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	great_a	rome_n	2,890	5	6.5165	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66417	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and aldermen of the city of London, at the Guild-hall chappel, October 12. 1679 by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1679 (1679)	Wing W2724; ESTC R2997	16,163	36

and finding out the interests designs and inclinations of others and supplied with all things that may be necessary for such an undertaking have a great advantage over any people that are without such Instruments 2. There are besides great preferments and hopes of gaining them to whet their Industry and encourage their endeavours for those of all kinds that Church doth abound in and flows with that wealth gathered from First Fruits Tenths Appeals Dispensations Pardons Jubilees Pilgrimages and other innumerable ways of advantage as that no design shall fail for want of succour in that kind 3. There is a setled Conformity throughout that Church and all agree in their Service as it 's now establisht that whatever differences there are among them yet They seem to be One to others and are really so in what makes for their own advantage and security 4. They have a great power over the Laity in the interests they make among them for the reasons abovesaid and by obliging them to Auricular Confession by which their secrets are poured into the Priests bosom and so as they are under a tye not to do any thing which they would not trust him with the knowledg of so if they have committed a secret to him dare not disoblige him for fear he should disclose it By which means men dare not own their doubt or so much as entertain a thought of doing otherwise than the Church will allow Lastly there are such permissions and allowances in their Church that for the service and good of it men may shape their course as they please take up any Garb and fashion themselves to any temper of men or state of people whatsoever for such an end So that from a Church thus Constituted and Established with Power and Policy there needs all the industry consideration and unity that can be to preserve those that are threatned by it And this without a setled general and National Constitution I see not how it may be We may as well think to go out against a veterane and well disciplined Host and hope to overcome them without any known Orders to be observed or Officers to Lead and Command as to defend our selves against the invasion of so powerful and formed a Church as that is For had we no Form at all or were there different petty Forms without submission to one as Supream there would it 's likely be as many Factions as Forms and those so furiously contending with each other that the very approach of the Enemy would hardly be able to curb the violence with w ch each would bear upon the other or however there could not be that good understanding that necessary Intelligence that sober advice that mutual care for each others safety and that ability to advance it as when there is but one The Adversary would have an opportunity of sowing dissensions of widning differences and of infecting the multitude with such Principles as should make them a fit prey for his own power when there is a fit season for it From all which the necessity of having a General and National Constitution doth appear where it is not and of maintaining one where it is 2. I shall consider what that Constitution is that may best preserve a Church and a Church whose welfare is maligned by such an Adversary as I have before described And that I shall do by laying down some Characters which may belong to such a Constitution and then by searching for such a Church as may have a Correspondence to these Characters 1. That Constitution which is agreeable to Scripture and the practice of the Primitive and Universal Church is most likely to maintain it self against all opposition For then it is able to encounter an Adversary with great advantage and beat him from his strongest holds so far as Authority is admitted to the decision of the Case If we have the Scripture on our side none can ever warrantably throw us out of possession or make good any charge against us since whatever we hold or do by vertue of its Authority will remain firm and unshaken and which none can touch upon but they must strike at the Foundation of Truth and Religion And if we have the Primitive Church and the Records of the first Ages to stand by us as we have thereby the best Expositors of Scripture so the best Authority next to it and which none can wholly reject without great rashness and arrogance 2. That 's to be supposed a Constitution of this Nature which the Adversaries do most of all oppose and seek the downfal of If we see an Enemy bending all his force against a particular place and passing by others with all hast and diligence imaginable seeks to surprize it by Stratagem or overthrow it by violence we may well suppose it to be of great importance and what he is most of all apprehensive of danger from And if we find the Church of Rome always undermining and assaulting some particular Establishment amongst us or some one Church more than others in the world we have good cause to think such a Church and Constitution to be considerable in it self and what is also a great affliction and obstruction to them 3. That is likely to be a Constitution of this kind which best sutes the Civil Government that hath such a dependence upon it and is so complicated with it that it cannot cannot carry on a different interest from or seek the trouble and ruin of the State but it must also trouble and ruin it self Whereas if these two are divided or have several Centers to respect there will be a continual contention which can end in nothing but destruction 4. That is likely to be a Constitution for this purpose which is most generally suted to the temper of the people and which even the greatest part of Dissenters will choose to dwell under rather than another There cannot be a Constitution which all will equally like approve of and agree in and since a National Constitution is necessary for our preservation that which will come nearest to this is most eligible 5. That Constitution may be presumed to be fit for this end which we have had good Experience of and know what it 's able to do and is sufficient for For whatever semblance another may have of great vertue and sufficiency yet nothing can be positively concluded because that which hath not been at all or not fully tried is very uncertain and so unsafe especially in a dangerous Season It may then be what people may as much slight as they did before desire it and as soon grow weary of it as before they were forward to embrace it It may come for ought we know to yield the cause instead of maintaining it and be so far from resisting Popery that it may be swallowed up by it 6. That Constitution seems most fitted to this end which is capable of the best consultation and most vigorous prosecution where the