Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	lord_n	see_v	word_n	3,071	5	3.9363	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44689	The right use of that argument in prayer from the name of God on behalf of a people that profess it by John Howe.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1682 (1682)	Wing H3038; ESTC R29443	33,646	66

making a right judgement His wisdom holiness and justice which appeared in putting a people so related to him under seasonable rebukes and discountenance when the state of the case and the methods of his Government required it And so much the rather because they were so related According to that You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Amos 3. 2. The matter here to be disputed was not whether it did not occasion a present dishonour to the God of Israel to let the enemy have such a seeming ground of spiteful suggestions concerning him as if he were impotent or variable or false to them that had intrusted themselves to his protection and care but whether that dishonour were not recompenst with advantage by the greater glory that accrued to him afterwards And this also is the matter that must come under judgement if at length he should finally cast off such a people whether upon the whole all things being considered and taken together it be not more for the honour of his name and the reputation of his rectoral attributes to break off such a relation to them than continue it Wherein he is not concern'd to approve himself to the opinion of fooles or half-witted persons and whose shallow judgment too is govern'd by their disaffection but to such as can consider Perhaps to such as shall hereafter rise up in succeeding ages For he is not in haste His steady duration commensurate with all the successions of time and which runs into Eternity can well admit of his staying till this or that frame and contexture of providence be compleated and capable of being more entirely viewed at once and till calmer minds and men of less interested passions shall come to have the considering of it And in the mean time he hath those numberless myriads of wise and holy sages in the other world the continual observers of all his dispensations that behold them with equal unbyast minds and from the evidence of the matter give their concurrent approbation and applause with all the true members of the Church on earth Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Rev. 15. 3. But it is enough and much more considerable to approve himself to himself and that all his dispensations are guided according to the steady eternal Reason of things which is an inviolable law to him from which he never departs and from the perpetual uniform agreement of all his providences whereto an indubious glory will result unto him that will never admit the least Eclipse or ever be capable of being drawn into dispute And according whereto it will appear if ever he forsake such a people the concernment of his name and glory in the matter was the great inducement to it that he did even owe it to himself and had not otherwise done right to his own name And whatsoever might be argued from it to the contrary will be found capable of a clear and easie answer so as that the weight of the argument will entirely ly on this side For 1. As to his Power he hath reason to be ever secure concerning the reputation of that having given and knowing how further to give when he pleases sufficient demonstrations of it otherwayes Nor was it ever his design to represent himself as a Being of meer Power which of it self hath nothing of moral excellency in it nor do the appearances of it tend to beget that true notion of God in the minds of men which he designed to propagate otherwise than as the glory of it should shine in conjunction with that of his other Attributes that are more peculiarly worthy of God more appropriate to him and more apt to represent him to the world as the most sutable object of a Religious veneration Whereas meer power is capable of having place in an un-intelligent nature and in an intelligent tainted with the most odious impurities He never desir'd to be known among men by such a name as should signifie power only un-accompani'd with wisdom holiness c. And 2. For his wisdom it is seen in pursuing valuable ends by methods sutable to them and becoming himself It became the absolute Soveraignty of a God to select a nation that he would favour more than other nations but would ill have agreed with his wisdom to have bound himself absolutely to them so to favour them howsoever they should demean themselves 3. His bounty and goodness though it found them no better than other people was to have made them better Nor was it any disreputation to his goodness to divert its current when they after long tryal do finally resist its design 4. His Clemency must not be made liable to be mistaken for inadvertency or neglect And to give the world cause to say Tush God seeth not neither is there knowledge in the most high Nor for indifferency and unconcernedness what men do as if good and bad were alike to him And that such as do evil were good in the sight of the Lord and he delighted in them words wherewith he sometime complain'd that men wearied him Mal. 2. 17. He is not to redeem the reputation of one attribute by the real prejudice of another i. e. the offense and grievance to it which acting directly against it if that were possible would occasion 5. His sincerity will be highly vindicated and glorifi'd when it shall be seen that there is nothing more of severity in such a dispensation when ever it takes place than was plainly exprest in his often repeated fore-warnings and threatnings even long before And therefore 6. He is herein but constant to himself and should be more liable to the charge of mutability and inconstancy if finally when the case should so require he should not take this course And 7. As to his righteousness and fidelity towards such a people even those to whom he more strictly oblig'd himself than ever he did to any particular nation besides Let but the tenour of his Covenant with them be consulted and see whether he did not reserve to himself a liberty of casting them off if they revolted from him And whether these were not his express termes that he would be with them while they were with him but that if they forsook him he would forsake them also Therefore much more is he at liberty as to any other people to whom he never made so peculiar promises of external favours as he did to this people Nor hereupon can any thing be pleaded from his name or that is within the compass of its signification with any certainty that it shall conclude and be determining on the behalf of such a people There is a real great doubt in the case whether the argument may not weigh more the other way And whether the wickedness of such a people may not be grown to such a prodigious excess that

continues the relation when he might abandon and cast them off It is further imply'd 2. That the more serious and apprehensive among such a people do understand it at sometimes more especially a thing very highly deserv'd that God should abhor and reject them The deprecation is a tacit acknowledgment that the deprecated severity was reasonably to be feared not only from Sovereign Power but offended Justice This is indeed exprest in the next foregoing words We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our Fathers for we have sinned against thee Do not abhor us c. So that this ought to be the sense of the Supplicants in the present case that they are herein perfectly at mercy that if they be heard 't is undeserv'd compassion if they be rejected 't is from most deserved displeasure And if it were not exprest yet the Supplication must be understood to imply it For when the great God hath vouchsafed to limit his Sovereign power and antecedent liberty by his Promise and Covenant such a Prayer were it self reflecting and an affront if it should proceed upon a supposition or but intimate that he should ever be inclin'd to do such a thing without an excepted cause Such as that his rejecting them upon it might consist with his being faithful to his word When he values himself so much upon his faithfulness and seems even to lay his very Godhead upon it As those strangely Emphatical words import Deut. 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments to a Thousand Generations implying that he would even yield himself not to be God if he did not in all points vindicate and demonstrate his faithfulness Nor indeed do we properly crave for any thing but we therein disclaim a Legal right to it and acknowledge it to be rightfully in his power to whom we apply our selves to grant or deny We make demands from Justice and are Supplicants for Mercy and with this sense the Spirits of Holy Men have abounded when they have taken upon them to intercede in the like case as we see Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces as at this day c. And to the same purpose Ezra 9. Nehem. 9. at large and in many other places q. d. Our only resort O Lord is to thy Mercy Thou mightest most justly abhor and abandon us and say to us Loammi ye are none of my People but in the multitude of thy tender compassions and mercies do it not It is again further to be Collected 3. That this is a thing which holy and good men do most vehemently dread and deprecate viz. that God should thus abhor and reject a people so related to him 'T is that which the very Genius and Spirit of Holiness in the sincere regrets beyond all things for themselves They have taken the Lord to be their God for ever and ever Their hearts have been attempered to the tenour and constitution of an Everlasting Covenant which they entered with no design or thought of ever parting but that it should be the ground of an Eternal Relation And the Law of love written in their hearts prompts them to desire the same thing for others too Especially such to whom they have more especial endearing Obligations and if it were possible that the whole body of a people to whom they are themselves united might all be united to God upon the same termes even by the same Vital and Everlasting Union And therefore also that same Divine and Soul-enlarging love being a living Principle in them makes them have a most afflicting sense of any discerned tendencies to a Rupture and separation that might prevent and cut off the hope of his drawing still more and more of them into that inward living Union and Inter-course with himself These things it may suffice briefly to have noted from the Petition in the Text. That which I principally design'd is what we have next coming under our view viz. II. The Argument brought to enforce it For thy Names sake About which what I shall observe shall be with special reference to the case which the Prophet refers unto in his present use of it viz. That in Praying for a people professing the name of God that he would not reject and cast them off the fit and proper argument to be insisted on is that from his own Name See Verse 1. 9. And here it will be requisite 1. To have some very brief consideration of this argument in the general though 2. We principally intend to treat of it as it respects this present case 1. In the general we are to consider both what the name of God in it self imports and what is signifi'd by using it as an argument in Prayer And 1. As to what is imported by the name of God in it self considered We shall not trouble this discourse with the fancies of the Rabbins Of whom yet one very noted soberly and plainly tells us the name of God is wont to signifie his essence and truth though the instance he gives shewes he means it of the Nomen Tetragrammaton the name Jehovah which indeed more eminently doth so To our purpose it is obvious and sufficient to note that by his name more generally is signified both the peculiar excellencies of his nature and being which are himself as the use of a mans name is to notifie the man So when he is pleased himself to proclaim his own name thus it runs The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin c. Exod. 34. 6 7. And again That by his name is meant his Glory and most especially the honour and reputation of his Government For so too a mans name signifies his fame and repute in the World as they whom our translation calls men of Renown Gen. 6. 4. the Hebrew Text sayes only but plainly meaning the same thing they were Men of name And if he be a publick Person a Prince and Ruler over others it must more peculiarly signifie his Reputation and Fame as such Thus Moses designing to celebrate the unexceptionable equity and awful Majesty of the Divine Government begins thus Because I will publish the name of the Lord ascribe the greatness unto our God He is the Rock his work is perfect for all his wayes are Judgment Deut. 32. 3 4. 2. As an Argument used in Prayer it may accordingly either signifie the principle from which it is hoped and requested he should do what we desire or the end for which For as his name signifies his nature which himself hath taught us primarily to conceive under the notion of goodness mercy love in that forementioned Exod. 34. 7. and 1 Joh. 4. 16. So when we pray he would do this or that