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	let_v	lord_n	2,934	5	3.6705	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20225	A platforme, made for the proofe of Gods prouidence that is, for examining of the truth of this doctrine, whether God by his prouidence rule all things generally, and euery creature and action particularly / by Arthur Dent.	Dent, Arthur, d. 1607.	1608 (1608)	STC 6646.7; ESTC S332	15,893	48

the iudgements of all men before the Lords and wee may perswade our selues with strong and sufficient arguments that the Lord made all things in great wisdome and mercy and in a worde that the Lord made nothing vnaduisedly or without cause but though we know not the causes of his workes because of the weakenesse of our vnderstandings yet hath hee made all things according to his wisdome and mos● mightie mercy Thus farre Chrisostome If therefore by the testimonie of Aristotle nature made nothing in vaine As that m● who was vtterly ignorāt of true religiō affirmed of nature which he yet iudge● to be both blinde and brutish how much more are we bound to attribut● vnto the most wise creator of all thing● this perfection in his creation that he made nothing in vaine but all thing● in great wisdome since all his worke● redounded to his glory which is th● last and the cheifest end of all things and by the common consent of all men euery thing is iudged either perfect or vnperfect by the attaining of his ende There is a fourth argument thus made against the prouidence of God If God who is most wise and righteous in his iudgements doe gouerne all things euery particular thing there shold not be so great troubles in cōmon wealths and specially in the Church whereof the Lord hath a speciall care for that it is his Sanctuarie but both in Church and common-wealth there is great vnquietnesse so that all lawes both diuine and humane are openly violated good men most cruelly are delte withall euill men do reioyce and triumphe in their wickednesse without controlement God therfore gouerneth not all things that are in common-wealths and in the Churches This argument thus drawne from the nature of Gods iustice which semeth to be contrary to his gouernement by his prouidence if he shold see moderate and suffer all these outrages and disorders is one of the cheifest proppes of Epicurus his opinion And this argument troubleth many that now liue dayly labour to bringe Epicurus name in obloquie with all men yet are content to liue like Epicures and this argument also the Turkes and our capitall enemies the papists obiect most against vs and sure it carrieth such waight with it that Dauid confesseth that he was so astonied that his feete were almost gone his steppes had welnere slipt when hee saw the prosperitie of the wicked and punishments and hard entertainement of the godly vntill he went into the sanctuarie of God then vnderstoode he their ende that is vntil Dauid entered into Gods schoole learned by his worde holy spirit that he ordered all things most wisely iustly After Pomp●y had bene put to the worst in the battaile fought betwixt Caesar and him in the confines of Pharsalos and escaped by flight to Mytilene he went to Cratippus and disputed with the Philosopher in his garden whether he thought there was any God which by his prouidence ruled in earth and for that before in very bad quarels ●ee had had most prosperous successe as when he had subdued and in battaile vanquished the inhabitants of the East part of the worlde and was now in a most good cause ouercome stripped of his armie and forced to flie away himself alone most shamefully he hereof gathered that God regarded not what was ●one amōgst men but y t all things were ●one by chāce Thus doth the wise mē of 〈◊〉 world iudge speake of such euents But the holy ghost teacheth vs to iudge ●ar otherwise of them When Moses in his song Deut. 32. was to deliuer to the ●eople the threatnings of God if they were disobedient which afterward the ●ebellious Israelites felt he vseth this preface Perfect is the work of the migh●ie God for all his waies are iudgement God is true without wickednes iust and righteous is he teaching hereby that whatsoeuer the world doth prate of the causes of afflictions that God with great wisdome doth sende forth of his treasures all sortes of calamities some-time by them to punish the wicked sometime to exercise the godly with them For the sinnes of the peopl● the hipocrite doth raigne that is tirant● sit in the throne of Iustice which vnder pretence of executing iustice ar● but hipocrites and oppresse the people Iob 34. verse 30. Woe be to thee saith the Prophet Isaiah which spoilest for thou shalt be spoiled And indeed one tyrāt plagueth another though tyrants be a plague to all nations Kingdomes yet are they themselues in due time in like sort punished by other tyrants In the person of Sennacherib the iudgements of God are very liuely set forth by the prophet Isaiah in the tenth Chapter of his prophesie The Lord stirreth vp the King of the Assirians to punish the eastern people Sennacherib was a wicked man and he is a scourge to wicked people yea hee cruelly vexed the people of God hee spoileth almost all Palestina he beseigeth Ierusalem the cheife Citie of that country And thus saith God of him by the Prophet in that place O A shur the rod of my wrath and the staffe in their hands is mine indignation I wil send him to a dissembling nation and I will giue him a charge against the people of my wrath to take the spoile and to take the pray and to treade them vnderfoote like the mire in the streete But he thinketh not so neither doth his heart esteeme it so and so forth And a little after thus saith God by the Prophet of him But when the Lord hath accomplished all his worke vpon Mount Sion and Ierusalem I will visit the fruite of the proude heart of the King of Ashur and his glorious and proud lookes Because hee said by the power of min own hand haue I done it and by my wisdome because I am wise And a little after this thus saith the Prophet Shal the axe boast it selfe against him that heweth therewith If Pompey had looked on this example thus laide forth by the Prophet hee might haue bene better occupied instructed thē he was by his toying with Cratippus and this would haue taught him that thought the Lord suffereth tyrantes to bee for a time a plague to any nation yet in his appointed time hee suffereth them to bee punished by other tyrantes and to haue the same measure that they measured vnto others Now if wee compare Sennacherib and Pompey that gloried in this Litle The greate which name Silla gaue him for his victories wee shall finde many things a like in their histories Both of them was an are in the hand of God to strike the people of the East both of them destroyed Palestina and afflicted the people of God Sennacherib deseiged Ierusalem Pompey tooke it the Assirian was put to flight by an Angel and was slaine in his temple that is in his sanctuarie by his owne Sonnes Pompey was put to flight by Caesar and flying to Ptolomie King of Egipt whose father being dispossessed of his Kingdome he had restored againe to his crowne therefore Ptolomie should haue bene as a sonne vnto Pompey was there in Egipt with him miserably slaine So vnsearchable are the waies of Gods iudgements for that which Michah speaketh of the Caldeans in the 4. chap. of his prophesie They know not the thoughts of the Lord they vnderstand not his counsell therefore they shall be thrashed as sheaues in the barne may be spoken of all these Giants and proude tyrantes who for that they know not the counsaile of the Lord shall in his appointed time beare the punishement of their pride Neither doth the holy Ghost teache vs that the wicked onely are punished but that the Church of God is also afflicted though for another ende and purpose And there may many reasons be brought to shew why the Churche of God is subiect to so many calamities but I will at this time alleadge onely three by which as by many other wee may know that the Lord in truth and iudgement doth exercise his Churche with afflictions The first is that so long as we cary about with vs this burthen of corruption we are not onely subiect to sinne but doe continually by sinning prouoke the Lorde to deals in iustice with vs And therefore it is agreeable to the iustice of God that wee bee chastened of the Lord with a fatherly rod which may kéepe vs in obedience yea wee must all say with Ieremy in the third chapter of his Lamentations verse 22. It is the Lords mercies that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not My seconde reason is this It is best for vs to bee humbled vnder the mightie hand of God for wee know how feirce and haughty minded we are by nature so that it is necessarie for vs that God keepe vs vnder his schooling and so haue vs in some awe Therefore Dauid saith in the 119. Psalme ver 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keepe thy word And ver 71. It is good for me that I haue bene afflicted that I may learne thy statutes The third reason is deliuered by Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians the 11. Chapter verse 32. When wee are iudged wee are chastned of the Lord because wee would not be condemned with the world Therefore let vs conclude this whole discourse with Moses thus The iudgements of the Lord are true and righteous neither let vs measure them according to our own cōceit iudgemēts which are very deceauable but let vs know that the godly are punished for their sinnes they dayly commit that they may be humbled and that they perish not with the wicked but God in punishing the wicked doth shewe and open the treasures of his long sufferance patience and iustice but when hee afficteth vs he maketh vs like to his owne Sonne Christ and stirreth vp in vs an earnest desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Let vs in the meane time giue our selues to harty and earnest prayers praying continually with the Saints of God Come Lord Iesus yea come quickly Amen Amen

those things which it pearceth When one laid this in Diogenes his dish that he went into a stewes or brothels house why saith hee the Sun commeth thither also and yet is not defiled therewith therby shewing y t a wife godly man though he enter into vncleane and filthie places and come into the companie of filthie persons doth not forthwith toyne himselfe to their filthinesse neither is infected with their vices If therefore this Philosopher could enter into the stewes and come forth againe vnspotted with their vncleanesse so that their filthinesse could not fasten vpon him much losse is God whose nature is most pure and simple in gouerning of his creatures insected with their filthinesse There is a third obiection which they thus frame Euery wise and good gouernour vnlesse hee be greatly hindred bringeth his worke that hee frameth and that thing that he ruleth to a good perfect and wished ende this may bee proued by many examples as by the example of a skilfull Pilot who directeth and bringeth his ship to the purposed hauen and such like but nothing can let God from perfecting his workes and yet many of his creatures as many monsters mad men lame are imperfect Therefore God ruleth not euery generation and conception to vnlose this knot wee must remember this distinction of order there are two sorts of orders or courses that God taketh in gouerning all things the one of them wee may call ordinary which God doth often vse the other extraordinary with which order though we be not acquainted yet doth God himselfe know the cause why he so worketh yet of this may we not conclude that God in his workes is contrarie to himselfe for if to vs there appeare some dinersitie and difference in the gouernement of all things by God certainely that difference is not of Gods rule but of the vnstable iudgement of our troubled mindes for Gods workes are not to be balanced by our iudgements which are deceauable and for the most part vntrue Augustine proposed the example of two children one of which is dutifull and louing to his father the other is a wicked stubberne childe both their fathers are deadly sick the good childe prayeth earnestly vnto God to deliuer his father from his sicknes the graceles graft thinketh euery hour twenty vntil his father be breathlesse both their fathers died and that according to Gods appointement and direction But now that childe that prayed for the prolonging of his fathers life highly pleased God and yet it pleased not God that his father should liue any longer and againe that childe that longed for his fathers death as highly displeased God and yet it was Gods pleasure that his father too should dye how commeth it to passe that that which pleaseth God may displease him also and that which displeaseth him please him as he was pleased with the good childs kindnesse but not pleased that his father should liue and again displeased with y e vnnaturall part of the lewd childe and yet pleased with his fathers death Surely there is in God a certaine secret ordinaunce which yet is iust and a certaine ordinance open and manifested which also is righteous But certaine idle companions to draw both Augustine and vs into hatred for this doctrine obiect against vs that they cannot perceiue in God this double wil which we speake of to witte a secret and a reuealed will for they say we all know and you confesse that God is most plaine without all shew of doublenesse and therefore his will must be also as plaine and euen so is it though wee cannot comprehend it but let them first answere to that which Augustine and wee haue proposed and ●ill they nill they they must ack●owledge with vs that this difference ●f will of which I haue spoken is not ●roperly in God but in vs who ac●ording to our reach and capacity mea●ure diuine matters and therefore in ●espect of vs and of our capacity there se●●eth to be this difference in the will of God According to our censure and ●udgement we will iudge the birth of ●onsters mad men and crooked men ●o be an vnperfect worke of God but in ●he iudgement of God their creation is most perfect and absolute If Aristotle were asked what the ●ause were of their imperfections and ●e formities he would answere y t they ●roceeded of a defect and wāt in nature But Christ saith otherwise of the man that was borne blinde in the 9. of Iohn Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the workes of God should be shewed on him that is that ●od might be glorified by him Now since the last end of al things is the glory of God and since all those things are to bee accounted perfect which attaine to their desired end and since the glorie of God more appeareth by the imperfections of some of his creatures then if hee had made them all in one forme and perfection surely we may not iudge any of his workes vnperfect I graunt that if they be considered in themselues there will appeare in them some imperfection but when they are referred to the glorie of God if they illustrate and set it forth they are euen therefore to be accounted perfect for if no man should be mad if none deformed none lame none blinde wee would ascribe the perfection of our birth which wee perceiued that all men haue necessarily either to nature or to our parents and we would easily slip into this opinion that wee had our solues also of our parents but since there appeareth such a diuersitie in the outward sormes of creatures the prouidence of God doth more clearely appeare by that their difference in shape In the iudgement of man many flies and wormes and all sort of serpents are reputed not onely vnprofitable but also hurtfull But the Lord as Moses sheweth in his song calleth them his treasures out of which hee draweth vengeance for his enemies as arrowes out of a quiuer These were the shafts hee shooke Pharao with with these Antiochus with these Herode was punished who therefore will account them vnprofitable or who superfluous since the Lord him selfe hath such vses to put them to There are also in thē many profitable things for man whereof some we know not other some the Phisitians know as Nicander others haue very learnedly written of them Ancient learned Chrisostome in his tenth Homily vpon Genesis vsed this similitude ●f saith hee in earthly matters when wee see these things that be done approued by graue and mightie men wee mislike not their censure nor gainsay it but preferre their iudgement before our own how much more should we carry the same minde of all visible creatures which we know that God the creator of all thinges made That since wee haue receaued his censure of them all that all that hee made was wery good let vs suspende our iudgements bury them in silence and let vs not dare to prefer