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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	part_n	spirit_n	2,749	5	5.0812	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50949	The reason of church-government urg'd against prelaty by Mr. John Milton ; in two books.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1641 (1641)	Wing M2175; ESTC R3223	58,920	68

This is all we get by demurring in Gods service T is not rebellion that ought to be the hindrance of reformation but it is the want of this which is the cause of that The Prelats which boast themselves the only bridle● of schisme God knows have been so cold and backward both there and with us to represse heresie and idolatry that either through their carelessenesse or their craft all this mischiefe is befal● What can the Irish subject do lesse in Gods just displeasure against us then revenge upon English bodies the little care that our Prelate have had of their souls Nor hath their negligence been new in that Iland but ever notorious in Queen Elizabeths dayes as Camden their known friend forbears not to complain Yet so little are they touch● with remorce of these their cruelties for these cruelties are theirs the bloody revenge of those souls which they have famisht that wh● s against our brethren the Scot● who by their upright and loyall and loyall deed● have now bought themselves a● honourable name to posterity whatsoever malice by slander could invent rag● i● hostility attempt they greedily attempted toward these murd● ous Irish the enemies of God and mankind a cursed off-spring of their own connivence no man takes notice but that they seeme to be very calmely and indifferently affected Where then should we begin to extinguish a rebellion that hath his cause from the misgovernment of the Church where but at the Churches reformation and the removall of that government which pe● sues and war● es with all good Christians under the name of schismaticks but maintains and fosters all Papists and Idolaters 〈◊〉 tolerable Christians And if the sacred Bible may be our light we are neither without example nor the witnesse of God himselfe that the corrupted estate of the Church is both the cause of tumult and civill warres and that to stint them the peace of the Church must first be s●l'd Now for a long season saith Azariah to King Asa Israel hath 〈◊〉 without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without law and in those times there was no peace to him that went out ● or to hi● that came in but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries And nation was destroy'd of nation and City of City f● God did vex them with all adversity Be ye strong therefore saith he to the reformers of that age and let not your hands be weake for your worke shall bee rewarded And in those Prophets that liv'd in the times of reformation after the Captivity often doth God stirre up the people to consider that while establishment of Church matters was neglected and put off there was no peace to him that went out or came in for I saith God had set all men every one against his neigbour But from the very day forward that they went seriously and effectually about the welfare of the Church he tels them that they themselves might perceave the sudden change of things into a prosperous and peacefull condition But it will here be said that the reformation is a long work and the miseries of Ireland are urgent of a speedy redresse They be indeed and how speedy we are the poore afflicted remnant of our martyr'd countrymen that sit there on the Sea-shore counting the houres of our delay with their sighs and the minuts with their falling teares perhaps with the destilling of their bloody wounds if they have not quite by this time cast off and almost curst the vain hope of our founder'd ships and aids can best judge how speedy we are to their reliefe But let their succors be hasted as all need and reason is and let not therefore the reformation which is the chiefest cause of successe and victory be still procrastinated They of the captivity in their greatest extremities could find both counsell and hands anough at once to build and to expect the enemies assault And we for our parts a populous and mighty nation must needs be faln into a strange plight either of effeminacy or confusion if Ireland that was once the conquest of one single Earle with his privat forces and the small assistance of a petty Kernish Prince should now take up all the wisdome and prowesse of this potent Monarchy to quell a barbarous crew of r● bels whom if we take but the right course to subdue that is beginning at the reformation of our Church their own horrid murders and rapes will so fight against them that the very sutler● and horse boyes of the Campe will be able to rout and chase them without the staining of any Noble sword To proceed by other method in this enterprize be our Captains and Commanders never so expert will be as great an error in the art o● warre as any novice in souldiership ever committed And thus I leave it as a declared truth that neither the feare of sects no nor rebellion can be a fit plea to stay reformation but rather to push it forward with all possible diligence and speed The second Book HOw happy were it for this frail and as it may be truly call'd mortall life of man since all earthly things which have the name of good and convenient in our daily use are withall so cumbersome and full of trouble if knowledge yet which is the best and lightsomest possession of the mind were as the common saying is no burden and that what it wanted of being a load to any part of the body it did not with a heavie advantage overlay upon the spirit For not to speak of that knowledge that rests in the contemplation of naturall causes and dimensions which must needs be a lower wisdom as the object is low certain it is that he who hath obtain'd in more then the scantest measure to know any thing distinctly of God and of his true worship and what is infallibly good and happy in the state of mans life what in it selfe evil and miserable though vulgarly not so esteem'd he that hath obtain'd to know this the only high valuable wisdom indeed remembring also that God even to a strictnesse requires the improvment of these his entrusted gifts cannot but sustain a sore● burden of mind and more pressing then any supportable toil or waight which the body can labour under how and in what manner he shall dispose and employ those summes of knowledge and illumination which God hath sent him into this world to trade with And that which aggravats the burden more is that having receiv'd amongst his allotted parcels certain pretious truths of such an orient lustre as no Diamond can equall which never the lesse he has in charge to put off at any cheap rate yea for nothing to them that will the great Marchants of this world searing that this cours would soon discover and disgrace the fals glitter of their deceitfull wares wherewith they abuse the people like poor Indians with beads and glasses practize by all

point of Christianity and will stirre him up to walk worthy the honourable and grave imployment wherewith God and the Church hath dignifi'd him not fearing left he should meet with some outward holy thing in religion which his lay touch or presence might profane but lest something unholy from within his own heart should dishonour and profane in himselfe that Priestly unction and Clergy-right whereto Christ hath entitl'd him Then would the congregation of the Lord soone recover the true likenesse and visage of what she is indeed a holy generation a royall Priesthood a Saintly communion the houshold and City of God And this I hold to be another considerable reason why the functions of Church-government ought to be free and open to any Christian man though never so laick if his capacity his faith and prudent demeanour commend him And this the Apostles warrant us to do But the Prelats object that this will bring profanenesse into the Church to whom may be reply'd that none have brought that in more then their own irreligious courses nor more 〈◊〉 holinesse out of living into livelesse things For whereas God who hath cleans'd every beast and creeping worme would not suffer S. Peter to call them common or unclean the Prelat Bishops in their printed orders hung up in Churches have proclaim'd the best of creatures mankind so unpurifi'd and contagious that for him to lay his hat or his garment upon the Chancell table they have defin'd it no lesse hainous in expresse words then to profane the Table of the Lord And thus have they by their Canaanitish doctrine for that which was to the Jew but jewish is to the Christian no better then Canaanitish thus have they made common and unclean thus have they made profane that nature which God hath not only cleans'd but Christ also hath assum'd And now that the equity and just reason is so perspicuous why in Ecclesiasic● censure the assistance should be added of such 〈◊〉 whom not the vile odour of gaine and fees forbid it God and blow it with a whirle● out of our land but charity neighbourhood and duty to Church-government hath call'd together where could a wiseman wish a more equall gratuitous and meek examination of 〈◊〉 offence that he might happen to commit against Christianity 〈◊〉 here would he preferre those proud simoniacall Courts 〈◊〉 therefore the Minister assisted attends his heavenly and spirituall cure Where we shall see him both in the course of his proceeding and first in the excellence of his end from the magistrate farre different and not more different then excelling His end is to recover all that is of man both soul and body to an everlasting health and yet as for worldly happinesse which is the proper sphere wherein the magistrate cannot but confine his motion without a hideous exorbitancy from law so little aims the Minister as his intended scope to procure the much prosperity of this life that oft-times he may have cause to wish much of it away a● a diet puffing up the soul with a slimy fleshinesse and weakning her principall organick parts Two heads of evill he has to cope with ignorance and malice Against the former he provides the daily Manna of incorruptible doctrine not at those set meales only in publick but as oft as he shall know that each infirmity or constitution requires Against the latter with all the branches thereof not medling with that restraining and styptick surgery which tho law uses not indeed against the malady but against the eruptions and outermost effects thereof He on the contrary beginning at the prime causes and roo● of the disease sends in those two divine ingredients of most cleansing power to the soul Admonition Reproof besides which two there is no drug or antidote that can reach to purge the mind and without which all other experiments are but vain unlesse by ●dent And he that will not let these passe into him though he be the greatest King as Plato affirms must be thought to remaine impure within and unknowing of those things wherein his purenesse and his knowledge should most appear As soon therefore as it may be discern'd that the Christian patient by feeding 〈◊〉 here on meats not allowable but of evill juice hath disorder'd his diet and spread an ill humour through his 〈◊〉 immediatly disposing to a sicknesse the minister as being much neerer both in eye and duty then the magistrats speeds him betimes to overtake that diffus'd malignance with some gentle potion of admonishment or if ought be obstructed puts in his opening and disenssive con● This not succeeding after once or twice or oftner in the 〈◊〉 of two or three his faithfull brethren appointed thereto be advis● him to be more carefull of his dearest health and what it is that he so rashly hath let down in to the divine vessel of his soul Gods temple If this obtaine not he then with the counsell of more assistants who are inform'd of what diligence hath been already us'd with more speedy remedies layes neerer siege to the entrenched causes of his distemper not sparing such servent and well aim'd reproofs as may best give him to see the dangerous estate wherein he is To this also his brethren and friends intreat exhort adjure and all these endeavours as there is hope left are more or lesse repeated But if neither the regard of himselfe nor the reverence of his Elders and friends prevaile with him to leave his vitious appetite then as the time urges such engines of terror God hath given into the hand of his minister as to search the tenderest angles of the heart one while he shakes his stubbornnesse with racking convulsions nigh dispaire other whiles with deadly corrosives he gripes the very roots of his faulty liver to bring him to life through the entry of death Hereto the whole Church beseech him beg of him deplore him pray for him After all this perform'd with what patience and attendance is possible and no relenting on his part having done the utmost of their cure in the name of God and of the Church they dissolve their fellowship with him and holding forth the dreadfull sponge of excommunion pronounce him wip't out of the list of Gods inheritance and in the custody of Satan till he repent Which horrid sentence though it touch neither life nor limme nor any worldly possession yet has it such a penetrating force that swifter then any chimicall sulphur or that lightning which harms not the skin and rifles the entrals it scorches the inmost soul Yet even this terrible denouncement is left to the Church for no other cause but to be as a rough and vehement cleansing medcin where the malady is obdurat a mortifying to life a kind of saving by undoing And it may be truly said that as the mercies of wicked men are cruelties so the cruelties of the Church are mercies For if repentance sent from heaven meet this lost wanderer and draw