Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	sin_n	suffer_v	suffering_n	2,120	5	9.4937	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23718	The gentlemans calling	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1660 (1660)	Wing A1116; ESTC R8983	92,528	212

The Gentlemans CALLING 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Cor. VII 24 LONDON Printed for Tim Garthwait 1660 Reputation When I prepared my Seat The Aged Stood up Princes Layd their hand on their Mouth Iob. Chap. 29. ver 7. 8. 9 Nobility Religion The Gentlemans CALLING Former Felicityes The Lillies They neither Toyle nor Spin yet Sollomon c. LONDON Printed for T. Garthwait at the Little North-doore of S. Pauls 1660. THE PREFACE 1. THe Authority of Custom hath so much a more general praevalency then that of Truth that he that shall adventure to assault that with this may be thought not to have well digested the prudent Caution of our Saviour Luk. 14. 31. To sit down and consider whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand for doubtless such and much greater is the ods between the Abettors of these two Litigants And to the imputation of this unwariness I cannot but foresee the present designe very lyable 2. GENTILITY has long since confuted Jobs Aphorisme Man is born to labour and in stead thereof has pronounced to its Clients the Rich mans Requiem Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry A Gentleman is now supposed to be onely a thing of pleasure a creature sent into the World as the Leviathan into the deep to take his pastime therein and the better to compleat the Parallel to devoure his underlings too and then 't will be no wonder if it be adjudged a ridiculous soloecisme to attempt to define his Calling whose very Essence is thought to consist in having none Nay perhaps it will be deemed not onely absurd but malicious a Levelling project of robbing him of his Birth-right of degrading him from those priviledges which belong to his quality and of moulding him again into that vulgar Mass from which divine Providence and humane Laws have distinguished him But from this jealousie I dare trust the ensuing leaves to be their own vindicators 3. I have been no unconcerned much less insulting spectator of the depressions the Gentry have fallen under in these latter years but have pay'd them my just tribute of compassion yet I confess I think those scarce worthy a regret in comparison with those voluntary descents too many of them have made from true worth and virtue 'T is sure a far less deplorable spectacle to see a Gentleman spoiled of his Fortune by his Conscience then his Luxury to behold him under the stroke of the Headsman then under those more infamous Executioners his Lust or Intemperance Yet I fear if the Martyrologie even of these suffering times were scanned Venus and Bacchus would be found to have had many more Martyrs then God and Loyalty 4. But I confess it an impertinence thus to balance the two mischiefs of doing and suffering ill since 't is certain the latter is to be resolved into the former and has no existence of it self but what it derives from that Punishments are but the results of sins and therefore whatever Malignity is in the Effect becomes intirely chargeable upon the Cause and we are to look upon our Vice not only as our greatest but our only unhappiness This Consideration shews us the source of all our sufferings and is it self no less obvious then those though one would think it as concealed as the head of Nilus that should only observe how many other Originals of our Calamities are assigned whilest this is scarce dreamt of This Jonah is suffered to sleep securely in the ship while her more innocent fraught is cast over board Jon. 1. 5. Every the least sparkle from without is charged as an Incendiary when alas like Aetna our own bowels send out that fire which has so neer reduced us to ashes But as in Diseases we account the discovery of the Cause the first and most necessary step to the Cure so certainly is it here the conviction of our guilt is a most indispensable preparative towards the ease of our Pressures and we must be heavy laden in the Christian sence Matth. 11. 28. before we shall cease to be so in the Civil 5. But I fear men proceed in this affair rather like Mountebanks then good Physitians use some palliating Medecines to allay the Effects or perhaps Anodynes to stupifie the patient and wholly neglect the root of the malady Nor do I appropriate this error to the Gentry 't is too visible that all sorts and qualities have too just a claime to it to let any one go away with the inclosure But because the present design makes them my peculiar Province I shall waving all others address my self at this time to them onely with this most passionate request that they would not use that cruelty to themselves for which Amalek stands branded towards Israel Deu. 25. 18. By their persevering impieties smite and destroy those feeble and faint remains of their former felicities but that they would now at last seriously advert to this their so great and important concernment and pitch upon the true Achan that has thus long troubled their Israel and that being done that story directs the next step of the Process even the bringing him to execution cutting that off which will else infallibly bring down a fatall excision upon themselves Nor is this to be deferred for alas the Disease is come to too great a height too dangerous a Crisis to admit any delay of the remedy 6. When Egypt had smarted under a succession of miraculous plagues for deteining the Israelites the Servants of Pharaoh importune him to release them and conclude their advice with this Pathetique enforcement Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed And God knows I may but too properly give the same edge to mine For alas Gentlemen are not your Estates wasted your Priviledges violated your Splendors eclipsed your Persons restrained your Families broken and shattered your Dignities trampled upon by the meanest of the Vulgar and finally your selves quite transposed in your station now made the Tail who were once the Head Deut. 28. 44. And is it not yet time to dismiss those Sins which are the Authors of all this If you are still of Pharaohs minde and resolve to retain them you are certainly no less obstinate then he but much more irrational he had somewhat of visible advantage to tempt him to detein the Israelites they were his Slaves wrought hard at his work built him Cities But how far is that from the case here they are not your Slaves but your Task-masters which you are so unwilling to part with those that set you to the vilest and most servile drudgeries and are so far from bringing you in profit that I may boldly make the Apostles challenge Rom. 6. 21 What fruit have you had of those things and doubt not the only account you can bring in of your harvest must be the Inventory of your miseries we are witnesses of many Houses many Cities they have demolish'd and laid waste but

hands of some treacherous or but impotent person that shall in some important affairs betray his trust or deceive his hopes and then let him tell me whether it be not a mans immediate and most pressing interest to build his confidences on the rock not on the sand Nothing but the amazing exigencies of a sinking man can excuse the folly of catching at reeds but he that should deliberately elect such supporters would be thought as mad as he is sure to be miserable Yet this is but the faint and imperfect emblem of him who rests upon his wealth whereas on the other side he that shelters himself under the shadow of the Almighty is possest of a most inexpugnable fortress for how can he faile of security that has Omnipotence for his guard or be deluded in his trusts that depends on Truth it self Let these so distant states be compared and then sure I shall not need to anticipate any mans judgement but may leave him to pronounce on which side his Interest as well as Duty lies in this particular 34. Lastly Temperance also puts in her claim to Pleasure which I presume those will be sure to resist who place that wholly in the satisfaction of the sensuall appetite yet I beleeve one might take even these men in such a season when they should be forced to give up their verdict for it Come to the Glutton when he is laboring under the load of an overcharged stomack to the Drunkard when his mornings qualm is revenging on him his last nights debauch to the lustfull person when the torment of his bones admonish him of the sins of his flesh and then ask them whether Temperance be not more pleasant then its contrary I can scarce think the Devil has any such stout Confessors but will then betray his cause But this vertue is in it self too amiable to need any of these foyles to illustrate it the pleasure of subduing a lust of denying an appetite is not only nobler but greater then any is to be had in the most transporting moment of satisfing them Every man will call him a bruit that when an Enemy is in the field loses the opportunity of a glorious victory and exposes himself to certain Captivity rather then forsake his liquor or other sordid pleasure And this is just the decision of the present case our lusts are our mortallest Enemies and every time they assault us 't is in our choice either by resisting them to gain a signal conquest or else by stooping to those despicable cures they hold out to us to be vanquished by them He that chuses the last if he have any shadow of pleasure 't is only that of a Beast like a horse who though he hath indeed the satisfaction of receiving meat yet he also takes the bridle yea the whip too from the same hand 'T is the former only that is the pleasure of a man which I suppose sufficient to evince to which the difference belongs for sure none can think God hath been so unkind to his own image in humane nature as in the dispensation of felicity to assign the larger share to the Bruits And therefore in this particular as well as the rest we may conclude that he is not only the most pious but the most happy person that makes the right uses of his wealth SECT VI. Of the third Advantage that of Time 1. LEt us now proceed to the third advantage that of Time which though men do often so industriously wast as if it were rather a burden then an advantage yet the differing estimates they make of it when it is neer expiring the passionate Death-bed wishes of a few daies reprieve witness that it has a reall value For were it an empty useless thing it would not then begin to appear considerable when all other vanities grow in contempt with us The unhappiness of it is that men learn to prize it as they do most other good things rather by the want then the enjoying buy the skill of trading with the loss of the Talent which should maintain the traffick and then only come to account it a treasure when they can no longer dispose it to any benefit and that disposing alone is it that can render it truly valuable It is therefore a most necessary providence to learn this art of improvement this peece of spirituall husbandry without which a mans self becomes that accursed soyle the Apostle mentions Heb. 6. 8. whose end is to be burned Let us therefore a while examine what are those imployments of our Time which may render it most fertile to our present comfort and future accompt 2. Every man saies though perhaps few consider that our time here is but a prologue to Eternity else where and that the condition of that eternity whether happy or miserable depends upon the well husbanding of this time That therefore and that only can be the right managery of it which tends to make our future estate as happy as it is sure to be lasting To this purpose God hath chalked us out some great lines of Duty from whence so many lesser do arise as will if we will permit them twist and winde themselves with every hour of our lives And though these duties are in the kind of them obligatory to all conditions of men yet frequenter Acts of them are expected from those whose Qualities and fortunes gives them more vacancy from secular toyles 3. For certainly it is not to be fancied that God who has put an active principle into our nature should industriously provide for the suppressing its operations in any devote such a Select number of men as an Hecatombe to be offered up to Idleness and yet much less can it be thought that he should so promote that iniquity which he professes to hate as to design them to the pursuits of that Manumit them from labor to leave them freer for vice And if neither of these can be supposed if their leisure were not indulged them either that they might do nothing or do ill there remains only a third end imaginable and that is the doing good For as for Sports and Pastimes the best of them come so neer to Idleness and the worst of them to Vice as the one is not to be allowed any so the other no considerable part of their time Now because none is good but one that is God Mar. 10. 18. we can take our measures of good actions only from his prescription and so those which he has commended as such to Mankind in general point out to this particular rank of men the nature of their Exercises as their especial Vacancie and leisure does the higher degrees of them 4. And first those of Piety towards God justly challenge a great share of their Time For whereas God may seem to have limited and confined the poor mans zeal by that rule of preferring mercy to themselves before sacrifice to him he does by exempting the rich from those