not from his fierce wrath and this is all I have to say from the connexion of the words that

Nation by whom though they may seeme contemptible to some as being barbarous unarmed c. yet wee may feare that God will plague us because wee have not laboured to bring them to the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ Mene tekel The Lord grant that being put into the ballance we be not found too light What shall wee doe then First beleeve it not that England shall be ruined I say not so but beleeve that great is the wrath of God which is kindled against us that wee stand upon ill termes before him that though he may save us by his Prerogative yet if hee proceed with us at common Law according to his usuall rule with other Nations wee are in great danger to be utterly lost I presse this the rather because we are a secure nation not willing to beleeve any thing that may disturbe our ease One Zedekiah who will preach pleasing things shall bee beleeved more then twenty Micaiahs such as tell us wee are the most flourishing Church in the world the strongest people by Sea and Land all other Nations court us and have their owne hands full the Irish be onely discontented weake men and will soone be quieted such I say shall be beleeved more then an hundred Ieremies who would put us in feare It is reported that Honorius the Emperour lying at his pleasure at Ravenna when newes was brought him that Rome was taken and spoyled hee thought they had meant a fighting Cock which he called Rome so when we are told of danger wee slight all that is spoken believe nothing in that kind But the Lord grant that this security of ours bee not a Calme before an earthquake When they say peace peace then sudden destruction comes upon them But let us believe and tremble the Wise man never hides himself till he sees the evill comming and the first step to Ninevehs peace was their believing that God was comming against them But you will say that is the way to discourage men you do not well to discourage thē in whose hand courage our welfare lyes Oh beloved let me not be so interpreted were this objection fit in other cases suppose one should come and truly tell us the enemy were landed the Sea were broke in the House or City were on fire were it fit to object oh say not so you will discourage men Discourage or not discourage if this be not told how shall the enemy be driven back the breach of waters stopped or the fire quenched But neither need this discourage but rather furnish us with matter of humiliation action Iosiah sate down and wept when he understood Gods wrath was kindled fell to reformation Ezra rent his garment and plucked off his haire and fell to his work so let us do Let us believe that Gods displeasure is against us that we may feare before this Great God and labour to get his wrath turned quite away that is the second Use 2 Let us all labour in the right way to turn this wrath of God from us that First by mourning under it God looks we should be ashamed when he spits in our face and takes it wonderfull unkindly if we tremble not when this Lion roares Consider seriously of that place Esay 22. There you shal see an enemy was comming against Ierusalem God was much displeased because they took not the right way for their safety and so ill that he said that iniquity should never be purged from thē till they dyed yet see what they did they scoured up their armour they gathered the waters that the enemy might have no benefit by them they repaired the breaches in the wals made a deep ditch for greater fortification what hurt was there in all this Oh but they begun at the wrong end the Lord called thē to weeping and mourning and to baldnes and to girding with sackcloth to tremble before him because of his wrath and this they regarded not and therefore God would never pardon it Till therfore we mourn because of Gods displeasure all other meanes of welfare will faile of that comfortable effect which we desire I know the world makes a scorn of this you are one of the mourners but let our soules be numbred among those mourners God will restore comfort to these mourners and no man knowes the power which these poore mourners have to turne away Gods wrath Secondly and as we must mourn for this fulnesse of our sinnes so every one must help to empty the vessel as we have helped to fill it the fuller our vessel is with sin the neerer our ruine is if we could knock out the bottom of the vessel or by any meanes empty it Gods wrath would passe away with our sins oh help to empty it your Atheisme your prophanenesse your opposing of good men good causes your adulteries lies c. get them out by all meanes all Gods threatnings speak to us as the waves of the Sea seemed to speak to the Mariners in the first of Ionah Ionah had told them that the tempest came for him and till he was cast over the sea would never be quiet yet they rowed hard to carry Ionah to land but the waves seemed to tell them cast Ionah over board or we wil fetch you over-board Out therfore with your lusts God hath no other quarrell against us he doth not afflict us willingly he saith to us as Ioab said to the wise woman of Abel farre be it from me to swallow up or destroy a City in Israel deliver only Sheba the Son of Bichri or throw his head over the wall and I am gone Do thou so finde out all thy beloved sins say to thy darling lust as Iunius Brutus said to his son thou villain shal I nourish thee to destroy the Common-wealth stabs him shal I walk in these wayes to be the ruine of the Church and Common-wealth the Lord rather strike me dead with a Thunderbolt Let us therefore every one begin to sweep before our own door and we know not how soon the whole street may be made cleane Thirdly and lastly right Honourable Beloved you are to be our Physitians and repairers of our breaches the horns of Gods wrath begin to push at us you are the Carpenters that must cut off these horns I therefore make this humble fuit to you that as you have besought his Matie to call a day of Fasting and Prayer throughout England and we hope we shall have many more till the fierce wrath of God be turned away so in all your thoughts to do England Scotland Ireland good you would set down this that the turning away of Godswrath is of greatest consequence if you let God go on to be angry do what you can we shal lose all at home and abroad Thus did Iosiah when once he understood out of the Book of God