Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	knowledge_n	see_v	2,585	5	3.6782	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43566	A sermon preached at Market Harborow in the county of Leicester, on the 17th day of February, 1684/85 being the day on which our Sovereign Lord James II was there proclaimed king, &c. / by Thomas Heyricke.	Heyrick, Thomas, d. 1694.	1685 (1685)	Wing H1755; ESTC R10744	14,600	41

supposed to exceed men in knowledge not so much from the purity of their essence as from their nearness to God and being continually in his presence with what submission ought we to obey the commands and directions of our Princes who are thus directed by God and how ought we to forbear censuring their Actions since our Souls are not elevated enough to know their ends and designs nor to see upon what center they turn round They have lofty conceptions that we are not capable of and the scene of things looks with one face to us that are below and with another to those above God gives them singular and extraordinary endowments that they may go in and out before his people What common mind is able to comprehend the goodness clemency and tenderness of a good King toward his people What Tongue is able to express that mercy so inherent to our Kings till it hath been almost fatal to them who can express that pity and compassion a King a true Father of his Country hath for an afflicted Nation David when he saw the Angel that smote the people cryed out Lo I have sinn'd I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thy hand be I pray thee against me and against my Fathers house 2 Sam. 24.17 When Iphigenia was to be Sacrificed the Painter drew the Spectators grief with all possible Art but when he came to her Father he drew a vaile over his head it being a grief not to be delineated in such a manner may the tenderness of a King to an afflicted people be a little shadowed out God who is all mercy fills them with mercy who is all wisdom gives them a liberal portion and directs them with his own right hand 2. By way of protection and defence the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord and who shall tear it thence in that hand that hath done so many wonders that mighty hand and out-stretched Arm he that touches him touches the apple of his eye he hides him under the shadow of his wing And though providence is interest in all things in earth as well as heaven in the concerns of a Peasant as well as of a Prince yet if in any thing it is more careful than other it is in the preservation of Princes And surely the miraculous protection both of our late Soveraign of blessed memory and this our present King from open force and private Conspiracy hath sufficiently shewed the finger of God was there So that the happiness of the King and the safety of the people is in the same hand the same arm protects them both I know there are too many men that seem to repine that the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord they would have it in their own they would prescribe rules and methods of Government and all should move according to the model laid in their own brains They that were but of yesterday would give Laws to the world and correct the ancient of days and they that know not what a day will bring forth would have the guidance of Providence for future ages and prescribe the limits in which it should move We have seen the times when men whether out of a belief that Providence wanted their helping hand and the wheels of it could not stir without their assistance or whether out of a distrust of the wisdom power justice or goodness of God is hard to determine had a design to alter the course of Nature and Succession against the Laws of God and Man and as if God did not know what was best for us so well as themselves as if Gods will was not the rule of Justice but they would call him to the Humane Bar as once his Vicegerent was served contrary to Gods revealed will they attempted such a piece of Injustice that the fairest Apology that can ever be made for it is that they would have done evil that good might come of it But it is no unusual thing when men are denyed their requests at the hands of God because they ask amiss to seek it by evil means as Saul in his despair went to the Witch of Endor 1 Sam. 28. that therefore we may not depend so much upon our selves and our own wisdom as that of God let us consider two things 1. The wisdom of God in whose hand the Kings heart is That there is an infinite wisdom that runs through the smallest causes effects and circumstances and that as the Spirit did upon the waters in the Creation Gen. 1. it doth brood upon the mighty frame and produces all those various occurrences that happen in the world will appear to any one that with a serious judgment doth consider the order of things either in Heaven Gods Throne or in Earth his Footstool 'T is writ in Heaven in glorious Characters the Sun Moon and Stars and 't is no less visible in this lower world every chive of grass sets it forth What branch of it is there that we can comprehend and what small stream of it is there that will not swallow us Heaven is not so much higher than the earth as Gods wisdom is above ours ours is not so much as a dust of the ballance or a drop to the ocean That small weak knowledge we have is conveyed to us by the sences by species and objects which being received are laid up in the brain like impresses of a Seal in wax from these we discourse argue conclude and after all our labour spent the deceitfulness both of the objects and of our sences considered and that neither any thing here below is capable of giving as true wisdom nor if it was were we capable of receiving it It appears that after all our wisdom is but elaborate folly and all our knowledge but an acquired madness and there is not one of the lowest rank of Angels but is as much superiour to us in knowledge as we are above the vilest Infect When on the contrary God knows all things by and in himself all things that were are or shall be without deceit imperfection confusion or mixture nor had this his knowledge any beginning or increase as ours but was from eternity to eternity is the cause of all things and contains all things in it self comprehends all things by one eternal immutable act of understanding and that in a moment what is our weak knowledge if compared to this got with labour and toyl by discourse reading and other helps blind and uncertain transitory and fading and at best of little use of lesser extent and least perfection But that which comes nearer to our present purpose will be the consideration of the wisdom of God in respect of the dispensations of Providence which produces great and glorious designs beyond the reach thought imaginations of men and contrary many times to their designs not unlike a skilful Architect when the Scheme of the building being contrived and modelled in his

careful thoughts allots to the workmen their several tasks without making them acquainted with the grounds and reasons of it Those men whom God ordains to bring his sacred purposes to pass at the same time perhaps have designs of their own and yet unknown to themselves are the instruments of his holy will This was visibly seen all along in the life of Joseph each Agent had his design apart no one trouble that fell upon the neck of the other but might have been to a natural eye looked on as a signal judgment yet all of them workt together the most unparellel'd instance of heavenly wisdom the advancement of Joseph the safety of his Fathers Family and the bringing them into Aegypt in order to the promised Canaan The Caldeans besiege Jerusalem and take it and carry away that miserable Nation captive the increasing their Dominion and filling themselves with spoil was that which stimulated them on but God's secret design was to punish that Idolatrous Nation and to fulfil his purpose so long foretold by his holy Prophets Let Vespacian besiege Jerusalem and reduce to ruinous heaps that City of God let him triumph in the Conquest of millions of that presuming stubborn and senceless people He carried on by rage and ambition undertakes it but God had a farther design and made him his Scourge to punish that execrable people to fulfill the Prophesie of our blessed Saviour Mat. 24.2 and to revenge the innocent Bloud of his well-beloved Son on that cursed Nation nay as the highest piece of Wisdom God can bring even good out of evil and what is looked upon as the most dreadful judgment becomes in the end the greatest mercy Attila from the farthest North brings an inundation of Goths into Italy and over runs all Christian Nations the holy men even of those times look'd upon this as an unparellel'd Judgment but God designed and brought other things to pass and whereas they thought all Religion and Learning was buried under the ruines of the Roman Empire God made those Barbarians a Scourge to Luxurious Rome then buried in Vice Sensuality and Effeminacy and what was the greatest his Wisdom ordered those Conquerours to be over come by those they had conquer'd and to be converted to Christianity Men design one thing and God another they contrive but God brings to pass at what time in what manner and to what end he himself best pleases O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his councellor or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced to him again for of him and to him and through him are all things to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever Rom. 11.33 I am apt to believe the not understanding and weighing this wisdom of Providence or the impatience of mens spirits that will not stand still and see the Salvation of God will not wait the leisure of Providence but judge and censure it before-hand hath been the cause of so many errours in judgment and so many worse in practice For we would have things move as fast as our thoughts and in that method that best pleaseth us He that looks carelesly and superficially upon Providence is like the blind man our Saviour cured Mark 8.24 that saw men as Trees walking But the deeper he searches the more satisfaction he finds till he sees every thing clearly And he that with impatience looks upon it finds things abortive and his mind is lost in the number of possible events For take the actions of Providence separately and they seem irregular disorderly and confused like Tapestry in broken pieces but put the parts together and they will shew their beauty and discover their genuine and surprizing symmetry We know not now what blessings lye in the womb of Providence for us why should we anticipate our misery by our fears and torment our selves before the time for those things that may never come For we are as oft deceived in our fears as we are in our hopes 'T is sure our Prudence as well as our duty to settle our minds upon God to leave all to his infinite wisdom who will order all things for our good much better than we could our selves The next thing which more peculiarly belongs to the Text is the power of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying his power which we render his hand This is sure what ever the infinite wisdom of God orders the infinite power of God brings to pass which is so great that it cannot be restrained to or censured by our weak imaginations nor must we think that that is impossible with God which to our weak capacities seem so For if there be many actions of men of which beasts are supposed to have no knowledge nor can comprehend the manner how or the reason why they were acted why should we expect to know the extent of Gods power since there is an infinitely greater distance between the God of Heaven and the wisest of the sons of men than there is between the best of men and the vilest Creature So that were we in greater slavery than the Jews under the Brick-kills of Aegypt in greater straights than they at the Red-Sea when the Mountains hemmed them in on both sides the Sea was before and their enemies behind did all humane helps fail and we were left a secure bait for destruction Yet the same God that parted the Red-Sea could make a passage for our escape and bring us out by wondrous means beyond our hopes For his arm is not shortned but his hand is stretched out still And we have reason to believe so when we consider that nothing is done but by this infinite power and nothing can be acted against it The highest Angels stand upon the brink of nothing and did God leave them to themselves but one moment they would fall into that gulph from whence of themselves they could never get out for as their passage from Nothing to Being was by an infinite power creating so their Fall from Being to Nothing again would necessarily follow without an infinite power preserving Nay not all the power of Angels wit of Men and industry of all Creatures joyned together could preserve a worm one moment without an influx of Being from God they would be as unable to preserve it as to create one anew The Nodus perpetuitatis as it is called by Plato is in the hands of God But as this power of God is the cause of all things and acts in all things so nothing can act against it all our endeavours are as vain as that mans would be that strove to stop a ship under sail by setting his shoulders to the side Pharaoh may harden his heart and not let the people of Israel go but they shall at last be brought out by an high hand Josephs