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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	grow_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	17	3	9.7572	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96538	A word in season, for a warning to England: or a prophecy of perillous times open'd and apply'd. Wherein the signes of bad times, and the means of making the times good, are represented as the great concernment of all good Christians in this present age. First exhibited in a sermon preached in the Abby at Westminster, July 5. 1659. and since enlarged and published. / By Thomas VVilles, M.A. minister of the Gospel, in the city of London.	Willis, Thomas, 1619 or 20-1692.	1659 (1659)	Wing W2308; Thomason E1734_1; ESTC R7862	218,037	465

extreamly evil and perillous Yea when a wicked Generation of men shall be suffer'd with Impunity to cast Contempt upon all the Ordinances of Gods Worship to vilifie and reproach the Assemblies of the Saints calling them the Synagogues of Satan with many more vile reproaches which I think not meet to mention what shall we think are not the Dayes evil the Times perillous When those shall be countenanc't honour'd advanc't in the State being set in Places of Power and Trust who do what they can to cast an Odium upon the Ordinances of the Gospel are not the dayes evil the Times perillous These sacred Ordinances are the paths of Christ wherein he walks amongst his People and hereby do men * Ps 79.51 reproach the footsteps of Gods anointed Hereby do vile persons cast dirt at the Chariots of the King of glory Hereby is the Lord continually provoked to depart from such a people and therefore the dayes which are defil'd with these Abominations must needs be perillous Times The fift Case Sinners Sedulity and Sloth in Saints VVHen the spirit of Errour and Profanesse prevailes more and more in the World and the Spirit of Prayer and Zeale for truth and holinesse decayes more and more in the Church the Dayes are evil the Times perillous When false Fires appear and the Fire of the Altar goes out sure God is departing from his Temple When the Locusts and Caterpillars swarme in the Fields and the Frogs croak in every corner of the House the Judgement of God is already upon the Land When † 2 Tim. 3.6 7 silly women are led captive in Troops by subtile Deceivers and soul-deluding Seducers * 2 Pet. 2.2 draw many Disciples after them the last Dayes which we are told shall be perillous Times are come upon us Activity of bad men in carrying on their wicked Designes and Lukewarmnesse in good men in promoting the Cause and Interest of Christ is a sad Symptome of some sore evil at hand When few are zealous for Truth and Righteousness multitudes are zealous for Errour and Impunity in the contempt of Gods holy worship we may justly feare God will shortly bring some fearful judgement on the Land When † Mat. 24.12 Iniquity abounds and the love of many waxes cold the Winter is come and stormes must be expected When the Spirit of Prayer departs the Spirit of Judgement comes in the roome of it When the Winde ceases presently the Rain falls When the hands of Moses fall down in Prayer and Amalek prevailes in battel we must needs expect it should go ill with Israel When Christians are fallen from their * Rev. 2.4 first Love and Professors are grow'n † Rev. 3.16 Lukewarm in Religion yea and many are become Key-cold in the Cause of Christ whilest others are very forward and zealous to promote the Honour and Adoration of the Deified IMAGES of their own Fancies they must needs be perillous Times ZEALE is the Pulse of the Church as JUSTICE is of the Common-wealth Now a wise Physician by feeling the Pulse may judge of the state of the Patient If it be violent and irregular the body is inflam'd and in a great distemper if it be very weak slow remiss and much interrupted it is a sad Symptome of approaching Death Apostacy in Religion is a fore-runner of Ruine and Destruction to such a particular Church and People * Jer. 8.5 15 Lukewarmnesse in Religion is a loathed temper I know thy Works sayes the Lord of the Church of Laodicea † Rev. 3.15 16. too true a Patterne of the Church of England that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot So then because thou art Lukewarme and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth In these cases all good Christians have cause to bewaile the sad condition of the Church of Christ The ninth Symptome Divisions in the Church and Union of her Adversaries THe children of the Church have experience of perillous Times When the Professors of the true Religion are divided and the profest enemies thereof are united When the Canaanites are combin'd against the Israelites and the Israelites are divided amongst themselves needs must they be distressed by their Enemies When Idolatrous Nations joyne in Confederacy against the People that professe the true Religion their State must needs be dangerous Of this does the Psalmist complain as speaking the sad state of the People of God and therefore he makes his earnest suit to God for redresse saying * Psal 83 1-8 Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy Peace and be not still O God For loe thine Enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty COUNSEL against thy People and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one CONSENT they are CONFEDERATE against thee The Tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistines with the Inhabitants of Tyre Ashur also is joyned with them they have holpen the children of Lot Needs must those be perillous Times with the People of Israel when as a small Flock of sheep they were surrounded with so many troops of Wolves Lions and Bears thirsting after their blood and ready to teare them in pieces and devoure them When in the Dayes of Jehoshaphat † 2 Chr. 20 Moab and Ammon and mount Seir conspired against Israel and came up against Jehoshaphat to battel both he and all the people of the Land were struck with feare in the apprehensions of their great danger And well might they fear when three Nations had arm'd themselves against that People that had provoked the Lord by their sinnes to give them up into their Enemies hands But behold a strange turne of Providence which affords a further illustration to the matter in hand These three great Armies by a wonderful stratagem of the Divine Providence were divided one against another and so now their great strength became the cause of their weaknesse and destruction for even without any stroke struck by Israel they themselves destroy'd one another insomuch that when Israel came against them they had none to encounter with but the * v. 24. dead Bodies of the slaine which were fallen to the earth and none escaped Thus as their Conjunction was their strength their Division became their overthrow Sad Divisions and bitter Contentions amongst Christians do not onely make them a scorn and Derision to their enemies but also expose them to the danger of an utter Destruction Such Christians as like Cranes fight amongst themselves do easily become a prey to others Their enemies like Eagles and Vultures will hasten to their Overthrow Thus did the Romane EAGLES prey upon the miserable Jews conflicting together in

Civil Dissentions until the streets of Jerusalem ran down with blood and the Body of the City became as a bloody † Mat. 24.28 CARKAS For before the final devastation of that renowned City it was divided as Josephus relates into a threefold Faction which under the Conduct of John Simon and Eleazar cruelly contested one with another and that bloody Generation called the Zealots of whom we have formerly spoken adhering as occasion serv'd to each party ceased not to foment this cruel Dissention and to enrage the heat of this burning Fever in the heart of the holy City which could never be cured without the shedding of abundance of Blood and the loss of many thousand lives And when the Body of the City was miserably torne with these Dissentions within and in continual danger of the Romans Invasion from without methinks that Pathetical Representation which the Historian makes of their miserable condition with the weeping wishes of the woful inhabitants is enough to fetch Tears from the eyes of any that shall but seriously minde it For sayes he † Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The City being assaulted on every side by treacherous conspiratours and a rabble multitude of unneighbourly Neighbours in the out-parts thereof the People in the midst like to some great body were cruelly rent and torne But the ancient men and the women being utterly at a losse which way to escape such pressing calamities wish't for the Romanes hoping that a forreign Warre might give them some releasement from the bleeding miseries of these intestine Broiles Thus the afflicted Patient wishes sends for the Chirurgion to make an Incision into his Body and draw away the blood from his Veines for the cooling of the boyling heat which he feeles in his heart But sad is the state of that people who are in more danger in more feare of their own bloody Brethren then of the most enraged Enemies But alas when the Romanes furiously came against them how easily did a divided self-destroying people become a prey to their cruel enemies who slew with the sword about eleven hundred thousand of them utterly destroy'd that famous City and that glorious Temple which was justly renown'd throughout the whole World A great River whose water runnes in one channel is not easily fo●dable but cut it into lesser streames and Rivulets as Cyrus did Euphrates when he assaulted Babylon and it may be easily passed over Thus Sedition in a state facilitates the way to its Destruction And the matter of Sedition sayes the Lord Verulam † Bacon in Essayes c. 15 is of two kindes much Roverty and much discontentment It is certaine sayes he so many overthrown estates so many Votes for Troubles When a Fire is kindled amongst old broken Houses it burns most violently and irresistibly When men are grown desperate the times must needs be dangerous Now the Causes and motions of Seditions sayes the same Authour are Innovation in Religion Taxes Alteration of Laws and Customes Breaking of Priviledges general Oppression Advancement of unworthy Persons Strangers Dearths Disbanded Souldiers Factions grown desperate and whatsoever in offending People joyneth and knitteth them in a common Cause These things carry in them so much light and evidence for their own truth and certainty and that sufficiently confirm'd by many sad experiences that when we see this Matter these Motives of Sedition we need not doubt to say the Times are perillous It 's most certaine that Union is the Stength Division the Weaknesse of any People This the Wise Father taught his children when he gave them a bundle of Rods to break which they were not able to do when bound together but easily snapt them in sunder when sever'd and singly deliver'd unto them Vnion is the Principle of Self-preservation but Division tends to Self-destruction Nostine igitur quod omne quod est tam diu manere atqu● subsistere quam diu sit unum sed interire atque dissolvi pariter quando unum esse desierit * Bo●t de Consol l. 4 Doest thou not know then sayes Boetius that every thing that is does so long abide and subsist as it continues to be ONE but when once it ceases to be one then is it dissolv'd and comes to nothing A house well compact will stand in a storm but when the Building is dis-joynted an easie push will throw it down and one part of it serves as an instrument to break the other in pieces and is it selfe broken in breaking And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † Arist Polit. Perillous are Breaches amongst Brethren when this is the Epidemical disease of a Nation it speaks the times to be perillous Union of the Inhabitants is a Nations strength and glory but Dissentions weaken its Strength stain its Glory and presage its Ruine Union of the Inhabitants is a brazen Wall of Defence round about a Nation to keep its enemies out but Division opens an hundred Gates for them to enter in It s easie to subdue that Nation which takes the onely way to destroy it self But now Nulla quamvis sit minima Natio cito potest ab Adversariis deleri nisi propriis simultatibus seipsam confecerit * Veget. l. 3 No Nation be it never so small can be suddenly destroy'd by its Adversaries unlesse it dispatch it self by its own discords and dissentions But when a Nation shall by sundry Factions and frequent Seditions teare in pieces its own bowels it may soone be crush't and quell'd by a Forreign Force When two great Nations profest enemies to the true Christian Religion are combin'd in a League of Amity and one small Nation professing the Christian Religion is divided within it self into almost a thousand fragments by a multitude of discordant Sects and many of them are already inflam'd after War and Blood and can hardly forbear some bloody Attempts for the tearing in pieces of their fellow-Members of the same Nation and a great number of them are the close Friends to the open Enemy and are continually blowing up the sparks of Dissention for the kindling of the Fire of War in the whole Kingdom are not such a People in a dangerous state and are we not to account such dayes to be perillous Times For When Discords and Quarrels and Factions are carry'd openly and audaciously as that learned States-man † ●acon in Essayes c. 15 before mention'd well observes it is a signe the reverence of Government is lost And Reverence sayes he is that wherewith Princes are girt from God When this Girdle is once loosed the Garment will easily be pluckt off the Government will soone be dissolv'd And yet mo●e easily when it is not onely loose but rent with these Civil Dissentions Divisions have produced great Alterations accompanied with many woful Effects in the most potent Kingdomes on Earth the mightiest Monarchies of the World The Divisions amongst the Trojans as a * D. Featly Modern

from your own souls prevent the Dishonour of God and the Destruction of the Land This also would very much conduce to a Happy Change of the Times For never can we expect to see good Dayes till † Am. 5.24 Judgement run down as waters and righteousnesse as a mighty streame for the purging of the Land from its Impurities and Abominations The third Duty Prayer for Amendment IS it your Lot to live in Evil Times Dayes of Danger and Distresse Then Pray to the Father of Eternity for the Change and Amendment of the Times All our † Ps 31.15 Times are in his Hand he changes them from good to bad or bad to good as pleases him 'T is he that causes the Sun to shine or covers it from us with a Cloud as he pleases Our Dayes are clear or cloudy our Times are good or evil according to his Ordering and Government To whom then should we go but to him that orders all changes for the change of evil and perillous into good and prosperous Times He can take away evil men or make them good and so amend the Times When we see men continue in their sinnes and daily grow to a greater height of Wickednesse we have then cause to fear the Times will grow worse rather then better And therefore in this Case the People of God had need be very earnest and importunate with God in their Prayers lest the Provocations of the wicked should be more prevailing for the bringing down of the Judgements of God then the Prayers of his People for the Prevention of those Judgements and the Procurement of his Mercies upon the Land When the sins of the Land cry aloud for Judgment the Saints of God had need to cry aloud for Mercy The Prayer of Faith is the most effectual means by Gods own appointment for the Removal of evils felt the Prevention of evils feared and the Procurement of good things desired There is not therefore a more sad Symptome of the approach of some dreadful Judgement then the Restraint of the Spirit of Prayer in the People of God Thus when Israel had fearfully provoked God by customary commission of grosse sinnes after glorious deliverances as Theft Murder Adultery Perjury Idolatry and had extreamly aggravated these sins by pretences of Religion and godlinesse For they would come and stand before the LORD in his House as if they should say We are deliver'd to do all these Abominations as the Lord hath testifi'd against them by his Prophet * Jer. 7.9 10 and when thereupon God purposed to cast them off for their sins he forbad his Prophet to pray for them For sayes the Lord † Jer. 7.15 16 I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your Brethren even the whole seed of Ephraim Therefore pray not thou for this People neither lift up Cry nor Prayer for them neither make Intercession to me for I will not hear thee This Prohibition of the Prophets Prayer for them was more terrible then the Commination of the sorest Judgement against them While a Praying Spirit is kept up in the hearts of Gods people there is hopes of prevailing with God for mercy for a sinful Nation Prayer does as it were binde up the hands of Omnipotency that an offended God cannot inflict a deserved Punishment upon a provoking People And therefore when the Israelites had made them a Molten Calf and worshipped it and the wrath of God was kindled against them to destroy them Moses by his Prayer prevented their Destruction And therefore did the Lord speak thus to Moses * Exod. 32.9 10. with Deut. 9.13 14 I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people Now therefore LET ME ALONE that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and blot out their name from under Heaven And I will make of thee a great Nation even a Nation mightier and greater then they Thus we see God could not execute his fierce wrath upon his people unless Moses would let him alone by ceasing to pray for them But this Command being rather Declarative of Gods wrath against Israel then expressive of his Pleasure that Moses should cease Praying Holy Prayer being Gods Delight Moses still proceeds in his Intercession for Israel and joynes Fasting with his Prayer and so prevailed for Mercy For it is said † Exod. 32 11 12. Moses besought the LORD his God and said Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people c. Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people And how gracious an Answer did he receive unto his prayer For it is said hereupon * ver 14. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people And again when Moses had beheld their abomination in making and worshiping the molten Calf he thus relates his Carriage success † Deut. 9.18 19 And I fel down saith he before the Lord as at the first fourty daies and fourty nights and I did neither eat bread nor drink water b●cause of all your sins which ye sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to Anger For I was afraid of the Anger and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also And therefore is it recorded of him in the Holy Scripture that the Lord said That he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the Breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them * Psal 106 23 And doth not the Lord such is his infinite Patience before he proceeds to the Execution of his Judgements upon a rebellious People for their unsufferable Provocations seek for a man among them that may make up the hedge and stand in the Gap before him for the Land that he may not destroy it † Ezek. 22 30 O then that some Moses might arise and plead with the Lord for his people that he might remove his Judgements and continue his Mercies to them and spare a sinfull Nation a defiled Land So Abraham brought down Gods Mercy by Steps in his * Gen. 18.23 ult Intercession for Sodom so far that if but Ten righteous persons had been sound in that whole sinfull City God would not have destroyed it Now how great an Encouragement should this be unto you Christians in Perillous Times to make your Addresses to God by fervent Prayers Oh! Is there none that will lift up a Prayer for a sinfull Nation before the Lord proceed to execute the fierceness of his wrath upon it O stir up your selves to wrestle with God in his own strength and resolve not to let him go till he bless the Land O Pray Pray Pray without ceasing that the Lord would turn away his Anger from us and after all our Shakings and Divisions settle Peace and Truth