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	see_v	5,670	5	3.0830	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53325	The last judgment, or, A discourse shewing the reasonableness of the belief of such a thing deliver'd in a sermon, at the assizes held for the county of Denbigh, on the 18th of April, anno 1682 / by John Oliver ...	Oliver, John, d. 1730.	1682 (1682)	Wing O275; ESTC R10726	13,587	32

V. 31. with the great noise of a Trumpet to summon all men to their last Reckoning Would you know the Person of the Judge 'T is that Son of man to whom the Father has committed all Judgment A Person of that Wisdom Act. 17.31 that he sees into the Merits of every Cause of that Justice that he cann't determine wrongfully and of that Authority that from his Sentence there lyes no appeal Would you know the Persons that are to appear before him They are the Quick and Dead all that shall be found alive upon Earth at his coming and all that shall be cloyster'd up in the dark Regions of the Grave At the great Goal-delivery Rev. 20.13 the Sea shall render up the dead that are in it and Death and Hell shall bring their Prisoners to the Bar that they may all receive according to their doings Would you know the Proceedings of that Court They 'l be according to Law the natural Law written in our Hearts and those Positive Laws the Scripture has superadded to them Would you know the Evidence to be produc'd upon every man Rev. 20.12 'T is the Testimony of Conscience which keeps a perfect Diurnal of our several Actions from the beginning to the end of our dayes An Evidence we have no reason to except against because part of our selves and so will never give in a wrong or partial Information An Evidence the Judge will never question because 't is his Minister in every one of us one part of whose Office it is to keep a true Record of all our doings Would you know the Conclusion of all The Righteous shall go into Life Eternal Mat. 25 46. where they cann't fail of the most ravishing Delights being possess'd of him in whose presence are Joyes and at whose right hand are Pleasures and that for evermore The wicked shall go into a place of Torment provided for the Devil and his Angels where the Atheist will meet with late and sad assurances of a Divine Power and Justice the Blasphemer will find what it is to affront the Author of his Being the Prophane and Dissolute will see what an unhappy choice they made when they left the rugged wayes of Vertue and pitch'd upon the broad Paths of Sin pleasant indeed to the Eye and easie to the Traveller but ending at last in a Precipice of unavoidable ruine Knowing therefore the Terrors of the Lord let me perswade all that hear me this day so to live that they may be thought worthy to escape them Whether Persons in Authority that they remembring whose Ministers they are and to whom they are accountable for that Power entrusted to them may be careful to employ it to the Punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintenance of true Religion and Vertue Or other subordinate Persons that they having alwayes before their Eyes the great Account may endeavour to live in a due Reverence to the Majesty on High and a quiet subjection to his Vicegerent on Earth and in common honesty among themselves In a word that we may all of us both in Church and State act suitable to the Rules of our holy Profession to the many weighty Obligations our Religion has laid upon us and especially to the Belief of this great Article of a Judgment to come that so we may finish our Course with joy and then receive the Fruit of our doings even a Crown of Glory God of his infinite mercy grant for his Sons sake Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all Honour and Glory World without end FINIS

faithful Servant and entitles him to the Approbation of his great Master Besides when he suffers upon the account of doing well what is it that bears up his Spirit but an assurance that he suffers in a good Cause and a reasonable hope that he shall be rewarded for it This was the true Foundation of that undaunted Courage with which the first Christians outbrav'd the Malice of their bloodiest Persecutors This was it that made so many Champions for Religion both before and under the Law of whose Sufferings the Author to the Hebrews gives us this Catalogue Heb. 11.36 37 38. They had Tryals of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments They were Stoned they were Sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the World was not worthy the wandred in Desarts and Mountains in Dens and Caves of the Earth And under all these the great encouragement was the Recompence of the Reward V. 26. But perhaps these are Instances that won't be allow'd me here and the Courage of these men will be resolv'd not into any natural expectance of a future Reward but into some special Promise and supernatural Revelation If so there are memorable Examples of this kind to be found even amongst Heathens themselves To instance in one for all the excellent Socrates who suffer'd upon a fundamental Point Plato in Phaed. the Unity of God with how much bravery of Spirit did he demean himself and what admirable Discourses dropp'd from him during his Imprisonment And lastly with how much boldness did he look the ghastly Messenger in the face And what was his support 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He encourag'd himself in hopes of going into another World where he should meet with better Company than any was upon Earth And though his assurances of it were none of the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they were such as bore up all that load that was charg'd upon them But then 3. What Account can be given of that great uneasiness of mind which waits upon the Commission of a gross sin especially though never so private How comes the man to be so strangely alter'd on the sudden His Colour changes his Blood retires his Spirits flagg his Tongue falters his Joynts tremble his Pulse grows uncertain fear astonishment and despair hang upon his Brow And all this is but the outward Scene and Representation of what 's acted within There 's a Court of Judicature erected the guilty Person 's arrested by his own thoughts and summon'd to the Bar Arraign'd Convicted Condemn'd and only Repriev'd for a more solemn Trial at the great day Though he walk abroad hee 's but a more enlarged sort of Prisoner the Guards of Conscience attend him in all places and 't is as impossible for him to make his escape from them as to flee from himself And now what 's the meaning of all this Only the man 's bound over to some other Tribunal to answer for those Actions which the Temporal L●●ts here take no notice of If it be said that these fears are only the Fruits of bad education and some unsound Principles instill'd into our tender Age How comes it about that those Persons who pretend t●●● he greatest share of knowledg who dare undertake to argue down the Belief of a God and Providence and a future State have not been able by all their endeavours to raze out these Notions and to conquer the fears arising from them We see it 's an ordinary thing for men upon due Experience and better Information to throw off those Opinions which were forc'd upon them in their Infancy But this of a Judgment to come sticks closer to a man than his skin the Atheist himself cannot be rid on 't though he tries all wayes to baffle his Conscience and extinguish his natural Sentiments about it And if we may believe the credible Reports of former times no men in the World have been more assaulted with the fears of another Life than they who pretend to render that and every thing else in Religion the Subjects of their Mirth and Drollery This was the case of Epicurus who when he had banish'd as he thought a Providence out of the World yet he could not by all his Arguments banish a Conscience out of himself that was resolv'd to keep home and to punish the Offender for his other bold and impious undertakings But perhaps the fear that waits upon the Commission of some Acts relates only to temporal Punishments and the Sword of the Secular Power It may be that 's it which puts the man out of order if so how comes it about that such Acts of Impiety as are not punishable in an● Civil Court and such as are done with that secrecy as not to fall under publick Cognizance should have the same effect Or whence it is that those Persons which are too big for the Law should be as much tormented with the fears of this kind as any that are within the verge of it Kings and Emperors have been under this Discipline if there be any truth in Sacred or Prophane Authors This was the case of Belshazzar even in the height of his jollity Dan. 5.3 6. while the Hand was writing his doom upon the Wall his Conscience was reading over the Indictment within and then no wonder if his Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him if his Joynts were loos'd and his Knees smote against each other Thus it far'd likewise with the Roman Governour while St. Paul reason'd of Righteousness Temperance Act. 24.25 and Judgment to come was it strange that Foelix should tremble at the latter part of the Sermon who knew himself so defective in all the rest After the Historian had taken notice of that odd Epistle Tacit. Annal. lib. 6. Quid scribam vobis Patres Conscripti aut quomodo scribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore dii me deaeque pejus perdant quam quotidie perire sentio si scio ubi de hàc re plura Tiberius the Emperor wrote to the Senate He adds by way of remark that if the Breasts of Tyrants could be look'd into there would be found there Laniatus Ictus the wounds of a disorder'd Spirit And the Author of the Lives of the Caesars Satton in vitâ Calig Parag. 5. in his account of Caligula could observe that he who was so great a Contemner of the Divine Power was glad upon every thunderclap to take Sanctuary under his Bed His Courage then fail'd him when the Arrows of the Almighty went abroad And the sense of his guilt made him apt to think that himself was the Person that was aim'd at 'T were needless to reckon up more Examples of this kind since we have reason enough to believe that there has not been one Atheist in the World but one tin e or other has