Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bear_v	great_a	time_n	1,448	5	3.1883	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31498	Certain observations, vpon the new league or covenant as it was explained by a divine of the new assembly, in a congregation at London / written and sent unto him in a letter by some of his auditors, with copy of the said covenant.	Divine of the New Assembly.	1643 (1643)	Wing C1714; ESTC R7542	25,539	83

be In the next place is Superstition That is as you say whatsoever it used in Gods worship without expresse warrant from the word This description is so large that a Gown or Surplice a Rayle about a Table a gesture of kneeling or standing up c. will come within the circumference of it and indeed most of you in your popular Sermons use to bring each of these under the lash of Superstion It had been right if you had said That whatforever is brought into the Church of God and held as a necessary part of his Worship without warrant from the Word that is Superstition So that 's a superstitious opinion which is hold by many of your partie when they make one gesture effentiall and necessary to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper namely Sitting and condemn the other of Kneeling to be Idolatrous Next to Supersitition is Haeresie Schisme c Here you instance in Socinianisme Arminianisme Antinoinianisme Anabaptisme There be some too as we hear in the holy Assembly that deny the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son What call ye them must they passe for Orthodox But you gave no instance for Schisme yet never more plenty never was the bond of Communion of Saints broken into so many pieces because of a Rite or Ceremony when as yet we all agree in one Faith have received one Baptisme acknowledge and worship one God and Saviour Oh Sir Schisine was too near you to discern it well If you know what Schisme is namely the breach of Christian Unity and had but looked wishly upon your self you would have condemned your self Who can be more guilty of Schisme then your self and your Partie is You make and take a Covenant here which tends to make a new Schisme in the Church and State at least to make the old one wider and yet colour it over with a pretence of swearing against Schisme It is therefore worth the noting how well this Covenant is kept by those that have power to extirpate these evils that grow upon us To instance but in the Antinomians It is well known there be many that Preach that Doctrine and their Auditories frequented with multitudes of followers yet where is the endeavour of extirpation or any restraint at all where is any stopping of the mouthes of such as speak things they ought not No when we urge this we are told The time is not yet they serve for the present to advantage the Cause and promote the great designe in hand therefore must be born with But what a wicked policy is it in the mean time for any end whatsover to suffer so many souls to be poysoned with erroneous Doctrine when there is power to hinder it Thus where there is little Conscience made of taking Oathes there will be as little of keeping them Or it may be those who have learned to dispense with Oathes have also got that other Jesuiticall trick of equivocating and so they reserve when they take this Covenant that it shall not binde them ad semper to endevour the extirpation of Heresie and Schisme but onely prostaturerum when it shall be no longer advantagious and serviceable for their ends Now we come to the third Article that containes three things First To endevour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments They are like to be preserved and defended well enough by those that know them better then we do when they make it their priviledge daily to command our Estates and Lives Next The liberties of the Ringdoms And that will be an hard matter for us to do viz. to preserve our liberties when we shall have sworn to enslave our Estates and Lives to the arbitrary disposall of our fellow-Subjects Then because he is Minor universis in the last place comes in the Kings person and Authority which must be preserved and defended in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms and no further we suppose you mean it though you are loath to speak it out For if so be he stands not in defence of Religion and Liberties or if you conceive he doth not then your generall tenent is That he may be resisted and you confirm it by your practice God blesse His Majesty and send him a safer Guard then you have been or are like to be you have endevoured all you can to bring his Person and Authority too into a dangerous Estate And surely if he by whom Kings Reign and who will undoubtedly maintain those whom he hath made his Deputies had not been his speciall Guardian he had been long before this destroyed It follows That the world may bear witnesse of our Loyalty The world sees and good mens hearts lament the little Conscience that is left of Loyalty when they hear His Sacred Majesty reviled daily and made contemptible to the people both in jest and earnest by Pamphlets and Preachers Certainly they that know but in grosse what belongs to Royall Majesty cannot but see the Kings just Power and Greatnesse by this time much diminished Is not the power of Arms with which the Law hath entrusted him taken from him and so he is disabled of doing that which his Office doth chiefly call him to that is to protect and defend his Subjects so that in this one particular you will scarcely be able to justifie your Loyalty unlesse holpen out with some of those or such like distinctions which necessity hath taught this age to make use of to defend Rebellion So you can defend his Authority and yet destroy his Person resist him as a man not as a King ye can do that and more too you can defend Religion by courses utterly condemned in that Religion The fourth Article To endeavour the discovery of Incendiaries Malignants and evill Instruments c. And who are they such as divide the King from his people And such too as divide the People from their King Such as Sheba and Absalon were in Israel Now who are in more esteem with the City and Parliament then those who have been the chiefest Incendiaries of this War Strange it is that those who sound Alarms as far as Scotland and seek to engage this Kingdom more desperately in this unnaturall War should be judged good Instruments and Well affected and those that Pray and Preach and endeavour by all good means for Peace at home should be counted Incendiaries and Malignants It is our chief comfort that there is a time to come when the secrets of all hearts shall be manifest when every one shall receive according to his works Before that time the Peace-makers must not look for their promised blessing The fifth Article concerns The endeavouring that the Kingdoms may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all Posterity God grant they may but yet the Scots invading this Land with an Army is thought by the wisest to be contrary to the Articles of Pacification and so no likely

unto their former obedience and that when you had possessed your selves of his Magazines and strongest Towns and Forts your selves for them off part have been defented foyled lost what you held put to great streights for Men and Money notwithstanding a rich and populous City wholly at your devotion will conclude certainly there is little encouragement for you to go on in your designes much lesse for other Churches to take example by you and to enter into League or Association against those powers God hath deputed over them and to joyn together in such attempts which tend so much to the dishonour of God the Scandalizing of the Profession of Iesus Christ and the ruine and overthrow of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths Sir you need not much wonder to see a writing come to your hand in this manner considering the Violence and Tyranny under which we live when it is almost Capitall to make any scruple or objection which may question the Infallibility of that great Court or be a means to retard their proceedings in the grand designe And we could not so much confide in you as to have recourse unto you and expresse our doubts by way of Conference when we hear of many that are so fiercely carried on in promoting of this Cause That they have vowed to betray their neerest friends that shall but speak to the prejudice of it Besides we are come neer to that passe that the Roman State was in Domitians time when as Tacitus writes ademptum esset per inquisitiones loquendi audiendique Commercium two men cannot without suspicion and danger talk together nor dare one neighbour disclose his doubts and ask the advice and counsell of another More then that we have by this means taken a more exact view of the severall branches of this Oath together with your explanation of the same If now you have any thing to return to these things which we much doubt we shall expect your Answer in some publique manner that so the benefit may redound to more and what you shall do in this kinde we shall accept with all Candour as it becometh Christians and Your Friends Courteous Reader BE pleased to take notice that before these Observations could with conveniency be conveyed into the hands of that Divine of the Assembly mentioned in the Title who by his explaining and pressing of this Covenant gave occasion to them he was taken out of this life yet as Charity bindes us we must hope that before his departure hence he had space and grace to repent of his errours and of this in speciall one of his last though doubtlesse none of his least commissions If these Animadversions upon that Covenant such as they are may be a means to keep any who are yet free from entring into a League so unlawfull so unchristian or to reduce any who through weaknesse have been drawn into it that so they might see and forsake their errour and not by obstinate persisting adde another offence unto the former He that collected them with that intention and now presents them to the Publique view will account so good effects an abundant requitall for his pains A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion c. WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospell and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honour and happinesse of the Kings Majesty and His Posterity and the true publique Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included and calling to minde the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professours thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publique Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter Ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of Gods People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutuall and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high God do swear I. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our severall places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall indeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the neerest conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-government directory for Worship and Catechizing that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the middest of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons indeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacie that is Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schisme Prophanesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlinesse lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III We shall with the same sincerity reallity and constancy in our severall Vocations endeavour with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witnesse with our consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse IV. We shall also with all faithfulnesse endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evill Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or