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	doctrine_n	rome_n	2,369	5	7.0297	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44523	Gods providence in the midst of confusion set out in a sermon preach'd at the Savoy, January the 30, 1681, being the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I / by Anthony Horneck.	Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1682 (1682)	Wing H2832; ESTC R13705	32,946	55

To see them fall foul one upon another and they that might live in ease and safety like Mad Dogs bite and devour one another To see them enraged one against another upon a punctilio of State and as if their Lives were nothing worth throw them away because both Parties cannot be of the same Judgment To see them not only begin their Quarrels upon slight Occasions but pursue them unto Death and Ruine as it is an Argument of intolerable Pride and Self-conceitedness so it 's like the careless Spectator that sees the Tremendous Effects of it will wonder what 's become of Providence in such Disorders 4. Massacres When the true Religion is persecuted as a Pestilent Heresy and mighty Endeavours are used to Extirpate its Renown and Glory when Fire and Faggot become Arguments to confute it and Swords and the Gallows are made use of as the only Syllogisms to batter its Fortifications when it is not only contemned and derided but the Professors of it severely handled and those that dare be so bold as to own it put to most cruel Torments when the Floods of Ungodliness threaten to overwhelm it and the Malice of Men rises to that height that nothing will serve their turn but its Ruine and Destruction Such was the Massacre of the Jews under Antiochus when to live up to the Law of Moses was present Death and to observe Gods Statutes the readiest way to be Tortured when to believe in one God was to be broken on the Wheel and to abhor Idolatry involved the Votary in the danger of most barbarous Usage Thus was the true Religion treated in the first ten Persecutions by the Heathen Emperours when to have a Bible in the House and to be thrown to the Lyons was all one and not to offer Incense to the Heathen Gods was cause enough to be torn in pieces by Bears and Tygers when Multitudes of Christians were driven like so many Sheep to the Slaughter and the Hangmen were sooner tired with Executing than the Professours of Christ's Doctrine with the variety of their Tortures Thus the Church of Rome dealt with the Waldenses and Albigenses from the Year of Our Lord 1334. to 1340. and upward when those innocent Creatures for contradicting the Corruptions of that Church were hurled into the Fire and not to be subject to the Pope in his unlawful Decrees was counted as bad as Witchcraft when Flames were the Portion of Men that would not believe a Purgatory and a Dungeon the Reward of adhering close to the Oracles of the Holy Ghost Such was the Massacre at Paris in the Year 1572. when in one Night many thousands were Murther'd for no other reason but because they were Protestants and vast numbers of Men and Women Murthered like Beasts because they would make the Bible the only Rule of their Faith and Manners when at Rome they triumphed at the Inhumane Fact and like the Jews thought they had done God Service by sacrificing the lives of his Servants to their Rage and Malice This was the lot of the Protestants in Ireland in the Year 1641. when 200000 of them were destroy'd to make the Popish Clergy sport and Men that professed themselves to be of the Catholick Church out-did Indians and Cannibals in their Cruelty when the more Protestants a Papist killed the more he Merited and might tell the Pearls of his Crown in Heaven not by his Beads but by the number of Christs Disciples which as he thought he had sent to Hell and offered to the Devil If God takes care of any thing thinks the sensual Man it must be of the true Religion this we must conceive to be his Darling and if he hath more tender Affections for one thing than another this we must suppose is the chief Object of his sollicitude This makes most for his Honour and his Glory is advanced by nothing so much as by true and genuine Worship This therefore he must be thought to mind and cherish most and to look upon with the kindest Aspect But to see this Jewel scorned derided affronted and its lustre darkened by Clouds of Ignorance and Malice To see this Pearl broken shattered and the dust of it dispersed into the various corners of the Earth To see its Foes live great and those that touch this Apple of his Eye brave it in their pleasures To see them erect their Throne on the Necks of Gods Servants and securely trample on these supposed Favourites of Heaven what can we conclude but that either this is not the true Religion or that Providence is careless and supine in its Protection 5. Such another Disorder is Base and contemptible mens climbing up to the Thrones of Kings and displacing the true Owners and usurping their Authority When the vilest of Men are advanced to Royalty and they that were but Subjects a little before come to sit in their Lords Tribunal vvhen Persons of the Dregs of the People get up to the highest Povver and they that vvere but Scum before come to svvim like Oyl on the top and throvv dovvn Gods Anointed when a Jeroboam from Surveyor of the Kings Works rises up to be King himself and a Zimri that dvvelt in a Cottage before comes to possess himself of the Royal Palace Such vvas the sudden advance of the Famous or rather Infamous Massinello vvho from a Fisherman in a day or tvvo comes to be a Prince and from mending of Nets in a Weeks time is advanced to be more than Vice-Roy of Naples whose contemptible Condition is on a suddain changed into Adorations and his Converse with the meanest of his fellow Subjects turned into bows and cringes from the greatest of the People he that before had scarce a Dog to attend him in a few hours is followed by a Crowd and receives the Courtships and Caresses of an incredible Multitude he that knew little but Obedience a little before now Commands Armies and from a Slave comes to give Law to the proudest of the Spaniards They that before would scarce vouchsafe to look upon him now are glad of his kinder Smiles and his threats that before were accounted little more than the noise of a Hound are now dreaded more than the Almighties Thunder Such was the prodigious rise of the late Usurper whose Crimes and wonderful Successes in his Bloody Attempts have given occasion to the sad Solemnity and the Sackcloth and Ashes of this Day A Man if it be not a Crime to call him so for he outwent Devils in Hypocrisy by whose contrivance the Royal Crown fell down and with the Crown the Church and with the Church the Nations happiness a Man whose Crimes must be detested while time is measured by the intervals of Day and Night and who by his Actions hath fixed such a blot on Christianity as perhaps the Tears of many Ages cannot wipe away a Man who in pursuance of his Dreams was restless till he saw what the Evil Spirit had revealed accomplished and first poisoned

stand amazed at his own Vertue and while he saw he was able to do what he thought had been impossible admire the immense power and goodness of God when grace was thus sufficient for him and made his strength proportionable to his burden This made him find by blessed experience what the Saints of old felt in their Chains and Tortures and assured him that to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the midst of Flames was no Fable This made him see that the things Invisible are the most desirable Objects and find with the great Apostle that there is a great difference between being Persecuted and forsaken 5. Such Disorders are sometimes permitted to discover the ill Principles of some Mens Religion who are like to seduce others by their specious Pretences that Men who are in good earnest resolved to be saved may be aware of them and not fall into the same condemnation 2 Tim. 3. 1 5 9. Men who suppose that gain is godliness when troublesome and Perillous times do come and Disorders rise serve themselves of these Tumults and under a shew of Piety grasp what they can and betray their Carnal Ends which in such times cannot be hid when there are opportunities and temptations to call them out into Action for as in such Disorders commonly the Right Cause or the Party that have most Justice on their side are oppressed and come by the worst so the other make advantage of their Misery and their Blood and Tears give the other Growth and Stature It 's possible Beloved Hearers you may remember times when Men walked in Sheeps Cloathing but within were Ravening Wolves and while their Voice was exactly like Jacobs their Hands continued rough as Esau's when Men cryed The Temple of the Lord and yet at the same time Murthered those that opposed their Insolencies and talked of the good Cause while they meant nothing else by it but enriching their own Purses when Men pretended a thorough Reformation and made their own Souls as black as Hell and gave out that they fought for God when it was only to maintain what they had unjustly purchas'd when Men sighed and groaned to get the Prey into their Net and laboured much for a Spiritual Kingdom to make a surer settlement of their Temporal Possessions When Men under a shew of seeking a World to come did what they could to enjoy this present and left no Stone unturned to Establish Religion that thereby they might Establish themselves the better in their Unrighteous Acquists when Men to pull down Idolatry as they called it set up Robbery and Sacriledge in the room of it and instead of doing things better than they had been exchanged only one Sin for another when Men call'd that Zeal which was in good earnest nothing else but inordinate Passion and termed that Charity which was no more but Kindness to their Brethren in Iniquity when Men called others Dumb Dogs that they might more securely Bark at them and represented them as lazy Droans that they might carry the Honey those Bees had made to their own Hives when Men undertook to resolve Cases of Conscience while themselves had seared their own and under a pretence of taking Scruples out of other Mens Breasts felt none for the monstrous Injuries they had been guilty of to their Neighbours when Men gave out they pittied the Divisions of the Church while themselves were the Causes that began them and talk'd of Works of Mercy while they shew'd none to those they had turned out of their Livings when they trampled on the Pride of Prelates with a greater of their own and ran like mad from Babylon to be consumed in the Fire of Sodom and Gomorrah So I have seen some gaudy Flowers arrayed more gloriously than Solomon but when dismantled have been nothing but unsavoury and unprofitable Stalks so the deadly Night-shade looks fresh and green as other Plants but carries Poison in its Bowels so the Prince of Precious Stones the Diamond by its Rayes promises so many Springs of Light but its Powder kills without Remedy so Gold and Silver dazle the Eye yet are no Steams more odious or loathsom than those which rise from the Mines they are digg'd out of so the Butterfly is striped with several Paints yet is no more but a squallid Animal so the Glow-worm looks like a creeping Star yet if you behold it by day light it is a very homely Creature These are the true Emblemes of some Mens Religion in the World and their partial Obedience in times of Disorder and Confusion tells the Considerate part of Mankind that what they profess is Varnish not Substance Glass not Natural Chrystal Shadow not Reality for how can that be true Religion where I give to God the things which are Gods and deny to Caesar the things which are Caesars where I am conscientious to the Creator and unjust and perfidious to the Creature where I offer Sacrifice and envy my Brother in my heart where I express love to my Maker and yet do not give all their due Custom to whom Custom Tribute to whom Tribute Fear to whom Fear and Honour to whom Honour or in St. Peters Phrase Fear God and do not Honour the King And these Sophistications God commonly discovers in Confusions intending them as Sea-marks to give warning to the Ships that see them afar off not to come near those Sands lest they split their Vessel and lose their Goods which with great cost and labour they have purchased But it 's time we proceed and enquire 3. How Gods Providence appears in these Disorders and Confusions 1. God puts bounds and limits to the rage of Men that cause and encourage those Disorders The proud Senacharib Es. 37. 24. talks big he had already put Jerusalem into Consternation and boasted of greater mischiefs he intended By the multitude of my Chariots saith he am I come up to the height of the Mountains to the sides of Lebanon and I will cut down the tall Cedars thereof and the choice Fir-trees thereof and I will enter into the height of his Border and the Forest of his Carmel But he that sits in Heaven laughs at him and the great Jehovah derides the little talking Insect assures the Prophet that beyond such a Field he shall not step and as he saith he doth Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest When Maxentius had filled Rome with Murthers and the People feared not only greater Injuries to their Persons but a total Desolation so great was the fury of the Monster the Almighty sets bounds to his brutish Courage and sends the great Constantine to remove him and with him the Yoak he had laid on the trembling People And thus hath God dealt with most Tyrants who have thought to crush the World by their