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	lord_n	see_v	5,118	5	3.3465	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78903	The godly mans ark or, City of refuge, in the day of his distresse. Discovered in divers sermons, the first of which was preached at the funerall of Mistresse Elizabeth Moore. The other four were afterwards preached, and are all of them now made publick, for the supportation and consolation of the saints of God in the hour of tribulation. Hereunto are annexed Mris. Moores evidences for Heaven, composed and collected by her in the time of her health, for her comfort in the time of sickness. / By Ed. Calamy, B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.; Moore, Elizabeth, d. 1656?	1657 (1657)	Wing C247; Thomason E1616_1; ESTC R209627	96,958	299

the fire of divine afflictions but their sins are not consumed Of these the Prophets complain Amos 4.6 7 8 9 10 11 12. yet they have not returned c. Jer. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return Rocks and stones by hewing and polishing may bee made fit for a building But there are some men who by no afflictions will be amended The Mountains melt at the presence of the Lord and the rocks rend asunder when hee is angry But there are some that have made their faces harder than the Rocks and the Mountains and are not at all affected with Gods anger Of such as these Bernard complains Multi humiliati pauci humiles corripimur sed not corrigimur plectimur sed non flectimur Multo facilius fregeris quam flexeris Non cessant vitia civium usque ad excidia civitatum Prius est interire quam corrigi Prius ipsos quam in ipsis vitia non esse There are others that are the worse for their afflictions like the Smiths Anvil the more they are strucken the harder they are Such a one was King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his distresse hee did trespasse yet more against the Lord There is a brand put upon him This is that King Ahaz that wicked King Ahaz that reprobate King Ahaz As Pearls put in Vinegar lose their colour and beauty so many when under Gods hand lose all their glory and excellency and begin to distrust Gods providence to call his justice into question to murmure and repine against Gods dealings and to use unlawful means for their deliverance Of these the Prophet Isaiah complains Isa 1. 5. Why should you bee stricken any more yee will revolt more and more Such was Ahaziah a King 1.2 that sought for help from Baalzebub the god of Ekron and such was Saul who sought to the Witch of Endor for health in the day of his distress Both of these sorts are in a sad and miserable condition For God hath two furnaces the furnace of affliction and the Furnace of hell-fire If the first Furnace will not purge us the second will everlastingly consume us As the Roman Consuls had a man appointed to go before them carrying a Rod and an Axe A Rod for the punishing of corrigible offenders an Axe for the destruction of incorrigible So God hath his Rod and his Axe his Pruning-knife and his Chopping-knife his Warning-peeces and his Murdering-peeces Afflictions are his Rods to correct us for our sin his Pruning-knife to pare off our luxuriant branches his Warning-peeces to call upon us to repent But if his Warning-peeces will do us no good wee must expect his Murdering-peeces If his Pruning-knife will not amend us his Chopping-knife will confound us If his Rods will not reclaim us then his Axe will hew us down and cast us into everlasting fire God hath three houses the house of Instruction of Correction and of Destruction The place where Gods people meet to hear his word is his house of Instruction And if wee profit in this house he will never carry us unto the house of Correction But if wee bee stubborn and rebellious in the house of Instruction then hee will send us to the house of Correction And if wee profit in this house hee will never send us into the house of Destruction But if wee continue incorrigible in the house of Correction hee will inevitably send us to the house of Destruction that is unto hell fire And therefore whensoever God brings us into the School of Affliction let us labour to bee good Schollars in it and to answer all those ends aimes and designs which God hath in afflicting of us Let us pray to God that our afflictions may bee Divine Hammers to break our hearts for sin and from sin may make the world bitter and Christ more precious may prove and improve our graces and may put an edge upon all holy duties There are two things I would have you in an especial manner to labour after 1 Labour when afflicted to know the meaning of Gods Rod. Gods people are to labour to know the meaning of Gods Rod. 2 That the good you get by afflictions may abide upon you after your recovery from them 1 You must labour to know the meaning of Gods Rod and what the particular arrant is which hee hath to you in the day of your distresses you must do as David did 2 Sam. 21.1 hee inquired of the Lord to know the reason why hee sent a Famine amongst them So must you you must pray as Job doth Job 10. 2. Shew mee O Lord wherefore thou contendest with mee When the cause of a disease is found out it is half cured Your great care therefore must bee to study to know the particular cause and reason why God turns your prosperity into adversity The Prophet Micah tells us Micah 6.9 That the Rod hath a voyce and that the man of wisdome shall see Gods Name upon it There is a great measure of spiritual Art and Wisdome required to inable a man to hear this voice and to understand the language of it A spiritual Fool cannot do it Quest What must wee do that wee may understand the voice of the Rod How wee may know the meaning of Gods Rod. Answ You must know that the Rod of God ordinarily speaks three languages it is sent for correction for sin for the tryal and exercise of Grace and for instruction in holiness Sometimes indeed it is sent only for tryal and instruction and not at all for sin Upon this account was Job afflicted and the blinde man Joh. 9. 3. But for the most part it hath a threefold voice it is appointed for instruction probation and also for correction Lam. 3. 39. Isa 42. 24. Luk. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Quest How shall a man know whether his afflictions bee only for tryal and instruction and not at all for sin Answ The safest and best way for a Christian in this case is to beleeve that all his afflictions are both for tryal and instruction and also for sin Indeed when hee seeth another man who is very godly grievously diseased hee may charitably beleeve that this is for his tryal and not for his sin but when it is his own case then as D. Ames saith most excellently aequissimum tutissimum Dea gratissimum est ut in afflictionibus omnibus peccata nostra intueamur quae illas vel directè procurarunt vel saltem promeruerunt Quamvis enim omnes afflictiones non imittuntur semper directè precipuè propter peccatum peccatum tamen est omnium afflictionum fons fundamentum Rom. 5. 12. It is most equal most safe and most acceptable to God to have an eye upon our sins which have either directly procured them or at lest

mee again beseech you to take heed of worldly-mindednes This will quickly betray you into Apostacy from Christ and from the truths of Christ A man who loves the world will Judas-like betray Christ for thirty peeces Hee will part with his Religion rather than with his estate This sin is the root of all evill it exposeth a man to all temptations to hurtful lusts to all errors and all 1 Tim. 6. 9 kinde of sorrows It will drown your souls in perdition Hee that seeks things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 below shall have his Heaven below The Apostle saith expresly that they who minde earthly things their Phil. 3.19 end is damnation Therefore let mee once again repeat it Take heed lest you bee like the Thorny ground Let not the cares riches and pleasures of the World choak the good seed that is weekly sown in your hearts 8 Let it bee your morning and evening thought what shall become of you Momentum unde pendet aeternitas to all eternity and labour so to use things temporal as not to lose the things that are eternal Remember that this life is a moment upon which eternity depends and according as you spend this Momentancum quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat moment so you shall bee for ever happy or for ever miserable Remember that the pleasures of sin are but for a moment but the punishments of sin are everlasting 9 Look upon Sin as the greatest of evils greater than poverty imprisonment banishment or death it self chuse the greatest affliction rather than commit the least sin If Hell Anselme were on the one side and Sin on the other chuse rather to go into Hell than to sin against God For Sin is a greater evil than Hell because it is the cause of Hell and more opposite to God who is the chiefest good than Hell is For God is the Author of Hell which hee hath provided for all unbeleevers and impenitent persons But it is blasphemy in the highest degree to say That hee is the Author of Sin Look upon Christ as the greatest good greater than health wealth liberty or life Love Christ more than you love your estates or lives Hee that loves Christ more than the world will not for sake Christ to imbrace the world Hee that fears sin more than affliction will not sin to avoid affliction 10 Rest not contented with that measure of grace you have attained unto but labour to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Remember that the Scripture doth not only perswade you to get into Christ but to grow up into Christ not only to bee Righteous but to bee filled with the fruits of Righteousness c. Remember Eph. 4 1● Phil. 1.11 that saying of Christ to whom much is given of them much is required Luk. 12. 48 God hath given you much you have plentiful means of salvation and you have had them for many years hee expects from you not only good fruit but much good fruit not only thirty-fold and sixty-fold but an hundred-fold Where the Husbandman bestows most cost hee expects most fruit The more a Merchant adventures by Sea the greater return hee looks for God hath done more for you than for many others and therefore hee expects that you should do some singular thing for him Hee looks you should bee more humble more heavenly more knowing than others If the Sun should give no more light than a little Candle to what purpose hath God given it so much light If you that have Sun-like abilities do no more good than those who have but half your abilities to what purpose have you them It is a true saying As our Crescentibus doni● crescunt rationes donorum gifts increase so must our account increase You shall answer at the great day not only for your gifts but for the measure of them Remember that God doth not only require service from you but service proportionable to the means and mercies you injoy Hee that hath but one Talent shal● answer but for one but you that have five or ten Talents must bee answerable according to the quantity as well as the quality of them 11 Labour to diffuse those grace● which God hath given you and to communicate them to those with whom you converse True grace i● of a spreading nature and therefore compared to leaven which diffuseth i● self into the whole lump and to Salt that seasoneth all those things with which it is mingled Assoon as the woman of John 4. 29. 30 Samaria had found out the Messias shee leaves her water-pot and goeth into the City to tell others what God had done for her Assoon as Cornelius had received the Message from the Angel to send for Peter hee calls together his kinsmen and neer friends that they together with him might bee made partakers of Gospel-grace A true Act. 10 24 Christian is like a Needle touched with the Loadstone A Needle truly touched draweth another and that will draw another and that another Whosoever hath his heart truly touched by effectual grace will labour to convert others and they others Philip will draw Nathaniel Andrew will draw Peter And Peter being converted will labour to strengthen his Brethren There is a natural instinct in all creatures to make others like themselves as fire will turn all things that come neer it into fire and there is a spiritual instinct in all converted Christians to convert others It is as natural to a true Christian to make others true Christians as it is for a man to beget a man True grace is not only of a communicative but of an assimilating nature See then that you labour by seasonable and religious admonitions and exhortations by communicating of experiences and especially by the shining pattern of a holy life and conversation to bring all those with whom you converse unto Jesus Christ That man hath not grace in truth who put sit in a dark Lanthorne 12 Labour to bee good in your Relations good Husbands and good Wives good Parents and good Children good Masters and good Servants Remember that that man cannot bee a good man who is not good in his Relation Hee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Husband or a good Child or a good Father c. Shee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Wife and so of the rest and the reason is Because the same God who commands the Husband to love God commands him to love his Wife the same God who commands the Woman to obey God commands her to obey her Husband There is the same stamp of authority upon our duties towards our Relations as upon our duties towards God therefore bee sure to make conscience of relative duties 13 Joyn works of mercy and charity together with your profession of piety and holiness For God hates a penurious niggardly and covetous professor of Religion Let that saying

end and Faiths end But a Religious Christian lives upon Promises and not upon Creatures and therefore when Creatures fail hee hath the Promises to live on Hee labours to taste the sweetness that is in them Hee lives upon Promises when Providence seems to run cross to Promises They are his fiery Chariot to carry him up to Heaven If then these insuing Sermons inflame thy affections with a greater love to the Promises and a greater care to meditate on them and to get an interest in them thou hast cause to bless God and to pray for Thy unworthy Servant in Christ E. C MEDITATE ON THE Promises SERMON IV. PSAL. 119. 92. Unless thy Law had been my delights I should then have perished in mine Affliction HEe that would improve the Promises so as to make them spiritual bladders to keep him from being drowned in the deep waters of affliction must not only make a Catalogue of the Promises but hee must also 2 Fixedly and seriously meditate on them first hee must treasure up these We must not only make a Catalogue of the Promises but meditate on them Jewels in his heart and then unlock them by meditation first hee must make his Nose-gay and then smell of it The Word of God as I have said is as a Garden full of excellent Promises as so many choice flowers And it is our duty to walk often in this Garden to gather up all the flowers that lye scattered in it into several Nose-gayes to binde them together if I may so speak with the threed of Faith and then every day to smell of them The Promises are the Saints Legacies left them by Christ in his last will and Testament The Saints are called the heirs of the Promises Heb. 6. 17. And if they would bee filled full of joy in the day of their distress they must bee frequent in reading these Legacies The Promises are as it were the breasts of God full of the Milk of grace and comfort And it is our duty to bee sucking out by meditation the milk of grace and comfort contained in them That which the Prophet saith of the Church of Christ may as truly bee said of the Promises of Christ Rejoyce O yee people of God and bee glad all yee that have an interest in the Promises Rejoyce for Isa 66.10 11. joy all yee that are mourners in Sion that yee may suck and bee satisfied with the breasts of their consolations that yee may milk out and bee delighted with the abundance of joy and comfort contained in them The Promises are the Saints aqua vitae as one calls them the Saints cordials the Saints plank to swim to Heaven upon the Saints fiery Chariot to carry them up to Heaven And the great reason why they walk so uncomfortably so disconsolately and so unbeleevingly in the time of their tribulation is because they do not smell of these Nose-gayes they do not chew these cordials they do not read over these spiritual Legacies they do not by serious meditation and consideration suck out the comfort comprehended in them For as fire will not warm us unless wee tarry at it and a Bee cannot suck out the hony that is in a flower unless shee abide upon it no more can any child of God receive supportation and consolation from the Promises in the hour of temptation unless hee seriously and solemnly ponder and meditate on them There is a double difference between a presumptuous sinner and a poor humble distressed child of God 1 A Presumptuous sinner studieth The difference between a presumptuous sinner and a true child of God in relation to the Promises nothing but the promising Word Hee sleights the commanding and the threatning Word The Word commands him to keep holy the Sabbath day not to love the world not to lust but hee turns a deaf ear to it The Word threatneth to wound the hairy scalp of every one that goeth on in his wickednesse but because God is patient and long suffering therefore he regards it not But as for the Promising VVord hee snatcheth at it he doth not truly lay hold on it but snatcheth at it before it belongs to him and spider-like sucks the poison of sin out of it and makes of it a cradle to rock himself asleep in sinful courses Because God hath promised that whensoever a Sinner turns from his sins which hee hath committed hee shall surely live and not dye therefore hee delaies and prorogues his turning from sin But now a poor distressed humble Christian fails on the contrary part hee pores upon the commanding and threatning Word but never ponders the promising VVord God saith hee commands mee to love him with all my heart and soul to wash my heart from iniquity to love my enemies to cut off my right hand and pluck out my right eye c. But I cannot perform these commands therefore surely I shall never bee saved God saith hee hath threatned to curse every one that continueth not in every thing that is written in his Law to do it and therefore surely I am accursed But hee never studies nor ponders the promising Word for if hee did hee Three observeable things about the Promises would quickly know three things for his everlasting comfort 1 That there is nothing required by God in his VVord as our duty but God hath either promised to bestow it upon us as his gift or the Saints have prayed to God for it as his gift God commands us to love him but hee hath promised to circumcise our hearts to love him c. Deut. 30. 6. God commands us to fear him to turn our Ezek. 18. 31. selves from our transgressions and to make our selves a new heart and a new spirit But hee hath promised to give Ezek. 36. 26. Jer. 32.40 us a new heart and a new spirit to put his fear in our hearts that wee shall never depart from him and to turn us Mic. 7. 19 Rom. 6. 14. from our evil waies The Saints of God also have prayed unto God for this as the fruit of his free mercy Jer. 31. 18. Lam. 5. 21. There is nothing commanded in the Covenant of works but God hath promised in the Covenant of grace in some measure to work it in us for hee hath promised to work all our works in us and to write his Law Isa 26.12 not one Commandement of it only but the whole Law in our hearts and to put it in our inward parts and to cause Jer. 31. 33 Ezek. 36. 27. us to walk in his waies 2 That God under the Covenant of grace will for Christs sake accept of less than hee requires in the Covenant of works Hee requires perfection of degrees but hee will accept of perfection of parts hee requires us to live without sin but hee will accept of our sincere indeavours to do it If there bee a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and