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	see_v	3,350	5	3.0636	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32016	Gods free mercy to England presented as a pretious and powerfull motive to humiliation : in a sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast, Feb. 23, 1641 / by Edmvnd Calamy ...	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1642 (1642)	Wing C253A; ESTC R19544	47,198	60

not the chiefe Butler remember Joseph but forgot him 2. Be ashamed to contenme and despise the mercies you have received from God There are many like the Israelites in Babylon that liked their habitations in Babylon so well that when Cyrus gave them leave to goe to Jerusalem they would not leave Babylon to goe to Jerusalem So there are many that like their former condition under the innovation so well that they had rather continue in Babylon still than accept of the reformation offered That begin to say of Mannah We have nothing but this Mannah and to wish for the Garlicke and Onions of Egypt againe This is a grievous abomination God was very angry with the Israelites for this sin he sent plagues upon plagues among them for it And when at last they brought an evill report upon the land of Canaan and as David saith Psal. 106 despised the holy land refusing to go into it God was so provoked with this sin that he would not pardon it but set them back again 40. yeares and destroyed their carkasses in the wildernesse Would to God I could not say that there are some among us that raise up an ill report upon the reformation intended as if the Parliament had a purpose to bring in an Anarchie to reduce every thing into its first Chaos to leave every man to do what is good in his owne eyes as when there was no King in Israel And upon this false rumour they despise the blessed Canaan that we are going into Oh let us be ashamed and confounded to commit this sinne This will make God carry us backe againe to the wildernesse 3. Be ashamed to distrust God and his power in time of great difficulty having received so many and so great deliverances We are for the most part like the children of Israel who although they were by a mighty hand brought out of Egypt and through the red Sea c. yet upon every strait they began presently to murmure and to thinke of making a Captaine to returne to Egypt never considering the iron bondage they endured in Egypt God hath brought us out of the Egyptian bondage and carried us through a red sea of dangers and yet when wee meete though but with the news of any Giants or Anakins we begin presently to distrust and to say Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse can God make a way through the hoasts of the Phi●…istines And some of us begin to wish that things had remained as at first This is a horrible sinne after so many mercies As Austin saith of Jesus Christ He that will not beleeve in Christ after so many miracles without a new miracle he himselfe is a great miracle So he that will distrust God after so many miraculous mercies is himselfe a miracle of unbeliefe How often hath God appeared in the mount these two last yeares as if he had resolved to take up his dwelling there How many mountaines of opposition have melted before you as mountaines of snow before the Sun Be ashamed be ashamed O house of England to distrust God after so many mercies 4. Be ashamed to be cowardly and faint hearted in the cause of God that hath so mightily appeared for us I remember the storie of Nehemiah Chap. 6. It is there said That when the enemies heard that the worke of the building of the Temple prospered beyond their expectations th●…y accused Nehemiah of treason against the King and when that plot did not succeed they bore him in hand as if some Assassinat had conspired his death And all this was done to make him afraid But he was above all feare shall such a man as I fly saith he shall such a man as I feare and finished the worke insomuch as that when the enemies heard thereof they were much cast downe for they perceived that this worke was wrought of God Remember that the fearfull are put not onely among unbeleevers murderers whoremongers sorcerers Idolaters c. but in the forefront of them all Be not afraid to incounter difficulties When Peter came up to the iron gate it opened to him of its owne accord 5. Be ashamed to abate and coole in the worke of the Lord God will spue out a lukewarme Christian When Moses let downe his hands Amaleck prevailed if you coole but a little the adversaries will waxe hot There are many that labour to cast water upon your zeale but remember the cause is Gods and say with David It is before the Lord I will be more vile still The people of God will honour you though Michol scoffe at you It is a great mercie that God hath kept us from blood God hath left our blood in our veines let it boyle up in the cause of God 6. Be ashamed to injure the instruments by which God conveyes these mercies unto us When Corah and his company rebelled against Moses and Aaron then came the plague As we must not idolize so we must not injure the golden pipes through which these mercies flow unto us 7. Take heed of being ashamed of the cause of Christ God hath not beene ashamed to appeare for us let us not be ashamed to appeare for him Remember that thundring speech Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of mee and my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Sonne of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels It is not enough not to be ashamed of Christ in a good generation but we must not be ashamed of him in an adulterous and sinfull generation 8. Let us neither pride our selves in our mercies nor waxe wanton in our mercies It is recorded in the French History that when the Protestants of France began to grow wanton of their peace and prosperity and began to affect a vaine and frothy way of preaching the●… came the cruell massacre upon them 2. I will briefly name some speciall and heroicall Uses which we are to make of Gods mercies besides this use in the Text 1. Do something O house of England for the honour of the Lords day which hath beene much prophaned not onely in our practises but in our Doctrines Christ Jesus hath two dayes The day of the Lord which is the day of judgement And the Lords day If you looke to appeare with comfort at the day of the Lord honour the Lords day There is a day of the Lord for those that abuse the Lords day Do something to make this day more honourable by way of spirituall satisfaction 2. Do something to purge the Land more and more of the innocent blood of the Martyrs in Queene Maries dayes by the Lawes that were then established Oh that in our publike Fasts a clause might be interlaced To command the Land to be humbled for that bloody sinne that so the Nation might be freed from the guilt of that blood This will be an heroicall worke worthy

silken halters to hang himselfe withall and ponds of sweet water to drowne himselfe withall gilded poysons to poyson himselfe withall O let not your honors and riches c. be silken halters to strangle your soules let not your pleasures be ponds of sweet water to drown your soules let not your preferments be gilded poysons to poyson your soules Say as Nabal did but in a better sense shal I take my health which God hath given me to sin against my God with it God forbid Shall I take the wit that God hath given me to plot against God and his cause with it God forbid 3. Consider the patience of God towards us This is an argument that should drive us to repentance Rom. 2. There is no sin but it is committed in the very bosome of God For God fils Heaven earth and sees all your curtaine abominations And he is able to destroy you he is just and must wound the bairy scalpe of those that goe on in their wickednesse and he is a holy and a pure God that hates your iniquities from his very heart And yet behold how patient this God is towards you At such a time when thou wert in the act of adultery he might have sent thee to hell in the very act he might have made thy tongue to rot the last oath thou sworest Nothing with-held him but pure mercy O let this melt our hearts What a mercy is it to be out of hell Many in hell have not sinned the sinnes that we have done It is his free grace that we are delivered We might have been weeping in hell at this instant And then our teares should have beene our hell but now they will prove our heaven if God worke them in us 4. Consider the Lord Jesus Christ and his love in dying for thee If thy heart be as hard as an Adamant the blood of this scape Goate will soften it There were five men met together that asked one another what meanes they used to abstaine from sinne The first answered That he continually thought upon the certainty of death and the uncertainty of the time of death and that made him live every day as if it were his last day The second meditated of the severe account he was to give at the day of judgement and of the everlasting torments of hell and this kept him from sin The third of the vilenesse and loathsomenesse of sin and of the excellency and beauty of grace and this made him abhorre sinne The fourth of the everlasting rewards and pleasures provided for those that abstaine from sinne and this prevailed with him The fifth and the last continually meditated of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his love and this made him ashamed to sin against God This last is the greatest motive of all If the pacification betweene the two Nations of England Scotland will not affect us let the great pacification that Christ hath made for thee between God and thy soule move thy heart to be ashamed to offend God It is the greatest argument I can use to say For Jesus Christ his sake be ashamed and confounded for your evill waies 5. Consider the long enjoyment of the Gospel the powerfull and plentifull preaching of it joyned with peace and plenty And let us mourne for our Gospel sins for our unprofitablenes and unfruitfulnesse under such fruitfull meanes that we have beene like a barren ground which no plowing will make good Let us mourne for our unbeliefe and impenitency Let Gospel sins produce Gospel sorrow Teares are made onely for sin If we mourne our eyes out for worldly losses we cannot profit our selves But if we weep for sin this will quench the fire of hell There are 2 sorts of sins and 2 sorts of curses legall sins Gospel sins legall curses and Gospel curses Legall sins will bring legall curses But Gospel sins unlesse there be Gospel sorrow will bring a Gospel curse which is above al legal curses Of this curse the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha that is accursed for the present reserved for the vengeance which Christ will render to all unbelievers when he comes to judgement This is curse upon curse And this is the curse due to them that abuse mercies The Lord deliver us from this curse 6. Let every man consider the personal mercies that God hath bestowed upon him in particular take all these mercies lay them to his heart they wil dissolve the stone in his heart let our hearts be as wax these mercies as the sun to melt them into godly sorrow Make a double Catalogue One of thy sins The other of Gods mercies to thee binde them about thy heart to bring it into a religious frame Thus I have named six other mercies My humble suit is That you would p●…nder consider seriously what hath been said unto you Consider what I say saith the Apostle and the Lord give you understanding The Thessalonians had never understood what Paul had said if they had not considred it No more shall we profit by this Sermon if we do not consider what hath bin said And this consideration must have foure ingredients 1. We must consider these mercies distinctly and deliberately If a man hath a sweet Cordiall in his mouth and swallow it downe whole he wil not taste the sweetnes of it but if he chew it by degrees it wil be very pleasant to his taste So these mercies will doe us no good if we swallow them down without serious meditation But if we chew them and consider them distinctly and deliberately one mercy after another they will exceedingly affect us 2. We must consider them with reflexion upon our selves and application to our selves As it is reported of Plato that when he did walk in the streets if he saw any man disordred in his speech or any other way he would say to himselfe Num ego talis Am I such a one as this is So must we say Num ego talis Have I abused these mercies Have I sinned with these mercies And as the Apostles severally asked Christ Master is it I So m●…t we aske our hearts Am not I the man that ought to be ashamed and ●…nfoundid for my sins against mercies 3. We must consider these mercies in as neere a propinquity as we can possible It is a true saying of the Philosoper Things that are seen far off are as if they were not A great man a far off seems little or nothing An enemie a farre off or a serpent a farre off doth litt●…e trouble us So it is with mercies If we looke upon them at a distance they will seeme little and little affect us but if we take them neere to us they will seeme as they are very great and will mightily worke upon us 4. Consider these mercies devoutly with prayer unto God to make them heart-melting