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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	house_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	50	3	8.9532	4	false

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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

dissembled sayes Augustine is not Equity but double Iniquity because dissimulation is Iniquitie And the more glorious the Pretence is which covers a base Designe the more vile and wicked is the Person that thus audaciously steals the Robes of vertue to cloath his otherwise naked viliany Caligula the Romane Emperour was never more Profane then when in his Pride he would put on the Vestments of the Gods Nero within and Cato without is an abhor'd Monster in the Church of God When the Devil appears in the habit of Samuel 't is but to prophecy the prevalency of the Philistines and the Overthrow of Israel When Pernicious Projects are vail'd with glorious Pretences the Times are perillous When Piety is made subservient to Policy and Gain is accounted Godlinesse This is not Religion but Robbery Latro est Domum Dei convertit in speluncam Latronum qui Lucra de Religione sectatur cultusque ejus non tam Cultus Dei quam negotiationis occasio est † Hier. sup M●t. l. 4. He is a Robber says Jerome and turns the House of God into a Den of Thieves who takes up Religion meerly for the getting of Gain and whose worship of God serves onely for a fitter Occasion to advance his Trading in the World And we know it was not long after the Temple was made a Den of Thieves that it became a heap of Ruines The Times are perillous when the Royal stamp is put upon counterfeit coine and self-interest is called the Cause of God And the Danger is greater according to the Degree of the Person Self-seeking especially under plausible pretences of the Good of the People is extreamly pernicious in such Persons as have the chiefest Power in their hands which ought not to be used as an Engine for the advancement of mens private Interests but to be ever put to the best improvement for the Publick Good And therefore the pious and learned Father makes this the great difference betwixt a Tyrant who rules after his own Lusts and a King that governes his People by good and wholesom Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this sayes he does a Tyrant differ from a King that the one has still an Eye to his own Interests the other lays out himself for the Good of his Subjects But yet amongst a People professing godlinesse such Tyrants which makes their wickednesse so much the worse are wont to pretend the interests of Religion and the Honour of God for the colouring of their irregular enterprizes and the covering of their wicked intentions till they have accomplish't their cursed Designes and so attain'd their own ends So the bloody Nero in the beginning of his Reigne made great Pretences of Piety but when he was establisht in his Empire he delighted in nothing but wickednesse and cruelty And how perillous those Times were to the Christian Church the Teares and Blood of many thousand persecuted Christians gave sufficient Testimony whose † Rev. 6.9 10 Souls are under the Altar of God still crying with a loud Voice and saying How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth But now was it not for such faire Pretences these bloody Tyrants could never so smoothly carry on such foule Enormities to a full accomplishment It 's the Glory of God therefore which they pretend to the world to be the End of their audacious Actings but their own Names are firmly wrought into that Shield of Gods Glory which they hold out to the world for the Protection of the basest Designes as it s said the Name of Phidias was by his curious Art wrought into the Shield of Minerva Wo be to the People that are subjected to the Power of such pernicious persons for these a●e they which do with a witnesse make the Times perillous The Times then are perillous when glorious Titles are stampt upon base Designs and glorious ends are pretended for the crediting of such Enormous Actions as Religion cannot but blush that they should be called her children Thus Celsus the Philosopher having written a Defence of Paganisme gilds over his rotten wood with this golden Title or Inscription Verbum Veritatis † Orig. contra Cels l. 2. The Word of Truth Thus Absalom pretended a solemne Act of Religion in paying his Vow unto God when having plotted a cursed Treason he went on purpose to raise a bloody Rebellion against his Prince and Father * 2 Sam. 15 7-10 Th●● J●hu pretended the Reformation of Religion when he sought nothing but the establishment of the Kingdome to himself † 2 King 9 and 10. and therefore the executions done by him though according to Gods Order and Appointment * 2 King 9.6 7 are charged upon him as so many bloody Murthers soliciting the Divine Vengeance For sayes the Lord † Hos 1.4 yet a little while and I will avenge the Blood of Jezreel i. e. the bloodshed in Jezreel * 2 King 9 15 24 25 26 30. ult the Royal City of the Land of Issachar † Josh 19.17 18. upon the House of Jehu and will cause to cease the Kingdome of the House of Israel Thus one wicked Tyrant may be the Ruine of the whole Kingdome Yet does this bloody Wretch this Self-seeking Jehu while he was yet reeking in Blood and hot in pursuing his selfish Designes boast of his zeal for the Cause of God Come sayes he to Jehonadab * 2 King 10.15 16. Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD Thus do many wear a Cloak of Zeal upon a Habit of Vice Thus Saul out of his Zeale for the Israelites became a bloody Butcher of the Gibeonites and so brought a plague upon the whole Land of Israel † 2 Sam. 21 1 2 Thus that wicked Ahab proclaimes a Fast for the putting to death of Naboth that he might take to himself his Vineyard and so by one Act involves himself in the guilt of Murder Perjury and unjust Usurpation of the Right and Possession of the Innocent and Righteous * 1 King 21 12-16 So the Historian tells us of the Devilish Policy of Hanno a rich Prince of the Carthaginians who having laid a desi●ne for the Destruction of the whole Se●ate herein worse then Heliogabalus whose Pride was satisfi'd in the Expulsion of the Senators † Fulg. l. 9. c. 5. made use of a sacred S●lemnity in the Celebration of his Daughters Marriage Ut Religione Votorum nefanda committeret nefanda Commenta facilius tegerentur * Justin Hist l. 21. For the Execution and Concealment of his Damnable Designe and Hellish Treason Thus did the Monster of men Herod pretend he would † Mat. 2.8 worship Christ whilst he was plotting to murder him in the prosecution of which bloody Designe he cruelly * Mat. 2.16 put to death as it is thought about fourteen thousand Innocents the

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

Amos 5.11 12. as your treading is upon the Poore and ye take from him Burdens of wheat ye have built Houses of hewen stone but ye shall not dwell in them ye have planted pleasant Vine-yards but ye shall not drink Wine of them For I know your manifold Transgressions and your mighty sins they afflict the just they take a Bribe and they turn aside the poore in the Gate from their right And what follows * v. 16 17. Therefore the LORD the God of Hosts the Lord saith thus wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the High-wayes Alas Alas For I will pass through thee saith the LORD Well then may the Apostle call the Rich men of the World who have been the Oppressors of the Poor to weeping and mourning and bitter Lamentation † Jam. 5 1-6 Go to now ye rich men weep and howle for your miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments moth-eaten Your Gold and Silver is Canker'd and the Rust of them shall be a witnesse against you and shall eat your Flesh as it were Fire ye have heaped Treasure together for the last Dayes Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your Fields which is of you kept back by Fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the eares of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * the Lord of Sabaoth Ye have lived in pleasure on the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LORD of Hosts and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you Bloody Tyrants Thus do Wolves devoure the harmlesse Sheep But the Mighty God will at length roll down heavy Judgements upon the heads of such wicked worldlings Deceit and Violence are the two maine Pillars in the House of OPPRESSION wherein bloody Tyrants and Insolent Usurpers dwell They lay snares for the Lives of men that they may take them by Deceit and then drag them with Violence to a bloody Death or unjustly deprive them of the Comforts of Life Such is the State of things when Oppression reignes in a Land Thus doth the Prophet describe these bloody and deceitful men who seek to oppresse the Righteous and lie in waite for Innocent Blood and shews how high a Provocation this is of the great God to execute his Judgements upon such a sinful Nation For among my People saith the LORD by the Prophet † Jer. 5.26 are found Wicked men they lay wait as he that setteth snares they set a Trap they catch men * Jer. 9.8 9 Their Tongue is as an Arrow shot out it speaketh deceit one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart he layeth wait for him Shall I not visit them for these things saith the LORD Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this † Jerem. 5 27-29 As a Cage is full of Birds so are their Houses full of Deceit therefore are they become great and waxen rich They are waxen fat they shine yea they overpass the Deeds of the wicked they judge not the cause the Cause of the Fatherless yet they prosper and the right of the Needy do they not judge Shall I not visit for these things faith the LORD Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this some passages of another Prophecy we shall select to the same Purpose * Ezek. 22 3-22 Thus saith the Lord GOD The City sheddeth Blood in the midst of it that her Time may come Thou art become guilty in thy Blood that thou hast shed thou hast caused thy Dayes to draw near and art come even to thy years therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the Heathen and a mocking to all Countreys Those that be neare and those that be far from thee shall mock thee which art infamous and much vexed Behold the Princes of Israel every one were in thee to their Power to shed Blood In thee have they set light by Father and Mother in the midst of thee have they dealt by Oppression with the Stranger in thee have they vexed the Fatherlesse and the Widow Thou hast despised my holy things and hast profaned my Sabbaths In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood In thee have they taken gifts to shed Blood Thou hast taken Vsury and Increase and thou hast greedily gained of thy Neighbours by Extortion and hast forgotten me saith the Lord GOD. Behold therefore I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest Gaine which thou hast made and at thy Blood which hath been in the midst of thee Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong in the Days that I shall deal with thee I the LORD have spoken it and will do it Now therefore thus saith the Lord GOD Because ye are all Become Drosse behold therefore I will gather you as they gather Silver and Brass and Iron and Lead and Tin into the midst of the Furnace to blow the Fire upon it to melt it so will I gather you in my Anger and in my Fury Yea I will gather you and blow upon you in the Fire of my Wrath and ye shall be melted as Silver is melted in the midst of the Furnace and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my Fury upon you This is the portion of the wicked from the Lord. Thus doe Presumptuous men exalt themselves † Ps 55.23 But thou O God shalt bring them downe into the Pit of Destruction Bloody and Deceitfull men shall not live out half their Dayes The fourth Sin Swearing and Cursing WHen the fearful sins of swearing and Cursing are growne common the Times are Perillous When these Black sins these Ill-boading Fowles that are wont to feed upon the Brinks of the bottomless Pit do abound it s a Signe the Winter of Gods Judgements is at hand When men Thunder out Oathes and Curses on Earth as alas how often are our ears pierc't with these Hellish sounds in the open streets it's time for God to Thunder down his Judgements from heaven Doubtlesse men may curse away all the Lords Blessings and by their abominable Oaths sweare down Vengeance from heaven upon their own Heads yea soon swear their own souls into Hell Yea cruel Curses and bloody Oaths may soon fill the Land with Cruelty and Blood * Jer. 23.10 Hos 4.2 3. Because of Swearing may God justly cause the Land to mourne This sin we finde in the holy Scripture strictly forbidden and severely punished I say unto you sayes our Saviour † Mat 5 34-37 swear not at all neither by Heaven for it is Gods Throne nor by the Earth for it is his Foot-stoole neither by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King Neither shalt thou swear by thy Head because thou canst not make one haire white or black But let your

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