Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	communion_n	member_n	1,766	5	8.5884	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62625	The spirit of popery tryed, whether it be of God a sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, upon the fifth of November, 1699 / by the Right Reverend Father in God William, Lord Bishop of Oxon.	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing T126; ESTC R33894	14,395	26

Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoice and be glad in it How memorable ought is to be to us as I hope it will be to our latest Posterity on which God has twice appeared so wonderfully for us once in the timely and strange Discovery of the Powder Plot in King James the First 's Time and again in that great Deliverance from the no less dangerous Designs of the same Enemies in the Reign of King James the Second which I must date from this Day on which the happy Instrument of it Landed in this Kingdom of which Deliverance I would not desire to raise any one's grateful Sense higher than in proportion to those Apprehensions of our danger which however some are willing to forget now every thinking Man had then Adored be the Majesty of Heaven who has so often commanded Deliverance for us blasted the Designs and Attempts of our Enemies that had evil will to our Sion and not yet suffered them to devour Jacob or lay waste his dwelling place 3. How ready and willing should we be to comply with and pursue these Methods which will effectually secure us against their Attempts for the future There is a remarkable Prophecy in the Mss of a great Antiquary of our own That Popery should decay about the Year 1500 and be restored about 1700 and that most likely by means of our Divisions which threaten the Reformation c. What credit soever this Prediction may deserve as to the Thing it foretells the Restitution of Popery and the Time it prefixes for it yet the Methods by which it says it will most likely be brought about are so reasonable and probable That I think without pretending to the Spirit of Prophecy a Man may venture to say that if ever Popery humanly speaking comes in upon us it must be at those Breaches which we our selves make 'T is known who they are that first caused and are still somenting our unhappy Divisions and sure we have been long enough Tools in their Hands for the working their Ends and our own Ruin Whoever looks into Campanella●'s Treatise of the Spanish Monarchy the Scheme he has there drawn for the subjecting of this Nation and Church to the Power of Spain and Tyranny of Rome will find that the Method he proposes are the embroiling of Scotland the dividing of England and the instigating the Bishops and Calvinists as he calls them against one another and whoever compares this Project with the Practices of Rome in relation to us which our Chronicles or Memories may inform us of will be satisfied that the latter have been an exact Comment upon the former But this Maxim Divide Impera they might have learned from the old Romans would to God we could learn from them one Principle too which Nature taught them and Revelation has more forcibly recommended to us that of a publick Spirit and a hearty Concern for the publick Welfare which would beat down and triumph over all little private Interests and private Piques and dispose and engage us to that Peace and Union both Civil and Ecclesiastical which would be under God our securest Guard against all the Designs and Attacks of our Enemies As to the former would we lay aside our Passions for a while and suffer our cooler Reason to advise it would tell us That a Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation that every particular must suffer in the publick Destruction That in our Case 't is evident to a Domonstration That if ever our Enemies prevail over us there is no quarter to be expected by any that even those who shall have served them most faithfully by being unfaithful to their Country cannot look for better Treatment than what they will have highly deserved That it is the height of Phrensy and Madness for the gratifying an angry or serving a covetous Passion for the reaking our Spleen against any we dislike at the Helm or for the promoting a private mistaken Interest of our own to contribute to the sinking of that Vessel on which we our selves are embarqued and must with it go down to the Bottom And as to the other Union in Religious Affairs I would in the Spirit of Meekness desire such as scruple fixed and constant Communion with our Church for a time calmly to lay aside their Prejudices and to suppose that it is possible for them to have mistaken or been misled and therefore to resolve to examine Matters carefully themselves not to take Things upon trust or think it a sufficient Reason for their Separation from us that they have been educated another way Let them impartially consider Whether the established Church be not the only Communion in which there is any likelihood or indeed possibility for us generally to unite against the common Enemy Whether she did not appear to be the only Bulwark against Popery in the late times of Danger and Tryal Whether her Members did not bravely defend the Protestant Cause when some that that had reflected upon them as Popishly affected did not venture to appear publickly in vindication of it Whether they did not boldly oppose the Methods that were then used to introduce Popery while the others did too easily comply with them Let them consider Whether there be any Dangers they can run by joyning with this Church which can balance that apparent one which the whole Protestant Interest is in by their Division from her Let them examin her as nicely as they please let them bring her to the Test she refuses not she has no Reason to be afraid of it she can bear the Test of the Text Let them try whether she be of God or not Let them examine her by his Word and see if she wants any thing to make her a true Church or abounds with any Thing that may make her a corrupt one Let them try if she has not Bishops and Pastors duly commission'd for their respective Offices if the whole Doctrine of Christianity be not profess'd and taught in her if the Sacraments of Christ's Institution be not administred and received and if she have not a publick Worship for us to offer up our joint Homage and Prayers to God in Let them try whether she suffers those that Minister in Holy Things to be Masters of Mens Faith and Consciences or to exercise any Superiority more than the Holy Ghost who has made them Overseers has committed to them whether she allows them to deprive their Flocks of the sincere Milk of the Word and to feed them with lying Legends instead of it whether she does not require them to preach the Gospel to be instant in season and out of season and to do the work of Evangelists that they make full proof of their Ministry Let them try whether she corrupts her Faith by receiving humane Traditions into it or Articles destructive of true Piety whether she teaches any Doctrines that may encourage Men to sin in hopes of pardon upon easie Terms or