Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	reformation_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	21	3	8.5711	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29210	Bishop Bramhall's vindication of himself and the episcopal clergy, from the Presbyterian charge of popery, as it is managed by Mr. Baxter in his treatise of the Grotian religion together with a preface shewing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of popery.	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.; Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1672 (1672)	Wing B4237; ESTC R20644	100,420	266

that the Chiefs of the Party are only the Remainders of the old Rebellion and the Republican Faction and such as profess no great kindness to Monarchy or Sovereign Princes These that are so stein'd with Guilt and Disloyalty are they that are every where so zealous to make their Cabals of Zeal and their Musters of Reformation or at least to keep up the Cause and themselves above despair by keeping up a factious and discontented Party that if ever opportunity should favour them may have Strength and Interest enough to act over their old Designs of Zeal and Reformation Now at present it is the Way and the Wisdom of these Men to bend all their Forces against the Ecclesiastick State not only to disguise their Intentions but to remove the main hindrance of their Designs For 't is the Church that is the best part of every Commonwealth and when all Projects are tried Religion is the best Security of Peace and Obedience The Power of Princes would be but a very precarious thing without the Assistance of Ecclesiasticks and all Government does and must owe its quiet and continuance to the Churches Patronage 't is the Authority that has over the Consciences of Subjects that chiefly keeps the Crown upon the Princes Head and were it not for the Restraints of Conscience that are tied on by the Hands of the Priest and the Laws of Religion Man would be a monstrously wild and ungovernable Creature For though the World be kept in some tolerable Order notwithstanding there are too many Persons in it of Atheistical and Irreligious Principles yet of all Subjects these are the most dangerous and disloyal because 't is impossible to bring them under any effectual Engagements of Duty and Allegiance and hence it is that all Seditions and Treasons are headed and managed by such Leaders At least though they are not able to do so very much mischief because their Party is not very considerable yet were all Mankind of their Humour and Perswasion nothing could be more insecure and destitute of help than the Condition of Princes because no Man according to their Principles could be so foolish as to think himself any way obliged to venture Life and Fortune for the sake of their Interest and whenever they are attempted Subjects would be determined as to their Loyalty by the chance of Success and not by any antecedent Obligations and whenever the Princes Affairs were brought into any straight or danger they must leave him to shift for himself and revolt to an Usurper for their own Safety and Interest But those only are Loyal Subjects and true Friends and Servants to the Establisht Government that think it their Duty to adhere to their Prince in all Fortunes and to assist and serve him against all Enemies and 't is their Numbers every where that keep the World in that little order and security that it enjoys for beside the useful and advantagious Offices that they do to the Crown by their own immediate Service 't is their known and sworn Fidelity that in a great measure keeps back wicked and seditious Men from attempting it too lightly Every aspiring Mind or neglected Grandee would be presently venturing at the Throne if it stood naked and unguarded of the Assistances of Loyalty but when they are assured that howsoever their Designs may succeed that there is so strong a Party unalterably resolved to make Head against them and all their Attempts 't is that that chiefly makes such Projects and Practices not so very frequent or easie Now 't is nothing but Conscience and Religion that can awe the Minds of Men to any sense of this Duty and they ever are and ever must be Govern'd by Ecclesiasticks other Persons may tamper with them and inveigle some stragling People but still the main Body of a Nation and especially the sober part of it will chuse to submit themselves to their Conduct whose Publick Profession it is to guide Souls and instruct Consciences so that to them and the discharge of their Duty do all Princes plainly owe the main Strength and Seourity of their Government This Obligation of kindness to the Ecclesiastical State is common to all Civil States and so much as they discountenance the Power and Reputation of the Church so much do they disadvantage the Interest of their own Authority But this reason of State is of greater force and more peculiar usefulness in reference to the present Constitution of the Kingdom of England The Nation is manifestly divided into two opposite Parties the Church of England and the Body of the Nonconformists The former whereof is the greatest Example of Loyalty that perhaps ever appeared in the Christian World Its Clergy are the most Zealous Assertours of the Rights of Princes they have all along undauntedly maintain'd their Supremacy against all Assaults and Invasions they have possest the Peoples Conscienecs with a religious Awe and Reverence of Government they have restrained them from all Attempts of Rebellion or of taking up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever under the greatest and most dreadful Penalties they have secured them from being abused with the Impostures of Zeal and Superstition and have carefully prevented all the Shifts and Excuses of Disobedience and after they have made Subjection a prime and indispensable Duty they do not evacuate the Efficacy of their Doctrine by juggling Reserves and Limitations And thus are the People train'd up in a Conscience of their Loyalty and take it in together with their Religion and are as strongly principled against the hateful sin of Rebellion as against Witchcraft or Idolatry And of this our Princes have had sufficient proof and experience ever since the Reformation They have ever found all their Subjects of the Communion of the Church of England modest and peaceable and were never troubled with Disputes and Remonstrances Plots and Disturbances from any of her Friends And when Rebellion broke forth and the Royal Power was invaded and oppressed with what Zeal and Devotion did they appear in its Defence and for its Recovery and what Numbers sacrificed Lives and Fortunes out of meer sense of Duty and Allegiance For though it is not to be doubted but that some might engage themselves in the Royal Cause for other ends yet 't is manifest from too many sad Circumstances that the true and hearty Sons of the Church were acted by Principles of Conscience and Religion and whilst others might be bought over by the Rebels and Usurpers no Temptation could prevail upon their Minds but they were constant and impregnable in all Conditions They forsake their Prince You must first force them to renounce their Faith their Loyalty stands upon their Religion and they were Martyrs as well as Souldiers for his Cause and in his Service This is the peculiar Genius and these the distinguishing Principles of the Church of England and as far as they are admitted into the Minds of Men so far do they work in them this religious

tender am I of the Laws of Good Nature and Civility even towards all that have forfeited their Right in them could I ever have discovered the least appearance of Integrity either in his Writings or Actions or the least tokens of Repentance for his former Crimes or the least ground of hope for his future Reformation but when nothing appears but reprobate Hardness and Impenitence and an obstinate persisting in his old Rancour his case is desperate and when Men are past Grace they are past Mercy too And thus having done him Right and his Pamphlet Reason and prevented the Design of escaping the Disgrace of his Overthrow by sending abroad new Challenges before he had discharged himself of his old Engagements it is high time to return to the Argument upon which I was entring when he came in my way to divert me viz. To consider what likelihood or how much Danger there is of the Return of Popery into this Nation For my own part I know none but the Nonconformists boisterous and unreasonable Opposition to the Church of England for if ever that be Re-erected it must be upon the Ruines of this as long as this stands in Power and Reputation it will easily beat back and baffle all the Attempts of Rome and all its Adherents Our Reformation is Establisht upon such unblameable Grounds and Principles that all the Learning and Wit of our Adversaries was never able to fasten any Reproach or Dishonour upon the Constitution it self and next to the Puritan Cause there was never any so unequally managed as the Controversie between us and the Romanists their most plausible Reasonings are evidently no better than little Tricks and Sophisms and seem intended by themselves rather to abuse the Simple than to satisfie the Wise in so much that it is very hardly credible that those Persons who have lately appeared in the Cause can notwithstanding all their seeming Zeal and Earnestness be really in good earnest in their Pretences but 't is somewhat more wonderful that they should have the Confidence to suppose the World should be so simple as to think them so when they can boast such idle talk for Demonstration as themselves unless their Skulls are stufft with Mud and Saw-Dust cannot but know to be meer Trifling and arrant Sophistry And no wonder for every Cause must be defended as it can their Innovations are so undeniable and the Design of our Reformation so apparently Apostolical that those People must needs argue at a strangely wild rate that will be Demonstrating against Experience and Ocular Inspection and nothing could preserve them from being hiss'd out of the Pit but that they are extreamly confident and most Readers sufficiently ignorant so that the Church of England may safely defie all their Opposition she does not stand upon such trembling Foundations as to be thrust down with Bullrush-spears with sure Footings and Oral Traditions with Labyrinths and Castles in the Air. If there be any danger from them it lies more remote and out of view and if ever they get any Ground or Advantage of us they will be bound to make their Acknowledgments to the Puritans and the strength of their Assistance Not that these are a whit more considerable and dead-doing Enemy than the other they are Triflers beyond contempt and when they have in their mighty Zeal done their poor utmost and spent all their Ammunition a Man must be very splenetick that can refrain from laughing at the folly and the childishness of their Attempts No their strength lies in other Weapons and their danger arises from other Interests their Faction may be made use of as Instruments to dissolve and unravel the establish'd frame of things but they can never be able to set up any of their own Models and crazy Fancies in lieu of it they are too humorous and extravagant ever to be reduced to practice a little Experience quickly brought them all into the scorn and contempt of the common People and it would be a pleasant speciacle to see either the Classical or the Congregational Discipline Establish'd by Authothority But alas they are only excellent at their old Destruction-Work and beside that their Conceits are too freakish to be ever setled upon any lasting bottom they will always be supplanting each other by their mutual Squabbles and Animosities so that though they can never compass their own giddy Designs yet by their perpetual and restless Opposition to the Church they may possibly be the occasion of its utter Ruine and Dissolution and by that Change may probably make way for the Introduction of Popery And this is most likely to be effected by these Means and upon these Accounts I. By creating Disorders and Disturbances in the State For the present Fanaticks are so little Friends to the present Government that their Enmity to that is one of the main Grounds of their Quarrel to the Church They are generally fermented with a Republican Leven and are faln out with Monarchy it self as one of the greatest Instruments and Supports of Antichrist and no Liberty with them either of the Subject o● of Conscience but in a Commonwealth and that is a mighty piece of their Zeal and their Project to reform the Government of Church and State to the Platform of the Low-Countries T is the Good Old Cause that is the strongest Band and Endearment of the present Schism and the greatest Agents in and for Conventicles are Officers and Chaplains of the old Army And the warmest and most zealous of them such as have given the World no great ground to suspect either from their profess'd Principles or open Practices that they have the least Concern or Tenderness for Religion But this is the only plausible Device that is left them to rally and randevouz the People of God into a Body by themselves and distinct from the rest of the Nation and so keep up a Party always ready and prepared for their Purposes that if ever they may gain any hopes or advantages of recovering the Kings Power or the Bishops Lands for confident Men despair of nothing they may play the holy Brotherhood upon Demands and Attempts either of the old or some other new thorough-godly Reformation and enrage their Fiery Spirits against the Abominations and Idolatries of the Whore and Antichrist Though the danger here is not very formidable because Fanaticism it self is so much worn into Contempt unless among the meer Rabble that 't is never likely to gather strength enough to grapple with the Royal Power but yet whatsoever Power it has if it have any lies in the Old Army and the Old Cause And if we observe the true Patriots of the Godly Party in every County we shall find them generally such Persons as were never much concerned to give his Majesty any great assurance of their Loyalty and Allegiance and there are very few if any of any considerable Interest or Estate among them that was not raised by Plunder and Sequestration so