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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	let_v	lord_n	see_v	4,698	5	3.6890	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33249	A second defense of the present government under K. William and Q. Mary delivered in a sermon preached October the 6th 1689 at St. Swithin's in Worcester ... by R. Claridge.	Claridge, Richard, 1649-1723.	1689 (1689)	Wing C4435; ESTC R37670	18,377	36

wherein so many Amazing Providences concurr'd that had not our Eyes been Spectators and our Ears Hearers our Reason would be silenc'd and our Faith baffled If any thing can shake off our Lethargy and work in us a through Resentment of a Mercy methinks it should be this Behold Our Adversaries confounded and we preserv'd a Victory obtain'd without Fighting and a vast Army defeated without Garments roll'd in Bloud For it pleased God to come to us as once to his Prophet Elijah not in the Great and strong Wind that rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces nor in the Earth-quake nor in the Fire but in the still small Voice 1 Kings 19. 11 12. O wonderful work the Pit that was digg'd the Diggers are fallen into the snare that was laid has catch'd the Fowlers the Lion that stood open-mouth'd to devour hath deserted his Prey and the Babel-Builders were confounded in their Work and Language in an instant Those superstitious Oratories which the blind Devotion of Four Years erected the irresistable Zeal of Four Weeks levelled with the ground And the Breaden God who had taken possession of those Buildings was so unable to protect his Votaries that he could neither guard himself nor make his escape without their Assistance who gave him his Divinity And for their Great and Mighty Warlike Preparations the Lord turned the Wisdom of the Wise as he did the Counsel of Ahithophel into Foolishness and dampt the Hearts of their Men of Courage that One seemed to chase a thousand and two to put ten thousand to flight Deut. 32. 30. Thus fell the Popish Dagon before the Protestant Ark. Thus tumbled the Walls of the Roman Jericho at the mighty sounding of the Gospel-Trumpets And so let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but for everbe the Helper and Defender of thy People III. Let us see what present Supports the same Merciful Providence that brought us hitherto doth afford us As God was pleased to hear our Cries and own our Cause at the lowest Ebb so doth he notably maintain and support it He brought us not out of an Aegypt to destroy us in a Wilderness but hath given us an assurance of enjoying the Promised Land. Though we have not his Miraculous yet we have his Gracious Presence and instead of the Cloudy and Fiery Pillars we have the Glorious Light of the Gospel to conduct us We have another Moses too who hath Burnt the Molten Calf renewed the Tables of the Law and restored us to the Free Exercise of our Religion Nay is he not a publick spirited Prince the Repairer of the Breach the Restorer of Paths to dwell in Isaiah 58. 12. A Josiah to destroy Idolatry and a Zerubbabel to build the Temple of the Lord Doth not his singular Zeal to the Reform'd Religion sufficiently appear by what he hath already done and is now doing for it And is not his Moderation known unto all Men I mean to all unprejudic'd and disinterested Men his Moderation in the Exercise of his Royal Power shewing kindness even to the Unthankful and in the absolute Command of his Affections keeping them always within the bounds of sound Reason But above all his Moderation in Judgment about matters in Religion too hotly managed on both sides by contending Protestants to the disturbance of the Church's Peace and the Papist's Advantage By which Moderation I do not understand some low degree of Knowledge or Indifferency in Religion but a Sober Humble Modest and Charitable Judgment not tenacious of Disputable and Problematical Conceptions not censorious of others but allowing a Latitude in those things which are Matters Questionum non Fidei of Questions and not of Faith. And it is heartily to be wish'd that the same Moderation were in all his Protestant Subjects that we might live in an happy Union and Correspondence and our Religion be settled upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of a Relapse into the like Miseries we were in at any time hereafter To further so good a Work let us be as forward as the Children of Israel were to build the Tabernacle as they brought their Bracelets and their Ear-Rings and Jewels of Gold Exod. 35. 22. So let us bring our Humility Moderation and Prayers Be sure the Blessing of Heaven will attend our charitable Endeavours in this kind for what the Apostle saith in another case I may in the present He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men Rom. 14. 18. If we would but lay down our Prejudices which we suck'd in with our Milk as one not long since hath told the World he did his Passive Obedience and resolvedly submit to the impartial Arbitration of Scripture expounded by the Fathers of the first and purest Ages a Comprehension would not be opposed but promoted In those things which are said to be De Fide and absolutely necessary to Salvation we all agree the difference mostly lies in the Ritual and Disciplinary part wherein the mutual Condescension and Compliance of Us and our Brethren might render an Accordance easie But to return if I may call this a Digression to the subject in hand our Supports are as many as the Benefits we enjoy upon which I might enlarge but in a word the unparallel'd Accomplishments of our King and Integrity of our Parliament the steady Alliance of our Confederates the general Quiet at Home and wonderful Success of our Arms Abroad loudly proclaim the Divine Assistance and certainly foretell a prosperous Futurity if not prevented by our Impieties For IV. From what God hath already manifested himself for us in and the present supports he affords us we have a fair prospect of his Care and Protection of us for the time to come There is all the probability imaginable of a glorious conclusion of a work so happily begun and carried on Ex perceptione praeteritorum Munerum firma fit expectatio futurorum The receipt of former mercies is a firm ground for the expectation of future We may argue either from God's Attributes His Promises or The Examples of the Faithful 1. From his Attributes his Immutability assures us he is the same God still his Compassion that he will commiserate us and his Power and Fidelity that he is able to perform what his Wisdom sees fit for us in as ample manner as before 2. From his Promises touching which this Rule is to be observed That being generally made to all or particularly to some they are equally applicable to any in any condition unto which they are suitable For they all meet in Christ as the several Lines of a Circumference do in the Center and so are no otherwise divisible to several Believers than the Exigence of their particular Estates doth diversify them and so fit them for such Promises as now to others or at other times to themselves would be unseasonable When therefore we meet with any Promise in Scripture which

is parallel to our case we may apply it to our selves and it does as truly belong to us as to whom it was made if we are under equal Circumstances and Qualifications For whether things present or things to come they all pertain to Believers because they are Christ's and Christ is God's 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All our Title to the Promises depends upon our Covenant-Relation Now the Covenant consists of Mercies promised on God's part and Duties commanded on ours which are so inseparably connected that the latter must of necessity be done to give us any rational inducements to hope the former For God doth not fulfill his Promises in us only but by us too and those things which in regard of his Word are his Promises are also in regard of his Command our Duties 3. From the Examples of the Faithfull who all along proceed upon this Topick and have left their Experiences of God's Deliverances for Documents to us we may draw the like comfortable inferences that they did Thus when the Israelites were afraid of the Giants of the Land Moses encouraged them with this Argument Dread not neither be afraid of them the Lord your God which goeth before you he shall sight for you according to all that he did for you in Aegypt before your Eyes And in the Wilderness where thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his Son in all the way that ye went until ye came into this Place Deut. 1. 29 30. 31. And again I commanded Joshua saith he at that time saying Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two Kings So shall the Lord do unto all the Kingdoms whither thou passest ye shall not fear them for the Lord your God he shall sight for you Deut. 3. 21 22. So David argued when he was to fight Goliah The Lord that delivered me out of the Paw of the Lyon and out of the Paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine 1 Sam. 17. 37. And so the Faithful in the Prophet Art not thou he that didst cut Rahab and wound the Dragon Art not thou he that didst dry the Sea the waters of the great deep that madest the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head Isa 51. 9 10 11. To these and the like Examples which are written for our Learning that we through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope we may subjoyn our own Experience of God's goodness whereof no Nation ever had more and which the Apostle saith worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. and learn from the Passages of God's Providence to Dr. Reynolds cod loc our selves or others to treasure them up that they may be for Rules and Precedents to us for after-times Let us then though we are too apt to doubtfulness and diffidence look forward with Faith and Confidence banishing all despairing and uncomfortable thoughts to those Halcion-days that are coming on And resting intirely on him who hath promised not to turn away from his People to do them good that he will Ordain in his own good time that long wished for Peace in Church and Common-wealth which seems to be a work reserv'd for the WORTHY PATRIOTS of this Age and unto which appears a general Inclination in Protestants of every denomination The uses of this Discourse may serve 1. For Reproof 2. For Caution and 3. For Encouragement 4. For Reproof and that of two sorts of Persons The Bigotted Papist and The Titulary Protestant 1. The Bigotted Papist who obstinately shuts his Eyes and will not see the wonderful Hand of God in our Deliverance who turns all into Ridicule and chooses rather to attribute his disappointments to Cross-Accidents Perfidious Souldiers a Poyson'd Nation mistaken Counsels and the like than to that Eternal Mercy Wisdom and Justice which deny'd success to him and gave it to us Who continues in the Communion of that Apostatical Church which God hath visibly cast off and forsaken for her spiritual Adulteries and other detestable Crimes Whereas he should endeavour by Humiliation Fasting and Prayer to come to a right understanding of God in his Judgments and his in them that they are the fruits of Sin and should lead him to Repentance and teach him Righteousness There is a twofold use of God's Judgments the one sensual and the other spiritual the first is that which hardned Impenitents make of them but the second is appropriate to the truly Faithful These hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. 9. but they draw Judiciary upon their wilful Obduration St. Augustin saith of Pharaoh Deus induravit per justum judicium Pharao per Liberum Arbitrium He hardned himself Voluntarily and God Judicially Exod 7. 13 10 1 20 27. For God is often said in Scripture to harden the Heart but he doth it not by infusing any Evil Qualities but sometimes by forsaking and not hindering the Sinner and sometimes by delivering him over to vile affections and a reprobate Mind Rom. 1. 26 28. This distinction is sound but the Blasphemy of Florinus and the Heresy of Pelagius must be carefully avoided It is one of the saddest Symptoms in the World when the Sinner is not softened under the mighty hand of God but Anvile-like grows harder under Blows and a most infallible sign that God will not desist but proceed in his Judgments against the Incorrigible because he will overcome when he judges and for that reason will judge till he overcomes If therefore the Papist will stop his Ears closeh is Eyes that he may neither hear with the one nor see with the other his Resolution is desperate and madness incureable and God will leave him to himself as he did Ephraim because he is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4. 17. But as he is not Spiritually wrought upon so neither is he to any degree of Common Civility for he is so very ingrateful to those that give him his Life that were it in his Power he would requite their Clemency with a barbarous Assassination And this he gives us occasion to believe not only by his unquiet deportment and inveterate Rancour which expresses it self in Groundless Calumnies False Reports Seditious Libels Bitter Invectives and Perpetual Plotting against the Government But also by the avow'd Doctrines and Authentick Principles of his Church for having implicitly resign'd his Soul to the Paternal Conduct of those Holy Fathers the Priests and Jesuits our Sacramentally-sworn Enemies he is under a Filial Obligation to destroy us as oft as those Blessed Guides shall see it good for the catholick-Catholick-Cause 2. The Titulary Protestant falls next under Reproof and deserves to be reprehended as publickly as he privately attacks us 'T is true he pretends to be of our Communion but seeing