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	true_a	2,848	5	3.8360	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39199	A Free and impartial inquiry into the causes of that very great esteem and honour that the non-conforming preachers are generally in with their followers in a letter to his honoured friend H.M. / by a lover of the Church of England and unfeigned piety ; to which is added a discourse on 1 Tim. 4:7 to some of the clergy at a publick meeting.	Eachard, John, 1636?-1697.; H. M.; Lover of the Church of England and unfeigned piety.	1673 (1673)	Wing E47; ESTC R23207	51,018	205

therefore I further tell you that the only sure way for any man to obtain these honourable Titles is to join himself to their Assemblies for alas all out of these are Children of darkness the wicked of the earth the Sons of Belial and the Seed of the Serpent We know their Charity can afford us no better names Just so did the Pharisees of old mightily extol and honour their own Disciples whilst all men else in gross were but populus terrae or the best man in particular but isle publicanus but these men are Saints as soon as ever they are but of the godly Party I could tell you a story of a grave Doctor that for some months together every Sunday constantly prayed for his sick Maid under no worser a title than thy dear Servant E. 'till at length the good Saint was deliver'd of a fine Boy which some unlucky Women swore was very like the Father Now Sir How mightily do you think must this Courtship endear them to their people oh these fine names made a great noise in their heads they could not but dance to such melodious ayrs and the men that would treat them so kindly need never fear any Ostracism but should be sure to charm their greatest affection nay all they have shall be readily at such mens service how can they grudge such civil Gentlemen any thing He that can creep into the good Ladies Chamber and there affectionately pray for her as Gods Elect Lady his holy Servant his dear Handmaid and her religious and hopeful Issue those tender Plants of the holy Seed and polished Corners of the Temple may rise up with confidence of her hearty thanks nay may find he hath melted her heart into some yellow pieces as one of these once told a Confident of his who yet had not the Grace to conceal it but publish'd the saying to the uncircumcised This is a civility and honour to their people that you 'll scarce be able to parallel any where besides it far exceeds that of the Papists to their most religious Votaries those seldom Canonize any till after death and they do wisely because they can safelier fix on them Miracles c. which perhaps themselves would have blushed at the forgery of had they been living But these men Canonize all presently they are all precious Saints as soon as ever they become their Disciples and tell me then doth not one good turn deserve another you might count them ruder than the Boors of Scythia if they should not mightily honour such obliging and courteous Masters And now by this time Sir I suppose I may have hired you as well as my self in this Inquisition in which I do not intend to give you any further trouble only let me for a conclusion add that if these Causes be rightly ghessed at and assign'd there will these two or three observables be easily colligible from them First That the people have no such extraordinary great Reason to honour these men as perhaps they may imagine and that they act very little beyond the weakness and indiscretion of Children in adoring of them If their eyes ever chance to be truly opened to see what true Religion means and what the real Terms and Conditions of Salvation are they will find I doubt not that their Leaders have abused them and their Teachers caused them to err And then perhaps acknowledge they had no more true reason to honour these men than Children have to do the like to those Spirits as we call them who entertain their eyes and phancies with some pleasant toys 'till they have stollen them from their Parents and betrayed them into slavery Indeed if men love to be cheated and can take a delight in being shamefully abused then I confess they may have cause enough to honour these Persons for they can fit that humour well but otherwise if they be wise and detest imposture they 'l have little more cause to honour these as benefactors and dispensors of true Heavenly food than they would have to do so to those who when they called for Bread should give them Stones or when they expected Fish should treat them with Scorpions Secondly That these men themselves have no very great cause to glory in the acquist the applause of the multitude is in it self very inconsiderable and no wise man ever made much account of it but it is much less valuable when t is fraudulently obtain'd the guilt in the acquisition will quite damp and spoil the pleasure of the fruition And certainly the joy in seeing the people very much pleas'd will very poorly compensate the horrour that must needs arise upon the thought that God is most grievously provoked and offended There 's a Scripture Sir that we have heard frequently in the mouths of these persons to patronize and defend some of their actions I only wish 't were as much in their hearts to allay their Pride in being thus honoured Whether it be just in the sight of God to obey men rather than God judge ye certainly Reason would that men should ambition rather the honour that cometh from God though the multitude were displeased than to gratifie the vain humour and thereby acquire the as vain applause thereof by offending of God We find the Apostle of the Gentiles telling his Galatians that if he sought to please men he should not be the servant of Christ I doubt some men might read their fate out of these words and most certainly all may do so who purchase mans applause by ways that Christ hath not warranted Even in the midst of such laughter the heart may be justly sad when it reflects upon the reproach and ignominy the confusion and shame that will strike the Epilogue to all these Comick sports and turn the peoples present admiring acclamations into the most virulent curses and execrations for ever Were it not much better to be serious in preventing this direful Exit now in time by every man laying aside these poor low mean designs and quitting that peevishness and that Pride that necessarily engage men upon them Were it not much safer to cease quarrelling and disputing against things acknowledged by themselves indifferent the making vents and Schisms and parties in the Church which must be acknowledg'd extreamly dangerous and resolve to join cordially with their brethren in doing God and the Church service and bringing mens Souls into a love and pursuit of true Godliness all which are also acknowledg'd absolutely needful this I should think were a laudable method to Glory a way to assure the honour that cometh from God and only deserves that name if they can out-strip their brethren in this procedure let them say I have a Benjamins Mess and welcom No good man I am sure would grudge them this honour but rejoice to see them all have the reward due to true Prophets Nay I dare be publick security that hereby they should find ten times the comfort that they can possibly in

people in their greatest interests and levels all his aim at this great mark the bringing them to understand and comply with the great end of their Religion and the transcribing and imitating the divine perfections of that God whom it obligeth them to adore And while others have other Rules to judge the excellency of Preachers by their measures certainly are very false and precarious Socrates we know was deservedly judged the wisest of the Athenian Philosophers for this very reason because whilst others imployed themselves only in aery Speculations he only bended his study to the bettering mens lives and healing the Immoralities of humane Nature And doubtless that Preacher deserves the greatest praise who most closely pursueth that great design while a great many others its easie to signalize too many must sit down in much lower rooms And truly what that good man said of the great disputers may too truly be spoken of some great Preachers amongst us It is just cause of sorrow to see men so serious and yet so trifling a very wounding spectacle to see these great Heroes like Hercules at the distaff so degenerously employed and to find those that were designed by Christ for Fishers of men entertain themselves and others too only with picking up shells and pebbles on the shore Nor is it much wonder if these men take up the Disciples complaint we have laboured all night and taken nothing The great Eulogium is to the faithful Servant and shall in vain be expected by him that 's treacherous to his trust and the shining as Stars in the Orbs of Celestial Glory will only be the happy lot of those who do or at least cordially indeavour to bring Souls to righteousness 2. This is one of the most probable expedients to retrieve the true and ancient Christian Religion He that but soberly considers what Christianity was in its Primitive State will like that good man of old reading over our Saviours great Sermon Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Christiani be forced upon this conclusion either that was not true Christianity or this which now bears that name is not and because he is assured that the first was true therefore infers that is spurious and counterfeit Time was B when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the characteristick notes of the true and degenerate Members of the Church that of the first and this of the latter and holiness of life was the true signature of a Christian Non magna loquimur sed vivimus was then the Christian Motto And that pristine honour that She was so happy in even to the envy and silence of all opposition was acquired by the Piety and Holiness of her Votaries A Christian was but another name for a vertuous good man and the lives of Christians verified these to be Synonoma's But alas whoso views the Religion now on foot will easily discover its great degeneracy That lay in the Heart from whence it imparted life and vigour into all the active members while this resides only in the Brain and seldom descends lower than the Tongue from whence proceeds a kind of a spiritual rickats the head swells and grows large and tuberous while the active members are void of strength and dwindle away into an unactive leanness There is none that makes it his business to do good now yea we may with the Psalmist repeat it and say scarce one An empty formal Notional Religion is that men content themselves withal And while a few Ceremonies and Appanages of Religion are so eagerly controverted you see very few contests about the life of it we can see men with great Zeal and little Charity mannage controversies about the little things but can discover no lists for the agonistick Contests in Godliness or if there be any can discover no Contenders in them It is too obvious to need much insisting upon that men consult their Passions and Interests and Inclinations in chusing their Religion and let these alone to provide for themselves be sure while these are the Electors the choice will not be very uneasie Never fear there will be nothing of difficulty nothing of painfulness no austerity in these mens Religion The mortification of a beloved lust the amputation of a dear Member the restraining of a sensual Propensity are lessons which their Religion will never go about to teach St. Peter shall be their Apostle but 't is in the worst advice that ever he gave Master spare thy self consult thine own ease God is a better Master than so Hee 's the Prophet for these people that speaks smooth things unto them And I need not tell you how many secure the peoples favour by indulging and complying with this humour Tell them fine stories of Christ of the Freeness of Grace c. and so become adored by their Proselytes as so many Apostles while the degeneracy of Christianity is these mens great Guilt and in a great measure owes it self to their Doctrines 3. There are very few means more likely to stiflle and quench those various Sects and differences that there are amongst us And that not only upon this account because Godliness is so contrary to and destructive of all those humours that occasion and feed these distempers Though it hath been seen that this hath been pleaded to justifie most Schisms and Holiness hath been the Banner under which each Faction hath pretended to march which lets us see what gross fallacies men put upon themselves so as to be able to imagine that Piety can be the true Ensign of a Schismatical Faction and the holy Bible and Sword in the same field true Heraldry the Solecism not long ago of the Scotish Reformers And yet every man that can but consider can tell you that nothing can be more contrary to Godliness than giddy Factiousness And that upon other scores besides what I have hinted It 's true if men study to bring the people to Godliness they endeavour to bring them to that which is contrary to Pride Covetousness and Convictedness which are the three great Parents and Origines of Schism and Heresie and so go a direct way to destroy these But besides these the conduciveness of Godliness to the destruction of these is apparent upon other accounts also 1. For first it is most certain that mens intermitting of sober and regular Actions such as Godliness engageth unto is the readiest way possible to fall into wild extravagant and exorbitant ones And that Idleness is one great Cause of Factiousness hath been so fully and clearly demonstrated by one whose goodness or humility I know not which most to admire that I should but go about to correct Apelles should I add any thing to fortifie the Demonstration It is while men sleep that the envious man sows these tares and as a learned Prelate of our own hath long since observed The laborious Bees pass safely by those tempting Bottles into which the idle