Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	love_n	3,006	5	5.2017	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50391	The conquests and triumphs of grace being a brief narrative of the success which the gospel hath had among the Indians of Martha's Vineyard (and the places adjacent) in New-England : with some remarkable curiosities, concerning the numbers, the customs, and the present circumstances of the Indians on that island : further explaining and confirming the account given of those matters, by Mr. Cotton Mather, in the Life of the renowned Mr. John Eliot / by Matthew Mayhew ; attested by the Reverend Mr. Nath. Mather, and others ; whereto is added, an account concerning the present state of Christianity among the Indians, in other parts of New-England, expressed in the letters of several worthy persons best acquainted therewithal.	Mayhew, Matthew, 1648-1710.; Mather, Nathanael, 1631-1697.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1695 (1695)	Wing M1437; ESTC R36496	25,356	72

The Church then are a Selected Company of Professing Believers in Covenant according to the Congregational practice having Officers accordingly and keeping up the Exercise of a severe Discipline by publick Admonition in case of the disorderly walking of any member of their Society and if after the Reproof and Admonition of the Church any proceed in their evil Courses such are proceeded with by Excommunication I would then willingly know of those Detractors who either publickly or more privately have indeavoured to Scandalize so great a work What kind of people they expect to see a Church consist of Or when it will come to pass that some shall not be retained in Churches who yet may be deemed an Holy People whose Conversation may be grievous to the Church though the Church can find no Expedient for their Excomunication I know that many who are in no measure qualified for Church Fellowship think it no small disparagement to themselves that Indians should be accounted worthy of what themselves cannot be admitted to how it is in other places I know not but here some whose religious pretences have gained Credit abroad and have not Scrupled to Stigmatize the Indians with greatest opprobry in particular cases of their complaint the Indians have been found wholly innocent and themselves sordidly Vilanous but when shall it be that the Seed of the Serpent shall cease to hiss at and open their Mouthes against the Seed of the Woman which yet I could demonstrate hath in several cases which have occurr'd here against the Indians broken the Serpents head in his Children and if it were possible filled them with Shame and Confusion however the Sober Religious People here have done and doe esteem them as Christians indeed and although the Building be not all of Living Stones yet as it is an House is so far esteemed an House of God Insomuch that I have heard some Godly English their Neighbours Members of Churches profess they were troubled that their unacquaintedness in their Language was such that they could not well but otherwise would gladly partake with them in the Ordinances of the Lords Supper I must acknowledge that as the Number of the Indians are greatly decreased so especially of the Godly and Religious it being a thing so obvious that in the year 1690. of the Indians of Martha's Vineyard alone of the number of more than one hundred Adult Persons that dyed not less than three fourths were of the Sober Religious Professors that it was by the English Inhabitants vulgarly taken notice of the which notwithstanding in the year 1692 of the before mentioned Church were remaining more than one hundred without mentioning those many Confessors before mentioned whose Publick Declarations of their several Convictions Temptations and Resolutions to endeavour to Serve the true God would have drawn Tears from the eyes of any who had but in the Serious retirements of Consideration acknowledged a Deity I must not conclude before I tell the Reader that as in the Apostolick times the Church sent forth from among themselves for the Conversion of the Nations so these Indians on Martha's Vineyard did not only to the Island of Nantuket being about 1500 Adult Persons but likewise to the Maine-land Of those of Nantuket I shall subjoyn a Letter from the Worshipful John Gardner who is well acquainted with them having divers years Assisted them in their Government by instructing them in the Laws of England and deciding difficult cases among them Worshipful SIR I Haved Received Yours of April the 8 th 94. with your desire to be informed of the present State of our Indians as to their Number Worship and Government an Answer to your desires take briefly Their Decay is Great Chiefly in Number there being now but about Five hundred Grown Persons As to their Worship there is Three Societies or Churches Two Congregational One of the Baptists but their Number is small but their is Five Constant Assemblies or Meetings Two amongst them that went by the Name of the Antepeatames or Powatoms and that I may now say there is not known a Powaw amongst them and although it is true there is a great decay in Religion among the first Societies many of their best men and I may say Good men are Dead Yet amongst the now Praying Indians there is an Increase God Raising up some yea even of Themselves Preachers and Serious men too some of them which is cause of Thankfulness but that there is a decay with many is to be Lamented the cause I take to be their not preserving the Truth in the Love of it their Love to Drink their being more mindful of Form than Substance which puts me upon endeavour to make them sensible That it is neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision is any thing but the Keeping the Commandments of God Faith that works by Love the New Creature and things of that Nature As to their Government They are wholly under Their Majesties or the English Government the method is they have Three distinct or Town-Courts with Power to hear and determine to Forty Shillings the Magistrates they chuse themselves yearly and when Chosen and Approved of they have Commissions with liberty of Appeal to the English which they make much use of Greater matters come to the English This in short is the Truth of their Present State I am Your Real Friend and Servant Iohn Gardner Nantuket MAY 17 th 1694. Here we must take notice of Gods giving Success to the Ministry of the Indians and acknowledge that although there have been some decay yet on that Island there is not onely a Form but in some measure the Power of Godliness So likewise on the Maine-land by the alone Ministry of the Martha's Vineyard-Indians was the Civilizing and Conversion of the Indians on the Maine-land at a place called Succonet and parts Adjacent who as they were Converted by the Ministry sent from the Church of Martha's Vineyard so the Officers were by them as likewise were those of Nantuket Ordained by laying on the hands of their Presbytery of these although I have been no eye-witness yet I have received account from even such who bare no great respect to Religion that they are as beyond Comparison Exceeding the other Indians in moral Vertue so likewise from other Judicious Persons their Neighbours of whom I shall name Mr. William Vobes a Person now representing the Free-holders of those parts in the Great and General Assembly of the Province of the Massachuset-Bay in New-England nor have these People as yet dependance on nor Expectation from any other than their Mother the Church of Martha's-Vineyard Of the Indians Government when Christian I have already told my Reader that the Government of this People was the best of all Governments Monarchy and it has been judged not without reason that a main obstruction in the progress of the Gospel in the American Plantations was if not yet is the jealousy the Princes conceived of the Invasion of their