Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	church_n	king_n	1,685	5	3.6233	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39770	The confirming work of religion, or, its great things made plain, by their primary evidences and demonstrations whereby the meanest in the church may soon be made to render a solid and rational account of their faith / written by R. Fleming ... ; now published by Daniel Burgess.	Fleming, Robert, 1630-1694.; Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.	1693 (1693)	Wing F1279; ESTC R6736	83,701	146

Declarative Glory is so highly concerned that a Christian should account the meanest Room herein one of the most desirable Attainments within time Yea it seems just matter of regret also that this comes not under a more publick Care and notice of Particular Churches and of the Christian Magistrate where Religion hath any true regard to have such solemn Providences as occur in that time and place which may be called most Instructive Providences to the Church and of a further reach and extent than any Private use both Search'd after and Recorded as becomes so high a Service to the Christian Cause and one of the highest concerns of Posterity in Order to have them not only possessed of a pure Religion but of that Seal also which the Lord hath in the great Acts of Providence appended thereto And thus to have that Increase which each Successive Age brings therewith to the publick Stock of the Church looked after as a piece of the greatest trust reposed thereon so that the Children rise not up and say we have not heard nor have our Fathers faithfully communicated to us the wondrous Works which the Lord hath wrought in their time 3. He is thus also taught to see the Demonstrative Causes of the most strange Judgments on the Church to be as clear in the Scripture as they are in the event And though the Holy God in the day of his Patience and Long-suffering is not alike quick in the Execution of the Sentences of his Word yet does he ever establish the Authority of his Laws by the works of his Providence in the most opportune season and as Judgment deferred is no acquittance so does it more threaten its being the greater when it comes than a quick and present dispatch yea though this tempest which now blows on the Churches of Christ come to a greater height and the darkness be such as no Moon or Stars may for many days yet appear of any Visible signs of Hope yet is his Soul thus at rest whilst he can see the Credit of the Truth cleared on which he hath more in trust than any Adventure within time and doth rejoyce whatever miscarrying there may be of Inferiour Ends that this great and ultimate End of the works of God is secured herein and the Glory of his Truth does shine forth in the most strange and amazing Acts of his Providence whereat many are ready to stagger when they do not wisely consider the same 4. He sees now likewise so high a value which the Lord puts on the Trial of his Peoples Faith and that the great dispensation whereby he deals with men is by trust and on the credit of his Word as it adds further to his Confirmation to see all humane and Visible Refuges oft taken out of his Churches sight Yea his greatest works in the Earth make the greatest delay ere they be brought forth and his Churches Case is put so far beyond help before a cure as the first quickning of her crushed and almost dead hope must be at the mouth of the Grave and he is thus herein more singularly strengthned that when the Lord speaks the same in the way of Providence which he hath spoke in his Word not by Might nor by Power that he doth with unspeakable Advantage supply and fill the room thereof by the next Word but by my Spirit saith the Lord. Which in this day should with a full Assurance of Faith be both sought and looked after 5. It is in this rare Study he attains also the greatest Confirmation to his Faith that could possibly be desired within time to see now when it 's so near the close thereof and after all the Revolutions of times past how the Truth and Faithfulness of God hath as the Sun in its Strength still kept its way straight and fixt amidst all those dark Clouds which have been to darken the same and is now gone its course until it draws near to the full and perfect day yea thus to see how signally this present Age is held upon that same appeal andd solemn Testimony which Joshua gave Josh 23.14 That not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass to you and not one thing hath failed thereof and Solomon did bear also at the Dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8.56 Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his People Israel according to all that he promised there hath not failed one Word of all his good Promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his Servant so is this now that great Testimony of the latter days and the highest Tribute of Praise to the Glory of God in his Truth which can be given by men that this present Generation stands accountable to make the same yea much greater appeal to the World if they can instance one Promise or Prediction of that sacred record of the Scripture which hath ever failed or fallen to the ground but may be this day read in the Event and under those proper circumstances wherein it was to take place in its proper Season as evidently as it was foretold And must still bear the same witness Psal 18.30 That the way of the Lord is perfect and his Word tryed on all the Adventures of Faith and Trials which to this moment of time have been made hereof and of his being still a Buckler to such as trust in him and are called to send this glorious Testimony to the succeeding Ages that it may never cease to shine or want a publick witness thereto before Angels and Men until the whole mystery of God in his Word be finished in that magnificent close which shall be thereof at the second Coming of the Lord. CHARACT V. A Confirmed Christian in this day should be thus also stated as one who hath not only attained a solid rest and settlement of Mind upon the Certainty of the Christian Faith but does know the pure genuine Truth of Christianity amidst such high Oppositions betwixt the Romish and Reformed Church herein And in the first place hath in this manner held himself upon such a trial 1. As one who knows there is but one true and saving Religion in the Earth to which God hath annexed the Promise of Eternal Life which can never be divided against it self 2. Who knows that within a little while his Religion will be tried in the Truth thereof at the Tribunal of Christ where every man must give account of himself unto God 3. Who sees there can be no possible indifference in the Exteriour Profession of either way but that so high a contrariety of Principles is in this Opposition that if the Doctrine of Christ be on the one hand it is sure Antichristianism must be on the other hand 4. Yea who hath in that abstract manner sought to state the Case herein with his own Soul as if he were just come out of Paganism to give a serious

support it but these weapons which are not against the Conscience or by any terrour of the second Death but of the first 3. That this is such an Argument if they have not in a strange manner forgot which hath within these 100 Years been so fully Answered and by such an immediate Appearance of God in the Kingdom of France that according to these measures of Cruelty against the Protestants there so was it returned in a deluge of their own Blood yea so both the publick state of the Church and Faith of the Saints in the Truth was more deeply rooted and tho we yet see not the end of these wonders but the Dark-side only of the Dispensations of such a day yet do we know this sore Rod on the Church is but as the Saw and Ax in the Carpenters hand who shall never undo that glorious Work which Christ hath done and is still further perfecting on the ruins of Antichrists Kingdom 5. Tho some unusual deeps and Methods of Subtilty be now on foot also against the Truth yet he cannot but see how nothing could more effectually tend to confirm the Protestant Cause and take the Credit of Popery off the Consciences of those in their own Profession who are considerate and in the least serious herein when the World must thus see 1. How easie it is for such to take any Measure and Latitude in the Doctrinals of their Profession when this can most serve the juncture of such a time and heighten or narrow the Controversie betwixt them and the Reformed Church at their Pleasure so as to Sacrifice the Church of Rome unto the Court of Rome if no less can secure that end 2. That the most horrid Turkish Slavery over mens Bodies comes no such length as that strange claim that these now make of an absolute Empire over mens Consciences by the Sword and to put them to such a Tribute of their Obedience that they shall then be secure if they but come the length to Sin against their Light and adventure on so small a thing as to go to Hell and perish Eternally since it 's an external and feigned Profession of such away that they do thus force from those who they see cannot in Faith be perswaded hereof 3. Yea it hath been too visible how much that Master-plot and Engine hath in these times been working to take men first off from all Sense of Religion and destroy them in the Morals of Christianity to make this Conquest more easie that such may have no Inward Defence and support against the terrour of humane Violence Yea in this way when they have sought how to divide Protestants among themselves and betwixt Rulers and them this seems the last and greatest Engine of all how to divide betwixt them and their God Acting the same Plot which was laid betwixt Balak and Balaam as knowing that it 's no naked shew or Profession of the Reformed Religion they need fear so much as that Old Protestant Spirit in the Power and Life thereof before which their Interest could never stand and dread nothing so much as the reviving hereof which as the hand-writing upon the wall did ever more threaten the fatal ruine of that Kingdom than any Humane Power or Strength 6. Here also he finds just cause of Astonishment how Kings or great Men in the Earth should give their Power to support the Romish Interest which hath been so visibly destructive to theirs When it s not possible to deny how it's first advance and progress to that Supream height which it once attained and the declining of the Civil Empire did by the same steps go together until Magistracy was turned unto a dead Image and Shadow except its being enlivened by their breath and Authority as it was during the whole height of that Antichristian Power Nor will it be denyed that in these late times the French Monarchy was never more near its Dissolution in its right Line than by the Catholick League there and it would seem not easie to be forgot how Henry the third who had most sought to crush the Protestants in pursuance of that league was at last constrained to flee to such for help or by whom he was killed and that Heroick Prince Henry the Fourth who was first stabbed in the Mouth and then in the Heart yea that the publick Records of that Nation cannot possibly deny but the House of Bourbon owes its Power and Preservation more to the Protestants without whom it had been fully extinct than Ahashuerus did to Mordecai the Jew for what he found written in the Chronicles of Persia when the Decree was then past to destroy all the seed of the Jews 7. As in no times past was ever a greater Expectation than is now which way the Scale will turn and what will be the end of these wonders when the nearest events of Providence are so dark and amazing so does he find this in some extraordinary way called for to be still and see what God will do for his Church and with humble Confidence look for some such Dispensation as hath not hitherto been in this extream Exigence And tho he do not appear in that way and manner as in former times that it shall be in a way more signally glorious beyond what hath formerly been yea he does in Faith thus judge that then is the Churches day broke and hath found the sure way of her Strength and right Line of Duty when her Hope and Confidence is taken off from all visible refuges and entirely setled on her invisible Head and his Promise put to suit by Prayer without fainting herein It is sure the Truth and Faithfulness of God stands ingaged for Antichrists fall as well as for Salvation by Christ and since he hath said this Adversary shall be broke and brought down it must surely be tho the dust of the ground should rise for this end and now is the Faith of the Saints called for becoming the greatness of such an Assurance on which are the Eyes of men of their own Consciences of the Elect Angels yea of the glorious God to see who does indeed Credit him in this day when there is no sensible support herein and tho it now threatens sorely the departure of many from the Faith who had some visible Profession thereof yet may it be hoped for that the turn of the next Tide shall bring in more with a Solid and true Increase to the Church than these sad days do now take off CHARACT VI. It is thus a Confirmed Christian should be specially considered as one who is not only at rest on the known certainty of his Faith but is ready to render some account of the solid rational grounds and demonstrations hereof unto all who ask after the same and doth thus judge 1. That these are the proper and appointed means which the Lord hath afforded for the greatest Confirmation of mens Faith within time yea preferable to any external Miracles