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	sin_n	will_n	3,206	5	6.5361	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67779	A sovereign antidote, or, A precious mithridate for recovery of souls twice dead in sin, and buried in the grave of long custome, to the life of grace. With hopeful means (God blessing the same) to prevent that three-fold (and worse than Ægyptian) plague of the heart; drunkenness, swearing, and profaneness. Wherein is a sweet composition of severity and mercy: of indignation against sin, of compassion and commiseration to the sinner; with such Christian moderation, as may argue zeal without malice; and a desire to win souls, no will to gall them. By R. Younge of Roxwell in Essex.	Younge, Richard.	1664 (1664)	Wing Y191A; ESTC R218572	39,339	35

because they may never taste them curse the bloud of Christ shed on the Cross because it hath satisfied for millions and done their unbelieving souls no good curse the Angels and Saints in heaven because they see them in joy and themselves in torment Cursings shall be their sins and their chief ease Blasphemies their prayers Lachrymae their notes Lamentation all their harmony these shall be their evening songs their morning songs their mourning songs for ever and ever And indeed who shall go to Hell if Cursers should be left out Wherefore let all those learn to bless that look to be heirs of the blessing Sect. 7. But to be in Hell and there to continue everlastingly in a bed of quenchless flames is not all For this is the portion even of Negative and viceless Christians if they be not vertuous Of such as do not swear except they fear an Oath That abound in good duties if they do them not out of faith and because God commands them that he may be glorified and others edified thereby Whereas thou dost supererogate of Satan in damning many souls besides thine own Thou hast had a double portion of sin to other men here and therefore must have a double portion of torment to them hereafter The number and measure of thy torments shall be according to the multitude and magnitude of thine offences Rev. 20.12 13. 22.12 Luk. 12.47 Mat. 10.15 Rom. 2.5 6. And those offences if I could stand to aggravate them by their several circumstances would appear to be out of measure great and numerous I 'le mention but one of ten With thy swearing and cursing thou dost not only wound thine own soul worse than the Baalites wounded their own bodies for thou wilfully murtherest thine own soul and that without any inducement as hath been proved But thou art so pernicious that this is the least part of thy m●schief for thou drawest vengeance upon thousands by thy infectious and damnable example as how can it be otherwise Thou dost not only infect thy companions but almost all that hear or come near thee Yea little children in the streets have learnt of thee to rap out oaths and belch out curses and scoffs almost as frequently as thy self and through thy accustomary swearing learned to speak English and Oaths together and so to blaspheme God almost so soon as he hath made them And not onely so but thy example infects others and they spread it abroad to more like a malicious man sick of the plague that runs into the throng to disperse his infection whose mischief out-weighs all penalty It is like the setting a mans own house on fire it burns many of his neighbours houses and he shall answer for all the spoil So that the infection of sin is much worse than the act Sect. 8. Nor wilt thou cease to sin when thou shalt cease to live but thy wickedness will continue longer than thy life For as if we sow good works succession shall reap them and we shall be happy in making them so so on the contrary wicked men leave their evil practices to posterity and though dead are still tempting unto sin and still they sin in that temptation they sin so long as they cause sin This was Jeroboams case in making Israel to sin for let him be dead yet so long as any worshipped his Calves Jeroboam sinned Neither was his sin soon forgotten Nadab his son and Baasha his successor Zimri and Omri and Ahab and Ahaziah and Jehoram all these walked in the wayes of Jeroboam which made Israel to sin and not they alone but millions of the people with them So that it is easie for a mans sin to live when himself is dead and to lead that exemplary way to Hell which by the number of his followers shall continually aggravate his torments As O what infinite torments doth Mahomet endure when every Turk that perisheth by his jugling doth daily add to the pile of his unspeakable horrors And so each sinner according to his proportion and the number of souls which miscarry through the contagion of his evil example And look to it for the blood of so many souls as thou hast seduced will be required at thy hands and thou must give an account for the sins perhaps of a thousand Thou dost not more increase other mens wickedness on earth than their wickedness shall increase thy damnation in hell Luk. 16. Sect. 9. It were easie to go on in aggravating thy sin and wretchedness and making it out of measure great and the souls that miscarry through the contagion of thy evil example numerous For is not the Gospel and the Name of God blasphemed among the very Turks Jews and Infidels and an evil scandal raised upon the whole Church through thy superlative wickedness and other thy fellovvs Yea does not this keep them off from embracing the Christian Religion and cause them to protest against their ovvn conversion Which makes me vvonder that Swearers Drunkards and such vvicked and prophane wretches are not like dirt in the house of God throvvn out into the street by excommunication Or as excrements and bad humours in mans body vvhich is never at ease till it be thereof disburthened as Austin vvell notes That they are not marked vvith a black coal of infamy and their company avoided as by the Apostles order they ought Rom. 16.17 2 Thes 3.6 14. Eph. 5.5 7. 1 Cor. 5.5 11. 1 Tim. 1.20 That they are not to us as Lepers vvere among the Jews or as men full of plague sores are amongst us We vvell knovv the good husbandman weeds his field of hurtful plants that they may not spoil the good corn And when fire hath taken an house we use to pull it down lest it should fire also the neighbours houses Yea the good Chirurgion cuts off a rotten member betimes that the sound may not be endangered Nor will the Church of England ever flourish or be happy in her Reformation until such a course is taken Memb. 4. Swearer Sir I unfeignedly bless God for what I have heard from you for formerly I had not the least thought that swearing by faith troth or any other creature was so grievous a sin as you have made it appear from the Word And I hope it shall be a sufficient warning to me for time to come Sect. 1. Mestenger If so you have cause to bless God indeed For all of you have heard the self-same Word but one goes away bettered others exasperated and enraged wherein Will only makes the difference And who makes the difference of Wills but God that made them He that creates the new heart leaves a stone in one bosom puts flesh into another Sect. 2. Of Hearers there are usually four sorts Mat. 13. 19 to 24. as first an honest and good heart will not return from hearing the Word unbettered Yea he will so note what is spoken to his own sin that it shall encrease his knowledge and lessen his

impiety to rest within their walls do make themselves guilty of all by suffering the same and that a fearful curse hangs over their heads so long as they remain such For if one sin of theft or perjury is enough to rot the rafters to grinde the stones to level the walls and roof of any house vvith the ground as it is Zech. 5.4 What are the oaths the lies the thefts the whoredoms the murthers the damnable drunkenness the numberless and nameless abominations that are committed there For these Ale-house-keepers are accessary to the drunkards sin and have a fearful account to give for their tolerating such since they might and ought to redress it so that their gain is most unjust and all they have is by the sins of the people as Diogenes said of the st●umpe● P●rine 13. Br. That of all seducing drunkards these drink-sellers are the chief their ●hole life being nought else but a vicissitude of devouring and venting and their whole study how to tole in customers and then egg them on to drink For as if drinking and tempting were their trade they are alwayes guzling within doors or else tempting at the door where they spend their vacant hours watching for a companion as a spider would watch for a poor fly or as the whorish woman in the Proverbs laid wait for the young novice until with her great craft and flattering lips she had caused him to yeeld Prov. 7.6 to 24. Though when he sees a Drunkard if he but hold up his finger the other follows him into his Borough just like a fool to the stocks and as an Ox to the slaughter-house having no power to withstand the temptation So in he goes and there continues as one bewitch'd or conjur'd with a spell out of which he returns not until he hath emptied his purse of money and his head of reason while in the mean time his poor wife children and servants want bread That did Sellers of drink aim at the glory of God and good of others as they ought 1 Cor. 10.31 there would not be an hundredth part of the drunkards beggars brawls and famished-families there are whereas now thousands do in sheer drink spend all the cloaths on their beds and backs As be they poor labouring men that must dearly earn it before they have it these Ale-house-keepers these vice-breeders these so●l-murtherers will make them drink away as much in a day as they can get in a week spend twelve pence sooner then earn two-pence as St. Ambrose observes That thousands of these Labouring men may be found in the very Suburbs of this City that drink the very blood of their wives and children who are near famished to satisfie the Drunkards throat or gut wherein they are worse then Infidel● or Cannibals 1 Tim. 5.8 who again are justly met withall For as if God would pay them in their own coyn how often shall you see vermine sucking the Drunkards blood as fast as he the others 14. Br. That these Drunkards and Al●-drapers are always laying their heads together plotting and consulting how to charm and tame their poor wives for the Drunkard and his wife agree like the harp and the harrow which if maids did but hear they would rather make choice of an Ape-carrier or a Jakes-farmers servant than of one that will be drawn to the Ale-house For let them take this for a Rule He that is a tame devil abroad will be a roaring devil at home and he that hath begun to be a Drunkard will ever be a Drunkard True they will promise a maid fair and bind themselves by an hundred oaths and pro●●stations and she when love hath blinded and besotted her will believe them yea promise her self the victory not doubting but she shall reclaim him from his evil company but not one of a thousand scarce one of ten thousand that ever finds it so but the contrary For let Drunkards promise yea and purpose what they will Experience shews that they mend as sowre Ale does in Summer or as a dead hedg which the longer it stands is the rottener And how should it be other when they cannot go the length of a street but they must pass by perhaps an hundred Ale-houses where they shall be called in And all the while they are in the drinking-school they are bound by their law of good fellowship to be pouring in at their mouths or whiffing out at their noses one serving as a shooing-horn to the other which makes them like rats-ban'd Rats drink and vent vent and drink S●llengers round and the same again Oh that a maids fore-wit were but so good as her after-wi● then the Drunkard should never have wife more to make a slave of nor wives such cause to curse Ale-house-keepers as now they have And indeed if I may speak my thoughts or what reason propounds to me Drunkards are such children and fools to what Governours of families ought to be that a rod is fitter for them than a wife But of this by the way only that maids may not so miserably cast away themselves for they had better be buried alive than so married as most poor mens wives can inform them 15. Br. That to speak to these Demetriuses that get their wealth by drinking yea by helping to consume their drink and that live only by sin and the sins of the people were to speed as Paul did at Ephesus after some one of them had told the rest of their occupation Yea to expect amendment from such in a manner were to expect amendment from a Witch who hath already given her soul to the devil That to what hath been spoken of Drunkards and Drink-sellers in the particular cases of drinking and tempting might be added seventy times seven more of the like abominations For the Drunkard is like some putrid grave the deeper you dig the fuller you shall find him both of stench and horror Or like Hercules's monster wherein were fresh heads still arising one after the cutting off of another But there needs no more then this taste to make any wise man or any that love their own souls to detest and beware these Bawds and panders of vice that breathe nothing but infection and study nothing but their own and other mens destruction These Brokers of villany whose very acquaintance is destruction As how can they be other then dangerously infectious and desperately wicked whose very mercies are cruelty 16. Br. That I have unmasked their faces is to infa●uate their purpose that I have inveighed and declaimed against Drunkenness is to keep men sober For vices true picture makes us vice detest O that I had Dehortation answerable to my detestation of it Only here is a discovery how Drunkards tempt if you will see directions how to avoid their temptations read my Sovereign Antidote against the contagion of evil company Only take notice for the present that the best way to avoid evil is to shun the occasions Do not only shun