Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A45686
|
A funeral sermon preached upon the death of Mrs. Rebecka Goddard, November the 13th. 1692 At Joyners-Hall. By Tho. Harrison.
|
Harrison, Thomas, fl. 1700.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing H910A; ESTC R213017
|
15,833
|
28
|
latter he gives Worship Secondly From his Expressions Ver. 21. Words are or ought to be the Interpreters of our Hearts and a Comment upon our Actions Least some observing Job in such a Posture might think that he was beside himself and thrown into a Frenzy by these doleful Tidings he declares the Frame of his Heart and the meaning of these forementioned Actions by these following Expressions Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither These Words are as I conceive used by him as an Argument to support his own Spirit under his present Afflictions q. d. Altho' I am now in a Naked Condition stript and depriv'd of mine outward Comforts yet I have no Cause to Murmur for I brought nothing into the World neither can I carry any thing with me out of it and then says he in the Words of my Text The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. These Words may be divided into two general Parts 1. Two Propositions The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away 2. A natural and necessary Inference and Conclusion from them both Blessed be the Name of the Lord. I shall speak to both First Two Propositions or Assertions 1. The Lord gave 2. The Lord hath taken away First The Lord gave q. d. The Lord gave me those Outward Comforts and Enjoyments that Wealth those servants and Children which I lately had but am now bereaved of From hence I shall Observe Doct. That all our Outward Comforts and Temporal Enjoyments come from and are the Gift of God God is the giver of every good and perfect Gift James 1.17 Not only of the best and most perfect Gifts but also of those that are good and perfect in their kind Temporal as well as Spiritual and Eternal Blessings are streams flowing from this Fountain of Goodness In the Prosecution of this Point I shall do two things First Lay down some Explicatory and Demonstrative Propositions Secondly Present you with some Practical Applicatory Inferences First I shall lay down some Explicatory and Demonstrative Propositions First Prop. The God is the efficient Cause of all our Creature Comforts Every good thing that we enjoy is God's Creature for as every Creature of God is good so nothing is good but what is his Creature Sin which is essentially evil is not God's but the Devil's Creature Our near and dear Relations must own God only for their Creator Though Parents are the Instrumental Causes yet God is the Principal Efficient Cause of their Children's Beings though their Bodies were formed of their substance yet they were formed by God's Omnipotent Arm by him they were fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139.14 and he animated and informed them with a rational Soul therefore is he called the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 and the God of the Spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22 Hence Second Prop. God hath an Original Right to and Propriety in them He must needs be the sole Proprietor of those things whereof he is the sole Creator Those Bodies and Souls must needs be his who derived their Being from him The first Cause of every thing hath an unquestionable Dominion of Propriety in it upon the score of Justice By the Law of Nations the first Finder of a Countrey is esteemed the Rightful Possessor of that Countrey And the first Inventor of an Art hath a right of exercising it Thirdly All the Outward Comforts which we enjoy were bestowed upon us by God they being Created by him and he being the rightful Lord of them we cannot enjoy them 'till we receive them from him The Right and Title which we have to them is not Primitive but Derivative Some of our Relations at least might have had an Existence and yet we might not have had an Interest in them Hast thou a good Husband or Wife as God's Creating Power gave them being so his wise and gracious Providence made them thine He allotts one Person for a Conjugal Union with another and by his Providence and that sometimes very strangely and wonderfully brings about and effects it Fourth Prop. All those excellent Qualities which any of our Outward Enjoyments are the subjects of whereby they are rendered very Comfortable and Delightful to us proceed from God All the natural and acquired Endowments of the Body and Mind which endear Relations to us as Beauty Ingenuity a good Natural Temper and Disposition as well as Grace which is a supernatural Endowment of the Soul are bestowed upon them by the Fountain of all Perfections He curiously formed their Bodies and dignified their Minds with these Intellectual Qualities Fifthly Whatsoever we receive from God flows from the Free Grace and Sovereign Goodness of God This is indeed the proper Notion of a Gift It is a good thing freely bestowed upon us When we receive some good from another which he is not Obliged to give us it may properly be styled a Gift Now in this sense all our Temporal as well as our Spiritual Enjoyments are the Gifts of the Supream Being He is under no Engagement or Obligation to any of his Creatures but what he voluntarily and freely enters into and lays himself under We are less than the least of his Mercies and unworthy of the smallest of his Favours Have any of us a Wife Children or any other Relations which greatly add to the Comfort of our Lives we must say concerning them as Jacob did to his Brother Esau concerning his Children these God hath graciously given thy Servant Gen. 33.5 Sixth Prop. When God bestows any Outward Comforts upon us he doth not divest himself of nor make over unto us an absolute Propriety in them Among Men there are several sorts of Gifts or several ways of giving Sometimes Men cannot be said to retain any Right to those things which they have given unto another All the right to the Gift passeth over from the Giver to the Receiver by Vertue of the Donation and the Person that gave it cannot without a Breach of the Rules of Justice reassume it without the Receiver's full Consent But other things are so given by Men that they still retain their right to and Propriety in them or indeed they are rather lent than given We have an Instance hereof in Places of Profit and Trust which are bestowed by Princes upon their Favourites during their Pleasure This Donation is not absolute so as to divest the Sovereign of his Right to them for he can take them away when he pleases without committing any Act of Injustice And of this latter sort of Gifts are those outward Comforts which we receive from God He did not divest himself of the Propriety when he granted us the Use Our Relations are His and not Ours even when they are in some sense Ours Though they may be Ours in opposition to Men yet they are not Ours in opposition to God they are granted us only for our Use as the Coller of