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	king_n	power_n	3,921	5	4.7466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92190	Jacobs ladder, or The protectorship of Sion, laid on the shoulders of the Almighty; in a description of the sufficiency of providence, suitable in these times of tentation. With Jacobs wrestling. / By Francis Raworth of Shoreditch.	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing R373; Thomason E1507_2; ESTC R209489	136,597	367

an end and the Glass of Antichrist almost run and certainly the King of Sion shall be as publique in his glory as ever he was in his shame his Deriders little considering that while they willingly add to his shame they really though unwilling add to his glory for as he was not crucified in a corner but at Jerusalem the eye and center of the world so he shall descend from Heaven in Majesty with shouts riding on the Clouds as in his Charriot attended by millions of Angels and Saints his royal Favorites all eies beholding of him and every knee bowing to him Jude 14 15. Woe be to the great ones of this world then when Pilat that sat on the Bench shall stand at the Bar and our Lord Jesus that once stood at the Bar shall sit on the Bench when we shall see not Persons but Causes heard the Judges being judged and the judged being Judges when Emperors and Kings shall be brought not in Chains of Gold about their necks but in Fetters of Iron about their heels When the Peers and Powers and Potentates of the World shall hold down their heads and hold up their hands and cry guilty When most of all the Mighty and all the almost All mighty of the Earth that have disrobed Christ of his Title and robbed him of his honor shall be led up and down this Court q.d. as Tamberlain led Bajaret in an iron Cage through Asia to be gazed on and howted at by all the Saints Psal 149.6 7 8 9. 1 Cor. ● 2 as the Prisoners of the Law and Prizes of Justice what then will become of all those Politicians that make Covenants in Conscience and break Covenants out of necessity That like children stand on the earth with their heads and boldly shake their heels towards Heaven That set up the Kingdom of Christ no faster than they can rear their own Kingdoms of all those that had rather themselves should reign in a corner than that our Lord and Master should rule in the whole World Never thinking how those Crowns that now sit light on their Heads will ere long lye heavy on their Consciences For God though he suspends the execution yet he hath not altered the method of his Justice on such offenders It is a maxim of the Law Right sometimes sleeps but it never dies The reconciling Sion and Babylon Pride Oppression the intollerable tolleration of all kinds of Religions Bribery and Intemperancy are now acted on another Stage by other persons but they are the same sins aliena scena eadem fabula if that Headship that flattering Prelates in former ages took from Jesus Christ be yet taken from Christ and given to men in the Nations if Christs Crown be pulled off his head no matter whose head it warm in the world Mal. 3.15 Mal. 4.1 And as for this Nation in special my prayers to the Lord are that Holiness may not onely have a tolleration but an Authority amongst us against Licenciousness both of Judgement and Conversation that the Rulers of England may not say The time is not come that the Lords house should be built but rather hear God say is it time for you O ye to dwell in your sciled houses and this house lie waste Hag. 1. That they would expeditiously do the work of this age Because to every purpose there is a time and judgement therefore the misery of man is great upon him Eccles 8. That our Officers may not onely be Peace but that our Exactors Righteousness that we may be made an eternal excellency and the joy of many Generations Isa 60. That saying in your hearts the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be our strength in the Lord of Hosts they may be like an Hearth of fire among the wood and like a Torch of fire in a sheaf devouring Sions enemies round about on the right hand and on the left Zech. 12. For shame therefore let Virgins arise and either get oyle or cast away their Lamps Security makes you uncapable both of seeing your reward or doing your work First Think not because you can properly be but once regenerated that you need but once to repent Converted David q d. must repent of his Adultery before he be saved Repentance is not onely as life to the dead but as salve to the wounded sinner Repentance is as the Vowels in the Alphabet which we have not onely need of to spell with while we are Babes but to read with all when we are men in Christ Mortification and Humility are not accidents or things by the by but of the very substance the very Materials and Pillars of the New Jerusalem The Gospell it self I suspect will ere long be but an old Almanack to them to whom Repentance and confessing of and mourning over sin is now upon what glorious pretences soever out of date Secondly Plead for Opinions as Opinions and for Graces as for Graces I fear those that plead for disputable Opinions as infallible Truths will ere long hold vital and indisputable Truths as conformity to the Gospel sincere Faith in and repentance towards Christ but as failable and fallible Opinions This is intollerable folly to see men slaves to Opinions and Masters over Graces if the Lord extinguish not this fond zeal the carnal world hence forward will take advantage to think that Religion lies onely in thinking and conceiving and in the next age conclude they are not to seek Religion in their Bibles but in the brains of men O Lord How many are true to false Principles and false to true Principles and will rather die Martyrs for Error than bow as Servants to Truth These are some of them that have been over wise in their own eyes and yet as the wiseman speaks have not known the way to the City that call this or that way Christ and not Christ the way that set up an Image in their own Opinions and censure all the world as Idolaters that will not do homage to it proclaiming subjection with Lutes and Cymbals of peace and though on the first entertainment of such Opinions men have had a calmness in their Consciences yet afterwards have found themselves burning in a Furnace of discontents and doubts as then remembring that neither this or that Opinion availed any thing to peace in Christ but a new creature Thirdly While you cry out against the old Superstition beware of being tainted with the new disease of this age not the plague of the guts but of the heart not the Rickets in the head but the pride of life alias Hypocrisie alias apparent Prophaneness Fly as far from Licentiousness as you do from the formality of Rome Woe be to the profession of Religion if your Profession should stand or fall to the verdict of the world Oh! let not those whom you must one day judge justly judge you now Some possibly may say The world are dogs and their mouths must be stopped Christ is a mystery our principles are above their

Gospel Surfet And might not the Lord justly take us down and make us know the worth of the Gospel by the want of it Since we have plaid with the light of Truth might he not make us feel the fire Might not God lay down his Basket and take up his Ax and because we are not fit for fruit and building make us fit fuel for burning Have not the Ambassadors of the everlasting Gospel had as hard lot in England as they had in Sodom Who cannot but admire that when England is as chaffy as Sodom that we ave not the same flames as Sodom had Is not this salvation that when wee have been weary of God that yet God is not weary of us That when we have refused to be a holy Nation that yet we are a Nation That when our sins are the sins of Sodom that our sufferings are not the sufferings of Sodom God hath lighted up a flaming Candle of Justice in Sodom the Lord grant that luke-warm England may yet see to read her salvation by it Mercy always swims in Justice but with us Justice seems to be drowned in Mercy 2 From this Ladder admire that we are not made an Egypt God lately turned our waters into blood our Sea was then a red Sea indeed What a mercy is it that English darkness is not a proverb as well as Egyptian darkness England of old was called Albion from the white Rocks and Scotland as some Criticks fancy signifies a Land of darkness But how quickly can the Lord turn Albion into Scotia England into Scotland and Scotland into England we are their neighbors already We have much liberty to bless God Oh that there we not so much liberty to blaspheme God! We have more liberty than either we have deserved or been thankful for There was a time when the Saints in England had Conscience without liberty we have now much liberty of Conscience the Lord grant the time may never come that we should have liberty without Conscience Liberty and nothing else but Licentiousness and Atheism We had once hearts to bless God but wanted opportunity Oh that now we have opportunities we did not want hearts As when a doubting Christian complained that he had no interest in God he was such a stranger to God a Preacher of the Gospel replied But what will you take for that interest though as you think little you have in God not a thousand worlds said the doubting Christian Saints in England what will you take for that liberty you have Now your eyes see your Teachers what if they were all shut up in corners now the doors of the Congregations q.d. are open what if it were past Sermon-time and past Repentance-time what if the silver bell of the Gospel should no more sound in England Oh that we had as much conscience of liberty as we have liberty of conscience That of Omnium Deorum among the Romans of Omnium Sanctorum amongst the Papists of Omnium Sectarum here in England are monstrous Every variation from unity is a step to nullity If ever England should come from one Religion to all and we are in the high way we shall quickly go from all Religion to none 3 From this Ladder admire that we are not made a Germany Instead of the sword of War you have the Scepter of Peace instead of Garments rowled in blood and the noyse of Arms you have the blood of Christ sprinkled on your Garments Oh trample it not under feet Instead of the roaring Cannons you have the sweet sound of Gospel-Ordinances God hath but shaken his rod over us while he hath broken their backs while we have been let blood he hath even let them bleed to death God bid David chuse which of the three plagues of War Famine Pestilence he would have but God puts it to our choyce which of those three plagues we will not have inflicted on us Though God hath sheathed up his sword yet he holds it still in his hand therefore fear What salvation is this that parents are not drinking the blood of their ch ldren to quench their thirst and eat the flesh of their children to satisfie their hunger 4 From hence admire that we are not made a Babylon Pray pray that the Bibles may be opened in Spain and yet bless God that there are not Pad-locks hung on them in England Pray mightily that Antichrist may fall abroad and forget not to bless God that though there be much of Rome in England that yet England is not Rome that none can go to Market that none can buy or sel without the mark of the Beast Revel 13.17 either in their right hands or on their foreheads It is the opinion of some good men that the Protestant Profession shall be over-spread with Antichristianism again and that then the Lord will extraordinarily awaken them from their sleep and actively engage them against Babylon But I wish though we have looked on Babylon that we may not so lust after Babylon Spiritual longings in this kind are dangerous but I hope God will prevent Sions miscarriage in the birth of Reformation The Lord grant if we go to Rome it may not be to dote on her but to destroy her There is an old Prophecy that Antichrist shall never overcome Paris nor Venice nor London Let us not be secure for if his Soul have entertainment here his Body will not tarry long after But some may say What Salvation hath the Lord wrought for us what fruit is there of all the blood shed in England is not our condition as bad as ever nay in some sense worse the Saints were united are they not now divided how many Professors are turned Apostates nay Persecutors and Prophane This is sad indeed and to be lamented yet as the Disciples did not wish the blood in Christs veins again though they were distressed by his death So I dare not say though in our Distractions and among the Blasphemies of this age Man hath lost his way that God hath lost his end This is the support That as God hath laid the Foundation so he will carry on the Building that as the Great Turk makes a Bridge of the Bodies of his Souldiers to scale the wals of a Garrison So the Lord knows how to make his glory to rise by the fall of ours and to give life to his Cause by the death of his followers Secondly From this Ladder we may take many sweet Prospects forward on what God will do more apparently for Sion in the world There are eight famous Prospects The first Prospect from Jacobs Ladder is Gods Jacobs may foresee the abundance of knowledge yet to be poured out Isa 36 26. Isa 52.8 Isa 11. Knowledge shall abound as waters do upon the Sea Knowledge is now but at a low Ebb in comparison of that high Tide that shal flow hereafter Knowledge shall abound as the Sea intensively and extensively it shall more increase and be more clear As

world but none are able to rear it the King himself will bring it with him Not many know how to set up Christ in their Consciences Many know how rather to pull down Antichrist than to set up Christ And too many know how rather to set up themselves than the Kingdom of Christ in the world Governors must reform if the Providences of God speak truth in explaining the Promises it is high time and Governors must be reformed But I am yet perswaded that some of Nebuchadnezzars Image will stand in all Nations till it have an immediate blow from Heaven Dan. 2.34 Though men do trample under foot the Toes of Clay and break the Legs of Iron and smite on the Belly of Brass yet I am perswaded they will more or less either imbrace the Silver Arms or wear the Golden Head and the Gold the best Government of this old world is part of the Image as well as the Clay Israel was Gods people and though they pulled down the brazen Serpent yet they helped to set up the golden Calf but when we once come to Canaan we shall neither bow down to the Image of brass nor low after the Calf of gold In the mean time Sion is to travel with Prayers and Tears and all regular and righteous endeavors toward a perfect Reformation but I do not yet beleeve that ever we shall see that Man-child untill the appearance of Christ doth Midwive it into the world Omnis Christi anus est crucianus If it should be objected How can the expectation of such glory consist with the Prophecies in Scripture of the tribulations and errors in the last daies I answer 1 Tim. 3.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the Faith and shall speak lies in hypocrisie Sceptici in intellectu Epicurei in affectu c. 2 Tim. 3.1 In the last daies shall come perillous times men shall be lovers of themselves covetous proud unholy Traytors heady lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God I answer By the last daies in the Prophets and Apostles we are to understand the days of the Gospel the time of the messiah from his first to his second comming indifferently and have not all these symptoms of Apostacy been already in the world nay in the primitive times Secondly If by the last days we sometime understand the daies a little while or immediately preceding the second comming of Christ in person the comming of such prophanenesses are no argument against the comfortable appearance of Christ but are made in Scripture fore-runners not formally of his Kingdom ☜ and how seasonably will the Physician appear when the world will be so diseased how sweetly and refreshingly will the light of the Sun of Righteousness be at such a midnight Zech. 14 7. 2 Pet. 2.14 Christ though he brings day with him comes at midnight Matth. 25.6 And if by the latter daies we are to understand as we may the last daies are not the last daies and the last of daies in the world did ever men love others less and themselves more Judas his plague was his bowels gushed out But O Lord our curse is we have no bowels of love at all Is not this a covetous age Many have rich Arras to hang the walls of their Chambers with and have not Canvas to cloath a naked member of Christ withall how many Lazaruses are daily laid at our doors and how few have money in their purses to relieve nay not compassion or hony in their hearts to pitty them what iron hearts have we in this golden and in this gilded age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 golden I mean not in a moral but natural sense as for the love of God whereas we should be lovers of God more than lovers of pleasure we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God nay lovers of pleasure and not lovers of God unless that by our God we mean our pleasure And as for the rest of the gang of Vices I shall say no more but that we need not go up and down with a Candle and Lanthorn to find proud unholy heady Traytors in the world How long Lord how long ere thou appearest the Judge of thine Enemies the Father of thy Children and the King of thy Subjects Come Lord Jesus come quickly and blessed are all they that love his appearance his appearance in his Spirit in his Cause and in his Person In this prospect of what God will do in the world take these three or four Cautions 1 Limit not God to your means Some indeed have power to help Sion but no heart some have an heart but no power others have power in their hands but no hearts to help Sion Powers Armies cannot work without God but God can work without them Gods work cannot be done by the mighty for ordinarily it is opposed by the Mighty the mighty Pharisee derides Christ the mighty Pilat condemns Christ for the most part all the mighty in the world are against the Almighty of the world What say Monarchs that are prophane If Christ come to reign over us what will become of our honors Say the unrighteous Judges what will become of our Fees and the lazy Shepheards what will become of our Livings Remember Creaturae potius sunt media deferentia quam operantia if all men were willing for God yet the best of men are but men at the most the most of men or all men are but men at the best Men are but Vials and they have no more of Vertue in them than Providence infuseth not a drop more All the Tribute that God requires is to attribute all to him and he is resolved on the glory of all Means are not used by God because they are effectual but means are therefore effectual because God useth them A straw in the hands of Omnipotency proves a Spear and a Spear without an Omnipotent influence turns in a mans hand to a Straw It is not improbable that the nigher Christ comes to his Throne the meaner the instruments of his advancement may be ☞ Who art thou O Mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain There are many Mountains against Sion visible and invisible Mountains but Jacob the worm shall thresh Mountains Parturiunt montes generatur ridiculus mus strange as we say a Cat may look on a King so a worm may crawle on a Mountain one Mountain is able to crush a million of Worms but if Sion be trampled on in Christs day she will turn again and one worm shall thresh a million of Mountains Providence can turn Mountains into Mole-hils and the proud politick Hills of the World into Hell God doth such things by such inconsiderable means That no flesh might glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.31 If any creature will glory as if the Apostle had said let it glory behind the Lords back which it cannot do God will face down all the glory and glorying of the