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	reason_n	see_v	3,316	5	3.1434	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58815	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London at St. Mary le Bow, July 26, 1685, being the day of publick thanksgiving for his Majesties late victory over the rebels by John Scott ...	Scott, John, 1639-1695.	1685 (1685)	Wing S2069; ESTC R14439	11,468	34

up Secondly The great cause we have to return thanks to God when he delivers 'em up I shall begin with the first od these viz. The great concern and interest God hath in the ovethrow of Rebels It is he who delivers 'em up T is true the success of War on which side soever it lights depends upon the divine Providence which having the disposal of all events whether they be adverse or prosperous turns the scale of victory on which side it pleases for the second causes upon which success and victory ordinarily depends is the good conduct of those who command and the strength and courage and expertness of those that execute all which are under the command and sovereign disposal of God who if he pleases can infatuate the wisest and most skilful Commanders blindfold their judgments confound their reason and turn their wisdom into folly so that they shall run quite counter to their own designs and blow up themselves with their own trains who if he doth not infatuate 'em can yet frustrate their wisdom and by a thousand accidents which they can neither foresee nor prevent baffle and defeat their most prudent and promising designs who if he pleases can divide and break the strength of the most numerous dissolve and confound the order of the best disciplined melt and emasculate the courage of the most resolute Armies and having the sovereign disposal of all the second causes of success in his hands 't is he alone that can decide the Battle and determine the hovering Victory to which side he pleases so that whether it lights on the right or wrong side on the usurping Rebels or lawful Prince's Crest 't is by his all-disposing direction and appointment for though the horse is prepared for battle and secondary causes concur as means and instruments yet victory is of the Lord Prov. 21.31 And though sometimes for wise and righteous ends he permits unjust Arms to prosper and triumph over a Righteous cause of which we have a woful instance in our memory yet ordinarily and regularly he declares on the righteous side and awards success according to the Justice of the cause For Battle is an appeal to God in which the contending Parties joyn issue to put their case into his hands and refer the justice of their cause to his award and determination and being hereby constituted the sole arbitrator between 'em he ordinarily decides the victory according to the right of the case and unless there be some very great reason moving him to the contrary awards it to the juster side They therefore who make and unjust War appeal to God in a wrong cause and therefore have all the reason in the world to expect that he will decide against 'em and finally award the victory to their enemies 'T is true God is not obliged in justice always to determine the Victory to the Just cause for there may be just reasons and many times there are moving him to the quite contrary Sometimes it may be more for the publick good of which he is the great conservator that this particular righteous cause should miscarry than that it should prosper and succeed in which case it 's but reasonable that he should rather permit a particular mischief than hinder a publick convenience Sometimes a good cause may be more effectually advanc'd by a present overthrow than by a victory and when this happens it 's a good reason why God should at present pronounce the sentence of victory on the contrary side Sometimes it may be necessary to deny success to those who have the righteous cause on their side in order to the crowning it with some greater blessing and to take away a less good to make room for a greater is such an exchange as is far from Robbery And lastly Sometimes for the sins of those on the right side may be such as do render it not only fit but necessary for God to make 'em examples to the world of his righteous severity And what greater severity can he express than to abandon a good cause and rather permit it to fall to the ground than see it upheld and supported by impious and prophane hands But though there are these and sundry other just reasons why God should not always award success and victory to the right side yet doubtless he ordinarily doth so for all war is either between one Prince and Nation and another or else between Princes and rebellious Subjects Now as for the first it is in most cases impossible for us certainly to determine which of the two parties hath the rightful cause because we do not understand the pretensions on both sides nor are we capable of judging of those nice reasons and intricate circumstances upon which their opposite claims depend and therefore though we through our pity and ignorance together do commonly pronounce the vanquished cause the best and upon that account do foolishly murmur at the decisions of Providence as if they were unjust and unequal yet God who sees through all the circumstances of things doth many times most certainly know the contrary and so determines the case contrary to our blind pity and ignorance according to his own infallible judgment and had we but the understanding of God I make no doubt but we should find many of those prosperous causes which we condemn for unjust to be most just and righteous and be fully satisfied that the awards of Providence in the case are much more equal than we imagine But then as for the other sort of war viz. That between Princes and their rebellious Subjects it 's evident that Providence doth much more constantly decide the success to the just and righteous cause and give judgment on the side of the injured Prince against the Rebellious and usurping Subjects For if you consult History you will find that though for just and righteous ends God hath sometimes permitted Rebellions to succeed yet where he hath prospered one he hath usually cursed and blasted twenty And indeed since War as was before observed is an appeal to God the great Arbitrator of all events there are peculiar reasons why he should more constantly declare himself for the right side in a Rebellious war than in any other First Because Rebellion is an apppeal to him in a cause that is plainly and apparently unjust Secondly Because 't is an appeal to him in a cause that very nearly touches and effects his own Authority Thirdly Because 't is an appeal to him in a cause that is of all others most destructive of humane Society First Because Rebellion is an appeal to God in a Cause that is plainly and apparently unjust For in those wars that are between Princes and Princes the right or wrong of the case is many times not easily decidable the Meum's and Tuum's of Princes and Nations being very often so blended and confounded by Conquests Leagues and Intermarriages and revolutions of Empire that 't is not only difficult

Almighty Thunderbolts it concerns us to be very careful that we do not swerve from our due Allegiance to our Prince that we do not suffer our Pride or discontent to prey upon our Loyalty nor imbibe Seditious Principles nor intriegue our selves with factious Combinations which are the Seminaries of Rebellion but that out of an awful fear and dread of God we honour and obey the King and avoid as we would the Air of a Plague-sore medling with those that are given to change I now proceed to the second observable in the Text viz. That God's delivering up of Rebels is a just ground of praise and thansgiving to him for the proof of which I shall not need to urge any other argument than the signal defeat and overthrow of his late Rebellion for which we are now rendering our thankful acknowledgments to God For considering the temper and quality of the Persons of which this unnatural Rebellion was composed a very small Prophet may easily prognosticate to what a deplorable condition this Nation must have been reduc'd if it had prosper'd and succeeded for it was nothing but a common shore into which all the kennels of the Nation ran being partly made up of the most debauch'd and profligate Atheists that had broke through all the Laws of humanity and stript themselves so naked of all the shew of Piety and Vertue that they had not hypocrisie enough remaining to disguise their lewd and villanous intentions partly of beggarly Male-contents who had no other way to repair their broken fortunes but by running in to the shipwrack of the Nation but chiefly of hot-brain'd furious Sectaries whose blind zeal like the Devil in the possess'd Man threw 'em into Fire and Water transported and hurried 'em into any villany into Perjury and Murder Treason and Sacrilege and would not permit 'em to stop at any thing that made for the Interest of their cause such were the Ingredients of this poisonous mixture So that had God for our sins permitted it to prevail we had quickly seen a flourishing Kingdom like Herod in all his glory and splendor seized on eaten up by Lice by a swarm of the basest and most infamous Vermin that ever bred out of the filth of a Nation We had seen the Atheist glutting his lust with the rapes of our Wives and Daughters and quaffing the tears of Widows and Orphans we had seen the beggar on Horse-back flaunting in the spoils of our fortunes and triumphing on the heads of our Nobles and Gentry and the bloudy Enthusiast imbrewing his hands in Loyal bloud appeasing his furious zeal again with Royal Sacrifice and throwing down all that is Sacred in our Jerusalem to make way for the erecting his Phanatick Babel his Tumult and confusion of Religions in a word we had seen our Laws trampled on our Liberties inslaved and our yet Sacred and Virgin Throne to our everlasting infamy deflowred and prophaned by a spurious illegitimate Issue With this dire spectacle our eyes had most certainly been entertained had this black Rebellion succeeded wherefore our Gracious God being moved to commiseration by this woful prospect of our approaching Calamity roused up himself like a mighty Man of War and with an avengeful eye looked down upon this Host of Assyrians and with the breath of his Nostrils scattered the Rebellious Rout before him Wherefore not unto us O Lord not to our conduct or puissance but to thy Name be all the Glory and Honour And since we are all of us sharers in this Great Deliverance it 's just we should all return the Tribute of our Praise to our Great Deliverer O give thanks unto the Lord therefore for he is good because his Mercy endureth for ever Let Israel now say that his Mercy endureth for ever Let the House of Aaron now say that his Mercy endureth for ever Let all them that fear the Lord say that his Mercy endureth for ever And as the best Return of Gratitude we can make to God let us by our future Loyalty to his Illustrious Vice-gerent by our firm relyance on his Royal Promises which hitherto have been ever sacred and inviolate by our chearful submission to his Laws and constant forwardness to oppose and detect all treasonous designs against his Person and Government endeavour as much as in us lies to render his Reign safe and easie and prosperous And by our immovable constancy in the profession and practice of our holy Religion the most pure and unsophisticated the most Primitive and Loyal Religion of the Church of England let us endeavour to indear our selves to God that so by our faithful supplications we may prevail with God to fix the Crown upon his Royal Head to guard and protect his Sacred Person to bless and secure his Government to abate the Pride asswage the Malice and confound the devices of his Enemies and after he hath injoyed a long a pious and prosperous Reign upon Earth to Crown him with everlasting Glory in Heaven To which Prayer I am sure all that are the genuine Sons of the Church of England will with a true Heart and Zealous affection say Amen FINIS