Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	opinion_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	29	3	8.7714	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45318	The shaking of the olive-tree the remaining works of that incomparable prelate Joseph Hall D. D. late lord bishop of Norwich : with some specialties of divine providence in his life, noted by his own hand : together with his Hard measure, vvritten also by himself.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.; Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. Via media.	1660 (1660)	Wing H416; ESTC R10352	355,107	501

injoyned to both parts in those other collaterall and needlesse disquisitions which if they might befit the Schools of Academicall disputants could not certainly sound well from the Pulpits of popular Auditories Those reconciliatory papers fell under the eyes of some Grave Divines on both parts Mr. Montague professed that he had seen them and would subscribe to them very willingly others that were contrarily minded both English Scotish and French Divines profered their hands to a no less ready subscription So as much peace promised to result out of that weak and poor enterprise had not the confused noise of the misconstructions of those who never saw the work crying it down for the very Names sake meeting with the royall edict of a general Inhibition buryed it in a secure Silence I was scorched a little with this flame which I desired to Quench yet this could not stay my hand from thrusting it self into an hotter fire Some insolent Romanists Jesuites especially in their bold disputations which in the time of the treaty of the Spanish Match and the calme of that Relaxation were very frequent pressed nothing so much as a Catalogue of the Professors of our Religion to be deduced from the primitive times and with the peremptory challenge of the impossibility of this Pedigree dazeled the eyes of the simple whiles some of our learned men undertaking to satisfy so needless and unjust a demand gave as I conceived great advantage to the Adversary In a just Indignation to see us thus wrong'd by mis●stateing the Question betwixt us as if we yielding our selves of an other Church Originally and fundamentally different should make good our own erection upon the Ruines yea the Nullity of theirs and well considering the Infinite and great inconveniences that must needs follow upon this defence I adventured to set my pen on work desiring to rectifie the Opinions of those men whom an ignorant zeal had transported to the prejudice of our holy Cause laying forth the Damnable corruptions of the Roman Church yet making our game of the outward visibility thereof and by this means putting them to the probation of those newly obtruded corruptions which are truly guilty of the breach betwixt us The drift whereof being not well conceived by some spirits that were not so wise as fervent I was suddenly exposed to the rash censures of many well affected and zealous Protestants as if I had in a Remission to my wonted zeal to the Truth attributed too much to the Roman Church and strengthned the adversaries hands and weakned our own This envy I was fain to take off by my speedy Apologeticall advertisment and after that by my Reconciler B. Morton B. Davenant Dr. Prideaux D. Primrose seconded with the unaminous Letters of such Reverend Learned sound Divines both Bishops and Doctors as whose undoubtable authority was able to bear down calumny it self which done I did by a seasonable moderation provide for the Peace of the Church in silencing both my defendants and challengers in this unkind and ill-raised quarrell Immediately before the Publishing of this Tractate which did not a little aggravate the envy and suspicion I was by his Majesty raised to the Bishoprick of Exceter having formerly with much humble Deprecation refused the See of Glocester earnestly proffered unto me How beyond all expectation it pleased God to place me in that Western charge which if the Duke of Buckinghams Letters he being then in France had arived but some hours sooner I had been defeated of and by what strange means it pleased God to make up the Competency of that provision by the unthought of addition of the Rectory of St. Breok within that Diocess if I should fully relate the Circumstances would force the Confession of an extraordinary hand of God in the disposing of those events I entred upon that place not without much prejudice and suspicion on some hands for some that sate at the sterne of the Church had me in great Jelousie for too much favour of Puritanisme I soon had intelligence who were set over me for espialls my ways were Curiously observed and scanned However I took the resolution to follow those courses which might most conduce to the Peace and happiness of my New and weighty charge finding therefore some factious spirits very busie in that Diocess I used all fair and gentle means to win them to good order and therein so happily prevailed that saving two of that numerous Clergy who continuing in their refractoriness fled away from censure they were all perfitly reclaimed so as I had not one Minister professedly opposite to the anciently received orders for I was never guilty of urging any new Impositions of the Church in that large Diocess Thus we went on comfortably together till some persons of note in the Clergy being guilty of their own negligence and disorderly courses began to envy our success and finding me ever ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably forward and painfull in their places and willingly giving way to Orthodox and peaceable Lectures in severall parts of my Diocess opened their mouths against me both obliquely in the Pulpit and directly at the Court complaining of my too much Indulgence to persons disaffected and my too much liberty of frequent Lecturings within my charge The billowes went so high that I was three severall times upon my knee to his Majesty to answer these great Criminations and what Contestation I had with some great Lords concerning these particulars it would be too long to report only this under how dark a Cloud I was hereupon I was so sensible that I plainly told the Lord Archbishop of Canter that rather then I would be obnoxious to those slanderous tongues of his misinformers I would cast up my Rochet I knew I went right wayes and would not endure to live under undeser●●pi●●ons what messages of caution I had from 〈◊〉 of my ●●ry Brethren and what expostulatory Letters I had from above I need not relate Sure I am I had Peace and comfort at home in the happy sense of that generall unanimity and loving correspondence of my Clergy till in the last year of my presiding there after the Synodicall oath was set on foot which yet I did never tender to any one Minister of my Diocess by the incitation of some busie interlope●s of the neighbour County some of them began to enter into an unkind contestation with me about the election of Clerks of the convoca●ion whom they secretly without ever acquainting me with their desire or purpose as driving to that end which we see now accomplished would needs nominate and set up in Competition to those whom I had after the usuall form recommended to them That they had a right to free voices in that choice I denyed not only I had reason to take it unkindly that they would work underhand without me and against me professing that if they had before hand made their desires known to me I should willingly have

of our sins with Israels Yet one more do we think of the bold intrusion of presumptuous persons into the sacred calling without any commission from God Of whom do we think the Prophet Jeremy speaks The Prophets prophesy lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them nor spake unto them They prophesy unto you a false vision and the deceit of their own heart Jer. 14.14 and again I have not sent these Prophets yet they run I have not spoken to them yet they prophesyed Jer. 23.21 To what purpose should I instance in more as I easily might as practical atheisme falsehood cruelty hypocrisy ingratitude and in a word universal corruption O England England too like to thy sister Israel in all her spiritual deformities if not rather to thy sister Sodome Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister sodome pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse was in her neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy Ezechiel 16.49 Lo thou art as haughty as she and hast committed all her abominations But that which yet aggravates thy sin is thy stubborne incorrigiblenesse and impudence in offending is it not of thee that the Prophet Jeremy speaks This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction Jer. 7.28 For O our God hast thou not whipt us soundly and drawn blood of us in abundance yet wo is me what amendment hast thou found in us what one excesse have we abated what one sin have we reformed what one vice have we quitted Look forth brethren into the World see if the lives of men be not more loose and lawlesse their tongues more profane their hands more heavily oppressive their conversation more faithlesse their contracts more fraudulent their contempt of Gods messengers more high their neglect of Gods ordinances more palpable then ever it was Yea have not too many amongst us added to their unreformation an impudence in sinning Is it not of these that the Prophet speaketh Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed at all neither could they blush therefore shall they fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down saith the Lord Jer. 8.12 By this time I suppose you see how too much cause we have to mourn for those sins of practise which have fetcht down judgments upon us turn your eyes now a little to those intellectual wickednesses which we call sins of Opinion Opinion think some of you now alas what so great offence can there be in matter of conceit and in those results of ours ratiocination which we picht upon in the cases of Religion let me tell you dear Christians what valuation soever you may please to set upon these capital errours of the understanding set abroach for the seduction of simple souls there is more deadly mischief and higher offence to God in them then in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhorr These as they are the immediate sins of our spirituall part so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits in his Truth and holinesse and as Religion is the highest concernment of the soul so the depravation of Religion must needs be most dangerous and damnable It is no marvell therefore if a truly-zealous Christian could even weep his eyes out to see hear those hellish heresies Atheous paradoxes which have poysoned the very air of our Church wherein they were vented One beats the keys into the sword or hangs them at the Magistrates girdle so as he suspends religion upon the meer will and pleasure of severaignty One allowes plurality or community of Wives another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath upon sleight occasions and to take another One is a Ranter another is a Seeker a third is a Shaker One dares question yea disparage the sacred Scriptures of God another denies the Souls immortality a third the Bodies resurrection One spits his poyson upon the blessed Trinity another blasphemes the Lord Jesus and opposes the eternity of his Godhead One is altogether for inspirations professing himself above the sphere of all Ordinances yea above the blood of Christ himself Another teaches that the more villanie he can commit the more holy he is that only confidence in sinning is perfection of sanctity that there is no hell but remorse To put an end to this list of blasphemies the very mention whereof is enough to distemper my tongue and your ears One miscreant dares give himself out for God Almighty Another for the Holy Ghost Another for the Lord Christ Another a vile adulterous strumpet for the Virgin Mary O God were there ever such frenzies possessed the braines of men as these sad times have yieled Was ever the Devil so prevalent with the sons of men Neither have these prodigious wretches smothered their damnable conceits in their impure breasts but have boldly vented them to the World so as the very presses are openly defiled with the most loathsome disgorgments of their wicked blasphemies Here here my dear brethren is matter more then enough for our mourning If we have any good hearts to God if any love to his truth if any zeal for his glory if any care for his Church if any compassion of either perishing or endangered souls we cannot but apprehend just cause of pouring out our selves into tears for so horrible affronts offered to the dread Majesty of our God for so inexpiable a scandal to the Gospel which we professe for so odious a conspurcation of our holy profession and lastly for the dreadful damnation of those silly souls that are seduced by these cursed impostors Ye have seen now what cause we have of mourning for sins both of Practise and Opinion It remaines now that we consider what cause of mourning we may have from our dangers for surely fear as it is alwayes joyned with grief so together with it is a just provoker of our tears And here if I should abridge all the holy Prophets and gather up out of them all the menaces of judgments which they denounce against their sinfull Israel I might well bring them home to our own doors and justly affright us with the expectation of such further revenge from Divine Justice for how can we otherwise think but that the same sins must carry away the same punishments The holy God is ever constant to his own most righteous proceedings if then our sins be like theirs why should we presume upon a dissimilitude of judgments Here then it is easy to descry a double danger worth our mourning for the one of further smart from the hand of God for our continuing and menacing wickednesse the other of further degrees of corruption from our selves For the first let that sad Prophet Jeremiah tell you what we may justly fear They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my law

only hold it fit out of our obedience to the lawes both of our church and kingdome to continue a joyful celebration of a memorial day to the honour of our blessed Saviour But that other authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose I confesse doth not a little amaze me it was you say of King James our learned Soveraigne of late and blessed Memory whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people not without the just applause of a Solomon-like wisdome as crying down these festivals and in a certain speech of his applauding the purity of the church of Scotland above that of Geneva for that it observed not the common feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection c. Is it possible that any mouth could name that wise and good King in such a cause whom all the world knowes to have been as zealous a patron of those festivals as any lived upon earth and if he did let fall any such speech before he had any Downe upon his chin whilst he was under the serule what candor is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience and ripest judgment Nay is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journy into his native Kingdome of Scotland to reduce that church unto a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these solemn dayes One of the five Articles of Perth and to this purpose was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth and wherein he employed the service of his worthy Chaplain Doctor Young Dean of Winchester to recall and re-establish these festivalls And accordingly in pursuance of his Majesties earnest desire this way was it not enacted in that Assembly that the said feasts should be duely kept Doubtlesse it was and that not without much wise care and holy caution which act because it cannot be had every where and is well worthy of your notice and that which clears the point in hand I have thought good here to insert the tenor of it therefore is this As we abhorr the superstitious observation of Festival dayes by the Papists and detest all licentious and profane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular dayes and times by the whole church of the World and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordaines that every Minister shall upon these dayes have the commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent texts of Scripture and frame their doctrine and exhortation there to and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious profanation thereof I could if it were needful give you other proofes of King James his zeal for these dayes but what should I spend time in proving there is a sun in the Heaven and sight in that Sun The name of that great King suffereth for his excesse this way Shortly then the Church of God his anointed law antiquity reason are for us in this point and I doubt not but you will gladly be on their side away with all innovations and frivolous quarrels we were divided enough before and little needed any new rents The God of peace quiet all these distempers and unite our hearts one to another and all to himself Farwell in the Lord. TO My Reverend and worthily Dear Friend M r. WILLIAM STRUTHERS One of the Preachers of EDINBOURGH THe hast of your Letters my reverend and worthy Mr. Struthers was not so great as their welcome which they might well challenge for your name but more for that love and confidence which they imported thus must our Friendship be fed that it may neither feel death nor age The substance of your Letter was partly Relation and partly Request For the first Rumour had in part prevented you and brought to my ears those Stirs which happened after my departure and namely together with that impetuous Protestation some rude deportment of ill-governed Spirits towards his Majesty Alas my dear Brother this is not an usage for Kings they are the nurses of the Church if the child shall fall to scratching and biting the brest what can it expect but stripes and hunger your Letter professes that his Majesty sent you away in peace and joy and why would any of those rough-hewn Zelots send him away in discontentment But this was I know much against your heart whose often protestations assured me of your wise moderation in these things How earnestly have you professed to me that if you were in the Church of England such was your indifferency in these indifferent matters you would make no scruple of your ceremonies yea how sharp hath your censure been of those refractaries amongst us that would forgo their stations rather then yield to these harmeless impositions So much the more therefore do I marvell how any delator could get any ground from you whereon to place an accusation in this kind But this and the rest of those historicall passages being only concerning things past have their end in my notice Let me rather turn my pen to that part which calleth for my advise which for your sake I could well wish were worthy to be held such as that your self and your collegues might find cause to rest in it howsoever it shall be honest and hearty and no other then I would in the presence of God give to my own soul Matters you think will not stand long at this point but will come on further and press you to a resolution What is to be done will you hear me counselling as a friend as a Brother Since you foresee this meet them in the way with a resolution to intertain them and perswade others There are five points in question The solemn festivities The private use of either Sacrament Geniculation at the Eucharist Confirmation by Bishops For these there may be a double Plea insinuated by way of comparison in your Letters Expedience in the things themselves Authority in the commander some things are therefore to be done because they are commanded some others are therefore commanded because they are to be done obedience pleads for the one justice for the other If I shall leave these in the first rank I shall satisfie but if in the second I shall supererogate which if I do not I shall fail of my hopes Let me profess to you seriously I did never so busily and intentively study these rituall matters as I have done since your Letters called me unto this task Since which time I speak boldly I made no spare either of hours or papers Neque enim magna exiliter nec seria perfunctorie as I have learned of our Nazianzen and besides this under one name seemed a common cause and