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	good_a	great_a	3,182	5	2.6384	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97171	Pax vobis or a charme for tumultuous spirits. Being an earnest and Christian advice unto the people of London, to forbeare their disorderly meetings at VVestminster, least they prove to the disturbance of the great businesse in hand, pressed by divers waighty and considerable reasons offered to their serious thoughts. Together with a motion for the speedy reliefe of the poore distressed Protestants in Ireland : and for a publike fast that we may all joyne in harty supplications to God for them. / By Thomas Warmstry Minister of Gods word.	Warmstry, Thomas, 1610-1665.	1641 (1641)	Wing W886; Thomason E180_24; ESTC R12759	20,943	42

leave to translate it thus One good man did to us restore The Commonwealth neere lest before By wise delay not taking care Of every Rumour he did heare But in his heart preferring still The peoples safty not their will His name then glorious well may be With us and with posteritie And as it was with him so I trust we shall all have good cause to translate this Elegy unto this great body If God please to compact thē so that they may be Vnus homo as he was united in their Iudgements and affections and preferre not tumultuous rumours and motions before that which is good and healthfull to Church and State I trust then the delay will be fully recompensed in the happie successe and crowned conclusion that it will appeare not to have beene a putting off of the businesse but a prevention of Temerity which some men oft times more worke to undoe then they had to doe in the beginning and Casts them backe by their speede more then the greatest softnesse of their motion could have done They that ride too far in a day having a great Iourney to goe come many times short of their Iournies end An aftergame is but the second part of wisedome and proves many times full of difficulty and hazard and therefore the safest way is to take time and deliberation when wee may have it to play the fore game well least our negligent speede leave us to remedilesse errors or at least not corrigible without some discredit And truely the Stake is here so great and every one of us so much a sharer in it as comprehending Religiō Peace Honour and prosperity of the whole Church and State that wee have all great reason to give them leave whom we have trusted to play it for us to thinke well upon their casts least some oversight might end it too soone to all our undoing and wee should have occasion to wish it were rather not yet begunne then ended The perills are so many and great that they had neede looke round about them every steppe least if the feet should outrun the eyes the hast should leave the speede behind it and like Mephibosheths nurse let the whole businesse fall and lame it The danger I conceive lies not in this then but rather in our impatience least when wee think them too slow wee should enforce them to too much hast in their progresse and through a desire that they should goe on hinder them from going right and whilst wee require satis faction for our importunity we loose the expected enjoyment of our felicity which is the last errour for prevention whereof I am bold my brethren especially to addresse my selfe unto you at this time and to beseech you in the name of God and for the mercies of Christ Iesus that you would not by any unseasonable pressures or Tumultuous sollicitations of the businesse in hand attempt the disturbance of this happie conjuncture but that it may bee permitted to glide on smoothly and calmely and peaceably as is most correspondent unto those peaceable ends which they drive at not inturrupting that great assembly either by any uncivill or distempered concourses or by any rude or immodest clamours and that for these reasons which I shall here present unto you drawne first from the consideration of the nature of the businesse secondly from the different constitution of your selves and that great body and of the different intent that is betwixt you in the matter Thirdly from the great and generall concernement not onely of your selves but of the whole Church and Kingdome That I say not of Christendome and the whole world therein Fourthly from the great imputations and intollerable prejudices that such proceedings of yours may seem to lay upon the Parliament Fiftly from the great impediments and distractions that you may create unto the carriage of their designes And lastly from the great derogation that this may cause both in our owne and after times from the validity of those good Lawes which they shall now make and the too too semblable excuses that you may furnish ill minded people withall to a colourable underprising thereof and a substraction of obedience from them 1 The nature of the worke which is a worke of of peace and righteousnes requires a peaceable and calme proceeding for though wee haue found it true through Gods miraculous mercy sometime that union hath beene raysed out of the ashes that Tumult and division have left Yet such peace is a rare Phaenix and such extraordinary reuolution are noe proper scales for us to measure our proceedings by Rules and actions must bee collected from those experiments which are daily and frequent not from wonders and miracles which are seldome seene Surgeons thinke it not safe to stabb theire patients because one perhaps was so deliuered of an impostume The prouidence of God that overswayeth all actions can turne the designe of an enemy into the worke of a phisition And he that made all things of nothing can make what hee pleaseth of any thing and bringe his owne most wise conclusions out of the most contradictory premises But yet those rare and stupendious workes of his are noe warrant for us to prescribe to him still to bring to passe such strang conversions Secondly as it is a worke of righteousnes directed to the abollishing of those errors and vices which through the mallice of the Deuill and his iustruments are of late crept into the Church so it abhors tumults and uiolence The fruit of righteousnes is sowne in peace of them that make peace saith the Spirit of righteousnes and peace And if wee survay the proceedings of those Ministers and happy Instruments both of peace and righteousnesse the Apostles and Desciples of Christ Iesus which are good patternes for us to walke by wee shall finde that though they had at least as many difficulties to meete with as the summe of all those wee can observe or imagine can make up to lie against the businesse in hand yet they made use of noe tumultuous or uiolent practises for the compassing of theire ends no-distempered or uncivill clamours no threatning demeanours noe contemptuous carriage against Governours Though they found them too untractable and farre from admittance of that enterptize they entended They encountred indeed with much violence and sedition many confluences and erruptions of the people they had to doe with breaking out upon them like violent stormes or the unrully surges of the enraged Ocean All you may see in the Acts of the holy Apostles but for themselves they raised none but leading on the work with a Calme streame and with a peaceable and unpassionate zeale prevailed so farre as to beate downe before them the unrully oppositions they found in their way And make it appeare unto the wonder of the world that God saveth not by sword or speare but by a secret and almost unperceived operation and that the soft and still voice wherein God was was more

powerfull then the most violent winds Then the most teareing thunder yea then the most enraged flames that any humane fury could kindle or raise against them Neither did they abstaine as some may perhaps object either for want of opposition or through any defect of Christian zeale or of a party to countenance a Tumult Opposition they had enough to provoke them as is well knowne and wee have already declared their zeale Alas yours at the hottest if wee speake of pious zeale is but a sparke unto their flame you may and do I doubt exceed in intemperate heartes But divine zeale it is a benigne flame ever accompanied with humility and charity that a Feaver a disease this a healthfull vigour of the Soule and in this I dare be bold to say they were as farre beyond the best of you as the Sunne at noone beyond an Ignis fatuus neither wanted they a party to have shewed themselves in the matter with as much noise and violence if they had pleased as you have done If you consider either number or unity as you may see if you look upon those great and miraculous increments and numerous collonies that transplanted themselves at once into the Church even by about three thousands at a time as you may read in the acts of the Apostles for their number and if you looke upon that one minde and one heart which was in them which could not but adde much sttength unto their multitude so that their forbearance was not out of any such respects but out of a carefull watchfulnesse not to exceed the Decorum of a Christian moderation and to doe Christs worke according to his owne rule and patterne in whom the strength of the Lion of the tribe of Iudah was joyned with the meeknesse and patience of a Lambe and the wisedome of the serpent with the simplicity of the Dove And surely beloved if we would walke in their stepps it might be a good presumption of our attaining to the like ends Since we if our sinnes have not altered the case have the same God and patron of the same power and mercy to protect the same cause that they had And if our offences have deprived us of him it is not all the violence wee can use nor the most impatient sollicitation we can set upon that can purchase any blessing to the matter in hand Therefore in this respect my advice is unto you and I hope I shall joyne with you to turne your violence in that kind you wot of to an holy violence upon God in your prayers and instant sollicitations of the Throne of grace that with united forces and sanctified importunities you would assault the Allmighty for his mercy and compassion quasi 〈…〉 facta as Tertullian speaketh as an united party and army of Christians in your holy assemblies and this as hee speaketh would be vis Deo grata a force very acceptable in deed unto the Lord but for your Tumultuous assemblies I know no such warrant to judge them pleasant unto him since I see not any Commission you have from God unto that purpose nor any good proportion that they beare unto that issue which wee earnestly hope to be happy in Adde unto this that it is a worke of Medicine or healing not of destruction or dissolution but so far onely as our present tumours and Corruptions make necessary unto that the whole state is that great body to be Phisickt and cured The civill State or the Common-wealth in the outward and pollitique consideration is the outward part or Fabrique the Church in the spirituall consideration may well be taken for the inwards or bowells or if you will the Soule of that body For these two make up but one and the same and differ no futher then the extemall parts or members from the inward or spirituall part of one and the same man And as the outward parts are for the inwards and the body for the soule so the outward state of the Common-wealth is for the Church or spiritual part and as the cure and managing of the body is to be directed principally to the good of the soule so the affaires and carriages of the Civill state to be directed principally to the preservation of the State spirituall in a Christian Common wealth which is the only living body of this kind Heathen states being at the best but dead Carcases void of all inward life as it were And therefore these two must not be separated too farre but joyntly cared for with a principall regard ever had unto the spirituall ends since the greatnesse or flourishing of the Common-wealth is onely so farre truely comfortable and healthfull as it tends to the promotion of Religion and service the of God which is the healthfull constitution of the Church And therefore those Polititians or Statesmen that make Religion and the Church but a meanes unto outward ends they set the Cart before the Horse and are preposterous in their designes The union betwixt these two is like the union betweene the body and the soule which is the uery definition of life the separation if to tall is death and what ever tends thereto leads unto a dissolution And therefore whosoever divides these two too farre and makes them of too different a consideration goes about to divide the forme from the matter For as Anima is tota in toto so I dare bee bould to say the Church is extended or at least should bee through all the members of a Christian Common-wealth so that even the state is an Eclesiasticall body Some conclusions wil follow upon this that might perhaps discover some Paralogismes in the ordinary discourse of these times but I pursue the businesse I have in hand The distempers of the Church are like those extremities and disorders which are in the faculties or passions of the soule The sores of the Common-wealth as the wounds of the body And as in the humane or naturall these two have a mutual coaction or reaction the distemper of the soule causing diseases in the body and on the Contrary the diseases of the body procuring inordinate affections in the soule So here the miscarriages in the Church are the causes of the miscarriage in the Common-wealth and the distempers of the Common-wealth bring forth diseases of the Church And to speake truely I doe more then doubt that for the present wee are vnder a shrewd Complication of these two kinds of diseases therefore it is time to looke after the Phisitian and who is that it will bee worth the knowing The Archiatros or principall Phisition in whose power and skill onely the cure lyeth it is none but God alone under him in the Ministeriall worke both Magistrates and Ministers Some of these are more for outward applications and some for inward of the former sort there are the Magistrates especially the King or as Galen if my memory doth not faile mee saith of a Physition that Medicus debet esse tanquam

could shew any warrant from the whole whereby they have designed you to become their sollicitours I confesse you are a great and a principall part but yet you are not the whole body There are many millions more that must either bee happy or unhappy in the successe of this Parliament then are within the walles or subburbes of this Citty whereof you are thought to bee no greater a parte then you make shew off and you cannot assure mee nor yourselues that those things that you so earnestly looke for will bee satisfactory to all the rest They have not committed their cause to your uote but to the Parliament whom they have made their Vicars and proxies for the managing of this great worke And as they gave them this power freely so they may justly looke that it may bee freely exercised by them unto whom they have so committed it and may well take any force in the least appearance that is offered upon them to bee a limitation of their owne freedome will not this brotherly regard prevaile with you I trust at least you are tender of the Parliament your professions averre it let your performances confirme it Consider therefore in the fourth place the great imputations that these proceedings of yours may seeme to lay upon them The Galls of the spurrs are usually abated for in the price and uallue of the horse The vse of the whip or the voyce of the rider is in a sort the reproach of the Palfrey Frequent Admonions have their secret Accusations in them and therfore men take it for a difgrace to bee invited too often to their duties Especially if there be the least shew of violence or force in it it doth not only tax either the wisdome or the will or the power of the Agents which are attended with Ignominy but it doth also rob uertue of the praise by taking away the glory that is in the 〈◊〉 freedome of her Performances and discorrageth the work by making it seeme slavish You are wise enough to make the application and I have busines enough to doe to forbeare it or if you will have it make it your selves by giving your selves the answere vnto these few Questions Doe you thinke the Parliament wise enough to discerne and discover what is fit to bee done and to Lay hold vpon the fitte opportunities which belong unto every motion to be sett forward Doe you conceive they are honest enough in their wills to make a fitt and a seasonable pursuit of those good ends which they have before them Doe you think them furnisht with abilities answerable to the worke in hand and to bring the meanes the issue together Doe you know where to mend them in all or any of these I am sure I doe not and I thinke not you why then may they not be trusted with the worke why cannot they bee lett alone why doe not you Conceive it better for you to follow your trads callings which is the busines which God hath sett you about then to trouble your selues others in your vnnecessary meetings at westminster I say noe more in this point But I pray you bee tender of the Credit of the Parliament Or if not yet in the fifth place Let mee advise you bee tender of the successe it self the Proverb is I confesse that many hands make light worke but it is not all wayes verified in the better sense somtimes the excesse of agents takes not soe much from the burthen toyle as from the waight and the substance of it A busines may be halfe lost if wee take not heed in a confused Crowd especilly where the skill is not multiplied with the numbers Too much handling doth vse to soyle the Artifice and over much medling may aswell disturbe the order and frame as put for ward the Course of the motion and if it move not in order and frame the swifter it goes on the sooner it may be shaken to peeces and bury our hopes together in its ruine Take heed I beseech you the Fabrique in hand is a peece of great Curiosity and depends much upon the right disposure of the parts And therefore not fit for the touch of every rash and unskilfull hand untill it be wholly made up and perfected and then I hope it will be so compacted together that you may safely both waigh it and enjoy it and will have no need of any mending by your hands Till then your wisest course will be to stand a loose of and take what comfort you can in the view of it at distance but give not your judgement till you see it finished Hee that should stand by a Painter and should see him drawing the first and second Lineaments of that peece which he meanes to perfect hereafter and judge of the worke before it be halfe done would detract much from the Painters skill and not adde much unto his owne judgement Snspend your censure then till the workmen give over and bee not too busie in tonching and handling it before the coullours be quit dry least you moyle your selves and deface the peece and so lay your owne errours upon the Artificers Sixtly if all this cannot turne the scales give mee leave in the sixt and last place to present unto you one weighty and serious consideration and to desire you to be seriously cautelous that you doe not enervate what you entend to promote I know it is your desire that the healthfull and glorious designe in hand may not onely bee perfected and finished but that it may bee fixed and setled upon so strong a Basis and foundation that it may not be shaken down againe by any stormes or tempests whatsoever that the Devill or any instruments of his can raise against it That those good lawes which shall bee now enacted may bee as a chaine of gold for glory and excellency so that they may be strong and dureable as yron able to bind and keepe in their due order and limits all the most extravagant members of this state Now the great Buttresse or Foundation upon which the Lawes of England stand If I be not mistaken is upon the free consent of the King and subject in the composing and farming of them And that is indeed the strongest mettall to make a chaine of to bind men withall that any humane Lawgiver can make choise of since it is that suits best with the nature of man which is commonly amourous of Libertie and is apt to take all things with the left hand that savour of abridgement or imposition And doth also prevent them most of all excuses or quarrells against the lawes for since it doth in a sort make them all for the considerable part in policy as well parties and agents in the making of the yoke as passive in the bearing of it we are so much the more deprived of all plea and exception against it untill it bee taken off or abrogated by the like power and upon the same termes