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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	see_v	time_n	2,545	5	3.4097	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87123	The harmonious consent of the ministers of the province within the county palatine of Lancaster, with their reverend brethren the ministers of the province of London, in their late testimonie to the trueth of Jesus Christ, and to our Solemn League and Covenant : as also against the errours, heresies, and blasphemies of these times, and the toleration of them.	Heyrick, Richard, 1600-1667.	1648 (1648)	Wing H800A; Thomason E434_7; ESTC R7597	26,660	31

of light and reason in other things God hath put the sword in the Parliaments hands for the terror of evil doers and the praise of them that do wel c. See a Letter sent to the House of Commons and printed 1645. going under the name of Oliver Cromwel and set down by Mr Rutherford in his survey of the spiritual Antichrist page 250. part 1. that do conceive that in things of the mind the sword is not put into the hands of the civil Magistrate for the terror of evil doers and the praise of them that do wel Yet because we judg the Toleration of all kind of opinions and professions in matters of Faith Errours therein being in the number of those evil works to which the Magistrate is to be a terror k Row 1● 3 4 to be impious and wicked and would be a tender nurse to give suck to cherish the foul ugly monstrous and mis-shapen births of our times as it would bealso desturctive to the Common wealth though we shall easily grant men are not to be punished by the Magistrate for their internal opinions which they do not discover l his 〈…〉 adjlipulamun qui sicuti beminum 〈…〉 is esse ajust it a 〈◊〉 de side opiniones a magis●●●ain 〈◊〉 esse 〈…〉 quanves 〈…〉 bo miman 〈◊〉 non esse puniendas largiamur 〈◊〉 tamia de rejpubluae exitialem religlonis proseljiunem a magistratu quibuslibet civibus ese ●●mitterdam negamus Synops purior theolog disput 50. thes 60. yet with our reverend brethren we do here profess to this Church and to all the Churches of God throughout the whole world That we do detest the forementioned Toleration m See a Yestimony to the Trueth of Jesus Christ page 34. And what ever others may expect to the contrary yet we hope that God wil never suffer the Parliament of England ever to be so unmindfut of either solemn League and Covenant or of their own formet Declarations and Remonstrances n The bonoiable House of Commans do thus remonshare They insuse into the people that we mean to abolish all Church Government and leave everyman to his own fancy for the service and worship of God And then afterwards they dicl●re And we do here declare that it is farfiom our purpose and desire to let loose the golden telns of Di●cipline and Government in the Church to leave private persons or particular Congregations to take up what form of diviven service they please for we hold it requifie that there should be throughout the whole Realm a consormity to that order which the Laws enjoyn according to the Word of God See the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Decemb 15.1641 Protestations and Professions as once to give a liltening car to such as might move for such a thing and that they might be kept from being guilry of so great a sin shal be out earnest prayer for them unto God continually night and day IV. And thus having expressed our deepest sence concerning the Errours and Heresies of these times and the Toleration of them which to us is so hateful and abominable we are now carryed on to declare what we conceive to be the cause of the spreading of our freting leprosie and eating gangrene If we make inquiry into our selves we must needs acknowledg our not prizing trueth as we ought not improving precious opportunities for good that have been put into our hands the great decay of the power of godliness leaving first love lukewarmness sleighting and undervaluing the means of grace and barrenness under them faults generally to be found in the better sort of people together with the many other grievous sins that are commited in the Land are just causes why we should be scourged with such a spiritual plague but yet these hinder not but that we may also as truly number the not fettling a wel ordered Church Government for so long a time after the old rotten building was polled down amongst the causes of the growth and spreading of pemicious Errours Anarchy wil cause confusion in the Church as wel as in the Common wealth And therefore we do profess that without a wel ordered Church Government that we here may use the words of the general Assembly of the Church of Scotland o See the Exhortation of the general Assembly of the Church of Scotland page 12. where they use these expressions in reference to the Preshyterial Government which we do also with them fully and freely own We know no other proper and effectual remedy against the present dangers of Religion in this Kingdom or for purging the Church from Scandals which are destructive either to sound doctrive or godliness and are therefore thankful to the Parliament for ordaining of late the speedy divission of all the Counties of the Kingdom into Classical Presbyteries ★ See the Ordinance of Pailiament for the speedy dividing and settling the several Counties of this Kingdom into distinct Classical Presbyteries and orderedd to be printed Jan. 29. 1647. Discipline and Government in the Church being the golden Reins whereunto this present Parliament hath wel likened it serving to curb and restrain men who are by nature like a wilde asses colt p Iob 11 12. affecting unbridled liberty it is the rod wherewith to correct petulant and froward children the shepherds crook which the faithful Pastors cannot want but to the spiritual prejudice of their flocks the keyes opening the doors for the admitance in of those whom Christ would have to be admited into his Church and the shuting out of whom he would have kept out it is the hedg or wal to keep the ravenous beasts from entering into Gods garden and vineyard the means to take the soxes the little soxes that spoil the vines ●s q Cant. 2 15. and to purge out the leaven that other wise though but little yet would leaven the whole lump r z Cor. 5.6 And if not a little Family no Common wealth or society of men can consist without the bond of Laws or Discipline ſ Steri a societ●● into 〈◊〉 a demus quae vel 〈◊〉 samiliam ●●beat comtinon in recto statu sin dis●po●●● potell eam esse multo magr●●● 〈…〉 esse Calvin lto 4. insti● cap. 12.1 ct 1. Si●ut use samiliane● respublier 〈…〉 societas sine legum dise●pl●●● 〈◊〉 ●●●do consistere potest 〈◊〉 ●●●lesae ch●●●li 〈…〉 in hoe 〈◊〉 po●●st constare a●st ●●rto ●g●●ini at queidoreis legibus in adsba●● per quae ordoejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adverj●● c●ms mondi sathanae f●aues ac m●i●●toc●●●●rvlatè consirve●ui Synopsis pu●or the dog Disp 48. thef 1. how can it be expected but want of Church Government will soon bring the Church to ruine Therefore seeing Government is so neccessry for the Church we cannot but judg that the want of it for so long a time hath been and is one main cause of those great evils with which

37 and they returned inquired early after God they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer nevertheless they did slatter him with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant And may it not be said of us as in the days of Josiah it was said concerning treacherous Judah that had made a solemn Covenant with God for Reformation g 2. Chron. 34. 31 32 that she turned not to God with her whole heart but feignedly h Ier. 3.6 10. And besides all this neighbor Churches take notice of our strange breach of Covenant and are amazed at it Our dear brethren of Scotland who upon our taking this Covenant were induced to embark themselves with us and run a common hazard in the same cause do sadly complain i See the Exhortation of the general Assembly of the church of Scotland to their brethren in England page 5 6 7. of the crying sin of breach of Covenant and that the staves of beauty and bands covenant and brother hood are broken by many in this Kingdom and are much cast down in themselves and grieved fearing lest they should lose the fruit of all their sufferings and hazards for our sakes sc the establishment of Reformation and Uniformity in Religion in these three Kingdoms according to the Word of God and example of the best reformed Churches and which notwithstanding all suggestions whatsoever to the contrary we dare neither be so injurious nor uncharitable towards them as not to judg was the main end by them proposed when they first engaged with us especially when we consider whence came the first stirrings of the Wheels of Christs chariot in great Britain of latter times and who it was that first sounded the retreat to return from Babylon which posterity wil know to the second coming of Jesus Christ thoughwe should not own it of which we are modestly put in remembrance by one k Mr Rathe sord in his survey of the spiritual Antichrist in the Epistle to the Reader page 6. whose name is famous throughout the Churches whilest he is alive and whose works will abundantly commend him to posterity when he is dead The things that have been already mentioned in reference to breach of Covenant are matter of deepest sorrow to our hearts especially if we do further consider what guilt of perjury l Neh. 1● 29. spiritualadultery m Jer. 50. 5. high treason against the God of heaven is hereby brought upon our Land and that also breach of Covenant is a thing which God complains of n Psa 78.10.37 2 King ●1 15 ler. 11. 10. threatens severely o Lev. 26.25 Deur 29 20 21 22 10 ●5 let 22.8 9. and for which he hath inflicted sore Judgments on his people in former times p 2 King 6.7 15. As for our selves though we cannot excuse our selves from failings against our Covenant for which we desire unfeignedly to be humbled yet considering that for the matter of it there is nothing in it to be repented of but that the seed of Reformation and the foundation of the house of the Lord is in it and knowing also how solemnly with hands lifted up to the most high God it was taken and that it was made with the Almighty who will not be mocked and in his presence who is the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shal answer at the great day when the secrets of all hearts shal be disclosed we do therefore by the grace of God resolve that we will not suffer our selves either directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be ever withdrawn either in whole or in part from this sacred League and Covenant that was so solemnly and Cheerfully sworn by us in the time of Englands low estate and sad hour of temptation but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constamly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever being fully assured there is none on earth that hath that power our consciences as to discharge us at their pleasure from the bond of this sacred Oath and that therefore the parties engaged in it what ever some mens intentions might be when they took it and how ever the common enemy whose prevalency and power together with our low condition in this land before first occasion the entring into it be now suppressed are notwithstanding still as firmly bound to their utmost to endeavour according to their places the performance of all the several things therein contained and sworn and that yet have not received their accomplishment because the war is ended as at the first taking of it And therefore though we cannot but heartily lament that any should be so strangely deluded as to q First I do not conceive the parties to that League intended thereby to be everlastingly bound each to other the gounds of striking it being meerly occasional for the joyning in a war to supprest the common enemy accordingly we did joyn the enemy is if we be wise suppressed and the was as you see ended what should the Covenant do but like an Almanack of the last year shew us rather what we have already done then what we be now to do Set the Independency of England endeavoured to be maintained by Henry Marten a Member of the Parliament there c. page 11. conceive so much yet we do abhor that it should be so much as once imagined that when the common enimy is suppressed this Convenant then forthwith should be out of date and but like an Almanack of the last year shewing us rather what we have already done then what we be now to do And because as when it was first enjoyed to be taken it was thought a fit means to acquire the favour of God so we now are fully perswaded being kept and observed it would make England the delight of God the rejoycing of al true hearted Saints at home and abroad a corasive and vexation to the Devil Antichrist all Popish prophane and Malignant persons at home and abroad and a mirrour of incomparable mercy We shal therfore as by the Order r Die veneris Jan. 29.1644 Ordered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament that the Solemn League and Covenant be on every day of Fast and publique humiliation publiquely read in every Church and Congregation within this Kingdom and that every Congregation be enjoyned to have one of the said Covenants fairly printed in a fair letter in a table fitted to hang up in some publique place of the Church to be read of the Honourable the House of Commons we are appointed to read it every Fast day in our places by stirring up our several Congregations to be always mindful of it our uttermost endeavour that they may observe