Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A65193
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Golgotha; or, A looking-glass for London, and the suburbs thereof Shewing the causes, nature and efficacy of the present plagues; and the most hopeful way for healing. With an humble witness against the cruel advice and practice of shutting-up unto oppression. Both now and formerly experienced to encrease, rather than prevent the spreading thereof. / By J.V. grieved by the poor, who perish daily hereby.
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J. V.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing V7B; ESTC R219530
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16,183
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28
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Golgotha OR A Looking-Glass for London and the Suburbs thereof Shewing the Causes Nature and Efficacy of the present PLAGUES and the most hopeful Way for Healing With an humble Witness against the Cruel Advice and Practice of SHUTTING UP unto Oppression Both now and formerly experienced to encrease rather than prevent the spreading thereof By J. V. grieved for the Poor who perish daily hereby Prov. 22. 22 23. Rob not the Poor because he is poor neither oppress the Afflicted in the Gate For the Lord will plead their cause and spoile the soul of those that spoiled them Psal 41. 1 3. Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his Sickness London Printed for the Author Anno 1665. GOLGOTHA OR A Looking-Glass for London c. WHoever would administer to the Cure must first consider the Cause and Nature of any Visitation and especially reverence any light given from God who hath been pleased above all to appropriate this of the Pestilence as his imediate Sword and hath acquainted the sons of men as with the Causes so with the dreadful Efficacy and Nature thereof Ezek. 6. 12. chap. 33. 27. 7. 12. 13. 15. and hath very expresly prescribed the Cure in its season ver 16. 2 Chron. 7. 14. signifying also when it will be so contagious and incurable as the usual way prescribed shall not effect the recovery of either Son or Daughter but him or them that find mercy so timely in a right spirit to apply the Preservative the Lord directeth Jer. 14 12. Ezek. 14. 16 21. and his wayes are everlasting Hab. 3. 6. So that the present Age will experience the advantage of timely applying or disadvantage of neglecting the antient Advice of God which having no Weekly Intelligencer or skilful Physician to set forth for lack of knowledge the people perish and the Plague doth double it self in defiance of all the Directions the most skilful Doctors do industriously divulge now daily in the world and that Decree is verifying but the more apparently Isa 2. 17. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be laid low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day And to that end therefore I shall endeavour to declare the Causes of the present Plagues The CAVSES To speak clearly hereunto we ought wisely to consider the Constitution of the Country under Visitation whether Prophane or Professors whether Egypt or Israel or a mingled people much of the same spirit and path who may be both then how-ever they differ in Profession partakers of the same Plagues Jer. 9. 26. Rev. 18. 4. Or whether for different Causes And first for a people of an Egyptian oppressing spirit at enmity with God and Christ and Saints and Scripture whereof this Nation under profession hath dreadfully abounded exceeding Sodom in odious beastly enmity and cruel Tumults and Decrees against the Lord's Name Wayes and People fulfilling in their Confederacy therein the Prophecy Psal 83. to the full Know ye for a certain as you have lived after the manner of Egypt so are you and now will be more plagued after the manner thereof till you in very good earnest let Israel go Exod. 11. 1 12. 33. yea till for your own safety you take the good counsel tendred unto you Psal 2. 10 11. For certain I am though some of God's Israel may fall by this Visitation yet is the Lord hereby gone out further for Salvation with his Anointed and this Pestilence is the Harbinger of that Saviour and High-One who will surely save his poor People from your fury who came out to scatter them as with a Whirlwind to fulfill the third of Habakkuk and those of them whose habitation in this tempest shall be the Most High shall only with their eyes behold and see the reward of the wicked Psal 91. 8 9. It therefore concerns you his most proud vile Adversaries to see what this Angel did to Egypt Exod. 9. 13 14 15. compared with Psal 78. 49 50 51. to Zidon Ezek. 28. 23 24. to the Assyrian 2 King 19. 25. and will do to Gog Ezek. 38. 22. and the Assyrian-like Adversary in the latter-day Micah 5. 15. O it concerns you to bewail your oppression and hacred of the Upright and to tremble timely unto true subjection to Him who is measuring the Earth and driving asunder the Nations and bringing the Tents of Cushan into affliction before whom goeth this Pestilence Hab. 3. 5 6 7. Your way is dark-and slippery and the Angel of the Lord doth chase you Psal 35. 6. You shall go into the clefts of the Rocks and into the tops of the ragged Rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty Isa 2. 21. Rev. 6. 16. Yea flee ye afar off live ye alene there shall the Angel of the Almighty search you Ezek. 33. 27. Amos 9. 2 5. This is the Word of the Lord against you save only such as shall be reckoned Israel by joyning timely and truly to the Lord in the day of these destructions Isa 19. 18. And in Israel the divers causes of this Visitation have been also signified plainly from their God As 1. Neglect of his true Worship Laws Statutes Ordinances Exod. 5. 3. Lev. 26. 25. Deut. 28. 15 21. and not being spiritual in them 1 Cor. 11. 29 30. 2. False-Worship or bringing into his Worship the detestible things of mens devising or invention to the changing his Ordinances Ezek. 5. 11 12 17. Isa 24. 5. 3. Unbelief especially under signs of his Power and Presence Numb 14. 11 12 37. 4. Carnal security and Confidence in our own righteousness Amos 9. 10. 5. Unthankfulness to the Lord under his Salvations Exod. 30. 12. 6. Pride Sensuality and Violence under Fulness and Prosperity Ezek. 7. 10. to 16. chap. 33. 26 27. Numb 11. 33. compared with Psal 78. 30 31. 7. Unprofitableness and impenitency under other Judgments Jer. 24. 8 9 10. Prov. 29. 1. 8. Fleshly confidence in the Numbers of Israel 2 Sam. 24. 15. 9. Wandring from the Lord after other lovers provoking him with their Abominations 1 Cor. 10. 8. Jer. 14. 10 11. Ezek. 6. 9 to 12. 10. Making false Refuges in times of Judgment Jer. 42. 17 22. compared with Isa 30. 1. ch 31. 2 3. Jer. 44. 12 13. 11. Discontent with the Lord 's righteous Judgements on eminent Malefactors Numb 16. 41 47 48. And 12. Hearkning to false Prophets that abuse Promises to comfort the Impenitent in want of humble and mournful subjection to the Lord 's fore Judgments for sin in bringing over them those that hate them and attempts to deliver themselves from the Sword of the Enemy by any fleshly strength without true repentance for the causes of their captivity Jer. 27. 8 to 13. chap. 28. 15. chap. 21. 4.
to 9. compared with Isa 22. 8 to 12. Moreover the Pestilence is a sign of and appointed to prepare for the near approaching Kingdom of Christ Monarchical in the Earth Psal 89. 23. Hab. 3. 5. Mat. 24. 7. Now in as much as all the aforesaid Causes for Sin have evidently abounded even in the Israel of God in this Generation we have great reason to expect however some may flatter themselves that by this Angel Israel may lose Children and in their prayer Hos 14. 2. Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously may finde it necessary to be brought upon a bed of visitation and dissolution too to separate from them some beloved sin which by no means short would be purged away Isa 22. 14. Hence God expostulateth with Israel Amos 4. 10 11. I have sent amongst you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt c. yet have ye not returned unto me I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom c. yet have ye not returned unto me Therefore will I do thus unto thee O Israel and because I will do thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel And indeed this is not only consistent with but contained in the New Covenant so to correct if need be to take away the heart of stone and to make us partakers of his Holiness And when I seriously consider what he did to his dear Moses Eli Job David Asaph Hezekiah Josiah Asa and others for less provocation I fear much what the Lord may do with me and others of his Children after so long Gentleness Goodness and Forbearance as necessary to vindicate his Name which we have polluted before the Heathen to their hurt Yea O the Pride Sensuality Covetousness Meanness Indifferency empty Formality and Fruitlesness in the Profession of the Worship of God yea Apostacy Perjury Treachery Hypocrisie and yet Impenitency under all that might intercede against Israel to the day What reason is there upon all to sigh therefore and smite upon the thigh before their eyes as Ezek. 21. 6 12. and to be apart in the Spirit of Grace and Supplication as Zech. 12. 10. Yea every one though upon the highest mountains of Faith and Expectation to be like Doves in the Valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity prescribed of God for escape from the Pestilence and other calamities Ezek. 7. 16. 9. 4. O therefore that poor sinners also with Israel may imbrace the advice in Isa 2. 10. to enter into the Rock and there hide in the dust for fear of the Lord and the glory of his Majesty And as in ver 22. to cease more from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Yet as it becomes all humbly to do what they can in a day of such Calamity I shall more particularly cast in my Mite towards the Cure of this Contagion with my dissent from and witness against two things directed by the Colledge-Doctors The CURE In speaking to the Cure I shall first shew what is not likely to effect it 2dly What is and lastly giving those that have worthily gone before me their real due in the prescript of outward Medicines I shall cast in my Mite of that sort also in addition only to any thing I have seen without detraction from any or seeking gain or the honour which is from men I trust but that which is of God only It is not then first to look to the Physicians how able or eminent soever wherein good Asa failed 2 Chron. 16. 12. and hath but too many followers Neither would this sort at any time and much less now be as other diseases much abated by all the Doctors in the world except to humbled souls as Hezekiah to whom then poor Isaiah went and may go again successfully with his bunch of Figs which gave a reverence to the use of outward means but in the second place Though till God weary them with his hand it 's feared men will arrogate his Healings to their Art when in tender mercy to his People or for further probation it may in a moment cease or be abated as at this time in Holland not I believe as the effect of the Pouder nor Perfume so much boasted of in every News-book I am perswaded to further provocation and infection which hath doubled weekly since the published stories of the infallibleness thereof which consists I fear but in the filling the purse of some of the Projectors And as to the publick Order of the Colledge-Doctors though I could wail over the view of those strong-scented Ingredients of Pride and Presumption in the latter part of their Epistle as tending to the infection of themselves beyond their skill to avoid or cure and others that have them in too high esteem to fulfil the Word of the Lord Isa 2. 17 18. Yet I count my self for my Country and Conscience-sake obliged humbly to witness against two principal parts of their Advice only with reverence indeed to most of their Prescripts which yet exceed neither their fore-fathers nor add much if any thing to the common knowledge capacity and experience of an ordinary man in this day of removing the face of the covering that hath been over the face of all Nations But first their Advice of observing Church-Orders for Prayer as in former times I desire may be carefully mingled with the Counter-Poisons of the Scripture-discoveries already laid down concerning False-worship and neglect of true as principal causes of Contagion so as the former times they speak of may be explained to be such as Phineas Moses and Samuel Noah Daniel and Job David Jehoshaphat Isaiah Hezekiah Ezekiel Jeremiah c. or men of like spirit influenced in Solemn Intercession acceptably to turn away Wrath from a provoking Generation and no times wherein the wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land which is on record to be to Visitation and Ruine Jer. 5. 29 30 31. else their Direction is hereby dissented from But secondly I humbly dissent also from their Direction for shutting-up unto such oppression and hazard of both sick and well shut up and others as is unavoidable ruine to many after the manner thereof and so an high provocation to him who hath torn and who onely can heal who hath smitten and can bind up Hos 6. 1. and who visiteth with Pestilence as I have shewed for violence and I fear increaseth it for such continuance thereof Now because some carelesly dream of Scripture-colour in the case I shall shew you first how cruelly remote it is from that case 2dly How much it errs from that standing Rule amongst men Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets 3dly What ill effects it naturally hath towards the encrease of Plagues 4thly Appeal to the experience of all reflecting upon former and present times