Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	jehu_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	19	3	9.1964	4	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

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