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	way_n	2,901	5	4.3688	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87543	The liberty of prayer asserted, and garded [sic] from licentiousness by a minister of the Church of England.	Jenks, Benjamin, 1646-1724.	1696 (1696)	Wing J619A; ESTC R43659	107,332	222

off our Prayers thô we think he looks Angry at them But As the eyes of Servants look to the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a Maiden to the hand of her Mistress So let our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill he have Mercy upon us Psal 123.2 CHAP. VIII Licentiousness inflying out against our Fellow-Worshippers MEN that are Proudly opinioned of themselves will take mightily upon them fiercely to Rally at all that Serve not God just in their Mode Some all for Common-Prayer and some for none but Conceived Prayers And they cannot forbear bitterly to Tease and Persecute one another as if it were worse than No Prayer that is not exactly after such a Manner Yea so Absurd are many to fill the World with Heats and Quarrels about the Way of others Worship that were never serious in any Worship of their Own And think they have done a great matter to make the Party Odious that is Opposite to theirs But the question is What Service is thus done to Religion And how much Devotion is a Gainer by it We know how Strict and Nice were the Pharisees for the Out-side Religion Tho none had fouler In-sides than they Who more took upon them to Quarrel even with Christ himself And would be Holier than the Holy One of God Who more Bitter against Better men than themselves And what a mad Zeal had Paul this way before his Conversion They that have only the Form of Godliness will be like Bears bereaved of their Whelps to have it taken from them Because if you strip them of that you leave them Nothing They have but a Name to Live and would you Perswade them out of that The very Worst man that cries up their Form shall please them better than the Holiest Christian that appears for the Power of Godliness it self And this makes the Romish Worship so Agreeable to Licentious Livers That the Offices may go on and the Heart be otherwise taken up the while The Inner man may Sleep while the Outer is so Concerned And all done to Satisfaction tho not a Sin wounded nor a Lust disturbed nor any Grace exercised It is enough to turn the Stomachs of all Serious Good men against that Cause which the Roaring Blades are the great Champions and hot Sticklers for And O how does even a Good Cause often suffer by such ill Abettors and lose its Credit for their Sakes I cannot but call in question my Zeal when it strikes in with the Blasphemies of a Swearer or the Revilings of a Drunkard and pleases them better than any else To Stigmatize Persons and Ridicule their Way makes me never the Better nor my Way at all the Lovelier If I have a Zeal of God according to Knowledge I may find room enough to shew my Strictness without spending all the Mettle in that which least Deserves it The sharpest Drolls are not the Happiest Teachers Nor is he the Best Christian that makes the Lowdest Cry against others Satyrical and Dogmatical Doctors shew too little of his Spirit who was Meek and Lowly in Heart But we may know whence the Wisdom comes that is Earthly Sensual Devilish To call every thing that I dislike by an Opprobrious filthy Name and spend my Choller upon it may shew that I want a Purge my self But where Contending Parties Overdo in their Heats on both Sides I do not think I am obliged to depart from Truth or Peace to Side and Ingratiate my self with either As long as the great Lord of the Church doth not Interess himself in the Fiery Disputes for Forms or against them Who art thou that Condemnest what he does not Or layest the Main Stress on that which he Least Regards Where doth he warrant thee to Despise any good Prayer because it is a Form or Imposed Or where does he give thee license to Scoff the Effusion that is more at Liberty In good truth What is even this but a Form to the Company and Imposed upon them I dare not call him a Graceless Formalist that uses Forms Nor him a Proud Hypocrite that uses none For I am satisfied that Forms may be used piously without Formality And as there may be the Spirit of Prayer without a Form So there may be natural or Feverish Heat without the Spiritual Fervour It is not Vtterance that makes a Saint Nor Crying up Church-Orders that must needs make one a true Member of Christ's Church I am equally Distasted at both That call Praying by Habit Whining and Cant and that call the Liturgy Pottage and Idolatry I dare not Deride Prayer thô it be not Cookt exactly to my Gust nor Drest just in my Mode Nor can I count it the Effect of real Piety to be forward in Drolling upon any Holy things Prayer is A kind of Tune which all things Hear and Fear Herb. I know I cannot Worship without Faults of my Own and yet I must not therefore leave off all Worship And if I will not bear with Another's Failings but fly from all Worship that is Faulty With whom then shall I Communicate on Earth But if the other perform not his Part aright the Fault is not mine And my Joyning with him is no Engagement upon me to give my Consent and Approbation to all that ever I Hear from him Yet if I am indeed Athirst I shall not refuse good Drink tho it have some Smack of the Cask And I should methinks be more Wary than Wise never to trust any Physitian or Proctor because it is Possible they may Abuse me Nor ever to Joyn with another in Prayer because I know not before-hand all that he will Say nor can tell but a Word may drop that I do not Like I will use my own Words Yet I will not be so tied to them neither but if I find others better than my own I will not scruple to take them When I am Conscious It is not out of Laziness to save trouble and take what is Next me But to Serve God with that which I count the Best I must not presently be out of Conceit with all that I hear Derided For some that are counted the Ingenious and Well-bred men can Scoff at Scripture as well as Prayer Yea and Descant on the words of Common-Prayer as well as those of other Prayers I care not who make themselves Merry with that wherewith I find my self Edified Licentious tongues Bespatter all But the most curious and hasty to Censure and Carp at Others are commonly the most Careless at Home and the Fairest Marks to be hit themselves The PERORATION with a Call to Moderation and Devotion I Have pleaded for that Liberty which may do us a Kindness and also have made some Strictures upon the License for which we may all be the Worse That which is most Sweet may soonest give us a Surfeit And therefore thô it is an Injury to be abridged of the Diet yet we must not think it hard to be cautioned