Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	church_n	power_n	word_n	4,109	5	4.3877	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97024	A comment on the times, or, A character of the enemies of the church. Written by Thomas Wall, Mr. in arts and minister of Jesus Christ.	Wall, Thomas.	1657 (1657)	Wing W477; ESTC R186183	24,470	92

the people who confusedly run to their assistance who arriving at the very point of bringing their long endeavours to a wished period up starts a fourth sort the men of the Text that delight in war I mean this spiritual warfare in whom alone thanks be to some Romish Jesuites for it the art and policy of the other three do joyntly meet As first pretending as great nay greater shew of holiness 2. Arrogating better abilities of teaching by inspiration and yet as very Calves as the rest and these like Jehu though not in act yet in desire march furiously on beat down all before them snatch the power out of the others hands beat down Churches disanuls all Orders overthrows all Ecclesiastical policy confounds Religion and delight in it too and glories in their mischief Thus have I shown the enemies in gross observe them now in their particular ranks 1. The Beast of the Reeds some translations read a company of Spear men the word in the Original reconciles the reading It signifies both a company and a Beast say Expositors upon the text If we translate it a company it imports a rank of men armed with Spears made of a certain kind of Reeds Spears were in use in David's time they used then that weapon to gore the sides of his mystical body with which a wretched caitiff pierced the side of his natural body John 19. 34. But if we refer the sense to the signification of a Beast it denotes some perillous beast which out of the covert of their reedy thickets attends the opportunity of their desired prey the specification of these other Beasts in the text prompts my inclination to this sense What manner of Beast this should be my former reading determines not Our Christian Seneca out of Cassiodor● conjectures it a Lyon Leones canneta reliquerunt saith he Give me leave to add Pardus unto Leo If Leones Lyons for their proud insulting Leopardi Leopards for their cunning insinuating The great Naturalist observes it of this beast the Leopard that being by nature endowed with a sweet odoriferous scent but of a formidable aspect will hide it self in some secret place what better then a thicket of reeds for otherwise the ugliness of its shape would more affright then the sweetness of its scent allure the terror of its sight being thus secured his sweet savour and scent allures other Beasts to the place upon whom when they come within the compass of his reach he seizeth thence upon as his desired prey Your thoughts cannot fall besides the application The Hypocrite is this Beast A generation of such beasts have made this age infamous to all posterity who cloak their mischievous intent under a shew of sanctity Holy semblances religious protestations pretences of Reformation are the sweet allurements whereby they attract the hearts and steal the affections of the silly Calves whom when the pleasing savour of these Saint-like professions have drawn into an engagement with them they make the instruments of their own thraldome and the Churches ruine As the Divel did of old so still his ungodly imps betray others to the guilt of evil practises by faming some good to be reaped by it There be many secret reaches in the mystery of iniquity they pretend good when they act evil and intend evil when they act good Crafty and subtle men seem always good that they may be once bad to purpose All operations tend to some end It was an aim at an higher degree of perfection that first occasioned sin in the world and the greatest evils are still occasioned by pretending it When men appear so good and are not they must have some evil end or else some ill intent The first thing they conceive withal is glory and applause Who take upon them the semblance of doing like Saints but are not although they stand condemned of themselves because they know how to be good and are not yet men usually dare not think them to be bad whom they see know so well how to be good Glittering pretences dazles the eyes of men God only judges of the action by the heart man of the heart by the actions When as therefore God hath placed majesty as well as beauty in the face of Vertue that where the one cannot allure the other may enforce respect Hence it is that wicked men admire and reverence that power of godliness which yet they deny to practise and vain-glorious men practise that godliness the power whereof they yet deny coveting more to be honoured for it then bettered by it So glory is the first Self-interest is the second Religious they will be and 't be but for the benefit they receive thereby Saul will be devout that he may preserve such goodly cattel he will keep them to sacrifice to the Lord some perhaps to God but most to his belly The people of Sichem's country will enter into the covenant of God with Israel on condition that Israel's substance might be theirs Gen. 34. 23. It is the hateful practise of these times wherein the encrease of knowledge hath been the bane of practise to pretend Religion and intend Promotion But God and Mammon cannot dwell together Religion was never the principal end of those undertakings where they that manage the cause thrive so fast upon it and grow more rich then they were before devout A rich man may be truly pious but they are justly suspected who so greedily work riches out of piety the blessing is promised to them that lose all for Christ not to them who gain all by him It is very hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven but it is harder for them that make themselves rich by pretending to it They can expect no reward from God that pay themselves so well for the service they do for him Self-interest then is the second end But thirdly Will you see the very Divel in Samuel's Mantle Here comes malice and mischief under the cloak of piety too How often hath malice wrought out its own satisfaction wherein the pretence hath been only zeal to Religion How often have men by how much the more they have pretended service to God by so much the more injurious violence have they harboured under that pretence to prosecute their dissenting Brethren They that dare rob God of glory less care what outrage and mischief they do to man so they may do it with credit advantage and safety And although to a more vigilant observation hypocrisie is seldom without those practises without which we should not know it to be hypocrisie God permits them to go so far that till by their fruits they might be known yet vulgar eyes sees not the malice and mischief that is palliated under such specious and plausible insinuations I had almost said that mischief is ever intended by specious pretences which are ever assumed for the effecting of it And the gall of this bitterness is that this mischief is not to be diverted

do what we have a mind to Or 2. Some violent prevailing f●ncy that hath stole first upon our affections then upon our judgements Or 3. A strong perswasion begotten by private ends and received growth from false principles Or 4. Diabolical Infusion for it must needs be so when injurious malicious and apparent ungodly practises are used for the promotion of pretended piety if it be I say any of these pretty Images which this new light hath insinuated into these men disguised under the name of Conscience what shall become of them What will they do when they shall lie under the stinging lashes of a guilty Conscience and the either dreadful apprehensions or unsufferable strokes of divine wrath and indignation both for their own breaking through the sacred tye and band of a just lawful ancient solemn and holy oath and cancelling all other bands of Religion and Reason but also as if men did not run fast enough to hell and damnation before for that they should hold forth this light to others to make them run the faster Seventhly and lastly Will a National Covenant restrain them No for that Covenant which they entered into for self-ends it failing to effect those ends they will as readily break and if they can work their desires into fruition by any means though never so contrary to that League or any part thereof Who fear not to take an oath contrary to God's Law will not fear to break if contrary to their own not so much as unlawful but as invalid Not out of conviction that they ought not advance their own ends by it but out of vexation that they cannot Thus have I shown you the Bulls of the Text. Now let us see the Calves of the people whom they mislead in their trains of errour They cause my people to err by their lightness and lies saith the Prophet There are no such plagues to a Commonwealth as seditious Priests The infection of errour is worse then the guilt it no sooner finds approbation in one but it borrows his perswasions for entertainment in another But keep we to the Bulls the grand ring-leaders of all how many pernicious Tenents have found both allowance and entertainment in vulgar minds from the authority of them whose positions they have found to jump with their own affections and private ends whence proceeds an admiration of their persons for advantage sake as the Apostle speaks which comes at length to a belief of the infallibility of their positions in all things whom they finde uncontrollable in some and remark'd for men that pretend to a greater measure of sanctity then others Now when these begin to make a breach in Church those incitations against the present state of things never want favourable audience which have prepared their way by the opinion of their holiness from whom they proceed with what spungy souls do these poor Calves soak in these waters of the Sanctuary which their applauded Teachers have either ignorantly or deceitfully corrupted to intoxicate them They are first induced to believe then to defend and the bold predictions of success from the Zedekiahs of the times and a mischievous confidence in the swelling numbers of their partisans gives them encouragement to all acts of violence and outrage Wicked men ask no leave to do when they find their hearts in their hands I mean their power answerable to their will And now travelling with the pangs of a false zeal they fall in labour of a monstrous Reformation Religion and Liberty of Conscience are made the grounds of their quarrel An easie perswasion wins the assistance of the Vulgar to those attempts whereby they are taught to believe they shall at once do service to God and right to themselves But hear O ye seduced Calves of the people It is the shew of goodness that maintains sin in the world The world could not be so bad as it is if all that were bad in it did appear so These Bulls could not have train'd you on to these acts of violence and outrage but by dissembled piety but you must know it is almost as great a crime in matters of Religion to be deceived as to deceive God will require your blood at their hands but you also may die in your sins and when you are in hell it will be no case to you that they are more tormented There is nothing more pleasing to the Divel then to see his malice against the Church to tryumph in your folly and misprision It was once piety to build Temples to the publique service of God and is it now piety to pull them down Did you pretend to fight for Religion to keep it from the violation of others that ye might commit a rape upon it your selves But alas the wound is incurable Here is no room for expostulation let us therefore see in a word the Religion this many headed monster hath hatch'd and the liberty of conscience they would have These also having their particular aims either secular advantage or desirous to pass for men enflamed with a godly zeal or rather led by both together for they have learned this art from the Bulls their Sires to have reconciled gain and godliness profit and zeal profit pricks forward zeal as provender does the Ass and their zeal countenanceth them in the profit they get and then it is piety in them to pull down Churches which was once piety to build up It is pure devotion that consecrates their fingers to the committing of sacriledge It is the fire of zeal that kindles their tongues to all manner of bitter invectives against all kind of Order and Government It is love to the truth makes them lovers of themselves in standing for it It is hatred of sin makes them so malicious It is separation from the wicked that makes them void of Christian society and common Morality and so full of pride scorn and contempt It is fear of maintaining idleness that makes them so uncharitable It is the correction of nature makes them without natural affection and the rooting out the wicked makes them unjust and their liberty of conscience is the practise of all this impiety permitted with impunity The sum of all It 's a Religion that will give them liberty to break down all the Houses of God in the Land and seize upon the Revenews thereof and tye the Ministers of Jesus Christ to their allowance a Religion that may give them liberty to commit sacriledge to speak evil of Dignities to turn the wicked out of their estates and invest them in their inheritance Briefly a Religion that may tolerate and countenance yea and justifie them in their covetous malicious cruel unnatural uncivil proud contemptuous and uncharitable actions This is only the Religion and Liberty of Conscience that will please the Calves In the sweet pastures whereof we will turn them to grass and come to the fourth rank The men that delight in war There be five marks of the delight men take