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	know_v	lord_n	3,918	5	3.5901	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60942	Interest deposed, and truth restored, or, A word in season, delivered in two sermons the first at St. Maryes in Oxford, on the 24th of July, 1659, being the time of the assizes : as also of the fears and groans of the nation in the threatned, and expected ruin of the lawes, ministry, and universityes : the other preached lately before the honourable Societie of Lincolns-Inn / by Robert South ...	South, Robert, 1634-1716.; South, Robert, 1634-1716. Ecclesiasticall policy the best policy.	1660 (1660)	Wing S4733; ESTC R4025	42,795	62

perill A Coward does not allwayes scape with disgrace but sometimes also he loses his life wherefore let all such know as can enlarge their consciences like Hell and call any sinfull compliance submission and style a Cowardly silence in Christs cause discretion and prudence I say let them know that Christ will one day scorn them and spit them with their policy and prudence into Hell and then let them consult how politick they were for a temporall Emolument to throw away Eternity All that causes men to deny Christ it is either the Enjoyments or the miseries of this life but alass at the day of Judgment all these will be expired and as One well Observes what are we the better for pleasure or the worse for sorrow when it is past but then sinne and guilt will be still fresh and Heaven and Hell will be then yet to Begin If ever it was seasonable to preach Courage in the despised abused cause of Christ it is now when his truths are Reformed into nothing when the hands and hearts of his faithfull Ministers are weakned even broke and his Worship extirpated in a mockery that his honour may be advanced Well to establish our hearts in duty let us before hand propose to our selves the worst that can happen Should God in his judgment suffer England to be transformed into a Munster Should the faithfull be every where Massacred Should the places of Learning be demolished and our Colledges reduced not only as One in his Zeal would have it to Three but to none Yet assuredly Hell is worse then all this and this is the Portion of such as deny Christ wherefore let our discouragements be what they will losse of Places losse of Estates loss of Life and Relations yet still this sentence stands ratified in Decretals of Heaven Cursed be that man that for any of these shall desert the truth and deny his Lord. ECCLESIASTICALL POLICY THE BEST POLICY OR RELIGION The best Reason of STATE In a SERMON delivered before the Honourable Society of LINCOLNES INN BY RO. SOVTH OXFORD Printed by A. L. for Tho. Robinson 1660. 1 King 13. ch 33 34. v. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evill way but made again of the lowest of the people Priests of the High places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests of the High places And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the Earth IEroboam from the name of a person become the character of impiety is reported to Posterity as eminent or rather notorious for two things Usurpation of Government and Innovation of Religion 'T is confessed the former is expresly said to have been from God but since God may Order and Dispose what he does not Approve and Use the wickedness of men while he forbids it the design of the First cause does not excuse the malignity of the second And therefore the Advancement and Scepter of Ieroboam was in that Sense onely the work of God in which it is said 3 Amos 6. that there is no evill in the City which the Lord has not done But from his attempts upon the Civill Power he proceeds to Innovate Gods Worship and from the subjection of mens Bodies and Estates to enslave their Consciences as knowing that true Religion is no freind to an unjust Title Such was afterwards the way of Mahomet to the Tyrant to joyne the Impostor and what he had got by the Sword to confirm by the Alcoran raising his Empire upon two Pillars Conquest and Inspiration Ieroboam being thus advanced and thinking Policy the best Piety though indeed in nothing ever more befooled the nature of sin being not onely to defile but to infatuate In the II. chap. and the 27. v. he thus argues If this people goe up to doe Sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people turne again unto their Lord even unto Rehoboam King of Iudah and they shall kill me and goe again unto Rehoboam King of Iudah As if hee should have said The true Worship of God and the converse of those that use it dispose men to a considerate lawfull subjection And therefore I must take another course my Practise must not be better than my Title what was won by Force must be continued by Delusion Thus sin is usually seconded with sin and a man seldome commits one sinne to please but he commits another to defend himself As 't is frequent for the Adulterer to commit Murder to conceal the shame of his Adultery But let us see Ieroboams politick procedure in the next ver Whereupon the King took counsel and made two Calves of Gold and said unto them it is too much for you to goe up to Ierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel As if he had made such an Edict I Ieroboam by the advice of my Council considering the great distance of the Temple and the great charges that poor people are put to in going thither as also the intollerable burden of paying the first fruit and tythes to the Priest have considered of a way that may be more easie and lesse burthensome to the people as also more comfortable to the Priests themselves and therefore strictly enjoyne that none henceforth presume to repaire to the Temple at Ierusalem especially since God is not tyed to any place or form of Worship as also because the Devotion of men is apt to be clogged by such Ceremonies therefore both for the ease of the people as also for the advancement of Religion we require and command that all henceforth forth forbear going up to Ierusalem Questionless these and such other Reasons the Impostor used to insinuate his devout Idolatry And thus the Calves were set up to which Oxen must be sacrificed the God and the Sacrifice out of the same Herd And because Israel was not to returne to Egypt Egypt was brought back to them that is the Egyptian way of Worship the Apis or Serapis which was nothing but the Image of a Calfe or Oxe as is clear from most Historians Thus Ieroboam having procured his people gods the next thing was to provide Priests Hereupon to the Calves he addes a Commission for the approving trying and admitting the Rascality and lowest of the people to minister in that service such as kept Cattel with a little change of their Office were admitted to make Oblations to them And doubtless besides the approbation of these there was a Commission also to eject such of the Priests and Levites of God as being too Ceremoniously addicted to the Temple would not serve Ieroboam before God nor worship his Calves for their Gold nor approve those two glittering sins for any reason of State whatsoever Having now perfected Divine Worship and prepared both Gods and Priests In the next place that he might the better teach his false Priests the way of

difference The onely Exposition that J shall give of them will be to compare them to other Parallel Scriptures and peculiarly that in the 8 Mark 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels These words are a Comment upon my Text. 1. What is here in the Text called a denying of Christ is there termed a being ashamed of him that is in those words the Cause is expressed and here the Effect for therefore we deny a thing because we are shamed of it First Peter is ashamed of Christ then he denyes him 2. What is here termed a denying of Christ is there called a being ashamed of Christ and his Words Christs truths are his second Self And he that offers contempt to a Kings letters or edicts virtually affronts the King it strikes his words but it rebounds upon his Person 3. What is here said before men is there phrased in this adulterous and sinfull generation These words import the hindrances of the duty enioyned which therefore is here purposely enforced with a non obstante to all opposition The Terme Adulterous I conceive may cheifly relate to the Jewes who being nationally espoused to God by Covenant every sinne of theirs was in a peculiar manner spirituall Adultery 4. What is here said I will deny him before my Father is there expressed I will be ashamed of him before my Father and his holy Angels that is when he shall come to Judgment when Revenging Justice shall come in pomp attended with the glorious Retinue of all the Host of Heaven In short the sentence pronounced declares the Judgment the solemnity of it the Terror From the words we may deduce these Observations 1. We shall find strong motives and temptations from men to draw us to a deniall of Christ. 2. No Terrors or Solicitations from men though never so great can Warrant or Excuse such a deniall 3. To deny Christs Words is to deny Christ. But since these Observ●tions are rather implyed then expressed in the words I shall wave them and instead of deducing a Doctrine distinct from the words prosecute the words them selves under this Doctrinall Paraphrase Whosoever shall deny dis-owne or be ashamed of either the Person or truths of Iesus Christ for any fear or favour of man shall with shame be disowned and Eternally rejected by him at the dreadfull judgment of the great day The discussion of this shall lye in these things 1. To shew how many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed and what is the deniall here cheifly intended 2. To shew what are the causes that induce men to a deniall of Christ and his truths 3. To shew how farre a man may consult his safety in time of persecution without denying Christ. 4. To shew what is imported in Christs denying us before his Father in Heaven 5. To apply all to the present Occasion But before I enter upon these I must breifly premise this that though the Text and the Doctrine run peremptory and absolute Whosoever denyes Christ shall assuredly be denyed by him yet still there is a tacit condition in the words supposed unless repentance intervene For this and many other Scriptures though as to their formall termes they are Absolute yet as to their sence they are Conditionall God in mercy has so framed and temper'd his word that we have for the most part a Reserve of mercy wrap'd up in a Curse And the very first judgment that was pronounced upon fallen man it was with the allay of a promise Wheresoever we find a Curse to the Guilty Expressed in the same words mercy to the Penitent is still Understood This premised I come now to discusse the first thing viz. How many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed c. Here first in generall I assert that we may deny him in all those acts that are capable of being morally good or evill those are the proper Scene in which we act our Confessions or denialls of him Accordingly therefore all wayes of denying Christ I shall comprise under these three 1. We may deny him and his truths by an Erroneous Hereticall judgment I know it is doubted whether a bare Error in judgment can condemne but since truths absolutely necessary to Salvation are so clearly revealed that we cannot erre in them unless we be notoriously wanting to our selves herein the fault of the judgment is resolved into a precedent default in the will and so the case is put out of doubt But here it may be replyed are not truths of absolute and fundamentall necessity very disputable as the Deity of Christ the Trinity of Persons if they are not in themselves disputable why are they so much disputed Indeed I believe if we trace these disputes to their originall cause we shall find that they never sprung from a reluctancy in Reason to embrace them For this reason it self dictates as most rationall to assent to any thing though seemingly contrary to Reason if it is revealed by God and we are certaine of the Revelation These two supposed these disputes must needs arise only from curiosity and singularity and these are the faults of a diseased will But some will further demand in behalf of these men whether such as assent to every word in Scripture for so will those that deny the naturall deity of Christ and the Spirit can be yet said in Doctrinalls to deny Christ To this I answere since words abstracted from their proper sense signification loose the nature of words are only equivocally so called inasmuch as the persons we speak of take them thus derive the Letter from Christ but the signification from themselves they cannot be said properly to assent so much as to the words of the Scripture And so their case also is clear But yet more fully to state the matter how farre a deniall of Christ in beleife and judgment is damnable We will propose the question Whether those that hold the fundamentalls of faith may deny Christ damnably in respect of those superstructures and consequences that arise from them I answer in breif by fundamentall truths are understood 1. Either such without the beleif of which we cannot be saved or 2. such the beleif of which is sufficient to save If the question be proposed of fundamentalls in this latter sence it containes its own answer for he that beleives those truths the beleif of which is sufficient to save the disbeleif or deniall of their consequences cannot damne But what and how many these fundamentalls are it will then be agreed upon when all Sects Opinions and Perswasions doe unite and consent 2ly If we speake of fundamentalls in the former sence as they are only truths without which we cannot be saved it is manifest that we may believe them and yet be damned for denying their consequences

found to be of another look'd upon in the day So when Christ shall have cleared up mens apprehensions about the value of things he will propose that worthy Prize for which he was denyed He will hold it up to open view and call upon Men and Angels Behold look here is the thing here 's that peice of dirt that windy applause that poor transitory pleasure that contemptible danger for which I was dishonoured my Truths disowned and for which life eternity and God himself was scorned and trampled upon by this sinner Judge all the world whether what he so despised in the other life he deserves to enjoy in this How will the condemned sinner then crawle forth and appear in his filth and shame before that undefiled Tribunall like a Toade or a Snake in a Kings presence Chamber Nothing so irksome as to have ones folly displaied before the Prudent ones impurity before the Pure And all this before that company surrounding him from which he is neither able to look off nor yet to look upon A disgrace put upon a man in company is unsupportable it is heightned according to the greatnesse and multiplyed according to the number of the persons that hear it And now as this circumstance before his Father fully speaks the shame so also it speaks the danger of Christs then denying us For when the accusation is heard and the person stands convict God is immediately lifting up his hand to inflict the eternal blow and when Christ denyes to exhibit a ransome to step between the stroak then coming and the sinner it must inevitably fall upon him and sinke his guilty soul into that deep and bottomless gulph of endless perdition This therefore is the summe of Christs denying us before his Father viz. Unsupportable shame unavoydable destruction I proceed now to the Vses that may be drawn from the Truths delivered And here Right Honourable not only the present occasion but even the words themselves seem eminently to addresse an Exhortation to your Honours As for others not to deny Christ is openly to profess him so for you who are invested with Authority not to deny him is to defend him Know therefore that Christ does not onely desire but demand your defence and that in a double respect 1. In respect of his Truth 2. Of his Members 1. He requires that you should defend and confess him in his Truth Heresie it is a Tare sometimes not to be pulled up but by the Civill Magistrate The word Liberty of Conscience is much abused for the defence of it because not well understood Every man may have Liberty of Conscience to think and judge as he pleases but not to vent what he please The reason is because Conscience bounding it selfe within the thoughts is of private concernment and the cognizance of these belong only to God but when an opinion is published it concerns all that hear it and the publique is endamaged and therefore becomes punishable by the Magistrate to whom the care of the publique is entrusted But there is one truth that concerns both Ministery and Magistracy and All which is opposed by those who affirm that none ought to Govern upon the Earth but Christ in person Absurdly as if the Powers that are destroyed his as if a Deputy were not consistent with a King as if there were any Opposition in Subordination They affirm also that the Wicked have no right to their Estates but onely the Faithfull that is themselves ought to possess the Earth And it is not to be questioned but when they come to explaine this principle by putting it into execution there will be but few that have estates at present but would be either found or made Wicked I shall not be so urgent to press you to confess Christ by asserting and owning the Truth contrary to this since it does not only oppose Truth but Propriety and here to deny Christ would be to deny your Selves 2. Christ requires you to own and defend him in his Members and amongst these the chief of them and such who most fall in your way the Ministers I say that despised abject oppressed sort of men the Ministers whom the world would make Antichristian and so deprive them of Heaven and also strip them of that poor remainder of their Maintenance and so allow them no portion upon the Earth You may now spare that distinction of Scandalous Ministers when it is even made Scandalous to be a Minister And as for their discouragements in the Courts of the Law I shall onely note this that for these many years last past it has been the constant observation of all that if a Minister had a Cause depending in the Court it was ten to one but it went against him I cannot believe your Law justles out the Gospel but if it be thus used to undermine Christ in his Servants beware that such Judgements passed upon them doe not fetch down Gods Judgements upon the Land and that for such abuse of the Law Christ does not in anger deprive both you and us of its Vse My Lords I make no doubt but you will meet with many Suites in your Course in which the persons we speak of are concerned as it is easie to Prognosticate from those many worthy Petitions preferred against them for which the well-affected Petitioners will one day receive but small Thanks from the Court of Heaven But however their Causes speed in your Tribunals know that Christ himself will recognize them in a greater And then what a different face will be put upon things When the usurping devouring Nimrods of the World shall be cast with scorn on the left hand And Christ himself in that great Consistory shall daign to step down from his Throne and single out a poor despised Minister and as it were taking him by the hand present him to and openly thus confess him before his Father Father here is a poore servant of mine that for doing his duty impartially for keeping a good conscience and testifying my truths in an Hypocriticall pretending age was wrong'd trood upon stript of all Father I will that there be now a distinction made between such as have owned confessed me with the loss of the world and those that have denyed persecuted and insulted over me It will be in vain then to come and creep for mercy and say Lord when did we insult over thee when did we see thee in our Courts and despised or oppressed thee Christs reply will be then quick and sharp Verily in as much as you did it to one of these little poor despised ones ye did it unto Me. 2. Use is of information to shew us the danger as well as the baseness of a dastardly Spirit in asserting the interest and truth of Christ. Since Christ has made a Christian course a Warfare of all men living a Coward is the most unfit to make a Christian whose infamy is not so great but it is sometimes less then his