Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	carry_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	26	3	8.5028	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48723	The churches peace asserted upon a civil account as it was (great part of it) deliver'd in a sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor in Guild-Hall-Chappel July 4 / by Ad. Littleton, presbyter.	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1669 (1669)	Wing L2560; ESTC R37938	36,810	50

we ought not in stark Charity to suppose but that they who profess the worst of Religions do in their conscience and according to their Principles take it to be the best in the world I hope there 's no one in this Assembly will make so uncharitable a reflection upon my Discourse as to imagine that has been the drift of it to countenance the bloody practices and cruel persecutions used either in the Popes Dominions or the Grand Signor's Territories Far be it from me to plead the cause either of the one or of the other Yet I do in my Conscience think that some of those the most violent Princes of either Religion that have been the most zealous Persecuters were in their Conscience perswaded that they were in the right You 'l say that 's fair for me to grant Our Saviour says the same they shall kill you and think they do God good service by so doing and yet I say Positively and I would have it taken notice of because it may concern some who may think themselves far enough from being in the same form with Turks and Papists I do Positively say that this their acting according to their Conscience will by no means excuse them For my proof I have both the great Apostles Rule and his Example too His Rule is set down Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing The case he brings it upon is not so clear I suppose upon the account of some false Teachers which endeavour'd to alienate them from that Doctrine which he had taught them and to withdraw them from the Church for their own advantage and this with a great shew of zeal in the fore-going verse They zealously affect you says he but not well yea they would exclude you or in another reading they would exclude us that you might affect them I wish our People would beware of such who with a great deal of zealous affection carry on their own designs But whatever the particular case was the Rule will hold in general 'T is good to be zealous if a man's cause be good and if the man be convinc'd his cause is so Otherwise Zeal without knowledge or in a wrong cause is a ridiculous and mischievous thing and is upon this score reckoned amongst the works of the flesh And thus is it with those Idolatrous People who the more zealous they are the more they have to answer I confess 't is a sad thing for any man to have an erring guide to follow I mean an erroneous Conscience For which way soever he take either with or against Conscience he is concluded to an unavoidable necessity of sinning and I must acknowledge too that 't is safest to sin on Conscience side and yet the mistake of Conscience will not be a sufficient plea for unjustifiable actions And thus it was with Paul who in the time of his Pharisaism was a zealous Persecutor and thought he did well but after his Conversion for that very thing condemns himself as the worst of sinners and yet was no less zealous for the Religion he turn'd to Now does his Zeal whilst he was a Pharisee which was his great sin make his Christian Zeal e're a whit the less commendable No sure No more does Nero's or Dioclesian's Persecutions of the Saints blemish any Christian Magistrates severity in defending the Faith against Hereticks or the Order of the Church against Alexander's killing of a Friend in his drink could be no Argument against his putting a Traytor to death by sober advice nor could the execution of a Traytor excuse the murder of a Friend To retort it upon the Objectors if they are so zealously affected that rather then their conceits shall not carry they will venture the pulling down Church and State about their ears let any one judge is not the Magistrate whom God hath intrusted with the care of his Church obliged to be as Zealous for the preservation of Church and State in the vigorous defence of Truth and Peace To make a familiar instance an honest man in possession shews a just courage in maintaining his right and is commended for it whilst the injurious invader let his courage be what it will is apprehended and deservedly punish'd by Law unless he grow too strong for the Law and then that 's a sad case I have done with the Arguments wherein I could not but think it my duty as to plead the Churches Peace so to vindicate her against Objections which are usually made and now shall only desire that as you have hitherto attended me with an obliging patience so you will extend that patience a little farther whilst I make an earnest and affectionate Address to you in a short Application with which I shall close all Let me then press it upon you Right Honourable and Worshipful the Magistrates and Patriots of this great City and you worthy Citizens of what rank and degree soever which hear me this day and I could wish my voice could reach from one end of the City to the other that you will all of you put on Publick Spirits and lay to heart the concerns of your Brethren and Companions and every man in his place exsert his Authority and Interest contribute his Prayers and endeavours for the Prosperity of the English Church and the composure of our unnatural irreligious differences in Religion Your City is the Metropolis of the Nation the Royal Seat of the Government and the great Staple of Trade which spreads its universal influence into all parts of the Land and your Example gives law to all the rest of the people 'T is your Iustice which holds the ballance in all National dealings 't is your mode of Religon here that is follow'd every where yonr fashions of serving God that are taken up and retayl'd into the Countrey The union of this City would unite us all O do not be wanting to so Pious so Necessary so Charitable a Work If you have any regard to God's Honour amongst us if any care of Religion if any love to your Native Countrey and the Government you live under if any kindness to your own Persons and Families to your Wives and little ones to your Friends and Relations if you have any hopes left after all those heavy Iudgments that have gone over you of enjoying Peace and Liberty and Plenty in your new dwellings if all these dear concerns do as I know they needs must lye near your hearts act then in the name of God for his sake and your own in a full and vigorous sense of these things and study the Churches Peace which is to secure them all to you by your unanimous Agreement in God's Worship and Service Your publick Iustice and Regulation of Trade and Reformation of Abuses in Civil Affairs and the prudent and vigilant administration of the Government of the City are things make you worthily spoken of but if this be all if there be not a

Imprimatur Tho. Tomkyns Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episc Cant. à Sac. Dom. Ex Aed Lambethanis Sept. 20. 1669. THE Churches Peace ASSERTED UPON A CIVIL ACCOUNT As it was great part of it deliver'd in a Sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor in Guild-Hall-Chappel Iuly 4. By AD. LITTLETON Presbyter Opto equidem ut si fieri potest nemo de fratribus pereat si tamen quosdam Schismatum Duces dissensionis Auctores non potuerit ad salutis viam consilium salubre revocare caeteri tamen vel simplicitate capti vel errore inducti vel aliquâ fallentis astutiae calliditate decepti à fallaciae vos laqueis solvite c. S. Cyprian de Unitate Ecclesiae LONDON Printed for Philip Chetwind MDCLXIX THE PREFACE TO THE READER 'T IS sad to consider that as we owe all our Vnsettlements to our Divisions so we our selves are so settled upon the Lees in these our Divisions that he that endeavours to remove us does but put us upon a new Fermentation and an exercise of Passion The charming name of Peace it self is now become an Alarm and entertain'd by most as unwelcom news and they that bring any tidings of it lookt upon as Enemies and Ill-affected The reason of this 't is no hard matter to find out for seeing many People have engaged themselves into parties out of a wrong apprehension of Interest as long as that prejudice lies in the way there is no hope of doing any good or ever reconciling them to that which seems to dis-interest them Let the best Oratour in the world go to perswade any man against his Interest he shall but lose his own labour and the others good opinion to boot Wherefore I have in this Discourse endeavour'd to und●ceive people b● evincing That the particular interests of us all as we are Brethren and Companions are involv'd in the Churches Prosperity and that her Peace by which the whole and every part the Government and every Person under the Government is ●●cur'd is at least ought to be the Center of all our concerns If Jerusalem miscarry if the things of her peace be hid from her eyes none of her Inhabitants what-ever their Zeal or their Wealth their Religion or their Interest may be must hope to escape I do again confidently say that mistaken Interest is the main ground and principle of our present Divisions because had they arose out of pure Conscience that 's a more treatable thing and is willing if it be a good conscience to be inform'd whereas now the humour of most is to run after things without any examination and to cry up one thing and condemn another many times which they have little or no knowledge of the one or the other Now Reader to apply to thee whether thou art for the Church or against the Church this discourse will be serviceable and useful to thee upon this meer account as thou art an honest English-man and wishest thy self well and thy Countrey no harm If thou art a Friend to the Church here thou wilt find some Arguments to confirm thy judgment and to inable thee in debating with others that are not Friends If thou separatest from the Church then thou must know that 't is mainly for thy sake that this comes abroad to find thee out because such discourses cannot meet with thee where they are deliver'd What-ever thy Opinion be and whether it were Conscience or Interest that made thee take it up which thou art best able to resolve thy self do not prejudge me but weigh impartially the truth and reason of things I desire not to be credited any farther then I have them on my side If thou findest the Language any where harsh and severe do not presently be offended 't is the nature of truth and reason so to express themselves and I do assure thee my design is only to convince thy understanding without any intention of breaking thy head One thing for thy further satisfaction I must not conceal from thee which besides the importunities of some Friends and others worthy Citizens which heard me that day was in part a reason of this Publication that some while after I had Penn'd this Discourse I met with a Sermon in Print of Doctor Reynolds the present Lord Bishop of Norwich Preached in the Parliament-House Jan. 9. in the Year 1656. upon this very subject Intituled The Peace of Jerusalem wherein he has over and above his pious inlargements upon the latter part of this Psalm for he takes all the four last verses for his Text in his Exhortation to those then in Power so Learnedly and Solidly as his manner is by several strenuous Arguments prov'd that The Christian Magistrate has a coercive power in matters of Religion Page 23. shewing plainly 't is but a trick and a design in those that cry it down Page 22. and that the difference of dispensations in the Jewish and Christian Church doth not a whit alter the case Page 26. nor Christian Liberty priviledge or exempt men from that Power Page 29. That with me and I think with any indifferent Reader he leaves no place of doubt I was glad to see that the Church even then when her Friends were under hatches was not in so hopeless and desperate a Condition but that her cause was fairly pleaded with acceptance before her Adversaries and This it was encouraged me to entertain some hopes if not of the like acceptation of my weak performance yet of a ready excuse for my dutiful endeavour before those that have been always and I hope ever will be the Churches Friends For though that were at such a time when our Church-Government was laid aside which yet that Reverend Person I make no question did even then out of his great Learning in his Conscience approve and wish restor'd and therefore out of prudence the main Controversie which is with the Authors of the division those that made the first breach seem to be wav'd and his style particularly directed against those Sects which improving the Schism into Heresie have departed from the Foundation yet those weighty Arguments he brings are generally applicable to all and are apparently of force against the most specious Sect we have amongst us and that upon this ground Page 31. that divisions and sub-divisions in the Church do exceedingly tend to weaken to distract to betray it To make good this I shall apply one of his Arguments which alone is enough to carry the Churches cause Page 28. Whatever things are per se subversive and dangerous to the prosperity of States and Nations come under the proper cognizance of the Civil Magistrate to prevent But Heresies Blasphemies Idolatries Impieties against God and Schisms too say I and so the Reverend Author himself joyns them Page 8. Blasphemies Heresies Schisms Idolatry Superstition do as well endanger the Prosperity of States as sins against the second Table