Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	christian_n	young_a	zeal_n	25	3	8.0404	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64062	B. Taylor's Opuscula the measures of friendship : with additional tracts : to which is now added his moral demonstration proving that the religion of Jesus Christ is from God : never before printed in this volume.; Selections. 1678	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1678 (1678)	Wing T355; ESTC R11770	78,709	214

which they could make must needs be violently opposed a change that introduced new Laws and caused them to reverse the old to change that Religion under which their Fathers long did prosper and under which the Roman Empire obtained so great a grandeur for a Religion which in appearance was silly and humble meek and peaceable not apt indeed to do harm but exposing men to all the harm in the world abateing their courage blunting their swords teaching peace and unactiveness and making the Souldiers arms in a manner useless and untying their military girdle a Religion which contradicted their reasons of State and erected new Judicatories and made the Roman Courts to be silent and without causes a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful but in a time when riches were adored and ambition esteemed the greatest nobleness and pleasure thought to be the chiefest good it brought no peculiar blessing to the rich or mighty unless they would become poor and humble in some real sense or other a Religion that would change the face of things and would also pierce into the secrets of the soul and unravel all the intrigues of hearts and reform all evil manners and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel that such a Religion in such a time preached by such mean persons should triumph over the Philosophy of the World and the arguments of the subtle and the Sermons of the eloquent and the power of Princes and the interest of States and the inclinations of nature and the blindness of zeal and the force of custom and the pleasures of sin and the busie Arts of the Devil that is against wit and power and money and Religion and wilfulness and fame and Empire which are all the things in the World that can make a thing impossible this I say could not be by the proper force of such instruments for no Man can span Heaven with an Infants palm nor govern wise Empires with Diagrams It were impudence to send a footman to command Caesar to lay down his arms to disband his legions and throw himself into Tyber or keep a Tavern next to Pompeys Theatre but if a sober man shall stand alone unarm'd undefended or unprovided and shall tell that he will make the Sun stand still or remove a Mountain or reduce Xerxes his Army to the scantling of a single Troop he that believes he will and can do this must believe he does it by a higher power than he can yet perceive and so it was in the present transaction For that the holy Jesus made invisible powers to do him visible honors that his Apostles hunted the Daemons from their Tripods their Navels their Dens their hollow Pipes their Temples and their Altars that he made the Oracles silent as Lucian Porphyrie Celsus and other Heathens confess that against the order of new things which let them be never so profitable or good do yet suffer reproach and cannot prevail unless they commence in a time of advantage and favour yet that this should flourish like the Palm by pressure grow glorious by opposition thrive by persecution and was demonstrated by objections argues a higher cause than the immediate instrument now how this higher cause did intervene is visible and notorious The Apostles were not learned but the holy Jesus promised that he would send down wisdom from above from the Father of spirits they had no power but they should be invested with power from on high they were ignorant and timorous but he would make them learned and confident and so he did he promised that in a few days he would send the holy Ghost upon them and he did so after ten days they felt and saw a glorious immission from heaven lights of movable fire sitting upon their heads and that light did illuminate their hearts and the mighty rushing wind inspired them with a power of speaking divers languages and brought to their remembrances all that Jesus did and taught and made them wise to conduct souls and bold to venture and prudent to advise and powerful to do miracles and witty to convince gain-sayers and hugely instructed in the Scriptures and gave them the spirit of Government and the spirit of Prophecy This thing was so publick that at the first notice of it three thousand souls were converted on that very day at the very time when it was done for it was certainly a visible demonstration of an invisible power that ignorant persons who were never taught should in an instant speak all the Languages of the Roman Empire and indeed this thing was so necessary to be so and so certain that it was so so publick and so evident and so reasonable and so useful that it is not easie to say whether it was the indication of a greater power or a greater wisdom and now the means was proportionable enough to the biggest end without learning they could not confute the learned World but therefore God became their Teacher without power they could not break the Devils violence but therefore God gave them power without courage they could not contest against all the violence of the Jews and Gentiles but therefore God was their strength and gave them fortitude without great caution and providence they could not avoid the traps of crafty Persecutors but therefore God gave them caution and made them provident and as Besaleel 〈◊〉 A●oli●h received the spirit of God the spirit of understanding to enable them to work excellently in the Tabernacle so had the Apostles to make them wise for the work of God and the Ministeries of his Diviner Tabernacle which God pitched not man Immediately upon this the Apostles to make a fulness of demonstration and an undeniable conviction gave the spirit to others also to Jews and Gentiles and to the Men of Samaria and they spake with Tongues and prophesied then they preached to all Nations and endured all persecutions and cured all diseases and raised the dead to life and were brought before Tribunals and confessed the Name of Jesus and convinced the blasphemous Jews out of their own Prophets and not only prevailed upon Women and weak Men but even upon the bravest and wisest All the disciples of John the Baptist the Nazarens and Ebionites Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea Sergius the President Dionysius an Athenian Judge and Polycarpus Justinus and Irenaeus Athenagoras and Origen Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria who could not be such fools as upon a matter not certainly true but probably false to unravel their former principles and to change their liberty for a Prison wealth for poverty honor for disreputation life for death if by such exchange they had not been secured of truth and holiness and the will of God But above all these was Saul a bold and a witty a zealous and learned young man who going with Letters to persecute the Christians of Damascus was by a light from Heaven called from his furious march reproved by God's Angel for persecuting

the cause of Jesus was sent to the City baptized by a Christian Minister instructed and sent abroad and he became the prodigy of the World for learning and zeal for preaching and writing for labor and sufferance for government and wisdom he was admitted to see the holy Jesus after the Lord was taken into Heaven he was taken up into Paradise he conversed with Angels he saw unspeakable rayes of glory and besides that himself said it who had no reason to lie who would get nothing by it here but a conjugation of troubles and who should get nothing by it hereafter if it were false besides this I say that he did all those acts of zeal and obedience for the promotion of the Religion does demonstrate he had reason extraordinary for so sudden a change so strange a labour so frequent and incomparable sufferings and therefore as he did and suffered so much upon such glorious motives so he spared not to publish it to all the world he spake it to Kings and Princes he told it to the envious Jews he had partners of his journey who were witnesses of the miraculous accident and in his publication he urged the notoriousness of the fact as a thing not feigned not private but done at noon day under the Test of competent persons and it was a thing that proved it self for it was effective of a present a great and a permanent change But now it is no new wonder but a pursuance of the same conjugation of great and Divine things that the Fame and Religion of Jesus was with so incredible a swiftness scattered over the face of the habitable World from one end of the earth unto the other it filled all Asia immediately it passed presently to Europe and to the furthest Africans and all the way it went it told nothing but an holy and an humble story that he who came to bring it into the world died an ignominious death and yet this death did not take away their courage but added much for they could not fear death for that Master whom they knew to have for their sakes suffered death and came to life again But now infinite numbers of persons of all sexes and all ages and all Countries came in to the Holy Crucifix and he that was crucified in the reign of Tiberius was in the time of Nero even in Rome it self and in Nero's family by many persons esteem'd for a God and it was upon publick record that he was so acknowledged and this was by a Christian Justin Martyr urged to the Senate and to the Emperors themselves who if it had been otherwise could easily have confuted the bold allegation of the Christian who yet did die for that Jesus who was so speedily reputed for a God the Cross was worn upon breasts printed in the air drawn upon fore-heads carried on banners put upon crowns Imperial and yet the Christians were sought for to punishments and exquisite punishments sought forth for them their goods were confiscate their names odious prisons were their houses and so many kinds of tortures invented for them that Domitius Vlpianus hath spent seven Books in describing the variety of tortures the poor Christian was put to at his first appearing and yet in despite of all this and ten thousand other objections and impossibilities whatsoever was for them made the Religion grow and whatsoever was against them made it grow if they had peace the Religion was prosperous if they had persecution it was still prosperous if Princes favored them the World came in because the Christians lived holily if Princes were incensed the World came in because the Christians died bravely They sought for death with greediness they desired to be grinded in the teeth of Lions and with joy they beheld the wheels and the bended trees the racks and the gibbets the fires and the burning irons which were like the chair of Elias to them instruments to carry them to heaven into the bosom of their beloved Jesus Who would not acknowledge the Divinity of this person and the excellency of this institution that should see Infants to weary the hands of Hangmen for the testimony of Jesus and wise Men preach this doctrine for no other visible reward but shame and death poverty and banishment and Hangmen converted by the blood of Martyrs springing upon their faces which their impious hands cords have strain'd through their flesh who would not have confessed the honour of Jesus when he should see miracles done at the Tombs of Martyrs and Devils tremble at the mention of the name of Jesus and the World running to the honour of the poor Nazaren and Kings and Queens killing the feet of the poor servants of Jesus Could a few Fishermen and a Publican effect all this for the son of a poor Maiden of Judaea can we suppose all the World or so great a part of Mankind can consent by chance or suffer such changes for nothing or for any thing less than this The son of the poor Maiden was the Son of God and the Fishermen spake by a Divine spirit and they catched the World with holiness and miracles with wisdom and power bigger than the strength of all the Roman Legions And what can be added to all this but this thing alone to prove the Divinity of Jesus He is a God or at least is taught by God who can foretell future contingencies and so did the holy Jesus and so did his Disciples Our blessed Lord while he was alive foretold that after his death his Religion should flourish more than when he was alive He foretold Persecutions to his Disciples he foretold the mission of the holy Ghost to be in a very few days after his Ascension which within ten days came to pass he prophesied that the fact of Mary Magdalen in anointing the head and feet of her Lord should be publick and known as the Gospel it self and spoken of in the same place he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of its approach and that it should be by War and particularly after the manner of Prophets symbolically nam'd the Nation should do it pointing out the Roman Eagles he foretold his death and the manner of it and plainly before-hand published his Resurrection and told them it should be the sign to that generation viz. the great argument to prove him to be the Christ he prophesied that there should arise false Christs after him and it came to pass to the extreme great calamity of the Nation and lastly he foretold that his beloved Disciple S. John should tarry upon the earth till his coming again that is to his coming to Judgment upon Jerusalem and that his Religion should be preached to the Gentiles that it should be scattered over all the World and be received by all Nations that it should stay upon the face of the Earth till his last coming to judge all the world and that the gates of hell should not be able to