Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	seem_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	44	3	8.8468	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35017	The Scotch Presbyterian eloquence, or, The foolishness of their teaching discovered from their books, sermons and prayers and some remarks on Mr. Rule's late Vindication of the kirk	Curate, Jacob.; Calder, Robert, 1658-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing C6961; ESTC R10498	97,496	122

did suffer any thing For these others were settled in Churches by an Indulgence granted by the King Against which Indulgence all the Sufferers like true Presbyterians gave their Testimony calling it a meer brat of Erastianism What Government could tolerate such Ministers as John Deckson whom I named before who in a Sermon Preached by him in the Parish of Gallashiels declar'd That it was all one to Sacrifice to Devils as to pay Cess to King Charles The Author of the Review of the History of Indulgence one of the Sober sort of Presbyterians tells Page 610. the same of a Preacher of his Acquaintance I shall say no more of their Sentiments concerning Government but only referr the Readers to their Printed Acts of General Assemblies and to those Covenants which themselves have Printed often Subscribed and Sworn and which are now again for the benefit of Strangers published in that Excellent Vindication of King Charles II. his Happy Government in Scotland by Sir George Mac Kenze in which it's Evident that they plainly renounce Monarchy and all Power but that of the Covenanted Kirk As to their Disposition to live peaceably I appeal not only to their Principles vented in these Covenants and Acts of their general Assemblies but also to the many private Murthers and open Rebellions which they have been guilty of under every Reign since their first entry into Britain Even in our own Days since 1666 they have raised no less than Three formidable Rebellions besides many lesser Insurrections and Tumults wherein many Christians have suffered With what Violence did they flee to Arms and persecute all who were not of their Party upon the occasion of the late Revolution when if it had not been for their indiscreet and fiery Zeal this Kingdom might have been happily united to England But what ever Advantage such an Union might have brought to the Church and State yet because it seemed to have no good Aspect to the covenanted cause therefore the motion of it though offered was industriously stifled and that Opportunity which we can hardly hope to recover quite lost Nay under the present Government for which they in the beginning pretended to be so zealous 't is well known over all the Kingdom that they were last Year contriving by force without any regard to Authority to have the Solemn League renewed and imposed after the old manner upon all Men Women and Children and in order to this good end many Thousands of them at Field meetings in the West conveened after their ordinary way with Bibles and Musquets Psalm-Books and rusty Swords and subscrbed a new Association for raising of Men Horse and Arms to advance the Old Cause repurge the holy Kirk and make a thorow Reformation in the Land But I shall take occasion by and by to give you some later and more evident Instances of their Neglect and Contempt of their present Governors In the next place survey them in their Learning and you shall find that it lies only in the study of some Anti-Arminian Metaphysicks and in the practical Divinity they pretend to draw from the Heads of Election and Reprobation whereby they preach Men out of their Wits and very often into Despair and Self-murder It 's generally known that Joseph Brodie Preacher in Forress in the time of the late Presbytery did in the presence of a very Learned and Eminent Person take occasion in the Pulpit to speak of a poor Man who was then in such a desperate Condition that it was judg'd necessary to bind up his Hands lest otherwise he should cut his own Throat as he continually threatned of this desperate Wretch the pious Preacher above-named pronounced thus Sirs this is the best Man in my Parish would to God ye were all like him he does truely fear Reprobation which most of you are not aware of There is a common printed Pamphlet compos'd and publish'd by a Presbyterian Preacher concerning one Bessie Clarkson a Woman that lived at Lanark who was three Years in despair or to speak in their Cant under Exercise Whosoever reads that Pamphlet will find that the poor Woman's Distemper proceeded only form their indiscreet Preaching representing God as a sower severe and unmerciful Being It is known in the Shire of Teviotdale that Mr. William Veach murder'd the Bodies as well as Souls of two or three Persons with one Sermon For preaching in the Town of Jedburgh to a great Congregation he said There are Tow thousand of you here to day but I am sure Fourscore of you will not he saved upon which Three of his ignorant Hearers being in Despair dispatched themselves soon after And lately in Edenburgh Mr. James Kirkton the Everlasting Comedian of their Party one of their famous Preachers in that City praying publickly for a poor Woman much troubled in Spirit said A wholesome Disease good Lord a wholesome Disease Lord for the Soul Alas said he few in the Land are troubled with this Disease Lord grant that she may have many fellows in this Disease Not only do they make their People distracted with such desperate Doctrine as this but moreover they incourage them in direct Impieties Mr. Selkirk preaching at Musselburgh expressed himself thus God seed no Sin in his Chosen Now Sirs be you guilty of Murder Adultery Bestiality or any other gross Sin if you be of the Election of Grace there is no fear of you for God sees no Sin in his Chosen covenanted People And this is consonant to an expression of Mr. Samuel Rutherford's printed Letters Hellfulls of Sins cannot separate is from Christ In the Parish of Mr. Macmath Minister of Leswade some of those who were lately the most active in persecuting and driving him form his Residence even after he had the Privy Councils Protection and a Guard assign'd him for his Defence have since suffer'd violent deaths two of them prevented the Hangman's pains by becoming their own Murtherers When the Earl of Lauderdale and Sir George Mackenzie dyed last year much about one time the party who pretend to unriddle all the most secret Causes of God's Providence called their Deaths a visible Judgment for their being Enemies to the good Cause altho' it be well known that both these honourable Persons dyed of a natural Death in a good age being both of them worn out with their great diligence in their King and Country's Service perhaps indeed their days were shortened by seeing such Firebrands able again to force themselves into the Church as had before ruin'd both it and the State and were the Scandal of Christianity as well as Disgrace of their Nation But when these abovenamed Self-Murtherers of the Parish of Leswade had divided Judas's death betwixt them the one hanging himself the other ripping up his own Belly till all his Bowels gushed out The Presbyterian Preacher in that Parish holding forth next Sunday was so ready of Invention as to find Arguments from thence for the Confirmation of the good Cause Ab Sirs says

that Christ because of the hardness of the Jews Hearts spake very much Morality with his Gospel The poor man spoke as he was taught and bred in the Conventicles for it will be very long e're they hear a Sermon upon Just Dealing or Restitution of ill-gotten Goods and who knows not that despising of Dominions speaking evil of Dignities and rising in Arms against the Lord 's Anointed is with them but fighting the Battels of the Lord. One George Flint in the Parish of Smalholm in the Shire of Teviotdate was look'd upon as a very great Saint among them and yet out of Zeal against the Government he kept a Dog whom he named Charles after the King and a Cat which he named Katherine after the Queen and another Dog whom he named Gideon after the Minister of the Parish They are a People that will not Swear in common Discourse for a World yet they never scruple before a Judge any Perjury that may seem to advance the Cause nor stand in their ordinary dealings to cheat for a penny nay Murther it self becomes a Virtue when the work of the Covenant seems to require it and the new Gospel which they Profess is so far from condemning Lying Cheating Murther and Rebellion when committed to fulfil the Ends of the Solemn League that many of these whom they reckon Martyrs have at their Execution gloried in these Crimes as the sure Evidences of their Salvation Morality being thus discountenanced by the generality of that Party the poor People are thereby lock'd up in a Cell of Ignorance This did clearly appear when the Laws in the former Government discharg'd Conventicles the people being brought thereby home to the Churches When the Ministers began to Catechise them in the Principles of the Christian Religion they found them grosly Ignorant for when they were desired to repeat the Creed Lord's-Prayer and Ten Commandments they told they were above these childish Ordinances for if they believed in Christ they were certainly well And yet these Ignorants would Adventure to pray Ex tempore and in their Families to Lecture on the most mysterious Chapters of Ezekiel Daniel or the Revelation A grave and good Minister told me that upon a certain occasion he desired a very zealous She-Saint to repeat the Creed And that she return'd this Answer I know not what ye mean by the Creed Did not your Father says the Minister promise to bring you up in that Faith Indeed did he not said she for I thank my Saviour that Superstition was not in my Father's time What then was in your Father's time said the Minister It was said she the holy Covenant which you have put away Whether was it the Covenant of Works or Grace said the Minister Covenant of Works said she that is handy Labour It was the Covenent of Grace which was made with Adam and which all of you have put away At Night she went home and a number of the sighing Fraternity flock'd after pretending to hear her pray Their Family Exercise being ended she told them the Conference that pass'd betwixt the Curate and her and they all concluded she had the better and that she was certainly more than match for the ablest Curate in that Country Generally their Conventicles produced very many Bastards and the Excuses they made for that was Where Sin abounds the Grace of God superabounds There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Sometimes this The Lambs of Christ may sport together To the pure all things are pure Nay generally they are of Opinion That a Man is never a true Saint till he have a sound fall such as that of David's with Bathsheba The following Narration of a well known Truth shall serve for Instance A party of King Charles II. his Guards being sent to apprehend Mr. Dav. Williamson one of the most Eminent of their Ministers now in Edenburgh for the frequent Rebellion and Treason he preached then at Field Meetings and the party having surrounded the House where he was a Zealous Lady Mistress of the House being very Solicitous to conceal him rose in all haste from her Bed where she left her Daughter of about Eighteen Years of Age and having dress'd up the Holy Man's Head with some of her own Night Cloaths she wittily advis'd him to take her place in the warm Bed with her Girl to which he modestly and readly consented And knowing well how to employ his time especially upon such and extraordinary Call to propagate the Image of the Party while the Mother to divert the Troopers enquiry was treating them with strong drink in the Parlour he to express his gratitude applies himself with extraordinary Kindness to the Daughter who finding him like to prove a very useful Man in his Generation told her Mother she would have him for her Husband to which the Mother though otherwise unwilling yet for concealing the Scandal out of Love to the Cause consented when the mystery of the Iniquity was wholly disclosed to her This whole Story is as well known in Scotland as that the Covenant was begun and carried on by Rebellion and Oppression Nor was the Actor who is at this day one of the chief Props of the cause more admired for his extraordinary diligence and courage in this Matter than for his excellent Invention in finding a passage of St. Paul's to prove that the Scandal of this was very consistent with the state of a person truly Regenerate Verily I do not said he deny but that with St. Paul I have a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity into the Law of Sin which is in my Members Now according to the Gloss which that whole Party puts upon this Scripture saying That St. Paul here speaks of himself and does not personate an Unregenerate Man this Defence of Williamson's must be allowed to be good as also that the height of Carnality is consistent with the greatest Grace Even so the Hereticks in St. Peter's Days wrested some things hard to be understood in St. Paul's Epistles to their own Destruction There was among them a married Woman near Edenburgh who had paid several Fines for not going to Church yet scrupled not to commit Adultery with one of the Earl of Marr's Regiment and the Fellow himself that was Guilty told out of detestation to their damnable Hypocrisie that the vile Woman had the confidence in time of her Abomination to say to him O you that are in Marr 's Regiment but you be pretty able Men but yet ye art great Covenant Breakers alas few or none of you are Godly There are very many Instances of this Nature but I shall only add one more which was old me by a Gentleman of good Reputation and Credit who himself confessed to me with regret that in the heat of his Youth he had been guilty of the Sin of Fornication with a Gentlewoman of that Holy Sect he says that being with her