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	think_v	time_n	3,167	5	3.3852	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43590	A vindication of the review, or, The exceptions formerly made against Mr. Horn's catechisme set free from his late allegations, and maintained not to be mistakes by J.H., Parson of Massingham p. Norf.	Hacon, Joseph, 1603-1662.	1662 (1662)	Wing H178; ESTC R16206	126,172	264

prove that it is a wicked slander to teach or imply that the Doctrine of Gods Predestination is a principle breeding profaneness and a vicious life But to say that it causeth Epicurean Atheism is a senseless slander for Epicurus quite contrarie to Zeno's fate set up Fortune to be a governess of the world and held that the gods took no heed to what men did upon earth but suffered all things to run at randome And shall that opinion that ascribeth too much to Gods Providence as if he did all things whatsoever and necessitated men to sin as you blasphemously infer breed in men an opinion that he doeth nothing at all and not so much as regardeth what men do Shall Christian Stoicism breed Epicurean Atheism here you did strike and lay about you blindfold They who were most contrarie to the Stoicks and opposite in the extreme were most swinish and brutish in their lives Away therefore with this your slander I know not whether more shameless or sensless Thirdly the Stoicks were most constant assertours and most strenuous defenders of that which we call Free-will and they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning thereby that power which every man hath over his own minde and over his own actions It is therefore another slander to teach that the doctrine of the divine Decrees doth deprive men of their libertie and maketh them rather to be stocks then voluntarie agents Mans will may be and always is free as to that root of libertie which is essential to man though his Person in the mean time be in slaverie or bondage to sin and vice Fourthly The Stoicks as they taught fate so they taught withall confatalia divers other things attending upon fate which we call means Whereby that which is fatal or decreed to come to pass shall indeed when due time is be brought to pass seneca Natur. Quaest lib. 2. c. 38. Fatum est ut hic disertus sit sed si liter as didicerit ab codem fato con●inctur ut liter as discat ideo discet If it be any mans fate to be a learned man it is in his fate also that he apply himself to his studie and therefore he shall do so and herein they accorded with our Religion A good Christian never said nor thought if I be chosen to heaven I shall be saved whether I live well or ill because he is taught that God did from the beginning choose to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thess 2.3 So when the time cometh he giveth those things that pertain to Godliness as well as life and calleth to vertue as well as glory 2 Pet. 1.3 And a rational Christian will never object and cavil saying If men did know that they be ordained to life eternal it is the next way to make them neglect godliness and holy conversation for he that speaks thus probably speaks against his own conscience which I prove thus if this man were infallibly and undoubtedly assured by a divine prophesie that his son being now but young should hereafter when he shall attain to full ripeness of age be advanced to some chief place of judicature in the State or some chief preferment in the Church he would not thereupon grow negligent in bestowing that cost and culture which is requisite upon that his son but I am certain he would the more diligently and more vigorously and chearfully take care for his liberal education that he may be fitted and qualified for such promotion And give what instance you will you shall without fail finde it true that the assurance or confidence that any man hath of accomplishing any purpose end or design doth sharpen his endeavour and encourage him in prosecuting those means by which such a design is usually brought to pass This being the doctrine of your pretended orthodox and this the nature and consequence of it I pray you what may we think of Tilenus and his favourable summarie of the Synod in the late History of the five Articles 1. pag. 41. giving in for the result of the first Article of the five that God elected to salvation a very small number of men without any regard to their faith or obedience whatsoever whereas the Canons which surely are the Result speak quite contrary by name the eight Canon of the first Article Scriptur a unicum praedicat beneplacitum propositum consilium voluntatis Dei quo nos ab aeterno elegit ad gratiam ad gloriam ad salutem ad viam salutis there is not a twosold election purpose or counsel of God but One even that whereby he chooseth both to Grace and Glory to Salvation and the way that leadeth to Salvation Such dealing may be left off out of honesty by them who think it is any credit to their cause to use it Thus far we are not neither need we to be ashamed of being Stoical if therefore you think good at any time to represent us as Stoicks let not them let not us be misreported for both acknowledge libertie of will and both acknowledge a necessary connexion of the Decree and the intervening means and if you say otherwise you wrong them and us and all those that take things on your word But besides these particulars now named the stoicks had a high conceit of the freedome of their will determinately to good They imagined that they had power to frame and fashion themselves anew as it were to the highest degree of vertue that mans nature is capable of Seneca Epist 41. stultum est optare cùm possis à te impetrare non sunt ad caelum elevandae manus It is a foolish part for a man to pray for what he may have of himself And Ep. 31. Exurge modo ●e quoque dignum finge Deo Now here we leave them and the free-will of theirs and I leave it to you to consider who they be that are nearest of kin to them and who they be the face and scope and import of whose doctrine may be thought to draw nearest to them So much for Stoicism You charge us with Manicheism also But you tell us not wherein Those that have reckoned up above twenty heresies that Manes held have told us that it were an endless thing to reckon them all If it be that about Free will that you mean I did say but little yet enough for that matter in my Review pag. 144. And according to what in the next chapter following this you tell me pag. 58. It is a weakness to bring an argument or charge which you know I have answered and yet to take no notice of the answer as you do not neither here nor yet in your 27 chapt where is the proper place if any thing you had to say to it But I would gladly ask you whether you know any man that hath so much impudence as to say that S. Augustine was a Manichean if he were how comes it to

as he that should rehearse the severitie enjoyned by the Law of Moses Deut. 18.20 cannot be therefore said to wish it were put in execution now nor desire any harm to them that have foretold the day of Judgement to befall in severall years now past Kings incensurableness smells of flatterie and pag. 34. It is good for Rulers to beware of flatterers who have the poyson of asps under their lips and kill insensible and unsuspected and therefore are a more dangerous kinde of enemie than though not so frightfull as open Rebels as Dalilah did Samson more hurt then the Philistines without her could have done him By M. H. principles Samuel was too blame to refuse to turn again with Saul and to go to visit him and the Priests of the Lord in Uzziah's time and S. Ambrose in Theodosius time were sawcy fellows for dealing as they did with their Sovereigns not remembring that they were their Fathers yet I am neither for the Popes Bulls nor the Scotch Presbyterie To praise and to flatter to reprove and to revile these do well or ill have good or bad effect according as the party is disposed upon whom they are bestowed Rebuke a wise man and he will love you but if you reprove a scorner he will hate you if you praise a good man more than there is cause that is if you flatter him he will studie to deserve your good word and will be as it were ashamed to come short of your commendation and it will in effect amount to an admonition or reproof It is a very good caution to Princes and great persons to take heed of flatterers who do in all things seek to sooth and please them from whom oftentimes they receive damage and so they do sometimes from those that out of quite contrary carriage do contradict and cross and provoke them If it be granted that a flatterer is in some fort worse than a rustical reprover yet he is not better than a reviler the excess always having more of vertue in it or at least inclining more to it than the defect and especially in our demeanour towards our Superiours And if a flatterer be the worst of enemies that deal in words yet is he not so ill as those that wrong in hostile attempts and therefore you kept no decorum when you made flatterers worse than open Rebels yea though growing frightfull And there is a larger difference between a flatterer and a traytour The example of Dalilah had done well enough to prove that a secret traytour is worse than an open Rebel but to your present purpose it no way appertains For this particular kinde of flattery that consisteth in ascribing too much power greatness or prerogative to Princes as it is true so it is impertinent to say they may be flattered for so may the people too to the prejudice of them both Out of doubt it is ill done to ascribe to either of them more than belongs to them But here is the right question To whom the supreme power of Religion belongs whether to the King to take care what Faith it is the subjects make profession of or to the subjects to be of what profession they will And I think it is not well done to call that flattery when no more is ascribed to any one than is due to him by the law of nature by the Law of God and by the law of the land respectively Towards the censurableness of Kings which was wont to be accounted amongst dangerous positions you bring three instances Saul Uzziah and Theodosius As for Saul Samuel refused to turn again with him and to joyn with him in sacrificing what was forbidden to be sacrificed but he did not refuse to turn with him when he was to shew him honour before the people in attending on him while he worshipped God And inasmuch as God himself reproved Samuel for shewing more regard and tenderness to Saul than he ought to have done being peremptorily rejected we may well imagine how Samuel stood affected to Saul how respectfull and how stedfast he would have been to him had the case been ordinary And Uzziah was not put out of that place that did belong to him The Priests said You shall not come into our place in the Temple they said not You shall not keep your own If a Minister should not suffer one of his Communicants to consecrate and distribute the bread and wine in the Lords Supper but forbid him this would not come near so much as to abstention and therefore this example comes not near the purpose And lastly as to Theodosius I answer If Constantine the Great be reckoned the first Christian Emperour then Theodosius the elder is the first Christian Emperour that is found among the Penitents or under Ecclesiastical discipline and the last too for the space of seven hundred years till the time of Henry the fourth and Heldebrand when Hell that is Satan broke loose Next it is questioned whether it was well done of these two great persons what they did As some highly commend so others much mislike the Emperours submission and the Bishops austerity as drawing danger and disgrace upon the Ruler of the people whose dignity God provided for by making a law that forbad all such speeches as savoured of detraction and contempt of him Thirdly I regard not much what S. Ambrose did Actions Heroical and Actions Zelotical recorded in Scripture or Church-Historie are not rashly to be imitated or drawn into example I attend rather to his words Apolog. Dav● cap. 10. Liberi sunt Reges à vinculis delictorum neque enim ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus tuti imperii petestate that is The power of Empire dischargeth Kings from the bands or censures of their transgressions neither are they obnoxious to the penalties of laws as others are The Popish Casuists resolve That whosoever is excommunicate must be Subditus he must have a Superiour some or other therefore with them the Pope is free because there is none on earth above him whosover censureth another judgeth him and whosoever judgeth another is superiour to him and there cannot be two supremes and there must be one CHAP. VII The Magistrates power in Religion Sect. 1. AT that rate I might conclude that M. H. knows not how and in what sort Christ is Head of the visible Church because he hath not told us This was not my omission but your very great negligence I told you how in that place pag 27. In regard of the Graces of edification derived from him for the Offices Ministerie and Government of his Church and in regard of the common benefits and common gifts of a spiritual kinde So now I have told told you twice Sect. 2. I Think they have a minde to settle their Contra-Remonstrant or Presbyterian Principles by persecution If I should ask you why you make these two terms all one which yet look severall ways one of belonging to Doctrine the other to