Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	allege_v	moses_n	20	3	7.2426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47584	The historie of the reformation of the Church of Scotland containing five books : together with some treatises conducing to the history.	Knox, John, ca. 1514-1572.; Buchanan, David, 1595?-1652?	1644 (1644)	Wing K738; ESTC R12446	740,135	656

that there was three causes why the disciples knew not Christ but judged him to be a spirit The first cause was The darknesse of the night The second was The unaccustomed vision that appeared And the third was The danger and the tempest in which they so earnestly laboured for the safeguard of their selves The darknesse I say of the night letted their eyes to see him And it was above nature that a massie heavy and weighty body of a man such as they understood their Master Christ to have should walk go upon or be born up of the water of the raging Sea and not sink And finally the horrour of the tempest and great danger that they were in perswaded them to look for none other but certainly to be drowned And so all these three things concurring together confirmed in them this imagination That Christ Iesus who came to their great comfort and deliverance was a fearfull and wicked spirit appearing to their destruction What here happened to Christ Jesus himself that I might prove to have chanced and daily to happen to the verity of his blessed Word in all ages from the beginning For as Christ himself in this their trouble was judged and esteemed by his disciples at the first sight a spirit or phantasticall body so is the Truth and sincere Preaching of his glorious Gospel sent by God for mans comfort deliverance from sin and quietnesse of conscience when it is first offered and truely preached it is I say no lesse but judged to be heresie and deceivable doctrine sent by the devill to mans destruction The cause hereof is the dark ignorance of God which in every age since the beginning so overwhelmed the world that sometimes Gods very Elect were in like blindenesse and errour with the reprobate As Abraham was an Idolater Moses was instructed in all the wayes of the Egyptians Paul a proud Pharisee conjured against Christ and his Doctrine And many in this same our age when the Truth of God was offered unto them were sore afraid and cryed against it onely because the dark clouds of ignorance had troubled them before But this matter I omit and let passe till more opportunity The chief Note that I would have you well observe and mark in this preposterous fear of the disciples is this The more nigh deliverance and salvation approacheth the more strong and vehement is the temptation of the Church of God And the more nigh that Gods vengeance approacheth to the wicked the more proud cruell and arrogant are they Whereby it commonly cometh to passe That the very messengers of life are judged and deemed to be the authors of all mischief And this in many histories is evident When God had appointed to deliver the afflicted Israelites by the hand of Moses from the tyranny of the Egyptians and Moses was sent to the presence of Pharaoh for the same purpose such was their affliction and anguish by the cruelty which newly was exercised over them that with open mouthes they cursed Moses and no doubt in their hearts they hated God who sent him alleadging That Moses and Aaron was the whole cause of their last extreme trouble The like is to be seen in the Book of the Kings both under Elisha and Isaiah the Prophets For in the dayes of Ioram sonne of Achab was Samaria besieged by the King of Syria In which Samaria no doubt albeit the King and the most multitude were wicked there was yet some members of Gods Elect Church which were brought to such extreme famine that not onely things of small price were sold beyond all measure but also women against nature were compelled to eat their own children In this same City Elisha the Prophet most commonly was most conversant and dwelt by whose counsell and commandment no doubt the City was kept For it appeareth the King to lay that to his charge when he hearing of the piteous complaint of the woman who for hunger had eaten her own son rent his clothes with a solemne Oath and vow That the head of Elisha should not stand upon his shoulders that day If Elisha had not been of counsel That the city should have been kept Why should the King have more fumed against him then against others But whether he was the author of the defending the City or not all is one to my purpose for before the deliverance was the Church in such extremity that the chief Pastor of that time was sought to be killed by such as should have defended him The like is read of Hezekiah who defending his City Ierusalem and resisting proud Sennacherib no doubt obeying the counsell of Isaiah at length was so oppressed with sorrow and shame by the blasphemous words of Rabshakeh that he had no other refuge but in the Temple of the Lord as a man desperate and without comfort to open the disdainfull letters sent unto him by that hauty and proud tyrant By these and many Histories mo it is most evident that the more nigh salvation and deliverance approacheth the more vehement is the temptation and trouble This I writ to admonish you that albeit yet you shall see tribulation so abound that nothing shall appear but extreme misery without all hope of comfort that yet you decline not from God And that albeit somtimes ye be moved to hate the messengers of life that therefore ye shall not judge that God will never shew mercy after No deare Brethren as he hath dealt with others before you so will he deal with you God will suffer tribulation and dolour abound that no manner of comfort shall be seen in man to the intent that when deliverance commeth the glory may be his whose onely word may pacifie the tempest most vehement He drowned Pharaoh and his Army He scattered the great multitude of Benadad And by his Angel killed the hoste of Sennacharib And so delivered his afflicted when nothing appeared to them but utter destruction So shall he do to you beloved Brethren if patiently ye will abide his consolation and counsell God open your eyes that ye may rightly understand the meaning of my writing Amen But yet peradventure you wonder not a little why God permitteth such blood thirsty tyrants to molest and grieve his chosen Church I have recited some causes before and yet more I could recite but at this time I will hold me content with one The justice of God is such that he will not poure forth his extreme vengeance upon the wicked unto such time as their iniquity be so manifest that their very flatterers cannot excuse it Pharaoh was not destroyed till his own houshold servants and subjects abhorred and condemned his stubborn disobedience Iesabel and Athalia were not thrust from this life into death till all Israel and Juda were witnesses of their cruelty and abominations Iudas was not hanged till the Princes of the Priests bare witnesse of his Traiterous Act and iniquitie To

troubles and adversities which man sustaineth for accomplishment of Gods will revealed by his word For how terrible soever they appeare to the judgement of the naturall man yet are they never able to devour nor utterly to consume the sufferers For the invisible and invincible power of God sustaineth and preserveth according to his promise all such as with simplicity do obey him The subtill craft of Pharaoh many yeers joyned with his bloody cruelty was not able to destroy the male children of Israel neither were the waters of the Red Sea much lesse the rage of Pharaoh able to confound Moses and the company which he conducted and that because the one had Gods Promise that they should multiply and the other had his Commandment to enter into such dangers I would your wisedoms should consider that our God remaineth one and is immutable and that the Church of Christ Jesus hath the same promise of protection and defence that Israel had of multiplication And farther That no lesse cause have ye to enter into your former enterprise then Moses had to go to the presence of Pharaoh for your vassalls yea your brethren are oppressed their bodies and souls holden in bondage and God speaketh to your consciences unlesse ye be dead with the blinde world that ye ought to hazard your owne lives be it against Kings or Emperours for their deliverance For onely for that cause are ye called Princes of the people And ye receive of your Brethren Honour Tribute and Homage at Gods Commandment not by reason of your Birth and Progenie as the most part of men do falsly suppose but by reason of your Office and Duty which is to vindicate and deliver your subjects and brethren from all violence and oppression to the uttermost of your power Advise diligently I beseech you with the points of that Letter which I directed to the whole Nobility and let every man apply the matter and case to himself for your conscience shall one day be compelled to acknowledge That the Reformation of Religion and of publike enormities doth appertaine to more then to the Clergie or chief Rulers called Kings The mighty Spirit of the Lord Jesus rule and guide your counsells to your eternall glory your eternall comfort and to the consolation of your brethren Amen From Deape the 27 of October 1557. These Letters received and read together with others directed to the whole Nobility and some to particular Gentlemen as to the Lairds of Dun and Petarrow new consultation was had what was best to be done and in the end it was concluded That they would follow forward their purpose once intended and would commit themselves and whatsoever God had given them into his hands rather then they would suffer Idolatry so manifestly to raigne and the Subjects of that Realme so to be defrauded as long as they had been of the onely food of their souls the true Preaching of Christs Gospel And that every one should be the more assured of other a common Bond was made and by some subscribed The tenor thereof followeth WE perceiving how Sathan in his members the Antichrists of our time cruelly do rage seeking to overthrow and destroy the Gospel of Christ and his Congregation ought according to our bounden duty to strive in our Masters Cause even unto the death being certaine of the Victory in him The which our duty being well considered We do promise before the Majestie of God and his Congregation That we by his grace shall with all diligence continually apply our whole power substance and our very lives to maintain set forward and establish the most blessed Word of God and his Congregation And shall labour according to our power to have faithfull Ministers truely and purely to minister Christs Gospel and Sacraments to his people We shall maintain them nourish them and defend them the whole Congregation of Christ and every Member thereof according to our whole powers and waging of our lives against Sathan and all wicked power that doth intend Tyranny or trouble against the foresaid Congregation Unto the which holy Word and Congregation we do joyne us and so do forsake and renounce the Congregation of Sathan with all the superstitious abomination and idolatry thereof And moreover shall declare our selves manifestly enemies thereto By this our faithfull Promise before God testified to this Congregation by our Subscription at these Presents At Edinburgh the third of December anno 1557. God called to witnesse Sic subscribitur A. Earle of Argyle Glencarne Mortoun Archibald Lord of Lorne Iohn Erskin of Dun Et caetera A little before that this Bond was subscribed by the fore-written and many other Letters were directed again to Io. Knox from the said Lords together with their Letters to M. Calvin craving of him That by his authority he would command the said Iohn once again to visite them These Letters were delivered by the hands of M. Iohn Gray in the Moneth of November anno 1558. who at that same time past to Rome for expedition of the Bowes of the Bp. of Rosse to M. Henry Sinclar Immediately after the subscription of this foresaid Bond the Lords and Barons professing Christ Jesus convened frequently in counsell in the which these Heads were concluded First It is thought expedient advised and ordained That in all Parishes of this Realm the Common-Prayer be read weekly on Sunday and other Festivall dayes publikely in the Parish Churches with the Lessons of the Old and New Testament conformed to the order of the Book of Common Prayers And if the Curats of the Parishes be qualified to cause them to read the same And if they be not or if they refuse that the most qualified in the Parish use and reade the same Secondly It is thought necessary that Doctrine Preaching and Interpretation of Scriptures be had and used privately in quiet houses without great conventions of the people thereto while afterward that God move the Prince to grant publike Preaching by faithfull and true Ministers These two heads concerning the Religion and some others concerning the policie being concluded the old Earle of Argyle took the maintenance of Iohn Dowglas caused him to Preach publikely in his house and reformed many things according to his counsell The same boldnesse tooke divers others as well within Towns as in the country which did not a little trouble the Bishops and Queen Regent As by this Letter and Credit committed to Sir David Hamilton from the Bishop of S. Andrews to the said Earle of Argyle may be clearly understood The Bishops Letter to the old Earle of Argyle MY Lord after most hearty commendations this is to advertise your Lordship that we have directed this Bearer our Cousin towards your Lordship in such businesse and affaires as concerneth your Lordships honour profit and great well-being as the said Bearer will declare to your Lordship at more length I pray your Lordship effectuously to