Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	great_a	reason_n	1,648	5	4.3830	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30326	The case of compulsion in matters of religion stated by G.B. ; addressed to the serious consideration of the members of the Church of England, in this present juncture.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5765; ESTC R32597	10,812	18

for above a whole Age together but the Heathens themselves continued to be in the chief Imployments of the Empire and it is pleasant to see how the Heathens that had so long persecuted the Christians and that had contrived the severest of all Persecutions under Iulian which very probably had been put in execution if he had returned victorious from the Persian Expedition saw the state of things no sooner altered than they began to imploy all their Eloquence in the behalf of Toleration as if Liberty of Conscience had been an Essential Right of Mankind from which they ought never to be cut off and they carried this-so far as to pretend That a difference in Religion tends more to the Honour of God than an Uniformity in it could do and so they fancied that a Variety in it was acceptable to God. The first Severity that Christians practised one upon another was the banishing of Arius and a few of his Followers It must be acknowledged that this seems to be the utmost extent of Civil Authority in those matters For certainly a Government may put such Persons out of its Protection that are Enemies to its Peace and so banish them upon great occasions giving them leave to sell their Estates and to carry away with them all that belongs to them yet this being all that any Humane Government can claim it ought not to be applied too easily or rashly till it is visible that all other means are ineffectual and that the Publick Safety can be no other way secured But though this Severity against Arius had no great effects yet the Arians had no sooner the power in their hands than they put in practice first all the contrivances of Craft and Fraud together with many less crying violences under Constance and they carried this afterwards to a more open Persecution under Valens and after that both in Spain and Africk it appeared that a cruel Spirit was so inherent in that Party that it shewed it self as often as they had power but while Valens persecuted in his Division of the Empire it is observed that Valentinian his Brother thought it was enough to support the Orthodox without persecuting the other Gratian carried the matter further and tolerated both almost equally And in the happy turn under Theodosius at what pains was St. Gregory Nazianzen to restrain the Orthodox from retaliating upon the Arians the ill treatment that they had suffered from them and not only the Novatians but even the Arians continued to have their Churches in the Imperial Cities The first instance of imploying the Secular Arm against Hereticks that was set on by any of the Orthodox was under the Reign of that bloudy Tyrant Maximus and it was managed by two such scandalous Bishops that their ill Lives is no small Prejudice against every thing that is carried on by such Instruments This was condemned by the best Bishops of that Age and the ill effects of that Severity are very copiously marked by the Historian One is unwilling for the sake of those Ages to reflect on the rigour that appears in some Laws that are in the Code yet the mild behaviour of Atticus Proclus and some other Bishops is marked with the praises that were due to it and it is probable that those Laws were rather made to terrifie than that they should be executed The Donatists after a Contest of above 120 years continuance that was managed at first more gently grew at last so fierce and intolerable that not being contented with their own Churches they broke in upon the Churches of those of the Unity and committed many outrages on the Persons of some of the Bishops putting out the eyes of some and leaving others for dead The Bishops upon that consulted whether they ought to demand not only the Emperors Protection but the Application of the Laws made against Hereticks to the Donatists St. Austin and some Bishops opposed this for some time but they yielded at last and these Laws were so severely executed that not only the Donatists themselves complained heavily of them but St. Austin in several Letters that he writ to the Magistrates upon this occasion made the same complaints He interceeded very earnestly for the Donatists and said That it detracted much from the Glory of the Church that had received so much honour from the sufferings of the Martyrs to see others suffer upon the account of the Church and he told them plainly That if they did not proceed more moderately the Bishops would suffer all that could come upon them from the Rage of the Donatists rather than complain any more to those who acted so rigorously Yet though St. Austin condemned the Excesses of the Civil Magistrates in some particulars he set himself to justify severity in General when it was imployed upon the account of Religion and all the moderate pleadings for Liberty that are to be found either in Tertullian Cyprian and more copiously in Lactantius with relation to Heathens and the like reasonings that are to be found in Athanasius Hillary and Lucifer with relation to the Persecutions of the Arians were in a great measure forgot St. Austin had a heat of imagination that was very copious which way soever he turned it and this was imployed chiefly in Allegorizing Scripture so as to bring together a vast number of proofs for every cause that he undertook without troubling himself to examine critically what the true meaning of those Passages might be and he is so apt to run out in all his Reasonings into excessive Amplifications and into all the Figures of copious and uncorrect Eloquence that it is no wonder to find that Passage of our Saviour in the Parable Compel them to enter in with some other Places misapplied on this occasion With that Father the Learning of the Western Church fell very low so that his works came to be more read in the succeeding Ages than the Writings of all the other Fathers and in this as in other things Men that knew not how to reason themselves contented themselves with that lazy and cheap way of copying from him and of depending on his Authority The Incursion of the Northern Nations that overthrew the Roman Empire and those Polishings of Learning and Civility that fell with it brought on a night of Ignorance that can scarce be apprehended by those who have not read the writings of the following Ages Superstition grew upon the ruins of Learning and eat up all The fierce Tempers of the Northern People being mufled up in Ignorance and wrought on by Superstition were easily leavened with Cruelty till at last Heresy came to be reckoned the greatest of all Crimes and as it condemned Men to everlasting burnings so it was thought that those might be well anticipated by Temporary ones of their kindling Zeal against Heresy was extol'd as the highest act of Piety toward God and since Heresy is reckoned by St. Paul among the Works of the flesh it seemed as just