Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A40678
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Mixt contemplations in better times by Thomas Fuller ...
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Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing F2451; ESTC R7395
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42,203
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158
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he had caused to be bored out for some Misdemeanour Being demanded of the Emperour which way he might most speedily and safely as to outward danger recruit his Treasury his SECRETARY gave him Councel to seize on the Plate of all the Churches and Monasteries of that City which he did accordingly and amongst the rest he took ZONAM AUREAM or the GOLDEN GIRDLE out of one Church of inestimable value This blinde Secretary returning home to his wife told her Now I am even with the Emperour for putting out my eyes having put him on such a Project which I hope he will pursue to is own destruction He hath made me a Spectacle to men but I have made him a Monster unto God Let such who are concerned herein see what successe the Emperour had in this his Expedition founded on Sacriledge and the longer they look thereon the worse I am sure they will like it to barr further application XXVII A Gnat no Gnat ONe needlesly precise took causles exception at a Gent. for using the word IN TROTH in his Discourse as if it had been a kind of an Oath The Gent. pleaded for himself that IN TRUTH was a word inoffensive even in his judgment who accused him Secondly that he was borne farre North where their broad and Dorick Dialect pronounced TRUTH TROTH and he did humbly conceave the tone of the Tongue was no fault of the heart Lastly he alleadged the twenty fifth Psalme as it is translated in Meter To them that keep his Testament The witnesse of his Troth And thus at last with much adoe his seeming fault was remitted I am afraid if one should declare for TROTH and PEACE and not for Truth and Peace it would occasion some offence however rather then it should make any difference the former will be as acceptable to the North of Trent as the latter will please all good people South thereof XXVIII Silence a while HAD not mine eyes as any other mans may read it in the printed Proclamations of King Edward the sixth when the Pulpitts generally popish sounded the Alarme to Ketts rebellion and the Devonshire Commotion I would not have beleived what followeth 2 Edw. 6. Septemb. 13. By these presents Wee inhibite generally all manner of Preachers whatsoever they be to preach in this meane space * to the intent that the whole Clergy might apply themselves in prayer to Almightie God for the better atchieving of the same most Godlie intent and purpose of Reformation What hurt were it if in this juncture of Time all our Preaching were turned into praying for one Moneth together that God would settle a happy Peace in this Nation However if this be offensive to any and giveth cause of distast the second motion may be imbraced That for a year at least all Pulpits may be silent as to any part of Differences relating to our Times and only deliver what belongeth to Faith and good Workes XXIX Send Humilitie I Do not remember that the word INFINITE is in Scripture attributed to any Creature save to the City of Ninive Naham 3.9 Ethyopia and Egypt were her strength and it was INFINITE But what is now become of Ninive it is even buried in its own ruines and may have this Epitaph upon it Hic jacet FINIS INFINITI Here lyeth the END of what was ENDLESSE He who beheld the multitude of Actors Beholders at the Mustering in HIDE PARK on the 24. of Aprill last will say that there was an INFINITE number of people therin Some would hardly beleeve that the whole Nation could afford so many as the City of London alone did then produce My prayer shall ever be that this great City may be kept either in the WHOLESOME IGNORANCE or HUMBLE KNOWLEDGE of its own STRENGTH least the people Numberlesse prove Masterlesse therin And let them remember God forfend the Parallet what is become of great Ninive at this day annihilated for the Pride thereof XXX Rather fold over then fall short SOlomons Temple was seven years in building 1 Kings 6.36 And such who seriously consider the Magnificence thereof will more wonder that it was done so soon then doing so long Now had Solomon at the beginning of this building abolished the Tabernacle made by Moses because too meane and little for so mighty and so numerous a Nation God had been seven years without any place of publick Service But that wise Prince continued the Tabernacle to all uses and purposes untill the Temple was finished and then 1 Kings 8.4 They brought up the Ark of the LORD and the Tabernacle of the congregation and all the holy vessels that were in the Tabernacle even those did the Priests and the Levites bring up And as it followeth afterwards vers. 6. They brought in the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD unto his place into the Oracle of the House And certainly all the rest of the Tabernacle consisting of such materials as might be taken down and kept in Chests and Coffers were deposited in the Temple though it may be no use was made therof It had been well if before the OLD GOVERNMENT of the Church was taken down a NEW ONE had first been settled Yea rather let God have two Houses together then none at all Least Piety be starved to death with cold by lying out of dores in the intervall betwixt the demolishing of an old and the erecting of a new Church-discipline XXXI No mans work CHrist when on Earth cured many a spot especially of leprosie but never smoothed any wrinkle never made any old man young again But in Heaven he will do both Eph. 5. 27. when he shall present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or WRINKLE or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Triumphant Perfection is not to be hoped for in the Militant Church there will be in it many spots and wrinkles as long as it consisteth of sinful mortal men the members thereof It is Christs work not mans work to make a perfect Reformation Such therefore are no good Politicians who will make a sore to mend a spot cause a wound to plain a wrinkle do a great and certain mischief when a small and uncertain benefit will thereby redound XXXII Three make up one YOung King Ioash had onely a lease of Piety and not for his own but his Vncles life 2 Kin. 12.2 He did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his dayes wherein Iehoiada the Priest instructed him Iehu was good in the midst of his life and a zealous Reformer to the utter abolishing of Baal out of Israel but in his old age 2. Kin. 10.31 He returned to the Politick sins of Ieroboam worshipping the Calves in Dan and Bethel Manasseh was bad in the beginning and middle of his life filling Ierusalem with idolatry Onely towards the end thereof when carried into a strange land he came home to himself and destroyed the prophane Altars he
thousand of active and designing Traytors these poor men might in the violent multitude be hurried on not only beyond their intentions but even against their resolutions Such as are sensible with sorrow that their well intending simplicity hath been imposed on abused and deluded by the subtilty of others may comfort and content themselves in the sincerity of their own Soules God no doubt hath already forgiven them and therefore men ought to revoke their uncharitable censures of them And yet Divine Iustice will have its full tale of intended stripes taking so many off from the back of the Deceived and laying them on the shoulders of the Deceivers XXI No RECORD to REMAINE I Never did read nor can learn from any that ever Queen Elizabeth had any Ship-Royal which in the Name thereof carried the Memorial of any particular Conquest she got either by land or by water Yet was she as victorious as any Prince in her Age and which is mainly material her conquests were mostly atchieved against forreign Enemies The Ships of Her Navy had onely honest and wholesom Names the Endeavour the Boneadventure the Return the Unity c. Some of our modern Ships carry a very great Burthen in their names I mean the Memorial of some fatal Fights in the Civil Wars in our own Nation and the Conquerours ought not to take much joy as the Conquered must take grief in the remembrance thereof I am utterly against the rebaptizing of Christians but I am for the redipping of Ships that not only some inoffensive but ingratiating Names may be put upon them the Vnity the Reconciliation the Agreement the Concord and healing Titles I speak more like a Book-man than a Sea-man and others to that purpose XXII All for the present THere is a pernicious humour of a Catching Nature wherewith the mouths of many and hearts of more are infected Some there are that are so covetous to see the settlement of Church and State according to their own desires that If it be not done in our dayes say they we care not whether it be done at all or no Such mens souls live in a Lane having weak heads and narrow hearts their Faith being little and charity less being all for themselves and nothing for posterity These men living in India would prove ill Common-Wealthsmen and would lay no foundation for Porcellana or China-dishes because despairing to reap benefit thereby as not ripened to perfection in a hundred years Oh! give me that good mans gracious temper who earnestly desired the prosperity of the Church whatsoever became of himself whose verses I will offer to translate Seu me terra tegit seu vastum contegit aequor Exoptata piis-saecula fausta precor Buried in earth or drownd i' th Maine Eat up by Worms or fishes I pray the Pious may obtain For happy times their wishes And if we our selvs with aged * Barzillai be superannuated to behold the happy establishment of Church and state may we dying in * Faith though not having received the promises bequeath the certain reversions of our Chimhams I mean the next generation which shall rise up after us XXIII Courtesy gaineth I Have heard the Royall Party would I could say without any cause complained of that they have not Charity enough for Converts who came off unto them from the opposite side Who though they express a sence of and sorrow for their mistakes and have given Testimony though perchance not so plain and publick as others expected of their sincerity yet still they are suspected as unsound and such as frown not on look but asquint at them This hath done much mischief and retarded the return of many to their side For had these their Van-Curriers been but kindly entertained possibly ere now their whole Army had came over unto us Which now are disheartned by the cold welcome of these Converts Let this fault be mended for the future that such Proselytes may meet with nothing to discourage all things to comfort and content them Let us give them not onely the right hand of fellowship but even the upper-hand of Superiority One asked a Mother who had brought up many Children to a marriageable age what Arts she used to breed up so numerous an issue None other said she save onely I alwaies made the most of the youngest Let the Benjamins ever be Darlings and the last-borne whose eyes were newest opened with the sight of their errours be treated with the greatest affection XXIV Moderation ARTHUR PLANTAGENET Viscount Lisle natural Son to King Edward the Fourth and which is the greatest honour to his Memory direct Ancestor in the fifth Degree to the Right Honourable most Renowned Lord General GEORGE MONK was for a fault of his Servants intending to betray Calis to the King of France committed to the Tower by King Henry the eight where well knowing the fury and fiercenesse of that King he daily expected death But the innocence of this Lord appearing after much search the King sent him a rich Ring off his own Finger with so comfortable words that at the hearing therof a sudden joy * overcharged his heart whereof he dyed that night so fatal was not onely the anger but the love of that King England for this many years hath bin in a languishing condition whose case hath been so much the sadder than this Lords was because conscious of a great guilt whereby she hath justly incurred Gods displeasure If God of his goodnesse should be pleased to restore her to his favour may he also give her moderation safely to digest and concoct her own happinesse that she may not runne from one Extreame to another and excessive joy prove more destructive unto her then grief hath been hitherto XXV Preparative TWilight is a great blessing of God to mankind for should our eyes be instantly posted out of darknesse into light out of mid-night into morning so sudden a surprisal would blind us God therefore of his goodnesse hath made the intermediate twilight to prepare our eyes for the reception of the light Such is his dealing with our English Nation We were lately in the mid-night of misery It was questionable whether the Law should first draw up the Will and Testament of dying Divinitie or Divinitie first make a Funeral Sermon for expiring Law Violence stood ready to invade our Property Heresies and Schismes to oppresse Religion Blessed be God we are now brought into a better condition yea we are past the Equilibrium the Beame beginning to break on the better side and our hopes to have the Mastery of our despaires God grant this twilight may prove Crepusculum matutinum fore running the rising of the SUN and increase of our happinesse XXVI Revenge with a witnesse FRederick * the second Emperour of Germany being at Piza in Italy and distressed for want of money to pay his Army sent for Petrus De Vineis an able man who formerly had been his Secretary but whose eyes