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	work_n	5,337	5	6.1434	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85208	The sacrifice of the faithfull. Or, A treatise shevving the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer; together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer. To which is added seven profitable sermons. 1. The misery of the Creature by the sinne of man, on Rom. 8. 22. 2. The Christians imitation of Christ, on Ioh. 2. 6. 3. The enmity of the wicked to the light of the Gospel, on John 3. 20. 4. Gods impartiality, on Esay 42. 24. 5. The great dignity of the saints, on Heb. 11. 28. 6. The time of Gods grace is limited, on Gen. 6. 3. 7. A sermon for spirituall mortification, on Col. 3. 5. / By William Fenner, minister of the Gospel Fellow of Pembrok Hall in Cambridge, and lecturer of Rochford in Essex.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.; Stafford, John, fl. 1658, engraver.	1649 (1649)	Wing F699; Thomason E1241_1; ESTC R210449	136,683	333

the Author of all punishments then this may make their haire to stand upright upon their heads That God whom thou hatest is the punisher of thee even he whose-Sonne thou despiest and whose Sabbaths thou prophanest He is able if his wrath be kindled to consume thee in a moment Oh if thou haddest not an adamant heart this would daunt it and dissolve it into teares of bloud God will infinitely punish thee who is a consuming fire but if thou wilt not be daunted there is nothing but fearefull looking for of fire and brimstone for ever in hell When God punisheth his children it is in mercie but to the wicked his wrath is punishments and his Judgements is anger and great wrath and therefore when he punisheth thee thou mayest say a just Judge brandeth me in the hand Is it so Then when Calamities come Use 3 let us not so much stand upon men or upon the helpe of them but let us looke to God as David did it may be the Lord sent Shimei to raile on me and so did Job the Lord gives and the Lord hath taken away The Caldeans did it but they were Gods Instruments We should not doe as doggs that gnaw the stones that are throwne at them God takes stones as it were and throweth them upon mens heads and sometimes whips them by wicked men Now the wicked are but Gods rod and when he hath scourged thee he will cast the rod into the fire Therefore goe unto the Lord make peace with him and he will remove it The wicked I confesse are in fault but God is the Author of all and he will deliver you in his good time Secondly wherefore will God deale thus with Israel because they have sinned with a rebellious spirit not by infirmity but in disobedience Whence you may learne this point of Instruction That sinne and disobedience against Gods Law is that which brings downe punishments and judgements upon a Nation or a people or Church Sinne is the brooder and hatcher of all judgments and the very spawne of all punishments Ah this sinne and disobedience and willfull rebellion against God it will bring sw●rd and famine amongst us and let in the enemie and send out God from amongst us and stoppe the mouthes of his Ministers and breake off the Parliament Another cause why God sends punishments amongst us is this because Kings will not be subject to the Lawes of God and Queenes will doe what they list when Bishops and all people will have elbow roome to doe that which seemes good in their owne eyes as giving toleration for the prophanation of Gods Sabb●ths that the people may dishonour the Lord and runne headlong to hell this and such like sets up wickednesse and brings the wrath of God upon us and his vengeance upon our Land and Kingdome when thus sinne gets the upper hand and day of the word for which I cannot chuse but pittie our poore Land neither could you doe lesse if your hearts were not as hard as an adamant and your eyes glued together Ah poore Nation now thou liest a bleeding and drawing to an end and the bell now tolls for this Nation and the Lord is a going from this Land and her punishments and judgments are comming on apace so that all Nations may say Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto this Land what meaneth the heat of his anger then shall men say they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord God of their Fathers and served other Gods Judges 4. 2. When they forgatte the Lord their God then he sold them into the hand of Jabin King of Canaan this was the ground why the Lord drowned the old world Genes 6. 12. because they had corrupted all their waies this was the cause why the Lord burned S●dome and Gomorrah with wild-fire from heaven this was the cause the Lord destroyed Jerusalem forty yeares after Christ because they would have none of the offers of Christ and of grace and mercie And thus much for proofe Good Lord what a poore weake Land Use 1 have we if sinne and rebellion be the cause of all punishments then in what a poore case is England how weake are we our hearts may shake within us and our knees may knock together to consider of it having so many sinnes of all sorts of all degrees and committed with so high a hand and in most fearefull manner We are sicke from the Crowne of the head to the soale of the feete there is no soundnesse in us we are sicke in head sicke in heart sicke in stomacke we have had peace and that hath surfeited us and now we have gotten the plurisie and nothing but letting of bloud will cure us God grant the Lord let us bloud in our hearts also God must purge and physicke us and fetch out the drosse which we have gathered by our disobedience If sin and rebellion will doe it we have given God cause enough so to plague us Is it so Then we see who are the greatest Use 2 traytors in the Kingdome and what they are that pull downe punishments upon a Kingdome they are disobedient rebells and traytors full of sinne I protest the greatest traytors King Charles hath this day are the prophaners of Gods Sabboths and such as doe give liberty to prophane them and to sweare and be drunke these are the plague sores of this Kingdome and bring downe heavie judgements upon us yea of what place or dignity soever they be It is not onely poore drunkards but silver and velvet Coate drunkards even the Lordly men of this Kingdome who give libertie to sinne for the greater the men are the greater are their sinnes and they are the most dangerous even as great Cut-purses doe more harme then little ones for as Haman was hanged before the Jewes saw good daies and the seven sonnes of Saul were slaine before they could have any peace in Israel So while these rebells be not hanged what peace can be expected while Jonah was in the ship there could be no qu●etnesse so whilst these rebells and vile wretches live and have favour and are respected and goe on still unpunished they are in the Land as Jonah was in the shippe and so long there can be no quietnesse in the Land One Achan did plague a whole Land but here are many Achans in this Land Oh poore Land thou art wonderfully laden by every ungodly person both in Countrey and City O let us begge of God that these may be hanged and dispatched or that God would turne their hearts Is it so that sinne is the brooder of all Use 3 punishments O then let it teach every one of us to s●t heart and hand and all to worke to joyne all our forces of prayers and teares against these enemies and labour for the reformation of these When Jonas was in the shippe the Marriners came about him and asked him from whence comest thou So if ever we would see good dayes we must joyne

our prayers and all our powers against our sinnes and the sinnes of others When the Philistins saw that the Arke was the cause of the punishments that befell them then they never rested till they had sent it away so let us ship and packe away our sinnes if ever we would have our punishments removed from us Say Oh mine enemie have I found thee thou art the enemie of King and Countrey and Parliament and Gospell and thou art he that brake the last Parliament thou art he that lost the day at the Isle of Ree thou art he that sent so many poore Rochellers to the grave with famine and thou art he that makes division betweene Kings and Commons The Lord give us power and courage for if ever we had neede now we have and let us bestirre our selves and pray that God would be pleased to stirre up the heart of the King and other Magistrates against these sinnes O that Magistrates in their places would set their hearts and hands against all these sinnes but light execution is done and most Magistrates stand for ciphers in their places and onely take up a roome and doe nothing We cannot draw them with all the arguments we can use to punish these sinnes We have cause to mourne for they stand like scare-Crowes with a peice in their hands but never shoote and the birds may picke the straws from their heads so that Magistrates doe nothing But to you I speake that are Chiefe in Townes and chiefe Officers you should all joyne hand in hand and heart in heart to pull downe these al●houses hell-houses and nurseries of the devill and to supplant wickednesse We must not be one for them and another against them for in so doing we shall never see good dayes And you Gentlemen where are your hearts and hands against them when did you ever speak or write against them when did you ever set foot in striving to have them supprest men stand with their fingers in their mouthes and their hands in their pockets and dare not stand for God and good causes The Lord be mercifull unto us we doe not joyne our forces prayers and powers that we can make for Gods glory Oh that the Lord would be pleased to put his Spirit into our hearts that we may be all of one minde So you Gentlemen in your places and we Ministers in our places and all of us we are with all the strength and courage and mettle that the Lord hatth put into us to crie and pray and preach downe sinne And all you Masters and Dames you are to reforme your Families for these sinnes bring downe punishments upon the Land Therefore labour to finde out the wickednes of your Families and admonish them and reprove them plainely and shew them from Gods word the punishments that are due to them If you would doe these things then there might be something done and if reproofe and admonishment will not serve the turne then expell them and banish them as Abraham did Hagar and Ismael You Christians mourne for your sinnes and joyne your hearts and prayers against the sinnes of the place where you live If any house be on fire others will come with water to quench it as if it were their owne so here is a flame of fire kindled in this Kingdome of England and the wrath of God is like wild fire comming downe upon us from heaven therefore let every one of us bring some water or other to quench this fire that is round about us in every place and almost upon all hearts Let every man sweepe his owne doore and the streetes will be cleane so if every one would purge his owne heart what reformation would there be in every place then God and Christ and Gospell might be here still and the enemies might be kept out still which if we doe not who knowes how soone the enemie may rush in upon us but alas we harbour these traytors in our bosomes I protest against every man that harbours sinne in his owne house or soule that he is a traytor to the Kingdome whatsoever he be if I knew the man I would fasten mine eyes on him and tell him Oh thou vile Achan doest thou harbour these sinnes and traytors and keepe these sinnes and then crie out of the dangerousnesse of the times If a man did know certainely that the dogge that he keepes in his house would one day pull out his throate would he keep him fatte that he might the better doe it no sure he would rather hang him Or if a man did know that the fire that burnes upon the hearth would burne him would he blow it or if a man did know that the knife which he hath would one day cu●●e his throate would he sharpen it no surely Beloved this is the case of all us poore wretches that live in sinne they will be the cause of all the punishments that God sends upon us all Now therefore I charge you all men and women and every one of you to make a Covenant and enter into an Oath and a curse to search out every sinne and finde them out in your families wife and children and servants and doe what you can to quench them These Townes and Countreys are on fire O that the Lord would be pleased to send his word home to every one of your hearts you I meane that I love as well as mine owne soule my deare people I would spend and be spent for you if God would give me strength and though I speake plaine it is for your everlasting good What are those punishments that he threatned to poure upon them in the furie of his wrath He poureth full battails and the strength of battails all this was upon his owne deare people Israel even those people the Lord so severely threatens Hence observe this Doctrine That the Doct. 2 Lord often times brings fearfull and unavoydable judgements and punishments even upon his owne professing people even they that offer sacrifice and that pray and call him Father and fast and pray even upon these people he doth often times bring these punishments Amos 3. 2. You onely have I knowne among all the Nations of the earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities See the whole currant of Gods word did not the Lord punish the Children of Israel in the time of their Judges they had many sore enemies as Eglon and Sisera The ten Tribes they sinned and were carried into captivity and these were Gods professing people And afterward the other two Tribes Iudah and Benjamine were carried away captive into Babylon and there they were seventy yeares Forty yeares after Christ the Romans came against them and burnt all their Cities And these were Gods owne professing people The Churches of Asia were famous Churches but now they are overthrowne with Turkes Now our sinnes give God just cause to make him come against us with punishments and judgements upon this Land If a man

praiers did David pray Psal 130. 1. Out of the deepe places have I called unto thee O Lord Lord heare my prayer as if he should say Lord I am even in the depth of miserie plunged over head and eares so that now I sinke and perish if thou helpe not Lord hear my praier This desperation a Christian must have this quickens up his Spirits and puts life into him but take heede of the desperation of Infidelity Saint Austen saith it is the murtherer of the soule the spice of it will eate out the heart of a man and kill the strength of all his endeavours I should now come to apply this doctrine but I feare me there be many amongst us that never come so farre towards heaven as to know what these discouragements meane This is lamentable It is true discouragements are hideous cases in praier and a man may perish and goe to hell that hath them but yet they are some-what profitable signes that a man doth at the least looke a little towards God or else he could not know what they are But there are abundance that never have attained so farre in religion as to understand what they meane but goe on in drinking whoring carding and dicing hating and malicing fretting and chasing mocking coveting swearing and blaspheming in security in hardnes of heart and impenitencie they are more carefull for their doggs for their potts and for their tables and for their shops then they are of their soules And which is enough to astonish any that is godly these men scarce finde any discouragements in praier O they have a good courage to pray at all times O say they God forbid that any man should be discouraged in praier I thanke God I have a good hope in God God hath given me a good heart of grace to call upon him and I make no question but that God heares me God would never bid us to pray if he did not meane to heare us Beloved these men that are so bold in the goodnes of their hearts to call upon God they never as yet praied in all their lives all the praiers of the wicked are indeede no praiers Daniel confessing the sinnes of wicked Judah saith though all this evill be come upon us yet made we not our prayer to turne from our wicked wayes Dan. 9. 13. all the time of those seventy yeares Daniel saith they never made praier to God yet they fasted every yeare and praied every day twise every day at the least which would amount in that time to 50000 and 100 prayers how then could Daniel say they never made one praier I answer and pray marke it because they never did quite turne from their evill waies Though thou makest never so many praiers though thou boastest of the goodnesse of thy condition and snatchest at the Promises of God yet if thou turnest not from thine iniquities thou never as yet mad'st any praier by the Judgement of God himselfe Paul made many thousand praiers before his conversion he could not have beene a Pharise else but they were never accounted praiers to him therefore as soon as ever he was converted behold saith God he prayeth Acts 9. A wicked man a carnall Christian though he have the righteousnesse of Saint Paul before his conversion of living blamlesse unreproveable in respect of the outward righteousnesse of the Law yet he can never make an acceptable prayer till he be truely converted his praiers are no better then howling of dogs or lowing of Oxen yea the Lord abhorrs them O what poore incouragements canst thou have seeing the Lord never tallies downe any of thy prayers wicked men are like ulysses who wept more for the death of his dogge then of his wife so wicked men weepe and mourne for the losse of their corne and their cattle hawkes and houndes cardes and dice but never for the losse of their praiers So long as thou continuest in thy prophanesse and impenitency thou losest all thy praiers there is not one of them that God tallies downe or reckons for a praier Here we might have a great deale of matter if time would suffer me But it will not onely let me tell you I speake onely to those whose hearts God hath awakened out of their sinnes but who are oft discouraged take heede of these discouragements For first they will drive thee to melancholy Beloved there are a great many melancholy men in the world and this is the cause of it men are contented to be converted by halves because they are discouraged in the worke If thou suffer thy selfe to be discouraged it will eate up thy spirit and thou wilt be like a silly dove without a heart Prov. 7. 11. A dove is a melancholy creature that hath no heart to any thing so Ephraim hath no heart to call upon God no heart to returne unto God and this is the cause that men and women goe whineing and mourning under the burden of sin and are not able to come out because of discouragements all the policie of hell is lesse then this policy of the divell in driving men to despair or discouragements this doth more hurt then al the rest of hel besides Secondly if you doe not take heede of them they will bring you to speake against God I have prayed but the Lord will not heare me I have called and the Lord will not answer but hath turned away his eares from me Now thou speakest against God Num. 21. 4 5. The soule of the people was much discouraged and the people spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wildernesse for here is neither bread nor water and our soule loatheth this light bread So beloved if we suffer our soules to be discouraged we shall soone come to murmure against God wherefore hath he brought me up to this strictnes and precisenesse when I was a drunkard a worldling when I followed the lust of my flesh and liberty then I enjoyed onnions garlicke and the flesh-pots of Egypt pleasures and delights for my soule then I had a good hope in God and a good perswasion that my soul should goe to heaven and then Preachers told me that if I would give over such and such sinnes and looke after Heaven a little more and doe such and such things O then I should come to a Land flowing with milke and honey then I should not misse of glory and salvation But alas I see nothing but Gyants and Anakims I am in a wildernesse now now I see a man may have a great deal of repentance and yet be a cast-away A man may have a great deal of faith yet be but a reprobate A man may give over a great many sins and yet perish in hell now I see a man may live civilly and well and have do a great many good things and yet be damned when he hath done all A man may even goe to Heaven Gates