Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	soul_n	spirit_n	3,520	5	5.4686	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80413	What the Independents would have, or, A character, declaring some of their tenents, and their desires to disabuse those who speak ill of that they know not. / Written by John Cook of Grays Inne Barrister.	Cook, John, d. 1660.	1647 (1647)	Wing C6031; Thomason E405_7; ESTC R201877	9,934	18

fast till authority settle a forme of worship He holds the Word and Sacraments not to be the constitution of a Church no more then the Law is the Common-wealth or the axe the house but the means and instrument of constitution and counts him the onely extravagant man that flies from reason which makes all men so noble he is of an opinion that the far greater part of men in the Kingdom beleeve that an honest upright meaning will win heaven and hope so to live as by their good works Prayers and good meanings to be saved and therefore does not conceive these men to be visible members of Christs body and consequently not to communicate in the distinguishing Ordinances Hee thinks it ill done to enforce any under penalties to receive the Sacrament possibly to seal up his own condemnation he is for every reformed Church so far as it is reformed but says many Scotch Ministers complain that things are not thorowly reformed with them hee counts it licentiousness not Christian liberty to affront those that be in Authority and never speaks any thing against the Nationall way of worship but to justifie his owne if called thereunto Hee will not be beaten but by Scripture weapons and in reading Scriptures neither stretches things wider nor draws them narrower then God has made them hee holds perswasion to be the Gospellary way and that liberty of Religion to all Protestants is the bond of Religion against Papists hee believes the community of the faithfull in appearance to be the immediate receptacle of all ecclesiasticall authority and holds Non-communion with Churches when one Church after fasting and Prayer shall tell an hereticall company that it appears they are in the state of damnation as Heathens and Publicans and better a milstone were hung about their necks then to give such just offence to be as effectuall to attain the spirituall end as Excommunication He is sorry that Brethren should fall out by the way being all animated by one Spirit as the body by one soul but is glad that himself is not the least cause of the disagreement He thinks spirituall diseases must have spirituall cures and thinks it is no proper way to confute an Heretick to break his head with the Bible Hee is one that desires to live lovingly with all the World and loves most where he sees most of God hee does not so much desire that Jesus Christ should love him because he knows hee loves him already nor that hee should love him more because hee knows hee loves him enough but that hee might love Christ and love him more and hee joyn●s himself in Church-fellowship not to gaine Heaven but to witnesse his love to Jesus Christ and desires to love himself no farther then he finds the Image of God renewed in him He counts it a great honour and security to Protestants to joyn all as one man against Popery and desires heartily a Union with our Brethren the Scots which hee conceives may very well be without a Uniformity which is a condition for the Saints above fully enlightned hee thinks Religion is ab eligendo as well as à religando and that the French Protestants are cordiall and sincere that may eyther goe to Masse or to Church as they please He conceives a moderate Presbytery such as men cannot except against in point of Reason or Conscience is best consistent with the happinesse of this Kingdom and why should not moderate men be content with a moderate Discipline He loves an honest Presbyterian better then an dishonest Independent and believes that the want of Morality excludes from Heaven he believes that this Army would fight as heartily for the State against Popery or any that should doe them wrong as ever they did for the Liberties of this Kingdom and desires that the Parliament and Army would grant as much to the City of London as may possibly consist with the safety of the Kingdom Hee freely forgives all those that rail against him in Pulpits and prays that God would make such Ministers more zealous to advance the power of godlinesse then their own power Hee desires to learn the truth with all diligence and humility and if for the present hee be in an errour hee hopes all good Christians will excuse it because it proceeds from a desire of all possible purity in a Congregation as if a servant be over diligent thinking to please his master by doing his businesse too well no ingenuous man would blame him He judges him the best Common-wealths man that wil suffer much himself when it may conduce to the publike peace and that is most forward to go in a way safe for the Kingdome though dangerous to himself and him the best Christian that studies Truth and Peace yet so as a Union of hearts rather then a vicinity of Houses is to make up a Congregation according to the New Testament then which he conceives his way no Newer Concerning the Errours of the times many whereof pretend from weak judgements but strong affection to Jesus Christ he thinks all this smoak is not without some fire but because the common enemy the Papists have more differences among themselves lest our jarring should be their musick he desires we may spend our wits upon them and our charity upon one another and if all truths be seasonable he conceives that the Assembly sitting so long before they agreed upon any thing was a great occasioner of them they kept the Kingdome too long fasting as if all men had beene of a like strong constitution whereas passengers to heaven are in haste and must walk some way or other and hee that hath gone far in a Wood is loth to turn back though hee be wrong so dangerous is it to procrastinate in their matters and very rare for a man to confute himself His practice is to baptize the children of one or both believing parents as foederally holy the contrary opinion of some Anabaptists or Antibaptists make him study Scripture in pietie and devotion more there being neither expresse precept nor example for it and the correspondency of the Seals under both dispensations more and possibly that may be a truth which for want of light hee conceives to be an errour if it be an errour 't is a very harmlesse one resting there and cannot disturbe the publike Peace If an Antinomian doctrinall doe not prove an Antinomian practicall hee thinks some of those opinions are very comfortable and learns hereby not to exalt duty too much but to study free grace the more and believe that the Doctrine of Justification and satisfaction have never been more cleerly taught then by them that have been so called He hopes Seekers finde the way to Heaven yet counts it sad that any should wait for new Apostles they may as well seeke a new Gopel and that those Ordinances which Christ hath purchased with his pretious bloud should be counted shadows much derogatory to his love and wisdome yet he

thinks it a sin either to follow an erring conscience or to doe against it but to oppose it the greater sin for he that will doe the least sin against conscience is prepared in disposition to doe the greatest He marvels any man should hold Independencie not to be Gods Ordinance and yet a nationall Assembly to be Apostolicall which is most Independent He thinks there are many Deer without the pale straying sheepe without a fold and when all is done there will be wolves within lambs without but think that to honour Christ is to do his wil is most troubled to consider how one sheep should bite and persecute another He beleeves the government of the Church lies upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ and that the Pope may as well maintaine a Priesthood under the Gospel after the example of Aaron as that Magistrates may punish different opinions after the example of the godly Kings of Ifrael and Judah who were types of Jesus Christ and directed infallibly and yet suffered Herodians Alexandrians Saduces and Pharisees unlesse the errours be of a morall and capitall consideration that may indanger the peoples welfare He verily beleeves that the ardent endeavours of the godly Presbyterians and Independents are to conserve the Ordinances in purity and purging of the Church from scandall and would fain beleeve that the difference between them is but small that the union may be the more easie and sees it most apparently that the interest of all honest godly men is wrapt up in a speedy union to love one another entirely though of different judgements otherwise Gods people are likely to be in a worse condition for their liberties then ever they have been He has ever been a faithfull wel-willer to King and Parliament an enemy to all oppression and cruelty a reall friend to speedy justice and urbanity and thinks hee is no good neighbour that desires it should onely raine in his Garden hee thinks all the delight in this World without the liberty of his conscience is a burthen intolerable And judges Christs Kingdom to be onely there where his Laws are in force for that County is no part of a Princes Dominion which is not regulated by his Laws He is a homager to King and Parliament for the exercise of a good conscience not to beg liberty from man to be a Christian nor to settle the divine right of worship but to be protected in the free exercise of it hee cannot act contrary to his light received without manifest ruine of his owne soule nor practise but by the Magistrates permission without apparant hazard of his person and family therefore intreats all Christian spirits who have any credit with the Magistrate and have felt the weight of an oppressed conscience to mediate for him as Men Christians fellow-sufferers and fellow-helpers Some think it the greatest miracle in the world that any generation of rigid men should be so unnaturall to kill their own fathers and persecute their own brethren who but lately suffered with them but concludes that superstition is an unreasonable thing and that Pride and Covetousnesse in some men are enough to make a man of the Indians minde by any means not to be of the Spaniards Religion Hee marvels any man should be an enemy to tender consciences the want whereof is the plague of this wicked world and that rich man that cannot feast till his poore neighbours have bread to eat hath a tender conscience He knows no Injustice in an errour or opinion and marvels why believers should contend about the faith which they have already and can never lose and thinks it far better that Protestants who in a Parish are of three opiniōs should rather have three severall meeting places then fight and live in perpetuall jars with one another therefore reckons Liberty of Conscience to be Englands chiefest good because nothing else can procure love and peace for did God for the safety of a sheep dispence with his own law and are men so Wolvish to prefer an inferiour Law of uniformity to the royall law of love which is the life of a Kingdome but men may ruine themselves they can never ruine the truth He thinks it a very uncivill part for any man not to yeeld to a civill government but in matter of opinion thinks it misery enough to refuse Christ Jesus and salvation and that to tye up the outward man unlesse he be turbulent or unjust is a reformation for dogs and bears He thinks it is but dissembling for young people to contract themselves and after aske their friends consents to fast and pray for that which is already resolved upon and believes that never did any bloudy Bonner persecute any man under the notion of a Saint but as an instrument of evill or disturber of the State He thinks it strange that none but in office may preach and yet one may preach to get an office and how Beza who was never ordained could ordaine others but he thinks there is lesse need of an accessory solemnity then of the peoples salvation and marvels why a man may not greach by his tongue as well as by his pen the rather for that Jehosaphat sent to his Princes to teach in the City of Judah Princes have preached in Geneva and Lairds in Scotland not to be a Minister without an outward calling but having an inward call to preach to edification though the line of ordination were never stretcht over him he thinks him not zealous of mens salvation that murmures at all mens preaching that are not fashioned in his shop and wishes that Me●chants would send men to preach Jesus Christ to the Indians as well as Factors for he thinks the true interest of England is the Protestant cause to be as zealous to advance that as the Spaniard is for popery He thinks it impossible that the civill peace of a Kingdom should be broken unlesse the Laws be violated and how Lillies should scratch and Lambs tear Wolves and Doves persecute Hauks and Virgins scold are things that lie very remote from his intellect He thinks nothing more hinders a reformation then taking things upon trust not supporting authority by solid reason He wishes that every ingenuous man would disclaim all practices specially in matters of law that are against the law of true reason a confident adherence to authority and a ready prostration to Antiquity preferring old Errours to new discoveries of Truth being prime causes of all injustice and oppression as if an Argument from Authority were any proof to a wiser man a Generation of rigid Formadists making Religion overthrow it self by destroying mercy and Humanity 'T is well for many scandalous Railers that he is a man of a peaceable spirit and all the hurt that he wishes to the Kingdom is that Independents were the worst men in it He draws his sword for publike Liberties which being substantially setled by King and Parliament and secured He will gladly sheath it and say The Lord hath done all and hope that no ingenuous man will envy him those Liberties which were purchased for him by the bloud of Christ knowing that a Communion in Unity will be a glorious supplement to the rent of Uniformity which may seeme strange for a time but will quickly be embraced by all honest men A solid Reason will at any time convince him and hee loves to read discourses which are rationall therefore to charge him with wilfulnesse and obstinacy is a supercilious and censorious severity if not an uncivill and unchristian offence for God is the searcher of all hearts To whose grace and goodnesse he commends the courteous Reader FINIS