Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n great_a king_n war_n 4,472 5 6.2395 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A51826 A solemn humiliation for the murder of K. Charles I with some remarks on those popular mistakes, concerning popery, zeal, and the extent of subjection, which had a fatal influence in our civil wars. Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722. 1686 (1686) Wing M509; ESTC R8082 9,825 33

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

such a provocation as this comes to reckon with a Kingdom who can escape the terrible Visitation who can abide the Almighty Wrath They were but few in comparison with the whole Body of the Jewish Nation that were immediately concerned in putting our Blessed Saviour to death they were not many perhaps onely a mercenary Rabble who petitioned for his Crucifixion and undertook to answer all the Appeales of his Bloud at their own and their Childrens peril Yet when the time of their Visitation came which was not till Forty years after the killing of their King when perhaps most of his Murderers were dead and rotten every Age Sex and Family that were in Jerusalem shared alike in the common Calamity the Famine the Pestilence and the Swords of the Romans had no commission to distinguish When the Divine Vengeance for the Bloud of our Martyr will more signally break out we know not and we beseech the infinite Mercy it may never Our Forty years have not yet expired neither have the Romans as yet prevailed against us or the Inundation of Sects overwhelmed us How soon they may he alone can tell who alone can hinder we have no better security left us than strong Cries deep Repentance passionate Deprecations O remember not against us former iniquities But are we fit persons to intercede are we fit to stand in the gap to turn away the anger of the Lord and to stop the destroying Angel Do not our continued provocations our daily repeated personal sins call for new Indignation on us What attonement therefore can we make or wherewithal shall we come before the Lord Can Intemperance satisfie for Hypocrisie or Prophaness expiate for Murder Is Sedition and Rebellion a repenting for the barbarous outrages of a Civil War or of this days Crime Will Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies drown the noise of our crying Sins Or will the contempt of the Bloud of Christ be a propitiation for the Bloud of the Martyr When our late Gracious Soveraign and the Royal Line were restored by an extraordinary Providence by a secret and wonderful hand was our gratitude returned to God with that sobriety of Christian Joy as became a redeemed people Or were the unquiet Zelots of our Land less obstinate in their Opinions more forward to remit their Scruples or more modest in their Demands And have we not already undergone some remarkable instances of Gods displeasure for the Murder of our King and the Prophanation of his restoring Mercy such as a Forreign War a raging Pestilence a dreadful Fire and an actual Rebellion As the Jews were wont to say that in every Calamity that befel them there was an ounce of the Golden Calf in it of that shameful and Idolatrous revolt so may we also affirm that in every Judgment that o'retakes us there is an ounce of the Bloud of the Martyr in it or else why are we like that stubborn Generation such a forlorn people as to be Hardned under every Calamity and to turn our most signal Mercies into the greatest Provocations Why are we continually murmuring often Plotting sometimes Rebelling Why do we shew so little remorse for our present for our former Iniquities for the Iniquities of this day The Lord does often defer and put off the extremity of Temporal Judgments to see if the next Generation will amend but if they go on in the same ways if they follow their Fathers steps imitate their bad Examples and revive their sins then he executes his Vengeance for both together and most justly punishes a people for Offences committed many years ago because they renew them because they act them over again against greater conviction and with more obstinacy and malice as all must do who continue Schismatical in the Church or Factious in the State after so great a light and knowledge of Truth and Duty and having had so long a time so merciful a season to understand and to amend their Errours There were three things that were more especially active and fatal in our late Distractions concerning which some did wilfully mistake though others were undoubtedly deluded They were Popery Zeal and the extent of Subjection The notions of these were strangely disguised both in mens Writings and Apprehensions the effects of these most violent and impious But since our Restoration and settlement since mens Spirits have been in some disposition and capacity to receive a rational instruction all these things have been so plainly declared according to their true nature so fully stated as to their measure and extent so frequently inculcated as to their just and sober use that there is left no further pretence for Ignorance or Mistake that the Seditious have now no cloak for their Rebellion For First in respect to Popery Men have been seriously advised not to measure the Protestant Religion by any peevish opposition to the Papists nor to account every thing Popery that is practised in the Church of Rome but to allow of such a judicious distinction between them as Wise men may know what to Write for and good men may know what to Die for Men have been often told that our Reformation was no new Religion but onely a necessary and discreet removal of some intolerable corruptions and an establishing of the old Christianity taught us plainly in the Scriptures and interpreted where dubious by the ancient Fathers They have been told that in the Reforming of this Church all things were acted not by way of Anabaptistical Tumult and Rebellion not out of a spirit of contradiction and furious Zeal but by the consultation and authority of the lawful Powers and according to the just Liberties of a National Church What fiery turbulency did men shew against the moderate and perpetual Episcopacy of this Land as if it had been the principal abomination of Antichrist And yet the voting down of that so dreaded Order was received with a Triumph at Rome What Outcries were there made and with what confidence was it asserted that the chief of our Bishops and Clergy were driving on a Popish Interest when it was manifest that they were the greatest nay the onely true Champions against it As for some of the more eminent of them when they could no longer remain with any safety in this Kingdom where-ever they travelled they gallantly maintained the fight against the Subtleties and Corruptions of that Church and like Hannibal when he was banished from Carthage where-e're they came they justly raised up Enemies to the Romans Thus the renowned Brumhall Cosins and Morley c. carried the War into the Enemies Country were victorious abroad though contemned at home defended our Church against the strength and power of Rome whilst their Adversaries went destroying of all Christianity here by contending with the shadow of Errour by mistaking the Controversie by shewing great violence little Learning no Arguments By cherishing those Distractions both in Church and State which gave the greatest blow to the Protestant Cause and the surest
advantage to the Popish Interest which staggered the Religious confirmed the Atheist and made the Enthusiast mad Secondly As to Zeal That was made such an Engine of War that Cromwel thought it the onely Expedient by which he could match the bravery and spirit of the Kings Cavalry considering with himself that the Fury of that Principle would as much inspire the Multitude as Honour and Loyalty did the Nobles This was his peculiar Policy and to effect this was his singular Art and this was the chief Stratagem by which he prevailed and Ruled for he was forced to make the Army purely Phanatick before he could make it truly serviceable to his purpose and intirely His still supplying it with Zealots of an Old Testament-Valour and perswading every Captain that he was a chosen Jehu to fight the Battels of the Lord. Sowre Passions Censoriousness and Malice Emulations Wrath Strife and Envyings were the black Ingredients of their Zeal whereas the true Zeal of the Gospel is that which is guided by Prudence sweetned with Charity tempered by Meekness False Zeal is the very Gall of bitterness but that which is true is the very Top and Flower of Divine Love The one rages and Rebels the other suffers and Dies The one calls for Fire from Heaven the other sends up Incense thither The one is factiously busie in reforming of the State the other is humbly imployed in the due regulation of private Life and Manners If men would be truly zealous let them shew it for Holiness and Righteousness for Humility and the decency of Publick Worship Let them shew it against Sacriledge Perjury Covetousness Hypocrisie Rapine and gross Superstition Not by railing against Ceremonies censuring the Clergy cursing the Papists moving of Sedition and encouraging Rebellion but by brotherly Admonitions sound Reasonings excellent Examples singular Modesty due Reverence and Attention in our publick Assemblies by Praises Prayers and frequent Communions by Intreaties Tears and solemn Humiliations by interceding with the Almighty in strict Fastings and fervency of Devotion and by averting publick Judgements by an extraordinary Holiness of Life This is the Zeal which is kindled from above which is first Pure then Peaceable the other is kindled from below and is earthly sensual devilish Thirdly The last thing I mentioned was the extent of Subjection What was more tampered with in our late times than the Doctrine of Obedience What more disguised what Proposition was accounted more contemptible than Subjection for Conscience sake Every conceited Politician sent forth his new System of Civil Government Every illuminated Brother his new Models of Christs Kingdom every one was for erecting an Empire for himself and a Platform wherein his own Imaginations might rule Yet when they had tried all the several kinds and species of disorder Government would fall back to its old Form it could no where rest but upon the Basis of ancient Monarchy and primitive Episcopacy Surely the Protectors of our Liberties and the Reformers of our Religion had a most wonderful prospect of a lasting Peace in the State and a Godly Discipline in the Church when the ignorance of the Multitude was guided by the Crafty their ungovernable Passions inflamed by the Revengeful and their intolerable obstinacy permitted to dictate their own Ecclesiastical Censures But now the Essential Properties of Sovereign Power the Fundamental Laws of the English Monarchy the unalterable Right of Succession in this Hereditary Kingdom and the just Priviledges of the Christian Church have been so clearly stated by wise and able heads that they have left no room for Cavil no plea for Ignorance and no pardon for a malicious Opposition More especially the unlawfulness of Resistance in any case and upon any pretence whatsoever either Popish or Phanatick has been so strongly asserted and so fully evidenced through all the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament through the Histories Examples and Apologies of the Primitive times by unanswerable positive Reasons by a removal of all imaginable Objections and by the Convictions of former and late Experience that no man for the future can be a Rebel in this Nation without being either an Hypocrite or an Atheist Thus you see with what Conscience Learning Endustry and Perswasion the Church of England has endeavoured to dispel all the mists of former Darkness to take away all materials for Sedition and to make all her Members Religious Wise and Peaceable Especially Religious for the truly Pious will undoubtedly be truly Loyal they will find sufficient business with their own Souls to keep them from a Factious enquiry into the miscarriages of the State by studying their own Infirmities they will be more tenderly sensible of the Temptations of an higher station they will weep and mourn for those defects which God when we deserve it will amend The Lord deliver our most Gracious Soveraign and his good Subjects from that corrupt Brood of pretended Loyalists who blaspheme God swagger for the King curse his Enemies and damn themselves This is not Loyalty but phrensie either the voice of Flattery high-fed or the Ravings of a feavered Valour Loyalty is a Virtue as calm as any of the Duties of Religion 'T is Brave Modest and Invincible 't is seated more in the Judgement and Conscience than in the Imagination and heat of Bloud 'T is the highest degree of Humane gratitude tempered with great awe and reverence 'T is that which would make a man Pious Just and Sober were it onely to bring down a Blessing on his King and on his Nation Neither is it a Scheme of Policy in the Brain that will make a Christian-Statesman but 't is the Oracle of Truth and Righteousness in the Breast that will make his Counsel prosper and his Wisdom shine He alone is best able to give his Prince a sound Advice and he alone has the best courage so to do who has first begg'd it himself on his Knees of God He who has lain prostrate before the Almighty in Humility and Contrition is the sittest to stand up against the Torrent of a Faction or the Insinuations of a slier Party That Magistrate who converses most with God will like Moses have most Divine Authority in his looks he will be the most proper person to stand in the gap and to turn away the destroying Angel But still give me leave to ask that Humbling Question Is this Nation likely to atone for former Iniquities that is scarce sensible of their daily Transgressions What solemn Humiliation can be expected from those who confess their present sins without Contrition who pray without Devotion Who praise God without Affection And read the Scriptures without Faith and Obedience When our sins have separated between us and our God and our Iniquities have hid his Face from us that he will not hear because our hands are defiled with Bloud then 't is not a melancholy look the abatement of a Meal and a formal attendance on divine Offices that will break our Cords asunder and