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 let_v see_v 3,024 5 2.9158 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A71020 A sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-hall, February the XIIth, 1691/2 by William Sherlock ... Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1692 (1692) Wing S3352; ESTC R41211 12,283 34

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

nothing so bad could be thought of but some Men had Scripture-Examples or Precepts or Prophesies or Parables to justifie it and therefore we must be aware of this as well as of all the other Arts and Stratagems of the Tempter In answer to this our Saviour proves that this Text could not mean that God would command his Angels to bear him up in their hands if he should fling himself from the Pinacle of the Temple because we are expresly forbid to make such Experiments of God's Protection as this It is written Thou shalt not tempe the Lord thy God To tempt is to try and to tempt God is to try what he will or can do for us beyond his Promise and beyond the ordinary Methods of his Providence especially when we either murmur against God for not answering our unreasonable demands or presume upon his favour to do that which he has forbid us to do or expect his Protection and Blessing when we put our selves out of the ordinary Protection of his Providence it were easie had I time to give instances of all these ways of tempting God the Temptation of our Saviour concerns the last I mentioned out of a vain-glorious humour and a presumption of God's peculiar favour to us voluntarily without any reasonable pretence much less necessity to thrust ourselves into apparent and unavoidable Dangers and expect God should save us by Miracles for this is what our Saviour was tempted to to fling himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple in a presumptuous confidence of God's care of him that he would command his Angels to bear him up in their hands This looks like Faith in God a plerephory of Hope and full assurance of his Love but indeed is Vanity Pride Insolence Presumption and a tempting of God It is such an Affront and Indignity as wise Men will not bear from their best Friends when they impose upon them not to do them a real kindness but to gratifie their vanity and humour in such Demands as a wise Man cannot honourably grant And yet there is a more dangerous and fatal Presumption then this when men have such a strong Imagination of their being the Sons the Chosen and Elect People of God that they think they cannot do any thing to forfeit God's Love they may make more bold with God's Laws then other Men for God sees no sin in his people nay indeed that it is no Sin to advance themselves and the Cause they have Espoused which they call the Glory of God by extraordinary means that is by transgressing all the known and ordinary Rules of Justice and Charity These are dangerous Temptations and we have seen the miserable Effects of them and therefore let no man think that he is so great a favorite of Heaven as to have God at his beck to save him by Miracles when he wilfully exposes himself to such Dangers as nothing but Miracles can Deliver him from much less to think that God will alter the nature of Good and Evil for his sake that he will dispense with his Laws Laws which are as Eternal and Unchangeable as his own Nature when ever such vain Enthusiasts pretend to serve themselves and his Glory by the breach of them It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God 3. These two Temptations were managed with great Art to deceive the third is open and bare-faced The Devil in express words tempts him to Idolatry with the Promise of all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them which he had drawn a beautiful Landskip of and shew'd him from a high Mountain All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Or as St. Luke relates it All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for it is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it Which in some sense was true at that time not that the Devil had the Supreme and Absolute disposal of Kingdoms for St. Paul assures us that all the Powers even of the Pagan World were of God and ordained by God But yet he was at that time the God of this World and had a more visible Kingdom than God himself The true Worshippers of God were at that time chiefly confined to Judea a very little spot of Earth but all the Power and Glory of the World was in the hands of Idolaters who Worshipped the Devil and wicked Spirits And the force of the Argument is as if he had said to our Saviour You call your self the Son of God and Worship him but will God do that for you which I can and will do if you Worship me You your self see that he has no Kingdom but Judea to bestow on you and that also is at present in the Hands of my Worshippers but what is that to all the Kingdoms of the World which are at my disposal and which you see your self are mine and under my Government But our Saviour without disputing the value of this World or what Power the Devil had in the disposal of it chides away the Tempter with Indignation be gone Satan For it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve But tho' Christ refused this proffer his pretended Vicar has taken it and revived the old Pagan Idolatry for the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them This is the prevailing Temptation to this day to corrupt Religion the Faith and Worship of God for some temporal Advantages too many Men think that the best Religion which will best serve a secular Interest And we have reason to think that too many do this and know what they do that their furious Zeal for a false Religion is not all Ignorance and Mistake but an undissembled Love of this World For can we think that the Devil never tempted any Man but Christ knowingly and willingly to renounce the true Religion and the true Worship of God for this World No doubt he does and very often prevails too and these knowing Idolaters who make a downright bargain to Worship the Devil for the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them are those who abuse the Ignorant and Credulous with a false and hypocritical Zeal But let us remember that we must Worship the Lord our God and him only must we serve Let us remember what our Saviour tells us What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Let us remember that the end of Religion is to please God to Glorifie him to be like him and to enjoy him for ever and this will give us a secure Victory over the World and the Devil Which God of his infinite Mercy grant through our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Honour Glory and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS 13 Rom. 1.