Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	better_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	44	3	8.7387	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95658	A voyage to East-India. Wherein some things are taken notice of in our passage thither, but many more in our abode there, within that rich and most spacious empire of the Great Mogol. Mix't with some parallel observations and inferences upon the storie, to profit as well as delight the reader. / Observed by Edward Terry minister of the Word (then student of Christ-Church in Oxford, and chaplain to the Right Honorable Sr. Thomas Row Knight, Lord Ambassadour to the great Mogol) now rector of the church at Greenford, in the county of Middlesex.	Terry, Edward, 1590-1660.	1655 (1655)	Wing T782; Thomason E1614_1; ESTC R234725	261,003	580

and reade their language in written hand for as before they have no Printing Those Moolaas are more distinguished from the rest of the Mahometans by their Beards which they weare long then by any other of their habits Their calling gaines and gives them very much reverence and esteeme amongst the People as another sort of priests there have of an high order or ranke which live much retired but when they appeare openly are most highly reverenced they are called Seayds who derive themselves from Mahomet The Mahometans have faire Churches which as before are called Mosquits their Churches are built of Marble or Courser stone the broad side towards the West is made up close like a firme wall and so are both ends in which there are no lights the other broad side towards the East is erected upon Pillars where a man may take notice of excellent workemanship both in vaults and arches the spaces betwixt them pillars stand open Their Churches are built long and narrow standing North and South which way they lay up the bodies of their dead but none of them within their Churches At the four Corners of their Mosquits which stand in great Cityes or in other places much peopled the●e are high and round but small Turrets which are made open with lights every way wherein a man may be easily seene and heard their devout Moolaas five times every day ascend unto the tops of those high Turrets whence they proclaim as loudly as they can possibly speake their Prophet Mahomet thus in Arabian La alla illa alla Mahomet Resul-alla that is he re is no God but one God and Mahomet the messenger from God That voyce instead of Bells which they use not in their Churches puts the most devout in minde of the houres of their devotion those Priests being exceedingly zealous to promote the cause and to keep up the honour of their Mahomet as the men of Ephesus sometime were when they feared that the credit of their baggage Diana was like to be called into question they took up a Cry which continued for the space of two houres Crying out with one voyce greaet is Diana of the Ephesians Act. 19. 24. When a mans Religion is right he ought to be very zealous in the maintenance of it very fearefull of the hazard or loss thereof And therefore if these Mahometans or those men of Ephesus had had truth on their side they would both have deserved much commendation for what they did And so Micha too who thus complained when he had lost his jmages Judg. 18. 24. they have stol'n away my Gods and what have I more I confess that the loss of God is the greatest of all losses but those were proper Gods which Micha there bewayled that would be stol'n that could not save themselves who if the fire spare them rust or rottenness or time will consume them But those Mahometans though they doe not endure either Idoles or Images in their houses or Churches yet are they very forward to cry up their irreligion and to shew much zeale for it Zeale is derived from a word that signifies to burne it is a compound made up of many affections as of griefe joy love anger well tempered together and when it is so it hath its due commendation both of God and man and cursed is he that goes about to extinguish that holy fire that holy fire I say which hath light in it as well as Heat and heate as well as light The truth of Zeale may be further discovered of zeale that is good if we confider first the Roote from which it springs and that 's the knowledg and Love of God Secondly the Rule by which it is carryed on and acts and that 's the word and will of God and lastly the end it aymes at and intends and that 's the honour and glory of God and zeale thus ordered cannot be too violent but when for want of these it becomes irregular and shews it selfe over much in bad causes such as before were nam'd it is Cursus celerrimus sed praeter viam a swift violent motion but quite out of the way And if it be good to be zealous in a good cause then it is better to be zealous in the best and the best cause to shew zeale in is the cause of God Pro Aris Focis was the old good Proverb first to stand up for Gods rights and afterward for our owne and to believe that that vnum necessarium which our Saviour commends unto us Lu. 10 42. is that one thing principally and especially necessary though the Devill and our owne corruption will tell us if we will believe them that there is nothing more needless When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and spake unto him about sacrificing unto the Lord their God Pharaoh replyes yee are idle yee are idle therefore yee say let us goe and sacrifice unto the Lord Ex. 5. 17. the same Devill that there spake in Pharaoh speaks in all ignorant and prophane people who call Religion idleness and hypocrisie a strict and even walking with God singularity or a doing more then God requires us to perform But however that is most true which was spoken by Philo judeus ubi de religione ibi quoque de vita agitur we must act for religion as we would strive for life Philosophy tels us that Tactus est fundamentum animae sensitivae that the very foundation of natural life is feeling so then no feeling no life and the want of spirituall feeling argues a want too of spirituall life The poore seduced Mahometans and many others in the world are very keene and sharp and forward to maintaine that which they call Religion the more shame for those who profess themselves Christians and have a sure word to build their hope upon yet are ferventissimi in terrenis in coelestibus frigidissimi as hot as fire in earthly as cold as ice in heavenly things A sad thing to consider that so many should have their tongues bent like Bowes for lyes as the prophet Jeremy complaines Jer. 9. 37. and Christians not valiant for the truth that others should drive like Jehu furiously madly and that in the waies of error injustice oppression prophaness as in all other kinds of wickedness and Christians in the cause of God more heavily slowly like the Egyptians in the Red-Sea when their chariot wheeles were off Shall Turks and Infidels solicit bad causes so earnestly and Christians those actions which are good so faintly Acrius ad p●rniciem quam nos ad vitam make more hast to destruction then Christians to life and happiness It was St. Jeromes complaint considerare pudet quantus feruor quae cura c. That he was asham'd to consider how solici●ous some men were in earthly and how sluggish others in heavenly things as if they durst not so much as to owne the cause of God they were wont to say of cowards in Rome that there was nothing

error of Religion When Dionysius the Tyrant had a safe and a prosperous voyage by Sea as he was returning home from the spoyle of a rich Temple he presently concluded that the Gods lov'd Sacriledg Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit Sen. Trag. Thus good success Could Rapine bless Tamberlaine the Mogols great Ancester of whom more afterward might have drawn as good arguments from success as ever any before or since him And who so is acquainted with the Historie of the Turks as with many other people who have been great in the world yet not own'd at all by Almighty God might from their stories draw the like conclusions But such as have learned Christ and consequently know better are taught to conclude better they having learned of Wisdome to make Demonstrative Syllogismes a Priori from Causes and not from folly to make Parallogismes á Posteriori from events and successes If I enlarge any more on this argument I must further add that to judg any cause good because the success is so is to conclude besides against the rule of Christ who commands us to judg not according to appearance but to judg righteous judgment Joh. 7. 24. For there is very much deceipt in appearance The appearance or face is of things as of men Fronti nulla fides is an old proverb we see mens faces wee cannot see their hearts and therefore there is no certain judgement to be drawn from their Countenances No more can we make a judgment from the face of things till wee looke further into them because vitia virtutes mentiuntur vice too oft makes a Maske of the skin of virtue and lookes lovely like some houses o● entertainment that have Angels for their signes and Devills for their Ghests A man is naturally apt to think that God is with him while he prospers though in evill And t is observed of wicked men that they have enjoyed as much nay more than their hearts could wish The posterity of Cain before the Flood were the mighty men the men of Name the men of renown the triumphing men in that old world and ever since that spurious race have been the great ingrossers of outward prosperity behold saith the Psalmist 73. 12 these are the ungodly that prosper in the world But many of the mercyes they receive if not all come out of Gods left hand not in love but anger as the mutinous Israelites had Qvailes in the wilderness not to feed them so much as to choake them they being dealt withall herein much like as the Old Heathens dealt with their Sacrifices first they fed them and then they crownd them and then they kild them the substance of which I finde thus rendred Thus Beasts for sacrifice they feed First they are crown'd and then they bleed Thus God advanced and lifted up Pharaoh not in Mercy but Displeasure that he might first shew his Judgments before him and then upon him Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down lifted me up very high that my fall might be greater It is most true that nothing comes to pass neither can be done without the Knowledge and Permission of Almighty God thus Good things are done by his Privity Assistance and Approbation things that are Evill by his Privity Permission but not Liking The wicked are called the sword of God Ps 17. c. They do his will in executing his vengeance so Babylon was called the Hammer and Assyria the Rod of the Lord But these Swords and Hammers and Rods when they have done the service which was appointed for them to doe are thrown into the fire and meet with greater Vengeance afterward then they had formerly executed They did the secret Will of God in doing what they did as no doubt but the Devill did in afflicting of Iob in winnowing of Peter in buffetting of Paul but his recompense for these and all other his works is Chains under darkness and that for ever and ever And thus Iudas did the will of God in betraying his innocent Master the Son of God and consequently furthering the Redemption of Mankind but his Reward was sad for so doing his End Perdition And therefore in all our undertakings we must learn wisely to distingvish twixt God's approving and permiting will the first of these must limit us in all the things we set about his signifyed declared approved will laid down in his Word We may do the Will of God otherwise as it were against his Will do the will of God and have little thanks for our labour in doing things which God permits but approves not It must needs be therefore a sin transcendently wicked for any who know God and his Truth to entitle God and Religion unto actions that are Evill by fathering prosperous wickedness upon them as if they did at all countenance such things as Reli 〈…〉 ion flatly forbids and Almighty God professedly abhors Religion is the best Armour in the World but the worst Cloak and all they who thus put it on shall first or last find no more comfort in it than Ahab found in the Harness he put on him as a Disguise aswell as for his Defence 1. K. 22. which he had no sooner don but immediately an Arrow though shot at random found a passage through the Joints thereof and so carried away his Life But to return again to these Mohometans They keep a solemn Lent they call the Ram-jan or Ramdam which begins the first New-moon which happens in September and so continues during that whole Moon And all that time those that are strict in their Religion forbear their Women and will not take either Meat or Drink any Day during that time so long as the Sun is above their Horizon but after the Sun is set they eat at pleasure The last day of their Ramjan they consecrate as a day of mourning to the memory of their deceased friends when I have observed many of the meanner sort seeme to make most bitter lamentation But when that day of their general mourning is ended begins to dye into night they fire an innumerable company of lamps and other lights which they hang or fix very thick and set upon the tops of their houses and all other most conspicuous places near their great Tanks that are surrounded with buildings where those lights are doubled by their Reflection upon the water and when they are all burnt out the ceremoy is done and the people take food The day after this Ram-jan is fully ended the most devout Mahometans in a solemn manner assemble to their Misquits where by their Moolaas some selected parts of the Alcoran are publickly read unto them which book the Moolaas never touch without an expression of much outward reverence For their works of charity there are some rich men that build Sarraes in great Cities and Towns spoken of before where passengers may find house-room and that freely without a return of any recompence wherein themselves and goods

warnings but would not take them before the woe took hold of it And therefore after all those monitions Titus the Son of Vespatian the Emperour was made instrumental to fulfill those many Prophesies which threatned Jerusalems 〈◊〉 overthrow But that Commander and Conqueror though a stranger● an adversary and a profest enemy to the Jews and sent to destroy them when he saw as Josephus reports the spoyl and slaughter which fell upon that wofull and most miserable City he calls his Gods to witnesse that he was exceedingly troubled at it He that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished Prov. 17. 5. And if an Heathen a forraign enemy sent to destroy could take no pleasure in executing of punishment though upon enemies but the contrary men which enjoy the light should be by much more troubled in the beholding of slaughters which happen among themselves or brethren And therefore Tully writing to Atticus speaks exceeding wisely in telling him thus extremum est malorum omnium bells civilis victoria His reason because men having done much mischief already in those unnatural engagements are flesh't and heartened to go on and to do more mischief still Hence it was that the very Heathens were not wont to make any triumphs for victories gain'd in their Civil Wars as Lucan speaks Bella geri placuit nullos habitura Triumphos And there is very much to this purpose in that sad but very remarkable story of the Israelites and Benjamites as we may observe in the of Judges Chapters 20. and ●1 Some Benjamites there at Gebiah had committed an abominable wickednesse the rest of that Tribe instead of punishing did patronize it and chose rather to die in the resisting of justice than live and prosper in the furthering thereof It is one of the mad principles of wickednesse that when men have once resolv'd to do a thing be it never so bad and to say they will do it it is very great weaknesse to relent therefore they will chuse to suffer to die rather then yield or go back from their resolutions thinking that causes whatsoever they be when they are once undertaken must be upheld although with bloud And from this false ground the Benjamits there put themselvesin Arms and will be Champions to defend the leud●●ss● of their brethren and make themselves worse by the ab●tting of a monstrous sin than the others were by the commission thereof Because the last was done upon resolution and so probably was not the other Now that no man may conclude a cause therefore good because the successe is so the Tribes of Israel that went against the Benjamits had by far the better of the cause But the Benjamits for the present the better in their success for the wickednesse of Benjamin sped better for a time than the honesty of Israel Twise was the better part foil'd by the lesse and worse the good cause was sent back with shame The evil returned with victory and Triumph But wickednesse could never brag of any long prosperity The triumphing of the wicked is short And wickednesse cannot complain of the lack of payment for still God is even with it at the last as we may observe in the story of those Benjamits who in conclusion were made to pay extreamly dear for their sin In whose example we may take notice that the retaliations of the Lord are sure and just But after all this when the rest of the Tribes of Israel being so highly provoked had slain such a very great number of the Benjamites almost to the utter ruine of their Tribe for acting and abetting such a monstrous wickednesse observe how the rest of Israel behaved themselves towards their Brethren they did not rejoyce and make Triumphs for that their victory but they weep over their dead bodies Judg. 21. 2. and study how that breach a mong the Benjamites which their sin and provocation had enforced the rest of Israel to make might be made up again The Prophet Oded gave good counsel in a case which was something parallel to this and it was well followed 2 Chr. 28. for when they of Samaria had taken a very great number of their brethren of Judah Jerusalem Captives two hundred thousand and much spoil and were carrying it and them to Samaria the Prophet I say gave this counsel that they should not strip and starve but put cloathing on their loins and shoes on their feet and meat and drink in their bellies and send them home again and so they did There are very many who walk quite contrary to these rules and dare do as those wicked ones mentioned in the second Chapter of the book of wisdom saying let us oppresse and let our strength be the rule of Justice as if there were no power either in Earth or Heaven to contradict them But however let others who observe the courses of Gods Providence and withall see the oppression of the poor and the violent perverting of judgement and justice in a Province not marvel at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they In that Parable Luke 16. Dogs are mentioned and why so that their tongues might condemne the mercilesse bowels of their Master who shewed pity in their kinde When their Master had no Compassion on the poor Lazar he not considering that there is a mercy a pity and a care due unto the most despicable piece of humanity Frustra misericordiam petit qui misericordiam non facit in vain shall they one day hope for mercy and pity that will not now exercise it Undoubtedly there is nothing becomes power and greatnesse better than bowels and inwards of pity and mercy These make the faces of men in power to shine and themselves to resemble God who is most properly called optimum maximum first by the name of his goodnesse and then by the name of his greatnesse first by the name of his mercy and then by the name of his might But the ignorance of those Indians before spoken off makes them more pitifull than they need to be and if they had knowledge to make doubt of and to scruple other things as they should I might have spared my next Section which will acquaint my Reader by telling him further SECT XXI Of other strange and groundlesse and very grosse opinions proceeding from the blacknesse and darknesse of ignorance in that people ALl error in the World proceeds either from ignorance commonly joyned with pride or else from wilfulnesse This is most true as in natural and moral so in spiritual things For as knowledge softens sweetens mens manners so it enricheth their mindes which knowledge is certainly a most divine a very excellent thing otherwise our first Parents would never have been so ambitious of it This makes a man here to live twice or to enjoy here a double life in respect of him that wants it But for this knowledge it certainly must be esteemed better or worse by

God the happiness of his countrey and the good of himself and Relations to consider that here where there is so much light and truth light to guide and truth to settle men in the way of life and Salvation there should be so much wavering wandering and wickedness For aske among the Heathens who hath done such things the Virgin Israel hath done very fil●hily or an horrible thing as if the Prophet had said in other language Strumpets Harlots Prostitutes who sell their Souls with their Bodies had done but their kind but for Israel whom I have esteemed as a Virgin for England which I have owned above all the Nations of the earth to do such and such things who would have thought it Nay further as before considering all the means that we of this Nation have had above all the Nations in the world beside to teach us to know God and the great variety of mercies we have enjoyed to provoke us to love God that have had the wind and Sun of all other people the Sun shines not upon a Nation if we be considered collectively and together worse than we are It was sometimes prophesied of Jerusalem that Jerusalem should become so bad that it should justifie Sedome Ezek. 16. we of this Nation considered as before are a people that justifie Jerusalem oh what proficients have we been in the School of Satan when as those sins which the Apostle would not have so much as named among Christians have been so common amongst us so that we may boldly say how that Sodome and Gomorrah and those other Cities which Almighty God overthrew in anger and repented not those Cities which suffer the just and eternall vengeance of Almighty God lie not in Ashes for greater sins than have been committed amongst us But I can take no pleasure to be long raking in filthiness and corruption I will therefore make hast to give over this unpleasing unsavoury and nauseating discourse The rather because I know that neither counselling nor declaming against the sins of the present times doth much good This I believe that if I were filled with a spirit of false-hood and could prophesie of wine and strong drink my book would want no buyers to read and like it but I shall leave that discourse unto those that have not heard of Death in the Pot for my part I shall desire to be inrolled in the number of those who can wish with the Prophet Jeremy that their heads were waters and their eyes fountains of teares c. and that they had in the wilderness a lodging place that they might set down and weep day and night for the sins of the Nation and places where they live that they might sit down and weep and weepe over and over again those sins figh and cry for the Abominations they must needs take notice of by which retirement they might be freed from seeing and hearing and from vexing their Souls from day to day at the unlawfull deeds and filthy conversation of others and have better leisure to think themselves out of this wicked world Oh what cause have we of this Nation to beleeve that judgment is near when the Lord hath tryed us every way and all hath done us no good As f●rst God hath been exceeding good unto us in many favours so that it might have been said of England as one speaks of Israel that the Lord made that people a president of his love and favour that all the Nations of the world might learn by them from their example what God could do and what he would do for a people whom he loved but we have not been bettered by these benefits and doubtless if many amongst us had not been so blinded with light and sick of being well the body of this Church and state had never received such wounds as seeme incurable Oh if we had not sinn'd away our mercies God would never have taken away any of his loving kindnesses from us but our offences have been marvellously increased by our obligations there being no sins of so deep a die as thosewhich are committed against mercy The Lord hath tryed us otherwise his judgments have been in the land and the keenest of all temporall judgments the sword and the sharpest of all swords that which peirceth deepest because drawn amongst our own selves which hath made us our own spoylers our own prey yet we the inhabitants hereof have not learn'd Righteousness we have been encouraged by peace and we have slighted that and we have felt the sword of war and that hath done us no good Saevior armis Libertas nocuis Liberty as it hath been abused having given us deeper more dangerous wounds than ever the sword could So that neither the Majestie of God nor the Mercy of God the Goodness of God nor the greatness of God the favour of God nor the frown of Almighty God hath wrought upon us to reform us Now all these particulars put together they may give us great cause to feare what we shall be made to feel the weight of many sad conclusions which for the present we will not regard as that sin committed and unrepented of ever leaves a venome and a sting behind it and therefore that to sin is not the way to prosper that the longer a reckoning runs one the greater still the Summe and that the further compass a blow fetcheth about the heavier still it lights I shall speak it again under how many sad discouragements have many able sober minded and orthodox Ministers of the Gospel laboured in these later times who as if they had not enemies enough abroad find them at home in their own house their own coat proprijs pennis configimur wounded we are by our own quills by some who are excellent at close bites and though they speak us fair can open their mouths as wide against us as any others and then when we deserve nothing but well As the Athenians by their Ostracisme would punish desert and Crown ignorance But vessels that are most hollow and empty make the greatest sound and noyse And as love thinketh no evill So envy can speak no good we need not wonder at this when we consider that men of the highest deservings have many times had the worst usage And then if we find such dealing from amongst our selves we need not marvel at any thing we suffer from others from any from all that do not think well of us that do not love us and for that reason which Martiall expresseth in this Epigram Non amote Sabidi nec possum dicere quare Hoc tantum possum dicere non amote I do not love I love not Sabidie My reason of dislike I know not why When the Cynick was asked what beast did bite soarest and worst he answered of tame beasts a flatterer and of wild beasts a Slanderer many a good man sometimes feeles the ●eeth of both these of the tame beasts who when they creep into their