Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	great_a	see_v	4,001	5	3.3205	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31109	A sermon preached before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London in Guild-hall chappel upon Sunday the 20th of January, 1688/9 / by Samuel Barton, Chaplain of St. Saviours.	Barton, Samuel, 1647 or 8-1715.	1689 (1689)	Wing B990; ESTC R29508	11,774	31

any causeless Divisions in the Church of Christ The beauty and strength of any Society depends upon the firm Union of its Members and therefore the seeking after and promoting this is what every one that loves the Society must and will do And though sometimes through mistake even very good men may have become Authors or Occasions of Division yet he is an Enemy to Christ and his Kingdom that is wilfully so whatever Interest he may serve by it and he cannot be esteem'd any Friend to either that is not ready to the best of his knowledge and ability to close the Differences and cement the unhappy Breaches that are among Christians 'T is too easie from our own Experience to observe the many mischiefs that they cause and the great advantage which the Devil makes of them in the encrease of Prophaneness and Irreligion among some the scandalizing others and too much diverting the Minds even of the best from the most serious and weighty matters But the Benefits of Unity and Mischiefs of Division are too many to be comprized in a short Discourse He that seriously considers them may be quickly satisfied that it was not for nothing that our Saviour and his Disciples do so frequently and earnestly perswade and require Christians by all means to follow after the things that make for Peace and to be at Unity among themselves But 2. It does more particularly at this time concern us as far as possible to wipe off the Scandal which our Adversaries of the Church of Rome are alwayes ready to cast upon us that we want the necessary Means of Unity and that it is impossible for us ever to have it without submitting our selves to an Infallible Guide 'T is true 't is very disingenuously done to use such base Arts and so much Industry as it is certain they have done to sow Divisions and foment them amongst us and then to upbraid us with them 'T is true also that 't is better for us to bear with all those Inconveniences which our Differences may cause than to seek such a Remedy from them as they do by setting up an Officer with Supream Authority and vainly pretended Infallibility in the Church to whom Christ has never given any such power or Commission and which is worse by cherishing the grossest Ignorance in the People and exercising the most Barbarous Cruelties and Inhumanities toward all that dare to contradict them Better we should differ still and disagree as much as ever than that we should use any such wicked Methods of composing or preventing Differences even as 't is better to live in a Government that is sometimes liable to Disturbances than to throw ones self into perpetual Slavery under an Arbitrary Power But though all this be true yet still it must be confess'd that there is nothing that the Papists have ever made greater advantage of both in the gaining Proselytes from us and doing other Mischiefs to us than those causeless and unchristian Divisions that are among us And no doubt they would now exceedingly Triumph if after so great a Baffle to their long-laid Plots as thro' Gods wonderful Mercy they have met with they could prevail so far as to Embroil us all again and hinder us from reaping the Fruit of so Happy a Deliverance But as I think we have reason to impute it much to the influence that they have had amongst us that our Divisions have been so many and continued so long without a Cure so I do not despair to see the day when many of them shall be happily laid asleep and all sober Protestants though under some different apprehensions may yet maintain so much Unity and Charity among themselves as will be both an Ornament to their Profession and a great strengthening to their Cause O how happy would it be if when Infallibility it self cannot as we see or dares not put an end to those fierce Disputes that are in the Church of Rome but the Kingdom of Antichrist is divided against it self notwithstanding all the Devils Policy to Unite it if in the mean time I say a Spirit of mutual Love and Concord and good Will might prevail and cover over all our Differences But 3. A third Motive to perswade us at this time especially to labour after Unity and Peace and to promote them all we can is a sence of Gratitude and Thankfulness to Almighty God for the great things that he has done for us Certainly it is a very ill return that we should make to God if when he has delivered us from our Enemies we should fall presently to quarrel among our selves and instead of joyning in our Praises and Thanksgiving unto him bring our selves by our own Folly into new Troubles How unworthy shall we then shew our selves of Gods future Mercies and how justly may he suffer us to fall under the most heavy Judgments It is as has bin shew'd the prime Duty of Christians to Love one another and to keep Peace and Unity among themselves And now that God has in so signal a manner engag'd us to it it will be a great Aggravation of our Fault if we neglect it It is very hard indeed for us to set a sufficient value on the Deliverance we have had there are Circumstances in it that render it very astonishing and wonderful above all that this Nation has ever had That it should be brought about without Blood or with so very little in so sudden and surprizing a manner that we may say with the Psalmist When the Lord turn'd again the captivity of his people then were we like unto them that dream Psal 126.1 We could hardly believe that we were awake That the Hearts of so many Men of different Interests and Perswasions through Gods wonderful working on them should all stand enclin'd the same way And that they who had had so long Time and Means and Opportunities to make themselves strong could yet do nothing to oppose These and such like Circumstances in our Case are things that every one easily thinks of and none can sufficiently admire Certainly it is a loud and gracious Call from Heaven to Reformation and a mutual joyning together against the great Corrupters of Christianity who hop'd to have Extirpated the very Name of Protestantism i. e. of True Primitive Christianity from out of the World. This Kingdom had indeed a Hundred Years ago a very great Deliverance And if the Spanish Designs had then prevail'd we might have been brought into as bad a Condition as Popery and Slavery can put Men. But then I think that Design was never so likely to take effect as those of our Enemies in this Age. And as for the Gunpowder Treason though it might have done a great deal of Mischief yet I cannot see that ever it was likely to have prevail'd to a total overthrow of the Protestant Religion among us but rather might have fallen heaviest at last on those that began it But our Popish Adversaries had