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	work_n	work_v	5,063	5	7.8717	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08159	An answer to that question, Hovv farre it is lavvfvll to flee in the time of the plagve extracted out of a sermon preached in Alderman-bury, / by Thomas Taylor..	Taylor, Thomas, 1576-1632.	1636 (1636)	STC 23819.5; ESTC S123735	4,985	2

the Angell will shun it Ob. 2 But none can resist the providence of God Hee hath numbred whom he will smite with the plague and who shall not be touched and none of them whom he hath appointed to fall shall escape Answ 1. The providence of God being the first cause takes not away the second causes but stablisheth them because he stablisheth and executeth his decrees by means and second causes and it were a tempting of God to refuse the lawfull and allowed meanes of preserving life by which God ordinarily saveth whom he will save 2. God indeed knows how many shall be smitten and if we knew the secret will of God concerning our selves then were our wils to be surrendred to Gods will and an heart affected with Gods glory will be readier for death than life if God reveale to it that to die is better than to live But not knowing this we are not loosed from the use of lawfull means for the preservation of our lives till we see our houre to be come 3. God knows and hath decreed how many shall fall by the sword in war and yet who will say it is unlawfull to use weapons to defend our selves and fight for our lives So God knows how many shall fall by famine in time of dearth and scarcity but is it therefore unlawfull to buy food to preserve our lives Did not he command Iacob to goe and buy food in Egypt whom he could have preserved without meanes but would not because meanes were then though far off Ob. 3 But the plague is good to the good so not to be avoided Answ It is not simply good neither It is not good in it selfe nor as a cause but as an occasion of humilitie repentance feare of God neither is it so but by the work of the Spirit But it will not follow that it is not to be avoided For our sins are occasionally good to humble us and work in us feare of God and yet are to be avoided So all miseries are turned to good to the good but yet wee may lawfully avoid them Ob. 4 But we have callings in which we must abide and we have promise of protection while we are in our way and therefore must not avoid them Answ We must abide in our callings unlesse we be necessarily thrust out but this is no willing desertion but a suspending of the exercise of it for a greater and higher reason For if for some occasions a man may leave his calling many moneths as for health profit pleasure much more to save his life 2. We have promises to be kept in our way but promises make not men slothfull nor foolishly rash and temerarious to thrust themselves into probable and certain danger for that is not our way Ob. 5 But charity seeks not her own but Gods the Churches and our neighbors and by our flight or feare our brother may not perish for whom Christ dyed Answ 1. Charity seeks not it selfe wholly or onely but yet destroyes not it selfe Ordinarie charity in saving himselfe seeketh Gods glorie and the Churches good and not himselfe onely 2. Charity so respecteth the sick as the sound be not neglected to comfort one we may not hazard many nor so look forth as forgetting our own home 3. Charity seeks the good of severall persons but so as it prefers the safetie of the Vniversall That is inordinate charity when other good means may be used for the comfort of the afflicted a man casts himself into manifest danger and with himselfe his family if he be private and the Church and Common-wealth if he be publick This question was excellently beaten out between Zanchius and a godly pastor named Curiensis This pastor held it unlawfull to separate from the Infected or to leave the places infected and commended M. Bullinger who being sent for by a woman infected went to her and brought home the infection into his family and presently lost his wife and two daughters Now M. Zanchie commended the charitie of M. Bullinger but did not altogether approove his fact because the woman might have been otherwise comforted than by his going to her bed side and setteth downe some directions after long debating That good pastor being too ventrous was taken with the plague and when he was neare death cried out O utinam Zanchij consilium secutus essem Would to God I had followed M. Zanchius his counsell Quest But is every prudent man hid from the evill as this Text seemeth to say Come not all things alike to all men Doth not judgement begin sometimes at the house of God and are not the godly wrapped sometimes in the common danger of sword fire plague and who more afflicted than they Answ Godly men suffer evill with wicked men for Abraham and Iacob are in the famine with the Canaanites The good Israelites as well as the bad are under the oppressions of the Egyptians Caleb and Ioshua bare the sinne of Israel fortie yeares with the murmurers Elias was afflicted in the hard times procured by Ahab and Ieazhel but are ever hid For 1. Distinguish of punishments Some are revenges some remedies exercises of grace vertues keepers as Aquinas calleth them The prudent are ever hid from the former but it were not good to be free from the latter 2. Distinguish of persons punished Some are vessels of wrath to whom even benefits are plagues some are vessels of mercy to whom all evils work to good These are ever so far hid as that the Lord never hides his face from them but for a moment but that to imbrace them with everlasting cōpassion 3. Distinguish the manner of hiding The prudent cannot so hide himselfe as to be free from feeling of trouble but he is freed so as that he shall not fall in them or if he fall God puts under his hand for a seasonable deliverance But how are they that are slain with the sword or dy of the plague delivered Many are the troubles of the godly and great but the Lord delivers them out of all But deliverance is threefold 1. Some are delivered temporally that others may see and praise GODS goodnes as Daniel from the den the three children from fire Ezechiah from the plague that fathers might tell their children c. 2. Some proportionally not by pulling them out of danger but by pulling out the sting and whatsoever is hurtfull and arming them with strength patience and sufficient grace that in darknesse they see light 3. Some he delivereth eternally from danger by suffering them to be overcome and taken away by sword plague c. and dealeth with his vessels of honour as we with ours which when we would scoure the brightest we oyle and soile and foule them as if they would never be cleane again And as with his naturall Son he will not remove the cup till he have drunke the last drop Yet he leaves them not comfortlesse but gives them by death freedome and victory over death and deadly things that when they are slam they are not overcome but more than Conquerors And one of these wayes the Lord ever hides his Children LONDON printed by T. P. for Iohn Bartlet