Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	judgement_n	sin_n	3,123	5	4.8089	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36314	A sermon occasioned by the late earthquake which happen'd in London and other places on the eighth of September, 1692 / Preached to a congregation in Reading by Samuel Doolittle.	Doolittle, Samuel.	1692 (1692)	Wing D1880; ESTC R32821	22,758	36

Name of God Sirs break off your Sins by Repentance or you shall be visited too If God doth not visit the whole Land he may visit a particular Town if not a whole Town a particular Family if not a whole Family a particular Person God may visit thee with languishing Sickness torturing Pains with an hasty Death however sooner or later in this World or in the next if thou remain impenitent as the Lord lives thou shalt be visited If God do not visit thee on Earth he will in Hell and oh what a long as well as troublesome visit will that be Doct. III. As the Lord of hosts visits a sinful people with other calamities so sometimes with the particular one of an Earthquake In speaking to this Doctrine I shall observe this Method I. I shall lay down some propositions concerning an Earthquake wherewith God sometimes visits the Children of Men. II. Enquire what are the properties of this visit III. Make the application assisting you in making an improvement of the Text and the late startling Providence I. I shall lay down some propositions concerning an Earthquake wherewith God doth sometimes visit the Children of Men and they shall be these three Prop. 1. An Earthquake is taken either in a metaphorical and borrowed or else in a literal and proper sense as taken in a metaphorical sense it denotes those hurries and confusions those turnings and overturnings that are in the World Those Commotions and Concussions that happen at any time in Church or State Rev. 8. 5. And the Angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it into the earth and there were voices and thundrings and lightnings and an earthquake Rev. 6. 12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal and lo there was a great earthquake i. e. a great change in the State of Affairs the Publick Religion of the Empire being changed from Paganism to Christianity by Constantine The Kingdom of God is from Everlasting to Everlasting fixt and stable but the Kingdoms of this World are mutable like the Moon subject to many changes they not only shake and totter but tumble too The Body Politick as well as the Body Natural may be afflicted with an Ague and dye with Convulsions All things are turned upside down as they are in an Earthquake and in this sense there have been many and great Earthquakes in the World the four Famous and Renowned Monarchies have felt them But an Earthquake is taken in the litteral and proper sense when the Earth shakes and trembles under us when the foundations quake and the Pillars of it totter 1 Kings 19. 11. And after the wind an earthquake When the Earth it self that is the Basis of this lower World and at other times firm and setled moves trembles and shakes like a Man in an Ague or reels to and fro like a drunkard Prop. II. The sending of an earthquake is Gods act he is the author and efficient cause of it This is plainly asserted in the Text. All Penal Evils and Afflictive Calamities come from God Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it If a Famine starve us It is God that stops the Bottles of Heaven and locks up the Womb of the Earth If a Pestilence kill at Noon-day it is God that shoots those poysoned and flaming Arrows If a fire burn and turn our houses into ashes it is the breath of an angry God that kindles and blows up the flame if the Earth have its Convulsions move and shake quake and tremble under us it is because God touches it That mighty God that hangs this Earth of ours upon nothing with a touch of his Finger hurles it hither and thither he looketh on the earth and it trembleth he toucheth the hills and they smoke The mountains quake at him and the hills melt He removeth the mountains he overturneth them in his anger he shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof tremble I don't deny but God may make use of the Ministry of Angels good and had I don't deny what Natural Philosophers tell us that Air Vapours and Exhalations shut up in the Bowels of the Earth forcing their way out may contribute to its shaking Yet the Scripture affirms it is a work of God and though we may own and acknowledge second Causes there is no reason we should exclude the first It is my Meat that preserves my Health my Physick that recovers me when sick but yet Religion and reason too bid me own it is God that nourishes me by the one and restores me to health by the other To do these things God claims as his Prerogative I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things If concerning the late Calamity it be askt who hath done this God will answer I shook the Earth I the Lord do all these things Prop. III. An earthquake is usually sent by God in judgment and inflicted as a penal evil If sometimes it be an Act of God only as the God of Nature concurring with second Causes Yet many times it is an Act of God as Judge punishing those that rebel against him it is not only the effect of his power as a God but the fruit of his anger as an offended Judge The earth shook and trembled the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth It is spoken of as a judgment inflicted for Sin Though Thunder Lightning and Earthquake may sometimes come in the course of Nature in the way of a common and general Providence Yet sometimes we may and must look upon them as Messengers of Divine anger as notices of Gods displeasure against us for our Sins Men are wilfully blind and won't see that God is displeased and the trembling and shaking Earth with open mouth tells them he is so Though Men who are leaven'd with the Principles of Atheism and whose Consciences are stupified to a wonder with that benumming opium look upon such things only as fortuitous events that happen in this mutable State as the product of a blind and fatal necessity Yet Men that have their eyes open'd will acknowledge they come from God as the efficient from Sin as the impulsive and deserving cause and that the Errand they come upon is to correct and reform Sinners And I think it is too evident it is a Judgment when the Sins of a people have been many and great numerous and hainous and when there are more than usual remarks of Terrour set on the Calamity If a short fit of trembling if one Minute or two's shivering if the shaking of the Earth in one particular place only be not an Argument of Gods Anger yet when the Earth shall open her Mouth and become the Grave of living Men when the Earth shall shake for many Miles together nay in Countreys at a very great

their Parents one Friend with their last breath crying to another help help for the Lords sake help and all at last after many fruitless attempts and vain wishes tumbling alive into the common Grave If you had heard their miserable Cries their doleful groans and piercing Shrieks being half buried and half unburied would you not have thought Englands Mercy a very great Mercy I am perswaded you would have returned with your Mouths filled with Songs of Praise Let a Melancholy Phansie represent some of the Terrours of that Visitation and let a thought of this fill you with thankfulness and give a sprightful accent to all your Hallelujahs Oh how should a sober thought of this cause your Sacrifices of Praise to ascend to Heaven in a purer and brighter Flame 2. Consider our sins have deserved as great an overthrow as theirs When I consider those words of my Saviour being told by some of the Galileans whose Blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices Luke 13. 2. Suppose ye that those Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I can hardly perswade my self they of Jamaica were greater Sinners than we in England because they drank deeper of the Cup of trembling than we did If our Sins are not of the same kind I am sure they admit of more aggravating Circumstances than theirs Londons Englands Sins are of a more Crimson Colour and Scarlet Die than Jamaica's If ours should be laid in the ballance of the Sanctuary with theirs I am afraid the former would weigh down the latter Oh what a Mercy was it God should shake such a People and not destroy them Oh what an instance of Divine goodness was it that the Earth should tremble under a Company of Atheists and Scoffers at Religion Men that question the very being and deny the Providence of God Under a Company of Drunkards and Swearers Adulterers and filthy Harlots Sabbath-breakers and Hypocritical Worshippers and not swallow them up Mercy that is so constant a Friend to the miserable Creature And so powerful an Advocate in Gods bosom mitigated the stroke and therefore Mercy ought to have the praise 3. Consider the easiness of a total destruction All things are alike easie to Almighty Power What is it omnipotence cannot effect This God can amaze the whole Creation unhinge the World shake the Heavens and rend the Rocks put universal Nature into a fright with one turn of his hand one word of his mouth one frown of his brow one glance of his angry Eye yea with the smallest breath of his Nostrils that angry that mighty God that shook could with the same touch have overturned the City By what was done God gave an evident proof of what he could further have done There is no Mountain stands so strong but God can shake it No Foundation fo firmly laid but God can tare it up no City so well built but God can even with the breath of his Nostrils overturn it It is not Brick and Lime Walls of Stone no nor of Brass neither can either blunt or turn back those sharp-pointed Arrows God shooteth against a sinful people With one shake God could have levelled all with the Dust Could God easily and suddenly have destroyed us and did he not Could he have inlarged the Commission granted to the Earthquake and did he not Were we on the very brink of destruction and are we not destroyed Were we intangled in the Snare and are we yet escaped and should not a warm thought of this should not such a deliverance as this increase our thankfulness Let all who have survived this Visitation bless the Lord and may all praise this good God not only with their Lips but in their Lives Inf. VII Doth the Lord of hosts sometimes visit with an Earthquake and hath he of late done so Then how loudly doth this visit call upon men upon the citizens of London upon you and all the inhabitants of England to be more frequent in visiting God! When God is visiting us it is time time alas It is high time for us to visit him Had the Inhabitants of England the Citizens of London been more frequent in visiting God They might not have had such a day of Visitation as this was my meaning is had they prayed more they might have been punisht less But oh what a shame and reproach are we to the Christian Name Prayer hath been cast out of many of our Families and would to God there were not reason to say out of many of our Closets too And this among other things called upon God to visit in that terrible and unthought of manner he hath lately done And now when God visits us with afflictions We should visit him with Prayer Isa 26. 16 Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastning was upon them The Rod drove them to a Throne of Grace and affliction made them pray ay and it made them pray errnestly too Afflictions fears and dangers drive many to the Gates of Heaven who would never come thither before they are like some moross and ill-natur'd People who will never visit their friends but when they stand in need of them I make no doubt but during the time of Gods visiting the terrours of the Earthquake forc't from many and perhaps from such as were wont to restrain Prayer that short and usual Petition LORD HAVE MERCY ON US The shaking and trembling Earth caused many to lift up their Eyes to Heaven and implore the Mercy of that God that dwelleth there But now God hath done visiting them I am afraid they have done visiting him Now the Earth hath done trembling they have done praying but my brethren these things ought not so to be Our visits should be frequent and oft repeated Three things are very wonderful 1. It is very wonderful That the great God will visit us God is King of the Universe sways the Scepter in both Worlds and exerciseth an unlimited and uncontroulable Authority not only over the meaner works of his hands below but over all the bright and Coelestial Orders above too He sits upon a Throne that is encircled with myriads of Holy Mighty and Glorious Angels who minister unto him and stand before him in the quality and humility of his Servants ready to receive his Commands and fly upon Wings to execute them And doth he visit Man who is but breathing Dust a lump of Clay moistned and coloured with Blood Astonishing kindness It is to be admired he will vouchsafe a look a short glance of his Eye But that he should make stated visits and so many of them accents the kindness and increaseth the wonder The Royal Psalmist David though a King though he swayed a Scepter managed a Kingdom and wore a Crown could not think of Gods visiting Man without Extasie and Rapture Though he sate among the Gods upon earth yet he is swallowed up with amazement at the