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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	fire_n	set_v	tongue_n	3,652	5	9.4006	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30669	The mystery of iniquity discovered to work in the children of disobedience whereby the pretended godliness of schismaticks appeareth to be the greatest ungodliness : in a cathedral-lecture at St. Peters in Exon / by Arthur Bury ...	Bury, Arthur, 1624-1713.	1660 (1660)	Wing B6198; ESTC R43074	27,889	48

THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY Discovered to work in the children of disobedience Whereby the pretended Godliness of Schismaticks appeareth to be the greatest ungodliness IN A Cathedral-lecture at St. Peters in EXON By ARTHUR BURY M. A Some time fellow of EXON Coll. in OXON 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. For such are false Apostles deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light Therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works LONDON Printed for Francis Eglesfield at the Marigold in St. Paul's Church-yard 1660. To the Right reverend Father in GOD JOHN Lord BISHOP OF EXON All spiritual and temporal happiness be multiplied Right reverend in Christ WHen the Lord turned away the captivity of our Kingdoms then were we like men that dreamed The greatness of the felicity the strangeness of the means the insensibleness of the manner made us distrust our very senses When we saw the Church immediately after her return from the wildernesse furnished with such burning and shining lights that it is not easily decided whether the promotions or persons are most dignified then were we like men astonished then did we admire the goodness of God and the force of truth which spight of so many years persecutions and tentations preserved such multitudes undeluded uncorrupted When we heard that your Lordship was appointed to be the Angel of our Western Church then were we like men transported then did we magnify the Wisdom of his Majesty in committing the government of so large a diocese to a person in whom zeal knowledge learning wisdom courage and moderation had mingled themselves into so happy a temper as to render him one of the most eminent Patrons of the Church in her afflictions worthy to be numbred among her most eminent pastors in her prosperity But our wine was cooled with water when we heard that your Lordship took too deep apprehensions of our divisions which resentments will soon confess themselves to have abused you when you shall find the far greatest part of the factious mewing their impudence with their hopes and forsaking the withered thistle for that tree which though it were cut down yet sprouteth again It is not indeed expectable but in some greater Towns where the wealth and numbers of their disciples shal tempt them to expect more profit and reputation from their obstinacy there will be found some venemous spirits who will entertain his Majesties gratious condescensions as they did his blessed Fathers that is as fire doth fuel not to be satisfied but emboldened For their observation is purblind who perceive not that the Iesuite and Puritan agree as in many other their worst practices so especially in this that excluding all others besides their own party from any title to heaven they call a rigid inflexibleness zeal and Christian moderation lukewarmnes But if reason do not abuse us we shall find that when mens troubled humors shall cease from fermentation their understandings will become so much the clearer for their past disturbances and able to read those bloudy characters wherein the dismal effects of Schisme are largely written by lamentable experience upon every family of this Nation so that being thus doubly taught not only by S. Iames but by woful experience they will not hereafter be so apt to kindle if the Incendiaries should again scatter their fiery darts from those mischievous tongues which set on fire the course of nature and are set on fire of Hell Towards which consideration I offered some light in this Cathedral which for some yeares suffered a Schisme in her very fabrick by adivision in her body and preachers and a market in her cloystures It was not sure the worthiness but the necessity of the discourse which moved those hearers to press me to this publication against whose importunity I could not harden my self without falling under that condemnation which I proved to belong to them that strive with their superiors And being come so far I was easily encouraged to make another bold step and present it to your Lordship that the first addresse which you received in quality of our Bishop might bring you an omen of good success in your charge an earnest of the far greater services which you may promise your self from many others equally unknown but far more able and an opportunity for an early proof of your goodness by pardoning this boldness of Your Lordships most humbled servant A. B. IAMES 3.15.16 This wisdom descendeth not or This is not the wisdom which descendeth from above but is earthly sensual Divelish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work or unsetledness and all mischief THat the Mystery of Iniquity wrought in the Apostles days 2 Thess 2.7 one of themselves complained but what it was is it self a Mystery If we consult their own Epistles which as they are the Oracles of God so must needs be the best interpreters of the inditers meaning we shall finde great reason to conclude that it was the Heresy of the Gnostiks those false Apostles deceitful workers that under pretence of extraordinary Wisdom emulated the Apostles pestered the Church and seduced many of the weaker sort into faction Of those troublesome men every Epistle complaineth and this chapter especially setteth forth both their Iniquity and it's Mystery First he endeavoureth to cool the ambition of their leaders by shewing that the Office of a (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 1. Teacher which they so greedily sought carried with it more danger then honor and every one had already enough to answer for in many things we offend all so we need not inflame our (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 2. account Which it will be extremely difficult to avoid when we are Teachers seeing it requireth the greatest wisdom and care in the world to keep the tongue in order You must not judge of the tongue by it's bigness v. 3 4 5. it is indeed little in bulk but great in effects The Bit is but smal in comparison of the Horse and so is the Helm in comparison of the Ship yet able to turn those great bodies so is the tongue among the members and so are the offences and mischiefs which the tongue draws men into least in appearance but greatest in consequence From how inconsiderable a spark is a whole city brought to ashes v. 5 6 8. How little a quantity of poison will infect a whole mess and destroy a lusty man Such so destructive is the Iniquity of the unruly tongue It is as unruly as pernicious Man that (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tameth or at least mastereth all the several inhabitants of the air earth and water yet is not sufficient for this task so we are doubly obliged to beware how we adventure upon that imployment where we

in the pretended godly party How is it then that the most simple can yet be deluded by it after so many warnings and such frequent and wofull experience Other sins which are but sensual in their original and not very prejudicial in their consequences brand the guilty with indelible infamy Yet how impudently doth this spiritual wickedness in high places plead not onely for indemnity but veneration All other things are prophane Churches and Church-lands and Church maintenance must resigne all their Sacredness to these men And all other sins may and must be punished but faction and disobedience must be priviledged To punish those is necessary justice to question this is cruel persecution Thus the Pope sent a check to Rich. 1. for making a prisoner of a Bishop though taken in Battle and required him to send him his son but the King in stead of the person sent the armour advising his holiness to see whether this were his sons Coat The Pope with shame returned answer that was not the Coat of any son of his but of some child of Mars Contentious and Schismatical persons are not the children of the Prince of peace but the God of War and whoever would priviledge them from punishment might learn shame from the throne of impudence What must laws be to crimes as of old they were complained to be to persons like Cobwebs which catch the smaller flies and let the greater break through For shame let 's hear no more of that complaint that non-conformity hath been more severely punished sometimes then drunkenness as if a Divel were not worse then a beast If we do not yet see greater odiousness in this sin I hope at next step we shall when we consider that as it is most base in it's Original so it is most miscievous in its Effects and so most justly odious to God and punishable by man As our most gracious God in the work of creation aimed not at any service the world could do him his infinite happiness beeing uncapable to receive any addition from his creatures but only desired to communicate himself and his happiness so in his government thereof he provideth by his laws not for his own but his creatures good Hence was it that our Saviour who came to bring us present as well as future happiness took such great care to endeare love unto us as being above all other graces the greatest promoter of our felicity and hence is it that our Apostle the more to incense us against this sin doth not onely detect it for a cheater but proceedeth to indict it as a notable malefactor against the peace of our Soveraigne Lord the Prince of peace Thus we have seen this impostor doubly detected by discovering the fountain whence he doth not and whence he doth come In the next verse his indictment is laid in by shewing the sea to which he tendeth a sea of confusion and mischief he is charged to be a malefactor of the highest degree a notorious offender against the peace of our Soveraign Lord God his Crown and Dignity Lawes proportion punishments not alway to the hainousness but ever to the mischievousness of the crime A mutinous word in an army is punished with death because it might draw on the ruin of the whole Army What is mutiny in an Army is sedition in the State and faction in the Church It is therefore now to be condemned for the ugliness and perniciousnesse of it's issue as well as for the basenesse of it's race What sin shall we ballance against this What other sin can be charged to bring confusion and all kind of mischief with it If we look to the root every others sin is of some one region this of all other sins hurt one or two this is an epidemical mischief Of what other sin can it be said that it setteth on fire the whole course of nature and is set on fire of hell A single murther is guilty of death this butchereth multitudes in an hour and maketh a continual trade of it The whoremonger defileth and doth but defile two or three bodies and begetteth a life unlawfully This doth not defile onely or beget it destroyeth and that by heaps upon heaps The drunkard wasteth time and wine and wit and turneth beast this destroyeth lires and turneth Divel The thief and analogically every other sinner may answer a factious man as the Pirate did Alexander Magnus I rob with one ship thou with whole Fleets I private merchants thou whole nations A Schismatik cannot tell another of his mote but he may be reproved for his beam Could all the sins in the world have brought such a sea of mischief as this hath done upon us How many thousand of families hath it ruined How many millions of lives destroyed what treasures of wealth wasted What confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what unsettledness in Church and State And how much more then all this had we suffered if God had not wonderfully said to it hither are the proud waves come but shall pass no further But there are degrees there is a Prince of Devils This sin though it be alway Divelish yet sometimes it is so in a higher degree To strive with an equal or inferior is wicked but to strive with a superior is much more so Hos 4.4 The Prophet maketh it a symptom of a people desperately wicked and past all hope of reclaming when they strive with their Priests It was the clamerous fault of the Israelites that they quarrelled even with Moses and Aaron in whose persons God himself is concerned for he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God The Corinthians are warned that they should not murmur as the Israelites did lest they be destroyed like them And these things saith he are written for our instruction But we would not receive instruction We murmured would we had done no more and were destroyed of Serpents * The Brew-house and the bulk c. things that crept among us out of obscure holes things of whom we know not the pedigree nor should have heard the name but for their venome By such Serpents were many of us destroyed and many of us stung and had been worse if God had not provided a remedy The sin hath yet another aggravation It is observed that they murmured at the sea even at the read sea even within the prospect of so great a deliverance It is but newly that God hath wrought such another deliverance for us The read sea of a bloudy faction divided in to parties and gave us between them a dry safe passage to our liberty so that without one drop of bloud we arrived at that happinesse which in our boldest hopes we could not have expected without a sea of bloud and tears And do we murmur at such a time as this a time which requireth to be spent in praises to God and mutuall congratulations When the Israelites were restored from captivity Nehem. 8.10 commanded the