Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	time_n	year_n	3,367	5	4.7277	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67563	The case of Joram a sermon preached before the House of Peers in the Abby-church at Westminster, January 30, 1673/4 / by Seth, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.	1674 (1674)	Wing W817; ESTC R19529	17,156	39

The Case of Joram A SERMON Preached before the House of Peers IN THE Abby-Church at WESTMINSTER January 30. 1673 4. BY SETH Lord Bishop of SARUM LONDON Printed by Andrew Clark for James Collins at the King's Arms in Ludgate-street MDCLXXIV Die Jovis 5 o. Februarii 1673. Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament that the Thanks of this House be and is hereby given to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury for his pains in Preaching before the Lords in the Abby Church at Westminster on Friday the thirtieth day of January last and that he be desired to Print and Publish his Sermon then Preached John Browne Cler. Parliam The CASE of JORAM 2 KINGS VI. and last Verse And he said This evil is of the Lord Wherefore should I wait upon the Lord any longer THE cause of this Solemn and most Honourable Assembly at this time is to humble our selves in consideration of a most grievous and horrible Calamity which was some years since as upon this day brought upon these Kingdoms by the Sacrilegious and Bloody Martyrdom of our late most Excellent Sovereign to afflict our souls in Contemplation of our sins which brought upon us that heavy Judgment with humble penitent broken and contrite Hearts to wait upon the Lord to implore his Mercy in removing from us the guilt of that innocent blood in pardoning our Offences and taking away his Plagues and Judgments from us To work our selves to such a frame or temper of spirit there are two ways or methods either by shewing the Necessity and Utility the Beauty and the Comeliness of such a temper and the Happiness which will follow thereupon by convincing us how much it is our Duty and our Interest and Concernment or else by having before our eyes the indecency and absurdity the folly and madness wickedness and misery how much it is against our Duty and against our Interest to be found in a contrary temper and disposition Of these two Methods we find that Solomon in his Book of the Preacher made choice of the later That to bring men to fear God and keep his Commandments he thought it best to convince the world of the vanity of all other courses That giving his mind to understand the reason of things he applied himself to know the folly of wickedness and the wickedness of folly and madness And to bring men to wisdom and virtue he thought it the best expedient to represent to them the absurdity and ugliness of folly and wickedness Something like to this I have proposed to my self at this time and to that end I have chosen to submit to your consideration this strange and extravagant instance in the Text. Where that I may the sooner arrive at what I aim at I shall not spend time in disputing the Author of the words but with the best Interpreters as I conceive suppose them to have been the words of Joram King of Israel and in some measure to collect and raise a true idea or character of him I must draw you a little back into the Story Our Author I say was Joram he was the Son of Ahab and Jezabel and King of the ten Tribes of Israel his capital City was Samaria his adjacent neighbour on the North was Benhadad King of Syria who now made War against him Joram not able to keep the Field was driven up into Samaria and there was obstinately besieged The City was a fenced or fortified City and Benhadad would not storm it but resolved to take it by Famine And the Famine here prevailed to a degree almost incredible the prices of commodities so great the diet to which they were reduced so vile an Asses head was sold for 80 pieces of silver a cab of Pigeons dung for 5. So vile nay so exceedingly monstrous and unnatural Can a woman saith the Prophet Isaiab forget her child Here two women conspire together and against the laws of God and nature enter into an engagement to act that which you will abhor to hear to devour their tender little ones and resume into their bodies that fruit whereof they had lately been delivered And because one of them repents of her engagement the other makes her appeal to Joram she spies him walking the rounds to view the Works and out of a complicated passion of hunger and sorrow envy and indignation in the agony and bitterness of her soul she cries out Help O King And now begin to take a character of this Joram He supposed she had cried for Victuals and he presently falls upon cursing the woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Septuagint Let not God help thee how should I help thee Well! this was indeed part of the womans grief but this was not all she had killed her child and her companion according to agreement had eaten part of him and now had withdrawn her own her spleen would now be satisfied as well as her stomach she therefore states her case and cries for Justice Indeed the case was lamentable enough to move the heart of any man and it put Joram's into motion but it was not into compassion but fury It had been reason that he should have rent his Heart and not his Garments but he rends his cloaths and falls into cursing and raving and into a wild extravagant resolution God do so to me and more also if the head of Elisha the Son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day What is the coherence or where is the Logick of this cursing and damning resolution How was Elisha concerned in what had happened Before he cursed the woman now he curses himself with a grievous curse God do so to me that is take away my life and more also that is in the language of our times God damn me if the head of Elisha But why must Elisha suffer what had he done had he devoured the child that was dead or hid the living child or brougt the Famine upon Samaria As if rage did submit to reason or from the wrath of man we were to expect the righteousness of God! that he should swear and curse there was no reason nevertheless for his Oaths sake he sends his Messenger to Elisha's house and presently follows to see the Execution Where to make up the hiatus betwixt his coming and uttering the words of the text we may conceive that Joram has there blustered out the Story of the woman That he hath raved at Elisha and blasphemed against the Lord himself and that in reply the Prophet and endeavoured to allay the passion and calm the storm of rage that was upon him That he had put him in mind of looking up to God the sender of all Publique Calamities exhorted him to humble himself under his mighty hand to wait upon him for deliverance to pray to him for succour and the like To all which he ungratiously rejoyns according to the tenor of the text You tell me of the Lord