Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	world_n	year_n	yoke_n	12	3	8.6296	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52045	A peace-offering to God a sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament at their publique thanksgiving, September 7, 1641 : for the peace concluded between England and Scotland / by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M766; ESTC R14789	35,078	57

hath bestowed upon you and if you be found to be the people who thus requite him who are thus advanced and work all these abominations God will ere long say of you as David said of Nabal Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath and he hath requited me evill for good I will not leave any thing that pertains to him in vain have I done all which I have done for these men they have requited me evill for good I will strip them naked I will deprive them of all my abused mercies I will spend my arrows and heap mischiefs in stead of mercies upon them 4. Are there not abundance to whom this thankfull rendring of a contrite heart of bodies and souls consecrated to Gods service reverent waiting upon him in his ordinances and doing good to others thereby to praise God to whom I say these things are the darkest riddles in the world who think God never doth enough for them and think any thing too much for them to do to God But to leave this generall complaint I beseech you Right Honorable and beloved to see what great cause we have to be abased concerning our great Ingratitude for the admirable mercies which God hath bestowed us this very last yeer This one yeer this wonderfull yeer wherein God hath done more for us in some kinds then in fourescore yeers before breaking so many yokes giving such hopes and beginnings of a very Jubilee and Resurrection both of Church and State This yeer wherein we looked to have been a wonder to all the world in our desolations and God hath made us a wonder to the world in our preservation giving us in one yeer a Return of the prayers of fourty and fourty yeers Now look abroad into the kingdome enquire as Ahasuerus did of Mordecai what honour and dignity is done to the Lord for all this my heart would bleed were it rightly affected in the expressing of it We scarce make any shew of thankfulnesse but manifest the very power of Ingratitude Alas there are many whose hearts are grieved at the great things which God hath done for us turning a Jubilee into Lamentations I know not better how to expresse the spirit of these men then by that in the 8. of Ezekiel Among all the abominations which the Lord shewed the Prophet whereby he was provoked to go far off from his sanctuary one was a company of women sate weeping for Tammuz they wept because they they had lost their Idoll so these grieve because they fear to loose their toyes and fooleries which provoke God against us Others bring up an ill report of Gods goodnesse and his worthy Instruments who can see no wood for trees ever enquiring in discontent what is done all this yeer the Parliament hath sate long abundance of money given but what have they done for us Indeed lesse is done then might have been had we been truly thankfull but much more is done then ever thou or I had cause to hope our eyes should see when it is Gods mercie we are not all as Sodome art not thou a wretched man to say what is done by way of sleighting what thy eyes see this day Others deny not but God hath done great things this last yeer and all their enquirie is What is to be done next who as swine under the pear-tree devoure all that fals and whine for more never looking to the hand that shakes down to them in the meane time return nothing to God abate not an ace of any of their former courses whereby God was offended as proud vain wanton worldly prophane this yeer as the last yea a greater torrent of sin for ought I can hear rusheth in and fearfully prevails and domineers in most places God is free in his goodnesse and will be mercifull to whom he will be mercifull and the wickednesse of a Nation can set no bounds or limits to his goodnesse else we should certainly conclude that this drie winde from the wildernesse this ingratitude of ours would even sweep and drive away all Gods mercies from us Yea may I not must I not Right Honorable and Noble Senators humble you even you before the Lord this day even in this day of your rejoycing to make you begin this your Passeover with eating some bitter hearbs have you rendred to God according to the mercies of this yeer I think you may say of Gods dealing towards you as never Parliament could say God hath carried you in his bosome prevented and discovered great designes against you queld great adversaries before you restored great priviledges unto you appeared as your Councellour in all your darknesses opened a doore an out-gate in all your straits all rubs and stumbling blocks before you God hath made them but as vantage ground to raise you higher What should I say you have found your gracious Soveraigne granting I think all your suits hitherto your Rights and Liberties are establisht and your houses built if it were possible you should surpasse the very Angels in thanksgiving Now let your servant be bold with you what glory and honour do you return to God How have you observed the goings of your God and King amongst you With what admiring thoughts are your hearts filled what Reformation appears in your hearts and lives what cost are you at for this God how strongly have you engaged and consecrated your selves and all which you have for his service and glory Lay your hand upon your heart and think in this your day of rejoycing whether your continuance in your old sinfull wayes your unbeliefe your ebbing and flowing in your spirits according as humane hopes and helps have come and gone your not zealously laying to heart the cause of Christ his worship and servants may not make the Lord say of you as of Hezekiah the Lords and Commons of England prayed unto God and the Lord heard them and gave them a signe but they rendred not again according to the benefits done unto them If it be so the good Lord humble you under it and turn away the guilt of this great sinne from you and from us all for Christ Jesus sake and so much for the use of Humiliation Secondly one more for exhortation and I have done Oh that I were able to speak something to raise up your hearts to the practise of this excellent service I shall confine my self to these two heads First a few Motives to quicken you to the duty Secondly a few Directions to guide you in it First the man lives not who owes not this homage or quit-rent unto God yea even for every thing which he hath finde out the man who lies under one evill so great as he hath deserved or enjoyes one mercie which he hath not freely received and that man shall go scot-free from the dutie of thankfulnes Now even common honesty will call for the discharge of this ingenuous equall

God must prove successelesse in the event how wise how cunning how strong soever they are who manage an ill cause against the Lord and against his Church though for a time with that little horn in the 7. of Daniel they may be very stout and speak very great things and make warre with the Saints and prosper though they may carry the ball long at their foot they can never winne the goale God will come in an adversary against them he will awake as one out of sleep like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine and put them to a perpetuall reproach Search all the Scriptures and you shall finde that this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord that no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper either their plot fails or the thing which they intended is turned another way Their plot failed not in the 6. of Daniel they aymed to get Daniel into the Lions den and in they got him but they little thought that the event should be Daniels preservation and exaltation and their own destruction So the devill and his Instruments failed not in their plot in getting Christ upon the Crosse but they little thought that this bruising of our Saviours heel should prove the breaking of the Serpents head The redemption of the Church and the leading of all the power of darknesse captivity captive Mark this all ye wisemen and great Polititians of the world that dare drive designes against the cause of God and his Church write it down and say your unworthy Minister taught you this day from God Though ye take counsell together it shall come to nought though ye speak the word it shal not stand for God is with us Hamans wife long ago could tell her husband if Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews he should never prevail against him but should surely fall before him Weigh therefore all your designes in the ballance of the Sanctuary lay aside all carnall and sinfull projects put your selves and all your reason under Christs footstool take Gamaliels counsell refrain from opposing those men who advance Gods work you cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God Secondly this may be a mighty and wonderfull refreshing to all the servants of God in their deepest and heaviest pressures and afflictions though one deep call to another though thou seem to be cast beyond the Antarctick pole though all humane hope and help fail though thy heart fail and thy flesh fail thy God will never fail though thou art at thy wits end thou hast no cause to be at thy faiths end take Gods book in thy hand finde out the promises how God hath engaged himself to help at a pinch and when thou hast got a promise of deliverance then beleeve that heaven and earth shall be jumbled together rather then one jot or title of Gods promise shall not come to passe in due time Nay though he seeme to break his promise beleeve it not for so he seemed to do to Mary and Martha he sent them word Lazarus sicknesse was not to death and he seemed to fail for Lazarus died but they should have beleeved any thing rather then that that sicknesse should have been unto death Object But what if I can finde no promise that God will deliver me out of this strait I answer either thou art in covenant with God or not if thou be not in covenant if thou be an unbeleever an impenitent person I assure thee there is no promise in all this book of God that speaks one word of comfort to thee All Gods promises are yea and Amen to them who are in Christ Jesus I should wrong God and his truth and thy soul in speaking one word of comfort to thee But if in truth thou reliest upon Christ the bent of thy heart be turned to God and so thou be brought under the line of his covenant then I say to thee if there be no promise for thy strait thy strait is not greatly to be regarded God hath made promises to deliver thee from every evill work from what ever might hurt thee and thou needst not feare that which cannot hurt thee Thirdly and lastly Right Honorable and beloved how should this steel your spirits and raise up your hearts and make you with Jehoshaphat lifted up in the wayes of God you have great works to do the planting of a new heaven and a new earth amongst us and great works have great enemies they are attended with great dangers and oftentimes great fears ceize upon the spirits of Moses himself when he looks upon the work which he knows too great for him But could you remember that you walk not onely under Gods protection but under a promise that he will come in when ever you need him how boldly might you place your help in the Name of this God who hath made heaven and earth Set you your hearts to Gods work God hath set his heart upon you to deliver you and he can do it Darius set his heart on Daniel to deliver him and laboured it but could not do it But it is but for your God to command deliverance and it comes I may say the lesse because of all the experience you have had of Gods fulfilling this since your meeting together how often have you been at your wits end how often have you ebb'd and flowed and yet in all your extremities God hath come in beyond your expectation Trust still in this God seek him in his own way and say thus with your selves He is our rock our fortresse he will deliver us his truth shall be our shield and buckler Yet remember that I do not teach you that ye can never be left to suffer in a good cause that were to preach contrary to the Gospel all Christs disciples must take up their crosse and follow him you shall read in the 11. of Daniel ver. 33. That they that understand among the people and instruct many shall fall by the sword and by flame by captivitie and by spoil many dayes and when they fall they shall be holpen with little or no help but yet mark what follows their fall shall onely be as the silver fals into the furnace There are three ends why the Refiner of silver puts it into the fire First to try it whether it be pure or reprobate silver Secondly to better it to purge out the drosse Thirdly to burnish it to make it more beautifull So these shall fall to try them and to purge and make them white neither shall it be so long as their enemies please but even to the time of the end to the time appointed by God Resolve therefore upon it that if ye do suffer if evill do betide you in a good way and for a good cause your sufferings will be better for you then freedome from sufferings they shall be onely to try you