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	know_v	lord_n	3,918	5	3.5901	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43452	Great mens advantages and obligations to religion represented in a sermon preached before the King, in the chapel at St. James's, July the 17th, 1698 / by Henry Hesketh ...	Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.	1699 (1699)	Wing H1611; ESTC R12140	14,268	28

innocency of his Nature And still the more generous and careful that the Education hath been the stronger will these good Dispositions be and but that we sometimes see the contrary such as might well be thought morally impossible to be suppressed And this is thought so generally true that whenever a Youth miscarries it is commonly imputed to some fault in the Parent and to some defect in his Education But when there is the miscarriage of one whom all Men know to have had all due Care bestowed upon him by the other the Strangeness of it as much surpriseth with Wonder as the Misery of it extorts the Compassion and Tears of the sad Spectators 3. Another great Advantage that Great Men have of knowing the way of the Lord c. above other Men is Time and Leisure to inform themselves in it Time is one of the most valuable Treasures that God hath entrusted Mankind with though like other of his Blessings Men seldom know how to esteem it till they come to want it And though it be certainly true that all Men enjoy so much of this as is absolutely necessary to all the great Purposes of Life and the discharge of all the necessary Affairs of their respective Callings yet it is evident that like other Gifts of Providence it is differently dispensed so that some enjoy more and some less The Generality and Common Sort of Men that the Prophet was to search among in the broad places lie under the burthen of Adam's Curse and in the sweat of their faces must eat bread and most of them are forced to tug hard some in one way and some in another before they can get it to eat So that the common Excuse that is made for Mens neglect of Religion because of the Hurries and necessary Avocations of Worldly Business sounds better in their mouths and is more reasonably admitted from them But Great Men are in a great measure exempted from this common tribute of Humanity Their Bread is got to their hands and that Time which others are forced to spend in getting of it lies upon their hands and is as a Ready-Stock to be employed to Nobler Purposes They are manumitted from the Labour of the Field or the Attendances of the Shop so that that Time which others do and must expend in these is to them a surplusage for the Study or the Closet and for improving their Minds by Reading and Meditation in the one and by Devotion in the other The truth of this is notorious to all and I should but be impertinent and waste Time my self in insisting further on it Time is a Treasure that Great Men enjoy in measures above the Populace as eminently as any others Now it is little less notorious what an Advantage it is to all the great Purposes of Religion to have such vast portions of Time which they can easily spare to the Exercises of it or which they will spare to worser purposes And it would be a woful thing and that which must one day be sadly accounted for if this precious Treasure should be wholly mis-spent and squander'd away if the Comb and the Glass in the Morning or the Stage and empty Visits in the Evening should ingross that Time which God hath allotted to one Sex for Devotion in the Closet and the Church or Sports and vain Recreations or much worser Entertainments should ravish away all that spare Time which the other Sex hath allotted them to the same purposes A wise Man that hath never so much Business incumbent on his hands yet may so adjust the portions of his Time as to reserve enough for the Exercise of Religion And he that hath learned in any measure how to redeem his time can easily spare enough for the Service of his God without intrenching at all upon his secular Necessities But Great Men need not study this Art nor be put to any difficulty in accommodating those Interests between which there is no competition at all It is but a little Time that surveying their Estates and taking the necessary Accompts of them or serving their King and Country doth necessarily employ and he that is mostly confined to these yet hath great portions of Time which he not only may reserve from them but which do indeed lie upon his hands and therefore not only may be employed to the purposes of Religion but great part of which must be so or else the mis-spending of them must be answer'd for another day And as for others that are not yet called to these high Stations they have commonly so much Time as seems to lie as a burthen upon them so that they are rather put to study how to pass it off than have any cause to complain of being straitned in it These and many other great Advantages to Religion which might easily be instanced Great Men enjoy above others and the Prophet might reasonably hope that Men thus advantaged might know the way of the Lord though the Populace were scandalously ignorant and neglective of it Secondly And yet this was not the only Consideration that ministred to that Hope For their Obligations to Religion are in proportion to their Advantages and the guilt of failing to answer these would be as great as the indecency of defeating the purpose of the other This is the Second thing that I have undertaken to give some Account of i. e. the Obligations to Religion that lie on Great Men above others For it is a wild Conceit to think that Religion is only proper for Cottages and Cells or that Great Men that are exempt from the Cares of this World are priviledg'd from all regards to the Interest of the next The Reverse to this is the great Truth Religion is as becoming Courts as Colleges and Virtue as needful for Great Men as any below them and if there be any difference it lies really on this side there lying stronger Obligations to Religion upon them than upon others I shall reduce what I intend to consider on this part of my Argument to three Heads only as I did on the former 1. Their Obligations to Almighty God 2. Their Obligations to Men below them 3. Their Obligations to themselves Great Men's Obligations to Almighty God are above other Men's It is certain all Ranks and Orders of Men yea every particular Person in any of these owe so much to God as the acknowledgment and utmost Service of their whole Life can never answer How unequally soever the Gifts of Providence are dispenss'd to Men yet he that receives least receives more than he can be answerable for for that there is no cause for any one to complain but rather to be thankful But yet it is plain there is a sensible difference and if he that receives least owes the utmost Service of his Life for what he receives and yet can never discharge the Obligation sure they that receive much more must owe proportionably more if it were possible to pay it