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	suffer_v	suffering_n	2,047	5	9.4271	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53325	The last judgment, or, A discourse shewing the reasonableness of the belief of such a thing deliver'd in a sermon, at the assizes held for the county of Denbigh, on the 18th of April, anno 1682 / by John Oliver ...	Oliver, John, d. 1730.	1682 (1682)	Wing O275; ESTC R10726	13,587	32

faithful Servant and entitles him to the Approbation of his great Master Besides when he suffers upon the account of doing well what is it that bears up his Spirit but an assurance that he suffers in a good Cause and a reasonable hope that he shall be rewarded for it This was the true Foundation of that undaunted Courage with which the first Christians outbrav'd the Malice of their bloodiest Persecutors This was it that made so many Champions for Religion both before and under the Law of whose Sufferings the Author to the Hebrews gives us this Catalogue Heb. 11.36 37 38. They had Tryals of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments They were Stoned they were Sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the World was not worthy the wandred in Desarts and Mountains in Dens and Caves of the Earth And under all these the great encouragement was the Recompence of the Reward V. 26. But perhaps these are Instances that won't be allow'd me here and the Courage of these men will be resolv'd not into any natural expectance of a future Reward but into some special Promise and supernatural Revelation If so there are memorable Examples of this kind to be found even amongst Heathens themselves To instance in one for all the excellent Socrates who suffer'd upon a fundamental Point Plato in Phaed. the Unity of God with how much bravery of Spirit did he demean himself and what admirable Discourses dropp'd from him during his Imprisonment And lastly with how much boldness did he look the ghastly Messenger in the face And what was his support 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He encourag'd himself in hopes of going into another World where he should meet with better Company than any was upon Earth And though his assurances of it were none of the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they were such as bore up all that load that was charg'd upon them But then 3. What Account can be given of that great uneasiness of mind which waits upon the Commission of a gross sin especially though never so private How comes the man to be so strangely alter'd on the sudden His Colour changes his Blood retires his Spirits flagg his Tongue falters his Joynts tremble his Pulse grows uncertain fear astonishment and despair hang upon his Brow And all this is but the outward Scene and Representation of what 's acted within There 's a Court of Judicature erected the guilty Person 's arrested by his own thoughts and summon'd to the Bar Arraign'd Convicted Condemn'd and only Repriev'd for a more solemn Trial at the great day Though he walk abroad hee 's but a more enlarged sort of Prisoner the Guards of Conscience attend him in all places and 't is as impossible for him to make his escape from them as to flee from himself And now what 's the meaning of all this Only the man 's bound over to some other Tribunal to answer for those Actions which the Temporal L●●ts here take no notice of If it be said that these fears are only the Fruits of bad education and some unsound Principles instill'd into our tender Age How comes it about that those Persons who pretend t●●● he greatest share of knowledg who dare undertake to argue down the Belief of a God and Providence and a future State have not been able by all their endeavours to raze out these Notions and to conquer the fears arising from them We see it 's an ordinary thing for men upon due Experience and better Information to throw off those Opinions which were forc'd upon them in their Infancy But this of a Judgment to come sticks closer to a man than his skin the Atheist himself cannot be rid on 't though he tries all wayes to baffle his Conscience and extinguish his natural Sentiments about it And if we may believe the credible Reports of former times no men in the World have been more assaulted with the fears of another Life than they who pretend to render that and every thing else in Religion the Subjects of their Mirth and Drollery This was the case of Epicurus who when he had banish'd as he thought a Providence out of the World yet he could not by all his Arguments banish a Conscience out of himself that was resolv'd to keep home and to punish the Offender for his other bold and impious undertakings But perhaps the fear that waits upon the Commission of some Acts relates only to temporal Punishments and the Sword of the Secular Power It may be that 's it which puts the man out of order if so how comes it about that such Acts of Impiety as are not punishable in an● Civil Court and such as are done with that secrecy as not to fall under publick Cognizance should have the same effect Or whence it is that those Persons which are too big for the Law should be as much tormented with the fears of this kind as any that are within the verge of it Kings and Emperors have been under this Discipline if there be any truth in Sacred or Prophane Authors This was the case of Belshazzar even in the height of his jollity Dan. 5.3 6. while the Hand was writing his doom upon the Wall his Conscience was reading over the Indictment within and then no wonder if his Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him if his Joynts were loos'd and his Knees smote against each other Thus it far'd likewise with the Roman Governour while St. Paul reason'd of Righteousness Temperance Act. 24.25 and Judgment to come was it strange that Foelix should tremble at the latter part of the Sermon who knew himself so defective in all the rest After the Historian had taken notice of that odd Epistle Tacit. Annal. lib. 6. Quid scribam vobis Patres Conscripti aut quomodo scribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore dii me deaeque pejus perdant quam quotidie perire sentio si scio ubi de hàc re plura Tiberius the Emperor wrote to the Senate He adds by way of remark that if the Breasts of Tyrants could be look'd into there would be found there Laniatus Ictus the wounds of a disorder'd Spirit And the Author of the Lives of the Caesars Satton in vitâ Calig Parag. 5. in his account of Caligula could observe that he who was so great a Contemner of the Divine Power was glad upon every thunderclap to take Sanctuary under his Bed His Courage then fail'd him when the Arrows of the Almighty went abroad And the sense of his guilt made him apt to think that himself was the Person that was aim'd at 'T were needless to reckon up more Examples of this kind since we have reason enough to believe that there has not been one Atheist in the World but one tin e or other has

it 's easily answer'd that two or three such Instances can be no prejudice to the General Judgment of most men both learned and unlearned That it has been their Interest there should be no such thing as a Judgment to come and therefore they have rack'd their Brains to find out Arguments against it That the impurity of their Lives has sullied their Reasons and debauch'd their understandings and rendred them as uncapable of judging what belongs to the humane Nature as a man born blind is to read a Lecture about Colours or a Person with a distemper'd Palate to distinguish meats But now to what Cause shall we assign this universal Agreement How comes it about that the most distant People of the World that live under different Models of Government and distinct Rites of Worship that have peculiar Customs and Manners and Inclinations should all joyn in this that there is an Account to be given in another World of all our Actions done in this Besides how comes this Principle to stand so fix'd and unshaken considering the infinite changes which almost every thing else has undergone and the many attempts which have been made to alter this by a sort of men that would confound the Distinction betwixt Vertue and Vice here that there might be no such thing as either Heaven or Hell hereafter We see daily that other Opinions rise and fall according as the grounds they are built upon appear stronger or weaker and sometimes they have more sometimes fewer Defendants to own and countenance them But this Doctrine of a Judgment to come as it is of equal Antiquity and has the same extent with Mankind so is it constantly the same Tract of Time and revolution of Ages and deeper insight into the nature of things the several changes that have happened in the Laws the Religions the Customs of any People have not been able to abate any thing of its Authority but still as the World grows older and more changeable this grows more strong vigorous and constant It must then have some cause like it self it must be resolv'd into some such impressions as are common to Mankind which every man carries about him and from which he may argue himself into a belief of it I am easily induc'd to think that as the main Body of the Heathen Theology was but the old Traditional Religion corrupted by a long and tedious descent as all things are apt to lose of their native Purity the farther they go so this Account of a future Judgment amongst the Heathens might be a branch of it mixt with the fancies and inventions of men till the first Patriarchal Creed became a meer Poetical Story But yet I think it will be hard to perswade any man that a Doctrine of this kind so opposite to mens worldly Interests so apt to controul their Lusts and Passions should spread so far and prevail so generally were there not some more early impression left upon us to make room in our understandings for it some natural notions that amidst all vicissitudes of the World would be sure to uphold the truth of it I instance in these three 1. That apprehension which all men have concerning good and evil 2. That secret joy which good men find upon the doing any vertuous act And that confidence they have when they suffer upon the score of Piety and Religion 3. Those horrible Fears and Confusions which bad men find upon the doing an ill act These are natural to us as men and fair Evidences of what I have undertook to make out 1. That apprehension which all men have concerning good and evil argues a future Judgment That some actions are Vertuous and Honourable and the contrary base and vitious and that Antecedently to any humane Law or positive Custom for the making them so is the common voice of mankind To be innocent in our Conversations grateful to our Benefactors upright in our Dealings true to our Vows and Promises Oaths and Contracts these are such things as would be excellent and approved of all though there were no humane Laws to enjoyn and encourage the practice of them And on the other hand the opposite Vices are so deform'd and ugly that should all the Law-givers on earth conspire to change the Scene to make Vertue Vice and Evil Good the undertaking would be as strange as unsuccesful Such attempts could never obtain their end unless they could mould the man over again and infuse into him quite different Principles from what he has already And though men are so far willing to comply with their temporal Interests as to contradict in the Practick what they are content to own in the Speculative yet there are not many arrived to that pitch of Prophaneness but would appear in the World under another Character than what they really deserve Which argues at least in the worst of men a secret allowance that Virtue has something in it more suitable to the honour of the humane Nature and that Vice has that intrinsick ugliness in it that we blush at and are asham'd to own Now the goodness of every Action consisting in a conformity to its proper Rule and the badness of any Act in a deflection from it It will follow that there is a Rule stamp'd upon the mind of every man according to which he judges one Act good and another evil and that Judgment about good and evil being one and the same in all Parts of the World the Rule must be so too and consequently have the same Author which our very Being has the all-wise God This is that Rule the Roman Orator styl'd Non scripta lex sed nata a Law not written on Tables of Stone or Brass but engraven on the Heart and Conscience of man agreeable to St. Paul's Character of the Gentiles which having not the Law are a Law to themselves Rom. 2.14 15. and do shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing Witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another 'T will also follow that the great Author of this Law must have reserv'd some Rewards and Punishments to secure mens obedience to it It being below the wisdom of any temporal Prince to send his Statutes and Decrees abroad without such Motives to enforce their observance And if these Rewards and Punishments are not immediately dispens'd as I shall after shew there must be another time set apart for that work of Justice 2. That secret joy which good men find upon the doing a vertuous Act is a kind of earnest and anticipation of a future Reward and that considence they have when they suffer upon the Score of Piety and Religion argues an expectation of it Let the good man reflect upon the frame of his mind when he has been doing his duty and hee 'l find every thing there calm and peaceable There is something within him that whispers the soft Eulogies of a well done good and