Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	people_n	1,422	5	4.6721	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70397	A companion for the persecuted, or, An office for those who suffer for righteousness containing particular prayers and devotions, for particular graces, and for their private or publick wants and occasions.	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1693 (1693)	Wing K362; ESTC R14209	54,208	172

it in ways of Holiness O! Lord that all its Ministrations may be such as become Saints Suffer it not to mix sin in thy Service or to teach it to thy People To pollute holy Offices with any ungodly or unrighteous Petitions and prostitute and prophane thy Worship by falling therein to offer any abominable things Oh! let not its Ministrations become the Ministrations of Unrighteousness but be Holy and without Blemish as besits thine House and becomes thy Spouse Whilst thou art pleased to try it with Tribulations Lord let them only purge it but not lay it waste And revive a suffering Spirit among us when it labours under a suffering State Make it willing then and ready to quit all Interests of this World and live upon the hopes of a better Enable it contentedly yea joyfully to take up thy Cross and to bear it after thee Oh! that at such times it may always be more afraid of Sinning than of Suffering Oh! that it may never fall to make the way of Gain to pass for the way Godliness or to Preach up what is Unrighteous because it is become serviceable and safe Nor ever seek to Error and Wickedness for Refuge instead of seeking to God and trusting in him and in his holy ways for the same Oh! Father in thy Mercy guard it against all Error and Ungodliness rescue it from all Schisms and Divisions and free it in thy due time of its Distress and Persecutions for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake Amen 2. O! Almighty Lord Direct and Rule the Hearts of thy People by the Power of thy Grace that they may no longer run furiously upon Unrighteous Expedients nor by their Violence drive their Teachers into the Practice and Justification thereof Oh! that they may seek to hear true and not pleasing things and not only hear but love to be faithfully dealt with And give them not up O! Father to persecute the Preachers of Righteousness who are ready to warn them of the Error and Danger of their ways or to despite them and treat them as their worst Enemies only for telling them thy Saving Truths Lord let not the love of Error and Hatred of those Truths which are according to Godliness and Honesty always Reign in them Let them not persist therein without Remorse Or when they are smitten with Relentings let them not lie sealed up in their Iniquity as the fallen Angels do by despair of Mercy and seat themselves among those Sinners who when once they have done ill think they cannot be safe but by doing worse Especially O! God deliver them not over to a Reprobate Sense nor shut them up under a Spiritual Blindness But open their Eyes to see from whence they are fallen and to seek after those things which are necessary to their Everlasting Peace through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen 2. Prayers for cure of Schisms and for Graces in divided Times 1. DEliver this Church O! Almighty Lord from Schisms which have torn it to pieces And grant that all those Members who are broken off may return to offer up their Religious Services in due Dependance upon their own Orthod●x and Lawful Pasters and to make Conscience of keeping Union and of continuing Subject and Obedient unto those who are Rightfully set over them in the Government of thy Church Let them not think it enough O! God to have Holy Prayers But teach them moreover to put up these Prayers in such Assemblies as keep Obedient and United to those Spiritual Fathers whom thou hast called to be the Rightful Governors of the Body And make them know that when as good Christians they are careful to joyn in none but Holy Services they must take care also as good Church-Members to present those Services to thine Hands in the Unity and Communion of thy Church there to be accepted with thee through his Merits and Mediation who is the Head and Saviour of the Body even thy most Blessed Son and our only Saviour Jesus Christ Amen 2. BEnd the Hearts of all amongst us O! blessed Lord to have Peace amongst themselves Teach them Humility and Submission to those whom thou hast put in Authority over them Let Love and Lowliness increase and all self-denying and amicable Tempers And remove far from us Covetous and Aspiring Thoughts and Pride and self-pleasing and all Wrath and bitter Passions Reconcile all jarring Spirits and cause all Discord and Division to cease And dispose us all O! Jesu thou Prince of Peace to see those Truths which make for Peace and tend to close our Breaches and willingly to submit to them Let us not give way so far to Anger and bitter Passions till none but violent things will please us and till we grow fond and greedy of any Error that will make the Breach wider but Zealous against such Truths as might serve again to unite and bring us together Oh! keep us strictly careful both of Peace and Truth And as we humbly pray that we may never give up thy saving Truths for Peace so do we likewise that we may never divide from each other and be averse to Peace when thy Holy Truths stand in no need thereof And whilst we labour under our unhappy Breaches Let us not be wanting in any mutual Offices of Humanity good Neighbourhood or common Justice towards each other Let us not fancy that their being of different Opinions or of different Churches from us must put a stop to the Just Acts and Offices of Gratitude and to the Remembrance of former kindness or that they must give us a discharge from any mutual Obligations of natural Kindred or of civil Relations Especially O! Merciful God keep us from placing all Religion in the Notes of a Party Let us not so over-ratc the real or fancied Virtues of our several Divisions as to take up therewith and become our selves as culpable for the Breach and allowed Neglect of some Duties as we charge our Brethren to be for the Breach of others But whilst on all sides we are zealous in pursuing those points wherein we differ let us be zealous for others too aud not overlook or lay aside the care of good Life and of that common Religion wherein we all agree and which at last must deliver us all from thy Wrath and prepare us for thine Everlasting Mercies thro' our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen 3. Prayers for the Bishops and Clergy under Persecutions 1. O! Almighty Lord under all these Persecutions which are sent to prove and purge us have an especial care of the Bishops and Pastors of thy Church who are set to take of thy People and to defend thy cause and fill their Hearts with the power of thy Spirit and with all those Gifts and Graces which are needful to maintain their own Standing or prevent the Falls of others Make them clear Examples O! God of Holy Living and of truly Christian and Righteous Suffering to thy Flock setting before their Eyes the lively Draughts and

constant Practice of Faith and Patience Meekness and Charity and of a Heart mortified to this World and full of the Thoughts and Hopes of a better Give them Grace O! Lord to watch over thy People with willing Minds and with unwearied Diligence Oh! that they may Rule them prudently and skilfully as wise Guides And feed them faithfully as good Shepherds Oh! that they may wholly apply themselves to Preach thy Word and to administer thy pure Worship and Sa●rament to comfort the Afflicted ●o strengthen the Feeble-minded ●o confirm those that Stand and to raise up those that are faln to quicken the Indifference and Lukewarmness of some and to curb and bridle the inordinate Heat and undue Passions and Violence of others And let them not think of quitting the trust and Charge of Ministring to Souls when the Wolf approacheth or leave of caring for thy Flock to take care of themselves But keep them ever mindful O! Holy Jesu that thou art the true Shepherd who gavest thy Life for the Sheep and that as thy true Followers and faithful Ministers they must be diligent at such times in Ministring to their wants and attend upon the same at all hazards Let them shew then that they love thee by feeding thy Sheep Enable them to shew perfect Love which ●asteth out Fear And give them Grace to speak thy word and to do thy work with Boldness and Uprightness neither fearing the Faces of their Persecutors nor tolerating and muchless feeding the Diseases or Vices of their Flocks but remembring always that in thy Church they preside and Minster for thee and as they who are to give an Account for Souls Possess their Hearts O! God with such vigilant Care and Love for Souls and Holy Zeal and Godly Courage and Prudence as is requisite for Men iu their High Trusts and Stations and under the present wants and Difficulties of thy Church And be with them in all they do and in all they suffer for thy Cause for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake Amen 2. COmfort up their Spirits also O! Lord with the visible Effects and good Fruits of their Labours and Sufferings among thy People But whatever success they meet withal let them not desist from thy Service nor fall to do thy Work negligently but when there is the least appearance of their working good up others let it however satisfie and support them that they have thereby shown their Fidelity and Love to thee and have delivered their own Souls And keep them from all vain Janglings O! thou Blessed Spirit of Love and Peace and from falling into desires of vain-Glory or Emulation among themselves Let them not defile their own Spirits or disparage thy Cause by turning aside to vent humane Passions or to seek or serve any worldly ends But in all their Labours and Sufferings for thy Church help them to approve themselves pure and sincere as Men whose great care and chief business is to serve thee and to watch for the Good of Souls And whilst they are watching for thy People Lord let thy good Providence watch over them When thy Service and the ne●ds of Souls do most endanger and expose them let them be safe in thy keeping Put by the Malice and Machinations of their Enemies and give them Patience and unwearied Perseverance under all their Difficulties and Distresses Support and Comfort them under the same at present and turn them all in the end to the furtherance of thy Truth and to the encrease of their own Everlasting Peace and Happiness through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen 4. A Prayer for both Clergy and People O! Lord whilst thou art trying us with Losses and Worldly Sorrows make us easie under the same and careful to bear them with Patience and raised Affections But let us not betake our selves to Pride and self-pleasing and to feed those corrupt Passions which our Afflictions should purge out nor ever fall to seek or think of great things here for our selves Oh! that our Tribulations may teach us to be humble and to mortifie our own Passions Oh! that our worldy Sorrows may cure and turn us from being any longer fond of this World and from feeding our selves with any vain and ensnaring Hopes or Desires thereof And that whilst we are daily crossed in our Fleshly Desires we may cease to be any longer bent upon our own Wills and may in all things resign our selves up to thine Let not our Persecutions O! Gracious God be lost upon us nor let us be unprofitable Schollars in the School of Affliction Let it not be justly chargeable on us that Tribulations could not mend us nor the fiery Trial resine our Spirits and purge away our Dross But bring us by our Sufferings to know our selves and to set light by all Earthly things and to take up with thee for our Portion and with the Sure and Blessed Hopes of thine Everlasting Mercies thro' the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 5. A Prayer for the Churches Defence and Deliverance from Persecutions UNder all its Wants and Backslidings Sorrows and Distresses look thou upon thy Church O! Lord and support and deliver it Many are they who Combine against it and great is their Power and Vigilant and Earnest is their Care and Endeavour to suppress and destroy it And against all their Assaults it has no other Defence but thy Grace and good Providence Do not thou forsake it then O! God for it flies to thee and rests on thee alone for Succor Maintain it for it is thine own Cause And if it be cast down thine Enemies and theirs will tryumph Take the Matter therefore into thine Hand for no other is sufficient for it and thou art most concerned therein Bring it safe through this Fi●ry Trial and let it not be consumed thereby but as Gold is only purged and putrified of its Dross Give it a Cure O! Lord of all its Errors and Impurities and quietness in the End from Persecutions and Grace not to grow careless or be Corrupted by days of Ease but to improve the same in doing thee Honour and Service with more Freedom and fewer Interruptions thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 15. A Thanksgiving for any Comfortable Cessation or for Rest and Ease from Persecution BLessed be thy Great and Glorious Name O! Father of Mercies and God of all Comforts for the comfort of these days of ease from our former Tribulations Thou hast in great pity considered our Frailty and Weakness and hath not suffered the Rod of the Persecutors to lie too heavy or rest too long upon o●r Backs Thou hast not been Deaf to our Desires when we called upon thee nor suffered our Hopes in thy Gracious Promises to ●ail Thou hast fulfilled thy Word unto thy Servants who served and suffered for thee in Confidence thereof and hast made the Wicked to cease from troubling us and exchanged the Fiery Trial of their ungodly Violence for