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
A60259	Reformations preservation opened in a sermon preached at Westminster before the honourable House of Commons, at the late solemne fast, July 26, 1643 / by Sidr. Simpson.	Simpson, Sidrach, 1600?-1655.	1643 (1643)	Wing S3825; ESTC R24543	22,494	36

troubles in going to the land of Canaan had not their hearts been full of so many doubts and feares If you will not beleeve you shall not be established Isa 7.9 Compare together the causes of your feare and your defence what are your enemies but creatures your defence God Man is against you God is for you if so be they be raine you have a covert if they be a storme you have a rocke if so be they bee heat you have a tabernacle Shall the Lion dread the Lamb and the strong the weake the Gyant the Pigmy Why busie you your selves about the thing belongs not to you Look you to the glory God will to your defence and safety You must provide meanes God will find successe There is a carelesnesse of faith as well as a carelesnesse of security Ezek. 28.16 it is promised they should dwell safely and the same word Isa 32.9 is translated carelesse Why doe yee feare O ye of little faith who ever perished being innocent what Church ever suffered while it retained it's glory Ephesus was delivered up but they lost their love first Iudg. 5.8 Rev. 2. there were wars in the gates of Israel but there were dols first where there is no drosse to purge God will not cast into the fire What doe you make of God in thinking that while you are about his work he will not defend you but unfaithfull in not keeping his promise unkinde to leave you who are his Church and Spouse unto the rage of men uniust to take part with the wicked adversaries against you yea unnaturall not to regard his owne glory and happinesse Ob. But you will say there are many oppositions in the way of reformation Ans I answere Isa 48.22 with 57.20 21. else you needed no defence the wicked will alwaies be like the raging sea they will cast forth mire and dirt when once God doth reduce and bring his people back to such an estate of glory Truth is brought into the world with pain it 's born in bloud there never was nor never shall be a thorow Reformation without troubles for the most are alwayes the worst and will not indure it Act. 2 19 20. Mal. 4.1 c. Ob. The meanes are very low Ans Marke my Text Hee will create on Mount Sion a desence and creation is out of nothing Ob. Our sinnes are many Ans But God will create in Creation God hath no Partner and hee useth this word here in this thing that you may know he is moved onely by his owne will Ob. But they suffer most who are for the glory Ans 1 Many pretend they are for the glory they are for reformation or when they are but for revenge or for some particular ends of their owne as one turned Turke that so he might be revenged on one that struck him so many-turne Christians turne unto a good cause that they may meet with them that did oppose them Jehu said hee was for God when hee was for his Crowne Ans 2 Secondly if those who are for the glory suffer their sufferings preserves the glory suffering puts an accent a note of observation upon that for which it is and saith this is a practise a truth to be stood for unto the death in this there is a better thing then in life it selfe Ans 3 Thirdly by the sufferings of some there are many preserved from sufferings for it is in Martyrdome as in punishment Poena ad paucos timor ad omnes many escape because some feele in Heb. 11. they stopped the mouths of Lions that is as it may bee expounded by what we finde in the story of the Roman Empire it was forbidden to put any more of the Christians to death because say they they make nothing of death Ob. But when shall this be that wee shall have this defence when will the speares be broken into Plow-shares when will the Lord arise and save Ans When you have the glory and let me tell you this you have made a reformation when you have made a resolution if it be on good grounds And I will prove it from Scripture too 2 Chron. 30.19 20. they were not sanctified according to the purification of the Sanctuary who came up unto the Passover but their heart was set to be so and the Text saith God healed the Land Fourthly set on I beseech you on the worke of Reformation You may reforme things that are amisse you have a Law of God for it Ezra 5.1 they began to build the Temple the decree of King Darius came after in Chap. 6.12 You have a Fundamentall law for it a Law of Nature it is for your defence upon all the glory there shall be a defence Reformation is your Militia your Army your Bul-warkes your all in all but be sure when you goe about Reformation you make it a Glory the foundation of utter ruine is layde in first Reformation commonly or in reformation 1 Chron. 15.13 there was but one circumstance of person out of Order and you see it cost the life of some it hindred the bringing home the Ark unto all They look't into the Arke who were the persons that should not 1 Sam. 16.19 and it cost the lives of 50000. of them more perished in that then in the Warre Zephan 1. The Prophet comes in Iosiah the Reformers time and saith he will pluck downe utterly and the reason of it was because there were the Chemarims men that went in black to the heeles in garments of more precisenesse and holines than others though their harts were not after Gods Statutes there was something left in Court and Country and they brought all to nothing that is very hardly changed afterwards that passeth in reforming times as the errours in the first concoction are not mended in the second the reason of the fall of the House lies not so much in the strength of the storme as because the foundation was not layed well at first Archiep. C. in Stari-ch Mat. 7. You know who it was that said when he brought in so many Popish things hee intended but onely to bring things to the first and Primitive Reformation to King Edwards time because there was then but a little step gone in many things from Popery And if you would make a thorough Reformation give me leave from the Scripture to propound some such things as not being observed may hinder it First take heed of Policy Gen. 34.22 23.25 26. The Sichemites to get the Estates of the People would be circumcised but you know it cost them their lives Policy doth with Religion as Amnon did with Tamar when it hath it's will of it and serv'd it's turne it thrusts it out of doores Ieroboam to preserve his Kingdome set up the Calves least the Romans should come in and take the City of Jerusalem the Iewes would not receive the Gospell but they lost both Hieron Iuschismatis remedium to prevent schisme they would have one

you shall find there first that they had finished their testimony and as all Christs enemies could not put him to death one moment before his houre was come neither could all the adversaries of the Churches these witnesses before they had spoken the last word when they had finished their testimony Vers 7. Secondly you shall find they devoured their adversaries even as the fire that came out of the Over and Furnace in the Booke of Daniel devoured those which stood before it In the 11. Verse you shall finde that they could not be overcome and in the the 13. Verse when as the Popish partie thinke that now they have none to trouble them then shall there come an earthquake a part of this defence such civill warres as shall be their utter ruine but the advance of these witnesses againe to renoune and glory Now we have done altogether with the Explication of the Text I come to the Application of it Vse 1 Vpon all the Glory there shall be a defence First see the reason why God doth expose his people the people called by his name to so many troubles why he lets in crosses calls in enemies disheartens and disables these that are on his side they have defiled his glory and therefore he will not defend them God will take his owne peoples part in nothing that is evill as is it with a Diamond if it be not right it is worth nothing or a picture if it be not to the life it is of no value and so it is with the ordinances of God if they bee not pure and after Gods minde That which is said concerning one ordinance the ministry is true concerning all if they have lost their savour they are not fit to be kept but to be throwne out to the dunghill What would you have God to doe my beloved would you have him defend the people called by his name when they are but so called but are enemies to his glory would you have him imbrace his Spouse when shee hath playd the harlot and brought forth to strangers would you have him keepe his house when the devils haunt it for so in 1 Cor. 10.21 that which is not done by the word in Godsworship is done unto devils because he is the appointer of it would you have him defend these that oppose him who ever they be that corrupt his worship or are corrupt in his worship they shame God they disgrace God nay they doe as much as they can to make God unhappy to take from him his glory and therefore upon them there shall bee no defence Use 2 Secondly let this point strike the Rocke and streames of teares burst forth let it open a spring in dry places for the staines that have beene and that are on our glory on our Religion that so we may prevent the ruine and desolation which if it be not timely lookt unto will come on us First mourne for the corruptions which have beene in Religion so Nehemiah did in Nehem. 9.16.17.26.28 Verses and yet some of these sinnes were committed many hundred yeares before he was borne A man is guilty of all the sinnes he knowes and doth not grieve for because all those he likes How hath it beene I beseech you with us in this land the face of Religion was growne wan and pale unto the death her beautie gone her favour changed her countenance so smutted mangled blurd that you could scarce know her her owne children were afraid of her and therefore fled from her as from her in the story that would have put them unto death her speech was changed she spake she knew not what in stead of Minister she said Priest for Sacraments Sacrifice for Table Altar her heart was wounded her fundamentall doctrines rased her worship mingled originall sinne denied the will of man was made supreame over God and God a servant unto it Christs precious blood made common shed without respect unto any ones good in particular and for ought that either Christ or God the Father knew for all his death no man should bee saved by it for all was left unto mans will and of a fallible cause there can be no certaine and infallible knowledge When God had beene at all the cost of Christs blood and at the putting forth his right hand to worke grace in mans heart yet still man was at his owne will so that he could make all this cost of God in vaine Hee certainly is not God who is so unwise they might as well have said there is no hell for if this bee a naturall power to will the things which are contradictory no man can bee damned for it for what ever is naturall is good and the putting forth of a naturall power cannot be of such ill desert The deitie of God was denyed and as you may find in the last Canons as great penaltie put upon one that should not say that Bishops were Jure Divino as on him who denyed that Christ or the Father were not God The person of the Holy Ghost was questioned I might send you the parts of Religion as the Levites Concubines quarters were sent abroad unto all the Tribes give me leave to represent it to you like Tamar Ammons sister with her hands on her head thrust out of doores and complayning in the streets with teares thus They have ravished me and forced me to their wills and ends they pretended love to mee but intended Popery and Atheisme they have corrupted mee and now they cannot abide me some of my children have beene starved for want of food some have falne into diseases because the food they had was not wholesome and some were forced from me to the howling Desart and Wildernesse Who can now abstaine from teares Looke on the present corruption Christs body is troden under feet by Swine in the Sacrament the Sabbath prophaned puritie nicknamed reformation feared more than vassallage Never never was the glory so neere departing as it is now it is on the threshold taking the wing we are at that passe they were Joel 2.14 who can tell whether God will returne and leave a blessing behind him and therefore it is time to rend your hearts and turne unto the Lord Religion is a going persecuted by Papists hated by the ignorant unkindly used by her owne friends Object It s true indeed that people have offered themselves willingly unto reformation 1 Chro. 29. Answ but David you know and the people did so long before God built the Temple Object It s true there are many righteous among us never kingdome afforded so many Answ but yet scarce will Abrahams ten be found to the number of other prophane persons Object it s true there are that humble themselves in dust and ashes Answ but there are as you heard to day that make these dayes of mourning like dayes of slaughter Isaiah 22.13 and if there were none such there is a time when mourning prayers teares humbling will doe no good